by David Menon
‘And I don’t suppose there’s been any sign of the bastard of bastards, Bernie Connelly?’
‘No, sir, I’m afraid not’ Wright confirmed.
‘So where is the little twat?’
‘He must have stacks of places he can hide away in, sir’ said Alexander. ‘And people he’ll scare into protecting him’.
‘Yes, well I’d like to get my hands on anyone who is protecting him’ said Barton who was wracking his brains trying to figure out a way of flushing Connelly out somehow. He had to find a way. Connelly couldn’t escape him. He just couldn’t. Barton had to get hold of Connelly because he was the only barrier in the way of him getting his son back. ’But in the meantime we’ve got an arrest to make. Pastor Gabriel’s days as a free man might just be coming to an end’.
‘We’re going to charge him, sir?’ Bradshaw questioned. ‘Even though there’s no DNA evidence that he’s our killer?’
‘It might loosen his tongue a little, Adrian and lead us to who is’.
‘There’s something else here to add to the pot, sir’ said DCI Wright. ‘The flash Mercedes we saw outside the church with the diplomatic number plate?’
‘Yes?’
‘It’s registered to the Nigerian high commission in London, sir who’ve assigned it to a Mrs. Grace Undobe who turns out to be the wife of our Pastor Gabriel’.
‘You don’t say’.
‘Oh yes, sir. And more intriguing still is that the car has appeared in the surveillance of Vivian Matthews’.
‘Oh?’
‘Every few days Mrs. Undobe picks our Vivian up and a few days later she drops her back again’.
‘Well, well, well’ said Barton who was beginning to put a few more pieces together in his head. ‘Our Vivian has a friend who is higher up the food chain than herself’.
‘And this is the same Vivian who showed little grief when we told her husband had been found murdered and who showed even less at his funeral’ said Wright. ‘It was almost as if she was glad he was out of her way at last’.
‘Right, well DS Bradshaw and DC Alexander? Go and have a word with the newly widowed Mrs. Matthews and after you’ve done that go and talk to Grace Undobe’ said Barton. ‘In fact, on second thoughts, bring them both in. Let’s make it special for them’.
Before Barton left to pick up Pastor Gabriel with DCI Wright and a team from uniform he had a call from the pathologist June Hawkins.
‘June! So you’re fully back in the saddle at work?’
‘Yes. This is only my second day back but it’s going okay so far after my little trauma. Anyway, I need you to come over to the lab. We’ve been looking again at the body of your first victim and we think there’s something you should see. I think it’s important, Jeff’.
‘Okay. I’ll be over later on today’.
.
LANDSLIDE TWELVE
Brendan cuddled Toby up close to him all night trying to get him to sleep by telling him stories of all the wonderful adventures that a young boy could have when he had the entire resources of the universe at his disposal. He had to try and get Toby to fill his head with anything that diverted his thinking away from the situation they were in. They flew over huge mountains, across great oceans and cities that were populated with all kinds of wonderful and eccentric people. It helped Brendan too to focus on other things than getting over the shock of seeing his lover Jaime clearly as part of the abduction team. Just as he was thinking that he heard the door being unlocked and Jaime came in, making sure first to lock the door behind him. He saw that Toby was fast asleep and went and sat down on the floor next to Brendan. He tried to kiss Brendan but he wasn’t having any of it.
‘I can understand why you’re angry’ said Jaime, keeping his voice low so as not to wake Toby up. He held out his hand but again Brendan shunned it.
‘I don’t know how you’re going to explain this?’
‘I’m sorry, Brendan’.
‘You’re sorry? You’re fucking sorry? In case you’d forgotten there’s a six year-old little boy here being kept away from his Daddy and it’s breaking his heart’.
‘Do you think I’d let anything bad happen to you or to Toby?’
‘Well it never crossed my mind that you’d be part of some kidnap gang so forgive me for not having much faith in whatever you say’.
‘Do you still love me?’
‘What?’
‘Do you still love me?’
‘Are you for real?’
‘Because I still love you’.
‘And you call this love?’
‘Look, you’ve got to let me explain’.
Brendan pulled at the chain that was attached to the cuff. ‘Well it doesn’t look like I’m going anywhere soon’.
Jaime took a deep breath. ‘You know my family name is Higgins? Well my father is Paddy Higgins. Have you heard of him?’
‘Isn’t he a ... a gangster?’
‘Yes’.
‘You make it sound like you’re admitting to your father liking a game of golf or something’.
‘It is what it is’ said Jaime. ‘I haven’t always been happy with it but I’m reconciled with it now’.
‘So what you told me before about your parents is all a load of shit?’
‘Not all of it, no and I’m sorry about lying to you, Brendan, I really am. But I had to cover up any connection between me and my father initially when I discovered that your employer was a serving police officer. Look, my parents did get divorced when I was little. My mother didn’t want to carry on living in my father’s world and she didn’t want me to grow up in it. I had no contact with my father throughout my teens and early twenties. Then my mother died and my father wanted a reconciliation with me. I didn’t see any reason why not. I missed my Mum and I wanted a relationship with my Dad. Apart from his other activities he’s a successful businessman and I look after that legitimate side of my father’s empire. I don’t get involved with all the other stuff. Or at least I didn’t until you came along’.
‘What do you mean? Has our relationship all been a set up? Is that what you’re telling me?’
‘No, Brendan, no’ Jaime insisted. ‘When I met you that night in the club there was nothing of this going on and I genuinely fell in love with you. But then my father’s fiancé Rita came up with the idea that we could use DSI Barton’s history with Bernie Connelly to draw Connelly out and ... well you don’t want to know anymore. Let’s just say that Connelly is the only other gangster in Manchester who could possibly rival my father. And my father doesn’t do competition’.
‘So you went along with it?’
‘There’s a competition thing going on between me and my future wicked step-mother and believe me she has absolutely no boundaries and she’ll do anything for my father’.
‘But she’s using a six year-old child, Jaime’.
‘She doesn’t care, Brendan. All she cares about is the result’.
‘So she was only with Jeff as part of the plan?’
‘She knew he’d go for her because of her similarity with his late wife’.
‘Poor Jeff’ said Brendan. ‘And I presume he knows about all this now?’
‘Yes’ confirmed Jaime. ‘He does’.
‘So how long are you going to keep us here? And where are we anyway?’
‘We firmly believe that Connelly will show himself to Barton sooner rather than later and because you’re here Barton will hand him over to us rather than charge him. Then when my father has got him you and Toby will be released’.
‘You could’ve warned me’ said Brendan. ‘You could’ve warned me that she was coming for us’.
Jaime took a deep breath. ‘No, I couldn’t’.
‘Yes you could if you’d wanted to’ Brendan shot back. ‘How do I know I can trust you, Brendan? How do I know that you’re any better than that rotten bitch Rita?’
‘Brendan, I’m nothing like Rita in any way. You’ve got to believe that’.
‘Why should I bel
ieve it?’
‘Fair point I suppose’.
‘Let us go’.
‘What?’
‘If you love me like you say you do then you’ll let us go now’.
‘Brendan, I do love you and when this is all over I do want us to go away and start a life together somewhere miles away from here’.
‘And I’ve already told you that I’m not prepared to ditch my family so that ... oh I get it now. You just want to get away from your father and I’m the convenient excuse’.
‘No, Brendan, it’s not like that, it’s not like that at all. You have to believe me’.
‘I can’t trust you, Jaime’.
‘Brendan, I‘m begging you to trust me until this is all over and then I’ll show you how true my love is for you’.
‘When this is all over? Do you think the police will let you all ride off into the sunset? I thought you were an intelligent man. I thought I loved you’.
‘Please don’t say that you don’t’.
‘Then let us go!’
‘Brendan, I will make sure that nothing bad happens to either of you’.
‘And if Rita the Rat decides otherwise?’
‘My father will side with me’ said Jaime. ‘I can’t let you go, Brendan. But I will protect you and I won’t let any harm come to either of you’. He stood up and made for the door. ‘I’ve got to go now. I’m sure I don’t need to ask you to keep our conversations private. I’ve already told you way too much. I’ll come back later and spend some time with you’.
Brendan watched Jaime closed the door behind him and lock it. He burst into tears but then he saw Toby stirring and he quickly took a deep breath and wiped his face clean with his hand. He couldn’t let Toby see him crying.
Pastor Gabriel was sitting one side of the table in the interview room whilst Barton and DCI Wright sat on the other side. Gabriel had given up his right to have a lawyer present. Instead he clutched his bible and said ‘The truth contained in the words on these pages is all the help I need’.
‘Gabriel, where is Sonia Adams?’ asked Barton.
‘I have no idea what you’re talking about’.
‘Then I believe you’re lying’ Barton went on. ‘You told her parents that you were sending her away to a religious retreat because she’d expressed what you called ‘unnatural feelings’ towards another girl. Those of us who take a more civilised view of the world call it being a lesbian. It’s hard enough for young people to be honest about themselves these days without the likes of you bearing down on them and threatening them with Hell and damnation’.
Gabriel didn’t answer. Instead he started rocking back and forth in his chair and reciting the Lord’s prayer. Barton had zero reserves of patience with the bloody lunatic. He was climbing the walls with fear and panic over Toby. He still didn’t know if he’d done the right thing in going along with Rita’s instructions. But what else could he have done? They had it all worked out and had done right from the outset. He’d been well and truly played. And now he was trapped.
‘Sir?’ said Wright who could see that the boss had drifted off somewhere. Most unusual for him, thought Wright. He was usually right smart and bang on the button. Come to think of it he’d been a little odd all morning. Wright made a mental note to ask the boss later if everything was alright.
‘Sorry?’ said Barton who for a moment had forgotten where he was. Then it all clicked back into place. ‘Alright, Gabriel, let’s try something else. What was it like murdering six innocent teenage girls? I mean, what did it feel like as you extracted them from this world and sent them off into the next before their time? Did you like playing God? Did you think you were doing his work when you chopped their feet off?’
‘I had nothing to do with the deaths of those girls’.
‘The murder of those girls, Gabriel! They were murdered’.
‘But not by me!’ Gabriel insisted.
‘Alright then by who? The only thing that links these homicides is you and your church. You were conveniently moved on after each one which makes it glaringly obvious that you had friends in high places who could get you out of trouble when need be’.
‘It’s all circumstantial and you know it’.
‘So you’ve worked it all out. Why would you do that if you weren’t the killer? Just why would you go to all that trouble when you must have so much work to do?’
’It wasn’t me’.
‘Then who was it? Are you protecting someone?’
There was a look that came into Gabriel’s eyes as soon as Barton had suggested he was protecting someone that made Barton think he was finally on the metal.
‘Well I think we’ll leave it there, Gabriel’ said Barton. ‘Go back to the cells and have a think about whether or not that killer you’re protecting is really worth going down for. And when we reconvene please don’t waste anymore of our time. When I have to work weekends I tend to lose my usual patience’.
Barton drove down to the lab where June Hawkins was waiting for him.
‘You look like I felt when I was in hospital after my little drama’ said June when Barton walked into her office. She was in plain clothes instead of the usual plastic covers and always looked classy. She was wearing a knee length green tweed skirt with a caramel coloured blouse. She wore her glasses halfway down her nose and her shoulder length auburn hair was well groomed. Barton thought that it wasn’t fair that she wouldn’t be going home to a good, decent man who treated her like the real lady she was. But instead she’d be going home to a bottle of sauvignon blanc and the evening telly. He didn’t believe in the old saying that there was someone out there for everyone. He thought it was a load of shit. He believed that some people were meant to meet someone and some people just weren’t. And even though he’d give anything to reach into the afterlife and pull Lillie Mae back he could at least say that for those few years they were together life was as perfect as it could get. At least he had that much to hold onto. He said a silent prayer to Lillie Mae asking her to keep their son safe wherever he was. Where was Connelly? Why were Rita and her so-called associates so certain Connelly was going to contact him?
‘Long day’ said Barton as he pulled up a chair and sat in front of her desk. ‘Long few days’.
‘Toby alright?’
‘Toby? Yes, he’s fine. Why wouldn’t he be?’
‘No reason that I know of. I was just asking, that’s all’.
‘I’m sorry, June’.
‘It’s okay’.
‘What is it you wanted to talk to me about?’
‘Well Marcus and I did a further examination on your first murder victim’ said June. She opened a drawer to her desk and pulled out a plastic evidence bag with what looked like a tiny white plastic chip inside that was no more than half a centimetre long. ‘And we found this’.
‘What is it?’
‘It’s a fragment of a false finger nail’ June announced. ‘The type that I and thousands of other women, and men for that matter, use on a daily basis. But it’s where we found it that could be of interest to you in your investigation’.
‘Where did you find it?’
‘Inside her vagina. I’d say that means she was sexually assaulted by a woman instead of or in addition to a man’.
And that’s where it all started to finally click into place for Barton.
LANDSLIDE THIRTEEN
Barton hadn’t smoked for years but he spent all night filling up the ashtray that was lying on his chest whilst he stared up at the ceiling. He couldn’t sleep. He’d like to sleep. But there was too much occupying his mind that was preventing him from sleeping. Apart from his desperate worry about Toby he was now beginning to work out just who he should be focusing on in terms of the investigation into the murdered teenage girls.
The light was beginning to seep through his bedroom window when his mobile phone started ringing. It was right next to him on the bedside table and he picked it up and pressed ‘answer’.
‘DSI Barton’<
br />
‘Jeffrey? It’s your favourite Manchester gangster here. How the devil are you?’
‘Connelly?’
‘Well I’m Bernie to my friends and despite our professional differences I’d like to think that we’re friends on some level at least’.
Barton couldn’t believe he was hearing Bernie Connelly’s voice at long fucking last. But the idea that they could ever be friends was making him feel physically sick. He was now standing as the only obstacle between Barton and a reconciliation with his son Toby.
‘Well what can I do for you ... Bernie?’
‘It’s actually what I can do for you, big boy’.
‘You’re wanted for murder, Bernie’.
‘Did you sleep last night? I’m thinking that you didn’t because you’re worried sick about your boy. Well, what would you say if I told you that I know where they’re holding little Toby and his Manny Brendan?’
‘How do you know?’
‘Because I’ve got my spies everywhere as we all used to say back in the day when the world was so much simpler’.
‘How do I know you’re not bullshitting me?’
‘Well you don’t’.
‘For fuck’s sake, Connelly, this is my son’s life you’re playing about with here’.
‘Which is why you have to trust me, Jeffrey’.
‘So what’s the deal?’
‘I tell you where your boy and Brendan are and you don’t pursue me with regard to Gary Makin and Terry Matthews and you let me slip quietly out of the country’.
‘And how am I going to do that?’
‘By cancelling all investigations into my alleged crimes’ said Connelly. ‘That’s the deal, Jeffrey. And it’s the only one on the table that can save your boy’.
Brendan wished he could hear something outside that could help him identify where they were. All he knew was that they were in some sort of attic with a sloping roof and the window blacked out. He got the feeling it must be a fairly large house which made him think they may be in some affluent suburb of South Manchester or Cheshire or perhaps the Derbyshire Peak District. It probably wasn’t the kind of family semi that he grew up in over in Sale.