a light Welsh accent.
'Yes.'
She half-rose from her chair and shook his hand.
'I've
only got a few minutes, I'm afraid.'
'No
problem. Anything exciting?'
'I'm
giving evidence at Short Street. Heard of Marek Stich? He's Czech. Shot one of
the uniform lads late last year. Real piece of work.'
'I
know. Owns a nightclub?'
'That's
one of his interests. Our boy was fresh out of training college - pulled him over
for jumping a light, and pop .'
'Is
he going down?'
'I'd
like to think so. All on forensics, though - not one single decent witness with
the balls to come forward.' He shook his head as he stirred a sweetener into
his coffee. 'You know what really turned the public off the police? Roadside
cameras. Machine as judge, jury and executioner, no discretion involved. Makes
people despise all authority.'
'You're
a benefit-of-the-doubt man?'
'Always
have been.' He smiled as he raised his cup to his lips.
Jenny
tried to marry the smart-dressing modern detective with what little she knew of
the reality of life in the force. What did it say about a policeman near the
end of his career that he'd maintained such studied self-control? What was he
hiding?
She
cut to business. 'Alison tells me you were in charge of the observation on the
A1 Rahma mosque.'
'Uh-huh.'
He set his cup back on its saucer with measured precision.
'Can
you tell me what you were looking at?'
'We
had some intelligence that extremists were operating inside it, setting up
cells to try to recruit young men to Hizbut-Tahrir and other organizations. We
weren't tooled up with informers at the time; we had to sit and watch for three
months, get to know names, times and places.'
'Are
you allowed to say where this information was coming from?'
'Let's
say we were one of the partners in the operation.'
'With
the Security Services?'
'I'm
just a humble DI, Mrs Cooper. I'd get into all sorts of trouble for giving
straight answers to questions like that.'
That
was more like a policeman: letting her know but pretending he wasn't, thinking
the way he did it was clever.
'Let's
imagine a hypothetical situation,' Jenny said. 'Say MI5 had a tip-off and
wanted a mosque looked into. They'd hook up with the local force and get them
to do the sitting around in cars, right?'
'They've
taken on a lot more staff in recent years. These days they might run it all
themselves.'
'But
back then?'
'We
were all a lot greener, weren't we?'
'Meaning
what - that things were missed that shouldn't have been?'
'I'm
just saying - we'd do it differently now. We'd have insiders, hook onto things
more quickly. Pre-empt trouble before it happened.'
Jenny
pushed her hair back from her face and held him in an innocent gaze she thought
might pique his interest, throw him off guard a little. 'Nazim Jamal and Rafi
Hassan were two of the young men you were watching, presumably?'
'Yes.'
His eyes traced her neck down to the open top of her blouse.
'How
long for?'
'A
number of weeks as far as I recall.'
'Have
you any idea what happened to them on the night of 28 June 2002?'
'After
they left their meeting? No.'
'Nobody
followed them?'
'My
officers saw them leave, but their job was to stay put and watch who came and
went from the building, not to follow those two across the city.'
'Do
you think they went back to their rooms in the hall of residence that
night?' ,
'I'm
sure you've seen my team's reports, Mrs Cooper. We don't know for sure, but
they were seen on the London train the next morning.'
'Any
idea where they went after that?'
'The
CCTV tapes at Paddington had been overwritten by the time we got to them. The
trail went cold. We got as far as finding out that there were rat-runs through
France, Italy and the Balkans, but there was no positive sighting. If they made
it to Turkey, they could have caught a flight out to Kabul, Islamabad,
wherever.'
He
swallowed the last drops of his coffee and carefully dabbed his lips with the
paper napkin.
Jenny
said, 'Am I right in assuming
'Yes.'
She half-rose from her chair and shook his hand.
'I've
only got a few minutes, I'm afraid.'
'No
problem. Anything exciting?'
'I'm
giving evidence at Short Street. Heard of Marek Stich? He's Czech. Shot one of
the uniform lads late last year. Real piece of work.'
'I
know. Owns a nightclub?'
'That's
one of his interests. Our boy was fresh out of training college - pulled him over
for jumping a light, and pop .'
'Is
he going down?'
'I'd
like to think so. All on forensics, though - not one single decent witness with
the balls to come forward.' He shook his head as he stirred a sweetener into
his coffee. 'You know what really turned the public off the police? Roadside
cameras. Machine as judge, jury and executioner, no discretion involved. Makes
people despise all authority.'
'You're
a benefit-of-the-doubt man?'
'Always
have been.' He smiled as he raised his cup to his lips.
Jenny
tried to marry the smart-dressing modern detective with what little she knew of
the reality of life in the force. What did it say about a policeman near the
end of his career that he'd maintained such studied self-control? What was he
hiding?
She
cut to business. 'Alison tells me you were in charge of the observation on the
A1 Rahma mosque.'
'Uh-huh.'
He set his cup back on its saucer with measured precision.
'Can
you tell me what you were looking at?'
'We
had some intelligence that extremists were operating inside it, setting up
cells to try to recruit young men to Hizbut-Tahrir and other organizations. We
weren't tooled up with informers at the time; we had to sit and watch for three
months, get to know names, times and places.'
'Are
you allowed to say where this information was coming from?'
'Let's
say we were one of the partners in the operation.'
'With
the Security Services?'
'I'm
just a humble DI, Mrs Cooper. I'd get into all sorts of trouble for giving
straight answers to questions like that.'
That
was more like a policeman: letting her know but pretending he wasn't, thinking
the way he did it was clever.
'Let's
imagine a hypothetical situation,' Jenny said. 'Say MI5 had a tip-off and
wanted a mosque looked into. They'd hook up with the local force and get them
to do the sitting around in cars, right?'
'They've
taken on a lot more staff in recent years. These days they might run it all
themselves.'
'But
back then?'
'We
were all a lot greener, weren't we?'
'Meaning
what - that things were missed that shouldn't have been?'
'I'm
just saying - we'd do it differently now. We'd have insiders, hook onto things
more quickly. Pre-empt trouble before it happened.'
Jenny
pushed her hair back from her face and held him in an innocent gaze she thought
might pique his interest, throw him off guard a little. 'Nazim Jamal and Rafi
Hassan were two of the young men you were watching, presumably?'
'Yes.'
His eyes traced her neck down to the open top of her blouse.
'How
long for?'
'A
number of weeks as far as I recall.'
'Have
you any idea what happened to them on the night of 28 June 2002?'
'After
they left their meeting? No.'
'Nobody
followed them?'
'My
officers saw them leave, but their job was to stay put and watch who came and
went from the building, not to follow those two across the city.'
'Do
you think they went back to their rooms in the hall of residence that
night?' ,
'I'm
sure you've seen my team's reports, Mrs Cooper. We don't know for sure, but
they were seen on the London train the next morning.'
'Any
idea where they went after that?'
'The
CCTV tapes at Paddington had been overwritten by the time we got to them. The
trail went cold. We got as far as finding out that there were rat-runs through
France, Italy and the Balkans, but there was no positive sighting. If they made
it to Turkey, they could have caught a flight out to Kabul, Islamabad,
wherever.'
He
swallowed the last drops of his coffee and carefully dabbed his lips with the
paper napkin.
Jenny
said, 'Am I right in assuming
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