‘You know this will go a lot easier if you just answer the questions, Gary,’ Helen continued. ‘How is the loan shark business?’
‘My client provides credit -’ his lawyer interjected, but Helen wasn’t in the mood to split hairs.
‘Whatever you want to call it,’ she interjected. ‘Is it treating you well?’
‘Keeps the wolf from the door,’ Spence eventually replied.
‘I’d say it’s more than that,’ Sanderson responded. ‘You’ve got a nice big house in Merry Oak. And rumour has it you’re in the market for a place in the New Forest. Business must be good.’
Spence just shrugged, then looked at his watch theatrically.
‘What happens when they don’t pay back what they owe you, Gary? When they can’t pay?’
‘My client will always attempt to renegotiate any problem loan, change the sums or intervals of payment if necessary -’
‘But if they default, then what? I’d like your client to answer that, not you, Ms Fielding.’
Spence’s brief said nothing, but Helen knew she’d antagonized her. She was a young and intelligent brief, keen to flex her muscles against a renowned DI. Helen only wished she’d found a more worthwhile cause on which to bestow her undoubted talents. Spence had four grams of cocaine on him when arrested. He swore blind that this was why he’d done a runner – but Helen wasn’t convinced.
‘They lose their collateral,’ Spence said evenly.
‘Meaning you take their car, their property -’
‘Whatever the money is secured against.’
‘And what about for smaller, unsecured loans? A few grand, ten maybe. What happens if they borrow that from you, then can’t – or won’t – pay it back?’
Spence shrugged – seeming to imply that such sums were beneath him.
‘What about Thomas Simms for example?’
‘Jesus Christ, is that what all this is about?’
‘He borrowed money from you and when he couldn’t pay it back, you threatened his family.’
‘Whoa, whoa. You’re going to have to rewind a bit there. Who says my client threatened the Simms family?’
It was offered aggressively, but Helen could see Fielding hadn’t been expecting this line of questioning and was rattled as a result.
‘Your client came to the door and told Karen Simms that if he had to come back again, she would regret it. Sounds pretty much like a threat to me, wouldn’t you say?’
‘That’s bullshit,’ Spence barked back, earning a silent but pointed look from his lawyer. But Spence didn’t seem to be care. ‘I never went near that bloody house,’ he continued, ‘and anybody who says I did is lying out their arse.’
