The Only Game

‘Don’t know. That was it. Any use?’

‘The address might be,’ said Dog. ‘Charley, get a general call out for Maguire, will you? Nothing heavy. Just to bring her in for her own good.’

‘It shall be done. You won’t forget your visitor, will you?’

‘I’ll do my best. Who the hell is it anyway?’

‘Not just any old visitor,’ grinned Lunn. ‘A real VIP. Very Indignant Person. It’s Councillor Jacobs. He’s making do with the super till you get back.’

‘They were made for each other,’ grunted Dog. ‘He can wait a bit longer.’

As Lunn left, he picked up the phone and dialled.

‘Dog, my man! Knew it was you. Recognize that ring anywhere, as the actor said to the bishop. It’s the stains in the car, right?’

‘Right. Got anything yet?’

‘Natch. Can’t hang around when it’s a job for Generalissimo Cicero, can we? It’s blood and it’s Group B. How does that grab you?’

He looked at the copy of Oliver Maguire’s record he had taken from the kindergarten. Blood Group B.

‘Where it hurts,’ he said and replaced the receiver. The phone rang instantly.

‘Dog, could you pop along to see me? I’ve got Councillor Jacobs here and he’s keen to meet you.’

Detective Superintendent Eddie Parslow had been a high flier till his late thirties when the heat of a peptic ulcer had melted his wings. Since his return to work, his sole aim had been to achieve maximum pension with minimum stress. A foxy face and lips permanently flecked with the white froth of antacid tablets gave him the look of a rabid dog, but none need fear his bite who did not disturb the even tenor of his ways.

Jacobs was a stout, florid man who needed no padding when he played Father Christmas at the council’s children-in-care party. He was clearly not in a ho-ho-ho-ing mood.

‘I gather this Maguire woman’s been stirring things up,’ he growled. ‘I thought I’d make sure you’d got the record straight.’

Dog glanced at Parslow and received a little shake of the head. He took this to mean that nothing had been said to the councillor about the real reason for their interest in Maguire.

‘That’s what we like,’ he said equably. ‘Straight records. So what happened, Councillor?’

‘She was massaging my back,’ said Jacobs. ‘When I turned over, she pulled my towel off and said, “Fancy a bit of relief? It’ll only cost a pony.”’

‘And what did you take this to mean?’

‘I took it to mean she was offering to masturbate me for twenty-five pounds,’ said Jacobs sharply. ‘What the hell else could it mean?’

‘Hard to say,’ said Dog. ‘Were you erect, by the way?’

‘What?’

‘Erect. Excited. It’d be natural. Pretty girl rubbing your body …’

‘No, I was not erect,’ snarled Jacobs. ‘What the hell is this? I have a massage at least once a week. I don’t care if it’s a pretty girl or Granger himself, as long as it helps my back. God, I knew I should have had her arrested straight off and not given her the chance to pour her poison out …’

‘Why didn’t you?’ asked Dog. ‘Call us straightaway, I mean. A man in your position with your reputation can’t be too careful.’

‘Don’t you think I know it? Mud sticks. I thought, better to forget it perhaps. Also George Granger’s by way of being a friend. I didn’t want to get his centre into the papers.’

‘Very commendable,’ said Dog. ‘So you decided very altruistically to keep stumm, till your mate Granger rang you up to say I’d been round?’

‘I don’t like your tone of voice,’ said Jacobs softly. ‘As it happens I didn’t keep stumm. As it happens I was chairing a meeting of the Liaison Committee this afternoon and Jim Tredmill, your Chief Constable, was there, and after the meeting I had a word with him, asked his advice. He said I’d probably done the right thing, no witnesses, hard to prove, but he’d see his men kept their eyes open for this tart. Clearly he hasn’t had time to ask you yet, Inspector. But never fear. I’ll make sure he knows just how ignorant his senior officers are!’

The door banged behind him with a force which set the coffee cups on Parslow’s desk vibrating.

‘Now I’d say you handled that really well, Dog,’ said the superintendent mildly.

Dog shrugged.

‘You’ve got to play ’em as you see ’em,’ he said.

‘One of your famous Uncle Endo’s gems, is it?’ enquired Parslow. ‘All right, fill me in.’

He listened, sucking reflectively on a tablet.

‘Sounds like it could turn out nasty,’ he said unhappily. ‘Maguire. Is she Irish?’

‘Born in Londonderry, brought up in Northampton.’

‘Is that a problem for you, Dog?’

‘No,’ he said emphatically. Too emphatically? But Parslow just wanted formal reassurance.

‘Good. It’s an odd tale she tells, certainly. Over-ingenious, you reckon? Or odd enough to be true?’

It dawned on Dog that Parslow did not yet know that Maguire had walked out of the hospital.

He said, ‘Hardly matters, does it? One way the kid’s dead, the other, he’s likely to be in danger of his life.’

He saw Parslow register glumly that hassle awaited them in all directions, then tossed in his poison pill.

‘One more thing,’ he said. ‘I’ve just heard from Scott at the General that Maguire’s had it away on her toes.’

A spasm of pain crossed Parslow’s face, mental now but with its physical echoes not far behind. He should go, thought Dog. To hell with hanging on till he topped twenty-five years, which was Parslow’s avowed aim. But who the hell was he to give advice? Another month would see his ten years up, and for the past eighteen months he’d been promising himself that the decade was enough, he’d have done whatever he set out to do by joining. Only, his motives were now so distant, he couldn’t recall whether he’d achieved them or not.

Parslow said, ‘Have the press got a sniff yet?’

‘No. And I’d prefer to keep it low key till we know which way we’re going,’ said Dog.

‘Fine,’ said Parslow. ‘I suppose I’d better have a word with Mr Tredmill.’

He didn’t sound as if he relished the prospect. Everyone knew that the Chief Constable was keen for him to go and didn’t much mind if it was in an ambulance.

‘I’m going round to Maguire’s flat,’ said Dog.