Broken Faith by James Green Page A

get his mind into gear. Henderson had been very frightened when they turned up but they weren’t the reason. That had been Harry’s work. Whatever Henderson and Harry were mixed up in was serious enough to get Henderson sweating, drinking and clamming up behind a weak story. That might make it even murder serious. The beers came and a couple of minutes later Suarez walked in.
    â€˜What are you doing back here? Why not sit outside? There’s plenty of shade. You don’t have to be in the sun.’
    â€˜We could, couldn’t we? And you know what, we could look at the sea again. That would make a nice change. Maybe the ferry will put in an appearance and make our day.’
    Suarez grinned and pulled out her chair.
    â€˜I guess the heat can be hard work if you’re not used to it.’ She sat down while Jimmy took a long pull at his cold beer. ‘OK, now you’re out of the sun, what did you make of Henderson’s story?’
    He put down his glass.
    â€˜It sounded thin to me, like something you’d make up on the spur of the moment if you’d suddenly realised you were being watched. But I doubt Henderson has the imagination or guts to do it, so I suppose Mercer spotted your man behind the bar and told Henderson what to say when the police turned up.’
    â€˜Yes. But if they both tell the same story it will do the job. We can’t fault it so I can’t pull either of them in for questioning.’
    â€˜What about Mercer? He’s got heavy form, sixteen years he told me, and the last time it was for armed robbery. Couldn’t you pull him and question him on the strength of that?’
    â€˜And how do I explain pulling him in? Why should his form bother us now if it hasn’t before? Anyway, what’s the point? If it’s like you say then he’s been round the ring often enough to know all the moves. He’d just admit his record and say, so what? He’s done his time, there’s nothing currently against him and now he makes his living as a respectable writer so where would it get us?’
    She was right. Harry was bomb-proof as things stood.
    Funny, thought Jimmy, he’d never marked Harry down as a clever one, yet here he was in Spain, obviously doing well and, according to the story, an established writer of crime fiction. But Jimmy didn’t buy into it. It was fiction all right and somewhere there was crime, but it wasn’t happening in any books that Harry wrote. Arthritic hands or not, Harry the villain was still for real and he was still violent.
    â€˜No, it doesn’t hold together. Harry’s wrong, he’s up to something and it isn’t writing about crime, it’s crime pure and simple. Did you unlock Jarvis’s computer yet?’
    â€˜Yes, apart from his own stuff there was hard porn, children, rape, lots of it, and like I say very, very nasty. If he was alive, Vice could have put him away for a stiff stretch according to the boys who saw the stuff.’
    â€˜Porn means money, and the nastier the porn the more the money.  Jarvis obviously had a source. The question is, was it for his own use, or to distribute to other like-minded individuals?’
    â€˜Mercer as the supplier, Jarvis as distributor?’
    â€˜It’s a thought, and I don’t have any others. Mercer’s in the frame, so is Jarvis, so is the porn. Jarvis’s money had to come from somewhere and if he had access to plenty of the real nasty kind of porn it could mean he didn’t buy it, he sold it.’
    Suarez took a drink and thought about it.
    â€˜With Mercer’s background he’d probably have no trouble in making contacts with people who could make what was wanted.’
    â€˜Henderson was an accountant so he could look after the financial side. Mercer sees to supply, Henderson fixes the money and Jarvis is the delivery boy. A neat and profitable little business if true.’
    â€˜It would certainly