County Lines Rider

by Samantha Bassett

  Pulling surgical gloves from his pocket he takes a penknife and pushes the blade into the package, the tip shines under the torchlight with white crystals. “Shit! You were right…”

  “There’s more here, loads of them.”

  “Right leave them there and get this buried again. We have to move fast.”

  ***

  “You should have stayed at mine, this place is…” Edwin left the words hanging. “No. Grab your things, I’m not having you live in this place for a moment longer.” He took my holdall and we walked out to the car. Once sat down, he pulled a package from his pocket. It was beautifully wrapped. “It’s from Hong Kong, I hope you like it.”

  I squealed as I unwrapped the hand made paper, untying the ribbon. There was a small black box inside, opening it I find the most beautiful necklace. It had a fine gold chain with a beautiful gold key and a solid gold heart.

  “You hold the key to my heart…” He smiled, taking the necklace and attaching it around my neck.

  “Oh, Edwin…” I kissed him. “Oh, it’s so beautiful. I’ll never take it off. Thank you. I don’t know why you like me.”

  “I don’t like you Amanda…”

  I looked up, somewhat in surprise and shock.

  “I love you…”

  My world felt as if it had stopped, my heart skipped a beat. I looked into his blue eyes seeing a vulnerability, a tenderness which was invisible to the world. I opened and closed my mouth, unable to speak.

  “Well?” He looked at me, suddenly unsure. I burst into tears.

  “Oh Edwin!” I gasped between sobs. “Oh, I love you…” I fell into his arms, never wanting to be released. I had dreamed of love, having read books and magazines which spoke of true love, not knowing what to expect. But this just felt right. I felt protected, safe and secure with this beautiful man who would protect me and who had opened himself up to me. It seemed that love felt like the family I had lost, for the first time in my life I felt as if I was happy, no, more than happy, beyond simple happiness this was a delicious joy which filled every part of me and I never wanted to end.

  ***

  “We’ve seen Smith entering the stables.” The officer brought up images from the covert CCTV cameras they had installed.

  “Perfect…” Willoughby laughed. “We just need to see someone collecting the packages and we’ll have him nailed.”

  ***

  And so, we were properly a couple. Initially, it was strange living in Edwin’s house, even though now that I was sharing his bed as well as his home. Coming downstairs each morning to find Maria having prepared a full breakfast before I left for work, leaving Edwin asleep was a pleasure and being driven to the stables was amazing. Edwin wanted to find me a better job, but, as I explained that the stable was more than just a job to me. He’d shrugged and told me I could do what I wanted.

  There were some petty jealousies from the other girls, however, these were soon put aside with the delivery, at Edwin’s insistence of weekly deliveries of food and treats. I had even invited them all to dinner and we had enjoyed a raucous night of food and drinking, however, I felt somewhat sad when I had to say good night to them at the end of the evening. I was still part of the family, however, I felt now more like a distant relative.

  ***

  Willoughby approached the door and knocked. “Come.”

  “Sir.”

  “I may have underestimated you, Peter.” The Chief Constable gestured to a chair and Willoughby sat down. “I have been reviewing your report and the observations. You have identified the persons who collected the drugs.”

  “Yes, sir and we have identified them as being directly involved with Smith.” He paused.

  “We have a tip-off that there will be another delivery tomorrow morning at about four am. I have a team ready to pounce. We’ll hit the stables and all of the other addresses at once.”

  “Peter. I don’t usually have to apologise, but when I’m wrong I admit it, and I was wrong. You were on the right track.”

  “Thank you, sir.”

  “And Jackson, tell her she could be in line for a promotion. That was good policing.”

  “I will, thank you, sir.”

  ***

  Anne poured the last of the sedative into the pot on the hob, adding a large dose of chilli sauce to mask the taste. She hated doing this, but as she had been told, the risk of one of the girls waking and coming out to see what was happening. She had already had to sacrifice one of them and that hurt, but Liz had been asking too many questions. She just hoped that Amanda would keep her mouth shut for her own good.

  She looked at her watch, she needed to be back at three-thirty. She would have a little drink to settle her nerves and then come back.

  ***

  Edwin walked into the smell of cooking, he stepped into the kitchen and saw Maria sat at the breakfast bar and Amanda cooking. “What’s this?”

  “Oh, I wanted to surprise you!” I smiled, hugging him. “Maria’s been teaching me. Sit down, it will be ready in a moment.”

  “Oh, you will make a perfect wife…” He laughed, I loved his beautiful laugh.

  My heart skipped a beat. It had only been a few months but we felt like soulmates. Could it be true, would my life be with him at my side? I turned to the stove, eager to hide my blushes.

  ***

  “All quiet?”

  “Nothing yet, but we aren’t expecting anything until later. Everyone’s in position.”

  “So just a waiting game…” Willoughby smiled.

  ***

  The crash at the door woke me with a start. Edwin sat up quickly, there was a thumping then men in the room. I screamed as I was grabbed and thrown to the floor face down, my hands roughly cuffed.

  ***

  “Go, go, go…” The radio crackled to life and the officers raced onto the yard grabbing the truck driver and the two other men. They were cuffed and taken to Police vans before they could even speak. Willoughby looked down, there were hundreds of packages being dumped. This was the big one, if all went well they would have almost the whole network.

  ***

  Anne woke with a start and looked at her watch. “Shit!” She stood up, staggering to her feet. Late, she would need to get a cab.

  It was almost an hour later when she pulled up at the end of the street, there were police cars and vans everywhere and floodlights illuminating the stables. She paused for a moment, just as an officer turned and was about to ask her what she was doing she turned on her heel and walked rapidly away.

  14

  Questions And Answers

  “So tell me again…”

  I was scared, I’d been dragged from my bed and forced into a police car. The officers had warned me I was being arrested, I’d been flung in a cell, quite literally as I had fallen and hit my head on the edge of the bed. What seemed like many hours later I was taken to an interview room, I sat there, in my pyjamas facing a male and female officer. They had been questioning me for hours, but I couldn’t answer their questions and had spent most of the time crying. “I don’t know what to tell you. I’m a riding instructor, Edwin is my.” I paused, even now it seemed strange to say it. “He’s my boyfriend. I love him…”

  “Oh for Christ’s sake. You’re the girlfriend of the most prolific drug dealer in the UK, are you telling me you knew nothing.”

  My eyes widened in shock. “Drug dealer?” I gulped. “He owns restaurants?”

  “Your boyfriend is single-handedly responsible for flooding the Capital with millions of pounds of Class A drugs from the Far-East, much of which we found at the stables you work at. Do you think that this is just a coincidence?”

  “He’s just come back from Hong Kong?” I offered, it just seemed to annoy them. At that moment the door was flung open, a young woman in a suit stepped inside.

  “Interview suspended.” Willoughby looked up. “Who the fuck are you?”

  “I am Miss Spence’s legal adviser. Do I understand that you did no
t offer her the opportunity for representation before you commenced the interview?”

  “Miss Spence is helping us with our enquiries.”

  “And I guess that was where she sustained that injury to her head? Has she been seen by the doctor?” The woman shook her head. “Constable…”

  “Detective Chief Inspector…” Willoughby snapped.

  “Whatever. You seem to have ignored any rule or procedure and arrested an innocent bystander with no reason.”

  “She is hardly innocent!”

  “So you believe you have your case sewn up already?” She sighed. “I need some time with my client.”

  “And?”

  “And Fuck off! Detective Constable.” She held the door open and Willoughby and Jackson stormed out. She sat down opposite me, handing me a tissue. I was, to be honest, a bit scared by the forceful woman. She wore what was obviously a tailored suit and carried an expensive leather case which she placed on the table. Her voice softened as she spoke to me. “Hi there Mandy. Sorry if that all seemed a bit much, but I have to put them in their place. I am one of Edwin’s team of lawyers. I can’t say anything much here. Walls have ears and all that, but we’ll get you out of here as soon as we can. Be brave.”

  “How is Edwin? Is he okay?”

  “He’s strong, but this isn’t looking good for him.” She stood up. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

  ***

  “The raids, which took place across London culminated in the seizure of drugs with a street value of almost two million pounds from a riding school in Clapham, South London. A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police stated that ‘this had been a coordinated programme to get these drugs off the streets. The perpetrators would be looking at long prison sentences.”

  I switched off the television. It was weird watching the news and seeing the stables. Worse was seeing the girls, the reporter said they had been drugged so that they stayed asleep, I began to wonder if that had happened to me on those days when we all felt so ill in the mornings. My heart sunk, Liz, she’d been asking questions about the muck heap. I pushed the thought from my mind.

  True to her word the forceful woman had got me released from the police cells, my arrest had been rescinded but I had been told not to go anywhere as I may be required for further questioning. I was sitting in Edwin’s empty house, Maria had made a meal but I couldn’t eat. I reached for my phone and dialled.

  “Mandy! Thank goodness, we heard they had arrested you. What the flying fuck has your boyfriend done?”

  “Hi there…” My lip trembled and I burst into tears. Sue was speaking, I eventually dried my eyes.

  “Come, home babe… We’ll look after you.”

  ***

  Sue was waiting when I arrived back at the yard. I had taken the bus and hobbled exhausted through the gate into her waiting arms. I sobbed loudly, she supported me as we walked into the living room. The girls all embraced me warmly, suddenly I felt part of a family again.

  ***

  The next morning the forceful woman who told me her name was Fiona, met me at the stables. She looked around the living room with an obvious look of disgust and said we could talk at a local coffee shop, so we walked together down the High Street and found a quiet table at the back of a local cafe.

  “They’re going to refuse to give Edwin bail, there’s just too much evidence and they think he’s a flight risk, which means they think he would leave the country, which he would. I spoke with him this morning, assured him that we had got you out, which made him very happy. However, I need to tell you that he’s likely to go to prison for a long time. We as a legal team will do our best to get him acquitted but there is just too much evidence and, worryingly someone had been revealing information about what has been happening.” I must have looked shocked as she raised her hand. “No, we realise that it wouldn’t have been you.” She looked down. “However, I wouldn’t want to be in the shoes of anyone who would have spoken out of turn.”

  She sipped her coffee. “I’m sorry, I think it’s a shock for you, Edwin wasn’t just a restaurateur, we are indeed aware that he had dealings with class A drugs. I know I shouldn’t be saying this, however, I think you need to understand.”

  “Oh…” My heart sunk. I didn’t know what I felt, he had been someone I had loved, did love, I think. Drugs, well that was something I couldn’t justify in my mind. It couldn’t be true, could it?

  “Look, I’ll keep in touch with you, as soon as you can see Edwin I will arrange it.” She smiled, taking my hand. “Just hang tight.”

  ***

  “I’m as shocked as you are.” Anne slurred. “Who would have known what was going on, my staff drugged you say. It’s shocking.”

  Willoughby watched through the one-way glass. “She’s drunk…”

  “She was drunk when we picked her up. To be honest, I think she is just a lush, goes home at night and drinks the night away. It’s clear she knows nothing about this.” Jackson shrugged. “You’ve got the key players, let’s get rid of her, there’s nothing we can stick on her.”

  “Agreed.” He tapped on the glass. The police officer looked up nodding and terminated the interview.

  ***

  Anne gasped in the fresh air, Oh God, if she had been there that morning… She left the thought hanging in her mind but realised it didn’t look good. Someone would have had to have told the police what was going on, more specifically someone had tipped them off. She glanced at the clear road before stepping off the curb. She gave a short double take as the car sped towards her, she hit the windscreen hard and tumbled over the roof landing on the tarmac surface. The car sped away, tyres squealing.

  15

  Fly Away

  There were so very few of us in the crematorium. We’d been her family, or at least all she could have called family. Once a lively and beautiful woman, in a second her life had been extinguished. The police never found the hit and run driver, instead choosing to blame Anne, ‘she had a high blood alcohol level’ as if she had been driving the car which had hit her.

  I couldn’t listen to the words read by the vicar, I felt as if I had lost my mother all over again and, as the coffin slipped through the curtain I fell to my knees and wept. So this was it, not only the loss of one life the breaking up of many others.

  Anne’s sister Gill was there, I remembered her from my brief meeting at Seacrest and the lift to the station all that time ago. What had remained of the stables would be broken up, that meant mostly ourselves. Some of the better horses would go to Seacrest, the land was highly valued and would soon be apartments with an ‘easy commute to the West End’. A large sign had been installed describing luxury city living before we’d even packed up the yard. It was a far cry from our lodgings under the arches. In the end, her sister would do very well financially however she wept more loudly than any of us as Anne’s coffin vanished.

  I walked outside, the weather was warm as we gathered together, there was to be no wake, the celebration of her life had taken place the night before. A few polite drinks in the public bar in the pub a few steps from the now-empty stables. We’d swapped phone numbers and promised we would keep in touch knowing, of course, that nomads like us would fall out of contact quickly. It was not deliberate, it was just who we were.

  Sue had decided she had finally had enough of long hours and cold mornings and she would soon be working in a call centre. We had laughed and joshed she would be back outdoors within the month, unable to cope with the restraint of an office and the requirements to minimise her blue language to a dull roar. I was devastated, Sue had been like a sister to me. I’d burst into tears in the pub, she’d taken me aside, holding my hand telling me she would always be there for me. I promised her that, when I had my own yard I would call for her. She’d laughed, telling me I was sweet and she was sure I would succeed, but that she had spent too many years with horses and it was time to, in her grow words, ‘grow up and get a proper job’. We’d hugged and again, I had never wanted
her embrace to end.

  Michelle was going home to her parents, somewhere near the seaside. It had been years since a falling out over working with horses had stopped them talking. She had joked that once she had been out with her mother and someone had fallen ill, a call had gone out for a doctor. Her mother had turned to her and said ‘that could have been you. Why don’t you go to them and tell them to keep their heels down.’ I didn’t hold up much hope that she would stay there long.

  Liz, of course, wasn’t here. I still wondered what may have happened to her, and the thoughts of what she might have known and who she may have told frightened me. It was the same reason I had not seen Edwin. They had not issued bail so he been kept in a prison, he had written to me, asking me and then begging me to visit. I couldn’t bring myself to do it. The terrible stories about him and his organisation, what they had done to people how crossed them. I saw him in a new light and realised it was time for me to move on also, my heart broken, I had told myself he had never lied to me, but he had never told me the truth. I had been naive, stupid even. I had to put it behind me, no matter how much it hurt.