by Edie Baylis
The man looked slightly embarrassed. “I’m afraid Aiden doesn’t work here anymore Sir.”
Alan couldn’t hide the shock from registering on his face. Oh no! Had Aiden got sacked? Bloody hell! “W-What?”
The salesman cleared his throat. “I’m guessing you haven’t spoken to him for some time. Aiden left us over a year ago.”
Alan’s mouth dropped open. “A year ago? Oh, erm...” What the hell? “Where did he go?”
The salesman shook his head. “I can’t help you with that either Sir. I don’t know. He didn’t work his notice out and no reference requests ever came in for him. He just arrived for work one day, said he was leaving and that was that.”
“Ok, thank you,” Alan muttered, hastily leaving the salesroom. He walked quickly down the road. So now what? He and Aiden had always been honest with each other, so why hadn’t he been straight about leaving his job? And where was he now? Furthermore, why didn’t his brother want him to know?
A glimmer of fear sprung forth and began to gain momentum in Alan’s mind.
“YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO fucking knock, you slag!” Eliza screeched when Selena unexpectedly walked into her office, straight into an eyeful of Aiden taking her over the desk.
“Sorry, sorry!” Selena squeaked, hastily backtracking out of the room and slamming the door firmly behind her. She leant up against the wall in the corridor and tried to steady her breathing already threatening to turn into hyperventilation. Shit the bed! So Eliza was doing that Aiden? Not something Digger would be pleased about.
Selena shrugged. Not her business. Nothing was her business and she wouldn’t be mentioning it to anyone. She didn’t want to end up like Lacey.
She wiped the cold sweat off her forehead and made her way back down the steep staircase. She’d promised herself she wouldn’t think about what had happened to Lacey, but it kept creeping back into her mind regardless and she wished it would go away.
Admittedly she’d spent the last week waiting for it to be discovered that she’d witnessed what they’d done. If they’d watched the CCTV footage back from that night they’d have spotted her at the end of the corridor, clearly watching Aiden and Digger drag a large object wrapped in a bedsheet out from Room Twelve.
She’d only got up to get a drink. No amount of drinks, toothpaste or Polo mints had been effective in removing the foul taste of her last punter from her mouth and she hadn’t been able to sleep. Selena closed her eyes in despair, unable to formulate just how much she wished she’d put up with the revolting taste lingering in her mouth, rather than getting up in the middle of the night only to end up being dragged into a nightmare.
Selena hurried into the communal lounge, glad to find it empty. The minute the door was safely closed away from prying eyes, she burst into tears. She’d known instinctively as she’d stood frozen in the shadows that the object wrapped in the bedsheets was a body. And that the body was Lacey’s.
Any doubt she may have managed to convince herself of was quashed when she’d clearly heard Eliza ranting at Steve Lomond who’d also been in Room Twelve. That dirty foul sicko had killed his favourite girl. Whether intentionally or not she couldn’t make out, but kill her he most definitely had.
Selena swiped the angry tears away from her face. She didn’t care if she looked a state for her next punter due soon - he’d have to put up with it.
This was her fault. If she hadn’t told them where to find Lacey, then she wouldn’t be dead.
Selena had struggled through the last few days on auto-pilot. She’d gone through all the expected motions whilst successfully avoiding thinking, feeling or remembering anything about what she’d seen and what she knew to be true. Now it was starting to catch up with her and weigh heavily on her mind.
Sighing, she slumped down onto the saggy sofa and turned on the television. Seeing the news, she was about to turn it off when something made her pause.
Her finger hovered over the power button on the remote control as a photograph of Lacey flashed up onto the screen. Her ears began ringing as the presenter’s muffled voice droned on about concerns for a local girl’s safety since she’d gone missing a week ago from a hostel. It then switched to Jane Wright delivering a press appeal.
Selena studied the exceptionally beautiful and infamous Jane Wright. From the woman’s eyes alone it was clear to see this was a woman not to be messed with. The hardness behind those long lashes was evident for all to see and contradicted with the emotion evident in her voice.
So it was true then? Lacey had been involved with Seth and Jane Wright? Oh, she’d heard rumours on the grapevine but hadn’t believed any of them at the time.
The camera panned back to a close-up of Jane’s face and Selena’s jaw almost hit the floor hearing fifty thousand pounds reward money being offered to anyone with information leading to Lacey’s whereabouts.
She knew where Lacey was... It wasn’t about the money – not that fifty grand would go amiss, but it was because it was the right thing to do.
Selena’s face fell. What was she thinking? She couldn’t do or say a thing. If she opened her mouth, she’d invariably end up joining Lacey... On top of that, if she spoke of what she knew, then everyone would know she’d been the one who had set Lacey up. She was the one responsible for Lacey’s death.
She may not have been the one who physically did it but was as near as damn it.
THIRTY NINE
“DO YOU THINK IT WAS a good idea doing a press appeal?” Maggie asked.
Jane glanced up. “Yes, of course I do. I wouldn’t have done it otherwise. Why?”
Maggie shrugged. “No particular reason. I just worry about you, what with all this stuff that’s going on with Toby and this latest thing regarding Grace.”
Jane sighed. Didn’t Maggie think the main reason she’d done the press appeal was because she believed the people involved with Lacey’s disappearance may well be the same people behind everything else?
She looked out of the large window of the coffee shop overlooking the main road, well aware Barry had her clearly in his sights from his position on the pavement opposite.
She was getting fed up with being constantly followed. It made her feel like a wanted suspect. She’d had more than her fill of that over the years, but also sadly acknowledged at this precise moment in time it was an unfortunate necessity.
Maggie faltered. She realised she needed to come clean about something which had been bothering her. “I should have mentioned this before,” she said. “I hope it won’t make a difference to anything?”
Jane frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“That bloke. The one who was at the hospital the day we met Lacey...”
Jane sat up, her senses alert. “What about him?”
Maggie stared at her fingernails and started picking at bits of imaginary dirt underneath them. She knew this wasn’t going to go down well. “I saw him...”
“What?” Jane screeched. “When? Where?” If Maggie could ID the bloke connected to Lacey and it was the same one as the guy on Seth’s photograph, then they’d got their man. It would prove her theory that this person knew something about Lacey’s disappearance, but furthermore, she also thought these people were somehow linked to this weird vendetta, including the threats to Toby and the ones who had, or were trying to get their daughter.
“I saw him in a corner shop half way across town,” Maggie admitted.
Jane’s face flushed with anger. “Why the hell didn’t you say something sooner?”
Maggie couldn’t quite meet Jane’s eyes. “I should have done.” She lowered her voice from embarrassment. “I didn’t want Dan to find out I’d been sneaking to the off-licence.”
Seeing the disbelief on Jane’s face, Maggie attempted to justify her reasoning. “I said I wouldn’t go over the top with the drinking. You know how I get when I’m on it. I needed someth...”
“Oh for God’s sake!” Jane snapped angrily. “You should have just told us straight a
way! It’s more important than whether you get caught getting pissed!”
Maggie hung her head shamefully. “I know and I’m sorry. I just hope it doesn’t affect what they’re doing.”
Jane stopped in her tracks. “What do you mean?”
Maggie paled slightly, realising that she’d managed to put her foot in it. She’d presumed Jane knew of Seth’s plans.
“Maggie, just tell me! Don’t hide anything else for Christ’s sake!”
Maggie fiddled with her fingers. “Well, I er, don’t really know much about it. Dan’s been asked to go with Seth on a house call to see a bloke Seth thinks can shed more light on what’s going on.”
Jane clenched her teeth. “Typical!” she muttered, getting to her feet.
“Oh Jane, don’t go! I wish I hadn’t said anything,” Maggie pleaded.
“I’m glad you did Mags,” Jane said. “Very glad you did...”
SETH BANGED HIS FIST on the front door and waited impatiently for it to open. He was convinced Alan Barber was the person behind it all, even though he’d admitted he’d thought the man was telling the truth the other night.
Seth knew Dan thought he was going out on a limb by revisiting Neil Batchelor, but Dan seemed to have forgotten a glaringly obvious point that very much pointed the finger at Alan Barber.
It was only after Alan had left the other night had it come back to Seth that the last time they’d paid Batchelor a visit, the man had said the runner who had asked him to make inroads at the clubs name had begun with the letter ‘A’.
Alan. Alan-Fucking-Barber. It all made sense. Martin said it looked like Barber. Not difficult was it?
Dan stood behind him. He knew Seth was hell bent on getting to the bottom of everything and he couldn’t blame him for that because he’d have felt the same. He still couldn’t help but feel he was barking up the wrong tree, but wisely decided to keep his opinion to himself.
“The fucking prick best hurry up,” Seth muttered, banging on the door again. “Otherwise I’m just going to put the bastard thing through.”
“Yeah?” Neil Batchelor said yanking open the door, his red-rimmed eyes struggling to focus and his voice thick with cannabis.
“Neil!” Seth grabbed the man around the throat and frogmarched him backwards into his own hallway. “Hope I’m not interrupting anything?”
The impact of having his windpipe crushed sank into Neil’s stoned mind and his eyes widened in shock, realising it may have been more sensible to remain face down on the sofa and bin off the Chinese delivery he’d thought had arrived.
“I won’t keep you long,” Seth growled, pushing Neil into the lounge. “I just want you to ID someone.”
“ID someone?” Neil stammered.
“Yeah mate. It means I want you to look at a picture and tell me who it is,” Seth spoke slowly as if he was speaking to someone with reduced mental capacity.
Dan snorted back an inopportune giggle brewing at the back of his throat. It wouldn’t have been a good plan to laugh.
Seth fished out the photograph of Barber from his inside pocket and shoved it in Batchelor’s face. “Recognise him?” He rolled his eyes watching the man struggling to focus. “For fuck’s sake!” he snarled. “Look at the bastard picture you thick cunt! Is this the guy who asked you to make enquiries or what?”
“Erm...” Neil desperately tried to focus. He shouldn’t have smoked all that dope. Fuck!
“Turn that shit down!” Seth yelled to Dan and nodded towards the television. He didn’t want to be watching the fucking news whilst dealing with this dickhead.
“WAIT!” Seth barked as Dan reached for the power button when Jane flashed up on the screen. What the hell? His jaw clenched in fury listening to his wife rattling on about Lacey Garner’s whereabouts. Fifty grand reward? Was she mad? She needed to concentrate on her own daughter!
Dan anxiously watched Seth’s reaction to Jane’s pleas. He could tell from the nerve twitching madly in Seth’s neck that he was far from happy. He moved his focus to Neil Batchelor, who hadn’t seemed to notice Seth’s concentration was elsewhere and was painfully scrutinising the photograph rammed almost in his face.
“Turn it off!” Seth yelled once more. The stupid fucking bitch! Was she crazy? This would only serve to make her and Toby and every fucker that mattered more of a target! He ran his hand aggressively through his hair. And she wondered why they were receiving threatening letters?
Seth’s adrenaline levels were nearing boiling point and he glared down at the stoner still vacantly staring at the picture of Alan Barber. He wanted to pull his head off. “Well?” he snarled. “Is it the same guy?”
“He looks similar...” Batchelor slurred.
“Similar? For fuck’s sake – it’s either him or it isn’t surely?” Seth muttered. Bored, he delivered an upper cut to Batchelor’s jaw, which sent him sprawling on to the grubby carpet.
Seth dropped to his haunches over the man who lay holding his jaw, looking dazed, confused and plain scared. “Do you want to try again? Is this the guy?”
Neil swallowed. What was he supposed to say again? “It does look a bit like the guy who I spoke to, but he...”
“What’s his name?” Seth interrupted, getting even more frustrated. He was sick of people like this. Totally fucking sick to the back teeth of them. They were so screwed up they didn’t know what day it was half the time.
He yanked his pistol out from his back pocket and rammed it into Neil Batchelor’s mouth, forcing it wide.
“AAARGH!” Batchelor screamed, the acrid taste of the metal sticking to his tongue.
Dan shifted uncomfortably on his feet. “Seth!” he hissed. He didn’t need to go this far.
Seth glared at Dan. “What? I’m getting the information out of this wanker one way or the other. I’ve had enough!” He turned back to the man on the floor. “His name?”
Neil Batchelor attempted to flail around on the floor, but it was pointless as Seth’s other hand had him pinned firmly to the ground.
“His name?” Seth growled. “Tell me his fucking NAME!”
Neil Batchelor blinked, the metal of the gun scraping uncomfortably against his teeth. He knew who this was but couldn’t be sure it was the same bloke who’d spoken to him about the clubs. He was too stoned.
“NAME?” Seth screamed, cocking the trigger.
“Yyllan Rwarbr” Batchelor garbled.
“What?” Seth yelled impatiently. “Speak fucking properly!” He yanked the barrel of the gun out of the man’s mouth.
“T-That’s Alan Barber,” Neil babbled, sweating profusely. “But I don’t th...”
“Thanks,” Seth said quickly, shoving the barrel of the pistol back in Batchelor’s mouth. “That’s all I wanted to know.”
Seth pulled the trigger and Dan cringed when the man’s skull shattered and bits of brain splattered up the wall. Great. Just fucking great...
Seth pushed himself to his feet, put the pistol back in his pocket and casually wiped his hands down his trousers. “Come on,” he said dismissively.
Dan glanced around the room eyeing the gore. “But...”
Seth glared at Dan as he walked towards the front door. “But nothing! I’ll send someone to clear this up. I need to get home. I want to find out what the fuck Jane was thinking.”
FORTY
SETH WHEEL SPAN ONTO his drive leaving deep furrows in the grey gravel. He got out of the car not bothering to acknowledge Martin watching the house from the end of the driveway.
All he could think of was getting it out of Jane what on earth she’d been doing. He’d been seething the entire way back and in all fairness could do with a few stiff drinks to calm himself down before he caught up with her, but it was too late for that now.
It was almost guaranteed he would fly off the handle because he couldn’t think of one reason why she’d put herself in that position. Or Toby. Or him. Didn’t they have enough bloody things going on without Jane causing more problems?
&nbs
p; Seth raked his hand through his hair as he strode up the path and then glanced at his hand. He’d tried to clean himself up on the way back, but there were still remnants of that twat’s blood on him and his clothes. More stuff he’d have to burn.
Dan had nearly got a whack in the eye too. Going on at him about unnecessarily shooting that bloke. Seth scowled. What the hell had he expected him to do? The guy had been getting on his tits from the off, mumbling on incoherently. As far as he was concerned he’d done everyone a bloody favour. Besides, he’d got the info he needed in the end and that was all that mattered.
His teeth clenched together. He’d known it was that Alan. He’d just known. He felt angry for allowing the dickhead to make him believe his lies about not knowing anything, but he would be rectifying that as soon as possible.
Before dropping Dan home he’d given him clear instructions that Alan bloody Barber was to be brought back in as soon as possible. No excuses and no stalling. He didn’t care whether Dan agreed with his reasoning or not – either about Alan Barber or that pointless bastard, Neil Batchelor, or whatever his name was. He had a job to do and he was damn well doing it. It was his fucking family at stake here – not Dan’s – not anyone’s. HIS. He’d do it all on his own if needs must.
Seth fumbled for his keys in his inside pocket, cursing loudly as they dropped to the ground. Retrieving them he rammed them into the lock and pushed the door open, slamming it closed with his foot. He walked in the direction of the kitchen. ‘Jane!’ he roared.
He scowled further spotting Anna lurking in the kitchen. The last thing he wanted was to have to see HER. He still didn’t understand why she was still here. Anna had broken his rules and so as far as he was concerned she should have been given her marching orders well before now.
Seth glared at Anna eyeing him nervously over by the work-top. “Where’s Jane?”
Anna attempted to smile. “I-I’m not sure Mr Wright. She went out earlier, but hasn’t come back yet.”
Seth went cold. It was late. Why wasn’t she back? “Went out? Where? Where did she go?”