‘We’ll take care of it. You’ll look different. You’ll be a different person. Even if you should happen to stumble across somebody from before, there’ll be no link. Nobody will have any reason to make the connection.‘
It didn’t sound convincing, she thought. They reason they had protocols was because, whatever the odds, shit still tended to happen. She’d experienced it herself. Some past contact eyeballing her suspiciously because she’d turned up somewhere she wasn’t supposed to be. She could change her hair, her clothes, her lifestyle; but it wouldn’t cut any ice if the wrong people became suspicious. ‘But what if they do, Hugh? What if someone looks at me and thinks, wait a minute, that looks like old Marie who used to run the print shop in Trafford Park?’
‘Christ, Marie. It’s not going to happen, right. You’re the best person for the job, that’s what it comes down to. You can do it.’
Jesus, he was trying to flatter her now. Flattery wasn’t one of Salter’s strong points. His compliments always sounded insincere, she assumed because he didn’t really believe that any other person could match the towering talent that was Hugh Salter. ‘Don’t bullshit me, Hugh,’ she said. ‘You’ve just come to me because I’m convenient. If you tried to give this to one of your youngsters, you might actually have to put some effort into training them.’ She paused, conscious that she was coming close to saying something that she really might regret. ‘Do I actually have any choice in this?’
‘There’s always a choice, sis. But I really want you to give it a go.’
‘I’ll think about it.’ She knew that she might as well have saved both their time and just said yes there and then, but at least she could string out his discomfort for a day or so. ‘Chester?’
‘Chester,’ he agreed. ‘It’s a different world. Jesus, it’s nearly Wales. Safe as houses. No contact with the Manchester bunch at all, so far as we know.’
So far as we know. Hardly the ring of bloody confidence. How much did they know? Three-fifths of fuck all, if past experience was anything to go by. ‘Drug trafficking?’
‘Mainly.’ There was a look of relief on Salter’s face, even though he was trying hard to hard to keep it hidden. He knew he had her hooked now. Once you started talking about the detail, there was no going back. ‘One of those who’ll bring in anything if the price is right. Some cigarettes and booze, but mainly the hard stuff. Comes across from the east coast ports, and then they distribute it around Chester and North Wales.’
‘But not Manchester or Liverpool?’
‘There are bigger fish operating up there. No point in this one trying to compete. He’s got a nice little niche of his own, without antagonising the competition.’
It made sense. The north west was carved up pretty thoroughly by the big boys. That elite bunch had included the infamous Jeff Kerridge, until Salter had blown off the side of Kerridge’s head, supposedly in self defence. They’d had intelligence that Kerridge’s widow, the very redoubtable Helen, was continuing her late husband’s good work. And now Pete Boyle, Kerridge’s former protégé turned competitor, was out of prison and, by all accounts, also rebuilding his influence around Manchester.
That was the real source of her unease, even now. There’d been a point, six months before, when she was convinced that Salter was on Boyle’s payroll. Salter had claimed that, with no one to trust, he’d been forced to go freelance to gather definitive evidence against Kerridge and their corrupt former boss, Keith Welsby. Welsby had ended up behind bars, and was still awaiting trial after a botched suicide attempt. Salter had emerged smelling of roses. But Marie had suspected that the scent concealed a more noxious stink. If Boyle had been looking to depose Kerridge, maybe Salter’s intervention hadn’t been so public-spirited after all. And that in turn raised questions about the manner of Kerridge’s death.
She’d agreed to join Salter’s team because she wanted some closure on all that. She wanted to find out the truth. But the last six months had proved nothing. As far as she could tell, Salter had played everything by the book. He was still tasked with rebuilding the case against Pete Boyle that had collapsed with Welsby’s exposure and Kerridge’s death. They’d arrested Boyle with the expectation of a successful prosecution, but the evidence had been irredeemably tainted by Welsby’s corruption. In Marie’s eyes, the whole affair had ended just too well for Boyle and she suspected that Salter had been part of that.
But she could prove nothing. He’d asked to take on the Boyle case, supposedly as unfinished business, but perhaps simply to ensure that it remained under his control. Whatever his motives, he’d appeared to make some progress. They’d gathered more intercept evidence against Boyle, they’d pinned down one or two more witnesses. A few more tiny pieces of the jigsaw had fallen into place. They were still a long way from having anything they could be confident would stand up in court. But, given that the Prosecution Service had already ended up with egg on its collective face once before, building a new case was always going to be a slow process.
It might be that Salter was simply going through the motions, recognising that he had to be seen to be doing something about Boyle. But Marie had seen and heard nothing that might confirm her suspicions.
And now this. Sending her back to the edge of Boyle’s stamping ground. Pushing protocol to its limit by assigning her to an area where she might be recognised. It wasn’t against the rules exactly, but it wasn’t standard practice.
The generous explanation was that Salter was, in his inimitable style, just jerking her around. He knew the situation with Liam. He knew how difficult things were getting. His initial promise had been that, even when it was time for her to go back into the front line, he’d find some operational role that kept her reasonably close to home. She’d accepted that, at least for the time being, it wouldn’t be possible for her to continue in an undercover position. She assumed they’d find her some investigation or enforcement job in London. It wasn’t exactly the career move she was looking for, but it would do till, one way or another, things became easier on the domestic front.
So maybe this was just Salter pulling the rug from under her, handing her a whole new set of problems to contend with. The less benign interpretation was that he was using her. If her suspicions were correct, and Salter really was on Boyle’s payroll, then maybe she’d been selected to do some of Boyle’s dirty work. As Salter had implied, any drug dealers in Chester were operating on the edge of Boyle’s territory. Perhaps Boyle was looking to expand his empire and her role was to help take out the competition.
Salter was leaning back in his chair, his relaxed manner suggesting that he was confident he’d achieved his objective, even though his words remained tentative. ‘Just give it some thought, sis. That’s all I want. Sleep on it overnight. We can chat about it again tomorrow.’
You smooth bastard, she thought. Whatever other qualities you might or might not have, you’re good at this. You know how to play people. You know I want to be back in the field really; you know the kind of work I want to be doing. You may even know that I’m just looking for a way to trip you up, to prove some link between you and Boyle. You’ve pitched this just right, going out on a limb yourself so you can lure me out after you.
And maybe, her mind continued before she could control her thoughts, he knows what you want at home, too. Maybe he realises that all your talk of wanting to stay near home, of needing to be there for Liam, is so much bullshit. Maybe he knows that you’re looking for a reason to get away.
Maybe. If so, Salter knew her better than she knew herself. She thought she’d reconciled herself to doing whatever it took to stay near Liam.
