by Sam Skyborne
“Well, if you do think of anything else, please give me a call.” Toni took out her business card and handed it to her. “What is your name?”
“Oh, I’m Trisha,” the woman beamed her an awkward toothy smile.
“Nice to meet you, Trisha.” Toni instinctively held out her hand and then realised that both Trisha’s hands were full, holding a baby and a ladle. This time it was Toni’s turn to smile awkwardly as she dropped her hand.
“Yeah, you too. Take care, Chook.”
Toni sat in the car waiting for Maxine to finish up with Antoinette. Her mobile rang. It was Aiden.
“Hey,” Toni answered.
“I can’t talk for long. Just to say I did some digging as you asked. I’m not sure that this means anything, before you jump to any conclusions. The club raid was instigated by a tip-off received through Officers Forelly and McCarthy. They were put in charge of casing the place and making sure that the CUL protestors did not kick off. It is quite likely that they would come by that kind of intel.”
“Okay, I hear you, Aiden. But you wouldn’t start out with warning me that it’s nothing if you didn’t think it feels a little off.”
“Toni, I’m saying it because I know you—”
“Okay, anyway. Anything else?”
“Yeah, I looked into their service records. Other than a few slightly rough arrests—”
“How am I not surprised? That Dwight is a bully and I’m sure he has roughed up more than his share.”
“There is nothing to fault them on nor anything exemplary for that matter. So far, pretty average coppers on the beat.”
“You believe that?”
“What I believe doesn’t matter, Toni. It’s the evidence available.”
“Ok,” Toni said, deciding to let it go.
“Glad we understand each other.”
“Oh, Aiden,” Toni stopped him before he rang off.
“Yeah, what?”
“Thanks. You know I really appreciate it.”
Just then Maxine got into the passenger seat.
“What did you get?” Toni asked.
Maxine sighed. “Not a great deal but I decided I’d get a sample of Antoinette’s DNA, for exclusionary purposes, if we find the murder was committed in the flat.”
“Hmm. I’m afraid that lead dried up like spit in the desert,” Toni said, starting the car.
Maxine looked surprised. “Really? So soon?”
“Yeah. Turned out Antoinette has a very nosy neighbour who keeps a beady eye on everyone’s comings and goings. She saw Erika and her suitor arrive the night she died.”
Maxine was about to interrupt.
“And she also saw the suitor leave after, according to her, some raucous and loud sex.”
“That would explain the signs of intercourse on the body.”
“And she saw Erika leave a little while later, drunk but alive.”
“Shit! I really thought they were good for it. So that rules out our mystery suitor as the potential murderer. What else does that leave us?”
Toni nodded. “Yip, it certainly looks that way. I am still not convinced that Lucille is not the jealous wife who could easily have got someone to do her dirty work for her,” Toni said.
“We haven’t ruled out one of her political rivals or enemies wanting to get at her,” Maxine said, “like the Preacher. This theory doesn’t help my cases back home though.”
“Or, we’ve come full circle, to a mugging or a hate crime by the CUL, which doesn’t mean it’s not instigated by the Preacher.” Toni said.
Dwight and Kevin’s weird presence in all this still troubled Toni. The fact that Dwight Forelly was affiliated with the CUL and Kevin McCarthy was the son of the Preacher did not sit well. It made her feel very uneasy, but she was not ready to share her thoughts with anyone right now, least of all Maxine. She needed more answers first.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Tuesday
Toni managed to convince Three to give her Kevin and Dwight’s work roster and home addresses.
Both officers were due to have a couple of days off. It was a perfect opportunity to surveil them and figure out how they could be involved. Since there were two of them, she agreed to split the load with Lawrence. He took on Kevin as she wanted to keep an eye on Dwight herself.
At around 10am Toni was beginning to wonder if they would ever be any the wiser at all. She had been stationed outside Dwight’s house since 7am, but there was no sign of Dwight surfacing. She wondered if he was just a homebody on his days off.
In the meantime, Lawrence had followed Kevin to the gym, the supermarket and to the dry-cleaners.
Finally, at 11.40am Toni saw Dwight coming out of his front door. She watched him head down the road and decided to follow him on foot. It was a risky option because she knew if Dwight spotted her he would instantly recognise her and realise something was up.
She followed him along a meandering route from where he lived, near Seven Dials, to Earlham Street where she saw him enter a large black and red-brick building that housed the well-known Seven Dials Club.
Bugger! If she followed him in there he would no doubt recognise her.
Toni did not know all that much about the Seven Dials Club other than it was a members’ club, and even though she remembered reading somewhere that it now accepted non-members between certain hours, any new face in there was sure to attract attention.
She waited about fifteen minutes and when there was no sign of Dwight resurfacing she dialled Lawrence.
“Where are you?” she asked.
“I am sat outside Kevin’s place. He’s gone home.”
“Okay. I need you to meet me, outside the Seven Dials Club. I need you to be my eyes and ears. Dwight has gone into a Working Men’s Club, probably for lunch or something, and it’s too risky for me to go in there.”
She rang off and waited impatiently for Lawrence to arrive.
An hour after Lawrence arrived, Toni was still none the wiser. She paced up and down outside the Seven Dials Club. Waiting like this was definitely not her strong suit.
Finally, Lawrence appeared on the steps outside.
He had pretended to have a pint and to be watching the sports coverage on the large screen TV in order not to draw too much attention.
He had however managed to find out from the bar-tender that Dwight was part of the local pool team which regularly met in the club on their days off. Mostly, Dwight and his boys seemed to be focussing on consuming a number of jugs of pale ale and were steadily growing rowdier as the alcohol flowed. If habit served he was unlikely to be going anywhere for the rest of the day, according to the bar-tender.
Toni felt slightly disappointed. She was really hoping that tailing Dwight would offer some insight into this case. So far it seemed like every step forward led to two steps back. It was frustrating her no end!
The up-side was that she could focus on Kevin for the day. She had no expectation of that weasel leading them to spectacular new insights, but he was all she had to go on right now.
After the Seven Dials Club, Toni and Lawrence went back to Dwight’s place to collect her car and headed to Kevin’s address. They got to Kevin’s place at around midday. Toni had worried that they might have missed him, but only a few minutes later they saw him come out of his house and head to the bus stop.
“Damn!” Toni said. “He’s going to take a bus.”
“One of us needs to get on that bus at the next stop,” Lawrence said.
“I guess that had better be you,” Toni said and pulled out to overtake the bus. Two hundred metres down the road she pulled over and Lawrence jumped out and headed to the next stop. Toni pulled away and took the next roads left, left and left again bringing her up behind the bus once more. She found a place to pull up and pretended to stop until the bus was at least three blocks away. Then she set off following it, periodically pulling up to kill time where she could.
On the bus, Lawrence took a seat slightly behind the b
ack door and pretended to read the paper. From there he had a perfect view of Kevin sitting on the front between the two doors.
As they passed Kings Cross Station, Lawrence saw Kevin get up. Lawrence pushed the buzzer and pressed speed dial on his phone. When Toni picked up he said softly, “Hi Mum. Yes, I’m at Pentonville Road. See you soon,” into the microphone earpiece.
“Got it,” Toni said. “Traffic is making it a bit tricky to follow, I might have to veer off. Stay with him.”
The doors opened and Lawrence got out. He studied his phone, pretending to look at a map in order to give Kevin a chance to get a little head start.
Lawrence tailed him down King’s Cross Street, left down Lorenzo Street and along Calshot.
Toni managed to double back and headed up Caledonian Road. She pulled over just beyond the bridge in an effort to intercept their trajectory but remain out of sight.
In her rear-view-mirror she saw Kevin emerge onto Caledonian Road with Lawrence not far behind. She watched Kevin cross the road and go into a pub on the canal.
“Do you want me to go in too?” Lawrence asked in her ear.
“Just hang for a minute. Let’s see. From here I have a clear view of the outside terrace. It is quite a nice day. If we are lucky, he is an outdoors kind of luncher.”
Lawrence studied his phone again, pretended to read street names and compared them to his phone.
“I still don’t see him,” Toni said. “Looks like you might have to have lunch.”
Lawrence made his way to the pub door.
Just then Kevin emerged onto the outside terrace carrying two pints of beer.
“Oh wait. Seems he does have a taste for a bit of Vitamin D,” Toni said. “And it looks like he is expecting someone else. I have a clear view so you can head back to the car.”
Lawrence changed direction and, without dropping the ‘lost tourist’ act, headed to the car.
When Lawrence reached the car he opened the boot and grabbed his kitbag before joining Toni in the front.
“Did he see you?”
Lawrence shook his head. “Don’t think so.” He scratched around in his kitbag and took out a pair of binoculars which he handed to Toni and his Canon camera.
About fifteen minutes later a tall blond-haired man crossed the road near where Toni and Lawrence were parked and headed for the same pub. They watched him enter and also emerge onto the terrace.
Kevin got up, all smiles and shook hands and half embraced the newcomer.
Lawrence started snapping photos.
“What do you make of these two then?” Toni asked.
“Hmm, not sure. They look like sports club buddies or something. Looks like a social lunch, not business. They are friendly but I sense a lack of the usual boy’s club indifference,” Lawrence said.
Toni studied them through her binoculars.
The two men sat down at a small square table. They both picked up their beers, clinked them together and took a sip. It was clear that they were not in a great hurry to eat. From their body language Toni could tell that their conversation was serious. She wished she had ears on location.
“Fancy a beer, Lawrence?”
Lawrence looked surprised. “What? Now?”
“Yip,” Toni said. “I need you to join them on the terrace and pickup what you can.”
He understood instantly and jumped out the car leaving her his camera.
A few minutes later Lawrence appeared on the terrace armed with a large pint and a newspaper.
“Jesus, Lawrence! You didn’t have to get a large one.” Toni said into her phone.
“A man can’t order a half,” Lawrence said under his breath. “They would know there is a problem.”
“I think any man sitting in the pub on his own has a problem.”
Lawrence pulled a face.
He went to sit at the table diagonally in front of them, facing away. He opened his paper and pretended to read.
Not even five minutes later Kevin and his guest got up and left.
“Ah shit!” Toni said. “Did you get anything? Did you get his name?”
“No, all I got was the end of a conversation. Kevin was asking him if he knew someone, I gather a woman, and if his mate knew anything about her? I didn’t get who he was talking about. Sorry. His mate didn’t seem to know very much at all.”
Toni hit the steering wheel in frustration. “It’s okay. I should’ve got you to go in there earlier.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Wednesday
The next day Toni and Lawrence agree to split up. She hoped Lawrence would be able to get closer to Dwight and find out a bit more about him.
At 6.45am Toni sat in her car parked up outside Kevin’s house. She had managed to call at an all-night café that served a decent take-away coffee en route. It was very chilly at that hour but she could not use the heater. Having the engine running would arouse suspicion.
At 7.15am she saw lights go on in the house.
Fifteen minutes later Kevin headed out.
She followed him to the gym.
By 11.45am, when Kevin finally came out of the gym, Toni was already fairly restless. At one point, earlier, she had wondered if she had maybe missed him leaving. She was never very good at surveillance—finding it quite mind-numbing most of the time.
By that stage Lawrence had followed Dwight back to the Seven Dials Club where it seemed he was intending to spend his second day off too. This time Toni asked Lawrence to hang tight in the club and see what he could find out from the drunken banter.
She would try to tail Kevin on her own.
At around 2pm Toni saw Kevin exit his building. He was smartly dressed in a dark suit and white shirt. This struck Toni as a little peculiar for someone, mid-afternoon on his day off.
She watched him get into a nearby navy, sporty-looking Subaru. The Force’s pay grades must have improved, she thought.
From there she followed him through the streets of North London, along the A10, heading north out of London towards Hertfordshire. After Cheshunt he turned off and headed towards Broxbourne turning into a car park behind the Crown on Old Nazeing Road. Here he got out and entered the pub. A few minutes later she saw him take a seat at one of the garden tables in the dappled sunlight created by the large old oak trees. She watched him read a newspaper. He seemed ill at ease and every ten minutes or so he checked his watch. Was he waiting for someone?
Just then Toni noticed a large cream Jaguar pull into the car park. She thought it looked familiar. How many people could possibly want a cream car? The only person she knew who had one, identical to this one, was her wealthy, politico, client.
A driver in a black suit, white shirt and chauffeur’s cap got out the driver’s side and opened the rear passenger door. Out stepped a woman who Toni would recognise anywhere, in her characteristic tweed suit—Lucille Ransom-Evans.
Toni ducked down in her car. Oh crap! What was she doing here?
After a few moments, Toni dared a look over the dashboard to catch the back of Lucille disappear into the pub. Two minutes later Lucille emerged in the garden and headed straight for the table where Kevin sat.
Toni watched as Lucille stopped in front of Kevin. He gestured for her to take a seat. She refused. They talked. Toni wished she could lip-read. Then she saw Lucille Ransom-Evans take a large manila envelope out of her bag and toss it on the table in front of Kevin. He picked it up and looked inside. They spoke some more. Then Lucille picked up another smaller envelope Toni had not noticed on the table until that point. Without looking inside this envelope, she turned on her heel and headed back through the pub.
Toni ducked well out of sight until she was sure the Jaguar had left. A few minutes later Kevin exited the pub and drove off. Toni followed him.
That was certainly the last person she expected Kevin to meet—his father’s biggest rival and opponent. The only logical conclusion had to be Kevin was moonlighting for his father, as some sort of muscle, sent to somehow int
imidate or perhaps even blackmail Lucille. That would explain the envelope exchange.
She would need to have a word with Lucille. But, the chances were Lucille would be too proud and would never admit to it if the Preacher had something on her, at least not willingly. Again, Toni needed more information.
Toni followed Kevin home.
After he had not moved from there for an hour, Toni decided to call it a day on the surveillance and go back to the office. She had only been back five minutes when Maxine marched through the door looking very pleased with herself.
“I have good news,” Maxine said. “The DNA results from our suspects came back.”
Toni saw the large envelope in Maxine’s hand. “Where did you get that?”
“Downstairs.” Maxine tossed the envelope on the desk in front of Toni. “My hunch was right.”
Irritated, Toni took out the report.
“You can't just intercept my mail!” she said while scanning the results. “None of them? Shit! That means there must be others we still don't know about.”
“Keep going,” Maxine said, “look further.”
Toni looked in the envelope again and pulled out a second result sheet. Toni looked puzzled.
“What eight DNA samples, I thought we only had seven?” Toni kept reading. “Donald Cadwell?” This did not make sense. “Who is he? Where did the other suspect come from?”
“Not all b.f.f.s are to be trusted.”
Toni puzzled for a moment then she realised Maxine had sent off Antoinette’s DNA.
“You sent in her DNA as well?” Toni asked. “Why? I thought we decided that it wasn’t necessary to submit her DNA since the neighbour could confirm Erika was alive when she left the flat.”
“Well, I remembered in one of the crime scenes there was an empty soda can on which we found DNA and knowing Antoinette is a self-confessed recovering soda addict I followed a hunch.” Maxine said.