Bitter Edge

by Bitter Edge (retail) (epub)

‘It’s not clear enough, guv. Seventy-six other vehicles passed through the roundabout between 9 p.m. and midnight. When I checked them through the ANPR, Danny Stanton’s Ford Ka came up too.’

  ‘Say again?’

  ‘It drives west from the A66 at 9.55 p.m. but doesn’t come back again. There’s a motorbike that goes in and out around similar timings too. It travels west towards Whinlatter at 9.52 p.m. and east again at 10.21 p.m. It’s registered to Maria Volantyne.’

  ‘The woman who owns the lease on the fair,’ Kelly said. ‘Emma, can you run a national check on the ANPR for all three vehicles. Get someone to isolate all their hits and find a link. I want to know what ties them together.’

  ‘Of course, guv.’

  Craig Lockwood had told Kelly that Bobby Bailey had been taken in by Maria Volantyne as a teenager when his mother died, and she’d covered for him ever since. And that before his violent murder, Bobby had driven a motorbike.

  Chapter 54

  Danny Stanton sat on a train speeding towards Folkestone. It wasn’t so much his car that he was concerned about. It contained a few packs of gear and that was about it: nothing to worry about. It wasn’t even that he knew that Bobby Bailey was dead; news travelled fast at the fair if you knew who to ask. The loser meant nothing to him. It was more his own involvement as a courier that concerned him, and what had happened to that girl who’d turned up where he’d last seen Bobby.

  His plan was simple: run away.

  He’d made the journey several times, only this time he didn’t have a return ticket. He’d take the Eurotunnel to Paris and then a bus to Athens, where he’d board a boat to Kos. He’d been left the villa in a will years ago; some old auntie with no other kin had named him as sole heir. It was about the best place he could think of to hide. He could stay there, away from the internet, away from the UK Border Force, and away from his Manchester source, for a few weeks, perhaps even more, then he could move on again.

  He’d only gone up there to pass on some pills, but the young dumb kid had brought a carload of partygoers, to show off. He wouldn’t have believed it had he not seen it with his own eyes. He’d told Bobby to get the hell out of there and leave them to it, but Bobby couldn’t take his eyes off the girls: girls young enough to be illegal, with flesh hanging out all over the joint, willing and open to hard drug use. Danny had rolled his eyes; it was a recipe for disaster.

  That was when he’d called Bella. He was too fucked to drive, especially over Whinlatter Pass, so he’d walked, and met her somewhere below the treeline. They’d smoked for a good hour or so, as well as drinking the beer she’d brought with her. Bella was old school: she liked a serious-grade joint, a good pint and a hard shag. She was Danny’s kind of girl, and he hooked up with her whenever he could.

  The last thing he’d expected was to be the centre of a manhunt when he woke up in her bed three days later. He’d screwed up, and he knew he’d have to pay; he just wasn’t ready yet. His three mobile phones had been broken into pieces and distributed between bins across London as he made his way from Euston to St Pancras. He kept the drugs he had left; he wasn’t that paranoid, and there were fewer border controls between Britain and Greece than Christmases he’d spent with his mother.

  He’d told Bella he’d take her to the States, and she’d believed him, ready to go anywhere with him. He felt a bit of a bastard, but it was the only way to plant any sort of disinformation for the police. It would buy him time. It would take them ages to get Bella to talk.

  He’d changed gigs before, and he was growing bored of the Lake District anyway; it was full of small-timers like Bobby Bailey, too keen to inject the stuff themselves to bother to keep half an eye open. He should have stayed in Manchester, but that was another closed door, for much the same reason, though none of it had been his fault. He’d chosen the wrong friends, and he knew he was better off on his own. He’d toyed with the idea of getting clean before: not clean as in obeying the law, but as in sober. He’d known a few guys who’d done it and swore by it. Some of them had turned into born-again hippies and that wasn’t his bag, but the idea of not needing it when he woke up was appealing, and he predicted that he’d have to abstain for the foreseeable future anyway, so it was a good opportunity to try. They said it was tough, giving up, but how hard could it be?

  As the train emerged from the tunnel in France, Danny felt like a new man: he was embarking on the adventure of a lifetime, and he should have done it years ago.

  * * *

  Danny Stanton’s only problem was that he’d underestimated the power of digital surveillance and international cooperation. CCTV footage of him buying his train ticket from Oxenholme to Euston was passed to Kelly within a matter of hours; from there, she knew he’d either go to ground in London or abroad. When they found him purchasing a ticket from St Pancras to Paris with the same card he’d used in Oxenholme, their task became even easier.

  Europe wasn’t that far away, and his details were passed as a matter of course to all borders, as far as Britain’s diplomatic relations allowed, including France, Italy and Greece: the exact route of his bus trip. He was apprehended in Lyons before he even had the chance to browse his Greek guidebook. Before the sun set on Boxing Day, he would be on his way back to the UK.

  Chapter 55

  It took Kelly half an hour to reach the Penrith and Lakes Hospital. Her mother had been taken to the cardiac ward, and she ran from the car park to the lift. The hospital was quiet, and it intensified her need to reach Wendy as soon as she could.

  Nikki was already there, and Johnny walked towards Kelly, moving her backwards, out of the way, before the two women could exchange unpleasantries. Kelly’s chest heaved from the exertion of running, and she pushed against Johnny, but he was way stronger than she was.

  ‘What are you doing?’ she whispered. She was mindful of her location, but she didn’t understand what was going on. Nikki glared at her from the other side of the hallway. She saw Matt, Nikki’s husband, who acknowledged her presence and then looked down at his feet again.

  ‘Kelly, stop. I need to talk to you first. Don’t give her the satisfaction of seeing you lose control.’

  ‘What? Why would I?’

  ‘Come in here.’ He drew her into an empty side room.

  ‘Where’s Mum?’

  ‘She’s stable, but you need to prepare yourself. She’s really ill. She stopped taking her last round of medication three weeks ago; at least that’s what they told Nikki. They’ll only talk to you and her, and you weren’t here.’

  ‘You know where I was!’

  ‘Of course I do.’ Johnny closed the door.

  ‘It was Faith,’ was all she said.

  ‘I know. I tried to call, but when you didn’t answer, I knew you were busy. Ted and I agreed that we’d let you get on with whatever you were doing and just keep trying your phone. We got hold of Nikki straight away.’

  ‘And she thinks I’ve put my job first again?’

  ‘Pretty much. Look, don’t let it rile you. It’s predictable behaviour, rise above it. The important thing is your mum.’

  ‘What happened?’

  ‘She collapsed. We thought she was asleep, but she changed colour. I—’

  ‘Oh Johnny, I’m sorry,’ she said.

  ‘Don’t be sorry, how could you have known?’

  ‘What do you mean, she stopped her medication?’

  ‘The course she was taking came to an end and the result wasn’t positive enough to start another one straight away. She’s losing her resilience.’

  Wendy had been ill for over a year now, and she’d had close scrapes from time to time when they’d thought they might lose her and had prepared for the worst, as well as periods of relative health. She was willing to try anything, and chemical substances had kept her alive for longer than was predicted.

  Kelly sniffed at the irony: here she was investigating the fact that illegal substances had snuffed out too many kids’ lives, at the same time hoping that legal o
nes would keep her mother alive. Who got to choose which ones were passed for human consumption? There was a fine line between the ones that killed and the ones that prolonged life. It was just that the lines were being smudged. Prescription drugs a hundred times more powerful than heroin were flooding the market, and no one warned the kids they were there.

  Her theory was that Faith had been forced to take something and had fought back. From what she’d found out about the girl, she was a fighter, just like Wendy, and she’d have no doubt resisted to the end. On a summer evening, the traffic would have been busier and she would probably have been spotted and picked up, maybe still alive. But it was winter, brutal and unforgiving.

  Kelly had her characters lined up on stage and ready to perform; now she just needed to finalise the order in which they appeared. She was left with a sinking feeling that she might not be able to tell her mother that she’d closed another case. She always told her. It wasn’t some kind of trophy-gathering, like the top shelf in her old room where she’d displayed her hockey and netball medals; it was more an excuse to connect with Wendy.

  ‘I want to see her,’ she said.

  ‘Of course. I just wanted to prepare you, and for you to calm down. I knew you’d be wired when you came in. I just wish I’d been able to speak to you earlier.’

  ‘I know.’

  ‘You find out what happened?’

  ‘Not yet. I need the autopsy to be done.’

  ‘I’m not sure Ted’s up to it.’

  ‘He will be when I ask him,’ she said.

  ‘He’s pretty shaken up.’

  ‘It’s all right, it’ll take the body a day or so to thaw out properly.’

  Johnny looked sideways at her.

  ‘God, I’m sorry.’ She realised how cold she must sound. The job did that: made her hard at times.

  He went to her and put his arms around her. She allowed herself to be held. She felt the ring on her finger and caressed it, trying not to let tears drop out of her eyes, because the moment they did, they wouldn’t stop. It wasn’t just for her mother; it was for Faith, and Jenna, and the other kids who were so fucking unhappy and unlucky that they wound up dead too young.

  The moment passed, and she straightened and looked at Johnny.

  ‘How is she?’

  ‘She’s out of it. She’s had an MRI scan and her heart is occluded. The tumour has begun to grow again and it’s threatening to obstruct a major artery. Surgery has never been performed for this type of complication; it’s not done.’

  ‘Why not?’ Kelly’s voice was a whisper.

  ‘They explained to Nikki that it’s not an option. They can fix lots of things, but the removal of the tumour would leave too much tissue to be replaced from other arteries, and she’s not got many of those intact.’

  ‘Her legs? They said they’d use tissue from there, and her back.’

  Johnny shook his head. Kelly remembered a conversation she’d had months ago with the surgeon, Mr Yanni, who’d laid out Wendy’s options before the new drugs had begun to shrink the latest tumour. Why had she run so spectacularly out of options?

  ‘I don’t understand,’ she said. Her voice broke.

  ‘Why don’t you speak to the oncologist?’

  ‘They got an oncologist to come in to work on Christmas Day?’

  ‘Come on, let’s go and find Ted. I think he could do with some support. Your sister has been giving him her “you’re not part of the firm” look, and he’s a bit bewildered.’

  They found Ted by the coffee machine, and before Kelly could resist, he had her in a bear hug. She stiffened, but he didn’t let go, and after a few seconds she allowed him to remain there, just holding her and breathing. She looked at Johnny over Ted’s shoulder and caught Nikki’s eye. Her sister looked baffled but intrigued; but most of all, left out.

  ‘Ted?’ Kelly whispered softly.

  He backed away and she looked at him. His face had lost all the charm and sprightliness she’d seen this morning. Wendy had been wearing a mauve suit and her hair had been curled. She’d smelled of new perfume, and Kelly had figured right away that Ted was spoiling her. Of all the bastard unfairness that she’d seen this week, she reckoned this was the worst of it, but admonished herself for such childish thoughts. Life wasn’t fair for anyone, and it wasn’t supposed to be.

  ‘I’m going in to see her,’ she said.

  Ted nodded. Johnny took her hand and they went into the room, passing Nikki without a word.

  Kelly was unaccustomed to treading so carefully. Her days were full of movement: arranging to go somewhere, getting there, leaving again. This was despondent stillness. A lack of motion that she didn’t trust because she didn’t know her place in it.

  Wendy lay on her back beneath a sheet. Her eyes were closed and she breathed rhythmically, thanks to a mask. Kelly stood at the foot of the bed, not knowing what to do. She didn’t understand the bleeps and lines on the monitors, and she looked to Johnny for support, but he could give her none, apart from being there.

  An hour later, when her phone vibrated, she knew that she had a decision to make.

  Chapter 56

  DC Emma Hide dealt with Tony Blackman.

  She had several jobs to take care of: the first was to inform him that the CPS had dropped all charges against him; the second was to try and talk him out of suing the force for an apology and compensation; and the third was to try and figure out why one of his pupils would accuse him of sharing drugs with students. She was no diplomat, and she was much better at dealing with numbers and stats, but her boss was at the hospital with her mother, and no one else was around to take on the unfortunate task. It was Boxing Day and the office was empty. They’d finally managed to locate Blackman by phone, and he’d explained that he’d visited a friend in Manchester for Christmas.

  Tony Blackman was a changed man, and that was no surprise. He couldn’t get his life back to how it was before the charges, but at least he wasn’t going to prison. Emma didn’t like the anonymity laws any more than the next person, but she wasn’t a lawyer or a judge. Some people seemed to assume that the police could change the law as and when they chose to, but in reality they had no role in judicial matters whatsoever. But it didn’t really change public opinion of them.

  Sarah Peaks was with him. Emma greeted them both with a handshake, and invited them to follow her to a seating area. She couldn’t help feeling liberated on Blackman’s behalf. It was great when you got to catch a criminal who thought they could break the law with impunity, and boast about it, but it was equally satisfying when somebody was exonerated. She would have happily informed him at his home address, but he’d insisted on coming in. She guessed he wanted to celebrate his freedom, and it was symbolic that he could walk into a police station and not be a suspect.

  ‘Can I speak freely?’ she asked him.

  He looked at Sarah and nodded. ‘Of course. Sarah knows everything, she’s been there from the beginning.’

  Tony Blackman was a small man with piercing eyes. He was quietly spoken and Emma got the impression that he was used to being in charge, though that contradicted his size and presence in the room. Sarah was the opposite; she was thickset, and covered her sizeable waistline with cardigans and scarves. She fidgeted, but he was as calm as the surface of Rydal Water before a storm.

  The news from the CPS had come through on Christmas Eve. There was no evidence to support Tony Blackman’s ownership of the images, there was no evidence to support assault, and there was no evidence to support Sadie Rawlinson’s accusation that she was lured to his flat, or groomed in the preceding weeks. In other words, there was no case. It was a waste of everybody’s time, and processes were now in motion to charge Sadie Rawlinson with perjury and obstruction of justice.

  ‘It must have been a horrendous experience, Mr Blackman.’

  ‘What will happen to Sadie?’ he asked.

  Sarah nodded. ‘She’s only a child after all. She needs help.’

  ‘That�
�s something for the CPS to decide. We gather evidence and identify suspects; the law courts decide if someone is guilty.’

  ‘Will she go to prison?’

  ‘It’s difficult to say. At her age, rehabilitation is key. Courts don’t like incarcerating juveniles. She could get hefty community service or a suspended sentence. I really can’t say. It’s a separate case to be investigated.’

  ‘She’ll probably get away with it. You know she’s a drug addict? So is Luke Miles, her boyfriend. They were the ones who got Faith hooked on the stuff,’ he said.

  ‘Tony—’ Sarah began. He put his hand up to shush her, and carried on.

  ‘You name it, they do it. No wonder Faith was found so far away from the fair. Has Luke confessed to giving her the drugs that killed her? So sad, another innocent life.’ He looked away and shook his head. Sarah put her hand on his. But he wasn’t finished.

  ‘As soon as I saw that the colour of some of my icons had changed, I knew they were up to something. You see, protection firewalls that are set to very specific personal criteria are so sensitive that even a slight blip can cause a real meltdown. I knew what they’d been up to, but it was too late.’

  Sarah looked at Tony, and Emma looked from one to the other.

  ‘They?’ she asked.

  ‘Sorry?’ Tony Blackman replied.

  ‘You said “they”. It was just Sadie at your flat, yes?’

  ‘Oh, of course. I simply refer to them as a unit; they’re inseparable. Whatever you find out about Sadie, it’ll be true of Luke, and vice versa. I hope that helps.’

  ‘Right. Mr Blackman, there is one more thing. As part of our wider school inquiries, we did have one pupil tell us that you have used illegal substances with some of your students.’

  ‘That’s ludicrous!’ he laughed.

  ‘More lies,’ Sarah added.

  ‘So you deny ever taking illegal substances?’

  ‘Absolutely. Categorically.’

  Emma stood up. ‘Well, the matter is closed, Mr Blackman. I hope you will accept our formal apology.’ She’d been told to say that, but it didn’t sound right.