Sally vaguely remembered that Lizzy had told her she’d called someone to come pick her up. They had been smoking strong weed, so the conversation was pretty hazy.
‘My stepdad,’ Sally lied.
Lizzy said, ‘Whatever,’ again. Then, ‘Sally, we need to meet up. I’ve spoken to Lee, everything’s cool, he ain’t even mad at us.’
‘You’ve spoken to Lee?’ Sally had raised her voice, and she looked around her.
‘Yeah, like I say, he ain’t even pissed. He wants a sit down to get some stuff sorted, talk about what happened. He knows that we was in the flat earlier and that, and he thinks we might have misunderstood, is all.’
‘A misunderstanding? He said this was just a misunderstanding?’
‘Yeah, thassit.’
‘Come on, Lizzy! You’re not stupid. We know Lee, don’t we? He doesn’t work like that. Nothing’s ever just a misunderstanding.’
‘Sal, I’ve been with him today, he’s cool now that we’ve had a bit of a chat. He was pissed at first ’cause I lied to him, said I weren’t there, but he knew. That fat twat down the road had dobbed us in. But if you come back we can have a talk. I reckon Lee will chuck a bag or two in for us, you know? We can have a good smoke and a relax. Have you got any? You must be feeling shit.’
Despite all that Sally knew about Lee, she considered going back to the flat for a smoke. ‘I feel okay, Lizzy. I’m fine here. I’m going to stay here for a bit, just to work some stuff out. I’ll come and see you soon, though. I know where you are.’
Lizzy didn’t reply.
Sally caught sight of herself in the hallway mirror and turned away, disgusted.
* * *
Lizzy shrugged. Lee rubbed his index finger and thumb together, and Lizzy nodded.
‘Listen, Sal, he’s going to need that cash back. You know Lee and money. We fucking panicked, yeah? I know that, you know that, and we snatched some. I told him that, but he wants it back.’
Sally bit at her bottom lip. ‘I don’t have it, Lizzy. I had to get here and I had to get some shoes and that. I don’t have it any more.’
‘You spent it all?’
Lee had been looking at the floor, and his head jerked up.
‘No, I got like sixty left or something, I think.’ Sally actually wasn’t sure but she knew she had more than three twenty pound notes.
‘That’s perfect. I said to him you took sixty. He don’t know what’s in there, does he? Not without going all the way back through what he thinks he’s owed, and he ain’t gonna do that. You turn up with the sixty and it’s job done, we’re all sorted.’
‘I can’t come back, Lizzy, not now. I gotta get my head down, have a think about what’s going on and then I’ll let you know. I can’t come down now, it’s been a long fucking day.’
‘Jesus, Sal. Listen to me, you gotta get that money back. He’s being good to me, he’s apologetic, a bit humble like, but that money — you know what he’s like. It will be a real sticking point, and he’s only got me here to blame. Alright, Sal, I get what you’re saying. Have a few days to get your head straight. Can we meet up though? Me and you? I can get away from here, tell him some shit to keep him sweet. I think he’s out on his chores for a while anyway.’
‘I can’t. Look I’m all fucked up, I can’t get out tonight, okay? Maybe in a couple of days.’
Lizzy shook her head at Lee. He was grinding his teeth. ‘Listen, Sally, just you and me meet up, okay? I need that money back. I don’t want to take the brunt, Sally — that’s not fair, is it? You got to help me out.’
Sally exhaled. ‘Yeah, I can meet you,’ Sally came back. ‘I can give you the money back and you can give it to Lee. Then I can come and see you both in a couple of days or something.’
There was another silence, and Lizzy and Lee signalled to each other. Finally Lee nodded. ‘That’ll be okay,’ said Lizzy. ‘Where are you?’
‘I can meet you somewhere.’
‘Can’t I just come to where you are? Rather than out on the street?’
‘Nah, this isn’t my place, it’s not fair to be bringing people here for my shit. I can meet you at junction 11, the motorway services there, do you know it?’
There was another pause. ‘Yeah, I think so. Stop 24 or something?’
‘Yeah, that’s it. There’s a coffee shop in there, first place you come to on the left when you go through the doors. I can get there in an hour or so.’
‘An hour?’
‘Yeah, so around five.’
‘See you there at five.’
Lizzy ended the call and looked at Lee. ‘That okay? You okay to drop me up there? We’ll get your cash and then she can come back with us if she wants.’
‘You think this is about the money?’ Lee’s eyes were cold, and his whole demeanour changed. Lizzy was sitting on the bed and she slid away from him. He got to his feet and stood looking down at her.
‘You said you wanted the money back at least.’
‘I don’t give a fuck about the money.’ Lee punched her. Lizzy fell backwards. She grunted, shocked. Lee picked up one side of the duvet and pulled it over her, wrapping it around her, exposing the white tarpaulin sheet underneath. She tried to say something and he punched her again. He rolled her in the tarpaulin. Lizzy realised immediately what was about to happen. Her eyes opened wide and she tried to scream. It emerged as a husky moan. Lee produced a knife. It was an ugly thing, eighteen inches long and tapering to a fine point. He rolled Lizzy over so he could see her face, and look into her eyes.
Lee brought the knife down fast. He raised it and brought it down a second time. Beside himself with rage and frenzy, he stabbed again and again until Lizzy was still and the duvet was red with her blood.
* * *
Sally was back in the kitchen. Her mum appeared, dressed in a crisp white robe and dabbing her head with a towel.
‘Was that your dad?’
‘No, actually.’
‘No?’
‘It was a friend of mine. I gave her this number in case she needed to get hold of me. I’ve got some of my things at her place. I’m just going to pop out and pick them up.’
‘Oh, okay.’ Denise didn’t believe her daughter, but knew better than to ask questions. ‘Do you want me to take you?’
‘No. No thanks, Mum. It’s not far, I can get a taxi.’
‘Oh, alright then. Well, as long as you’ll be okay.’
Sally smiled. ‘I’ll be fine.’
CHAPTER 34
‘Barry Lance.’ Barry sounded rattled. Helen knew he wasn’t a man who got rattled easily.
‘Barry, it’s Helen Webb. The DCC has asked me to head this thing up. I know you’re on the ground. What’s your update?’
‘You’re running this? I was reporting directly to Darren Lewis.’
‘I just got off the phone with him. You’ll be reporting directly to me from now on. Is there a problem?’
‘There is a problem, ma’am, yes. We have an armed man somewhere in Hythe who has already shot two officers. If my team had been in place we wouldn’t be in this situation now.’
Helen Webb took her foot off the accelerator. Her nose twitched in annoyance. ‘Well, for now, we just need to get hold of the bastard. We can conduct a full review of our actions after it’s done. I need your support, Barry, and I need it instantly, or my first job will be to find someone who will give it.’ There was a silence. ‘This is what you’re trained for, Barry, but if you insist on making a point, I’ll find another team.’
Barry sighed. ‘What do you need to know?’
Helen smiled. ‘Good man. I need you firing on all cylinders down there, Barry. I know you’re the best man for the job. I need you and your team more than ever.’
‘I’ll pass that on.’ Barry’s tone was cool.
‘What’s the latest? I’ve been getting various updates, but it’s all been third-hand.’
‘We have an armed offender who made off from the Leas in Langthorne in the general dir
ection of Hythe. The area was searched and we have located a motorbike, which appears to have been abandoned. We’ve cleared a hundred metres round the bike in every direction and cordoned it off for forensics. I’ve been down there and the bike has crash damage, which fits with what happened on the Leas. The offender got as far as he could on it before it broke down completely.’
‘So maybe he has nowhere to go?’
‘That’s the thinking. He’s been forced to ditch it on the canal path. He’s made a half-hearted attempt at hiding it and then he’s carried on, on foot.’
‘The towpath? I know it reasonably well. Parts of it are wooded, aren’t they?’
‘Yeah, there are thick brambles, bushes, and woodland round where he ditched it, and of course there’s the canal itself. We’ve got the dogs out. The handlers are confident that the dogs would have found someone if they’d been holed up, and the helicopter’s done a run with the heat camera.’
‘So are we extending the open-area search or looking at houses or buildings?’
‘Both. The helicopter was high enough initially that you wouldn’t be able to hear it, but it had to come down to help with the search round the bike. That might have prompted our man to force entry to a property, if he hadn’t already. At the moment we’re going street by street outwards from where the bike was found, with the helicopter constantly monitoring for movement. We’re searching houses voluntarily if there are people in, and checking for signs of forced entry for those that aren’t. I have a log here of houses we haven’t been able to get into.’
‘Sounds like you have it all under control.’
‘It’s labour intensive, slow-going. The team need to be on alert all the time. I’ve put out a request for more armed resources down here so I can swap them out.’
‘Okay, I’ll see where we are with that.’
‘Appreciated.’
‘I’m going into Langthorne House and then I’ll make my way down.’
Barry was silent for a few moments. ‘You’re coming down here?’
‘Well, yes. I won’t stick my oar in, Barry, don’t worry. I can make myself useful, deflect some of the stuff away from you so you can just continue running this thing.’
‘I see.’ Barry didn’t sound convinced, but Helen didn’t need him to be.
‘I’ll see you shortly.’
Helen ended the call as the BMW rumbled up to the speed-gates at Langthorne House. Eight feet high and thick steel, they formed part of the expensive new defences, erected in response to the cold-blooded murder of one of Langthorne’s own in this car park. It created the illusion of safety and control.
CHAPTER 35
Stop 24 was a large site, a flashy new motorway service station near Hythe, with a glassy expanse of shopping units.
The customers hadn’t arrived. The location was all wrong. It was too close to the Channel Tunnel station and the Port of Dover. Anyone needing refreshment would just stay on the motorway for another few minutes.
Sally peered out of the taxi’s window. She couldn’t see Lizzy.
‘Do you mind waiting?’ Sally leant said to the overweight driver.
‘I can wait for a little while, darling, how long do you need?’
‘Ten minutes?’ In truth, she couldn’t be sure. Lizzy wasn’t the most reliable person at the best of times and she had clearly been under the influence of something when they had spoken earlier. Still, ten minutes should be enough time for Lizzy to get there and for Sally to convince her to come and stay with her in Saltwood. That was kind of as far as she had got with her plan. She knew it was risky, which was why she had wanted to meet away from the house. Lee Chivers had a way of getting into your head, of making you forget what he was really like. When both of them were safe, she could take some time to think.
‘Ten minutes, darling. Call it eight quid to here.’
Eight quid. That was steep, but Sally needed him sweet and handed over a tenner. ‘The change is for the wait, see you in ten.’ She smiled reassuringly and pushed the door open. Her new trainers found the tarmac and the driver was already focused on his phone.
Stop 24 reminded her of an aircraft hangar. It was brightly lit and hushed. She looked up at four large flat-screen TVs fixed in a square in the middle of the central walkway. The screen facing her ran the BBC News channel with subtitles clumsily trying to keep up with a politician’s bullshit.
The coffee shop was the first unit on the left. It wasn’t the usual Costa Coffee or Starbucks, but some Italian-themed place that she hadn’t heard of. Sally had once been into good coffee. A long-haired, handsome man greeted her with an expectant smile as she made her way into the almost-empty café.
‘Hey,’ she managed.
‘Hey! What can I get you today?’ The lad was about her age, a bit of a stoner she reckoned — she could tell them a mile off — but heathy-looking and with a cheerful smile. His name tag introduced him as Jake.
‘Coffee, please. White.’
‘Just the one?’
‘Yeah, for now. I’m waiting for someone.’
‘No problem. You want me to bring it over?’
‘No thanks, I’ll take it.’
Sally looked around for a table. She saw a lorry driver, tucked away round the side of the counter. A middle-aged couple with matching fleece jackets over shorts and wearing similar glasses, who Sally reckoned were foreign, and a younger couple close to the toilet door. Their toddler was standing on one of the chairs, pushing brown liquid around the table with a straw. Sally enjoyed people watching. When she had previously gone cold turkey, when the hardest part of that first week was over, she would sit on a bench in the middle of the town or on the Leas, or down the front, and just watch people. She liked to work them out, tell herself stories about them. It would take her mind off the rest of it, her hunger, the void that was left when the class A drugs were gone. She would sit and watch normal people going about their business. If she did it long enough she could begin to feel normal too.
She reckoned on a table close to the couple with the toddler. She knew they would soon be gone, and she wanted to be able to see out, and watch for Lizzy coming in.
Jake turned to place the coffee on the counter. ‘There you go . . .’ He tailed off, looking round his coffee shop.
But the girl with the greasy hair and pretty eyes had gone.
* * *
‘Say a fucking word and I’ll cut you,’ Lee hissed. Sally had known it was Lee Chivers before she had even looked at the figure that had appeared at her side. She had just known. He’d said nothing, merely raised a hand with a knife concealed in the palm. A pretty knife. Sally remembered seeing it in the flat. She also remembered Lee demonstrating just how sharp it was.
Sally felt helpless. She thought about making a run for it, shouting for help, but she knew Lee. He would talk his way out. And Sally needed to find out where Lizzy was.
‘What happened to Lizzy?’ Sally asked as Lee took her hand and hurried them towards the exit.
‘She’s back at the flat.’
‘Why didn’t she come up here?’
‘What makes you think you get to ask questions, Sal? You and me got a lot to talk about, ain’t we? Seems you think you can use my flat when you want, hide in there and steal my money.’
‘You better not have hurt her.’
Lee’s grip on Sally’s hand tightened until it hurt. She tried to pull it away and Lee pressed harder, until the pain became excruciating. ‘This is just a chat, Sally, like what happened with Lizzy. We had a chat and she told me the truth, and it was all fucking sorted out. I need to know who you’ve spoken to today. She’s back at the flat. She’d had a bag or two and she needed a bit of a rest up. We’re going back there to do the same, just as soon as you talk to me about what you did today.’ Lee released her hand.
‘I got out, I scored, I went to a mate’s house. That’s it.’
‘Who’s your mate?’
‘No one you know and they don’t know you.’
>
‘Where’d you score from?’
‘A new setup, nothing to do with you.’
Lee took hold of Sally’s hand again as they walked out through the double doors. A hundred metres away, the taxi driver saw them walk out of sight and muttered, ‘Fucking skagheads,’ and the taxi moved off in search of another fare.
The lorry cab closest to Sally had a noisy generator that kicked out hot diesel fumes. Behind the trailer was Lee’s Mitsubishi pickup. He’d made damned sure she wouldn’t see it when she arrived.
‘Get in.’
‘Where are you taking me?’
‘I told you. We need to talk, all of us.’
‘So I’m going back to the flat? Can’t we meet her somewhere else?’ Sally did her best to sound casual. ‘We only ever seem to argue there. I don’t want to argue with you any more, Lee. Maybe a neutral place would be better for us all.’
‘Get in the fucking car,’ Lee snapped. Sally was standing by the passenger door, with Lee immediately behind her. The knife was back out of his jacket, Sally could see it glinting. Her hand rested on the door handle. She knew this was the point of no return. Once she was inside the car he would have complete control over her. She thought of Lizzy, and what he would do to her if she managed to get away. The generator in the lorry clattered away. The occupant would be settling in for the night. The last thing he would want was some girl banging on his door, screaming for help, a bloke with a knife behind her. He probably wouldn’t even unlock the cab.
Sally pulled at the door. Lee walked round the car and dropped the knife into his door bin. As the engine turned over, he faced Sally with a dangerous smile.
‘Put your seatbelt on, Sal. We don’t want you getting hurt, do we?’
CHAPTER 36
Helen Webb used the public entrance to enter Langthorne House. A couple of punters stared at her as she clicked past. One of the counter staff had been sitting down and he hurriedly got to his feet. He needn’t have bothered. Helen didn’t acknowledge anyone, or even turn her head. She pushed her leather badge-holder at the sensor on the door. It didn’t work at first, and she slapped it impatiently, cursing under her breath. The red light changed to green and she tugged the door open so roughly it collided with the wall.
BLOOD MONEY a gripping crime thriller full of twists Page 19