The Anita Waller Collection

by Anita Waller

  She leaned against the counter with her back to him and dropped her head. He stood and went towards her.

  ‘Come here,’ he said, and turned her round to face him. ‘Let me give you a hug.’

  She leaned against him, and her breasts pressed into his chest. She enjoyed it for a few moments as he held her. She felt him kiss the top of her head; her wet hair smelled of coconut.

  Aileen wrapped her arms around him and pulled him closer. His erection pressed into her, and she lifted her head. Pulling him to her, she kissed him. He knew she was using him, needing the comfort of somebody caring, even if only for a few minutes. A tug on the towel, and it dropped away from her.

  He stared at her curves. ‘You’re beautiful,’ he whispered. ‘Absolutely beautiful.’ And then, he stepped back. ‘I’m so sorry, Aileen, I shouldn’t have done that…’

  She took him by the hand and led him into the lounge. ‘Tell me that in a bit.’

  My God, he thought. That was easy.

  Aileen let him out of the back door; he didn’t want anybody running straight round to Megan telling her he’d been seen coming out of Aileen Walmsley’s. Somewhat to his surprise, it had been an awesome couple of hours.

  She certainly knew what she was doing and had taught him a thing or two. He might have to go back and comfort her again. What she hadn’t done was tell him about any stash of cocaine that her darling boy had left hidden somewhere. That had been the idea behind going around there in the first place; the towel wrapped loosely around that very tidy body had definitely been a bonus.

  Now, he had to decide what to do about the instructions from Grausohn – find out who the kids were.

  The second he told them his own son was involved, they would realise he had known all along, and where would that leave him? Dead. He knew they had killed Johanna, and he knew they wouldn’t hesitate to “off” him. So, what to do?

  He couldn’t even leave Daryl out of the equation, because the second they went to work on any one of the kids, they would tell them everything they wanted to know, including the fact that Daryl was there when they were.

  Should he give Daryl up to them? Act as if it was the first he’d heard of it? Bloody Daryl would probably tell them his dad had had to be there when they gave their statements.

  Why did life have to be so fucking confusing? All because one daft bint had killed Vinnie Walmsley without stopping to think about the consequences.

  He reached his own home and went in via the back door. All seemed quiet, and he went through to the lounge and lay down on the sofa. He’d had an energetic afternoon and needed a little kip before going out later. He didn’t wipe the smile off his face quick enough.

  ‘She made you smile, then, did she?’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Whoever you’ve been with. Don’t deny it, Carl, I can smell sex on you. Go and pack, and don’t come back. I don’t want you anywhere near us.’

  He stared at her. ‘Don’t speak to me like that, tart. I’m going nowhere.’

  ‘You are.’ She slipped her mobile phone from her jeans pocket and rang her brother. ‘Owen? He won’t go.’

  She disconnected the call, and Carl knew he was beaten. Or he would be, if he didn’t get his arse in gear in the next ten minutes and leg it out of there. He’d taken a beating from Owen Davies once before, after Carl had blacked Megan’s eye, and he didn’t want another one. This time, he might not survive.

  ‘Fuck you,’ he snarled. ‘She was better than you in bed, anyway.’

  ‘Get out, Carl. Just get out. And don’t try to contact either of us again. We don’t need you. Never did, really.’

  He walked upstairs slowly, hurling insults at her every step of the way.

  Once inside their bedroom, he packed a bag fast. He wanted to be well on his way by the time Owen Davies arrived to comfort his sister and batter his brother-in-law.

  He didn’t say goodbye, simply slammed the door and left.

  Aileen Walmsley was surprised to hear the doorbell. She was even more surprised to see Carl Clarkson once again as she peered through the spyhole.

  It was hardly any time at all since they’d both agreed their frantic bout of sex had been a mistake brought on my grief and loneliness, and they wouldn’t be seeing each other again. In the current climate, it wasn’t a sensible thing to do. So, she wondered why he was on her doorstep for the second time that day.

  ‘Carl?’

  ‘Can I come in?’

  She stepped back without speaking, and he walked past her. He headed towards the kitchen.

  He dumped his bag on the floor and turned to her. ‘Megan’s thrown me out. I’ve nowhere to go tonight, and I wondered if I could sleep on your sofa. Honestly, Aileen, it’s only for the one night. I wouldn’t ask if there was anybody else I could turn to, but there isn’t.’

  She paused for a moment. ‘I guess it’s okay. But I’m being collected tomorrow morning to go and identify Vinnie. You’ll need to be out of the way early.’

  He nodded. ‘That’s no problem. I need to find somewhere to stay anyway. I’ll be gone by nine. Okay?’

  She nodded. ‘That’s fine, DC Shaw is coming about nine-thirty for me.’

  Carl carried his bag through to the lounge and dropped it by the side of the sofa. He took out his wallet and extracted a twenty-pound note.

  ‘Pizza?’ He handed Aileen the money.

  She laughed. ‘Doesn’t get much more romantic than that. Pizza it is.’

  Daryl arrived home to find his Uncle Owen there. Daryl’s mum had obviously been crying, and he went to give her a hug. ‘What’s wrong?’

  ‘It’s your dad. I’ve told him to leave.’

  Daryl looked first at Owen and then at his mum. ‘Why?’

  ‘I can’t really explain… You know we’ve not been getting on for a while, and I’d had enough. Anyway, he’s gone. And he won’t be back.’

  ‘Promise?’

  Of all the responses Owen and Megan had expected, that was nowhere near what they had pre-supposed.

  ‘I promise,’ she said softly. ‘You’re not upset?’

  Daryl looked at her with a grin on his face. ‘Couldn’t stand him. Do me a favour, Mum, if you get me another dad, let me have a say in it as well, will you?’

  Owen and Megan were left open-mouthed as Daryl disappeared upstairs to his bedroom.

  Daryl lay on his back and stared at his bedroom ceiling. They still hadn’t come up with any decent answers as to what to do with the hefty package of cocaine, and he could tell Freya was getting quite upset about it – Freya, the feral Freya, who couldn’t care less about rules, who did everything she was forbidden to do; suddenly, she was acquiring a conscience. Or she was concerned that if it were found in her Wendy house, she would get the blame.

  He didn’t know what to do. And neither did Sammy, Freya’s champion. They had left the Brownlow house to walk home and had discussed everything as they climbed the hill. He had left Sammy to carry on alone once he reached his own path and had made him promise to give it a lot of thought overnight. Those drugs had to disappear.

  Sammy had responded with a high five, and ‘Yo, man!’, but it didn’t mean either of them would have an answer by the morning.

  And now, Daryl had got the additional news of his dad. He wondered for a moment where he had gone, but it was only for a moment. He didn’t really care. He had felt humiliated by him at the police station; the other parents had been fully supportive of their kids. Carl had been stroppy, thuggish and a pain in the backside.

  Daryl heard the front door open and close and guessed his Uncle Owen had gone. He hoped his dad hadn’t hit his mum; was that why Uncle Owen was there? He had sorted Carl out last time that had happened. Daryl’s mum didn’t look injured, no black eye or anything… Maybe he’d better check on her.

  He climbed off his bed and headed back downstairs. ‘You okay, Mum? Has Uncle Owen left?’

  She turned to face him. ‘I’m absolutely fine, Daryl. A big weig
ht’s gone. I brought Uncle Owen here to stop any bother, but I think your dad remembered last time and disappeared pretty damn fast after I made the call. You sure you’re okay? It’s a massive thing for a son to lose his dad.’

  Daryl stared at her. ‘It would have been better if he’d died. Now we’ll always wonder if we’ll see him again. But I’m getting bigger now, Mum, and he’ll not hit you again.’

  She pulled Daryl towards her and kissed the top of his head. ‘Where did I find one like you?’ she whispered softly, hugging him. ‘I’m going to treat you, to celebrate him going and to say thank you for being you.’

  Daryl pulled away from her and grinned. ‘McDonalds it is, then!’

  Carl turned in his sleep and the feel of Aileen’s soft breasts against him woke him. He leaned his head down to kiss them, and she moaned. She reached her hand down the bed and touched him.

  ‘Ready again?’ she murmured sleepily.

  He pushed her onto her back, and she opened her eyes.

  ‘Eager, aren’t we?’ She felt him enter her and immediately responded.

  Five minutes later, they were once again lying side by side, satiated, spent.

  ‘You’re gorgeous,’ he said.

  ‘Yeah, you’re okay too,’ she answered, smiling into the darkness. ‘Glad you didn’t sleep on the sofa. It feels good to have a man in bed, again.’

  ‘Never known you to have a feller.’

  ‘Just the odd one or two one-night stands, nothing serious. Vinnie’s dad left before Vinnie was born, and I chose to bring him up on my own.’

  ‘I didn’t know.’ Carl raised himself up onto one elbow and looked at her. ‘I’m sorry. That must have been rough.’

  ‘It was. I’ve missed out on having the help from a father figure, and I’ve wondered a lot of times if that’s why Vinnie turned to dealing.’

  ‘You knew he was?’

  ‘Yeah, but small time. I’d no idea he was handling bigger stuff. DI Roberts seems to think that’s why he was killed. He was supposed to hand some drugs over, but they disappeared. I’ve checked his hiding place, where he used to put stuff, but it’s not there.’

  ‘Shit. He was crazy enough to hide stuff in the house?’ Carl tried to sound shocked.

  ‘Nah, there’s an overgrown patch of garden down at the bottom end. He used to dig a hole there and put stuff in it. He could have found a different area for this latest delivery, but I’ve had a good look round and can’t see any newly dug earth.’

  Carl touched her breasts again, almost absent-mindedly. The garden. He’d watch for her to go with this policewoman tomorrow and then head back.

  Aileen turned on her side, her back to him. ‘I need to sleep, babe. Got a big day tomorrow.’

  ‘Sorry, sweetheart.’ He kissed her back. ‘Sweet dreams, see you in the morning.’

  She smiled. The sex had been good, and she didn’t regret for one minute inviting him to sleep in her bed. And the biggest bonus was that tomorrow, she might get the back garden dug over, without having to employ a gardener.

  Chapter 8

  Aileen left the house around nine-fifteen and went to sit on the front garden wall, waiting for the arrival of the police car. Carl had left fifteen minutes earlier, but she guessed he was around somewhere, watching for her to disappear.

  He really was stupid, thinking he could fool her. She was looking forward to confronting him later and thanking him for turning the heavy soil over in the back garden. She could even ignore the digging in the back garden and suggest Vinnie had also buried stuff in the front garden.

  She knew he had believed he was using her in the afternoon, for the sex, but the reality was, she had needed to be held, to have someone inside her, wiping out her grief, comforting her with sex how she liked it. So, who had used whom?

  She saw the police car coming up the road, and she stood. Let the digging commence.

  Within a minute of Aileen leaving, Carl was walking around the house and into the back garden. These drugs had to be somewhere, and if he could find them and produce them for Grausohn, he would be well in. And certainly quids in.

  Carl slipped into the shed and found a spade. Would Aileen believe he’d tried to say thank you for giving him a bed, and some awesome sex, by trying to tidy her garden? He thought so. He began with the overgrown weed area that she had mentioned. Luckily, the rain of the previous day had softened the baked soil, and he could dig deep, but there was nothing.

  He checked his watch. Half an hour. He was guessing she’d be away about an hour, so he moved on to another area where it seemed as if they’d attempted to grow vegetables at some point. He dug. He heard his spade clang, and the impact jarred his shoulder.

  Dropping to his knees, he scrabbled feverishly in the soil and pulled out a canister, round, muddy and old. Whatever was in it, it wasn’t half a million pounds worth of cocaine. Come to think of it, he didn’t know if the particular package he was trying to find was worth that much, or if the entire deal was for that amount.

  He leaned back on his heels, feeling frustrated. Picking up the canister, he bashed it against a brick until it cracked. There were papers inside, and a couple of toys that looked as if they had come from McDonald’s. He picked up one of the papers. It was headed “Time Capsule by Vinnie Walmsley.”

  He threw it against the shed side and stood. Maybe he was tackling this all wrong. He walked carefully around the garden, looking intently towards the ground, searching for any small areas that might have been newly dug.

  And that’s what he was doing when Aileen walked out of the back door.

  ‘Sometimes, he buried things in the front garden!’ she called. ‘Want to go and turn that over as well?’

  He jumped, guilt all over his face. ‘I… er… I thought I’d try to tidy the garden up for you.’

  ‘Really?’ Her tone was scathing. ‘Want to have a shower now, and we’ll slip back into bed? Get out, Carl, before I ring the police. I’m sure they’ll be interested in hearing what you have to say.’

  He had no words, or at least no words that would get him out of this. He stumbled as he headed for the garden gate, picked up his bag and began to walk down the path that ran around the house.

  ‘Wait!’ she called.

  He stopped.

  ‘You’re looking for the package that seems to have gone missing, that my Vinnie died for?’

  He nodded, still not trusting himself to speak.

  She looked at him, holding him there with her eyes, thinking. ‘Come into the kitchen. We need to talk. The truth, not your bullshit.’

  He turned to follow her, not sure if he was more scared of her, or Grausohn. She clicked on the kettle and told him to sit down. He still hadn’t spoken. He was beginning to realise that she had had the upper hand from the beginning, from the second he delivered the flowers, that now stood in a pint pot in the middle of the kitchen table, to the moment she had caught him in the back garden.

  She made two cups of tea, still without letting him off the hook in any way, and he remained equally silent.

  He still couldn’t speak, even when she put the cup down in front of him, sat across from him and used the immortal words, ‘Start talking.’

  He opened his mouth a couple of times, but had no idea what to say, or even what she wanted to know.

  She suddenly seemed to relent. ‘You’re in trouble, aren’t you?’

  Finally, his brain engaged. ‘A bit,’ he admitted.

  ‘That’s a start. Let me tell you what I’ve worked out, and then, you can fill in the bits I don’t know.’

  He nodded, acknowledging he’d better not hide anything, she seemed to be five steps in front of him anyway.

  ‘I think you’re looking for the drugs my Vinnie was killed for. When I told you he buried stuff in the garden, he did, but that was the little stuff. He thought the police wouldn’t bother bringing in a sniffer dog, or even digging up the bloody garden. I turned a blind eye, because I thought he was too naïve to progress to th
e bigger boys. He was a little dealer, that’s all.’

  She paused, took a screwed-up tissue from her sleeve and dabbed at her eyes. ‘It now seems, according to Roberts, that he took delivery of the package, like a middle-man, and he was to be contacted by the final recipient of it, then hand it over. He would have thought it was easy money, because he didn’t have to sell anything, simply hold them. But that visit by the police, months ago, had scared him. He must have decided to bury it, like he did here, only he used the woods. Roberts thinks he was seen burying it, because it wasn’t there when he went to get it. He was with a woman, apparently, but the drugs squad here aren’t aware of any women they’re watching, not ones that look like her, anyway.’

  She paused again. ‘It seems she killed him, immediately. Didn’t give him a chance to explain anything, so now, the bloody drugs are missing, no clues as to who they really belong to, nothing. But I think you know something. Who are you working for, Carl?’

  He hesitated, but when she repeated ‘Carl,’ he spoke.

  ‘You’re right, of course you’re right. It doesn’t take a genius to work out what happened with Vinnie, and I can tell you now you’ll never see proper justice for him, ’cos I think she’s already dead, the woman who killed him. I know names, but I can’t tell you if you’re going to go straight to the police. I’d be dead within the hour if you did that. These are big boys we’re talking about here, Aileen. They’re not the kids Vinnie was learning his trade with.’

  ‘Why do you think she’s dead?’

  ‘I heard the bloke who killed her talking about it, laughing, saying he’d copped a feel as he tipped her body into a bin. Everybody wanted to cop a feel of her but couldn’t. She belonged to the boss. He would have ordered her to be done.’

  ‘Nice bloke. Nice outfit you work for.’

  ‘Yeah, but now, ’cos I live local to where Vinnie died, I’ve been sent out to find who the kids are who came across his body. The boss wants to… talk to them.’