A Time For Justice by Nick Oldham Read Free Book Online Page B

‘Money that Corelli wasn’t
happy losing. The rumour is that Corelli put out a contract on
Carver - but I stress it’s only a rumour.’
    Karen checked her watch impatiently.
    ‘ What we intended to do,’ Donaldson said hurriedly, ‘was to
nail Carver, which wouldn’t have been too difficult because he’s a
sloppy operator. Then we’d promise him immunity from prosecution, a
new life, new I.D. - y’know, full-blown witness protection - in
exchange for him testifying against Corelli. Might’ve worked,’ he
mused.
    ‘ Anyway,’ he concluded, ‘we fixed up this transatlantic
cooperation exercise between the FBI and the Greater Manchester
police - with the blessing from your Home Office. . . and it was
all going well until yesterday. Carver was –’
    ‘ What happened yesterday?’ Karen interrupted.
    McClure took over. ‘We’d had Carver and Brown under obs for a
couple of weeks. We knew they’d holed up in an hotel in Lancaster
with a couple of call girls. It was our intention to pick up their
tail yesterday morning, but we were late arriving at the hotel
because we got snarled up in motorway roadworks. By then, both of
them had gone.’
    ‘ How careless,’ sneered Karen. ‘This is very interesting, but
what has it got to do with me?’
    ‘ According to the management,’ said Donaldson, ‘Carver had
left in a Daimler with one of the hookers and Brown had gone off in
a Beemer with the other girl.’
    ‘ A Beemer - what’s that?’
    ‘ Sorry - a BMW,’ explained Donaldson. ‘Next thing we know -
BOOM! Carver has a bomb up his ass.’
    ‘ Hang on. So you’re saying that the car that blew up causing
the M6 tragedy, had Danny Carver in it - and you might know who
killed him and why?’
    ‘ Not exactly,’ Donaldson stressed. ‘I am saying that Carver
was in the Daimler. I’m surmising that he was killed by a hit man
who works for Corelli, because he’d usurped him on a big business
deal.’
    ‘ How can you be sure that this Danny Carver was in the
Daimler? There’s nothing identifiable left in the car. It’s not
even recognisably a Daimler. ‘
    ‘ Just adding up the scores on the doors,’ said
McClure.
    ‘ Talk evidence,’ Karen insisted.
    ‘ OK,’ said Donaldson. ‘Firstly we know that Carver was booked
on a flight to Miami from Manchester yesterday. He didn’t get on it
- we checked.
    ‘ Secondly we have a video tape here from the hotel’ - he held
up the cassette - ‘which shows Danny Carver getting into a Daimler
with a girl and being driven away. We’ve watched your tapes of the
explosion from the freeway camera and it looks like the same model
of Daimler. I’ll bet when your forensic team get their results
together they’ll find the remains of three bodies.’
    ‘ I am definitely intrigued,’ said Karen, beginning to squirm a
little with excitement.
    Donaldson went on, ‘I saw a man in the hotel lobby yesterday
who I recognise as having some Corelli connection - but the great
thing is that the hotel video cameras pick him up arriving in a
car, parking it, walking past Carver’s limo and bending down next
to it.’
    ‘ Really!’ exclaimed Karen, barely suppressing her glee. ‘Can
you see exactly what he did?’
    ‘ No, because the film is a bit blurred. It needs enhancing.
However, we can see that his suitcase drops open next to the car. He bends
down to pick his clothes up and quickly reaches under the limo.’
This was said by McClure. ‘Good stuff, eh?’
    Fucking bloody ace, Karen thought,
but didn’t allow herself to smile.
    ‘ Add to that the rumour about the contract,’ said Donaldson,
‘and I think we’re onto something, don’t you?’
    ‘ Possibly,’ Karen said.
    ‘ Once you get a Technical Support Unit to enhance the number
plate from the motorway video we’ll know for sure if it was
Carver’s Daimler or not.’
    ‘ I already have the number,’ Karen said triumphantly, and read
it out aloud from her notes.
    ‘ That’s the one!’ McClure