‘He was fishing. Seeing what you were up to.’
I could buy that. ‘What did you tell him?’
‘Nothing.’
‘What did he tell you?’
‘That he wasn’t interested in Jason. He told me a witness had come forward. She heard Jason shouting outside of Greg’s flat, just like he’d said. This woman had been away on holiday and didn’t realise that what she’d seen was important.’ She smiled at me. ‘He was where he said he was. He wasn’t at the studio. It wasn’t my Jason who killed Greg.’
‘Right.’ I sat back, surprised. Harrison had been a legitimate suspect. He had to answer the questions.
‘There’s nothing to say, is there?’ she said. ‘We’ve sorted everything out. There’ll be no more police coming to the house, nothing. I want you to stay away from me and my family. You don’t bother me. You don’t bother my husband. You certainly don’t bother Jay. Do I make myself clear?’
I understood. Jason Harrison walked in. He told her he wanted to speak to me. Alone. We sat in silence until she left. He said nothing, just staring at me.
‘Join the queue if you want to hit me’ I said.
‘I don’t want to hit you.’
That was something at least.
‘My record is a long time in the past. I hit the kid when I was pissed in town. I can’t justify it, but stupid arguments sometimes happen, especially when you’ve had a drink. I was young and stupid. I was lucky, I suppose. No real harm done. I think. I paid the price and took my punishment. It’s people like Lorraine’s mother who can’t let it go.’
He’d been luckier than whoever had killed Tasker with a single punch. Luck of the draw.
‘Do you think I don’t know?’ he said.
‘Know what?’
‘About Jay. I’ve always known.’ Harrison shrugged. ‘What can you do? He’s my son. I’ve tried to put all that stuff with Tasker to the back of mind and move on. Why do you think I was out drinking so much, acting like an idiot? It took me a long while to work out that it doesn’t make any difference to me. It really doesn’t. It wasn’t important until you came along, raking it all up again. I knew I couldn’t compete with Tasker. How could I? I’m a car-mechanic, he’s a rock star, but he wasn’t around when it counted. It was me who picked up the pieces and put Lorraine back together again and took care of Jay. But I didn’t kill him. Why would I? We don’t want him back in our lives. We just want to put this behind us, before Jay realises something’s wrong.’ He stood up. Looked at me. ‘I didn’t kill him.’
I looked up and met his eye, difficult though it felt. ‘Had to ask the question.’
‘Whatever the consequences?’
I turned away from him, nodded. Was I doing the right thing or not? How could I weigh up trying to find answers for Tasker’s parents against the damage I’d caused Jason Harrison and his family? I’d walked into the man’s life, turned it upside down, and now I was just going to leave him to clear up the mess. I watched as he headed towards the door.
‘I’m not a bad person, Mr Geraghty, but I’d do anything for my family. To people like you, you think it means I’d kill someone. But it’s not like that at all. To me it means I say nothing. It means I push it all to the back of mind and try to forget about it, say nothing, even if it cuts me up inside every single day.’ He looked at me. ‘That’s what it means.’
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
I called Julia. She was working from the new Hull Truck Theatre cafe on Ferensway. I decided I could use the fresh air and walked across the city centre to meet her, stopping at the small florist’s booth outside of Princes Quay. I hoped the flowers would say sorry, without making me look like I was trying too hard or was too desperate. I understood how things stood, but I had to put that to one side. I was going to need her help.
She was hard at work on her laptop when I arrived. The cafe area of the theatre was busy, filled with people eating and drinking, talking and laughing. It was my first visit to the place, not that socialising was top of my list of things to do at the moment. Julia had already ordered drinks and found us a quiet corner. She closed her laptop down as I approached.
She pointed at my face. ‘What happened this time?’
I smiled and pulled away. I couldn’t bear the thought of it being touched. ‘I’m not flavour of the month.’ I told her what had happened to me before trying to offer some kind of apology for the previous night.
‘I overreacted, too’ she said, taking the flowers off me. ‘It’s a difficult situation. We need to be able to respect each other’s position.’
‘We’re ok?’ I asked. I was expecting it to be more difficult.
‘Mates’ she said.
I nodded, understanding. I told her about my visit from the Harrisons. ‘He didn’t kill Greg’ I said. ‘If this witness had come forward quicker, it would have saved us all a lot of bother.’
‘Did you really see him as a suspect?’ she asked.
‘He had motive.’ He knew Greg Tasker was Jay’s father, but he’d kept it to himself, saying nothing. I wasn’t sure it was something to be admired or be saddened by. It wouldn’t have surprised me, but I was still thinking things over. Something else was nagging away at me. I needed to think it through properly, but I was sure I was beginning to get closer to the truth.
‘Any word on Priestley?’ she asked.
‘He’s improving. I’m going to speak to him again a bit later on.’ He was another unhappy man, but he still had questions to answer. I walked to the bar and ordered a sandwich before sitting back down.
‘This is very cosy.’ We both turned around. Max Fitzjohn walked up to our table. He pulled up a chair. ‘Can’t say I rate your choice of venue.’
‘What do you want?’ I said, my appetite gone. It was only a couple of hours ago that he was taking me out for a drive. He was following me.
‘Aren’t you going to introduce me to your friend?’
‘No.’
Julia smiled at him and introduced herself. ‘I wondered when we’d meet.’
He looked her up and down. ‘I should have made it sooner.’
‘What do you want?’ I repeated to him.
‘Take a guess.’
I nodded. I’d had enough. It was time to finish things. Whatever it took. ‘Give me twenty-four hours. I’ll call you.’
The offer took him by surprise. He eventually relaxed and smiled, gave me his mobile number. ‘It’ll be good for the rest of the day, so I’m going to trust you on this. I like to think a man’s word should count for something. Don’t let me down or I’ll be disappointed.’
Julia waited for him to leave before asking me what I was playing at.
‘It can’t go on forever’ I said. ‘I’ve got to sort this out.’
‘How?’
It was a good question, but I was getting closer. I could feel it.
I left Julia at Hull Truck, collected my car and drove to Trevor Bilton’s flat. It was a mess. The damage looked extensive, the windows boarded over. There was no way he was staying there. I pulled over and flicked through the sports pages of the newspaper, looking to see if the horse racing had already started for the day. It had, so I hedged my bets and headed towards the bookies in the shopping precinct. I pulled up right in front of the shop. No windows. It looked like an old school kind of place, nothing like the light and airy ones you see in the city centre. I was prepared to wait it out, but I hadn’t had the chance to read past the headlines before he walked out of the shop. I smiled. Betty Page was right. He was a man of habit.
I locked the car up and followed him on foot. He turned left and disappeared behind the shops. I caught him up and shouted his name.
He turned around. ‘What the fuck do you want, Geraghty?’
‘A word.’
‘How about two – fuck off.’
I smiled. ‘You can drop the hard-man act, no one’s watching’ I said.
‘You’re fucked in the head. Look at the state of your face. You n
eed to have a word with yourself.’
I pushed him down the nearest alley. I’d had enough. ‘Just shut your mouth and behave’ I said. I wasn’t taking a lecture from him. Shrinking back against the wall, he looked like a cornered animal. ‘What happened in the pub?’ I asked him.
‘What do you mean?’
‘I tried to speak to you.’
He shrugged. ‘So what?’
‘We said we’d help each other.’
‘Things change.’
‘The fire?’
‘What do you fucking think? You set these people on us and then expect us to play along with your stupid game?’
I stepped away, leaned on the opposite wall, trying to show him I wasn’t a threat. I didn’t want to get involved in a fight with him.
‘I don’t need your help’ he said. ‘I’ll take care of myself. I always said you were a cunt, thinking you were the big shot when we played rugby. Fucking hated you, I did.’
I ignored his comments. Pressed on. ‘What do you know about the fire?’
‘It was your friends, dickhead. The ones from London. They came to the pub, straight up the stairs and told me they wanted their money. I told them I didn’t have it, like I keep having to fucking say to people. The one in charge said he didn’t believe me and told me if I didn’t get him his cash within the hour, I’d be hearing from him.’
‘So they set your flat on fire?’
‘Bit of a coincidence otherwise, wouldn’t you say?’
‘They were outside my place earlier.’
‘You expect me to care?’
Probably not. ‘Have you heard from them since?’
‘Nothing.’
‘They’re going to come back for you.’
He nodded. ‘I know.’
‘You can’t beat them by yourself.’
‘Want to bet?’
He smiled. I needed him more than he needed me. This was his territory. Everything was set up to his advantage. Max Fitzjohn wouldn’t pull the same trick again. But I had nowhere to hide. I had no backup. He walked away. I shouted after him. ‘They’ll come back for you.’ He didn’t stop or turn around.
I sat in my car, staring out the window, the radio turned off. I couldn’t even remember the rugby properly. I was a teenager, full of hope and too much self-confidence. At that stage, it had been my life. Everything had been about the game. I was going to be the star man for my team, Hull Kingston Rovers. What I hadn’t seen coming was the injury after a handful of first team games. It set me on a downward spiral, and in truth, it had taken me a long time to get over it. I watched the shoppers shuffling by, like they had no wish to be here, either. We’d all wanted something better from life, I thought.
Julia called me. A rival newspaper had printed a story about the rehearsal room fight between Tasker and Priestley. Shit. I thought it had been kept in-house. She’d set up a meeting with the guy who owned the rehearsal room. She wasn’t getting the exclusive, but he still might have something useful for us. I didn’t mention that Priestley had already told me about the incident when I’d met him at Paull. I drove away from the estate. Bilton wasn’t going to be any further help. He’d made his decision.
I drove down Ferensway and collected Julia from the theatre, headed to Bankside. We walked into the reception area and found the man we wanted stood at the photocopier. Julia introduced me to David Brabin, the owner. He hadn’t been present when I’d initially spoken to Priestley here. It seemed so long ago now. He stared at my face before taking us into the office. There was only one chair free once he’d sat down. I stayed on my feet.
‘This is my kingdom’ he said, smiling at us. ‘It’s not much, but I like it.’
I looked around. ‘It’s intimate’ I said.
‘There’s only two rooms and it’s basic, but what more do bands need? It keeps my hand in. I use it for my own band. We play covers, The Jam, The Clash, that kind of thing. It’s good fun and keeps me from getting under the wife’s feet.’ He laughed. ‘I’m one of those who never made it, I’m afraid. I’ve been in plenty of bands, but never a sniff of a deal. It’s the way it goes sometimes, but I’m happy.’
‘You said you knew New Holland’ I said, cutting him off.
‘That’s why they’ve been using my place’ he said. ‘They needed somewhere discreet where they wouldn’t be bothered, and seeing as we go back years, they gave me a call.’
‘Who called you?’ I asked.
‘Kane Major.’
There was something in his voice. ‘You don’t like him?’
‘He said he’d pay me cash up front for the room, but I never saw it.’ He shrugged. ‘It doesn’t matter now, obviously. I was just pleased to hear from them. I did loads of gigs with them around the city when they first started. I got my band together around the same time, so we sort of hung around together, playing gigs at the Adelphi and Blue Lamp, all the usual places. We even borrowed their drummer to help us record a demo tape once.’ He smiled at us, enjoying the chance to reminisce. ‘I couldn’t believe it when I heard they were making a comeback. I keep telling my girls I know them, but they don’t believe me. One’s ten, the other’s twelve, so they probably don’t care. It’s hardly cool stuff to them, I suppose.’
I interrupted. ‘You rang the newspaper?’ Julia shot me a look. I didn’t care. I needed to move things on.
He held his hands up. ‘I have no loyalties either way. I want to say that before I say anything else. Having New Holland here was great. It reminded me of my younger days, but ultimately it’s a business I’m running.’ He shuffled forward in his seat, clasped his hands together. ‘I’ve obviously been following the news and frankly I don’t like the way Steve’s being portrayed by you lot. The media are painting him as the bad boy of the group and I wanted to tell you that’s not how it was. Steve was never unpleasant or rude, or anything like that. Not back then and certainly not now. That’s just not Steve’s way with people.’
I walked around the room so I didn’t stiffen up. It was small and there was no natural light. There was something he wasn’t saying. I wanted him to spit it out. ‘Why did you call, Mr Brabin?’
I watched him as he weighed the question up.
‘Like I said, I have no loyalties here, right?’
‘Right.’
‘I read about the fight in the newspaper. I saw it and it wasn’t how it happened.’
I could see Julia reaching for her notepad. It wasn’t how we should play it. I touched her on the shoulder, letting her know she should stop. She understood. I asked him what he knew.
‘Steve isn’t an aggressive man. He never has been. I know the newspaper said he started the fight, but it isn’t true. I was watching them from the doorway. I wanted to hear them play, you know? I’m just a fan at the end of the day.’
I leaned in closer to him. ‘What did you see?’
‘It wasn’t Steve who started the fight. Not at all. It was Greg who had the problem, not Steve. Greg was the one being aggressive.’
We drove back into the city and headed into the bar of Julia’s hotel. I slumped into a comfy chair. Julia ordered us coffee.
‘Major sold the newspaper the story’ I said. It was the only explanation.
‘I’ll ask around.’
I nodded. ‘Good idea’ I said, although I was in no doubt it was Major who’d pulled the strings on the story.
‘Why would he lie?’ she said. ‘Why would he want to make out Priestley was the aggressor?’
‘Loyalty to Greg?’ It was the best theory I had, but it didn’t really explain it. Or what the argument had been about, though I had a good idea. ‘I spoke to Trevor Bilton earlier’ I said.
‘How did you track him down?’
‘He’s a man of habit. He wasn’t best pleased to see me.’
‘What did he say?’
‘He’s going it alone. He doesn’t want my help.’
Julia considered it. ‘He might have the brawn, but he hasn’t got the brain.’
‘His attitude is that if he keeps telling Fitzjohn he hasn’t got the money, he’ll eventually get the message.’ I paused and shook my head. ‘But people like Fitzjohn don’t get the message, do they?’
‘It’s daft, but I can’t help worrying about him.’ She stood up and walked to the window. ‘Despite what he and Gary did to me.’
It was irrational, but it also made sense to me. ‘I understand’ I said. Sometimes your head says one thing, but your heart another, however stupid it seems.
‘Do you believe him?’ she asked me.
I grunted a non-committal reply. I found it hard to believe he was telling me the truth about anything. Anyone could have thrown the punch which killed Tasker. Julia’s mobile sounded again. She said she needed to go to her room and file a story. I waved her off, sat there and rubbed my face. Things were getting worse. But the clock was ticking.
The door to the office was unlocked. This was the last thing I needed. I stopped and tried to recall. I’d definitely locked it this time. There was no sign of anyone hanging around outside. I pushed the door open quietly and took my time walking up the stairs. The office door was also open. If it was Fitzjohn, I wasn’t going to tip-toe in. I needed the element of surprise on my side. I picked up speed and walked in.
Don sat in his usual position. ‘You should change the locks’ he said to me.
My heartbeat started to slow down. ‘Why didn’t you say you were coming back?’
‘It’s a surprise.’
‘You should have called. I’d have picked you up from the airport.’
‘I’m sure you’re far too busy for that.’ He pointed to my face. ‘Want to tell me what happened?’
I sat down at my desk and shook my head. ‘Shouldn’t you be enjoying the sun in Spain?’
‘I think I’ve got more important things to sort here.’ He put the file he was looking at back down. ‘Why haven’t you changed the locks?’ he asked me.
‘Not had the time.’
Don nodded. ‘So I hear.’
‘How’s Sarah?’
‘Enjoying the break.’
The Late Greats Page 20