Buried

by Mark Billingham

  ‘As long as you don’t use the bad back as an excuse when I thrash you. Fiver a frame?’

  The door opened, and Yvonne Kitson marched across to her desk with a face that said she was an inch from chucking it all in. She dropped her bag, switched on the light, then walked over and leaned against the wall. She looked like she wanted to talk; like she wanted Thorne to know about it.

  ‘I’d better go, Phil. I’ll call when I’m nearly home.’

  ‘Right. See you later.’

  ‘Everything OK?’

  ‘Yeah, I’m great,’ Hendricks said.

  As a liar, he was no better than Thorne.

  ‘You’re getting far too worked up about this whole case, because you think you fucked it up last time,’ Thorne said as he replaced the receiver.

  ‘Wrong,’ Kitson said.

  ‘Which bit?’

  ‘I know I fucked it up last time.’

  Kitson was wired; pacing the small office as though she couldn’t decide whether she’d prefer a shoulder to cry on or a face to punch.

  ‘You’ll get the other two,’ Thorne said. ‘You will. If Farrell won’t cough, you’ll just have to do it the hard way, that’s all.’

  She stopped, looked hard at him, as though he hadn’t heard a word. ‘I really want these two, Tom. I know Farrell killed him, but the others just stood there and watched him do it. The DPS are telling me they can stick all three of the fuckers in the dock for murder. It might get knocked down to GBH in court, but we can have a bloody good try.’

  ‘So bring in Farrell’s mates, Nelson and Herbert, like you told him you would. It’s probably them anyway.’

  ‘I’ve had another idea,’ Kitson said.

  ‘If it’s early retirement, I might join you.’

  ‘I fancy stopping the clock, bailing Farrell to return tomorrow. We could get some surveillance organised and see if he gets in touch with anybody. He just might contact the other two to let them know he hasn’t said anything.’

  Thorne thought it sounded like a reasonable enough idea and told her so. Then he repeated himself, as he wasn’t sure she’d believed him the first time. ‘You’ve done a good job on this, Yvonne.’

  ‘I went round to see Amin Latif’s parents,’ she said, ‘to tell them about Farrell.’

  ‘I bet that felt good.’

  ‘I didn’t tell them how we found him.’ Shame and resignation passed across her face in quick succession. ‘That we should have found him six months ago. I know it’ll come out and we’ll have to deal with it then, but sitting there with Mrs Latif in her living room, I didn’t want to spoil that moment. For them, I mean. Really, for them.’

  Thorne just nodded, and straightened one or two things on his desk.

  ‘I’d better go and talk to Brigstocke about setting up the surveillance.’ She started towards the door. ‘Getting the bail paperwork together…’

  After Kitson had gone, Thorne watched as rain fell through the darkness. He was grateful for a minute or two alone; for the chance to let what was left of his father’s performance roll around in his head for a while.

  Don’t panic, Son. It’s not what it looks like.

  Smoke that wasn’t smoke, and a fire alarm that was really a telephone.

  Don’t jump to conclusions.

  He walked to the doorway of his office, from where he could see Kitson talking to Karim and Stone in the Major Incident Room. As he watched, an idea sparked and flared, took hold as quickly as flames on polyester.

  His father’s face was smothered in red and gold as Thorne stepped out into the corridor.

  ‘I’m afraid I’m not at liberty to say how she died, sir.’

  ‘Don’t you think that’s a bit ridiculous?’ Lardner asked. ‘You call to tell me a woman’s been murdered, but then I have to sit here wondering if she was shot, stabbed or drowned in the bath.’

  ‘It’s probably a bit ridiculous, yeah,’ Holland said. ‘But that is the procedure, so…’

  ‘She was a nice enough woman, as far as I can remember. Fond of sticking her nose in a bit, but I suppose that went with her job. Like journalists drinking… or coppers and probation officers being cynical.’

  Holland sipped his tea and grunted.

  ‘Right, well, not a lot else to say, I suppose.’

  ‘We were just concerned that you should know about Mrs Bristow’s death.’

  ‘Should I be?’

  ‘Sorry?’

  ‘Concerned. Are we being targeted, do you think?’ Lardner barked a humourless laugh. ‘Perhaps Grant Freestone’s come back out of hiding and is going to slaughter us all one by one.’

  ‘I don’t think you need to be concerned about that…’

  With lunch having been just as piss-poor as Kitson had promised it would be, Wilson had scuttled away to dinner as soon as he was informed that Farrell was being bailed, having agreed to meet his client back at the station the following day.

  Kitson stood with Farrell in front of the platform as the custody skipper took him through the release procedure. The sergeant was a wily old sod, and he’d looked sideways at Kitson when she’d presented herself and Farrell, being well aware that she’d been ready to charge the boy a few hours earlier. He knew she was up to something, but knew enough to keep it to himself.

  After first checking the next day’s ‘Bailed to Return’ schedule, Farrell was informed that bail had been authorised conditional upon his return at four o’clock the next afternoon. That he was being released into the custody of his parents.

  Farrell seemed to have recovered himself, to have put what happened in the interview room behind him. He just nodded each time he was asked if he understood what was being said to him. Then he asked again when they were going to return his three-figure Nikes.

  ‘You should shut your mouth before we change our minds,’ the custody sergeant said.

  Farrell signed for the return of the property that was handed back to him. He made a great deal of slipping on his designer watch and checking there was nothing missing from his wallet. Then he signed to confirm that he’d been shown his custody record and that it was complete and accurate. He signed the release form and the declaration that he fully intended to return at the specified time.

  ‘I presume you’ll be keeping an eye on me,’ Farrell said.

  Kitson said nothing, just glanced up from her paperwork.

  ‘You must think I’m stupid.’

  ‘I know you’re not,’ Kitson said.

  ‘You know nothing about me.’ Farrell turned his face from hers, concentrated on finishing the procedure.

  ‘These copies are for you to keep.’

  Farrell took a sheaf of papers from the custody sergeant.

  ‘Shall we phone your mum and dad? Get them to come and fetch you?’

  Farrell looked away and shook his head, snorted like it was a ridiculous idea.

  ‘Right, I’ll call you a cab. Be a couple of minutes. If you haven’t got enough cash, they can take it from your parents at the other end. Will that be a problem?’

  ‘I think they’ll manage…’

  As the sergeant picked up the phone, Kitson thanked him for his help. He nodded, a look on his face like he hoped she knew what she was doing. Kitson escorted Farrell out of the custody suite, and led him through the station towards the main entrance.

  She briefed the officer on the front desk before she left Farrell to wait for his taxi. She swiped her pass and yanked open the door to go back in. Then she turned back to Farrell. ‘You’re sure there isn’t anything you’d like to tell me before you leave?’

  Farrell’s smile was still engaging enough, but his eyes were slits. ‘Nothing you’d want to hear,’ he said.

  When Kitson had gone, Farrell took a step towards the automatic doors, which opened as he approached. The desk officer suggested that he should wait inside. Pointed out that it was pissing down. Told him he could suit his fucking self when Farrell said he’d rather get wet.

  Outside, Far
rell stood beneath the overhang and stared out at the road.

  It hadn’t been much more than a day, but it felt like a lot longer: like ten years’ worth of change, of major fucking upheaval. And he knew that it hadn’t really started yet.

  His mind and his heart were racing, but he knew he needed to stay calm, that he should breeze back through the door as though nothing had happened. Despite the way he’d played it with the twat on the custody desk, he wanted to get home and see his mum and dad more than anything. He wanted to be back where it was warm and safe, and where he knew that, whatever happened, there was only ever one side they were going to be on.

  He stared through the rain. Still able to recall the taste of it as he and the others had walked towards that bus stop six months before. It had been a little colder than this, maybe, but otherwise exactly the same sort of night…

  A dark Cavalier drew up and a thickset Asian man climbed out, leaving the engine running.

  ‘Minicab?’ Farrell shouted.

  The man turned back towards the car.

  Adrian Farrell pulled up his hood and jogged after him.

  TWENTY-TWO

  ‘Sunday’s a pretty busy day round here,’ Neil Warren said. ‘It’s changeover day, so it’s always a bit bloody frantic if there are new tenants coming in or anyone going out. Plus I’ve got family business and church stuff, and I organise a small service here in the house for anyone who’s interested…’

  ‘It’s really not a problem,’ Holland said. There was a block of multicoloured Post-its on his desk. He scratched a tick next to Neil Warren’s name.

  ‘I just wanted to explain why I hadn’t returned your call sooner.’

  ‘I understand.’

  ‘Now, of course, I feel fucking dreadful.’

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Holland said.

  ‘You meet people, they drift into your orbit, and then… life moves on, you know? You go in different directions or whatever, and most of the time you never give them another thought. Kathleen Bristow hadn’t crossed my mind in five years until you came round here talking about Grant Freestone, and now she’s dead. And I think I should probably feel more upset than I do…’

  ‘Like you said, you hadn’t thought about her in a long time.’

  ‘I’ll ask people here to remember her in their prayers.’

  Holland looked at his watch: it was five past nine. Once this was done with, he’d see about getting away. Chloe would be in bed, but it would be good to have an hour or so with Sophie before one or both of them flaked out.

  ‘I take it you don’t think it’s a coincidence,’ Warren said.

  ‘Sir?’

  ‘That you start asking people about what happened back then, about Freestone and all that, and someone on the panel gets killed.’

  ‘I think it’s probably unlikely.’

  ‘Have you spoken to the others?’

  ‘Most of them, yes.’

  Warren said nothing for ten or fifteen seconds. When Holland heard the click of a lighter, he guessed that Warren had been rolling a cigarette. There was a long exhalation, another pause. Then Warren said, ‘Did she suffer very much?’

  Holland would normally have said something pat, something reassuring, at this point. Beyond knowing that Warren was plain-speaking himself, that he didn’t seem enamoured of bullshit, Holland couldn’t really say where his answer came from.

  ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘I think she probably did.’

  It was only twenty minutes from Hendon to Arkley. Half a dozen Gram and Emmylou tracks had done wonders for Thorne’s mood, but all their sterling work was undone with one glance at Tony Mullen’s face.

  After their last encounter, Thorne hadn’t been anticipating the warmest of welcomes, but there was more to this than a predictable antipathy. There was resignation in the man’s expression, and in his posture as he stood aside to let Thorne in without a word. Tony Mullen looked like a man who was no longer expecting good news.

  As a parent, there would always be hope until there was a body to bury, but as an ex-police officer, Thorne knew that Mullen would be painfully aware of how the timescales worked. How quickly realistic chances became slim ones. How quickly they faded away to nothing.

  It was now nine days since Luke had first gone missing; almost five since the video had been sent; seventy-two hours since Luke had been taken a second time, without word of any kind from whoever was holding him.

  Thorne could still see rage in Mullen’s eyes, but there was next to no fight left in him.

  ‘Whatever you want, I hope it’s quick,’ Mullen said. ‘We’re all tired.’

  ‘Actually, I’ve come to have a word with Juliet.’

  ‘Why?’

  Thorne took a second and decided it couldn’t hurt; that it might even build a bridge or two. ‘We’ve been talking to a boy from Butler’s Hall about a completely different case. It’s almost certainly unconnected with this one. With Luke…’

  ‘Almost certainly?’

  ‘We think he’s lying about knowing Luke, for some reason. We know he phoned here on several occasions and we want to make doubly sure it was Luke he was calling. I just came to check that he wasn’t calling your daughter. I don’t think I’ll be more than ten minutes.’

  ‘What’s this boy’s name?’

  Thorne took a little longer this time. ‘Farrell.’

  There was no obvious reaction, but Thorne wondered if he’d seen a flicker of something before Mullen turned his head, looked away and spoke to his wife.

  Thorne hadn’t noticed Maggie Mullen. She was sitting ten or so feet above them at the top of the stairs, on a small landing before further flights curved up to the second and third floors. She was wearing dark tracksuit bottoms and a brown sweater. Her hair was tied back, much of it the same grey as her face, and as the cigarette ash that Thorne presumed filled the saucer between her feet.

  ‘You’d better give Jules a call,’ Mullen said.

  His wife stared, as though she hadn’t heard him, then glanced at Thorne. He smiled and nodded. Both gestures were small and both felt slightly patronising even as he made them; as though he were reassuring someone very old or very sick.

  ‘Has she done something wrong?’

  ‘No, nothing like that,’ Thorne said. ‘It’ll just be a couple of questions.’

  Mullen stepped past Thorne, leaned against the banister at the foot of the stairs. ‘Just give her a shout, will you, love?’

  Maggie Mullen picked up the saucer and got to her feet. She brushed a few stray ashes from her lap, turned and walked up and out of sight towards Juliet’s room. After half a minute, Thorne heard the faintest of knocks, then a muffled exchange, one voice raised above the other. He heard a door shut and the tread of four feet moving down the stairs.

  As he waited in the hall, Thorne studied the family photographs on a table by the front door, then looked at the wallpaper instead when he became uncomfortable. Next to him, he heard Mullen’s head bump gently against the wall as he let his head drop back; heard him say, ‘fuck’ quietly, to no one in particular.

  Farrell presumed that the cab firm had been given the address by the custody sergeant when the car had been booked. The driver certainly seemed to know where he was going. The miserable bastard said nothing as they drove, but that suited Farrell well enough. He didn’t want to chat. He wanted to close his eyes and gather his thoughts.

  He leaned his head against the window and listened to the rain slapping on the roof and to the squeak of the wipers. It stank of oil in the back, and one of those pine air-fresheners shaped like a tree. Piece of shit probably didn’t even have insurance; the Asians always tried to avoid paying anything if they thought they could get away with it. It was like the joke a few of them had about the Asian kids at school. They used to say that their dads were the ones who owned chains of newsagents’, and posh curry houses, but still went to the headmaster’s office to try and haggle over the fees…

  When the car pulled over, Farrell tho
ught that he must have nodded off and slept through most of the journey. It seemed like only five minutes since they’d driven away from the station.

  A door opened on either side of him. When they’d closed again, he was sitting between two Asian men.

  ‘What the fuck’s going on?’ But even as he was asking the question, the answer was settling in his stomach and starting to boil.

  They didn’t speak to him.

  They didn’t look at him, or at each other.

  The driver flicked his indicator up and eased slowly into the stream of traffic. He turned on the radio, tuned it into a bhangra station. Moved ahead nice and steadily.

  Farrell was still pretty certain that the police had bailed him just so they could watch him for a while; see if he got in touch with either of the others. Wedged tight between the men on either side, he wasn’t able to turn round fully, but he craned his neck as much as he could, desperately hoping that he might be proved right and see a panda behind them. But all he saw was rain, anonymous headlights, and, when he turned round again, the eyes of the driver in the rear-view mirror. They were cold and flat, and yellowed for a second as the Cavalier passed below a street light.

  The digital clock on the chrome range read 21.14. Juliet Mullen sat perched on the black, granite worktop with a can of Diet Coke. Her Converse Allstars bounced gently against the cupboard beneath.

  ‘He’s the twatty sixth-former with the spiky hair, right?’

  ‘That’s a good description,’ Thorne said.

  ‘Fancies himself.’

  ‘Not a friend of yours, then?’

  ‘No…’

  Thorne sat at the kitchen table. Fresh coffee had been made and he’d helped himself. ‘He’s a good-looking boy, though, to be serious. Wouldn’t you say? I bet some of the girls in your year like him, don’t they?’

  ‘Maybe some of the sad ones.’

  ‘But not you?’

  She threw him a look drenched in pity. Thorne was convinced. He knew precisely the reaction he’d get were he to ask Juliet Mullen if she’d ever spoken to Adrian Farrell on the phone. ‘What about your brother?’