Midnight Fugue by Reginald Hill

behind him, it struck him that there was a note of strain here with the attempt at banter sounding false and forced.
    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