At Harper’s house the officers who gained entry found the place deserted. The luminal light the technician carried showed extensive blood traces on the garage floor.
Janine stabbed at her phone when it rang. ‘Konrad Sulikov is listed on the last flight from Manchester to Berlin. Departing twenty-one ten,’ the voice on the other end informed her.
Janine checked her watch. It was five to. Her heart sank; no way would they make it. Sulikov would be seated by now. They’d be waiting for clearance to take off. ‘But there’s a delay,’ the voice continued, ‘one of the earlier flights had to be grounded and it’s had a knock-on effect.’
‘Yes! How long?’ Janine swore as Richard took a corner far too fast.
‘They’ve only just called them for boarding.’
She turned to Richard: ‘Terminal One.’ He nodded and increased his speed, the blues and twos, lights and siren, signalling their urgency to the rest of the traffic on the motorway.
She dialled Butchers. ‘Terminal One, Berlin flight. Shap with you?’
‘Just got here.’
‘Good. Alert Airport Police, he’s travelling as Konrad Sulikov, but tell them I want to handle this one personally,’ she ended the call.
Janine thought for a moment. ‘Everyone dealt with Harper,’ she began. ‘Sulikov was there in the background, the big bogey man. Marta, the others, they knew of his reputation – you saw what they were like when his name came up, but it was all hearsay, whispers. Talked up by Harper. No one here ever met Sulikov. Hang on,’ there was a flaw in the argument, ‘Stone saw Sulikov shoot Gleason.’
‘No, no,’ Richard argued, ‘he couldn’t see! It was dark; they were ambushed. Stone saw Gleason fall and he scarpered. He expected it to be Sulikov because they’d spoken on the phone.’
‘That’s right.’
‘Stone told me he occasionally got calls from Sulikov, fetch this, carry that. They had no need to meet and Stone assumed Sulikov was in Poland, like we did. Then he gets the call offering the pair of them easy passage across the Channel. Sulikov just happens to be in Manchester.’
‘Very convenient.’
Richard increased his speed as they reached the motorway and moved into the outside lane.
‘Harper’s the good bloke,’ Janine mused, ‘fair bloke, looks out for the girls whereas Sulikov is the ruthless boss, whose reputation goes before him. Lots of gangsters use different names, half-a-dozen passports; but he took it much further. He created Harper as an alternative identity, an insurance policy. He might not need to use it but last year, when they started looking into his people trafficking in Poland, Sulikov goes to ground and Harper comes to life.’
