by Taylor Leon
Arnie nodded and an uncomfortable silence fell between us. I shuffled uncomfortably on the spot before eventually saying I was sorry for ignoring his orders. With my head bowed low I could feel Arnie’s gaze boring into me. I felt like I was back at school.
‘Lloyd was a friend as well as a colleague,’ he growled softy. ‘Don’t think for a moment I didn’t want to get inside that house to try and save him as well.’
I looked back up at him. Was it my imagination or was he looking a little teary? ‘Anyway,’ he said clearing his throat. ‘I should speak to the family. Is that your old man you were talking to a moment ago? Thought I recognised him. Haven’t seen him in a long while.’
He nodded to me, which was as close as his affection was going to get. He strode past me to join the line of mourners and I was left facing a small group of colleagues talking amongst themselves a few yards away. Cade, who was with them, looked around and seeing Arnie had left me, broke away from the group and came over.
‘How was he?’ he asked nodding in Arnie’s direction. ‘Is he still pissed at you for running into the house?’
‘I actually can’t tell.’
He smiled at that. ‘Arnie was Lloyd’s partner when they were arresting NID members five years ago,’ he said. ‘Not only that, but he was there when Lloyd shot and killed Mark Riley, one of the pub bombers.’
‘So that’s the motive,’ I exclaimed gripping his forearm. ‘Revenge for Mark Riley.’
Cade nodded. ‘Calm down. We’ve been running through names for the past couple of days.’
I leaned in close so we couldn’t be overheard. ‘Makes the boss a target if he partnered Lloyd at the time.’
We both instinctively turned and watched Arnie in the queue, talking to my father. Both of them had their arms folded across their chests, mirroring one another’s posture.
‘We persuaded him to wear a vest.’
‘What about his family?’ I asked.
‘We’ve got surveillance on his wife and twin daughters. The two girls are seven, so it’s easy to sit tight outside their school and then follow them home. His wife works school hours as a PA at some law firm. Again, easy to track her back and forth. Then, when they’re all back in the house safe and sound, we leave a car outside. All discreet. We’re doing the same for other prominent officers from back then.’
We couldn’t do any more than that. We didn’t know with a hundred per cent certainty what the killer’s motive and targets were. Maybe there weren’t any more targets. Maybe it all ended with Lloyd’s murder. But I had an uneasy feeling there was more to come.
‘Have you come up with any names so far?’ I asked him.
‘Lots of names,’ Cade said. ‘Fewer leads though. Two close associates were traced but have iron cast alibis, two others are still in jail. One is George Hilton, the other is refusing to talk to us at all.’
‘What about Mark’s family?’
‘Mother ran off and left him when he was fourteen, leaving him and his younger brother to be brought up by their father, who was himself an active member of the NID.’
My eyes lit up. ‘Where’s he?’
‘Served some time, then moved out to Spain to live with his brother.’
‘Is there someone out there who can find and interview him?’
Cade shook his head. ‘Finding him was easy, talking to him a little harder. He’s dead. Killed in a car crash eighteen months ago.’
23
I WAS ABOUT to climb into my car when a voice called to me from behind.
‘Detective Dark?’
I turned to see a slim, short, black guy with greying hair, hopping nervously from one foot to the other. He was dressed in an open neck white shirt, charcoal blazer and jeans.
‘Do I know you?’
‘Duke Best,’ he said, deliberately keeping his voice low. ‘Is there somewhere we can talk?’
I shrugged. I’d never heard the name before. I glanced around the cemetery car park to see who else was around. With his small frame, I was sure I could take him if he turned out to be a loon, but you can never be sure. Looks can be deceiving. Besides which, he could be armed.
As it was there was no-one else around at that moment. It was just him and me, so I deliberately kept my distance.
‘What do you want to talk about?’ I asked him.
He nodded past me into the cemetery. ‘That.’
I looked back over at the crowd then back at him. He looked scared.
‘My partner’s over there. Can I go get him, then we can-’
‘No!’ he cut across. ‘I’ll only talk to you.’
‘Okay, then talk.’
‘Nuh-uh. Not here.’
I sighed. I wasn’t about to just get into a car and drive off with this guy. As if he read my mind he added. ‘I don’t trust any of them,’ he said, looking past me.
‘Them?’ I said indicating the cemetery behind. ‘They’re mostly cops like me.’
‘He looks after some of them.’
‘Who’s he?’
He blinked at me, as though he was surprised I didn’t know who the he was.
‘Anthony Norris.’
I deliberately didn’t give anything away and toed the party line. ‘The One Nation politician? What’s he got to do with it?’
‘He used to run the NID-’
I waved my hand at him. ‘That’s old news.’
‘The father and son killed in the fire last week. Don’t look at me like that. I know the father had turned state-witness against the NID. Their deaths were revenge attacks, as was Lloyd Tanner’s.’
‘Even if what you’re saying is true, it doesn’t mean it had anything to do with Norris.’
‘I’ve watched him. He’s been mixing with some of the old guard again. He may not have committed these murders himself, but at the very least he knows who did.’ His voice faded and his eyes glazed over as he stared at something in the distance. I turned around and saw a few of the mourners looking over the low border hedges in our direction.
‘I have to go,’ he hissed. ‘I can’t be seen talking to you.’
‘Wait,’ I said. ‘Norris doesn’t have a record. He’s clean.’
‘Oh, he has blood on his hands,’ Duke said. ‘He just washes them thoroughly.’
‘I need more’
‘I have more,’ he said. ‘Files with names, photos, dates.’
‘You have that here?’
‘You think I’m stupid enough to carry that dynamite around with me? I have to go get it.’
I sighed. ‘Come down to the station this afternoon and I’ll meet you there.’
He shook his head. ‘Nuh-uh. I’m not meeting you at your station. They will see us together.’
‘Then come with me now,’ I said, ‘and we can collect the files together.’
He paused and I think he was going to agree, but Cade appeared behind us. He looked at Duke Best suspiciously, waiting for me to introduce him. When it was clear I wasn’t going to do that, he turned to me.
‘I know you’re off-duty, but fancy coming with me for a ride?’ His look said that I would want to go with him.
I turned to Duke Best who had already started backing away. ‘Take this and call me,’ I said, passing him a business card from inside my handbag.
He took my card and quickly read it. ‘If you don’t hear from me by this afternoon, it means they got to me first,’ he whispered.
‘No-one’s going to get you today,’ I told him.
‘You really don’t understand,’ he said quietly, glancing over at Cade who was waiting just out of earshot. ‘They’ve tried to silence me twice in the last week. I’ve been hiding. I only came here to see you, because if they nearly killed you then I know you’re not one of them.’
‘Who’s that?’ Cade asked, stepping up to me when Duke Best had gone.
‘Someone who is very scared,’ I said, and watched him zig zag his way between the parked cars.
I called up DS Wills back at
the station and asked him to dig out what he could on Duke Best, then I followed Cade around to his car.
‘Where are we going?’ I asked him.
‘Mark’s father may be dead, but he had a younger brother,’ he said. ‘We’ve just tracked him down.’
24
THE CUBA COFFEE company was situated just off Regent Street.
One of the two platinum blonde girls serving behind the counter called into the open doorway behind her, in a thick East European accent. ‘Carl? There’s some people here to see you.’
Carl Riley stepped out, drying his hands on a dishcloth, dressed in the same uniform as the girls, black polo shirt and black trousers, the blue and white coffee shop logo embroidered on the left breast. He was a tall, good looking boy. We knew he was twenty-two years old, ten years younger than his brother, the late Mark Riley.
Cade introduced us and Riley frowned in concern. We asked if we could have a word in private and so he asked one of the girls to make us coffees, before guiding us over to a quiet round table in the far corner.
‘How can I help you?’ he asked, once we were seated.
‘You’ve probably seen the news in the last few days,’ Cade said. ‘The detective and his daughter that were murdered?’
‘Do you mean the detective that was blown up?’ he asked looking from one to the other. ‘I saw it on the news. What does it have to do with me?’
‘That detective was responsible for the arrest of several NID members a few years ago,’ Cade paused before adding. ‘He was also the officer responsible for your brother’s death.’
Riley’s face tightened. ‘That was the same Detective Lloyd Tanner?’
Cade glanced at me and then back at him. ‘You knew Detective Tanner?’
‘Only by name. I followed the inquiry into my brother’s death.’
Our drinks were brought over and we waited a moment until they had been served.
Riley poured his milk from the small white pot into his coffee. His hand was trembling ever so slightly. He glanced up and saw me watching. ‘I still get upset when I think about Mark,’ he said and replaced the empty pot.
‘Were you close?’ I asked him.
‘He was my big brother,’ he said, as though that answered my question.
‘Did you know at the time what he did with the NID?’ Cade asked.
‘I knew he was involved with them like my father was. But no, I didn’t know about the violence.’
‘It must have been quite a shock when you found out,’ I said.
Riley took a sip of his coffee. ‘That would be an understatement,’ he said. ‘Overnight your brother is shot dead and labelled a terrorist. Then your father is sent to jail. I was seventeen years old.’
‘I saw you got into some trouble yourself soon after,’ Cade said.
Riley chuckled to himself and rolled his eyes. ‘You people are really something. Yes, I got into “some trouble” as you put it. Do you know why? After Mark’s name was plastered all over the press I was branded a racist and a terrorist as well. I got kicked and spat at in the street.’ His voice steadily rose and I noticed a few people on the other tables were giving us uneasy sideward glances.
‘One time I snapped when some kid from my college walked past me while I was with my girlfriend,’ he continued. ‘He started pushing me around, insulting me, insulting Mark. What was I supposed to do?’
‘Walk away,’ Cade suggested.
‘No way,’ Riley said. ‘I don’t run from anyone.’
‘So you beat him to within an inch of his life?’
Riley held his hands out, palms up. ‘That’s history,’ he said. ‘and it’s not why you’re here, is it?’
‘We’re considering the possibility that Detective Tanner was murdered in revenge for your brother’s shooting.’
He shrugged. ‘How would I know?’
Cade took a sip of his coffee, creating a pause before he smiled, ‘Revenge for the brother you idolised.’
Now Riley laughed, looking at me to try and judge if my partner was being serious.
‘Me? I didn’t even know it was the same Detective Tanner that killed Mark until you just told me. But that’s beside the point. I am incapable of doing something like that, I’ve never had anything to do with the NID. And even if I had wanted to blow someone up, I wouldn’t know where to begin.’
‘But you did know people in the NID who could show you.’
‘My brother and father were in the NID, so when I was growing up of course I saw people, but I never knew them.’
‘What about Anthony Norris?’ Cade asked him.
‘He was different,’ Riley said coolly. ‘He had been good friends with my father for over twenty years, but you already know that. He used to come around a lot when I was a kid. We used to call him Uncle.’
‘Must have been delightful dinner time conversations,’ Cade said sarcastically. ‘When did you last see Uncle Anthony?’
‘He called me up after my father died to offer his condolences.’ He looked down into his cup before adding as an after-thought. ‘Believe me, he was more upset about my father’s death than I was.’
‘You and your father didn’t get on?’
He shrugged. ‘He never gave a damn about me. Everything was about Mark. He spent all his time with him and the NID. It was an obsession. I barely saw him growing up.’
‘Did that bother you?’ I asked him.
‘It did at the time. When you’re a young kid how could it not? But Mark filled that gap to an extent. I mean he was ten years older than me, and he treated me like a baby up until the day he died. But I knew he always had my back.’
Cade was thinking, running his finger around the rim of his empty coffee cup. ‘Are you still in contact with your mother?’
‘Barely. Bitch walked out on us.’ Riley glanced at me. ‘Sorry detective.’
‘I’ve heard worse,’ I told him.
He smiled at that. ‘Last time I saw her was at Mark’s funeral.’
‘Didn’t she contact you after your father died?’
Riley shook his head. ‘My mum hated him by the time she walked out on us.’
‘But you are her son.’
He shrugged again. ‘What can I say?’
Cade reached into his pocket. ‘Do you know where we can find her?’ He passed over a small notepad and pen.
Riley scribbled an address down and passed it back.
Cade took the notebook and pen back, then stood up.
‘Well, thank you for your time,’ he said.
Riley nodded. ‘And I am sorry about what happened to Detective Tanner,’ he said. ‘No-one deserves to go like that.’
I bit my bottom lip and stood up as well.
Once outside I returned a missed call from DS Wills as we walked back to the car.
‘I looked up Duke Best for you,’ he said. ‘He was a secondary school teacher, retired several years ago. Clean record. Lives on his own as far as I can tell. He had a wife and son, but this is the part I think you’re after. They were both killed in the pub bombings just over five years ago.’
‘Everything okay?’ Cade asked me after I had hung up.
‘I’m not sure,’ I said.
I looked down at my phone, willing Duke Best to call me, remembering what he told me: If you don’t hear from me by this afternoon, it means they got to me first.
25
‘JUDITH RILEY?’
The woman in the doorway was in her mid-fifties, with obviously dyed platinum hair. That only helped her look marginally younger than the deep creases on her face and heavy eye make-up suggested.
Cade introduced us both and asked if we could come in.
She looked at us uncertainly. ‘This is about that policeman that was killed, isn’t it? Detective Tanner, the one who shot Mark.’
‘Please Mrs Riley,’ Cade asked. ‘Can we speak inside?’
She leaned out her doorway and glanced down both sides of the street to see if anyone was wat
ching us. No reason why they should be unless they were regular snoopers. We’d done nothing to draw any attention. Our car was unmarked and we were in plain clothes.
‘It’s Miss Riley,’ she said looking at us pointedly, before her face softened. ‘Okay, you’d better come in.’
She led us through into the front room where we sat down opposite her.
‘I really have no idea what you want,’ she said.
Cade leaned forward. ‘Miss Riley,’ he said. ‘There’s a strong possibility that Detective Tanner’s murder was in direct response to your son’s shooting several years ago.’
She shrugged and lifted a lighter and a pack of cigarettes off the glass coffee table. ‘Maybe it was,’ she said lighting up. ‘So what?’
Cade glanced at me and then back at Miss Riley. ‘You knew the people Mark associated with back then. Has anyone appeared on the scene recently, or maybe contacted you?’
‘No,’ she replied bluntly, after taking a smoke. ‘But do you think I would help you anyway? Mark was my son.’
There was nowhere for us to go after that comment. If she wasn’t prepared to co-operate then we were better off calling it a day here.
There were photos on the sideboard. One large group photo taken on a British beach on a cold, grey day. Everyone was wrapped in coats, but still smiling. I could pick out Judith, younger then with long hair. Three kids were playing in front of the adults. The older one, I thought, was Mark.
I tilted the picture towards Judith.
‘One of these Mark?’ I asked.
She nodded. ‘Mark’s in the middle, my other son Carl is on the right. The other kid is their cousin Georgie.’
I looked back at the picture.
‘My ex is on my left,’ she continued. ‘The guy next to him is his brother Harry, Georgie’s Dad. Harry is who Lee lived with in Spain, before he died.
I replaced the photo on the mantel piece.
‘Do you ever hear from your ex-husband’s brother?’
She shook her head. ‘As far as I know, he’s still out in Spain.’
The front door opened and then slammed shut.
‘We’re in here!’ she called out,