Page 30 of Her Last Breath

Chapter 17

As he took the seat opposite her, Jane wondered what DS Johnson had to say. Discussing Mark Burrows’ death had clearly affected him more than the others during the briefing.

‘The reason I know so much about Burrows is that I ran him in the past.’

In front of the team, DS Johnson had a Lancashire street swagger. Here in the privacy of her office, his voice was far more polished.

‘Ran him as in he was your informant?’

DS Johnson nodded.

‘Yes. Like I said in front of the others, he was a petty criminal, very low level. Not worth our time. That was his strength, though.’

‘How do you mean?’

‘Mark was what you’d describe as hidden in plain sight. The guys who we really needed to get to, they didn’t rate him at all. Let him hang around, hearing things that were useful.’

‘Why did he agree to grass?’

‘I caught him a few years ago with enough gear to get him put away. He was still married then, scared his wife would do a runner if he went inside. So he bargained.’

‘Bargained?’

‘Lesser sentence, no jail time. Once he bit, I built that relationship with him over time. He was suspicious at first, didn’t say much. Slowly he realised I could be trusted. It paid off.’

Jane had run informants of her own in the Met. It was a complex relationship. You had to get into bed with scum, expecting them to do you over at any opportunity, taking everything they said with a pinch of salt and making sure it was analysed and validated to pick up the crumbs of truth in it.

‘His intel resulted in something significant?’

‘Yes. Mark helped us bust a county lines operation. We broke up a drugs ring worth millions, arrested and locked up all the major players.’

‘Did that play into why he was so afraid?’

‘Yes. Last time I spoke to him he was petrified. Not only because of the money he’d been taking but because he thought someone had blabbed, that he’d been marked as someone who was talking to us.’

‘Was the threat credible?’

‘I believe so. More importantly, Mark believed it.’

‘I still can’t see why he didn’t just leave town.’

‘To go where? His ex-wife is remarried, he’s got no kids, no family. And these guys he works for, they have contacts across the country. He wouldn’t have stayed hidden for long.’

Jane understood about hard choices, about leaving everything behind. Picturing the mutilated, tortured bodies of people who had been exposed as informants from her previous role, she understood why Mark Burrows would want to avoid that.

‘When he was found dead, didn’t you flag any of this?’

‘Honestly, I assumed he’d taken his own life, given the state he was in the last time I saw him. Uniform confirmed there was nothing odd about the death, nothing suspicious about the circumstances in which he was found.’

‘I appreciate you coming forward, trusting me with this information.’

‘It’s funny, I didn’t realise I cared so much about him. I treated him with the same suspicion, disdain, even meanness I reserved for anybody with his track record.’ DS Johnson looked at her earnestly. ‘I want to make up for that.’

‘Then let’s make sure we do our best. Dr Lydia will examine his body, assess whether it was suicide or if anything was missed.’

‘I appreciate that, ma’am. I’ll do whatever is needed to help.’

As he got up to leave, Jane had to wonder if DS Johnson’s feelings towards her were finally beginning to thaw. Pausing at her office door, he turned around to face her again.