by Roberta Kray
The bat flew more widely this time, its aim random and more destructive. The noise was loud, a shattering, splintering explosion of sound. Three cabinets, two domes and a smaller case containing a single hummingbird, all dissolved into shards.
‘No! Please…’
‘Final chance,’ Raynard hissed. ‘And then this room becomes a fuckin’ glass factory.’
As the bat rose up into the air again, Carlisle stretched out his arms. ‘No, no, stop it! I’ll tell you. I’ll tell you everything.’ A thin pathetic whine leaked out of his mouth. ‘It wasn’t me. I didn’t want to do it. They made me.’
‘Keep talking.’
‘They… he… he wanted names, customers, men, well-off men who spent a lot of money here.’
Raynard gave a bleak, tight-lipped smile. ‘And why exactly would he want those?’
Carlisle’s tongue flicked out again, quickly dampening his lips. His eyes looked frantically around the room, towards the door and then back at Raynard. But still he didn’t speak.
‘You’re running out of time here, mate. No one’s coming to help. There’s only you and me. Please don’t try my patience. You’ve got five seconds. Five, four, three —’
‘All right, all right. I’ll tell you. Just don’t…’ Carlisle wrapped his arms protectively around his chest and stared down at the floor. ‘It was a… a blackmail scam. He wanted the names so he could set them up, make some money.’
‘Set them up?’
‘You know?’ Carlisle’s eyes, full of fear, flicked up again. The pale, parchment skin of his face was pulled taut over his cheekbones and ridged with pink. ‘With a woman.’
‘With Silver Delaney?’
‘I don’t know. I swear. He never told me. All I did was provide him with the names.’
Raynard gave a sneer. ‘And take the money. You did take the money, Morton, didn’t you?’
‘Some. Not much. I didn’t want to do it. He threatened me, said I had to. I was scared of him. He’s crazy, violent. He wouldn’t take no for an answer. I didn’t have a choice.’
‘Oh, there’s always a choice, Morton. You could have gone to the law, got some protection. Most people would do that, don’t you think?’
‘I was scared of him,’ Carlisle repeated. ‘You don’t know what he’s like.’
Raynard scratched his head with his left hand, while he slapped the bat gently against his thigh with his right. ‘How many men are we talking about here? Are there pictures? Videos?’
‘Only a few… men, I mean. Four or five. Street didn’t show any pictures to me.’ Hurriedly, he added. ‘I wouldn’t have wanted to see them.’
‘Sure you wouldn’t,’ Raynard sneered. ‘A nice respectable guy like you.’ He released a long audible breath. ‘Mr Delaney isn’t going to be happy. No, he isn’t going to be happy at all. His little girl mixed up in something like this.’
‘It was nothing to do with me. I didn’t think —’
‘Save it,’ Raynard said. ‘I don’t give a toss what you thought.’
Carlisle’s voice was tight and strained. ‘What are you… what are going to do now?’
‘Not up to me, is it? But Mr Delaney doesn’t like people taking advantage of his daughter. No, he takes a very dim view of things like that.’
‘It’s Danny Street who’s behind all this, not me. He’s the one you should be talking to.’
‘I’m sure I’ll get around to it.’
‘It wasn’t my fault. I didn’t…’
‘Yeah, I get it. Nothing’s your fault, huh? I’ll be sure to pass the message on.’ Raynard looked around the room, wrinkling his nose. ‘Bit of a mess, this place. You should get it cleaned up, Morton. It doesn’t give a good impression to the customers.’ He turned on his heel and began to walk away.
Carlisle stared silently after him. He was holding his breath in case the man started wielding his bat again. There was the crunch of boots on broken glass. The man glanced out through the door, making sure the coast was clear before he slid back the bolt. Then, without a backward glance, he stepped out on to the street and strode away.
Carlisle took a few seconds to recover his composure before hurrying over to the door to lock it again. He leaned against it for a moment, feeling the cold sweat sliding down his back. What now? What should he do now? His guts turned somersaults, bile rising into his throat. It might be over for the time being, but it was only an adjournment. Judgement hadn’t yet been passed and when it was…
Quickly, with shaking legs, he pushed himself forward and half-ran, half-staggered to the office. He snatched up the phone and dialled the number. It was answered not by Danny Street, but by Silver Delaney.
‘Hey, Morton,’ she said in her drawl. ‘How are you doing, hun?’
‘I need to speak to Danny. Is he there?’
‘Nah, he’s not here.’
‘Where is he? Do you know where he is? I have to speak to him. It’s urgent, for God’s sake.’
‘What’s going on, hun? What’s happening?’
‘What’s happening? You want to know what’s happening?’ There was a distinctly hysterical edge to his tone. ‘What’s happening is that I’ve just had a visit from a friend of your father’s. Tell Danny to get round here straight away. Straight away, do you hear me? Otherwise I’m going to the police.’
54
Ava was feeling the kind of exhaustion that comes from having to lie consistently. Her body felt heavy as lead. She was trying to stay focused, to keep her story simple and to not embellish it with any unnecessary detail. The same questions were being asked over and over again. It was now three o’clock in the afternoon and her head was beginning to spin.
In front of her were DI Valerie Middleton and DS Laura Higgs. Sitting to her left was a duty solicitor called Vanessa West. The woman, in her mid-twenties, although competent was not especially reassuring. Ava suspected her of being intimidated by the two senior police officers.
‘Let’s go over last night again,’ Higgs said. Her gaze, hard and nasty, bored into Ava.
Ava glanced at her solicitor. ‘Do I have to keep on doing this?’
Before Ms West had the opportunity to reply, DI Middleton said, ‘If you wouldn’t mind. Just one more time, so we’re all perfectly clear on the details.’
Ava wondered if the two officers were playing good cop, bad cop. If that was the case then Higgs definitely qualified as the latter. Ever since their first meeting on Sunday, the sergeant had been quite blatantly antagonistic, as if she had taken an instant dislike to her and was now intent on proving her guilty of anything.
‘If you wouldn’t mind,’ DI Middleton said again.
Ava, seeing that her solicitor wasn’t going to intervene, wearily embarked on her story again. ‘Okay. I was in all night, watching TV. My flatmate Tash was there with her girlfriend, Hannah. We had a pizza for dinner – mozzarella and tomato – then the two of them went down to the Fox. That was about eight o’clock. I stayed in. They got back about eleven twenty. I was just going to bed. I said goodnight and that was it.’
‘And you didn’t make or receive any phone calls during this time?’
‘No. You’ve got my mobile. You can check. And you can check the landline too.’
Higgs directed another fierce glare at her. ‘Although Chris Street could have come round to the flat while Tash and Hannah were out.’
‘He could have, but he didn’t.’
‘And you’re absolutely sure about that?’
‘Absolutely sure.’
Higgs continued to press on with her theories. ‘If Chris Street arrived at the flat before your flatmate and her friend returned from the pub, he could have hidden in your bedroom until the girls were asleep and then the two of you could have left together.’
‘He didn’t. We didn’t. And look, why would he come to me anyway? He’s got family, a father, a brother. He’d trust them more than he would trust me.’
‘But you’re his girlfriend,’ Higgs said.
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And there was another can of worms that Ava didn’t want to open. No one was going to believe her if she said that they had just been pretending. It would sound ridiculous. ‘So what? You really think I’d be the first person he’d turn to?’
For all the dark, nightmarish qualities of the interview, Ava was aware of one shining ray of light. Now she knew that Jenna had been murdered last night, she was certain of Chris’s innocence. If he had killed her, then why would he have hung around to the morning before trying to make his escape? Even if he’d been worried about the Merc being stopped, he could easily have borrowed Danny’s car or his father’s to get away. He could have pulled money out of his account, driven to the airport and been 500 miles away by now.
‘And what about this morning?’ DI Middleton said.
Ava sighed before diligently repeating the reply she’d already given so many times before. ‘I went over to the Mansfield to see my dad at about eight o’clock. He’s ill. He’s got the flu. I bought some shopping for him on the way there.’
Higgs leaned forward, her eyes flashing again. ‘So you were on the high street. Are you saying you didn’t notice any activity around the green?’
‘I saw some police cars and an ambulance.’
‘And you didn’t wonder what was going on?’
Ava released another thin sigh. ‘Yes, I wondered, but this is Kellston. It’s not that unusual to see a few cops around. Anyway, I was more concerned about my dad. I went to the Mansfield, stayed with him for about ten, fifteen minutes and then started walking back towards the flat.’
‘And that’s when you got the phone call from Chris Street?’
‘Yes. He told me he didn’t need me today and that he’d see me tomorrow.’
‘And that’s all.’
‘That’s all.’
‘And how did he sound?’
Ava raised her hands. ‘Ordinary, normal. I don’t know. I was on the street. There was a lot of noise, cars going by and the rest.’
‘You didn’t think it was odd, him cancelling like that?’
‘No, not at all. Some days he doesn’t need me.’
Higgs continued to glare at her. ‘So then you decided to go clothes shopping?’
‘Why not?’
‘Except none of the clothes stores were open at that time. It can’t have been more than, what, half eight by then?’
‘Window shopping,’ Ava said. ‘I couldn’t be bothered to go back home. I thought I’d have a look in the windows first and see if there was anything I fancied.’
‘So you’re claiming that you spent all morning looking at clothes?’
‘Yes,’ Ava said. ‘Although I didn’t buy much, a few T-shirts and that was it.’
‘It appears your phone was disconnected for a couple of hours. We were trying to contact you, but couldn’t get through.’
‘Was it?’ said Ava, feigning surprise. ‘I didn’t know that. It was working fine last time I used it.’
The interview continued in this vein for a further twenty minutes. Although Ava couldn’t prove what she’d been doing, it couldn’t be disproved either. So long as no one had seen her driving the van, she was safe. In truth, they were more interested in what had happened last night and for that she had an alibi in Tash. Well, an alibi of sorts. There was, of course, no reason why she couldn’t have crept out of the flat in the middle of the night.
Eventually, after DI Middleton had once again explained the likely repercussions of helping a murderer to evade justice, she was told she could go. Relief flowed over her. Although she knew that she wasn’t out of the woods yet, at least she had got a temporary reprieve.
Ava pulled on her coat in the foyer of the station and made her way out of the doors. It was raining, but she didn’t care. She put up her umbrella and gulped in the cold winter air, glad to be out of the small stuffy room and away from the glare of her interrogators. Thank God.
She had got as far as the corner of Cowan Road when she heard quick footsteps behind.
Turning, she saw DS Higgs hurrying towards her. For one terrible second, she thought a vital piece of evidence had come to light and she was about to be arrested. Her chest tightened and her pulse began to race. ‘What is it? What do you want?’
‘You don’t mind if I have a quick word, do you?’
‘Actually, I do,’ Ava snapped back. ‘You’ve had plenty of time to talk to me, over two hours in fact. And shouldn’t my solicitor be present?’
‘Oh, I don’t think your solicitor would want to hear this,’ said Higgs slyly. ‘It’s about your dad and it’s a little on the delicate side.’
Ava stared at her through the grey gloom of the afternoon. She could hear the rain, a steady patter, falling against the canopy of the umbrella. ‘What about Dad?’
‘He’s done a bit of time inside, hasn’t he?’
Ava gave a shrug. ‘What of it?’
‘Be a shame to see him banged up again. I mean, he’s getting on a bit now. It gets harder as you get older, all those long empty days stretching in front of you. Not to mention all those young bulls wanting to prove themselves. You’d be surprised how many inmates get attacked, killed even in prison.’
‘What are you trying to say?’
‘I’m saying that we know about the robbery at Finian’s. We know your father was the driver.’
Ava felt the shock like a blow to the stomach. For a second she was speechless, her thoughts racing, her heart pounding in her chest. ‘That’s not true. You’re trying to fix him up. You’re trying to get at me through him.’
‘Good try, Ava. The whole innocent act may fool some people, but it doesn’t wash with me.’
‘So why haven’t you arrested him, then?’
DS Higgs smirked at her. ‘We will – unless you’re prepared to tell us where Chris Street is. Give us his location and we may be prepared to overlook the matter. Have a think about it, love. You’ve got twenty-four hours.’
‘I can’t tell you what I don’t know.’
‘Twenty-four hours. It’s time to decide where your loyalties lie.’
55
Ava was still in turmoil, her head spinning, her stomach churning, as she climbed the stairs to the flat in Market Square. Higgs had issued her with an ultimatum and she didn’t think the sergeant was bluffing. They knew about her dad. They knew about the robbery. Oh Christ, what was she going to do? She was stuck between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand, she couldn’t condemn her father to what might be a lengthy prison sentence, on the other she felt unable to betray Chris Street.
She took out her key and put it in the lock. The truth was that she didn’t even know exactly where Chris was. He could easily have moved on from Chingford by now. But still she baulked at the idea of giving the cops even that small clue. And how much evidence did they really have against her dad? Maybe not enough to convict him. She had twenty-four hours to figure out what to do. The clock was ticking and she couldn’t even think straight.
As soon as she opened the door, Tash rushed out of the living room. ‘You’re home!’ She gave Ava a hug and then, still holding on to her arms, leaned back a little and studied her more closely. ‘Are you okay? I’ve been so worried about you. I thought they might have… What did the police say? They’ve been here too. They wanted to know all about last night. Have they found him yet? Have they found Chris Street?’
‘Hey,’ said Ava, forcing a smile as she tried to mask her fear and confusion. ‘One question at a time. And first I need to take a long hot shower. I’ve been stuck down that place for hours.’
Tash finally let go of her. ‘But they haven’t charged you with anything?’
‘Not yet,’ said Ava, shrugging out of her coat and hanging it on the peg by the door. ‘But I’m sure that won’t stop them from trying. Look, I’ll just grab that shower and then I’ll tell you all about it.’
‘I’ll make you a coffee.’
‘Haven’t we got anything stronger than that? I need a pro
per drink, the stronger the better.’
‘There’s some of Hannah’s Johnnie Walker left. We can finish that off.’
‘Sounds like a plan.’ Ava watched as Tash went off towards the kitchen and then she made her way wearily to the bathroom. Inside, she took off her watch, placing it on the window ledge and then she stripped off her clothes, leaving them where they fell on the floor. She turned on the tap and stepped under the powerful jets, standing motionless as the hot water flowed over and around her.
It must have been two minutes, maybe three, before her muscles finally started to relax. She raised her face and closed her eyes. The day, which had started off with a simple visit to her father, had somehow turned into a nightmare: stolen goods, a murdered woman, a man on the run for murder, a two-hour interrogation, lies, deceit and evasion.