“That’s just an amateur effort, isn’t it?” Barry Foreman put in unexpectedly. “Not enough capital, not enough security, as I hear it. What you need is summat much more hard-edged and professional.”
“As it happens the Project is seeking some extra funding from the council right now,” Spencer said, without enthusiasm. “They’ve had some trouble with vandalism …”
“Just what I’m saying,” Foreman said. “You can’t have tinpot prefabricated classrooms where any little toe-rag can barge in off the street and chuck computers around. Stands to reason. You need it done properly.”
“With respect, Chair, I think Mr. Foreman’s right. This is something the college could do much more effectively,” Jude Laythwaite said. “At the moment it’s just a few untrained people who live locally. There’s one old girl who’s eighty if she’s a day. If we get approval for the private finance initiative and rebuild, I’m sure accommodation could be provided for these sort of activities and for proper staffing instead of amateurs who’ve just strolled in with their own agendas.”
“And how long will that take?” Longley asked. “I thought you were looking for quick results?” He glanced at Spencer who was watching the exchange with a faintly satisfied look in his eyes.
“Well, we are,” Jude Laythwaite came back quickly. “But I rather think that’s where the police could be helping. Half the problem is these gangs of marauding youngsters drugged up on God knows what up there.” The education officer was evidently not prepared to give an inch of her professional territory.
“If you locked a few more of them up there wouldn’t be half the problem, would there?” another voice broke in. “If we’re seriously going to put some private sector housing up there we’ve got to make the place safe. Folk won’t pay good money to live in a jungle.” The speaker was Jim Baistow, head of the largest of the local construction firms and Longley guessed that he had a sharp eye on the chance of his company building some of the new housing on the Heights. The views alone would be worth an extra ten thousand on a decent house on the hill, he thought. All you needed to do to make a killing was to subdue some of the current residents - or better still, perhaps, get rid of them altogether.
“I’ll take back what you say to headquarters,” Longley said, face flushed, unable to conceal his anger any longer. “But if the success of this project depends on more police officers on the Heights, then I think you’re on a hiding to nothing. We don’t have the resources. In the meantime it might do some good if the council paid some attention to security in those tower blocks, to the inadequate street lighting, and to keeping kids in school during the day instead of letting them play truant and wreak havoc around the neighbourhood. You can’t rely on one or two police officers to solve all the problems that exist on the Heights. All we can realistically do is pick up the pieces when things get out of hand. You need a coordinated effort up there. And I wouldn’t have thought rubbishing this computer project the locals have got going was a very bright idea. Surely what you need is exactly that sort of community involvement. If you’ve got it, flaunt it. Isn’t that what they say? Don’t uproot the bloody thing just because it doesn’t fit your bureaucratic model. Christ, I thought it was the police force which was supposed to be behind the times.”
The rest of the committee gazed at Longley in amazement for half a minute before a babble of members tried to take him up at once.
“Order, order,” Dave Spencer said, tapping the water carafe with his pen again and again before the meeting calmed down.
“Well,” he said, when silence was restored. “Thank you for that very interesting contribution, Superintendent. I’m sure that’s given us all some very useful talking points to take back to our constituencies with us. Perhaps we can defer this discussion until our next meeting when perhaps we will all have had the chance to come up with some constructive suggestions for youth work on the Heights. Does that seem reasonable?” Longley glowered at the chair but the rest of the members nodded or mumbled their assent and Spencer moved quickly on to the next business, with an encouraging smile.
The meeting dragged on for another half hour with Longley increasingly convinced that he had nothing useful to offer. When it broke up he found himself waylaid by Jim Baistow as he gathered his papers together.
“Interesting point you made there about policing,” Baistow said. “I’d like to bend your ear some time about the possibilities of private security up there, something Barry Foreman over there has raised a couple of times.”
“Really?” Longley said noncommittally. Foreman was obviously another one with his eye on the main chance.
“Are you interested in the horses at all?” Baistow changed track so suddenly that Longley could only look at him with some bemusement.
“Racing,” Baistow explained. “I’ve got a box at York in a couple of week’s time if you’d like to join me. Some of the other committee members are coming. Should be a grand day out.”
“Thanks, but no thanks,” Longley said ungraciously. “I’m not a betting man.” He turned away only to find himself following Barry Foreman into the lift. Longley hesitated for a moment before he stepped inside, afraid that Foreman would refer back to his outburst in the meeting but to the superintendent’s surprise he too took an entirely different tack.
“All right, is he, that DCI of yours?” Foreman asked pleasantly enough as he pressed the button for the ground floor. “Thackeray?”
“As far as I know. Why shouldn’t he be?” Longley said carefully, a tiny niggle of unease at the back of his mind.
“It’s just that he popped in to see me for no apparent reason the other day,” Foreman said. “I thought he looked stressed out, to be honest. Involved in this big operation on the Heights, is he? I thought it was a bit rich you pleading poverty just now when you’ve got all that going on up there.”
“I know nowt about any operations on the Heights, Mr. Foreman,” Longley said. “And if I did, I wouldn’t be at liberty to discuss them with you.”
“Oh, I see. All a bit hush-hush, is it,” Foreman said, tapping the side of his nose and smiling. “Say no more.”
“I’ve no idea who’s been putting that about …”
“Oh, well, you pick things up in my trade, you know. Quite a few of my lads have been in the Force at some time.”
And most of them have been thrown out of it, Longley thought grimly but said nothing as the lift doors opened and he followed Foreman out into the entrance hall. He wondered if the drug squad knew that their operation had been compromised. One way and another he needed a long session at county HQ and he did not think that his superiors would be too pleased with what he had to tell them.
“There’s enough there to make two spliffs at the most,” Dizzy B said angrily as DC “Omar” Sharif turned up his not very carefully hidden stash of cannabis at the back of the drawer beside the bed in his hotel room. “You’d have difficulty weighing it.”
“It’s an illegal substance,” Sharif said without sympathy. “You’re nicked.”
“Look, I’ve been in the job myself. I know you don’t have to do this. It’s not even an arrestable offence any more.”
“That may be how they carry on where you come from. Here it’s different. In any case, I know damn well you’ve got form. You were done for possession with intent to supply. I’ve every right to arrest you on suspicion of dealing.”
“Checked that out, did you? That was bollocks, anyway,” Dizzy B said. “I was going on tour. Needed a decent stash. Some over-enthusiastic copper got carried away. I only got a fine, man. The magistrates had more sense than you lot’ll ever have”
“Then you can take your chances with another lot of magistrates, can’t you?” Sharif said. “Perhaps you’ll be lucky again. But I wouldn’t bank on it. Soft isn’t the name o‘t’ game in Yorkshire.”