Page 98 of Her Last Breath

‘OK, all of these notes are given for code seven expenses. Informants.’

‘Can you tell me the officer they were signed out to?’

DI Baxter hesitated.

‘Not without authorisation.’

Jane looked at him.

‘I won’t act on it officially, I swear, and I will get you the authorisation next week.’

DI Baxter licked his lips, digesting this, before nodding his assent, clicking his computer. She wasn’t surprised when DS Johnson’s name was read out. What she needed to know was how much money he was being paid.

‘According to this, we are giving DS Johnson exactly two thousand pounds on a monthly basis to run this informant.’

Jane was shocked by the amount. Over four years DS Johnson had been paid close to a hundred thousand pounds. If the money found on Mark in his lock-up was any indication, where exactly was he spending the rest? She needed to check his bank records. It was possible that he was spending it in ways they hadn’t picked up. She realised this was a genuine hope. Because if the cash couldn’t be accounted for somewhere in Mark Burrows’ life, then it raised the question of where exactly the hundred grand had disappeared to.

Chapter 68

Jane hurried back to her office, deep in thought. What had she just uncovered? Was she thinking straight or was her mother’s death clouding her judgement? Should she just let things be? After all, she was planning on leaving Burnley soon. No, her integrity meant too much to her. If there was corruption going on at any level, she would have to deal with it. Turning a blind eye just wasn’t in her DNA. That’s what her mother had done and look what the consequences had been.

A stab of guilt cut through her; she couldn’t think of Maeve that way. They had made their peace; the past had to be deprived of its power if Jane was going to be able to face the future head-on.

Jane wished DC Chan was in the office, she would have been much quicker at this. After a couple of false starts, Jane brought up Mark’s financial records first. He seemed to deposit a regular amount of cash into an online account. In fact, the twentieth of each month every two months, a thousand pounds. Jane checked the deposit dates: January, March, May and then nothing for July. Why had he held on to that payment? That was the money they had found on him, she realised.

Other amounts Mark deposited were sporadic, which would indicate the irregular income he got from his dealing. Going back for the last four years, he had been paid over twenty thousand pounds in regular thousand-pound blocks.

Jane considered the possibility that Mark might have stashed the rest of the two grand somewhere else or spent it, perhaps even sharing it with Alice. But they hadn’t found that amount of cash in his lock-up or at his flat. His bills and rent came out of his online account and he had a hefty balance in there. Was he preparing to leave Burnley after all? A search of Mark’s property hadn’t led them to any significantly extravagant purchases and ironically, he didn’t have a drug or alcohol habit.

Scrolling through his expenses, Jane unpicked the mundane habits of a single man. Takeaways, groceries, petrol, all paid via apps or tapping the debit card associated with his online bank. Despite careful scrutiny of his financials, Jane couldn’t trace where Mark might have legitimately spent an extra fifteen hundred pounds every month. Suggesting DS Johnson was holding on to it.

And what about Alice? How did she come into possession of notes from the same sequentially numbered stash that Finance had handed over to DS Johnson? Was Mark really her secret man or was he giving her handouts because he felt bad for how Liam Harrison was treating her? Or was he buying intel from Alice which he was then feeding to DS Johnson?

It didn’t make sense. There was no strong connection between Mark and Alice aside from Liam. Nor any concrete evidence that they were having a secret affair.

Recalling the drive to the abandoned factory in Rose Hill with DS Johnson, Jane remembered him boasting about the turnaround in crime detection on the estate where Alice lived. Transformed from being a no-go area for the police to a relatively safe space to raise a family. Frantically, Jane searched through her databases but there was too much information, instead turning to the AI tools that were overlaid on her internet search engine. Sol Brazani had an interesting piece for the Burnley Reporter. When the little girl, Daisy Price, had been shot and killed, the estate really started to change. The crime clear-up rate increased, with the police having a breakthrough every couple of months. Had someone been tipping the police off? Was the death of the little girl just too much for one of the residents, the wake-up call they needed? Was that person Alice Rogers?

Had DS Johnson paid her for these tip-offs?

Returning her attention to the article, Jane started to open files of the incidents and arrests that Brazani referred to. It was true, they were managing to clean up the streets in that area, slowly but surely. Jane thought about Liam accusing Alice of disappearing every now and then. She could picture a furtive Alice, having secret meetings, earning cash, feeling pleased with herself for earning while doing the right thing.

Was DS Johnson using the money for Mark to run other informants then? Abusing police funds to gain intel that meant he could shine, be seen as the most capable officer on the force? More worryingly, was he claiming far more than his informants were receiving? Exactly how many informants was he running across Burnley? Possibly some he wasn’t even paying, instead trading a blind eye here and a missed opportunity there, to let them get away with whatever law they were breaking.

Jane couldn’t match her reluctant deputy who had changed in a matter of days towards her, supporting her, saving her life, with what she was now thinking. She felt troubled at the thought of what she would have to do next but the sums weren’t adding up for her. Mentally, she felt burnt out, thought about leaving this mess for Sameer and whoever he replaced her with. Experience had taught her that left unchecked, the past would always screw up the future. A sense of loyalty to Sameer spurred her on to close this chapter before she left.

Finally, Jane started to bore into Bill’s financial records. The alcohol he paid for in cash was relatively cheap, if excessive. The engine parts though, some of them shipped from America, cost hundreds. There was a payment plan for the Harley. Her eyes widened, seeing it had cost him nearly forty thousand pounds. The thought flitted through her mind that he might have been blackmailing his bosses once he knew what they were up to. Then he sold them out to the police anyway. That didn’t sit right with what Sarah Morne had said about Bill, although nobody seemed to really know him. Was it possible then that he might be another of DS Johnson’s informants, when it came to closing down the haulage firms? It would certainly make sense of why more than one firm was raided by police shortly after he stopped working for them.

There was also the incident with the van, DS Johnson winkling it out before the rest of the team. Was that tip-off from another of his informants? Was this the secret to his impressive career? Cash for results? In principle, she couldn’t argue with what he was doing, but what she was most concerned about was the money her DS was potentially skimming off the top for himself.

Understanding what she had to do, Jane knew there was only one person who could help her unearth the truth. She recalled him helping her in her battle with Colin, his support during the investigation. She owed him a chance to explain himself at the very least.

He picked up on the third ring.

‘Dave, are you around? I need to run something past you.’ She hoped her voice sounded casual, light.

‘Yes, of course. Do you need me to come in?’

‘No, don’t trouble yourself. I’ll come to yours. Send me the address.’