The Leaden Heart by Chris Nickson

Author:Chris Nickson [Chris Nickson]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Severn House Publishers
Published: 2019-02-10T16:00:00+00:00

SEVENTEEN

Sunday morning and Leeds was quiet as he walked from Sheepscar. Barely six and already the day had some heat. Would this weather ever break, he wondered.

‘I take it the lad never showed,’ Harper said to Walsh.

‘No, sir. I waited until they closed.’ But he had a broad smile on his face.

‘Back there on Monday.’

‘I will, sir. I think you’ll be pleased, though. We’ve finally got a line on the Smiths.’ No wonder Walsh was grinning, Harper thought. ‘It came through first thing. I heard back from a copper in Manchester with a good memory.’

‘Let’s hope it’s worthwhile.’

‘Oh, it is, sir. This sergeant had dealings with them when they were still juveniles. You won’t believe it, but their names really are Jack and John Smith.’

Harper shook his head; sometimes truth was a damned sight stranger than imagination. But he could feel it, the tide was definitely beginning to turn. ‘Juveniles?’

‘In and out of trouble more or less from the moment they could walk was how he put it,’ Walsh said. ‘By the time they were fourteen or fifteen, they were big lads and there was plenty of intimidation and violence involved. The thing was, he told me, they were clever with it. Not school clever, they left when they were nine. But their brains worked, if you know what I mean.’

Harper nodded. That fitted with what they knew.

‘When I told him what they were up to now, this copper was impressed, but he wasn’t surprised. He arrested them when they were eighteen. Protection racket. One shopkeeper had enough of it and came forward. When the Smiths found out, they beat him up. But they did it right as a couple of constables were coming along. Ended up doing three years. He’s going to send us photographs.’

Those would be useful for identification. Circulate them to every man on the beat.

‘What about since their sentence?’

Walsh shook his head. ‘He heard they left Manchester after they were released, but he doesn’t know where they went.’

‘How long ago was that?’

‘Eight years, sir.’

‘And they seem to have come up for air here a year or so ago.’ Harper tapped his pen against the blotter. ‘We need to fill in that gap.’

‘I’ll do what I can, sir.’

Walsh left the office. But Fowler remained.

‘You look like you have something on your mind.’ Harper sat back in his chair. ‘Is something wrong?’

‘No, sir,’ the sergeant began, then halted. ‘That is … you’ve read about what’s going on in South Africa.’

‘I know, war’s coming, and very soon by the look of it. I don’t see what that has to do with us.’

‘Well …’ Fowler started again. He looked nervous, unsure of himself.

‘You might as well spit it out.’

‘A friend of mine is in the army, sir. Has been for years. A clever bloke, been promoted a few times. He’s offered me a job.’

A job in the army?

‘He wants you to be a soldier?’ He couldn’t picture Fowler on parade or traipsing through the bush with a rifle.

‘No,’ the sergeant replied quickly.

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