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‘Gut instinct and some well-placed surveillance. You can figure it out.’ He seemed to realize she needed more. ‘Ask the right person the right question and the puzzle starts to fall into place. You don’t need all the specifics. Just one thread. And patience.’
She pursed her lips, was there anything worthwhile on the table here? Or was the detective full of hot air?
‘What makes you think we’d help you?’
‘This can’t be fun for you, on the run, never knowing when they’ll find you again.’
She kept her mouth shut, waiting for him to tell her something useful.
The corner of his mouth flinched. ‘Don’t you want to go home Sarah? Don’t you want to see your family, your friends?’
‘They seem to be doing just fine without me,’ she hoped the bitterness she felt at the mention of her family was not betrayed by her tone. She kept her eyes on her coffee cup.
‘I’ve spoken to your mother, Sarah. The last thing she wants to be doing is planning your funeral.’
‘Oh, of that, I’m sure.’
The detective didn’t miss her sarcasm and quickly changed tack.
‘This is a chance for Alex to make things right.’ Her eyes snapped up to meet his.
‘I’ve read his file and he’s never had an easy road,’ Nable nodded as though convincing himself as well as Sarah, that there might be extenuating circumstances that could work in Alex’s favor. ‘Criminals, gangs like The Devils, they prey on kids like Alex. Got no one to look out for them. Won’t notice if they get themselves killed. But Alex, he proved himself to be pretty useful. Not afraid to get his hands dirty.’
He paused to see the effect of his words. But Sarah was not going to give much away. He took a swallow of his macchiato.
‘I had your boyfriend pegged as a stone-cold killer, the kind who doesn’t care about anyone or anything. Then one day, he vanishes.’ He drained the last of his coffee.
‘Turns out Mr. Hollywood has a heart after all. Word is… ’ His steely eyes bore straight into her own. ‘He’s given it all away for you, Sarah.’
She leant back in her chair, waiting for Nable to get to the point.
‘He’s killed at least five people back in Australia, not to mention the one he killed in your own home in London.’
Sarah didn’t bother to correct his tally.
‘He could help us with our investigations. We know he’s the trigger man, but he’s not the kingpin. If he could give us enough evidence to bring down The Devils, I’m sure we could work out some kind of deal.’
‘The Department of Public Prosecutions have agreed to this?’ Sarah may not know a lot, but she did know that the police didn’t cut deals with criminals.
‘We can have that conversation with the DPP before Alex gets on a plane back to Australia.’
How? A quick phone call to the Chief Prosecutor and it’s all sorted?
She frowned. ‘What about the police in London?’
‘They’ll be happy enough to see the back of Alex Riley without pursuing charges for the death of another Australian scumbag.’
‘Alex says witness protection is a joke.’
The detective shifted back against his chair and seemed to consider her words.
‘It can be,’ he conceded. ‘But in this case, we could start the process over here. Alex could give us something we could work with. Once we had enough evidence to lock up the main players, The Devils would be all but disbanded and it would be safe to bring Alex home again in time to testify.’
‘I thought I read about some taskforce the police had that was slowly wearing down all the outlaw motorcycle gangs. Why do you need Alex?’
Nable nodded. ‘Taskforce Ricochet is designed to disrupt business as usual for outlaw clubs. But we need to do more than that here, Sarah. We need to lock these bastards up. There are families who need to know what happened to their loved ones, give them a proper funeral.’
That was something she could agree with, and hopefully Alex would as well. Sarah leaned forward again. ‘Seems you’ve got all the answers, Detective. So, tell me this. Why are you having this conversation with me when clearly it’s Alex that you need to get on board?’
