The Anita Waller Collection

by Anita Waller

  They looked at each other, knowing that what Dom was saying was the sensible thing to do, but none of them wanted to go to the police station and tell them. In the end, they agreed to think about it and have a vote in ten minutes. Daryl got out the playing cards, and they once more left the grown-up world and became children.

  Mark and Sammy opted to be on lookout, and whenever the laughter became too raucous, they had the job of quietening the others down a notch. But then, Dom called time, and they grew serious.

  Five minutes later, after a unanimous vote, he was digging up the packet again.

  ‘We’ll hand it in as we go home,’ he said. ‘And don’t be scared. We’re doing the right thing.’

  And the sun grew hotter and hotter, although in the shade of the den, things weren’t so bad.

  With hindsight, they agreed that was a good day. Up to a point.

  Vinnie walked across to the car park via the road, instead of going through the woods. He didn’t want his new white trainers to look scruffy before he met the man.

  He arrived fifteen minutes early and went into Asda, waiting in the foyer that housed the bottom of the travelator. He went over to where the trolleys were lined up and acted as though he was waiting for someone – in reality, it gave him a view of the car park entrance, and he would be able to see every car driving in.

  The silver Audi arrived one minute early, and the driver drove around looking for the best spot. Vinnie waited until the car drew to a stop and walked nonchalantly out of the foyer and across to the parked car. He checked the registration ended in ECV and opened the passenger door.

  His contact was tall, blonde-haired and blue-eyed, and he wondered if it really was possible to fall in love at first sight. She was gorgeous, and as he sat back and closed the door, she spoke. ‘And you are?’ She pulled down her sunglasses slightly to look at him.

  ‘Does it matter?’

  ‘It does.’

  ‘Vinnie.’

  ‘You have the goods?’

  ‘Nearby.’

  ‘Nearby? I thought you understood you were to hand them over at 4pm. It’s now’—she glanced at the clock in the car—‘4.03, and I don’t have my… shopping.’

  ‘Do you have my money?’

  ‘Of course. But not until I have my goods.’

  He looked down at her feet. ‘Can you walk in those heels?’

  ‘Of course.’

  ‘Then, it’s stashed a minute’s walk away, over there.’ He nodded towards the woods. ‘Buried.’

  ‘Buried?’

  ‘I didn’t want it in the house, not that much. The police would never believe that amount was for personal use. I don’t take chances.’

  She sighed resignedly. ‘For God’s sake, man, come on, then.’

  She picked up her handbag, rammed a large white sunhat on her head and opened the car door. He was stunned. He had expected to be told to go fetch it, but here was this classy bird agreeing to accompany him into the woods. He followed her across the car park, and then as they reached the woods, he took the lead. Pity, really. It had been a nice arse to follow. The striking black and white dress, cut very low both front and back, emphasised every curve, and he felt a part of his anatomy reacting to her of its own free will.

  The six children went home a bit earlier than usual, knowing they had to take the packet into the station.

  There were seven people already sitting around the reception area, and they looked at each other.

  ‘We’ll be hours,’ Daryl whispered. ‘Quick vote – shall we do it in the morning? I’ll take the stuff home, if you like, as it’s in my bag. It won’t matter if it’s busy tomorrow morning, we can wait. But if I’m late home today, I’ll be in bother, ’cos we’re going to my nan’s house for tea.’

  He looked around at the others, and they all gave a thumbs-up sign, Dom a little reluctantly.

  They left the police station at around the same time as Vinnie Walmsley was arriving at the place where he had buried what he thought of as his future.

  ‘It’s over here,’ he said, and turned to help her over the tree roots. ‘Be careful,’ he warned. ‘Yer shoes aren’t really suitable.’

  ‘You don’t say, Einstein,’ she snapped.

  He approached the distinctive tree he had deliberately chosen and saw the mound of earth, newly dug.

  ‘Shit…’

  ‘What? What’s wrong?’ She pulled alongside him and looked down. She said nothing; there was nothing to be said.

  ‘Perhaps an animal…’ Vinnie dropped to his knees, taking the trowel out of his jeans pocket. He dug frantically, but knew it was futile. The packet had gone.

  ‘Shit,’ he repeated, and dropped his head.

  She reached inside her bag and took out the knife she always carried, lifted his head up by grabbing hold of his hair and slid the sharp blade across his throat. He fell forward, and she fell with him, unable to stop. She picked herself up, looked around and listened to his laboured last breaths.

  He wasn’t dead when she left him, but he was before she reached her car. And she had avoided spattering blood all over her designer dress, still an immaculate black and white.

  The children met up at the den early next morning. Daryl brought the powder with him, still in his backpack.

  ‘Right,’ he said. ‘What’s the plan of action?’

  Dom spoke first. He had hardly slept all night and wanted to get this over and done with.

  ‘I suggest we act this out. We go out there and play a game of hide and seek, then stumble across the package behind a tree or something. We make a bit of a show of it, then take it to the cop shop. And whatever we’ve done, that’s the story we tell the police. Okay?’

  They gave the thumbs up.

  ‘I’ll keep hold of the packet, then,’ Daryl said. ‘Come on, let’s get rid of it and get back to our normal lives.’

  They left the den one by one and looked around. There was nobody about, and Dom breathed a sigh of relief. ‘Okay, who’s looking?’

  ‘I’ll do it,’ volunteered Freya. ‘I’ll wait in the den for a hundred counts, then I’m coming. Go!’

  She climbed back in the den, and they all ran. The Brownlow twins climbed upwards; the other three hid in the undergrowth.

  They heard the call of coming, hidden or not, and Dom and Mark saw their sister barrel out of the den from their vantage points up in the trees.

  Freya stopped for a moment and listened but didn’t hear anything. She cautiously moved towards the densest part of the woods, looking around her all the time for any splashes of colour that would indicate somebody was hiding there.

  She saw one of them laid out flat and quietly approached, thinking it strange that they hadn’t attempted to move deeper into the wood once she got nearer. Her scream started when she was about ten feet away.

  She pulled out her whistle from where it hung under her T-shirt and blew her own signal. There was a crashing of twigs, and she knew the others were coming.

  Sammy was the first to reach her, and his huge brown eyes followed the direction of her pointed hand.

  ‘Look,’ she whispered, and then turned and vomited. He held her, then turned her so that her back was to the bloodstained ground. There was a huge spread of crimson, giving off a sickening metallic smell.

  The others arrived and stared at the scene. This couldn’t be happening. The corpse was laid across the hole that had once contained the packet of drugs, and it was obviously a dead body.

  ‘It’s him,’ Ella said. ‘It’s the man we watched bury the packet.’

  ‘Vinnie Walmsley,’ Sammy said, then looked down at the ground.

  ‘You knew him?’ Daryl sounded angry.

  ‘I wasn’t sure until I went home. Then, I had to walk past him, and I recognised his clothes. I ended up going around the back of the houses, so I didn’t have to pass him. He scares me. Scared me.’ Sammy looked at them all. ‘I would have told you…’

  ‘So, now what do we do?’
/>   ‘Should we check he’s definitely dead?’

  ‘No!’ Ella’s voice reflected her terror at the thought. ‘No, we can’t go near him.’

  ‘We can’t ignore him. We’ve got to tell somebody.’

  ‘Or we walk away and pretend we’ve not seen him.’ Mark threw in his thoughts for the first time. ‘It would be better for us if some adult found him. What do you think?’

  ‘Let’s go back to the den. We need to talk about this properly.’ Daryl had taken on the leadership temporarily. He was the one holding the packet, taking the risks, so they’d damn well better listen.

  They nodded and walked away without going any nearer the body.

  Inside the den, they grabbed bottles of water. Freya still felt sick, and Sammy sat holding her hand, trying to offer comfort, but not really knowing how to do it.

  ‘Okay,’ Daryl began. ‘This is not good for any of us. The way I see it is like this. I could be wrong, but I think Vinnie came back with whoever he was selling the drugs to, to dig them up and hand them over. Unfortunately for him, we’d beat him to it and swanned off with them. I think whoever he was with killed him. They probably thought he was cheating them.’ Daryl paused for a moment. ‘Now, I think we could be in some danger here.’

  ‘You don’t say, Daryl,’ Mark said. ‘I think we’re in a hell of a lot of danger, and I vote we tell our parents. It’s their job to protect us, ain’t it?’

  ‘You don’t think we should tell the police we found a body?’ Ella spoke tremulously, and Freya nodded. ‘We don’t have to mention any drugs, only that there’s a body. We can pour the powder into the Shire Brook. It’ll wash it away.’

  The others looked at Ella without speaking, digesting her words. It was so rare for her to have an opinion on anything; she was normally happy to go along with whatever the others decided to do, but suddenly, she had come up with a valid answer to their problem.

  ‘What does everybody think about that?’ Daryl looked around the group. ‘Let’s have a vote. Who thinks it’s a good idea?’

  Slowly, one by one, the thumbs went up.

  Dom’s thumb was a little unsteady; he wasn’t convinced. He was bothered by the idea of maybe getting caught pouring away a significant amount of cocaine into a stream that was almost dry. ‘I need to say something. We can’t put it in the Shire Brook yet, there’s not enough water flow. We went down the fields a couple of days ago with Dad, and it’s too dry. We have to hold on to the packet until we get some heavy rain. Does everybody agree with that?’

  Again, the thumbs were raised. ‘Who’s going to hide the packet?’ Mark looked around at everyone. ‘It needs to be somewhere safe, where our parents won’t see it.’

  Freya opened her mouth to speak, but then thought better of it.

  Mark saw her. ‘Freya?’

  ‘Erm… there’s my Wendy house in the back garden. My parents are too big to get in it, and I could hide it in the oven. It won’t be for long, will it? As soon as it rains heavy, we’ll get rid, won’t we?’ She could hear the panic in her own voice and wished she hadn’t suggested it.

  ‘That’s a brilliant idea, Freya,’ Daryl said, his smile lighting up his face. He had been worried he might have to take it home, and he couldn’t begin to imagine where he could safely hide it.

  ‘So, how do I do it? I can’t walk in carrying a packet of cocaine, can I? I haven’t got a bag with me, or anything.’ Freya was nervous.

  Daryl thought for a moment. ‘We go to yours now. We can always say we’ve decided to play in your garden. We’ve done it before. Your mum won’t think it’s strange. Then, you and Ella can go in the little house and hide it. We’re in the clear as soon as that’s done, and we can come back down here this afternoon and find the body again, if nobody else has found it. That’s when we go and tell the police.’

  They checked everything was okay in the den and set off for the Brownlows’ house.

  The traffic was heavy, and it took them some time to cross the road, to get back onto the estate.

  They trekked up the road leading to Sunnyside Close; a young man was walking down on the opposite side of the road.

  He waved when he saw them. ‘Sammy!’

  Sammy gulped. ‘Liam…’

  ‘Don’t suppose you’ve seen Vinnie, have you? He didn’t make it home last night, and his mother’s going mental. She’s got me out of bed to go and look for him.’

  Sammy’s face showed fear. Daryl hoped Liam couldn’t tell from that distance. ‘No,’ Sammy squeaked. ‘I’ve not seen him. I’ll look out for him, though.’

  Liam acknowledged Sammy’s words by lifting his hand again and continued down the road.

  ‘Liam’s his best mate,’ Sammy said. ‘He’s okay, though. Likes a kick-around with us kids at night on the field. Works at Asda stacking shelves. Nowt like drug-dealer Vinnie, not at all.’

  ‘Well done,’ Daryl said. ‘You handled that good.’

  They continued on their journey and eventually arrived in the back garden.

  The sun was still relentlessly hot, and Sally Brownlow looked at the six children, surprise etched on her face. ‘To what do I owe this honour?’

  Mark grinned at his mother’s words. ‘We thought we’d do something a bit different today. We’re going to set the croquet up. Is that okay?’

  ‘Of course it is. Orange juice, everyone?’

  They all thanked her politely, anxious not to cause any concern for her. She brought out their drinks and then said she was nipping down to Asda.

  ‘Can I trust you all to behave while I’m gone?’ she asked.

  Their nodding heads made them appear like angels, and Sally Brownlow smiled. She grabbed her car keys and left them to play, hoping against hope they wouldn’t have burnt the house down or anything in the time she was away.

  They heard the car leave, and Freya and Ella ran down the garden and into the Wendy house. Inside the oven was a plastic casserole.

  Daryl, easily the tallest in the group, had no chance of getting in, so he carefully took the packet out of his backpack and handed it through the window.

  Freya placed it in the casserole, then asked the boys to gather some grass. She sprinkled the grass on top of the packet until it was completely covered, put on the lid and slid it back into the oven.

  ‘Done,’ she announced, and both girls backed carefully out of the Wendy house. ‘Now, let’s get this croquet set up, or Mum will know we were lying. She’s good at knowing that.’

  Mark nodded. ‘Okay. And after we’ve had a sandwich, we’ll pack this away and go back down to the woods. Then, we’ll find Vinnie.’

  It didn’t take long to set up the croquet, and, despite their worries, they enjoyed the game.

  Sally Brownlow came back with breadcakes and ham and made them sandwiches, then they packed away the croquet, said polite thank yous and headed back down the road. Daryl’s backpack felt much lighter, and he was almost convinced that they were doing the right thing.

  They didn’t see Liam, so presumed he was out, still looking for his mate. Reaching the den, they gathered inside. They could see Vinnie Walmsley through the window; they knew it was there, it was all too clearly a body.

  ‘Right. Five minutes to get our story straight. We came down to the woods to play hide and seek and found the body. I think four of us should stay with Vinnie, and two go to the cop station.’ Mark was well into his leadership role. ‘What do you think?’

  ‘Who’s going to the police?’ Ella prayed it wasn’t her.

  ‘Daryl and Sammy? You up for that?’

  They nodded, and so the plan was born.

  Chapter 4

  Sammy and Daryl were nervous. The others were standing around the body; it looked gruesome after a night of foxes and other animals having a nibble on it.

  ‘Can I help you?’

  Daryl leaned into the window and spoke to a PC. ‘I hope so. We’ve… erm… found a body.’

  ‘You’ve found a body? Where?’

>   ‘In the woods.’

  ‘What woods?’

  ‘Next door. Can I speak to somebody who understands me, please?’ Daryl was nothing if not polite.

  ‘Hang on a minute.’ The PC disappeared, and a couple of minutes later, another policeman came through the door connecting the offices with the reception.

  ‘Now then, young man, what’s PC Lacey telling me? You’ve found a body?’

  ‘Yes. It’s Vinnie Walmsley.’

  ‘You know him?’

  ‘I do.’ Sammy finally spoke, having felt it was less terrifying if Daryl did all the talking.

  ‘Er… sir…’ PC Lacey interrupted. ‘His mother rang this morning to see if we’d arrested him for anything.’

  ‘Who? This young man?’ He smiled at Sammy.

  ‘No, sir, Vinnie Walmsley’s mother. She said he hadn’t come home last night, and she was trying to find him. I confirmed we hadn’t arrested him, and that was the end of the conversation.’

  DI Roberts immediately stopped patronising Daryl and Sammy. ‘Right, lads, come through here and tell me what you know.’

  He led them through the door, and they looked around nervously. This wasn’t good. They’d imagined they would tell their news, a group of policemen would go and look, and that would be the end of it as far as they were concerned.

  That wasn’t the way it was going to happen. Roberts told them to sit down, and he moved behind his desk. ‘Talk to me,’ he said.

  ‘We can show you where it is,’ Daryl said. ‘But we need to go now, because our friends have stayed with it, and it’s not very nice.’

  ‘Where is it?’

  ‘It’s in the little wood next door.’

  ‘Next door to here?’

  ‘Yes. We’ve already told him out there.’

  ‘Right. Names.’

  ‘Daryl Clarkson.’

  ‘Samuel Walker.’

  ‘He’s called Sammy,’ Daryl said helpfully.

  ‘Addresses?’

  They told him their addresses, and Daryl said, ‘Why do you want to know that? The body’s in the wood, not at our addresses.’