The lift dinged, the doors opened and the passengers disembarked. “Now!” Dan shoved the wheelchair. Will Burton pushed on with it, ignoring the looks of the people who recognised him as he passed. He shoved into the lift just as the doors were closing. His face looked tense, his eyes unreadable. “Keep them busy, Eva,” said Dan, and then the doors sealed and they were gone.
Then the shouting started, and the footsteps hammered through the ward until Peter Serge caught up with them. His face was red, his long fringe a mess all over his eyes. Eva crossed her arms. And then she gave Peter Serge a big beaming smile.
Twenty-one
“If I didn’t know better, I’d swear you people were working for MI5.”
While Eva smiled, Peter Serge shook. His head shook, his face reddened, his body stiffened in his dark suit. He took a breath and shook his head. “Jeff, look for them. See if you spot them before they get out. Go now.”
The big man moved away quickly. Peter Serge stood blocking the door to the corridor. He was a slight figure, but the man oozed darkness, and right now invisible flames of rage poured out from him. Eva wasn’t scared. But it was wise to be careful. Right wingers were reactionary, violent, and prone to actions based on snap judgements – which was one of the reasons she’d quietly identified Serge as a potential suspect.
“If we were working for the secret services I would have called in an airstrike on Cordy Farm by now. What you bastards are doing there is sick,” said Eva.
Serge made a grin like a cheap plastic toy, and then walked into the room and closed it behind him carefully.
“You don’t know anything at all,” said Serge. He laughed a little, and Eva wondered when the guy had snapped.
“I know all about you, Serge. All about the factory and Cordy Farm. You’re a sick bastard.”
“I’ve heard enough. Now you listen to me. You want to know who is responsible for the attack on Jerry Burton? Do you? Do you want to know why we hired you pathetic people? Really? Because right now you’ve made it all so pointless, redundant, and a waste of time. I hate you with all the hate I can muster. You stupid bloody bitch. . Do you know why I hate you like this? We managed this crisis perfectly to the very last minute. You fools were a part of it. You played along for a while, and then you started going off track, so we steered you back here and there. Bradley? We should have hurt him more. We should have immobilised him for a while, because even after we pulverised him, he came back and hurt two of my campaigners, and brutalised five of my most promising young soldiers at Cordy Farm. They were men who would have been ready for the war, when it comes. Maybe Bradley has helped them, because when they come back maybe they will be more brutal, stronger. But right now they are broken and useless because of him. Yes, we made mistakes. But you and Bradley have made the worst bloody mistake of all.”
“I don’t see why. Will Burton has finally worked you out and has taken his son away from you. He’s finally seen the light, and without Burton to run for UKFirst you’ve already lost the election before its run. UKFirst’s shot at the big time is over. I can’t say I’m sad about that one bit. So far it all sounds like one very good day at the office.”
“That’s because you think you’re looking through a window, but it’s not a window, you stupid woman. It’s a two way mirror. What you saw, wasn’t what you actually thought you saw. Do you understand yet? You saw what we wanted you to see… then you broke the glass. But that wasn’t the end of the illusion. That’s when you totally and utterly lost this case. You started seeing what Burton wanted you to see.”
“Do all megalomaniacs talk in riddles?” said Eva.
“You know I’m right. I can see the fear in your eyes, Miss Roberts. Will Burton and his wife are responsible for Jerry Burton’s injuries.”
“What? More lies.”
“Jerry Burton was… not right… for UKFirst. He tried to fit in here and there, but I could tell what he was as soon as I saw him, long before Will would acknowledge it. The boy was a faggot, a queer.”
Eva and Jess shared a look.
“You even spoke to one of his little bum chums at the coffee shop.”
“Gary Mertz?”
“Yes.”
Eva remembered his fear upon seeing Peter Serge.
“I don’t believe you.”
“You don’t want to believe me, but I can see the penny dropping. It’s all over your face, Miss Roberts. For the sake of UKFirst, for the sake of this United Kingdom, we couldn’t allow the foolish mistake of an angry father to jeopardise the election mission.”
“You could never have covered it up! Jerry Burton was getting better. What did you plan to do, kill him?”
“Don’t be stupid. We aren’t barbarians. We believe in our mission. Many of us are zealots for the cause of protecting our country. Many of our boys would die for the Union Jack. So, one of our boys was going to accept the blame for the attack.”
“But when Jerry Burton woke up…”
“The boy is a fag. And he was still in the closet until Will found out last week. The boy even has a girlfriend to keep up the façade.”.”
“What happened with Coulson and the gym? And why are you telling us this now?”
“I am not stupid, Miss Roberts. I have always had a three-sixty view on this. We also use surveillance technology. We have to – we have enemies in the British liberal establishment who use their own surveillance on us. It’s everywhere. We heard some of your conversations, some at your office, and some with Will Burton. I know what you think of me. I know what you think of my party. I know everything. And that’s why it worked so well. You were hired to re-direct attention away from Burton towards an unknown and distant enemy attacker. On that part you were right. But I was not the culprit. Will Burton was. When you began to go off track and Bradley moved off track and damaged us we acted to steer you away from causing us problems during the campaign towards the unknown attacker. We hoped you would think it was Coulson… but you both thought it was me. You were aiming too high, too close to the leadership. The leaders, myself, and Burton could not afford to be blighted before this election. A middle-ranking nobody, a renegade with few true connections to UKFirst was my choice. One of the newer recruits at Cordy Farm was going to be selected for the patsy and they would have gladly served the national cause by serving time for the party, to preserve this historic chance at gaining power.”
“Using your youth as sacrifices for the cause?”
“It’s no worse than what the Islamists do in their sand ridden wars. No harm would come to the boy. He would come out of prison in a few years in a new country, with his head held high in the party. Will Burton would have been leader. I would run in the next election. That was the plan. Burton’s blushes would have been saved. The party would be on track. The little faggot would be all better and ready for more of his little late night adventures. Everyone was a winner, until you went crazy at Cordy Farm.”
“Crazy? Joe Merton and his boys were going to rape us!” said Jess.
“Nonsense,” said Serge.
“Now who’s sticking their head in the sand? You’re not building anything good in Corringham. You’re replicating your own stinking evil beliefs, making young people into vile and violent thugs. You should be imprisoned, not elected. They were going to hurt us… until Dan arrived.”
Eva couldn’t bring herself to say rape. Rape sounded like all the things she’d ever been afraid of. Losing power, losing the ability to fight, losing all control. She detested the idea of rape with every fibre of her being.
“Burton wasn’t going to be a winner in this though, was he?”
“You think I want the leadership of the party from him? I didn’t need to plan for that, Miss Roberts. I am on course for the leadership, the baton will be passed to me when the time is ready. Time has a plan for us all, and when the party is ready to fulfil its destiny, then I will step up and claim my place as leader.”
“What if Burton was still in charge?”
“You think so?”
“Destiny is in my corner, Miss Roberts. I believe in this party. As you rightly assessed, Burton is an opportunist. Here today, gone tomorrow. But this marriage of convenience could have taken us to Parliament. But now… look what you’ve done. He’s loose with the son who is the victim of his father’s own attack… the man will believe the whole world is against him…. He will think the police are looking for him…. And he will almost certainly believe I am against him. He’ll be terrified, backed into a corner, believing he is a wanted fugitive! You’ve taken a situation which was salvageable, where no one was going to get hurt, and turned into time bomb - ready to explode any moment. Are you happy with your work, Miss Roberts? Do you think you deserve a fee now?”
“You’re a sick evil bastard and you’re lying.”
“Dawn Burton caught her son making out with his male friend, hiding behind the conifers of their home in Rendon. She saw it and told Will. You already know their relationship is fraught, and she frequently tried to derail his position within UKFirst. She does not believe in us either. But Will didn’t believe her. So she waited until her son repeated the act outside their home and filmed it from the house. She showed Will and he was shocked, and disgusted. They argued. The boy cried and pushed the father, Will struck him back, and the boy smashed his head on the hallway tiles. The rest is history.”
Eva felt the energy in her body was being drained away.
“Why did she never visit the hospital?”
“Oh, that was our policy. The woman hates UKFirst. I think she hates her husband too. It was only a matter of time before she said something to undermine us all. We banned her from visiting.”
Eva sighed and looked away. The sight of worry and upset on Jess’s face made her feel even worse. Eva closed her eyes and felt vertigo rushing within the blackness.
“There is evidence, Miss Roberts. The film of the gays exists. And I also have a record of Will’s first panicked call to me.”
Eva’s eyes came open.
“Listen.”
Peter Serge’s face was alight. His eyes were large and flickering, his face still flushed. He produced a tiny black MP3 player from his pocket and pressed a little button on the side. Then came the noise. It was breathy, and anxious. It wasn’t clear, but it was clear enough.
“Oh God, Peter. I’ve hurt him. I’ve hurt Jerry, for God’s sake Peter, what am I going to do?”
“What do you mean hurt him? Will?”
“We’ve called an ambulance. His head hit the floor, Peter. We argued. He pushed me then I hit him and he fell over. Oh, Peter. I’ve hurt him. I’ve hurt my own son! There’s blood everywhere…What am I going to do…?”
Serge thumbed the little machine and it went silent. Tears filled Eva’s eyes and obscured her vision. She could no longer clearly see Serge’s mocking face. But she felt a worse guilt than she had ever known in her life. In trying to do her best, she had sent an innocent victim away, totally vulnerable, into the arms of a desperate and evil man. They had it all so wrong. Dan had it wrong. But Eva couldn’t blame it all on Dan, not this time. This mess was of her making as much as anyone else’s. They had it all so wrong.
“So what are you going to do about it, Miss Roberts?”
“Go to hell,” she replied and walked away. And as she thought about it, she realised her reply was just a little ironic. Which was bad. But it made her smile through the tears. Hell was what she deserved after this.
Twenty-two
Eva couldn’t remember a time when she’d put as many miles in as this. At least not within the confines of Southend. The television media and the newspapers were out in force. And so were the crowds. The end of Southend High Street, was a wide bulb-shaped town square set between the red brick hulk of the Odeon Cinema and the flapping Union Jack high above WH Smiths. The bulb was full of people, flags, placards and violent noise. There were slogans raised high above people’s heads and chanting, for and against the UKFirst movement. “Vote No To Nazis!” went the loudest chant. As Eva sped around the town in her gleaming red Alfa Giulietta, the howl of police sirens seemed ever present. It was going to be a busy night for the police. The local radio reported that factions from outside the town had been bussed in – leftists, fascists and moderates from all over the UK. There was chaos and emotion all around outside the Alfa. Eva felt it was a horrible reflection of how the case had gone, it all reflected the chaos and tension of her own mind. They’d spent the last hours pursuing any clue which would take them toward Will Burton or to Dan, which Eva hoped amounted to the same thing.
The Burton home in Rendon was quiet but for two photographers stalking quietly outside. “Who are you?” they asked Eva as she got out of the car and walked toward the giant conifers which guarded the Burton home. Eva ignored them, so they started taking pictures of her, pointing the big lenses up close into her face.
“Are you connected to the family? Are you their solicitor? Are you a copper?”
“This stuck up bitch is ignoring you, Dave.”
Eva span around and gave them the finger. “Photograph that Dave. That’s for the both of you to keep.”
They muttered ‘bitch’ a few more times and snapped some more shots. Eva made it past the conifers and the snapping abruptly stopped.
This time round Eva knocked on the front door, and as the knocker was about to strike for the third time, the door swung back into the house. The tall sad eyed woman stood there looking like a glamorous widow. To Eva the woman looked a little dead herself.
“What now?” said Dawn Burton.
“Do you know where they are?”
“No. But I’m waiting for them.”
“So you’ve heard, then?”
“He’s in a terrible state. The stupid bastard’s only thinking of himself again!” The woman looked around and lowered her voice. “Come in’ Only for one minute mind, then I want you gone. Understood?”
Eva didn’t argue. She wanted every morsel Dawn Burton had to give her. Mrs Burton waited until Eva was into the hallway then shut the door and peered out through the window.
“This place is like Hell now. Hell.”
“It’ll be over tomorrow night, Mrs Burton.”
“No. It won’t ever be over now. He’s discharged his own son from hospital, against medical advice. He’s done a runner because he was afraid. But not fearful for Jerry, oh no. If he was fearful for our son, he would have stayed right there in the hospital. No, he was fearful for himself. In some sad and desperate way he must have thought this would save him. To kidnap your own son! What a fool. What a bastard…”
“It may not play out like that… if they think he’s done this to protect his son, he may even get some sympathy in the press,” said Eva. But her words were flat, and Dawn Burton looked at her with an equally flat stare.
Eva looked again at the woman’s pink and watery eyes. She caught the chemical smell on the air, and then she saw the wine bottle sitting by the pale wooden steps to the upstairs rooms. The woman was drunk.
“There’s nothing wrong with a medicinal drink, is there? Come on!”
“I can’t say I’m against it.”
“You want a glass, then?”
“No. Not right now. Besides, I prefer white. Where are they, Mrs Burton?”
“He said he’d be back later on. But I don’t know when he means by that, of course. Later on is such a loose phrase. I made him promise he’d keep Jerry safe. And not to do anything stupid.”
“Why would he do anything stupid, Mrs Burton?”
“Oh come on, woman. You’re here pursuing my runaway husband who has escaped with my injured son. What do you take me for?”
Eva changed tack. “Mrs Burton… Did your husband assault your son?”
“This was about his fucking career. It’s always about his career. Everything he does, everything he says is through the prism of his political career. I showed him the
little video. Do you know about the video clip I took?”
Eva nodded. “Of your son… and the other boy?”
“I took it to show him his life wasn’t a bloody white picket-fence fairy tale no matter how much he wanted to pretend it was. I wasn’t his fairy tale blonde trophy wife, and Jerry wasn’t his Alpha male pride and joy, though God, did Jerry want to be that. That’s all Jerry strived to be! That’s why he buried his feelings so far down. I wondered about him. I always did wonder. But then he had so many girlfriends I stopped wondering after a while. But he knew his father was obsessed with making it as a politician. And with this party of all parties… he was sunk if Jerry’s secret came out. Half the party would have mocked him, and half the party would have turned against him. Hell, most of them know he’s a bloody phoney anyway. They know he’s no Adolf. He’s a bloody fair-weather fascist who knows a good horse to bet on when he sees it. He wanted to delay the bad news – he called Jerry’s sexual preference bad news – he wanted to stagger it, he said, until he was safely ensconced in Westminster. Then, he said, he would have had the clout to ignore the criticism of the numbskulls in UKFirst. It was bullshit, of course. He’d never have let his son come out after that. He’d have wanted to climb the greasy pole to Downing Street, next. He even said as much. He said if there was another hung parliament in the general election, he could force a coalition with the Tories… Delusional, that’s what he was”
“Did he ever hurt Jerry? This is a serious matter, Mrs Burton. I need to know the absolute truth. So many of these UKFirst people have lied to us but I’m now truly concerned for your son’s safety and your husband’s state of mind.”
“He took out his anger on Jerry, it was just a flash of anger, that’s all. I know Will. Will is pathetic. He hasn’t got enough anger in him to kill anyone on purpose, but out of the threat to his dream, he struck out. The rest was a terrible accident. I know it. I didn’t see it, but I know it. But I will never ever forgive him. How could I? He’s ruined my whole life, and now he wants to pretend what he did to our son didn’t happen? Damn him. Damn him and his pathetic vanity.”
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