Chapter 5: The Fight for Justice

Chapter 5: The Fight for Justice

Superintendent Fisher entered the incident room on Tuesday after she walked past and saw that Inspectors Evans and Checchino were laughing inside.

“What’s so funny, you two?” she asked impatiently. “It’s been over three days now and you’ve found more questions than answers!”

The two detectives tried to look serious, but Inspector Evans burst out laughing again.

“Sorry ma’am,” he said. “It’s a private joke.”

The superintendent noticed Inspector Checchino lifting her hand from Inspector Evans’ shoulder.

“Never mind that,” she answered. “You need to get to the bottom of this case before these gangs get out of control.”

There had been more violence on Monday night. Bruno Tartufo had attacked two of Cooper’s henchmen, and they were in hospital.

“We’re doing our best, ma’am,” said Inspector Checchino. “We found out today that both the bar manager and the woman that Cooper was seeing have a solid alibi. They were recorded entering and leaving a hotel.”

“Who are your other suspects?” asked Superintendent Fisher.

“For a moment we thought the cleaner might have been involved,” explained Inspector Evans, smiling slightly. “She has keys to the nightclub, and she’s polish.”

“Polish?”

“Well, like the bullets that Vash told us about,” Inspector Evans continued, “But we looked into her background today, and it’s true that she and her family have nothing to do with any gangsters as far as we can tell.”

Inspector Checchino was trying to give the impression that they had more to work with.

“There’s still a big question mark over Bruno Tartufo,” she said, “He was the last person on the scene, and nobody can prove his alibi.”

“And we are watching him very closely,” added Inspector Evans, “He’s going to be at Cooper’s funeral with the rest of the gang at four o’clock today.”

“Fine,” the superintendent replied shortly, “Just make sure that nobody sees members of the police attending the funeral of one of London’s biggest criminals!”

“Any news about the search warrant, ma’am?” asked Inspector Checchino, “Do we have permission to go to Bruno’s house yet?”

“Yes, we should have it ready before the end of the afternoon.” With that, Superintendent Fisher turned around and left the incident room.

Inspectors Evans and Checchino drove to the crematorium in an unmarked car and waited outside the gates. They arrived half an hour early so that they could watch the crowd.

Some mourners were already there; many others soon turned up and formed a long line of black suits and overcoats outside the building.

“I don’t like these places at all, Gary,” said Inspector Checchino quietly when the hearse drove up to the door of the crematorium.

“Nobody likes funerals,” he smiled. “But I think we can be pleased that Stanley Cooper has danced his last dance, don’t you?”

“I suppose so,” she said quietly.

“Come on, Sandra, just think about it. You always said he was a monster. Secretly we both know that he deserved whatever happened on Friday night. Remember all those drug-related killings last year? Only someone as evil as him could have ordered so many executions. Omari was right: he had it coming.”

Inspector Checchino was silent and watched six fat men lift the coffin onto their shoulders.

“He was behind so many other crimes as well, and we all knew it. How many cases have we worked on over the past few years?”

”…And he always got away,” she said, speaking over her colleague.

This conversation was practically a routine, but the tense was now new. Stanley Cooper was history.

“If we’re lucky, his gang will be powerless soon,” he continued.

“I…”

“I feel sick,” she said suddenly, interrupting him.

Inspector Evans looked across at her in surprise as she opened the door and stepped out of the vehicle.

“I just need some fresh air,” she said, looking back into the car. “The air conditioning in there is making me nauseous!”

The inspector watched her walk along the grass with one eye fixed on her long, slim legs. After a moment, he thought he saw two people in the crowd staring at Sandra, too. They looked as if they could have been Bruno Tartufo’s brothers.

“I think you’ve got a couple of admirers here,” Inspector Evans said when Inspector Checchino finally returned and got into the car.

“What are you talking about?”

“There were two men staring at you. Didn’t you see?”

“Oh… no, not really. This place is full of criminals today, though, Gary. I’m sure we’ve met them all before at one time or another.”

They sat and waited for the funeral to end. Inspector Evans wanted to see whether any fights would break out between the mourners, or whether any more gangsters would come to cause trouble.

After twenty minutes of near silence, a call came through on the radio. It was a sergeant at the station who had just made an arrest.

“We’ve caught the person who set fire to Lust, sir!” she said in excitement. “It was Bruno Tartufo’s younger brother, Alessio. He says that Cooper’s gang has divided into two groups: one led by Bruno and the other by a thug in Walthamstow. This second gang forced him to destroy the club in order to save his family. He’s been very helpful so far because he wants us to protect him.”

“Protect him? What do you mean, we should protect him?”

“From the other gang, sir, but from his brother, too. He says that lately Bruno has been a dangerous man to be around. He’s also told us who kidnapped those dogs. Apparently Bruno is keeping them in his cellar as some kind of trophy, but he wants to either sell them or shoot them. He sees himself as the next big cheese!”

“Let’s get going!” said Inspector Checchino. “We should go to Tartufo’s house before he gets back from this funeral.”

Bruno Tartufo owned a large house in Chelsea that was twice as large as Kim Watt’s. The two detectives did not yet have a search warrant, but they had a good reason to believe that a crime was taking place in the cellar. It meant they could go inside.

The old Italian woman who let them in did not ask many questions. When she said that she did not have a key to the cellar, Inspector Evans kicked open the door without thinking twice.

Immediately, six brown dogs ran up the stairs and jumped all over him. One even started to lick his face as if it were a giant ice cream.

During the chaos that followed, Inspector Checchino carefully stepped downstairs into the darkness of the cellar. It was her only chance, and she decided to take it.

She slowly pulled out a small box from her coat pocket and placed it on a table at the far end of the room. It contained around two dozen bullets that she had bought undercover on the black market.

As she turned around to leave the cellar, a hand came out of the shadows and landed on her shoulder.

“Sandra,” said a concerned voice, “what the hell are you doing?!”

She looked up at Inspector Evans, who was shaking his head in disbelief. He had a bad feeling about what she was about to say.

“I was just taking a look at these bullets,” she began.

“Don’t lie to me! I saw you put them there.”

Inspector Checchino paused and looked around the room. “Gary, we’ve been trying all year to bring Cooper to justice, but he always got away. You know how he operated. He always had a puppet in place to take the blame for what he did. And Bruno is no better - he would kill his own mother.”

“I can’t believe this!” he hissed. “That’s not how justice works!”

“Justice? Let me tell you about justice, Gary. I’m sure you don’t remember a young man who committed suicide in Camberwell twelve months ago,” she began.

“No, I can’t say that I do. There are a lot of suicides in London.”

“You’re right, there are. But this wasn’t really a suicide. Everyone just assumed that it was…”

“How can you know that?” he asked. “Who are you talking about?”

“It was a university student,” Inspector Checchino said flatly. “Matthew Puglisi.” Inspector Evans looked her in the eye. He moved his hand down from her shoulder to her hand and squeezed it.

“He wasn’t just a student, was he?” he asked calmly.

“No, Gary,” she said and looked down at the floor, “He… he was my nephew. He was killed one year ago on Friday night.” Inspector Checchino looked back up at Inspector Evans with tears in her eyes.

“He was my nephew, and he told me that he was in trouble with some drug dealers at a nightclub in Charing Cross. I think you can guess which one. He’d even received some death threats, but he was too afraid to talk to the police - apart from me, that is.”

“Are you serious? You were behind the whole thing?”

She thought of the two men at the funeral. They were her cousins, and they had helped to arrange her meeting with Cooper. “Yes, Gary, just little old me. Cooper let me into the club because he thought he was going to get some information about his enemies… it was easy. A little charm and a little lipstick go a long way. And I thought it would be easy to blame Tartufo. You know it would.”

“Sandra, you must realize that I can’t let it go,” he said.

“You can do whatever you want,” she replied quietly.

She was now the one squeezing his hand.

Inspector Evans took a deep breath and sighed. Inspector Checchino was his friend, but a murder was a murder.

“We can’t all go out there and take an eye for an eye!” he cried. “We have Alessio Tartufo now. He will tell us everything we need so that we can arrest his brother. As for you, what can I say?”

“I’m sure you’ll do whatever you think is right, Gary.”

He growled and went back upstairs, leaving Inspector Checchino in the dark.