“Prior to the discovery of the two bodies this morning, we had nothing but the photo and the address they sent in the text. Given what was done to them, it looks highly likely that Craig Riley and Vinny Holt witnessed or took something that angered someone enough to merit their possible torture and murder. If those packets in the fridge did contain drugs, that may be our motive.”
“So, we are going with the premise that it is them?” Joel Hough asked.
“We’ll get confirmation from the Duggan soon enough. Both of the lads have been in trouble previously, so it’s likely their DNA and fingerprints are on record.”
Joel Hough nodded.
“Of course,” Greco said, “we have no proof that the packets contained anything of the kind. We only have the text to go on. That, and the image we were sent have been investigated and the owner questioned. But in view of what has happened to the lads, we have to give the picture credence. We will look a lot closer at both the house and Ava Whitton.” Greco wrote her name on the board. “We paid the woman a cursory visit earlier and got nowhere. She was happy enough to show us the fridge and didn’t appear to have anything to hide. However, it would be a simple matter to clean the fridge and fill it with food. Presuming the drugs were stolen, she is hardly going to report the theft. What we do now is send in forensics. If there have been drugs in that fridge or anywhere near, they will tell us. If Ms Whitton won’t play ball, we get a warrant.”
Superintendent McCabe entered the room. “That could prove tricky,” he said. “All you have is that photo. There is nothing on it to prove where it was taken. You can’t even make out what sort of fridge it is, other than it’s one of those tall ones. Ms Whitton could argue that it was the work of some prankster and refuse to allow the search. Our evidence is very thin.”
“Stealing the drugs is the only motive we’ve got, sir. Holt and Riley were small-time,” Greco said. “They’ve done nothing that we are aware of to attract the violence that was done to them. Whoever did that wanted something from them badly enough to torture and kill. The only explanation that makes sense, given what we’ve got, is that they took drugs from the house in Handforth. And whoever they took them from wanted them back.”
“What’s she like?” Grace whispered to Speedy.
“A peach,” Speedy whispered back. “Despite her suspected involvement, he liked her, I could tell. You’ll see what I mean when you meet her. She’s like him, a stickler for everything in its place and dead clean.”
Greco was getting annoyed. Speedy was gossiping to Grace, and from the look on her face, he knew what it was about. “Whatever your opinion, Sergeant Quickenden, Ms Whitton is a person of interest, nothing else. Gossiping won’t help matters.” Greco saw Grace’s frown and knew Speedy had probably told her about his reaction when he first saw the woman. No doubt with embellishments. The last thing he needed was jealousy in the incident room.
Grace changed the subject. “The victims’ families? Have they been told?”
“My next job is to visit them.” He nodded at her. “You can come with me. Speedy, find out all you can about Ava Whitton. I want a full rundown of her life over the last few years. What she does, who she knows, financial status, you know the stuff. Anything suspicious, anything at all, let me know. It is a priority for us to link that woman and that house to the lads. Leah, you and Joel get as much background as you can on Riley and Holt. Find out what they were up to. We know that they weren’t whiter than white. Given their history of low-level crime, they must have learned about the stash of drugs from someone. That ‘someone’ could have done the organising. We need to know who they had been knocking about with recently. Once they had the drugs, the pair either withheld them or a rival dealer got at them. Whoever took and killed those young men wanted something from them. Hence the torture. We need to know for sure what that was.”
Superintendent Gordon McCabe stood looking at the incident board, waiting for Greco to finish briefing the team. He shook his head. “Bad business. Not much to work with either. If you want my opinion, those lads stumbled into something big.”
Everything the team had so far was written neatly on the board. All the images, including those of the lads, were pinned down the right-hand side. McCabe ran his eyes over them, and tapped the picture of Ava Whitton. “This one has to know more than she’s saying. House like that, I bet she’s got security too, a camera, maybe.” He turned to Greco. “If she has, think she’ll part with it?”
“I asked, and she said not. Ms Whitton wasn’t having any of it when we visited yesterday. In her opinion we were barking up the wrong tree entirely. However, those neighbours of hers probably have cameras. I’ll get on it, see what we come up with.”
“You think those young men took the drugs?”
“Yes, I do, and not only drugs. Vinny Holt’s older brother said that Vinny had cash in his pocket when he saw him last. It’s likely that Ava Whitton had money or other valuables around the house. If the drugs were there, they may have kept some packets back for themselves. We just don’t know yet.”
McCabe peered at the image Vinny Holt had texted. “You could be right. There must be half a dozen packets in there, but there is room for a helluva lot more. Dealing in a big way like that takes a lot of organisation.”
“I know. That would mean that there was money around. Perhaps even a safe. We need to take a closer look at that house.”
McCabe looked at the images of Vinny and Craig at the dump site. “Whoever did that is an animal. He needs catching, and quick. Have a word with the drug squad, see if they know anything.”
* * *
“The two of them hung out at the Grapes, and the community centre on the Lansdowne. Since that’s nearest, we’ll go there first,” Leah said.
Joel was driving. He pulled out onto Openshaw Road, took a left and within a few hundred yards the tower blocks loomed in front of them. “The community centre is that single-storey building to the far right,” he said. “A bloke called Graham Clovelly runs it. All sorts of activities go on there. He tries to do as much as he can for the young people on this estate.”
“Sounds like a good bloke. Know him?”
“He asked me to have a chat with the teenagers a while ago. About drugs and booze, you know the stuff. The centre does a good job, fills a gap. Seems to be working. Things have been quiet around here for a while now.”
Leah wondered how DC Joel Hough had gone down with the locals. They were a rough lot, and he was a world away from them. Joel was young, studious, keen on his job. His heavy-rimmed glasses gave him a geeky look. She could imagine the lads who frequented the place making taking the piss.
“I’ve just had a text from Grace. She and Greco are about to tell the families,” Leah told Joel. “So we can get moving. According to DCI Greco, Craig and Vinny played pool here. But their friends are unlikely to know what’s happened yet, so we’ll tread gently.”
The building was divided into two rooms with a small café area between. There was an exercise class going on in one of them, and in the other a man was sorting the pool tables and stashing the cues.
Joel introduced him to Leah. “This is Graham.”
She smiled at him. “I’m DI Wells. Can we go somewhere quiet? We’d like to ask you a few questions.”
Graham Clovelly looked her up and down, then led the way to a table in the corner of the café. “Nothing heavy, I hope. I’ve a lot to do, getting things ready for the match this evening. We’re taking on the Oldston senior team for a place in the league.”
“Did you know Craig Riley and Vinny Holt?” Leah asked.
Graham didn’t pick up on her use of the past tense. “Yes, of course I do. Regulars of mine. Good lads underneath all that front. Vinny’s got himself straightened out. In fact, recently both him and Craig have joined my group of ‘angels.’”
Leah looked at him. “Angels?”
“We do a lot of things at the centre, but we don’t get a lot of funding,” he explained. “
I had the idea of recruiting the youngsters to help. And it works. They help with the classes, the youth club for the younger kids, and the discos on a Friday night. One of them had the bright idea of calling themselves ‘community angels,’ and it stuck. Keeps them out a trouble — win-win all round, I’d say.”
Joel nodded. “I agree, Graham.”
“Craig and Vinny — not got themselves into bother, have they? Only I need the pair of them for later, for the game. They’re both good players.”
There was no easy way to say it, so Joel simply told him. “They’re both dead, Graham.”
Graham turned pale. “I don’t understand. What on earth happened? Did they have an accident? They weren’t mucking about with that car again, were they? Craig was always trying to soup it up.”
Joel shook his head. “No. They were brutally murdered. They were found this morning. Don’t go spreading it around until we’re sure our colleagues have told their families.”
Graham turned paler still. “Murdered. I know they used to cut it a bit fine at times, but they must have crossed someone really bad for things to go that far. Do you know what happened? Have you arrested anyone?”
“No, not yet,” said Leah. “But investigations are ongoing. We could do with your help. We need to know what they were into. Who they knocked around with.”
Graham Clovelly looked away across the room. The exercise class had broken up, and a young man was pulling the tables back into place and setting out laptops on them. “They knew most of the younger end that come here, Marshy in particular. That’s Marshy in there, one of our ‘angels.’ He runs the IT group. Mostly for old folk who’ve never had the chance to learn. He’ll know what was going on with Vinny and Craig. The three of them were together a lot recently.”
The young man was tall and skinny with straight dark hair down to his shoulders. He was wearing jeans and a sweater. Leah looked across at him just as a young woman joined him. They appeared to be arguing.
“That’s Dee. She helps out too sometimes, does lunches for the elderly and stuff. And like Marshy, she helps with the English class. Marshy has a soft spot for her. Gets a bit possessive, which causes the odd problem because Dee has some other boy on the go. Smart type, with a flash office job.”
“English class?” Leah asked.
“See that block over there?” Graham pointed. “Most of the flats are occupied by Eastern Europeans. Dee is great with them. She even knows a few phrases in some of the languages. Enough to make herself understood. There are kids in that block from Romania and Poland who’ve got no English at all. They are thrown straight into our school system, which is not geared up to deal with them. We had an Iraqi lad who started at the local comp. They didn’t have an interpreter. Dee stepped in, found someone in the community and got the lad the help he needed. Marshy and her work well together.”
“Would you ask him to come over?” Leah said.
Graham went over to speak to him.
Once Graham was out of earshot, Leah whispered, “Despite all that goody-goody stuff, they are still a weird-looking couple. Not my idea of angels, but if it’s keeping them all out of trouble, who am I to criticise? She looks a right oddball. Look at that hair.” She nodded at Dee.
Dee’s hair was bleached almost white and spiky. She was in her mid-twenties, and her face was heavily made up. Her eyes were ringed with thick lines of mascara.
Joel laughed. “I can’t imagine either of them teaching pensioners or immigrants. But Graham obviously trusts them.”
Leah decided to reserve judgement for now. Marshy approached their table. “What’s your full name?” she asked.
“Max Marsh,” he replied, looking wary.
“Hence the nickname, ‘Marshy.’”
He nodded. “What’s this about? What’s happened? Why are you lot on my back?”
He’d guessed they were police. “Your mates Craig and Vinny,” Leah asked, “can you tell me what they’ve been up to recently?”
He shrugged. “Nowt much. Hang out here a lot, in the café, waiting for me. Then we might go to the Grapes, grab a beer. Nowt special.”
“Did they have any enemies? Had they upset anyone recently?”
“No idea. I don’t think so. Why not go and ask them?”
“Because they are both dead, Max,” Joel told him. “And they didn’t die of natural causes.”
Marshy’s eyes widened. “You’re saying they were killed? Why? Who’d want them dead?”
“That’s why we’re here. We thought you might be able to help us.”
Marshy shook his head vigorously. “I know nowt. We knew each other, but everybody knows everybody around here. Me, I try to mind my own business.” He backed away. “I don’t get involved in anything dodgy. I can’t help, sorry. I’m needed in there. My group will be starting soon.”
Leah held up a hand. “We didn’t say they were involved in anything. Because the truth is, we don’t know. So why did you say that?”
He shrugged again. “Got themselves murdered, stands to reason. They must have upset someone with a short fuse.”
He turned on his heel and walked away.
“Rattled?” Leah asked.
Joel nodded. “Just a bit.”
Chapter 6
“This woman you met today. The one with the drugs. Speedy reckons you like her,” Grace said.
Greco knew this was coming. “No, I thoughts she was different, that’s all.”
“In what way different, Stephen? As in, ‘fancy her’ different?”
“No, of course not,” he protested. “She surprised me, that’s all.”
“What do you mean?”
“Drugs, and dealing them, it conjures up a certain type of person. She was not it. That’s all it was.”
They were driving towards the Lansdowne to speak to the families of the two dead lads. It was a hard enough situation without having an argument with Grace. A change of tactic was needed.
“Would you and Holly like to come for tea tonight?”
The reaction was instant. Her face lit up. Grace was really pretty when she smiled. She should smile more often. Recently she’d done something to her hair. Greco took another glance at her. That was it. She’d had it cut. It was no longer scraped back in that unflattering ponytail. Now it framed her face in a wavy bob. She’d put on a bit of weight too. It softened her features.
“Pat is doing something special.” This was a fib, but he had to cheer Grace up. “I thought we could break the news to her.”
“I’d love it,” she said. “But I have to tell my mum about the baby too, don’t forget.”
“Bring her along. We’ll tell them all together — Pat, your mum, and the girls. Do some more copies of the scan picture too. They’re all bound to want one.”
The atmosphere changed instantly. The right thing to do? He’d no idea, but there was no going back. The baby was a fact. It was time he faced up to that.
“The Holt family are not whiter than white, you know,” Grace warned him. “Vinny’s brother has been inside for dealing.”
“You think what happened to the lads had something to do with him?” asked Greco.
“Who knows, but he mixes with some dangerous types.”
“We’ll just get the hard part over with for now. Once they know what’s happened, we can come back and ask questions.”
* * *
Craig Riley’s mother and brother lived in a two-storey maisonette on the second floor of Trojan house. Agnes Riley didn’t take the news well.
“I was angry with him,” she wailed. “I thought he’d done a runner because of the job.”
“Do you know where he went yesterday, Mrs Riley?” Grace asked.
“He went off somewhere with Vinny. Out all day, came home and got changed then went off again. He never tells me owt. Always been the same.”
Just at that moment a young man came in from another room. Grace gasped and grabbed Greco’s arm.
“It’s him! It’s Craig!
I’ve seen the photo. It is him. But how can that be?”
Agnes Riley gave a strained little laugh. “Hard work as he was, I wish it was our Craig, love. But it’s not. This is Callum. Identical they are, well, to look at. Not in other ways though, thank God.”
“You’re Craig’s twin?” Greco tried to work out what this might mean, if anything. “Were you close? Did you know what he was up to?”
Callum Riley shook his head. “Didn’t tell me owt. Reckoned I was a grass. We used to knock about a lot, but after he got close to Vinny I gave up on them both. The Holts are a bad lot.” He shrugged. “Look what’s happened now.”
“Where were you yesterday, Callum?” Greco asked.
“I helped out at the centre with the food bank. The bulk of the vouchers had been given out that morning, so we were at it most of the day.”
“Do you know where your brother went last night?”
“Out with that no-hoper, Holt. It’ll have been to the Grapes or into town. He didn’t tell me. Twins, yes. In each other’s pockets — no.”
“What happens now?” Agnes Riley asked. “When do we arrange his funeral?”
“We’ll let you know,” Grace told her kindly. “Take my card. If you remember anything else, ring me.”
* * *
When Greco told Dave Holt what had happened to his brother, his face turned white. He started shaking, and clung on to the back of a chair to steady himself. “What do I tell her? This is bad. Mum isn’t well. It’ll finish her.” He nodded at the door to the next room. “You can’t tell her. I’ll have to do that. Vinny was always her baby, her favourite — you know how it is.”
“Given what has happened, we need to find out what Vinny was doing over the past couple of days, and who he might have been with. We are hoping that you can help with that.”
“Whatever he was up to, he’d have had Craig Riley in tow. The two of them were into all sorts. But nothing heavy. Vinny didn’t cope well when I was inside, neither did Mum. He knew better than to take risks.” He thought for a moment. “But he must have been up to something. He borrowed my car. I had just put petrol in the thing too. I reckon he did about forty miles all told. Tank was half empty when he got back. Never said where he was going either.”
Complete Detective Stephen Greco Box Set Page 58