Broken Dreams (30 page)

We sat looking at each other. Derek nodded at me, clearing me to tell them what I knew. ‘He was a factor in her decision’ I said.

‘Not surprised’ said Gary.

Sarah and I said nothing. I didn’t know what they wanted to hear.

‘Did she go to London?’ Derek asked.

‘She didn’t quite make it that far’ I said.

‘But she’s alright?’ Maria asked.

I turned to her and smiled, thankful she wasn’t pushing for information. ‘She’s fine’ I said. ‘She’s happy.’

Maria nodded and dabbed her eyes with a tissue. ‘Good.’

I leant forward again, looking directly at her, trying to get what I wanted to say straight in my head. ‘There’s some things you can’t fix,’ I said, ‘decisions you can’t go back and change.’ I was thinking of Debbie. ‘You have to live with them the best you can.’

I’d told Sarah what I’d learnt about my wife’s death. She had wanted me to go home and let her deal with Maria Platt. It wasn’t an option. I wanted to finish what we’d started.

‘Thank you’ Maria said. ‘I appreciate all your efforts in finding her. I’m pleased to hear she’s well. I know I don’t have much time left and I can’t pretend I’m not upset by her decision, but I need to put my affairs in order. I was hoping you could persuade her and whatever family she has to come home.  Even if it was just for a quick visit.’ Tears were rolling down her face. ‘Have you ever lost someone important to you, Mr Geraghty?’

I nodded. ‘My wife.’

‘I’m sorry to hear that’ she said. ‘You know that there are no words to describe how you feel on the inside. You have to put a brave face on things, but it eats you up. I was hoping for a second chance to make it better, that’s all. I’ll have to live with the guilt of what I’ve done until I die.’

Nobody said anything until Derek asked if Donna still sung.

‘Not seriously’ I said.

‘A broken dream, then’ Derek said.

I nodded and turned to Sarah. We were done. I had Salford’s cheque for Donna. We still had one last chance to persuade her to see her mother before she died. I turned back to Maria Platt. ‘We’ve got another case on the go at the moment.’ I explained about Jennifer Murdoch. ‘If it’s any consolation, you’ve helped me get to the bottom of it.’

She gently shook her head. She’d lost her daughter. It was no consolation.

The rain beat down on the car whilst we discussed the information Sarah had dug out for me. I thought about calling Coleman so he could make the arrest, but he could wait - I wanted to hear it first-hand before the police got involved. Sarah was needed at home, and she pointed out, it was my case, so I should be the one to close it. We agreed I’d drop by her house later on, to tell her and Don how it had gone. I glanced back at Maria Platt’s house before starting the car up and pulling away. The Platt family hadn’t ever caught a single break.

I waited for his reaction. He stood with his back to me, saying nothing.

‘You killed Jennifer Murdoch’ I repeated. ‘And I know why you killed her.’

He turned to face me and laughed. ‘No you don’t.’

‘Fill me in, then.’

The telephone rang, but he ignored it, instead turning to face me. He shrugged. ‘You gave me the information I needed. Ironic, I suppose.’

That much was true and made it all the more sickening. It was the reason why I hadn’t asked Don to come along. He didn’t need to hear how we’d set the wheels in motion, however inadvertently.

‘It must have been really eating you up’ I said.

‘Like you wouldn’t believe. You don’t let these things go. You never forget. Or forgive.’

‘It wasn’t her fault.’

‘She was the best option.’

I shook my head. ‘It wasn’t her fault.’

‘You never forgive.’

I threw the photograph at Briggs. ‘Tell me about your brother.’

I sat down at the boardroom table and listened. ‘Sid was three years older than me. He couldn’t wait to go to sea and he was good at it, too. A natural. He was cut out for a life at sea. It was hard work for him, but unlike a lot of the others, he knew why he was doing it. Instead of wasting all his money the minute he docked, he gave most of it to my mum to make sure me and my sister had all that we needed. He appreciated how difficult it was for her, as she would do everything for us. When my father had gone to sea, she had to take his place, as well running the house. It was tough for her. My father injured himself at sea, but there was no sick pay, no pension, nothing. Once he had to stop work, nobody wanted to know us. It was a horrible place to live. The houses were disgusting, and it was so insular. People were happy to inter-marry and live in each other’s pockets. It was a closed shop.’

Briggs’s experience of Hessle Road was the polar opposite of Derek Jones’s. He looked a broken man.

‘My brother died’ he eventually said. He stood up and walked over to the window. ‘He died at sea.’

 I knew that much. I got Sarah to dig into the archives. She’d tied up a crew listing from the photograph we’d borrowed from Maria Platt. Records told us Sid Briggs had died in 1969.

‘Jennifer’s father was the captain when he died’ I said.

He sat back down. ‘Have you heard of the Christmas Crackers?’

 I nodded. Derek had told me about them, but I let him continue.

‘Nobody wanted to fish over Christmas. The owners of the boats, though, still wanted them out there fishing, making them money, so they got together the Christmas Cracker crews. Because there weren’t many men to choose from, they’d round up whoever wanted to sail. I did a couple when I first left school to prove I could do it. It was a test, I suppose. I hated it because they’d even take homeless dossers on board, just to make the numbers up.’

‘What happened to your brother?’ I asked.

‘It was a bad trip. Sid wanted to go because we needed the money. I wanted to go because I was promised a full time job if I could handle it. It was fine at first, but a week in, Sid had an accident on deck. It was a dangerous job with men working long hours. Things would happen and there was little medical treatment available. He got worse and worse over the following days.’ Briggs turned away from me. ‘And then he died.’

I was puzzled. ‘Why wasn’t he taken to hospital if he needed treatment?’

‘The Merchant Shipping Act.’

  ‘What?’

Briggs laughed. ‘You’re missing the point. Jennifer’s father was the captain and what he said went. The Merchant Shipping Act gave the captain absolute power. He didn’t want Sid to go to the hospital. He thought my brother would just recover, given time.’

‘The ship would have to be in radio contact with the office, though? They could have arranged something?’

Briggs laughed again, making me feel as stupid as he obviously thought I was. ‘Murdoch’s father didn’t maintain radio contact.’

‘Why not?’

 ‘Because it wasn’t in anyone’s interest to do so. The ships were out there in competition with each other, trying to find where the fish was. If we made contact with our home base, other ships might pick up the signal. And because we only got paid when we landed the catch, nobody would speak out against the captain. If he wanted to keep our location quiet because we’d found a good one, nobody would argue.’

‘So Murdoch’s father made a judgement call?’

 Briggs punched the table. ‘A judgement call?’ He was pointing a finger at me. ‘A fucking judgement call? If it had been, I could have accepted it. No, Murdoch’s father was ambitious. He was young and only in charge of the boat because none of the experienced guys wanted the job. If he messed it up, he wouldn’t get the promotion he wanted. Reputation was everything. Even though I insisted we abort the trip and head to Iceland to get Sid the medical attention he needed, he wouldn’t. He made us carry on fishing whilst Sid got worse and died. He could have saved my brother if he had wanted to, but he put himself and the catch first.’

I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t know whether or not Brigg’s brother would have survived if he had made it to a hospital. He would have had a chance, though, and Jennifer Murdoch’s father had chosen not to give it to him. It had been a cut-throat business, but that was going too far. My uncle had told me that although safety wasn’t of huge importance to some trawler owners, the men looked out for each other. It was better to come back with a reduced catch and all the men than the alternative. I should have put it together sooner. The police had hinted the break-in wasn’t genuine and that she knew her killer. Naturally, suspicion had fallen on her husband, but Briggs would have had all her personal details on file. The rest we had filled him in on. Once we’d given him her background and maiden name, it wouldn’t have been difficult to put together. He’d got more than he expected when he’d engaged us. Briggs had spent decades consumed by bitterness over his brother’s death and we’d given him the opportunity he needed to take his revenge. He sat quietly at the table whilst I called Coleman on his mobile and told him where I was.

‘
Thanks
’ I said to Sarah. It was frozen pizza and cheap wine, but it didn’t make any difference to me. It was exactly what I needed. Don walked back into the room after checking Lauren was still asleep.

He picked up the slice I’d been eyeing. ‘A good day.’

I picked up my glass and returned the toast. ‘A good day.’ I asked him when Murdoch had been arrested.

‘Late afternoon’ Sarah told me. She’d taken the message from Coleman. It sounded like they’d been busy, picking up Murdoch, Taylor and Johnson in co-ordinated raids.

‘What about Salford?’ I asked.

‘No word.’ She shrugged. ‘He wasn’t involved, was he?’

I grunted my agreement. So far as we knew, he hadn’t had any direct involvement in the fraud. It didn’t ring true, but proving it would be a difficult job for Coleman. I also had to break the news to Julie Richardson. ‘Your old mate, Branning, won’t be best pleased, either’ I said to Don.

Don shook his head and sighed. ‘I’ll have to let him know. He’ll think we let him down.’

There was nothing we could do. Salford had turned out not to be our problem. He’d evaded Branning this far, and it wasn’t going to change. I hadn’t spoken to Don all day, so I explained about Salford’s illness. He digested the news and said he’d make talking to Branning a priority. Branning had lost the war without winning a significant battle. The price Salford was going to pay was not knowing his daughter, however much he wanted to.

‘What did Murdoch have to say?’ Don asked me.

‘He wanted me to find out who killed his wife, even if he was arrested.’ I shrugged. ‘At least we’ve done that for him.’

‘I guess we were wrong about him’ Sarah said. Don looked away from me, obviously not ready yet to admit he’d misjudged the man.

‘He’s hardly one of life’s good guys’ I said. Murdoch had jeopardised his life’s work. His regeneration plans could have made a real difference to the area and the city. Instead he’d let personal greed and gain taint him. He was going to go to prison a broken man, and he’d deserve everything he got.

‘He’s not all bad, though, is he Dad?’ Sarah said to Don.

I managed not to laugh as Don did his best to side-step the question. The pizza was good – I helped myself to another slice.

‘He’s probably lucky he wasn’t fed to the pigs’ he eventually said.

We all laughed. I pushed the memory of Johnson threatening to bury me alive to one side.

Don produced a pad of paper. ‘I want to make some notes, so we can tidy things up tomorrow. Maybe we should try to take on less dangerous jobs in the future.’

  It wasn’t an unreasonable point, but I hadn’t expected a simple investigation into an employee’s illness to mushroom like it had. I told Don I’d try to choose more wisely in the future. Sarah smiled at me, complicit in the joke.

‘What do we need to cover off?’ he asked us.

 Murdoch had given me a cheque to cover our time. I hoped it wouldn’t bounce. ‘I think we should make sure Sam Carver’s alright for money. Try and make it up to him the best we can.’

‘Who’s he?’ Sarah asked.

‘The guy at the casino.’

She nodded. ‘Right.’

‘What about Maria Platt?’ Don asked.

I shrugged. ‘There’s nothing more we can do for her.’ I told Don about the cheque Salford had given me for Chelsea.

‘Shame there’s nothing for us’ he said.

I wasn’t too bothered. Sometimes you get drawn into cases you shouldn’t. However much you tell yourself not to let it become personal, it succeeds in getting under your skin. The Platt family had certainly been dealt a rough hand, and it would have been nice to have reunited them, but it wasn’t what Donna had wanted. End of story.

  ‘Is Anastazja still at your flat?’ Sarah asked.

I nodded. ‘I think she’s planning on going tomorrow.’ I told them I’d like to give her some of Murdoch’s money. He’d been generous, so it seemed the right thing to do. She deserved the chance to make a fresh start. Neither of them argued with me.

We heard Lauren shout for us, so Don stood up and said he’d see to her. ‘She probably wants a story reading.’ He closed the door behind him.

I poured Sarah and me another glass of wine each and sat back down. It had been a long day and I was starting to feel frazzled around the edges.

‘Are you alright, Joe?’ she asked.

I nodded and said I’d had better days. ‘It’s such a mess.’

She moved across the couch and sat next to me. ‘I know.’

She was sat so close to me, I could smell her perfume. As well as smelling great, she looked great. I smiled at her. The moment was interrupted by my mobile ringing. I listened to the message and disconnected the call.

‘Coleman’ I said, reluctantly standing up. ‘He wants to meet me.’

I found Coleman sat in the corner of Queens, a pint of lager waiting for me.

‘Least I could do’ he said, as I sat down next to him.

 It tasted good, especially after pizza. I hadn’t been keen to move off the sofa when he called, but I couldn’t say no, either.

  ‘You’ll be pleased to know we got someone for the attack on you.’