Read A Box Full of Darkness (Wilson Book 5) for Free Online

large measure and tasted the golden liquid. He was well aware that Jennings didn’t drink, smoke, gamble or go out with women, or men for that matter. He had made it his business to know the weakness of every officer he dealt with. Jennings had only one weakness and Campbell had just met him. He heard that Ian Wilson was a formidable character but he was so much more than had been reported. Wilson was Jennings’ Achilles’ heel and Campbell wasn’t about to forget that.
    ‘I assume that damn letter is about to disappear,’ Jennings said. ‘That bastard Wilson has been holding it over my head for months. The sooner it’s destroyed the better.’
    Campbell smiled and took another sip of his whiskey. ‘Don’t tell me that you bought that little piece of theatre associated with the handing over the letter.’ The smile turned into outright laughter. ‘Of course he’s made a copy, which he has somewhere in safekeeping.  He was lying through his teeth.’
    Red streaks engulfed Jennings’ face. ‘Get him back in. Make him hand over every copy.’
    ‘The letter is useless,’ said Campbell leaning forward. ‘And Wilson probably knows it.  Don’t worry it’ll never see the light of day.’ He was secretly delighted at Jennings’ reaction. It confirmed Wilson as a mechanism to twist Jennings’ arm if that ever became necessary.
    Jennings’ colour was subsiding. ‘I’m not entirely happy about what is in the pipeline for Wilson. The man has a habit of turning a disaster into a triumph.’
    Campbell said, ‘Your misgivings have been made known. However people higher up on the ladder than you and I have made this decision. It’s always better to leave it to those with greater knowledge to make the final decisions.’
    ‘Well, don’t say that I didn’t warn you,’ said Jennings.
    ‘The weather in California must be nice at this time of year.’ Campbell finished his glass and put it in his top drawer.  ‘Enjoying the course at Stanford?’
    ‘Yes,’ Jennings stood. It was down to Wilson that he had been banished to Palo Alto. He hated California and he hated Americans. And he would be forced to spend the next couple of years sitting behind a desk in Carlisle. He thought about his former mentor of the same name. He missed Jackie. So much of the bad in his life could be attributed to Ian Wilson. He would pray that the plan that had been conceived for him would bear fruit.

 
    CHAPTER SIX
     
     
    ‘Your place or mine?’ Wilson asked as their car arrived at the station.
    ‘Your place is probably the Crown,’ Spence said. ‘And since I have no desire to appear in a Belfast pub in full dress uniform, and there’s a bottle of Middleton in my office that I’ve been keeping for just such an occasion as this. I think my place.’
    ‘I’m sorry,’ Wilson said as they entered Spence’s office. ‘Everything I touch lately turns to shit.’
    ‘Don’t beat yourself up,’ said Spence walking to a filing cabinet and removing a full bottle of Middleton Irish Whiskey. He held up the bottle. ‘You wouldn’t believe it but I put this away the day I met you. I suppose I knew then that we’d crack it open one day when either one of us would be leaving the force.’
    ‘Like I said, I’m sorry.’ Wilson sat in the visitor’s chair and watched Spence open the bottle and pour two substantial glasses.
    ’It’s not all down to you.’ Spence handed Wilson a glass. ‘Cheers.’
    ‘Slainte,’ Wilson replied.
    Spence took a slug of his whiskey and spent a moment savouring the taste. ‘I’m not blaming you. People like Jennings and Campbell can be found in every large organisation. They’re the climbers and the bag carriers. They follow their orders and they’d shaft their own grandmother if that’s what they had to do. They’re the same kind of guys who pushed the Jews into the gas chambers. I’m going to miss the police but I’m certainly not going to miss dealing with those creeps.’ He sipped his