by Liz Mistry
‘Sarah!’ her dad raised her voice and the girl sidled back into the room.
‘What?’
‘Do you know owt about a party on Saturday night?’
Rolling her eyes in the way only a teenager can, Sarah swung one hip out and rested her hand on the opposite one, ‘What you asking me for? How should I know? I’m not Matty’s keeper, am I?’
‘Less o’ your lip, young lady. Go and get your brother.’
Huffing, Sarah stomped from the room, and moments later, ‘Matty, the pigs are here for you’, drifted downstairs.
Mr Bates’ flush intensified as he leaned back on his chair. ‘Don’t know what to do with them. Since my wife died, I’ve been on my own, and they’re good kids’.’ He shrugged. ‘At this age it’s hard. They never seem to tell you the full story. Where was this party anyway?’
‘It was at Simon Proctor’s.’
‘I thought Simon’s folks were away for the weekend. That’s why the three of them were staying over at Jake’s.’
The sound of teenage feet stomping down the stairs greeted them before a curly haired, acned boy sidled into the room, barefoot and wearing an old pair of joggers and a sweatshirt. His sister edged in after him, her eyes agog. As she sidled past and perched on the arm of her dad’s chair, Matty remained by the door, hands behind his back, head bowed. He looked like they were about to execute him.
Alice stood up with her hand extended. ‘Hi, I’m DS Alice Cooper and this is DC John Sampson. You must be Matty?’
Matty offered a sweaty hand and swallowed hard. His voice cracked when he said, ‘Yeah.’
‘We’ve just got a few questions we’d like to ask you about the party on Saturday night at Simon’s house.’ She paused and sat down again. ‘You were there, weren’t you?’
Matty glanced at his dad and then, lowered his eyes. Alice could almost see a neon ‘Busted’ sign across his forehead.
His dad rubbed stubby fingers over his semi-bald head, pushing horn-like tufts of hair up at either side. ‘Why the hell didn’t you tell me you were planning a party at Simon’s?’
Before he had a chance to continue, Sarah snorted. ‘Duh? That’s easy, Dad. He didn’t say owt because you’d have stopped it, wouldn’t you?’
Alice liked this girl already. Smart, sassy, no-nonsense. Just the kind of young woman she wished she saw more often in her line of work.
Mr Bates glared at his daughter and then inclined his head acknowledging the accuracy of her statement. ‘Less o’ your damn cheek, Sarah. Go and make a hot drink for everyone so the police can talk to your brother in peace.’
After ascertaining what everyone wanted, the girl sloped into the kitchen which adjoined the front room. Noticing that the girl had left the door open, Alice smothered a smile. Little bugger! She’d have a promising career in the police force should she be so inclined.
Mr Bates, face florid and voice strained, glared at Matty. ‘Have you lot trashed the place or summat? Is that what this is all about? Well, you’ll pay to have any damage rectified and you’ll pay out of your own money. You hear me, Matty?’
Matty, head down, remained silent. Alice studied him for a moment, noticing the black bags under his eyes and his wan face.
‘Look, Matty, why don’t you come and sit down.’
Matty shrugged and padded over to the other chair where he flopped down as if his legs couldn’t hold him upright for a second longer.
Alice turned to Mr Bates. ‘I’m afraid it’s nothing quite as trivial as damaged property, Mr Bates. Let’s talk to Matty and see if we can get this all sorted out, okay?’
Mr Bates’ shoulders slumped. In the five minutes they’d been in his home, Mr Bates had transformed from a dad slightly fed up with being interrupted during his normal Monday morning routine to a frazzled single parent trying to do his best for his kids, yet feeling horribly out of his depth in the presence of the police. It was a reaction Alice was all too familiar with and she knew that cracking on was the best way forward for them all.
Alice turned her attention to the boy. ‘What can you tell us about the party on Saturday, Matty?’
The lad glanced at his dad, his eyes worried and when he spoke, it was in a quiet mumble. ‘Simon decided to have a party whilst his parents were away. It was only supposed to be a few of us. Silly git posted it on Facebook, didn’t he?’
Alice kept her voice level. She’d seen the evidence last night and thought that far from ‘the few’ Simon had anticipated there must have been a small army pillaging the house… and at least one of them was a murderer. ‘So, how many were there, then?’
He shrugged. ‘Dunno. Loads, I suppose. We didn’t know half of them and they wouldn’t leave when we asked, so we just chilled in the shed in the back garden for most of the night. Most of the girls were butter sket anyway.’
Since moving to Bradford, Alice had become familiar with this derogatory phrase against women and wasn’t surprised when Mr Bates reprimanded his son.
‘Matty! What have I told you about using that sort of language. It’s not on!’ He glanced at Alice. ‘I don’t like this, but his mates all use it.’ He shrugged. ‘Sometimes I think he listens to them more than me.’
Alice waved her hand ‘Believe me, Mr Bates, I’ve heard worse… much worse. Now, Matty. You’re telling me you left a whole load of strangers in Simon’s house unsupervised whilst you hung out in the garden?’
Matty, biting his nails, said in a defensive tone, ‘Well, it wasn’t just me that hung in the garden. Simon and Jake did too.’
‘For God’s sake, Matty, why didn’t you phone me or the police or something?’
Sampson leaned over and rested a calming hand on Mr Bates’ arm. ‘Please, Mr Bates, it would be better if you just let us ask the questions for now. You can discuss this with your son later, after we’ve gone, okay?’
He glared at his son. ‘Hmph, I suppose it’ll have to be.’
Alice leaned forward and looked directly at Matty. ‘When was the last time you saw Simon?’
Matty looked up at her, his eyes shining with unshed tears. ‘That’s just it. Me and Si and Jake fell asleep in the shed and then, when we woke up, Simon was gone. We went into the house to look for him and it were a mess.’
Talk about understatements!
Tears flowed down his cheeks, his voice was thick, and now that he’d started to talk, the words rushed out of his mouth like they tasted vile and he just wanted to spit them out. ‘The house was trashed… Everything broke and it stank and then we went through to the front room–’ He hiccupped and suddenly he threw his head into his hands and sobbed. ‘Jake said we should just get out of there, pronto, like.’
His dad looked at the police, his face drawn, and then, when Alice gestured, he moved over to perch on the arm of his son’s chair, much like his daughter had done earlier. His arm went round his son and he pulled him close. Sarah appeared with a glass of water and a handful of tissues, which she handed to her dad, taking a moment to squeeze his shoulder.
What a lovely, caring family. Shame she’d had to come bursting in and upset them all. Content to allow Matty time to compose himself, Alice scribbled a few notes in her book and waited. Minutes later, Sarah returned, plonking a tray of drinks on the coffee table. She nudged her dad aside and took his place beside her brother. ‘Come on now, Matty. You’ve got to pull yourself together. Once you’ve told them, you’ll feel better, won’t you? Now, come on.’ She handed him a new tissue and waited till he’d blown his nose before saying, ‘Go on, tell them what you know!’
Alice suppressed a grin. For all she was younger, Sarah had taken on the maternal role. She could empathise with that, because her own eccentric parents had often left her feeling she was the parent and they were the children. Much as she loved them, she had sometimes wished her parents were a little more conventional. It would have been nice to be nagged for not coming home on time or to have a home-cooked meal on the table at a proper mealtime, rather than three hour
s after most people had eaten.
Matty squeezed his sister’s arm as if she was his lifeline. Maybe she was. ‘We didn’t see it at first. We were trying to pick up bits and pieces as we went, then, when we moved round the side of the couch, she were there.’ Matty began to tremble and his voice shook, despite the tears flowing down his face, he continued. ‘It stank of puke and she was covered in it and Jake said she were dead. He said we’d get blamed, so we just ran out.’
Matty’s dad groaned and fell back in his chair. Sarah hugged her brother tightly.
Fuck, they’d found the girl and run out assuming she was dead. Alice hoped the PM would confirm that… for their sakes. Matty’s complexion had taken on a green hue and Alice wanted to keep going before he crashed. Her tone warm and encouraging she said, ‘You’re doing really well, Matty.’
He sat staring at his hands in his lap for long seconds before he spoke again. ‘We couldn’t find Si. Jake and me, we couldn’t find Si and we’ve been phoning and texting him, but no reply. What if he’s dead, too?’ Jerking his head up, he stared right at Alice. ‘Is he? Is Si dead, like that girl? I told Jake we should phone someone but he just kept saying no. He gets so arsy. I shouldn’t have listened to him.’
Alice shook her head. ‘We don’t know where Simon is. We haven’t been able to find him. We hoped you could help.’
Matty glanced at his dad again and sniffed.
Alice lifted one of the teacups, dolloped in some sugar and handed it to Matty before doing the same for his father. ‘Look, Matty, I know this is hard, however, we need to ask these questions. So drink your tea, calm down and get yourself together.’
Alice busied herself preparing drinks for Sampson and herself, then taking a sip, she sat back, smiling at Matty, who had slurped half of his tea and seemed a little calmer. ‘Ready?’
Matty, face tear-streaked, eyes bloodshot, straightened.
Sensing he was focussed, Alice started to question him. ‘Right, I’m going to take you back to the beginning. First of all, when did you plan the party and who did you invite?’
‘Before Si’s mum and dad went off, that’s when he planned it. We’d only invited a few kids from our year and Simon said it would be boring, so he posted it on his wall on Facebook.’
Alice frowned. ‘On his wall? Does that mean anyone who was his friend on Facebook could see the invite?’
‘Well, yeah, and some of us posted it on our walls, too, and we shared it.’
Alice glanced at Sampson with raised eyebrows and turned back to Matty. ‘How many friends do you have on Facebook, Matty?
‘Nearly a thousand.’
‘And Simon?’
He shrugged. ‘Same, I suppose.’
‘Okay, so at this party, did you know everyone?’
‘No.’
‘How many did you know?’
‘Apart from Jake and Simon and a few from school and Tayyub, nobody.’
‘Tayyub? Is that Tayyub Hussain?’
‘Yeah.’
Alice frowned. ‘So, how many didn’t you know?’
Matty shrugged. ‘Dunno, maybe thirty or forty of them.’
Bloody hell, thirty or forty? That was some bloody party and the neighbours didn’t notice a thing. Talk about selective hearing!
‘Did Jake or Simon know them?’
‘Si knew some that we didn’t, although Jake and me didn’t know most of them, and then well…,’ he glanced at his dad, ‘We got a bit drunk.’
Folding his arms across his chest, Mr Bates cursed under his breath. Matty’s shoulders hunched and he shrank away from his dad, focussing his gaze somewhere above Alice’s right shoulder.
Sensing the lad was holding something back, Alice slid forward on her chair. ‘What is it Matty, you’ve got to tell us everything!’
He glanced at his dad again. ‘Well, Jake had some weed.’
Mr Bates’ muttered curse was louder this time and Matty flinched ‘And then… it was a bit scary in the house with the bikers and all, so we went into the garden. On the way out, someone shoved a bottle of cider at us and we took turns downing it. Don’t know who gave us it. Can’t remember. It was after that we fell asleep in the shed. Jake reckons it was spiked.’
‘The cider?’
‘Yeah.’
‘You said something about bikers?’
‘Yeah, they came in with two lasses. I didn’t know them.’ He thought for a second. ‘Think Si did, though.’
‘Bikers? Your age?’
Matty shook his head. ‘Nah, older than us, twenty or thirty or summat.’
Interesting. What the hell were twenty-plus-year-old bikers doing at a kid’s party?
‘And the girls they were with?’
‘One was younger, maybe fifteen like. Don’t know though, not for sure. I think she was the one we found, though.’
Mr Bates closed his eyes and took a deep breath. ‘How much bother is he in, then?’
Alice shook her head. This whole situation was crap. Mr Bates had enough on his plate, and if Matty was telling the truth, he was more like a cowering puppy than an arch criminal. Mind you, the law might not see it quite like that if the PM showed they’d left the girl to die. ‘I don’t know yet, sir. Obviously, he should have informed us as soon as he discovered the body. We’ll need to check out his story with his friend and re-interview him formally at the station.’ She grimaced when she saw a tear roll down Matty’s cheek and land on his hand. By the door, his sister stood, her face taut, her body rigid. All trace of her earlier ebullience had vanished.
Alice knew it was important to make it clear to Matty how much trouble he was in. ‘This is serious. You and your friend left an unconscious girl at a crime scene and you didn’t phone for an ambulance.’ Feeling like a bitch, yet knowing she had to stress the enormity of the situation, she pushed her point home. ‘How would you have felt if that was your sister and two lads had just left her there?’
Matty scrubbed his hand over his face, and glanced at Sarah. He swallowed hard, ‘I’m so sorry, so sorry. That poor lass. Jake told me to keep schtum. He kept saying it’d be okay if we just kept quiet.’ He turned and flung himself into his father’s arms as if he were a toddler. Mr Bates’ arms went around his son. His eyes sparked and despite his pallor, a determined look was on his face. Alice knew Matty could depend on his dad throughout the ordeal that was to come.
‘I think you should phone the school and your work. It’s going to be a long day.’ Alice turned to Matty. ‘When you come down to the station to make an official statement, we’ll take blood and urine tests to check for drugs. Now, where did you think Si had gone when you woke up?’
‘We thought at first he was tidying up, you know? ’Cause his folks were due back last night.’
‘Okay, so you and Jake went through the house. Did you go upstairs at all?’
‘No, never got the chance, ’cause then we found that girl and we just skedaddled.’
‘So, you didn’t go upstairs on Sunday morning?’
Matty shook his head.
‘What about Saturday night?’
He frowned. ‘Don’t think so. We just pissed–’ he glanced at his dad, ‘… er, I mean peed in the garden.’
Charming! Not quite housetrained yet!
‘What about into Simon’s mum and dad’s room? Did you go in there?’
‘Eh? No. I’ve never been in there.’
‘Okay, so tell us about the girl. Did you recognise her?’
Matty began to shake his head then changed his mind. ‘Well, I didn’t know her. Didn’t know her name or owt, think she came to the party with those biker lads I was telling you about. I told you that. Great big blokes in leather jackets.’
Alice got up. ‘You’ve done well, Matty. You need to come down to the station and we’ll need your fingerprints, too.’
Matty, wide-eyed, jumped up. ‘Oh fuck, you don’t think I did it, do you? I never was near her, honest!’
‘Calm down, Matty, it’s all p
rocedure. Now if you can just give DC Sampson a list of all the people you knew who were at the party, along with contact details, whilst I speak to my boss, that would be great.’
Alice went outside and stamped her feet as she waited for Gus to answer his phone.
‘Hi Gus, just finished the interview with Matty Bates. He’s coming down to the station in an hour.’
‘Did he ID either girl?’ asked Gus.
‘No. He knew about Jade Simmonds but couldn’t ID her. Says he’d no idea about the girl upstairs. Tend to think he’s telling the truth about that. Can we have somebody there to take samples for drugs, please. Also, just a thought, maybe get Compo to check all their social media accounts. Simon posted an invitation to his party on his Facebook wall. So, it was visible to nearly a thousand people and Matty said some of them then posted it on their walls, which opened it up massively. We’ll never process all the information without someone who knows what he’s doing.’
‘Right, Alice, I’ll get on to that. Can you get back here for 10:30 briefing?’
Alice glanced at her watch. ‘It’s already 7:45 and we’ve still got Jake to interview. Although by the sounds of it, he’ll be a harder nut to crack.’
19
07:15 Cricklewood Police Station, Brent
‘Jerry, it’s me, I need a favour.’
Jerry Johnston screwed up his face wishing he’d followed his first instincts to ignore the ringing phone and continue walking out of the office. His shift had finished and he wanted to get home. Who wouldn’t, if they had the promise of a shag followed by breakfast in bed, before a good long sleep? He sighed. The voice on the other end of the phone was trouble and he thought he’d heard the last from him. ‘What the fuck is it this time? I thought we were square?’
The caller’s placating tone did little to reassure him. He’d heard it all before too many fucking times to count. As far as he was concerned, he’d paid his dues for being caught with his trousers round his ankles and his dick in the dried-up pussy of a prostitute informer. Hell, it had been four bloody years ago. It hadn’t even been a memorable shag and now, there it hung like a fucking huge dildo on a chain round his neck just waiting for Steve Knowles to yank it whenever the bastard saw fit. The thing was, he knew he couldn’t afford to ignore Knowles. Jerry’s wife was sexy as hell – nonetheless, she was a damn harridan, too. She’d chew him up and spit him out if she ever got wind of that episode and then it’d be bye-bye to conjugal joys at shift end, never mind the fry-up afterwards.