by Liz Mistry
At the time Lalita had known Nikki was referring to the threat that Downey might turn up one day, and although time had passed, the thought of the Taser was reassuring. She’d got up in the middle of the night, retrieved it from its hiding place, checked the batteries and familiarised herself with it. It was easy to use – aim and fire. She could do that.
To minimise the risk of her plan going awry and Downey snatching her on her way to or from work, Lalita had phoned in sick. Nobody would suspect anything. Her manager had been concerned about her during her last shift, so a few days’ sick leave wouldn’t raise any eyebrows. The only concern she had was Isaac. She had to make sure that Isaac was safe no matter what. The best plan she could come up with was to lay the seeds for a Dr Who sleepover with Sunni. Nikki wouldn’t be keen on a school night sleepover, but if she primed the boys well enough, she reckoned Nikki would give in to their combined pressure.
She settled down to make the pastry for the samosas, content that she had a plan in mind, and put all thoughts of Freddie Downey to the back of her mind.
Chapter 48
Scut work! There was no other term for it. Nikki’s eyes were blurring and on occasion she’d had to nudge Sajid when he’d started snoring. CCTV viewing was a thankless task and she wished that Springer had had the sense to split it into two-hour blocks, but so keen had the woman been on exerting her authority over Nikki and her closest ally, she’d ordered them to have it done by the end of the day. Well, she could swivel on that one. No way could they get through this lot in one day. Although fed up and angry – adamant that this was not a good use of her time or experience – Nikki was more indignant on Saj’s behalf. He’d been directed to this task purely on merit of being her partner, and that was crap. He should have been at the Flynn memorial with Springer.
Hell, Nikki wished she could have gone. There was something not sitting right with that family and, unbeknownst to Springer, Nikki had tasked Anwar to dig deep for as much information on them as possible – from birth certificates to work records to social media interactions. The memorial would have been a fantastic opportunity to scrutinise the family and check out any suspicious characters who attended.
Moving her head closer to the screen, she nudged Saj again and took a note of the time on the recording. ‘You see this bloke, Saj? Does he look like he’s trying not to be noticed?’ The CCTV footage they were currently watching was from one of the houses near the bottom of the street. They’d started from Friday lunchtime and were now at nearly midnight on the Saturday.
Stretching, Saj rolled his shoulders, blinked rapidly a few times, and then peered in at the shadowy black and white figure Nikki had paused on. ‘Well, yes. He looks dodgy to me. Hood up covering his face, bag on his back, shoulders hunched … but how many similar figures have you noted on Gaynor Street so far?’
Nikki got his point. From this one camera, they’d already paused and noted the times of around twelve figures who could be their perpetrator. ‘Trouble is, they all wear hoodies these days and they all look suspicious and they all walk like that.’ Throwing her pen down, Nikki jumped to her feet. ‘I need a bloody break. I’m going for lunch.’
Saj jumped up too. ‘Lazy Bites?’
‘No, I got a job to do, so I’ll just grab a sandwich on my way back.’
Saj hesitated, then said, ‘I’ll come with you if you like.’
Nikki frowned. What was he playing at? Couldn’t he have lunch on his own for once? Then it hit her. ‘Archie!’
Trying to look his most innocent, Saj began putting pens back in his pen pot. ‘Eh?’
‘You’re busted, Saj. Archie put you up to this, didn’t he? You’re my minder.’ She laughed. ‘Not that he could have chosen a scrawnier minder if he tried. What you going to do, rugby-tackle me to the ground if I go rogue?’
Saj tutted, but she shook her head. ‘I’m not going off Gangnam style. I’m getting Ani’s birthday present and dropping it off at her house whilst she’s at her counsellor, so I don’t have to hear her carping at me again. That means you can go and enjoy a break from me.’
She grabbed her bag and had almost made it out the door when it burst open. A young officer in uniform barged straight into her. ‘Oh good. I caught you, DS Parekh.’ He thrust an envelope towards her. ‘Thought it looked like the same envelope the other stuff arrived in.’
Nikki, pleased to see the young officer was wearing gloves, dipped her hands into her jean pocket and pulled out a pair of her own. Not another one! Saj watched as Nikki placed it on her desk and then they just stared at the envelope. It had the same scrawled name and address on the front. No postmark this time though. The lad was still by the door, so Nikki asked, ‘How was it delivered?’
‘A young lad came in and dropped it on the front desk and then took off.’ Face flushing with pride, the officer continued. ‘I ran after him and when I caught him, he said he’d been paid a fiver by an old git to drop it off.’
‘He still downstairs?’
The officer nodded.
Nikki grabbed one of the photo packs they’d prepared earlier, which included the most recent one they had of Freddie Downey. ‘Okay, get his name and address, show him these photos and ask if any were the man who paid him. Then find out where the exchange took place. Check for CCTV around that area and claim any you find, okay?’
This felt too damn close for comfort. If Downey was behind this, then it meant he was in Bradford. Of course, he had an entire network of friends and contacts in the area and he could have put any of them up to dropping the parcel off … Still … it left a bad taste in Nikki’s mouth.
‘Open the damn thing, Nik!’
Nikki started, and glanced round. The few officers still working on computers had gathered round and were looking at her expectantly. Had she zoned out for long? She switched her gaze to Saj, who inclined his head slightly and grinned.
Taking a reluctant step forward, the last thing she wanted was to lift the letter – to open it. Touching it made it all too real. Inside the gloves her hands sweated uncomfortably as she took it and opened it. Aiming for the least contact possible she let the contents slip onto the desk and then inserted the envelope into the evidence bag Saj had ready for her. There would be no forensic evidence of use, she was sure. There had been none on the previous envelopes and it didn’t look like her anonymous sender was about to slip up anytime soon – but on the outside chance that he might have, Nikki would be meticulous.
There were two items inside the envelope. The top one was a printed newspaper report from the online Bradford Chronicle, dated that morning. The headline followed by the picture beneath was like a neon light taunting Nikki.
Disabled man murdered in his own home! Can we trust Bradford police if they can’t stomach it?
Underneath was a picture of Nikki, hands resting on her knees, hurling up into the gutter outside Gerry Hudson’s house. As expected, the article was credited to the journalist Lisa Kane. Using a finger and thumb, Nikki transferred the photocopy to another evidence bag before turning her attention to the diary extracts. She’d been expecting another extract and by the look on the faces avidly reading the extract, so had everyone else.
Saturday 27th February
I hate Saturdays. Tried to tell them I was poorly. Nobody would listen. I threw up all over Mr H and he beat me. Now I can’t move. Everyone’s angry everybody’s shouting. I hate them all hate hate hate them.
Friday 8th October
Teacher, that old cow, told me off for not having my PE kit. Told her I couldn’t do PE. She was a bitch. A right bitch. How am I supposed to put shorts on with all them bruises? Told them about that, but nobody listens. Nobody but D. He listens.
Like the others, the extracts had been ripped from whichever diary they’d been taken from and only had the month and date on them, which gave no indication of the order of the entries. This was a real puzzle and Nikki still couldn’t work out how they fitted with everything else. Her best guess was that they belon
ged to one of the children, probably a girl, whose details were in the boxes Williams was steadfastly working through.
‘Right, get these up to forensics and ask them to send copies down ASAP.’ Nikki’s voice was brusque, yet nobody seemed to care. In silence, one of the officers collected the evidence bags, labelled them and took them upstairs. Nikki needed to escape from Trafalgar House. She needed space to think, space away from here. ‘Phone Springer and update her, Saj. I’ll be back in an hour.’
Chapter 49
Driving home calmed Nikki. The sun was out and the day was bright. Who would believe that so much evil was in a world as beautiful as this one? Her plan was to drop off Anika’s birthday presents and card whilst her sister was at her counselling session. And that left only a narrow window of opportunity and she was already running late. Swinging into the Morrisons’ petrol station on Ingleby Road, she grabbed a bunch of flowers before heading to Listerhills.
After parking up beside her mum’s little Mini in the back alley, Nikki took a moment to scan the street. She admonished herself. Being jittery was not something she was comfortable with. Seeing nothing unusual, Nikki got out and with Anika’s back door key in her hand, headed to her sister’s house a couple of doors down. She inserted it in the lock and then cursed. The damn door was unlocked. Bloody Anika. She was always forgetting to lock her back door – but you’d think that with her little pep talk the previous night, she’d be a bit more careful. Nikki dumped her stuff on the table, then, hearing a murmur of voices from the front of the house she eased open the kitchen door. Surely Anika hadn’t cancelled her appointment.
But it was Haqib’s voice, followed by a female voice, raised and angry-sounding. ‘You can’t finish with me, Haq. I’m dumping you – got it? I dumped you first.’
Nikki tried to ease the door shut and backed off. Much as she was pleased that Haq was coming to his senses and dumping Michelle Glass, the sister of a racist thug who had been killed earlier in the year, she didn’t want to be caught eavesdropping. Before she had a chance to dodge into the backyard, the kitchen door swung open, and as Michelle barged past, it clattered against the wall. Haqib followed at a slower pace, his face flushed but determined. Catching sight of his aunt standing by the back door as his now ex-girlfriend elbowed her way past, he raised a hand in greeting and exhaled as the back door slammed shut, leaving the room silent.
Needing to make sure Haqib knew she hadn’t been spying on him, Nikki walked over to the table and began fiddling with Anika’s gift. ‘I was just dropping these off for your mum.’
Haqib pulled up a chair and slumped into it. ‘I can see that. What you got her?’
Nikki was quite proud of the gifts she’d got her sister. Marcus had told her to get something meaningful, something that showed she cared, and she thought she’d done exactly that. ‘Wait and see.’
She risked a glance at her nephew. When had he got so tall – and broad? He was turning into quite a handsome young man, yet, despite having ditched the deadweight girlfriend, he looked like he carried the weight of the world on his shoulders. Nikki paused what she was doing and filled the kettle. ‘Cuppa?’
Haqib’s face lit up as if she’d offered him free ice cream for a year and Nikki felt a pang. She should have been there for her nephew over the past few months. Just because Anika had shut her out didn’t mean that she should have neglected her nephew. He’d been affected by Yousaf’s behaviour too – and he’d had to live with Anika whilst she came to terms with realising that Yousaf was a child trafficker. He wasn’t even seventeen yet. Too young to have to be his mother’s support mechanism.
He got to his feet, opened one of the cupboards and brought out a packet of chocolate Hobnobs. ‘Might as well treat ourselves, eh? Not every day my auntie makes the tea.’
‘Cheeky sod. I make tea.’
‘Yeah, when? It’s always Marcus who makes the hot drinks.’
Pleased that they could indulge in this gentle teasing, Nikki shoved teabags in two cups and filled them with boiling water. She shoved Haqib’s towards him and grabbed the milk from the fridge before sitting down. ‘So, what’s been going on – apart, of course, from you dumping the delightful, if not very intelligent and really quite racist Michelle Glass.’
Haqib snorted, sending a load of Hobnob crumbs flying across the table. ‘Good one.’
He hesitated for a moment, took a swig of tea with the teabag still in and glanced at Nikki.
Nikki recognised that look. It was his “should I? shouldn’t I?” look. ‘Spit it out, Haqib. I’m your auntie and I want to help you. I know me and your mum haven’t been close recently, but that doesn’t mean I’m not here for you.’
‘She’s going to visit him.’
Nikki frowned, momentarily confused, then it dawned on her and she placed her mug back on the table before she dropped it. ‘Yousaf? You mean Yousaf? She’s going to visit that bastard?’
‘Please don’t get all aerated, Auntie Nik. And please don’t tell her I told you. She wants to visit him for “closure”.’ He made air quotes with his fingers and shrugged. ‘Or that’s what she says, anyway.’
‘Closure?’
‘Look, if all you can do is repeat what I say, then I’m not going to talk.’
‘Fair point. Look I understand that she wants closure, but …’ Nikki went to twang the elastic band on her left wrist, but realised she’d broken it earlier. ‘He’ll make mincemeat of her, Haq – he really will. He’s a monster and she’s always been blind to his faults – too easily led by him.’
‘Tell me about it. Look, don’t worry. I’m going with her.’
Nikki looked at her nephew. His eyes were worried, his expression resigned as if there was no other option. She reached over and grabbed his arm. ‘You’re a good lad, Haqib. But you don’t need to do this. I’ll go with her.’
But Haqib was already shaking his head. ‘She won’t go with you. You know she won’t.’
Nikki smiled. ‘Well, we just won’t tell her that I’m the one going in with her till she gets to the prison.’
For a second Haqib just looked at her, then he jumped up and hugged her. ‘You’re the best auntie ever.’
Nikki batted him away. ‘Leave me alone and tell me why you dumped Chell-to-my-friends. Got your eye on someone else?’
The flush that coloured his cheeks told Nikki she’d hit the nail on the head. ‘Okay, who is she? Please say it’s not some racist shit’s sister. Anybody else and I’ll be happy.’
‘Look, you got to keep it secret, right.’
Nikki nodded, envying him the joys of dating and falling in and out of love.
‘It’s Fareena.’
All indulgent thoughts flew from Nikki’s mind. ‘Fareena? Fareena who – Please tell me it’s not …?’
But Haqib was already nodding and it was as if a thundercloud had appeared and pissed on her parade.
‘Yes, Fareena Shah who lives down the road.’
‘Oh no, Haqib – no. Do you know what you’d be getting yourself into?’
Straightening in his chair, Haqib pouted like the sulky adolescent he was. ‘We love each other.’
For now. You love each other for now, but if her brothers find out or her dad, you’ll be dead meat. Nikki didn’t utter the words – she couldn’t. Images of Haqib chopped up in a suitcase refused to fade. ‘Her parents are very strict Muslim. Fareena wears niqab.’
‘Only because they make her … She takes it off when she gets to school. Loads of the girls do.’
Charlie had told Nikki that, so it came as no surprise. Fareena was Charlie’s friend and Nikki was aware that the friendship lasted despite Fareena’s parents’ objections. This relationship with Haqib, who was only Muslim in name, would not be tolerated. Fareena’s brothers were massive and extremely overprotective. Fareena was chauffeured to school and back again. This was a relationship doomed to hell, but Nikki had the sense to realise that there was little she could do about it other than look out for Haqib.
She resolved to have a word with Charlie when she got home.
Smiling to take the sting out of her words, Nikki laid her hand on her nephew’s arm. ‘I think you need to consider this relationship very carefully. I know you will. You have to really think things through. A relationship with Fareena Shah could be very dangerous for you.’
She held his gaze for a moment and then jumped to her feet. ‘Right, get a vase for those flowers. I need to get this stuff out on the table before she comes back and catches me here.’
Haqib filled a vase with water and took his time to place the flowers in one at a time, which Nikki had to admit was more than she would have done. Presentation wasn’t her strong point. When he placed the vase on the table, behind the rest of Nikki’s gifts, he started to laugh. ‘Really?’
But Nikki was determined. ‘Yes really. Your mum will get it.’
She opened the pack of Rolos, pocketed all of them bar one and placed the remaining sweet on its wrapper before the cake she’d had made at Lazy Bites. It had been decorated as per her instructions with 3D Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle characters.
Haqib shook his head, still grinning. ‘Okay then – if you’re certain.’