Witness

by Mandasue Heller

  Behind them, Josie had wandered out of her room and was calling for Holly, telling her that she needed to pack. Giving Gee a loaded look, as if to say Does this look normal to you?, Carol went inside and guided the woman back into the bedroom.

  ‘It’s all right, lovie,’ she said in a sing-song voice. ‘You’re dreaming, so let’s get you back into bed. And how’s about we have a little drink to send you back to beddybyes?’ she went on, twisting the lid off the bottle of vodka and tipping the last couple of inches into the empty glass. ‘Here we go . . .’ She placed the glass in Josie’s hand and guided it towards her lips.

  Josie spluttered when the liquid entered her mouth, but she swallowed it all.

  ‘There’s a good girl,’ Carol crooned, taking the empty glass from her before pushing her gently down on the bed. ‘Now close your eyes . . . there we go.’

  ‘Is she all right?’ Gee asked worriedly when Carol came back out into the corridor a few minutes later.

  ‘She was rambling on about murderers coming to get them, and how she must have told him where they were,’ Carol said. ‘I gave her a drink to relax her, and she’s flat out now.’

  ‘Are you sure that’s safe?’ Gee frowned. ‘She’s not long out of hospital and she’s probably on painkillers.’

  ‘I reckon she can handle it, judging by the amount of empties on the floor,’ Carol replied unconcernedly. ‘Anyhow, shush while I call my lads.’

  ‘Why you calling them and not the police?’

  ‘’Cos I need to find out what’s going on before I waste their time. If you want to make yourself useful, go take a look out of the window and see if anything’s happening over there.’

  Carol flapped a dismissive hand at him, and Gee sighed as he went into the flat to do as she’d ordered. She had taken over and was clearly determined to do things her way, and he was annoyed with himself for going along with it instead of heading over to Suzie’s place, as he’d intended – or calling the police, who would surely be here by now if they’d done it when he first suggested it. He wasn’t overly happy about the way she’d dealt with Holly’s mum, either. The woman was in a bad way, and he didn’t approve of Carol encouraging her to drink. But it was done now, so he supposed there was no use arguing about it.

  The living room was dark, but the curtains were open and a hint of moonlight was shining through the window, so he managed to avoid crashing into any of the furniture. There were still no lights on at Suzie’s place, and he didn’t see any movement at any of the windows, so he headed back out to Carol, at the exact moment her call was answered.

  ‘About time!’ she said. ‘Get your arses over here. Come the back way and fetch your tools. And hurry up.’

  Turning to Gee when she’d hung up, she said, ‘They only live a few blocks away, so they’ll be here in a minute. Let’s go down and wait for them.’

  Gee followed her down the stairs into the foyer. A couple of minutes later they heard a tap on the fire exit door, and four strapping lads with sleep-blurred eyes and messy hair squeezed inside when Carol pushed the bar down.

  ‘Told you they’d be quick,’ she said proudly to Gee.

  ‘What’s going on, Ma?’ one of the lads asked, staring at Gee. ‘He giving you trouble?’

  Alarmed when the lad moved his jacket aside to reveal the grip of a handgun sticking out from the waistband of his jeans, Gee held his hands out in front of him and took a step back.

  ‘Behave!’ Carol barked, slapping her son’s arm. ‘He’s me neighbour.’

  ‘So what d’you call us round for?’ one of the others asked, wiping sleep-crust from the corner of his eye. ‘You made it sound like an emergency.’

  ‘It is,’ said Carol. ‘A girl who lives on the first floor is in trouble. We’re not sure what’s going on yet, ’cos her mum’s not all there and she wasn’t making a lot of sense. But she was going on about someone trying to kill them, and the girl left her a voicemail telling her the man was there.’

  ‘What man? Where?’

  ‘The girl’s at a woman’s house across the road,’ Carol explained. ‘Her mam got attacked in the alley the other night and took to hospital.’

  ‘I saw that,’ one of her sons said. ‘Not the attack, obviously, or I’d have cut the fucker’s head off, but the Five-O and the ambulances and that.’

  ‘Can I finish?’ Carol gave him an impatient look. Continuing when the lad nodded, she said, ‘The girl went over to stay with the woman across the road, and me and Gee both saw her at the bedroom window. The cops were there and she was waving at them, but they didn’t notice. She looked proper scared, so me and Gee went to talk to her mam. Only she’s a bit loopy loo, so I took her phone to call the girl, and that’s when I heard the message saying the man was there and he was going to kill her.’

  ‘Have you called the police?’ the son with the gun asked, earning himself a nod of approval from Gee. He was taller than the others and looked a little older, and was clearly the brains of the outfit.

  ‘No, I figured we’d be better off finding out what’s going on first,’ said Carol. ‘That’s why I called you.’

  ‘Let’s go, then,’ another of her sons said, sliding a Samurai sword out from under his coat.

  ‘Whoa,’ Gee muttered, unnerved by the sight of it.

  ‘Put it away,’ the older one snapped. ‘We don’t know if anyone’s there yet.’

  ‘I think I should go and take a look round the back,’ Gee said. ‘It’s all dark at the front, so if anyone is there they must be in the kitchen or back bedroom.’

  ‘Good idea,’ the lad said. ‘But it’s probably best if you go out the fire door and cut down the side of the car park, just in case.’

  At the mention of the car park, Gee remembered the BMW, and said, ‘I passed a Beemer with blacked-out windows on my way home from work tonight. It was parked up outside the old church and I thought it was a bit suss, but now I’m wondering if that’s got something to do with this.’

  ‘Was anyone in it?’

  ‘Two blokes in the front, but there could have been more in the back.’

  ‘Black or white?’

  ‘I didn’t get a good enough look,’ Gee said, frowning. ‘But what difference does that make?’

  ‘Chill, mate, we ain’t racists,’ the lad replied. ‘But the only white guys who drive Beemers round these ends are undercover cops, and we don’t wanna be getting gripped while we’re tooled up.’

  ‘Fair point,’ Gee said sheepishly. ‘Sorry.’

  ‘Right, Davy and Ben go with Gee,’ Carol said, resuming control. ‘Steve and Pete can stop here with me and keep an eye on the front of the house. If youse see owt dodgy going on, I don’t want no heroics,’ she added firmly. ‘Come back here and we’ll decide what to do.’

  Nodding his agreement, Gee followed Carol’s sons out through the fire exit door.

  42

  Dom Cooper was frowning as he circled the chair Rob was tied to, which he and Austin had dragged out into the middle of the kitchen floor to give them more room. Harry Cox’s call had taken him by surprise, and it had pissed him off to hear that some random dickhead ex-cellmate of the old man had been asking about him, trying to get his name. Harry had told him that the guy had been talking about Devon Prince and his bird, and how he’d claimed to have information about some woman and her daughter which he’d seemed convinced Dom might be willing to pay for.

  The names Josie and Holly had rung no bells for Dom, so when Harry had told him that the only ones he knew by those names were a mother and daughter who had lived near to Devon’s bird, and that the kid had died of an overdose five weeks before they were shot, he had assumed that the bloke had mentioned their names in order to make it look like he knew something.

  Whatever the reason, it was thirteen years since Dom had killed that pair, and only a few people in his inner circle knew about it to this day. Infuriated to think that one of his trusted soldiers had betrayed him and given this cheeky cunt ammunition to blackm
ail him, he had decided to pay the man a visit and find out exactly what he knew and who had told him before shutting him up for good.

  So far, all the bloke had done was prattle on about Josie and Holly, and how he would tell Dom where they lived if Dom promised not to hurt him. For some reason Dom couldn’t fathom, the man seemed to think that Dom had been in some kind of relationship with this Josie bird, and that she and her kid had spent the last thirteen years in hiding, terrified that he was going to kill them. He had no clue what that was about, but it was pissing him off that the dude still wouldn’t give up the name of the traitor in Dom’s crew, despite the kicking he’d already received. If Dom didn’t know better, he’d think that the man genuinely didn’t know. But there was no way he could have stumbled on this by chance. Somebody had pointed him in Dom’s direction, and Dom wasn’t leaving until he found out who it was.

  ‘I’m getting tired,’ he said, picking up the knife Austin had placed back on the table after escorting Suzie out to speak to the police. Moving round behind Rob, whose face was a bloody mess and whose breath sounded crackly as blood congealed in his throat, he ran the blunt side of the knife slowly across his neck. ‘I’m giving you one last chance,’ he said when the man stiffened. ‘Give me the name.’

  ‘I d-don’t know,’ Rob whimpered. ‘I swear . . .’

  Across the room, her face deathly white, the dark shadows surrounding her eyes, Suzie moaned, ‘For God’s sake! You can see he’s telling the truth, so why are you doing this?’

  ‘Oh, are we friends with him again?’ Dom looked at her and raised an eyebrow. ‘Only I got the distinct impression you weren’t too happy with him when he told me about that bird and her kid.’

  ‘They’ve got nothing to do with this,’ Suzie murmured, so tired she could barely make sense of what was happening. ‘You said you’ve never heard of them, so how could they be involved? Whoever this Harry person is who sent you here, he must have got it wrong.’

  ‘Well, we know someone’s talking shit,’ Dom replied smoothly. ‘But your man here still hasn’t told me what I need to know, so . . .’

  He turned the knife round and pressed the sharp edge of the blade onto Rob’s neck.

  ‘Don’t!’ Suzie cried, tears welling in her eyes when she saw blood trickle down Rob’s chest. ‘Please! He’s telling the truth.’

  ‘Last chance,’ Dom said quietly to Rob as he increased the pressure. ‘Tell me who told you, or I’m gonna slit your throat. And then I’ll slit hers,’ he added, looking over at Suzie. ‘After I’ve had a bit of fun with her.’

  ‘Harry . . .’ Rob gurgled. ‘It – it was Harry.’

  ‘What was?’

  ‘He – he told me about you,’ Rob lied, feeling no conscience about dropping the old bastard in it if it saved his and Suzie’s lives. Harry hadn’t given a shit about him when he’d sent these men round to kill him.

  ‘I told you that old cunt couldn’t be trusted,’ Austin muttered.

  ‘Why would Harry tell you about me?’ Dom asked Rob.

  ‘It was when we – when we were in the Strange,’ Rob spluttered, terrified to move his head in case the knife went in any deeper. ‘He was bragging about knowing people who got away with murder. You’ve got to be tough to survive in there, and he – he used your name to scare them into leaving him alone. He made out like you were mates; said you’d come after anyone who touched him.’

  ‘Why didn’t you tell me this at the start?’ Dom asked.

  ‘I – I’m not a grass,’ Rob croaked. ‘And I thought he was my friend.’

  ‘And you seriously expect me to believe that?’ Dom sneered.

  ‘It’s true, I swear,’ Rob insisted. ‘It was three years ago and I’d forgotten about it till Harry rang me yesterday and asked to meet up. You can check my phone if you don’t believe me. He withheld his number, but he sent me a text straight after with the address of the pub.’

  ‘Why did he want to meet you?’ Austin asked from the other side of the room.

  ‘He – he wouldn’t tell me over the phone,’ Rob said. ‘But when I got there, he said he was going to blackmail you.’ He glanced up at Dom whose dark eyes were unreadable. ‘He said he couldn’t risk doing it himself ’cos too many people know him, so he – he needed someone from out of the area to do it. I said I didn’t want to do it, so he brought me home and told me to keep my mouth shut.’

  ‘So why did he give me your name and address?’ Dom asked.

  ‘I don’t know,’ Rob whimpered, tears trickling from his swollen eyes when it dawned on him that he’d probably just signed his own death warrant.

  ‘Isn’t it obvious?’ Suzie piped up. ‘He was covering his own back. He must have realized he’d made a mistake telling Rob his plan, and he sent you after him, hoping you’d kill him before he had the chance to tell you what was really going on.’

  Rob almost stopped breathing when Dom narrowed his eyes thoughtfully. He could see that the man thought Suzie’s explanation was feasible, and he silently prayed that it would be enough to save his life.

  ‘Even if that’s true, it still leaves us with a problem,’ Dom said. ‘You both know too much.’

  ‘We won’t say anything,’ Suzie said sincerely. ‘You have my word.’

  Dom looked at her and gave a rueful smile. ‘Sorry, darlin’, but I can’t take that risk.’

  43

  Gee, Davy and Ben had crept round the side of the car park and were now on the road at the side of the terraced row in which Suzie lived. Heading for the alleyway, Gee had decided to check if the BMW was still parked where he’d seen it earlier. Gesturing for the others to wait there in case the men inside were undercover cops, he pulled up his hood and headed over the road to the old church. If he found the men inside the car, he would tell them that he’d decided to check them out because he’d been concerned that they might be gang members waiting to start another war. It was a pretty flimsy excuse, but he would stick to it if confronted.

  The car was empty when he reached it, and the doors were locked. Peering through the tinted glass of the passenger-side window, he saw a half-smoked spliff lying on the centre console and a partially full bottle of Jack Daniels in the footwell, along with a mess of fast-food wrappers. Certain that the blokes he had seen couldn’t be police, he gave a high, thin whistle.

  ‘’S up?’ Davy, the eldest of Carol’s sons asked when he and his brother Ben ran over.

  ‘They’re not cops,’ Gees said, gesturing for them to look through the window.

  ‘And they ain’t from this estate, so they’ve got no business being here,’ Davy said, pulling a lethal-looking flick knife out of his pocket and plunging the blade into the tyre.

  ‘What you doing?’ Gee hissed, watching in horror as Ben repeated the action on the other tyres.

  ‘Like I said, they ain’t from round here,’ said Davy. ‘And if they’ve got anything to do with what’s going on at that house, this’ll stop them getting away in a hurry.’

  Hoping that he was right and the vehicle wasn’t the property of an innocent developer, Gee looked nervously around to make sure no one had spotted them.

  ‘Come on,’ Davy said when he’d finished. ‘Let’s go see what’s what.’

  A mile away, sitting in their squad car outside McDonald’s, finishing the burgers they’d bought from the drive-through, Dan Spencer crumpled his wrapper and, lowering his window, tossed it into the bin.

  ‘You still thinking about that bird?’ his colleague, PC Neil Hayes, asked, slotting the last piece of his own burger into his mouth.

  ‘Yeah.’ Spencer nodded.

  ‘You and her got some kind of history?’ Hayes asked, wiping mayonnaise off his chin.

  ‘Not in that way,’ Spencer said, guessing what the other man was thinking. ‘Me and Jack have attended a few call-outs there.’

  ‘Oh, yeah? What kind?’ Hayes asked, chucking his own wrapper over the roof of the car and missing the bin. ‘Make a habit of disturbing her neighbours,
does she?’

  ‘Not her, her boyfriend,’ Spencer said. ‘Or should I say ex, ’cos last time I saw her, she said she hadn’t seen him in a while.’

  ‘So what you thinking?’ Hayes peered at him and hooked a piece of bread out of his teeth with a fingernail.

  ‘I don’t know,’ Spencer said quietly. ‘I’ve just got a feeling.’

  ‘I bet you have.’ Hayes grinned. ‘I got quite a feeling myself when she answered the door dressed like that. Good-looking bird.’

  Spencer frowned, irritated by the way the man was talking. But he couldn’t blame him, he supposed. Suzie was pretty hot, and with only a pyjama top on tonight, her slim legs going on for ever, he’d had to force himself not to stare.

  ‘Fancy a fag?’ Hayes asked.

  ‘No.’ Spencer shook his head and started the engine. ‘Something’s bugging me. I think we should go back and make sure she’s OK.’

  ‘Mate, it’s nearly an hour since we were there, so she’ll be sleeping by now,’ Hayes said. ‘And we haven’t had any more complaints from the woman next door, so surely you’re not thinking of knocking her up again?’

  ‘We’ll just do a slow drive past,’ Spencer said, reversing out of the spot.

  ‘My man’s got it bad,’ Hayes teased, grinning as he clicked his seat belt into position.

  Ignoring him, Spencer pulled out onto the deserted road.

  ‘Any word from your brothers?’ Carol asked, peering out through the glass in the door.

  ‘Not yet,’ her son Steve said, checking his phone. ‘Want me to bell him?’

  ‘No, they’ll ring if they’ve got something to tell us,’ she said. ‘Anyone got fags?’

  Steve tossed a cigarette to her and another to his brother before lighting his own.

  Squinting as she sucked on it, Carol suddenly froze. ‘It’s her,’ she said.

  ‘Who?’ Steve asked.

  ‘The girl I was telling you about,’ Carol said, quickly stubbing the cigarette out and stuffing it into her dressing gown pocket.