Long Time Dead

by Tony Black

  ‘We?’

  ‘Ben and I… it was after my marriage broke down.’

  ‘Did Ben arrange this party?’ I pressed her.

  She turned away from me, lied, ‘No. It was all my idea.’

  When Tina came back with Paul he had slipped into his unctuous preppy-on-the-make persona, striding over to Gillian and grabbing her in a falsely convivial hug. I felt ready to chuck: one luvvie in the room was enough. If he thought Her Ladyship was going to protect him, he was deluded… more than I thought.

  ‘Hello, Paul,’ I said, tones flat.

  He put those powdery-blue eyes on me, then Hod. The pair sized each other up over the rug for a moment or two, Paul dropped his gaze first. He was just a boy after all.

  ‘I didn’t expect to see you here today, Mr Dury,’ he said.

  I couldn’t suppress a smirk. ‘Oh, I bet you didn’t.’

  The ginge sat down between Tina and Gillian; Tina took his hand, held it firmly. I got the impression m’laddo had been waiting to be questioned for some time. That he was primed.

  I got stuck right in: ‘Tell me about the Seriatim.’

  He smiled, touched the side of his nose. ‘It’s a debating group… a few of the boys on campus are involved. I didn’t start it.’

  Gillian seemed pleased with the answer; rubbed Paul’s thigh.

  ‘You didn’t start the fire, eh.’ They looked perplexed. I went on: ‘It was always burning… right?’

  Paul shuffled in his seat, shrugged shoulders. ‘Erm, it’s an old group, started in the eighteenth century by prominent city luminaries who wanted to help out the coming generations… It’s tradition. There’s not much I can say about it.’

  ‘Sworn to secrecy?’

  Paul’s chest inflated. He sighed. ‘It’s not that kind of group,’ he snapped now, getting jerky. ‘It’s a social thing more than anything.’

  It might have started out that way, as a nice way of getting the up-and-coming brats more than their fair share of the pie, showing them the lie of the land, but this crew had got carried away. Ben had led the way with drug taking and wild parties; forays into the city’s seamier side; it had all got out of control. Maybe it always had been, though. I gave him that.

  ‘When did you and Ben start doing drugs?’

  He turned to Gillian. She gave an approving look, nodded as if to say, Go on.

  Paul said, ‘I… we started in first year… There was a lot of stuff about.’

  I held firm, pressed on with low tones: ‘And when did Ben start dealing?’

  Another long pause, then a slightly cocky smile. ‘He was always the man to go to for a bit of puff.’

  Paul thought he was almost in the clear, that I was going to blame Ben for everything. I upped the ante. ‘And the serious stuff… when did he get involved with Danny Gemmill?’

  Paul crossed his legs away from Gillian, ‘I don’t know exactly. Maybe sometime last year… Mr Dury, I didn’t have anything to do with that side of Ben’s life.’

  I watched Tina light a cigarette; took my own pack out, sparked up. I walked closer to Paul. His eyes looked watery, rimmed in red. ‘And what about the prostitutes… did you have more to do with that?’

  Tina stood up. ‘This is getting sick!’

  Gillian flagged her down. ‘Tina… Tina.’

  ‘No, fuck this… Do we have to listen to this?’ She held her cigarette like a dart. Gillian waved me on. Tina stomped for the door, jerked it violently and stormed through. A cloud of dust evacuated along the skirting as the door slammed shut.

  ‘I’m sorry about that. Go on,’ said Gillian. She moved further down the sofa, surveyed Paul’s reactions as I started to question him again.

  ‘On the day Joe Calder was hanged, Paul… where were you?’

  He answered quickly; too quickly. ‘It was in the night. I was tucked up in bed. Why are you asking me that? The police seem perfectly satisfied that it was a suicide.’

  I took a deep drag on my tab. ‘I’m not the police.’

  Paul leaned forward, put his elbows on his knees and made a steeple of his fingers. The pose looked uncomfortable and he broke free of it, slouching backwards in the sofa. He said, ‘Look, why are you asking me all of this?… I haven’t done anything wrong.’

  I put a hand in my pocket, drew a fist. I would dearly have loved to put several jabs in his smart puss. The kid was covering his arse and being cocky about it. He felt protected. I stood over him. ‘Maybe your idea of right and wrong is different from mine.’

  He stood, took a step towards me and inflated his chest. ‘I don’t much care what you think.’ He was in no position to be so bold.

  ‘Really?’ I heard Hod manoeuvre himself to stand at my back. ‘Is that how Stevo got the sore face? Lose that temper of yours, Paul?’

  He bared teeth, near spat, then shoved past me. I caught his shoulder as it connected with my own. It spun me. He roared out, ‘I’m not fucking listening to this crap!’

  He got a total of two steps to the door before Hod grabbed him by the shirt collar, said, ‘Think again, bonny lad.’

  Paul squirmed, trying to claw at Hod’s hand in his collar. His face was turning red. I fronted up to him, got right in his coupon and roared, ‘What you afraid of, Paul?’

  He barked back, ‘Fuck you!’

  Gillian rose, came running to my side. ‘Mr Dury!’

  I dropped my cigarette, put hands on the streak of piss, grabbed his collar. He struggled harder in Hod’s grip. ‘Still playing the Big I Am, Paul?… You’ve got plenty to be scared about. Two people have died.’

  Gillian shrieked, yelled at me, ‘Let him go!… Let him go!’ She tugged at my hands, I felt her nails dig deep. ‘Mr Dury… let the boy go!’

  I loosened my grip.

  Paul bent like a hinge for a moment, then turned for the door. He stumbled at first, but soon found his stride. In the hall he turned back, pointed a finger at me. He tried to speak but his voice deserted him.

  I imagined what he might have wanted to say; didn’t scare me.

  Chapter 35

  GILLIAN WENT AFTER THE BOY, tears streaming down her face. Her feet splayed out in that erratic girlie manner as she ran. It wounded me to see her abandon her composure like that. I felt for the poor woman: she had been through a lot – she was as much a victim as Ben. And I doubted she’d had the right kind of support from Tina; who had done a grand job of making a fool of her. The daft scrubber didn’t know when she was well off.

  I nodded to Hod. He went after Gillian, caught her up and put an arm around her. She took a few seconds to register what was happening, then she turned and sobbed into his chest. For a moment or two she beat him with fists, but she soon ran out of energy, folded like a woman beaten, defeated. Hod had to hold her up as she lost control of her legs.

  ‘C’mon… it’ll be okay,’ he said.

  Gillian started to mumble. Her words were indecipherable at first, choked deep in her throat. She broke off from Hod, pushed him away and screamed out, ‘No, it won’t be okay!… Don’t you understand? It’ll never be okay again!’

  She dropped her arms to her sides, her knees collapsed and she fell to the floor. I watched her swoon. It seemed affected, like a stage fall, and then I heard her head connect soundly with the tiled floor and I realised that she wasn’t acting. She was sparked out cold.

  ‘Fucksake!’ said Hod.

  ‘Pick her up.’ We took her back through to the front room, gently slapped the life back into her cheeks. She came round; looked woozy, lost. Like a woman on the edge; like someone who’d lost the world.

  ‘Would you like something to drink?’ I asked.

  She touched her dry lips, spoke softly: ‘Tina… where’s Tina?’

  ‘Don’t worry about Tina… Hod, get her a brandy.’

  Hod went to the sideboard, picked up a decanter, poured. When he returned, Gillian’s hands were shaking as she took the glass. ‘My head hurts.’

  ‘I’m not surprised… that w
as quite a clatter you gave yourself.’

  ‘I want Tina.’

  I nodded, rose. ‘I’ll go get her.’

  As I went for the door, I called Hod. He put a hand on Gillian’s shoulder for a brief instant, then followed me out.

  ‘Aren’t you going to call Tina?’ he said.

  I tutted, ‘That slag’s the fucking last thing she needs.’

  In the van we headed back to Amy’s flat. The city was awash with fly-posters for the Festival. Every available wall, phone box and empty shopfront had been slapped with an ad for comedians I’d never heard of. I recognised one or two of the faces on show, with their T4 haircuts and overconfident manner shining out. They were all about the same age, all middle class and, as always, the humour would be the same: shite. I’d seen a Jerry Sadowitz show at the Festival once – pure working-class bile, and hilarious. He had commented that the only time he’d make it big was when he died and some Oxbridge student decided to recreate his show as a tribute. The sad thing was, he was fucking all too right.

  This town has always been a schizophrenic schism of haves and have-nots, but more and more now it looked like those at the top were getting away from the rest. The game was fixed. A bolt of anger turned in my gut when I thought of Paul and Ben and the rest of their pathetic little crew running around the city as though they owned it. In their own way, they did.

  Was I bitter, jealous? I didn’t think so. I didn’t aspire to their level. It was the injustice that fired me. Always had. Even though Ben hadn’t been the kind of character I’d go for a bevvy with, he’d deserved better than a short drop. He got overambitious and got in the way – the system shut him down. His mother was broken, and I had seen enough families destroyed to know the territory. The way Fitz had spoken about the Craft and how the case had been swept under the carpet, the more something like ambition fired in me. I wanted to blow this case wide open. I wanted to be the fly in the ointment. I wanted to do this one thing, because I could, and because I could do nothing about the rest of it. This life was a fixed game, but I had a chance to show everyone at the table for what they were, even if it was just this once.

  My only problem was, I was no further forward after talking to Paul. I had hoped he would expose something important, let slip something I could use; but he had been ready for me. Had I been on better form, not losing my mind to alcohol, I might have seen the angles more clearly. Nothing was stacking up, I’d need to rely on a break. But I had a few more moves left to play. I wasn’t out yet.

  When we got back to the flat, Amy arked up. ‘So, what’s the go?’ she said.

  ‘No go,’ said Hod.

  Amy turned her jaw to her shoulder, putting a bead on me. ‘You didn’t bust Paul?’

  I shook my head, removed my tweed – it felt like a straitjacket – and went to sit by the window, staring out at the skyline. The traffic was buzzing in the street below.

  Amy came to sit down beside me. Hod went through to the kitchen, shouted as he ferreted in the fridge, ‘So, what now?’

  I kept staring out the window. My mind was awash with possibilities… each one of them turning onto a dead end.

  ‘Gus, what now?’ echoed Amy.

  We were at a brick wall. ‘Look, what did you both expect, that the kid would just spill his guts? He was too smart for that.’

  Amy crossed her legs, leaned forward; stray curls from her fringe fell over her eye, ‘Okay, so how does it work, Gus?’

  I drew my gaze away from her, turning back to the grey sky. ‘The kid’s rattled… trust me.’

  ‘He is,’ said Hod. ‘We both saw that.’ He’d brought through a can of McEwan’s, cracked it open. ‘You think he’s rattled enough, though?’

  I rose, followed Hod’s cue, got myself a can, fired in. It tasted like an old dream, I wanted to fire into a lorryload of them, but fought it. My thoughts were on other matters and that helped. Said, ‘My worry is that he’s too rattled.’

  ‘Come again?’ said Hod.

  I took another belt then lowered the can. ‘If he’s too scared, he’ll kick off and that could be dangerous… Unless.’

  Amy and Hod looked at each other. I could tell they were weighing up my words. Hod spoke: ‘You mean, unless Gillian talks him round?’

  ‘Bullseye.’

  ‘You think that’s likely?’ said Amy. ‘The woman hired you to-’

  ‘She’s right. Gillian’s only interested in finding out who killed her son, Gus.’

  I wanted to agree with them both, but something told me Gillian was none too pleased with anything the investigation had turned up so far. She’d seen the kind of life Ben had led – the drugs, the prostitutes, the company he’d kept. None of it could have been a comfort to a grieving mother. After the confrontation with Paul, I wondered if she might think better of digging any deeper. Gillian was, for all her bluster and histrionics, a sensitive soul. I knew she was hurting, and she didn’t want any more hurt.

  Amy cut in, ‘But if that cow Tina gets her way… this case is over.’

  ‘Not necessarily,’ I said. I moved to the chair I’d flung my tweed on, leaned over and retrieved my mobi from the inside pocket. It had been switched off; I had two missed calls. I checked the details: one was from Gillian, she had called about twenty minutes after I’d left her home. The other was a first – it rattled me.

  ‘Wonder what he wanted?… Got a call from Stevo.’

  ‘Janny guy at the uni?’ said Amy.

  ‘Aye… he’s never rung me before.’ The thought stung and the possibilities raced before me. ‘Wonder what he’s after.’

  ‘Call him back.’

  ‘Yeah… in a minute,’ I said. ‘I have a call from Gillian too.’

  ‘Gillian!’ said Hod. ‘We just left her.’

  ‘Yeah, I know…’ I checked my inbox. ‘She’s left a voicemail.’

  As I listened to her message, Hod and Amy sat wide-eyed. There was nothing that they’d wanted to hear in that voicemail.

  I lowered the phone.

  ‘That’s it, then.’

  ‘What?’

  I relayed the message: ‘She’s pulling the plug… wants us off the case.’

  ‘What the fuck… why?’ said Hod. He was on his feet.

  I flagged him down. ‘The woman’s had enough… but you don’t need to worry, she’s paying full whack.’

  Hod brightened. ‘She is?’

  Amy amped it up: ‘For fucksake, is that all you’re interested in?’

  Hod fired back, ‘Well, actually… it’s a consideration, aye. I have Shaky on my back, or have you forgotten that?’

  She tutted and looked away. ‘Ben had a similar problem, I seem to remember.’

  ‘Aye, and look how he ended up.’

  I had dialled Stevo’s number, waved at the others to shut the fuck up. ‘Hello, Stevo, it’s Gus.’

  He seemed to be whispering, timid. ‘Oh, you got my message.’

  ‘Yes… sorry, my phone was switched off. Just got to it. What’s up?’

  There was a pause on the line. It unsettled me.

  ‘Gus… I-I, er, saw Paul.’

  I didn’t like the sound of this already – what the fuck was Paul doing racing from Gillian’s gaff to see Stevo? ‘Oh, yes?’

  ‘He seems to think that…’ I heard a noise, a clatter of tins.

  ‘What was that?’

  Stevo held schtum. ‘I don’t know.’

  ‘Is everything okay there?’

  His voice dropped even lower. ‘I think there might be someone outside.’

  ‘Stevo… what did Paul say?’

  ‘He asked me what I had told you… and some other stuff. He was very… animated.’ He sounded pensive, on edge. His voice was choked with emotion.

  ‘I bet he was.’ This wasn’t good. ‘Stevo, get the fuck out of there… You hear me? Go home – now!’

  His voice trembled; I could hear the fear in it. ‘I think you might be right.’

  ‘Look, Stevo, if you get any bo
ther, call me right away, okay.’

  Silence.

  I’d missed the line going dead.

  ‘Shit!’

  I tried to call him back but it went straight to voicemail.

  ‘Fucking hellfire!’ I yelled. I grabbed up my jacket. ‘C’mon… move yer arse. Things are kicking off.’

  ‘Y’wha’?’

  ‘Don’t fucking ask. We need to get to Stevo.’

  I made for the door with Hod following. In the stairwell I heard Amy’s heels clacking on the stairs. ‘Where do you think you’re going?’ I asked.

  ‘With you.’

  ‘That’ll be shining bright.’ I pointed back to the door. ‘Get up those stairs.’

  She made a moue of her mouth, pushed past me. ‘Fucking watch me.’

  Hod shrugged. ‘No telling her.’

  I knew he was right. We fired down the stairs. My heart was pounding already. A hundred scenarios flashed in my mind, none of them good. Stevo was the last person I wanted to get mixed up in this. Thing was, I knew he had more information than he had let on. He had done a good job of keeping it to himself… so far; I hoped he kept it that way. Dreaded to think how Paul and his mates would react to finding themselves up against someone else at this point.

  For the first time, I wished I hadn’t pressed so hard on Paul. The lad was unstable. There was no predicting how he would react to the threats I had put on him. I had the dread feeling I’d fucked up. Badly.

  Chapter 36

  HOD PUT THE PEDAL TO the metal. For the first time in living memory Amy didn’t fiddle with the CD player. We all sat, eyes front, cursing the traffic.

  ‘This is fucked,’ said Amy.

  I looked at her. She was pumped, raring to go. This was the last thing I wanted. She shouldn’t have been with us at all – it was no place for her. I didn’t want to see her get hurt. I leaned forward. ‘Hod, you need to go and see Gillian.’

  ‘Y’wha’?… Thought we were going to this Stevo guy.’

  ‘No. Drop me off, I’ll sort Stevo… you and Amy go and see Gillian.’

  Amy pointed a painted fingernail at me. ‘Now hold on a minute…’