DI Sean Corrigan Crime Series: 6-Book Collection: Cold Killing, Redemption of the Dead, The Keeper, The Network, The Toy Taker and The Jackdaw. Luke Delaney
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sure?’ Sean asked. ‘Are you absolutely sure the man in these photographs isn’t Stefan Korsakov?’
‘Stefan Korsakov?’ Jarratt asked, disbelief in his voice. ‘This isn’t Stefan Korsakov.’
‘If not Korsakov, then what about James Hellier? Is the man in this photograph James Hellier?’ Sean persisted.
‘I don’t know anyone called James Hellier, so I wouldn’t know if this was or wasn’t him,’ Jarratt answered, the increasing anxiety in his voice palpable.
Sean said nothing, instead he tossed a piece of paper in front of Jarratt. ‘What’s this?’ Jarratt asked.
‘Take a look,’ Sean told him.
Jarratt lifted it from the table and began to read through the list of names and telephone numbers on the printout of the email from SO11. ‘I don’t understand,’ he said, shaking his head.
‘What’s the matter?’ Sean asked. ‘Don’t you recognize your own name, your own telephone number?’ He leaned over Jarratt and stabbed his finger into the printout. ‘Right there: Jarratt, Paul. And here: your address and your number.’
‘What is this?’ Jarratt asked.
‘This is a list of telephone numbers taken from a notebook belonging to one James Hellier, who is currently under investigation for murder. What is your telephone number doing in his notebook, Mr Jarratt?’
‘I have no idea,’ Jarratt pleaded. ‘So he has my telephone number, what does that mean? There could be any number of reasons why he has my number.’
Sean fell silent. He sat next to Jarratt. ‘If it was only the telephone number in his book, I might believe you,’ he said. ‘But you’ve already hung yourself. You see I found out that DS Jones checked with the prison and they told her they never requested Korsakov’s prints. You lied.’ Jarratt didn’t respond. ‘And then there are these,’ Sean continued, tapping the photographs of Hellier. ‘On our way to see you, we called in on an old colleague of yours, DS Graham Wright, and I showed him these very same photographs. And you know what he told me, without any hesitation whatsoever? He told me that the man in these photographs is Stefan Korsakov. The same Stefan Korsakov who now goes by the name of James Hellier. But you already know that, don’t you, Mr Jarratt?’
‘I … I …’ Jarratt struggled, trapped.
‘It’s over,’ said Sean. ‘You were a detective once. You know when the show is over. It’s time to save yourself. Talk to us. Did Hellier attack Sally? You warned him she was digging around his past and he got worried she was getting too close, so he tried to stop her the only way he could – by killing her.’
‘No,’ Jarratt insisted. ‘He didn’t attack her.’
‘So you admit to knowing him?’ Donnelly asked.
‘Yes … I mean no.’
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ Donnelly demanded.
‘All right, for Christ’s sake. Yes, I’ve been in contact with him,’ Jarratt admitted. ‘But I’ve got nothing to do with DS Jones being attacked.’
‘But you made Korsakov’s photographs and fingerprints disappear, yes?’ Sean asked.
Jarratt’s body slumped. ‘If I talk, you’ll look after me, agreed? You guarantee me no prison time and I’ll talk.’
‘I can’t make that sort of promise, but I’ll do what I can. Now talk.’
‘Shortly before Korsakov was due to be released from prison I decided to visit him.’
‘Why?’ Sean asked.
‘Because we’d never recovered the money from his frauds. Millions of pounds outstanding.’
‘And you fancied helping yourself to an early retirement present, eh?’ Donnelly accused.
‘No,’ Jarratt claimed. ‘It wasn’t like that. Or at least, not at first. It’s often worth visiting people shortly ahead of their release to remind them that you’re watching them. Make it clear to them that as soon as they start spending their ill-gotten gains you’ll be there to seize everything they have.’ Sean was aware of the practice. ‘Sometimes you can cut a deal, get them to surrender most of the monies, in return for allowing them to keep a proportion as a reward for playing the game. All very unofficial, but everybody wins. We get to show monies recovered, the victims get some compensation and the thief gets a little sweetener.
‘But that’s not the way Korsakov wanted to play it. He wasn’t about to hand over a penny. However, he could see the point in making sure the police weren’t on his back.’
‘Go on,’ Sean encouraged.
‘He offered me a cut. All I had to do was make a few things disappear.’
‘Like fingerprints and photographs?’
Jarratt shrugged.
‘How much did he pay you?’ Donnelly asked.
‘Initially, ten thousand, with further instalments to follow, but …’ he paused. ‘The next time we meet, he shows me photographs. Some were of the two of us together, with me counting the cash.’
‘He set you up?’ said Donnelly.
‘Yes, but there was more. He had other photographs – of my kids, for God’s sake, at school, in the park, in my own garden.’
‘He threatened them?’ Sean questioned.
‘He didn’t have to,’ Jarratt replied. ‘I knew what he was capable of. I wasn’t going to spend the rest of my life watching over my shoulder, waiting for the inevitable.’
‘As soon as he did that, you should have stopped it, cut your losses and stopped it,’ said Sean.
‘And end up in prison? Old Bill don’t have it good inside. I decided to bide my time and hope that eventually Korsakov would move on and forget about me. Then all of a sudden your DS comes sniffing around, asking all the wrong questions. As if that wasn’t bad enough, Korsakov contacts me, asks me to get you off his back. It was like a nightmare coming true.’
‘You warned him about DS Jones?’ Sean accused. ‘Let him know she was asking about Korsakov?’
‘No,’ said Jarratt. ‘Why would I do that? If I’d told him, he would have asked me to do something about it. Things were bad enough without me making matters worse.’
‘Are you saying Hellier didn’t know Sally was looking for Korsakov?’ Sean asked.
‘He had no idea, as far as I know. He was convinced I’d all but made his past disappear. I thought the same, until your DS came to see me and I realized I’d missed something. His file held at Method Index. I didn’t even know his details had been sent to them. Graham must have decided Korsakov would be of interest to them and sent them the details of his crime, but he never told me he had so I never knew, until now.’
‘He did,’ said Sean. ‘I guessed you couldn’t have known about it, otherwise it wouldn’t still exist. So I asked Wright and he confirmed he was the one who sent the file to Method Index.’
‘And the fingerprints?’ Donnelly asked. ‘How did you make them disappear?’
Jarratt smiled for the first time since they’d met him. ‘Korsakov’s idea. I had Graham pull the prints for me, but we knew Fingerprints would want them back so Korsakov had me destroy his real prints and replace them with another set, all correctly filled out on the proper forms, everything kosher. Only we used a novelty ink Korsakov bought at a joke shop. Within two days the ink disappears and you’re left with a blank piece of paper, or in this case a blank fingerprint form. When Graham returned them, they looked fine and no doubt got filed. Then they simply faded away to nothing. Korsakov thought it was hysterical.’
Sean