Reluctantly they did as they were told, eyeballing Coupland until he let go of their boss and took a step back.
The gangster regarded him. ‘No, I don’t think it’s funny. But at least you get it now.’
‘What?’
‘The point I was trying to make. The point you didn’t seem to understand the last time you were here. Or weren’t willing to understand. That this thing that has happened to my sister affects every member of my family, every single minute, of every single day. I need to do something. I have to respond in some way, for their sake, and Catherine’s.’
The need to be involved.
Tunny hadn’t finished. ‘You’ve put me in an impossible situation, Mr Coupland.’
‘How?’
‘One minute you’re asking me to call off the hounds because you’re all over the investigation and in the next you’re telling me you’re stepping away from the case. You can’t have it both ways. If you want to keep me on a leash you need to find the person responsible for my sister’s death.’
Coupland stared at him, incredulous. ‘You expect me to help you after sending someone to my home?’
‘The instructions I gave them were clear Mr Coupland: stay outside. Do not approach. Don’t hurt anyone.’
‘Should I be grateful? Is that it?’
Tunny shook his head. ‘I promise you. I meant you nor your family any harm. I couldn’t see any other way to make you carry on with the investigation.’
‘My colleagues are working all hours…’
‘I want you on it.’
‘My hands are tied.’
‘Officially, maybe. But we both know you’re not someone that lets things go easily.’
Coupland moved to the window, looked out on a city that had a backbone of steel. Crime lords and politicians operating cheek by jowl. Some days it was hard to tell one from the other. What happened in their past to make them turn out the way they did? Made them believe their way was the right one?
‘See it as a compliment, Mr Coupland. If I thought you’d take a bung I’d have offered you one.’
Coupland turned from his vantage point to look Tunny up and down.
‘I wasn’t lying when I told you I treat everyone the same. That goes for those that piss me off too.’
‘Are you threatening me?’
‘When it comes to my family I don’t make threats.’
‘We’re cut from the same cloth, you know. You and me. Circumstances may have put us on opposite sides of the fence but we’re no different.’
‘I’m nothing like you.’
‘Fine. Tell yourself that if it helps you sleep better at night.’
‘I sleep like a baby, thanks very much.’
‘A baby with a serial killer for his dad?’
Coupland’s stomach clenched. He pointed a finger in Tunny’s direction. ‘I’m warning you.’
‘I’m just saying, it’ll be interesting to see, as he gets older, whether there’s any truth in all that nature versus nurture crap. His childhood will be the ultimate social experiment.’
Coupland moved closer, bared his teeth. ‘Go on, knock yourself out. But remember this. You’ll always be a gangster but I won’t always be a cop. Know what I’m saying?’
Tunny’s face grew serious. ‘All I want is justice.’
It was Coupland’s turn to smile. ‘Folks are clamming up on you aren’t they? That’s why you want me on the case. Your bullying tactics haven’t got you anywhere!’
‘I wouldn’t say that exactly,’ Tunny countered. ‘More like whoever did this has been damn good at covering their tracks. People can’t tell me what they don’t know. You’re right about that, and something else too. I’m not going to crack this on my own. I need your help, Mr Coupland.’
‘Then the intimidation stops.’
Tunny nodded.
Coupland backed away, satisfied. But not before something on Tunny’s desk caught his eye. A printout of the photographs sent to his phone. Tunny followed his gaze. ‘I’ll have them shredded, Mr Coupland. The SIM card it came from has already been destroyed.’
Seems he really did run his firm like a corporate business. ‘He sent you copies for your approval before he sent them to me?’ Coupland asked.
‘Something like that,’ Tunny said, lifting the first printout and feeding it into a shredder by his feet.
Coupland’s smile widened. It didn’t matter that the original photo had been destroyed. The sight of the printed out images told him two things. That the photo had been taken from the passenger side of a car, and that it had been cropped before it was sent to him.
*
Liam Roberts had the swagger of a cocky sod. A cocky sod who had the ear of one of the most feared men in Salford. Sometimes that association went to their head; sometimes the arrogance was there to start with. Coupland clocked the attitude as he eyeballed Liam coming out of his mother’s red brick terrace. The cocksure way he stood his ground even as Coupland thundered towards him, the smirk on his face when he dragged him down a back alley before shoving him against the wall.
‘You ungrateful little bastard!’ Coupland hissed.
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about, honest, Mr Coupland!’ The lie with a smile nailed on added insult to injury.
Coupland thought of the complaint hanging over his head, wondered whether another blot on his copybook would make much difference. ‘What you said to me the other day was bang on, wasn’t it? That it’s not like you were destined for NASA or anything. Only I never had you down as thick as mince. Those photos you took. The ones of me and my family, outside my home. You were dumb enough capture your tattoo in the picture. I reckon it was Tunny who told you to get the photo cropped.’
Liam cocked his head. ‘Whatever it is you think I’ve done, it wasn’t me!’ Even so, the smile started to slip.
‘Don’t waste my time kid; I recognised it, clear as day. The prayer beads. The phoney show of holiness. What is it with playing the hard man?’
‘I’m not the one cornering some kid in an alley!’
Coupland sighed before releasing him, though stayed close enough to grab him if he made a run for it. ‘You parked outside my home and you took a photograph of my wife and daughter.’
Liam’s jaw muscles were working overtime, as though practising what he was going to say next. ‘Mr Tunny told me to do it.’
‘If he’d told you to fire a gun or run me through with a knife would you have done that as well?’ Coupland could barely bring himself to think of other scenarios, ones that made the contents of his stomach turn to lead.
Liam said nothing.
‘Yeah, well, your silence speaks volumes,’ Coupland muttered as he shook his head, peering at the youth through narrowed eyes. The knock off designer watch. The diamond chip in his ear. So many young men aspiring to be something they didn’t need to be. ‘I thought you of all people had your head screwed on, that running around with Tunny’s gang was some demented phase that would pass. But I was wrong. You’re starting to get a kick out of it.’ He paused, weighing up whether he should say the thoughts forming in his head. ‘Don’t end up like your old man.’
‘What…Dead?’ Liam laughed. ‘I’ll try not to!’
‘No. I mean so far in that there’s no escape.’ A pause as something occurred to Coupland. ‘Is that what this is about? Trying to follow in daddy’s footsteps? Isn’t that what most boys do?’ Coupland thought of his own messed up childhood and hoped to Christ he was wrong. Yet here he was, a bad tempered cop using his bulk to get results. Maybe the apple didn’t fall that far from the tree after all.
Liam slumped against the back alley wall but the fight hadn’t gone out of him if the glare he gave Coupland was anything to go by. ‘It’s never anything important is it? The last thing people say to each other? Nothing profound I mean. The last time my dad spoke to me I’d been giving him lip and he called me a waste of space. I watched him leave the house that day thinking at least I wasn’t a t
hug. Not much of a conversation was it? In the grand scheme of things, I mean. Not much to look back on. Draw comfort from. Isn’t that what people say to you, afterwards, that at least you have your memories? I was just a kid; I never got to the stage where we did things for each other because we wanted to. He told me to do things and I did them.’
Coupland blew air from his cheeks. ‘So, you fell in with Tunny because life’s been unfair to you, is that it? Like you’re entitled to happiness?’ He looked up at a sky full of rain clouds. ‘None of us are guaranteed a golden ticket. The world doesn’t owe us a living. I’ve seen kids like you come and go over the years, too many to mention, and it all ends the same way. A one way trip to Crown Court with your toothbrush and soap.’ Coupland couldn’t believe he was doing this. Being reasonable, when knocking seven bells out of him would feel so much better.
But wouldn’t that make him a thug too, like his own old man, and Liam’s? He sighed. ‘For Christ’s sake, do yourself a favour. You’re mixing with dangerous people. Get out while you can. Move away; make a fresh start somewhere else.’ Coupland took a breath. He leaned in close to Liam and lowered his voice, even though there was no one else around. He was already up to his gonads at work, what was a few more shovelfuls? ‘Look, I’m going to give you a one-time only chance. But first I want you to look at me. Really look into this tired, fat face and tell me you’ll make this lifeline I’m offering you count.’
Liam stared at him. Nodded. His face now looked as far from cocksure as was possible. ‘What do I need to do?’ He swallowed. ‘He trusts me. He’s already moving me up the ranks…’
‘You need to leave. Today.’ Coupland reached into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet. Pulled out several notes. ‘I don’t carry a lot of cash,’ he said. ‘You can never be too bloody careful. But this’ll get you a ticket somewhere.’
Liam hesitated before taking Coupland’s money. He glanced up and down the alley before shoving it into his pocket.
‘I can’t make you leave but I’ve given you an option. You need to think long and hard about the choice you make.’
Liam nodded, rammed his hands into his anorak pocket in readiness to leave.
Coupland pressed his hand on his shoulder to stop him in his tracks. ‘But know this,’ he said evenly, his voice dripping with menace. ‘You come near my family again and you can forget about Tunny. You’re mine.’
*
Coupland’s call to Alex was brief. He told her he’d spoken to Kieran Tunny and that the gangster admitted the photographs had been his ham fisted way of keeping Coupland involved in the investigation. He had his word it wouldn’t happen again, so no harm done. She asked if he’d found out which of Tunny’s cronies had taken the photo and he said no, he hadn’t asked. Better he didn’t know in case the scrote was fished out of the ship canal the following week and he got the blame.
He’d walked back to his car by the time the call ended. He slipped the phone into his pocket before opening his driver’s door. Paused. Sometimes it worried Coupland how easily he got into the mindset of those he consorted with. To understand on some level why they went about their crime. As he climbed into his car he wondered if Alex had picked up on his lie. Whether right this minute she was checking A&E admissions for anyone brought in with unexplained injuries.
Whether her opinion of him had stooped that low.
*
Lynn had made a Lamb Tagine. An online recipe she’d found during her lunch break. She hadn’t exactly typed ‘What to cook for your estranged father-in-law’ into the search engine but she might as well have done. She wanted the evening to go well, especially after the fright they’d had that morning over the photos some thug had taken. Kevin had been subdued when he’d picked her up from work, even though he’d telephoned her at lunchtime to say the matter was sorted, that he’d had a word in the right ear and they wouldn’t be bothered again. He’d wanted to call his old man and cancel, said he’d much rather they had a night to themselves, a bit of peace after a calamity of a day. Lynn wouldn’t hear of it, said his father had probably been looking forward to a home cooked meal so there was no way they were bailing out on him. She’d asked Amy to give the baby an early bath, put him to bed so they’d have a bit of peace during the awkward first hour or two, though as Kevin pointed out, Tonto starting to scream might be a useful distraction, they could pass him round the table if the conversation was really struggling.
‘I’ve had worse,’ the old man said when Amy asked if he was enjoying the meal. Coupland glared at him, made a point of going back for seconds even though his run-in with Tunny earlier had wiped out his appetite. Coupland sighed.
Ignore him, Lynn’s eyes pleaded.
‘This is the dog’s bollocks love,’ he said, ‘beats cup-a-soup and a whiskey chaser.’
Lynn took the reference to Ged’s diet as an opportunity to ask how he was keeping.
‘Same as I’ve always done,’ he told her. ‘Not like I get any offers of help.’
Coupland put down his fork. ‘The girls are always round at yours, fetching and carrying.’ He turned to Lynn. ‘Pat goes and does his cleaning once a week.’
Lynn giggled nervously. ‘She could do with coming here.’
‘Well, I didn’t like to say,’ Ged began, ‘but your kitchen units look as though they could do with a wipe down.’
‘So, you were in the police, like my Dad then,’ Amy said, reaching for a second helping of rice. She wasn’t normally a big eater, but sensed a show of solidarity was needed. Her mum had worked hard preparing a special meal for grandad, the least she and Dad could do was polish it off.
‘Yeah, mind you, it was different back then. We had to get off our arses and actually chase the bastards. Now it’s all CCTV and Crimewatch.’
‘It’s not like that at all,’ Coupland said. ‘CCTV helps, but it doesn’t tell you where a suspect is hiding out or whether they’re dangerous when you do find ’em.’
As for Crimewatch, he had little to say about it. That was pleasant, anyway.
A smile played on the old man’s lips. ‘Still, some things never change. Like the irresistible urge to give a toerag a pasting if you think they deserve it.’
‘You read the article, then.’
Should have been no surprise, Coupland supposed. He dined out on other folks’ misery, that it was his son in the firing line all the better. And here he was, reeling him in, just like old times.
Lynn glanced at Coupland before piping up. ‘The internal investigation will give Kevin a chance to have his say. It doesn’t matter what the press choose to write.’
‘It does if all the attention gives GMP a bad name. He’ll be out on his arse then.’
Coupland ignored the jibe. ‘Look Dad,’ he began, ‘I’ve been thinking, if no one else comes out of the woodwork for Mam we’ll need to start making arrangements.’
The old man’s head swivelled in his direction. ‘What are you talking about?’
Lynn’s glance implied she was asking the same question but refused to join in out of loyalty.
Coupland attempted to convey a ‘sorry’ to her before answering his old man. ‘Funeral arrangements, that sort of thing. No one else has come forward so I’m guessing we’re her only family.’
That noise again, the one that grated on Coupland, making him want to place his hands around the old bastard’s neck and squeeze hard. ‘You’re on your bloody own with that then, I’ll not be wasting a penny of my pension on her, there’s precious little enough of it as it is. Have you told your sisters what you’re intending?’
Coupland hadn’t even had time to think about it himself. The thought had just popped into his head and he’d blurted it out. For all he knew they could be just as appalled. Not as if any of them had much put by. He and Lynn had diverted their rainy day funds in Tonto’s direction but he was sure they’d find a way. ‘No, but—’
‘You never did think anything through, they’ll be shocked you’ve even suggested it. Mind
you, you didn’t know her like they did.’
‘Maybe that’s the point,’ Amy said, sending a smile in her father’s direction. ‘I think it’s a great idea.’
‘Well you would, wouldn’t you,’ countered the old man. ‘You won’t be the one paying for it.’
Lynn sighed. For want of something to do she picked up the ladle, asked Ged if he’d like some more.
‘No, ta,’ he said, ‘it’ll be a bugger trying to shift this heartburn as it is.’
Lynn’s smile was beginning to slip. ‘Oh, right,’ she said.
‘I’ll have more,’ Coupland said.
‘Do you think that’s a good idea?’ his old man sniped. ‘You never were one to leave anything on your plate and it shows.’
‘Kev’s lost loads of weight,’ Lynn protested. ‘Not that that he needed to…’
The old man’s mouth formed into a cruel smile. ‘Your mother used to say carrying you was like carrying a sack of spuds.’
‘All babies are like that,’ Amy observed. ‘When I was pregnant—’
‘—Save your breath, Ames,’ Coupland cut in. ‘He doesn’t give a toss.’
Coupland got to his feet, began picking up plates that weren’t ready for clearing. ‘Might as well make a start on the washing up.’ He wondered how much it would cost to put a hit on the old bastard. Worth every penny, he reckoned.
‘I’ll help you, Dad,’ Amy offered, making it clear that, for the time being, she’d spent as much time in the company of her grandfather as she could bear.
Lynn waited while Coupland and Amy left the room. Looked at the miserable old man sat opposite, wondering why the hell she’d bothered.
‘Wow,’ she said, picking up the paper serviette on her lap and screwing it into a ball before dropping it onto the table. ‘You’re a piece of work, aren’t you?’
Ged raised his eyebrows at her.
‘Don’t come over all innocent now. Your jibes, your little one-liners. All the while looking at me for approval as though I’m actually going to join in and laugh with you.’ She pointed in the direction of the kitchen then to herself. ‘I’m team Kev all the way, me. He warned me about you but I persuaded him to give you a chance. I thought after all these years you’d have mellowed. Maybe regretted even, the way things had turned out.’
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