He sat down, and dialled the return number.

It answered on the second ring, a terse, ‘Yeah?’

‘That you, Mick? Andy Dalziel here.’

‘Andy! Hang on.’

There was a pause, then Purdy spoke again.

‘Sorry about that. At the fag-end of an op. Been on the go since sparrowfart yesterday, so forgive me if I yawn from time to time.’

‘Get a result?’

‘Way to go, but it’s looking promising. How about you? Happy with your enquiries so far?’

‘Sorry. Not sure what enquiries that ’ud be,’ said Dalziel.

‘Come on, Andy, soon as you’d talked to Gina you’d be straight off down the nick to trawl through the records.’

‘You’ve spoken to Gina then?’

‘Briefly. Couldn’t talk long though. I gather she gave you the basic facts?’

‘Aye, she gave me summat, and you’re right, I’ve dug up a bit more. But what I haven’t found yet, Mick, is any hint of what the fuck it might have to do with me.’

‘Yeah, I’m sorry. Thought I’d be able to have a chat with you before you saw Gina, but she’s not one for letting the grass grow under her feet, know what I mean? OK, let me give you the facts, though I’ve a strong suspicion you won’t need them. Alex Wolfe was a good mate and a good cop. But like you know, even good cops can come under suspicion. Nothing was ever proven, there was no smoking gun, just enough smoke to make it necessary to take a closer look.’

‘Resigning and doing a runner smells very smoky to me.’

‘He was under a lot of pressure. Not just the investigation. I reckon that was just the straw that broke him. Look, what exactly did Gina tell you?’

‘Something about a family bereavement. A kid. No details.’

‘No, she wouldn’t want to get into that. All those years and it’s still painful, so we can only guess what it must have felt like back then. It was their daughter, Lucy. She’d been diagnosed with a rare form of acute leukaemia. They tried everything, travelled everywhere; it was a real switchback for a couple of years. And just when they thought that maybe this time they had it licked, bang, she was gone. She was six, by the way.’

‘Jesus. What a fucking world.’

‘Yeah. A thing like that takes people different ways. Some couples turn to each other. Some turn on each other. I think Gina wanted all the support she could get, but Alex went right back in on himself. He just wasn’t there for her, and didn’t want anyone to be there for him. He got compassionate leave. Then this investigation thing came up.’

‘Nice timing,’ said Dalziel.

‘Oh yes. I’m sure those Internal Investigation rats thought so. They had to box clever. Pressurizing a bereaved cop at his most vulnerable doesn’t play well. Unless they got cast-iron proof of corruption out of it, they’d end up with a lot of egg on their faces.’

‘And they didn’t? Get proof, I mean.’

‘I never saw the paperwork, but obviously not. When Alex took off, there was a debate about classifying him as a fugitive, but his boss put his foot down. That was Owen Mathias. Did you know him?’

‘Heard of him. Died, didn’t he, soon after he retired?’

‘Yeah. Always a bad move that, retiring. On the job you don’t have enough time to die. I think Owen felt a bit guilty about Alex. Operation Macavity was Mathias’s baby. He was obsessed with Goldie Gidman. Thought the guy was laughing at us. So when Macavity started getting nowhere, Owen called foul and asked Internal to check it out, and they looked for an easy target and turned up Alex.’

‘So Mathias didn’t point the finger himself?’

‘I don’t think so. And after Alex vanished, he told the rat pack that, seeing as they’d found nothing to charge him with while he was in their sights, they weren’t going to blacken his name when he wasn’t around to defend himself. So, no warrant.’

‘What about media coverage? Them sharks can smell blood at a Scotch mile.’

‘A bit of local interest, but we had it covered. Alex had written a letter of resignation when they put him on compassionate. Mathias had stuck it in his desk drawer till he saw how things panned out. When the time came, he dug it up and slipped it into the files. So when the press started asking questions, all they found was an ex-cop who’d resigned because of personal problems, then walked away. Worth a para or two on a bad day.’

‘And you personally, Mick? What did you think had happened?’

‘Breakdown, maybe. Losing a kid’s devastating for anyone, and Alex was the sensitive sort-university entrant, bit of a bleeding heart, you probably know the type.’

‘Yeah, I’ve got one of them, but mine’s come along nicely. Like they say, you can do a lot with a graduate if you catch the bugger young.’

‘True, and I had high hopes of Alex, but it wasn’t to be. So, as I say, some kind of breakdown seemed favourite, but as time went by and there wasn’t the slightest trace, no movement on his bank account, nothing on credit cards, no contact with Gina…’

‘You knew that for certain?’

‘I believed her then and, since we got close, I’ve been absolutely sure. Anyway, as time went by I stopped thinking breakdown. Something doesn’t move for that long, it’s got to be dead.’

‘Right,’ said Dalziel. ‘Educated guess at how he might have died?’

‘Could have cracked under the strain and topped himself,’ said Purdy. ‘Could have been an accident. Guy in his state of mind is quite capable of walking under a bus.’

‘Except bodies under buses get noticed, and even suicides usually draw attention to themselves. All Wolfe’s details would be on record, so even if they found him bollock naked, it wouldn’t be long before the magic box popped him up, would it?’

‘Still on the ball, eh?’ said Purdy admiringly. ‘Gina said you struck her as being very sharp. Made an impression there, Andy.’

‘Save the bullshit for your roses,’ said Dalziel. ‘If he is dead and hasn’t been found, then it’s likely ’cos someone didn’t want him found. Any suggestions, Mick?’

‘You’re thinking Gidman, right?’

‘It’s a motive.’

‘Only if Gidman is a wrong ’un, and Alex was bent. I don’t think so.’

‘Either or both?’

There was a silence, then Purdy said, ‘You and me have been around a long time, Andy, and we’ve seen a lot of good coppers caught with their hands in the till. Circumstances change people. You got a dying kid on your hands, there’s not much you won’t do to try and buy a cure.’

‘So a maybe there. And Gidman, what’s your take on him?’

‘Pure as the driven snow, on paper at least. Lots of stories about his younger days, several accusations, but nothing ever proved. And since he got into the big money game, what with doling out cash on a regular basis to good causes, and sitting on financial advisory boards, he’s fast approaching sainthood.’

‘Not surprising if you can afford the best PR firms,’ said Dalziel cynically.

‘He can certainly do that,’ said Purdy. ‘My reading is, if they really want to get rid of MRSA, they should give Goldie Gidman the NHS cleaning franchise.’

‘So you do think he’s got things to hide?’

‘We’ve all got things to hide, Andy. All I know is the Met gave it their best shot. And long after everyone else had given up on the job, old Owen Mathias kept on niggling away. But try as hard as he could, in the end he didn’t even lay a parking ticket on him.’

‘Why was Mathias so obsessed then?’

‘Well, he was always a man of principle, Owen. Signed up with South Wales but got himself transferred to the Met in the late seventies. Operation Countryman time, remember? Robert Mark cleaning out the stables. Owen reckoned Mark was the new Messiah. Wanted to be around to do his bit. Cynics said that he was a wily Welshman who worked out that all the corruption sackings meant lots of opportunity for quick promotion.’

‘And what did you say?’ asked Dalziel.

‘I saw him close up. Believe me, he was the real thing, a full-blown zealot! He started in the East End, he was mid-twenties then, just made sergeant, and one of his first jobs was dealing with an allegation of assault against Goldie Gidman. I was not long in the job myself and I worked under him for a bit. Came to nothing, of course. The guy who’d made the accusation died in a fire that gutted his flat. Accident, they reckoned; the electrics were shot, but Owen was convinced Goldie was behind it. Couldn’t prove anything, but never stopped going after Goldie till the end of his career. Got to be a bit of a laugh in the end.’