Stegs made the call to Flanagan’s mobile from the phone box down the road from the One-Eyed Admiral where, as Tam, he’d stopped in earlier for a restful couple of pints, and to get hold of some speed.
Flanagan picked up before the first ring had finished, and Stegs spoke into the voice-suppressor, introducing himself as the man who had his daughter and asking if he had the address Jack Merriweather was residing at. Flanagan told him to hang on, and he heard the DCS’s wife’s voice in the background asking if it was Judy. She didn’t sound unduly concerned, which meant that he’d kept his mouth shut to her about the kidnap. Good. The last thing he needed was panic. Flanagan told her that it wasn’t and that he wasn’t expecting a call from her for a couple of days yet. His voice was heavily tinged with a forced casualness, and Stegs was surprised that his missus didn’t suspect something. Clearly she had her husband’s non-talent for detective work.
After a few seconds, Stegs heard the sound of a door shutting. ‘All right,’ said Flanagan, breathing heavily into the phone. ‘Is that you, Jenner?’
Christ, thought Stegs. How the hell had he guessed that? Boyd must have talked. ‘Who’s Jenner?’ he demanded.
‘If it’s you, I’ll have you fucking killed. Now, where’s my daughter?’
‘I don’t know who you think I am, but whoever it is, you’re wrong. Now, you change your fucking attitude or I might have to take some unpleasant measures.’ That ought to shut him up. Flanagan had never exactly been Braveheart.
It did. ‘Look, please, don’t do anything to hurt her. She’s my only child.’
‘At the moment, she’s safe and well, I promise you that.’
‘I need some guarantee that she’s OK. Please?’
‘Nothing’ll happen to her as long as, number one: you give me that address; number two: it’s the right one; and, number three, Merriweather’s there when we send our people round to deal with him.’
‘Listen, I can’t get involved in any of this. You’ve got to understand, I’m a police officer. I can’t condone murder.’
‘You will be condoning it if you do nothing,’ Stegs told him evenly through the voicebox. ‘And it’ll be the murder of your daughter.’
The words hit home, just like he knew they would. It was cruel what he was doing. Ruthless. Playing with a father’s love for his only daughter. But Stegs took comfort in the fact that, apart from a very bad hangover, Judy wasn’t going to suffer as a result of what had happened to her, and certainly wasn’t going to die. Still, he thought, Flanagan might. The bastard sounded stressed to the nines, and he wasn’t what you’d call the fittest and healthiest of blokes.
‘I have the address,’ Flanagan said finally, with a loud sigh, ‘but I need some guarantee she’s alive. I’ve told you that.’
‘I’ve got the best guarantee of all: there’s no point in killing her if you do what you’re told. She’s perfectly well, hasn’t seen her captors’ faces, and does not have a single clue as to who might be behind her abduction. As soon as we have confirmation that the address is correct, and have taken steps to deal with Mr Merriweather, your daughter will be released. If you give me the correct address now, that will be in less than twenty-four hours. You will receive instructions on where to find her.’
Flanagan sighed again. ‘Is Neil Vamen behind this?’
‘Don’t keep asking questions. What’s the address?’
‘I don’t want anyone else hurt. No police officers.’
‘How many are there guarding him?’
‘There are two men there round the clock. I don’t want-’
‘I know what you don’t want. No-one else’ll get hurt, and if they do it’ll be their fault, not yours. Now, give me the address.’
Flanagan reeled it out, speaking slowly and painfully as if each word was a sharpened dart hitting him right in the arse. Stegs wrote it down in his spidery handwriting, then asked how to get to it.
‘It’s off the A22 in Surrey, just south of Blindley Heath.’
‘Good. You’ll be seeing your daughter shortly.’
Stegs hung up, and called Tino to get an update on how Judy was doing. She was back under again, courtesy of several further doses of the Rohypnol, but Tino was getting worried now. Stegs told him to dose her up one more time when she showed signs of coming round, and said that he’d be there to deal with everything first thing in the morning. ‘Hopefully we can just let her go,’ he said.
Tino grunted something and Stegs hung up on him, before putting some more coins in the slot and making yet another call.