by Kevin Brooks
Despite Grandad’s warnings, I was still shocked to the core when he led me into the room and I saw for myself the state Courtney was in. She was lying in bed with all manner of tubes and drips and wires fixed to various parts of her body. Her right eye was completely shut, just a swollen mass of purple and black bruising, and her lips were all bloodied and puffed up. She had numerous stitched-up cuts all over her face, a particularly nasty-looking one above her left eye, and she had a bandage wrapped tightly around her head.
As I stood there looking at her, her poor face battered and broken, I’d never felt so sickened and angry in all my life.
‘Hey, Travis,’ she mumbled thickly, her voice barely understandable. ‘Don’t you know it’s rude to stare?’
My legs were unsteady as I went over and sat down in a chair beside her bed, and as she tried her best to smile at me, my heart felt as if it was going to explode. I reached out and gently took her hand. She squeezed it weakly.
‘Don’t look so glum, Trav,’ she mumbled, ‘it’s not as bad as it looks.’
‘We’ll get them,’ I promised her through gritted teeth. ‘Whoever did this to you, we’ll get them.’
‘I didn’t get a look at them . . . but one of them’s going to be limping badly, and I’m pretty sure the other one’s going to look like he’s been in a fight.’ She paused for a moment, staring at nothing, and I could see the pain and fear in her eyes. ‘I did my best, Trav,’ she muttered quietly. ‘I didn’t give up . . . but they were just too strong for me . . . they were like . . . like animals
‘Hey,’ I said softly, ‘it’s OK now. You’re safe.’
She shook her head. ‘If the others hadn’t turned up when they did . . .’
‘Did you get a look at the guys who saved you?’ I asked.
‘I was barely conscious. I heard them come in, and I vaguely remember one of them shouting . . . but that was it. The next thing I knew, I was waking up in here.’
‘Did you recognise the shouting voice?’
‘No,’ she mumbled dopily, trying to keep her eyes open. ‘What about Raisa? We need to find out what happened to her. She might be . . .’
As her voice trailed off and her eyes began to close, the door opened and a white-coated doctor carrying a clipboard came in.
‘This is Dr Adams,’ Grandad told me. ‘He’s been looking after Courtney.’
‘You must be Travis,’ Dr Adams said, quickly shaking my hand. ‘Your grandad’s told me about you.’
Without waiting for a reply, he went over to the bed and started checking the readings of the various monitors surrounding Courtney.
‘Is it OK if I stay with her tonight, Doctor?’ Grandad asked him.
‘Well, strictly speaking,’ he said, carefully examining Courtney’s eyes, ‘overnight visitors should be immediate family only, but I’m given to understand that Ms Lane’s mother is all the family she has, and as she’s not in any condition to visit . . .’ He paused, jotting down some figures on his clipboard, then looked over at Grandad. ‘I don’t have any trouble with you staying, Mr Delaney.’
‘Thank you,’ Grandad said.
‘But for the next couple of hours it’s crucial that Ms Lane gets some rest.’
‘I won’t say a word,’ Grandad promised.
Dr Adams shook his head. ‘She needs complete peace and quiet. You can come back later, but right now she needs to be left alone.’
‘I’d rather stay, if you don’t mind.’
‘I’m not asking you, Mr Delaney,’ Dr Adams said firmly, but not unpleasantly, ‘I’m telling you.’
‘Yes, but—’
‘Do you want her to get better or not?’
‘Of course I do.’
Dr Adams smiled. ‘See you later then.’
26
I could tell that Grandad was really unhappy about leaving Courtney, and I was pretty sure it was because he felt responsible for what had happened to her and was desperate to make up for it by not letting her out of his sight again. I thought about telling him again that it wasn’t his fault, and that he didn’t need to feel guilty, but in the end I decided to leave it for the moment and hope that he’d eventually see sense and realise that he wasn’t to blame and he didn’t have to punish himself.
On the way out to the hospital car park, he told me that whoever it was who’d rescued Courtney, they hadn’t called the police.
‘They called emergency services and requested an ambulance,’ he explained, ‘but they refused to give their name, and by the time the ambulance arrived they’d already disappeared. They’d left Courtney in the care of two middle-aged women who lived on the same floor as Raisa. The women claimed not to know what had happened to her.’
‘The paramedics must have called the police though,’ I said.
Grandad nodded. ‘Two uniformed PCs came to the hospital. Dr Adams wouldn’t let them talk to her, so they asked me what had happened.’
‘How much did you tell them?’
‘I gave them my name, told them I was a PI and that Courtney was my partner, and I said she was visiting Raisa Ferris with regard to an ongoing investigation. They wanted a lot more details, of course, but that was all they got.’ Grandad shrugged. ‘They told me they’d be back when Courtney was feeling better, and that CID officers would be in touch with me later. To be honest though, I’d be very surprised if we hear from them again. I know it sounds cynical, but if the police launched a CID investigation every time someone got beaten up on the Slade, they’d never have time to do anything else.’
It did sound cynical, but unfortunately it was true.
Just as we got to his car, Grandad got a phone call from Gloria. After updating her on Courtney’s condition, he spent the next few minutes just standing there, leaning against his car with the phone to his ear, listening to what Gloria was saying. It was impossible to work out what she was telling him, because he was barely saying anything in reply, just the occasional uh-huh, right, I see. Even when he finally ended the call, he still didn’t say anything for a minute or two, he just stood there, staring into the distance, lost in thought.
‘Hello?’ I said to him after a while. ‘Earth to Grandad . . . is anyone there?’
He turned and looked at me. ‘Sorry, Trav,’ he said. ‘I was thinking about what Gloria just told me.’
‘Any chance of sharing it with me?’
‘Yes, of course, sorry.’ He opened the car door. ‘I’ll tell you all about it on the way back to the office.’
The first thing Gloria had found out, he told me, was that the GP who’d provided written verification to back up Raisa Ferris’s injury claim was currently under investigation by the General Medical Council for unethical behaviour and forging prescriptions.
‘He runs a surgery near Beacon Fields,’ Grandad said. ‘Apparently it’s an open secret that if you’ve got enough money you can get whatever you want from him – prescriptions, sick notes, false medical reports.’
‘So there’s probably nothing wrong with Raisa Ferris’s eyes,’ I said.
Grandad nodded. ‘Not that it matters now anyway. She’s dropped her claim.’
‘Since when?’
‘About an hour ago. She called Jakes and Mortimer and told them she no longer wishes to pursue her compensation claim against Tanga Tans.’
‘Did she give a reason?’
‘No.’
‘She’s been scared off,’ I said. ‘Dee Dee’s boys must have paid her a visit. They’re probably the same ones who beat up Courtney.’
‘Almost certainly,’ Grandad agreed. ‘And from what Gloria just told me, I’m fairly sure now why Dee Dee is so keen to avoid an investigation into Tanga Tans.’ He glanced across at me. ‘Do you know what the term “money-laundering” means?’
‘Not exactly,’ I admitted. ‘I mean, I’ve heard of it, and I think it’s got something to do with criminal gangs, but I don’t really understand it.’
‘It’s basically a way of turning criminal profits into mo
ney that appears to be legitimate,’ Grandad explained. ‘You see, the problem criminals face when they make huge amounts of money is that most of it is usually in cash, which makes it really difficult to account for. You can’t just stick millions of pounds of cash into a bank account without explaining where it came from, and if they were to buy everything with cash, the tax people and the police would soon start asking questions. I mean, it’s all right if you’re just spending a few thousand in cash here and there, but big-time criminals want to invest in property and businesses, and you can’t buy a legitimate business with a sackful of fifty-pound notes. So the criminals and gangsters have to find a way of ‘cleaning’ their money, making it look like it’s legitimate. There are lots of different ways of doing it, but one of the easiest and most common methods is to set up a business through which the dirty money can be channelled. The criminals usually pick some kind of service-based company – taxi firms, betting shops, clubs, bars – anything that deals mainly in cash, which makes it difficult for the authorities to keep tabs on how much the business is really earning. Then all the criminals have to do is siphon their drug profits or whatever into the business, mix it up with the legitimate earnings, and then – hey presto – everything’s suddenly nice and clean.’
‘So Tanga Tans is just a front?’ I said.
‘Well, it’s a legitimate company, and I’m sure it makes some money from genuine customers. But Gloria managed to get hold of their accounts, and in the last financial year they showed a turnover of between five and ten thousand pounds a week. There’s no way they made that much from genuine customers.’
‘Right,’ I said, thinking it through. ‘So Dee Dee uses the tanning salon to launder his criminal profits, and it looks like Raisa just chose the wrong company to scam.’
‘Unless she was put up to it by one of Dee Dee’s rivals,’ Grandad said. ‘If a rival gang knew he was using Tanga Tans to launder his money, it’s possible they set the whole thing up. If Tanga Tans ended up in court, the money-laundering scheme would be revealed, and Dee Dee’s business would take a hit.’
‘Maybe,’ I said. ‘But either way, whether Raisa was put up to it by someone or she was working on her own, Dee Dee found out and put a stop to it.’
‘That’s what I can’t figure out,’ Grandad said, frowning. ‘How the hell did he find out?’
‘His brother told him.’
‘What?’
‘His brother, Royce. I saw him at the Twin Town Cup semi-finals this afternoon. He was with Bianca.’
‘Jakes and Mortimer’s new secretary?’
‘Yeah, she was all over him.’
‘Are you sure it was her?’
‘Positive.’
Grandad glanced across at me. ‘You’re absolutely certain?’
I took out my phone. ‘What’s Jakes and Mortimer’s number?’
Grandad told me. I rang it. A man’s voice answered. It sounded like Mr Jakes himself.
‘Good afternoon,’ he said. ‘Jakes and Mortimer. How can I help you?’
‘Could I speak to Bianca, please?’
‘I’m afraid Miss Spencer isn’t in today. Can I help you?’
‘Will she be back tomorrow?’
Mr Jakes sighed. ‘She’s off sick today. I don’t know when she’ll be back. Now, if this is a personal call—’
I hung up.
‘She called in sick today,’ I told Grandad. ‘Do you believe me now?’
‘Damn it,’ he said. ‘If she’s been leaking information to Dee Dee’s brother . . .’
‘That’s how Dee Dee found out about Raisa. He sent his boys round to scare her off, and they must have hung around her flat waiting to see if anyone else showed up. If Bianca told Royce about Raisa, she probably told him that Jakes and Mortimer hired us to investigate Tanga Tans too. She might even have given Royce a description of Courtney.’ I looked at Grandad. ‘Dee Dee’s not just scaring off Raisa, he’s trying to make sure that we leave the case alone too.’
‘He’s made a big mistake then, hasn’t he?’ Grandad said with quiet determination. ‘This isn’t just business any more. This is personal.’
27
The rain was coming down heavily when we reached the North Road roundabout, and as the nearest parking to Delaney & Co’s office is a backstreet at the rear of the office, a couple of minutes’ walk away, Grandad dropped me off at the end of North Walk.
‘There’s no point in both of us getting soaked,’ he said. ‘I’ll see you in a few minutes, OK?’
It was dark and miserable as I hurried along to the office, keeping in close to the buildings to avoid the worst of the rain. There were no lights showing in the upper two floors of the office building when I got there, so I guessed Tantastic and Jakes and Mortimer had already closed up for the day. It was getting on for six o’clock now, and Gloria normally goes home at around five, but this wasn’t a normal day, so I was expecting to see her at her desk when I entered the office. But although all the lights were on, the main office was empty. She’s probably in the bathroom, I thought to myself, taking off my coat and hanging it up. But then, to my surprise, the door to Grandad’s private office opened and Gloria came out. She was studying a document file, totally oblivious to my presence, and when I said to her, ‘What are you doing?’ she almost jumped out of her skin.
‘Bloody hell, Travis!’ she gasped, clutching her chest, ‘you nearly gave me a heart attack!’
‘What are you doing in Grandad’s office?’ I repeated.
‘What do you think I’m doing?’ she said, frowning at me.
‘I don’t know. That’s why I’m asking.’
‘I’m doing my job, Travis,’ she said, crossing over to her desk and putting down the file. ‘Your grandad asked me to see what I could find out about Drew Devon.’ She sighed and picked up the file again. ‘This is my report. I put it on his desk an hour ago, and I’ve just realised there are a couple of things that need adding to it.’ She stared at me, an unreadable look on her face. ‘Is that all right with you?’ She held out the file towards me. ‘Do you want to have a look, make sure I’m telling the truth?’
I have to admit I felt pretty stupid and ashamed of myself then. There was no reason Gloria shouldn’t have been in Grandad’s office – she was his assistant after all – and I had no right to question what she was doing anyway. It was just that when I’d seen her coming out of Grandad’s office I’d suddenly remembered Granny Nora’s words – once a traitor, always a traitor – and I’d jumped to the totally irrational conclusion that Gloria was up to no good. But now I’d had time to think, and time to recall what Grandad had said about Gloria – I’d trust her with my life – and I realised then that I’d taken Granny Nora’s words out of context anyway. She’d never said that Gloria was a traitor, all she’d said was that Nan might think she was.
The trouble was, I’d heard so many different opinions about Gloria over the last few days that they were all getting mixed up in my head.
‘I’m sorry,’ I said to her, genuinely regretful. ‘I don’t know what I was thinking. I just . . . I don’t know. I really am sorry.’
She put the file back on her desk. ‘Look, I don’t know what you’ve heard about me, Travis,’ she said calmly. ‘I mean, I know there are all kinds of rumours milling around about my past, and maybe you’ve heard some old stories or read some of the rubbish that people with nothing better to do put on the Internet. And if you have, well I don’t really blame you for finding it hard to trust me. But all I ask is that you take me at face value, OK? You’re perfectly entitled to make judgements about me, but for goodness sake base them on what you know, not on what other people think they know.’ She smiled at me. ‘Does that sound fair?’
‘Yeah,’ I said. ‘More than fair.’
‘Good.’ She glanced over at Grandad’s office, then looked back at me. ‘So how’s Courtney doing? Did you get to see her?’
I was just about to reply when the main office door opened and Grandad c
ame in. From the look on his face I could tell straight away that something was wrong, and a moment later I knew what it was. Grandad wasn’t alone. As he came through the door, three young men followed him in. Two of them were big muscle-bound guys in hoods and tracksuits, their faces all cut up and bruised. One of them was limping badly. The third one was Dee Dee. He was dressed the same as he’d been in Courtney’s surveillance video – designer suit and T-shirt, brand-new trainers – and as he sauntered into the office like he owned the place, sniffing disdainfully and scratching the underside of his chin, there was an almost tangible aura about him that said, this is a man you really don’t want to mess with.
As one of his thugs closed the office door, Dee Dee looked over at me and said, ‘You must be Travis. I’ve heard about you.’
‘Yeah?’ I said, clearing my throat. ‘I’ve heard a few things about you too.’
He smiled coldly. ‘You ain’t heard nothing yet.’
28
‘You’re Joseph Delaney, right?’ Dee Dee said to Grandad.
Grandad just nodded. He hadn’t said a word so far, and he hadn’t taken his eyes off Dee Dee either. He wasn’t trying to look tough or scare him or anything, he was just studying him silently, weighing him up, waiting to see what he had to say.
‘You own this place, yeah?’ Dee Dee said.
Another nod from Grandad.
Dee Dee grinned at him. ‘You don’t say much, do you?’
‘Just get on with it, boy,’ Grandad said.
Dee Dee didn’t like that, and just for a moment he almost lost his cool. But the flash of anger that crossed his eyes was so brief it was almost unnoticeable, and within half a second he was back to himself again.
‘Delaney & Co, Private Investigation Services,’ he said, staring at Grandad. ‘You were recently contracted by Jakes and Mortimer to investigate Tanga Tans on behalf of a woman called Raisa Ferris who claims her eyes were damaged by faulty equipment and negligent staff at the salon. Last Friday, a very nice-looking girl called Courtney Lane, who I believe is your partner, paid a visit to Tanga Tans in order to gather evidence to back up Raisa Ferris’s compensation claim.’ Dee Dee paused to light a cigarette. He took a drag on it and tapped some ash on the floor. ‘Now,’ he went on, ‘those are the facts as you know them, and I don’t hold it against you for doing your job. We’ve all got to earn a living, haven’t we? This is what you do. I don’t have a problem with that.’ He shrugged. ‘And I don’t blame you for getting dragged into a cheap little ruse either. You weren’t to know that Raisa was paid by a competitor of mine to try and get my business closed down. You were just a tool in the operation, an unwilling dupe, if you will.’ He smiled, seemingly pleased with his turn of phrase. ‘However,’ he continued, ‘the fact that it’s not your fault doesn’t change the fact that you were involved, and unfortunately that means you’re going to have to deal with the consequences.’