The Devil's Interval Read Online Free PDF Page B

seemed so completely ignorant of the law as well - given that their entire job description was predicated on breaking it - although he still enjoyed telling them exactly why the police wouldn’t be able to help. But what surprised him this time was that this informant had asked for him by name.
    ‘DC Rex Copeland. Can I help you?’
    ‘I doubt it, son. But I can help you.’
    ‘Who am I speaking to?’
    ‘Alan Farmer. I’ll save you the trouble of looking me up, son, because it’d take you ten minutes to read through my previous, even if you’re a right fast reader, like.’
    ‘Give me the highlights then, Mr. Farmer.’
    ‘Nothing in years, but go back to the nineties and I did a decent stretch for armed robbery and another for GBH. So I wasn’t a purse snatcher, mate.’
     
    Copeland still typed the name in as he talked. ‘And what would you like to talk to me about today?’
    ‘Prison absconders. Proper villains. How would you like to get one of them back?’
    ‘Very much. And you can help us do that, can you?’
    ‘Maybe, aye. How about a meet?’
    ‘How about you tell me on the phone?’
    ‘Not a chance. Are we on?’
    ‘All right. Where and when?’
    ‘Fifteen minutes, outside the railway station.’
    ‘How will I know you?’
    ‘Don’t you worry about that. I’ll know you, won’t I?’
     
    Pepper wasn’t in her office, and Copeland didn’t have time to do any more than complete part one of an informant contact log sheet before he left. It was raining hard, but he managed to find a parking space in the station’s short stay drop-off area, and then he ran for the shelter of the station foyer.
    ‘You need to buy a proper coat, mate,’ said Farmer, as he approached.
    ‘A snorkel, more like.’
    Farmer laughed. ‘It’s true, us short-arses will drown first, come the flood.’
    ‘So have you got names, dates, places for me?’
    ‘I will have, aye. As soon as I know the details, you’ll know and all. I just thought we should meet, so you can see I’m genuine, like.’
    ‘Well, I can see you’re here, anyway. So when are we talking for this absconder coming through? Today, next week, sometime, never?’
    ‘You need to slow down, mate. Where’s the bloody fire, like? But it won’t be long. The con will be coming through the county, in transit, like. That’s all I know, for now.’
    ‘So no name, then? That’s not a great start. And why are you willing to help us anyway, Mr. Farmer? Money, I take it?’
    ‘A few quid won’t go amiss, aye. And a favour in the bank might be worth having too, like.’
    ‘What kind of favour?’
    ‘Don’t worry, son, nothing you couldn’t manage.’
     
    Copeland shook his head, and felt a trickle of water run beneath his shirt collar. ‘Not a chance, mate. The transfer of intel between you and me will be strictly in one direction only. And you do know that this is all one hundred percent on record, don’t you? There’s absolutely no question about that, mate.’
    ‘I’d expect nothing less, what with your bit of bad luck down south and all that.’
    ‘What do you mean? What do you know about that?’
    ‘I know all about you, DC Copeland. You’d be surprised, I expect. You can read my file, every last page, and I’ll still have the upper hand. Even when you’ve talked to Pepper Wilson about me.’
    ‘How do you know that I haven’t done that already?’
    ‘No time, was there?’ Farmer was smiling, as if he knew much more than he was letting on. Copeland decided to let it go. It would just be a good guess, he thought.
    ‘So what will DS Wilson say to me, when I tell her about this meeting?’
    ‘That I work for John Porter. You’ll have heard of him, I take it?’
    ‘Yes, I’ve heard of him.’
    ‘And Pepper will guess that I’m acting on instructions, like.’
    ‘And would she be right?’
    ‘Quite possibly, aye. But there’s one thing that she definitely won’t know, and that’s who it is who’s moving this human cargo