“Don’t worry, Mary, I’m not in the mood and you’re not my type. Anyway, where is this getting us?” He stepped back. “No fucking where, that’s where. I’m not here to play games, Mary. I want the answers to my questions. And I want your boyfriend, and when I’ve finished with him, the police can have what’s left. I don’t like injustice, Mary.”
He turned and shuffled over to his toolbox again. When he returned, he had a long length of electrical flex. Robbie dropped the cable and pulled out some rubber gloves from his pocket.
It was then that Mary noticed one end had a plug. The other end had bare wires.
He put his gloves on, plugged the flex in and picked up both wires.
Mary didn’t hear or see anything else as her world darkened.
Chapter Thirty-nine
Gardener’s first view of Manny Walters came coupled with a tirade of abuse. “It’s a violation of my basic human rights, this is.”
“Can you hear something?” Gardener asked Reilly.
The Irishman cupped his ear and feigned interest. “Nothing worth listening to.”
Manny was on his feet. “Oh very funny, very funny. What do you do for an encore?”
“We arrest people,” said Gardener. He closed the door and approached the table, placing a folder on top. Sitting down, he studied his suspect. Manny Walters was stick thin – undernourished at a guess, but when you had his lifestyle, you tended to run yourself on nervous energy. His hair was black and thinning, and he had a face like a road map. His teeth left a lot to be desired, as did his fingernails. His right eye was black and had puffed up nicely. He was also sporting a purple bruise on the left side of his face.
“Are you lot listening to me?”
“Do we have a choice?” Reilly asked, taking a seat.
“You can’t keep me here all this time. I know my rights.”
“You should do,” said Reilly, “the amount of times you’ve been in and out of this place.”
“You can’t try me for past crimes.”
“Oh my God,” quipped Reilly. “He thinks he’s in court now.”
“He will be soon,” said Gardener. “Sit down, Mr Walters, and make it quick. We have a lot of work to do and we don’t want to waste our day on you.”
Gardener leaned over and started the recording equipment, introducing everyone for the benefit of the tape. On the table, he also had a laptop.
“Am I under arrest?”
“No, you’re helping us with our inquiries.”
“Then why is that thing rolling?”
“So you can’t claim that we said something when we didn’t. And before you start, it’s also there to protect you. We’ve been hoping to have a word with you for some time now, Mr Walters.”
Manny took his seat. “What about?”
“All in good time.”
“For someone who hasn’t got all day, you seem to want to take the long way around things. Where’s Maurice?”
“Mr Cragg to you.”
“So where is he? Let’s have him here and we’ll sort this in no time.”
“We’d like to talk to you about what happened at the shop.”
“What shop?”