by Joe McNally
She told him what the sergeant had said.
Monty said, ’I know the chief constable very well. That man will be dealt with.’
Alice seemed more pleased about this than anything else, that is until Monty called Bruno Guta over and said to him, ‘Bruno, you know the situation with Alice’s Dad, Ben, and I want you to make Alice your priority today. You’re to be her shadow. Unless, of course, she expressly requires a female shadow in the shape of Prim or Mave!’
Bruno smiled. Alice blushed. I went to meet Mac in the stewards’ room, where he’d persuaded the caterers to bring him hot toast and jam with a pot of tea. ‘Would you like a cup?’ he asked, as I sat down.
‘No, thanks, Mac. I’m fine.’
‘An eventful night, I hear?’
I told him what had happened. He said, ‘I’ll have to tell Steel.’
‘Well, it’ll give him something to think about, other than me.’
He nodded, and chewed, looking thoughtful, ’So close last night,’ he said, ‘when you spoke to Ben, I had high hopes he was onto something solid.’
‘It looks very much like he was. Trouble is we’ll now have to do all the things he did and try to find out what he found out.’
‘You sound as though you’re not confident about ever finding it out from Ben.’
‘Not in the near future.’
‘You fear the worst, then?’
‘Not really, but it can only be one of two things. They’ve killed him or they’ve got him. If they were going to kill him, they’d just have done it. No need for pantomimes with beach statues.’
’So you think he’s alive?’
‘I think he’s alive, and I think we’re dealing with amateurs. They didn’t want to hurt jockeys or horses, and they’d rather do some daft comical set up…they even poured whiskey on his jacket, for God’s sake! It’s straight out of an old Ealing Studios movie.’
Mac nodded and picked up another piece of toast, ‘Catching them should be easy, then, eh?’
‘Well, put it this way, it didn’t take Ben long to discover a big enough clue to scare them into grabbing him. How long can it take us?’
‘Very true. Very true. You’re bolstering my confidence for my meeting with Mister Steel.’
‘Good.’ I got up. ’It’s Saturday morning. It’s spring. It’s Grand National day. Anything can happen, Mac. Anything.’
38
By dusk, as we prepared to leave Aintree, a 100/1 chance had won the National, I had fallen at the last when still in contention in the Aintree Hurdle, and the BHA boss, Nigel Steel, seemed satisfied that the disappearance of Ben Searcey had given him some respite from the pressure: not a single horse had gone wild.
All in all, the planning, the early phone calls, the stewardship of Prim and Mave, had worked exactly as we’d hoped. Stage two was not going to be so easy.
We sat at the table in the corner of Monty’s box, me, Mave, Prim and Alice. I said, ‘We’ve got a room fixed up for you at the farm, until we find your Dad.’
Alice said, ‘Thanks, but I’m staying in Deadwood. Dad might come home, and there’s other stuff I need to be there for.’
I said, ‘We can leave a message for your Dad. It’s not safe for you to be there on your own.’
Her grey eyes hardened, a look I’d seen a few times now. She said, ‘I’m not leaving Deadwood without Dad. And there are young girls there who still need my help.’
‘The last thing your Dad would want is you living there on your own. And you can give the girls you’re worried about your number. They can always call you. And DJ’s gone, anyway, hasn’t he?’
‘He could come back anytime.’
‘And if he does, you’re alone in that house,’ I said, conscious that Mave and Prim had decided to stay quiet.
Alice said, ‘He doesn’t scare me.’
‘I know, but that won’t matter to him.’
‘It will. If Bruno’s looking after me, it’ll matter to him all right.’
I watched her as she turned to glance at Monty, laughing with his guests at the table by the door. I said, ‘Did Sir Monty say Bruno would stay with you all the time?’
‘I’m going to ask him.’
‘Is that fair?’
She stiffened, ‘What do you mean?’
‘You’ll be asking Monty to release one of his best men for an unlimited period of time, just because you want to do what you want to do.’
‘Then I won’t bother.’ Alice got up and lifted her small handbag from the table. I said, ‘I’m not trying to upset you, Alice. I know that what you do is for other people. What I’m trying to say is that it’s time to start thinking of yourself for a change. And of your Dad.’
‘That’s blackmail!’
I stood, ‘It’s reality. You don’t owe your protection to every kid you meet. You owe it to your Dad to stay safe until we find him.’
‘What about the girls in Deadwood who’ve never had a father, Eddie?’ her voice was shaky, rage building again. I didn’t know what to do and admitted as much by looking to Prim and to Mave.
Prim got up and reached to put an arm around Alice’s shoulder, ‘Come on, darling, let’s go and get some fresh air.’
Alice drew away from her, sharply avoiding Prim’s reach and frowning at her, ‘I’m going home,’ she said, and walked out.
We spent what seemed a long time debating what to do about Alice until Mave said, ‘She’s probably a better survivalist than us lot put together. How many children’s homes has she been in? How many times did she run away to get back to Deadwood and do her duty?’
‘Some duty,’ I said.
Prim said, ‘Sir Monty said he knew the chief constable. Wouldn’t he help Alice?’
Mave said, ’He’s the guy who thought Eddie was in on this scam. Anyway, he’d have to enforce the law, which means Alice would be back in a children’s home. She can’t live alone at her age.’
I looked at Prim, ‘Maybe that’s the answer,’ I said.
Mave said, ‘Eddie, you can’t put the police onto her, she’d never forgive you.’
‘I don’t want her forgiveness. I just want her to be safe. That’s what Ben would want, and if I hadn’t left him to do everything, we probably wouldn’t be in this position.’
Mave stifled her reply, and her look told me that this wasn’t for debating in open company. I sighed heavily, and massaged my face, and we sat in silent gloom. Then, Prim stood up, ‘Well, if the mountain won’t come to Mohammed…’
We looked at her. Prim shrugged and said, ‘I’ll go and stay with Alice in this Deadwood place until, well, until we find out what’s happened to her dad.’
I said, ‘Prim, you need to see this place.’
She said, ‘Eddie, you ought to see some of the places I’ve been.’
I got up, ‘Staying here with her is just letting Alice have her way.’
Prim put her pink-nailed hands on the table, leaned across and said, ‘You got a better idea?’
‘Jeez!’ I said, ‘What about your work at the yard? What will Dil say?’
‘Eddie, I don’t care anymore what Dil says. Dil will say what Vita tells him to, like he always does.’
‘And this will be a proper result for her, won’t it, with you out of the way?’ I said.
Prim said, ‘Well, maybe that’s just what Vita needs. She’ll get to see Dil Grant for what he is, and there’ll be no more games to play. She…’ Prim raised a finger to her own lips, hushing herself, smiling.
‘Believe me, Prim, this is not a good idea. If I-‘
‘Eddie…’ It was Mave, with another one of her looks, the look that meant “Enough. Drop it.”
‘Okay,’ I said, looking at Prim, ‘What about your stuff? You’re going to need to go home and pack a suitcase or something.’
Mave got up, ‘I’ll drive you and bring you back here,’ she said to Prim.
I said, ‘I’ll drive to Deadwood and have one more go at talking Alice out of this.’
>
Prim said, ‘Eddie, why don’t you leave Alice to me, to us?’ she glanced at Mave, ‘Maybe you could concentrate on Ben. We’ll take care of Alice.’
She seemed confident, reassuring. I looked around at the happy throng, the box still half full, Monty holding court at three tables pulled together…laughter rose, champagne flutes clinked, and bright lights shone on the rich and the lucky. Less than a mile to the west, Alice would be picking her way home through dark, narrow streets where the clink of glass came from dirty, broken bottles in the gutter.
39
I waited up, standing by the lamp in the window. Mave saw me as she closed the car door, and she raised a hand in a weary wave.
She came in, and dropped her bag by the sofa where she flopped then settled in her corner of it. I turned, resting my hip against the windowsill. We looked at each other. Mave slowly shook her head, ‘I thought I’d been a maverick kid. Alice is a one-off. If a bunch of mavericks banded together, Alice would be the one who’d break away first, and run farthest.’
‘I’m glad. I was beginning to think it was just me she had it in for.’
‘Prim will get her eyes opened. She was full of plans on the drive to Deadwood. Then Alice laid down the law when we got there.’
‘Which was?’
‘Pretty much, “don’t try to stop me doing what I’m going to do”.’
‘Did Prim stay?’
’She stayed. I don’t know how long she’ll last. She’d been confident she could persuade Alice to move in with her at Dil’s place.’
‘Did she see Dil?’
’She left him a note. Picked up her stuff and left a note on the desk.’
‘I can almost hear Dil crying from here, Vita playing games at one end, now Prim playing him at the other.’
‘I don’t think she’s doing that, Eddie. She really is concerned about Alice.’
I pushed away from the window and stood straight, ‘Mave, she’s obsessed with Dil. Look how she’s let him treat her. She knows it’s humiliation. She as good as admitted that to me.’
‘Well, all she talked about was Alice and her dad.’
‘It’s a game. Believe me. I’m not saying she doesn’t care about Alice or Ben, but if Dil crooks his finger, Prim will come running.’
Mave sighed, ‘Oh, we’ll see…we’ll see,’ she hung her head, elbows on her bony knees. I touched her hair, pulled it softly back from her eyes, ‘Want a drink?’ I said.
‘Nah. No, thanks. I need to shut my brain down for a while. Sleep.’
It was pointless asking if she wanted something to eat. Mave had never uttered the word hungry in my hearing. ‘Bed?’
She nodded, her hair falling again over her bowed face.
Lying flat, in the dark, she spoke, ‘I’ve got a bad feeling about this, Eddie.’
‘Me too.’
‘Do you think Ben is still alive?’
‘The way I’ve stacked things up, yes, I do.’
‘Do you think you’ve stacked things up right?’
I hesitated, ‘I don’t know.’
‘What are you going to do?’
‘I’m going to try and find out what Ben found out yesterday. That’s what I think has got him into trouble.’
‘You got any idea what it is?’
‘None. Not a clue.’
She sighed. I reached for her hand below the covers and we linked fingers. I said, ‘It’ll work out.’
She squeezed my hand. I said, ‘Once you’ve cranked that giant brain into gear, you’ll slot every piece into place, and I’ll just head out and collect the jigsaw.’
‘You’d better take a big box. That’s what bothers me. Last time, with Bayley Watt, and Jimmy, and the others, it was kind of easy…or easier. We knew they were dead. We knew it was one source. There weren’t pieces scattered everywhere, like this. There was nothing to worry about. I know that sounds crazy, but you were never in any real danger.’
‘I’m not in any danger here.’
‘Yet.’
‘All will be well.’
‘That’s your get out quote, which means “I’ve run out of logical things to say”. Jeeez!’ She sighed long and loud, ‘life used to be simple. I lived by the sea and wrote computer code. I swam at midnight and slept all day.’
‘Then you had the bright idea of going to Bangor races and climbing onto the roof of my car.’
She turned her head toward me, ‘You know, that seems like a lifetime ago somehow.’
‘Well, I suppose we’ve squeezed a lot in since then.’
‘I was sure I’d thought of everything. I hadn’t planned on you turning me into an everyday member of the human race. I was fine until that happened.’
‘You were superwoman.’
‘You were Kryptonite.’
‘Is that your way of saying I’m your rock?’
I sensed her smiling. She said, ‘Don’t you ever get tired of all this?’
‘All what?’
‘All these scrapes. All this righting of wrongs.’
’Shit happens.’
‘Yes, and most people walk away from it. You walk toward it.’
‘Only when I think it needs cleaning up.’
She turned to me again, ‘You know you’re just another Alice? An older, male version? At least she’s got the excuse of being a teenager. What’s your excuse?’
‘Pig headedness is about the best I can offer.’
‘It’s more than that, Eddie.’
‘It is.’
She lay still and we were quiet for a while. She knew what drove me. She’d just been running through a routine because she was tired and maybe a bit regretful again at the loss of her solitude and her independence. She knew well what had lit that fuse in me as a boy, and she knew too that it would burn until the day I died.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said softly.
I squeezed her hand, ‘Good night,’ I said.
‘We’ll make a start in the morning,’ she said.
‘We will.’
40
Dawn was just breaking as we had breakfast, Mave nibbling at a thin slice of brown toast, when Monty Bearak rang.
‘Monty, good morning.’
‘Eddie, any news?’
‘Nothing so far.’
'How is Alice?’
‘She’ll be okay. Prim is staying with her.’
‘She went back home?’
‘Wild horses, pretty apt in this case, would not have kept her away. She says she’s staying because her friends are still in danger, and because Ben might come home.’
‘She has balls, you’ve got to give her that.’
‘Fearless. So far,’ I said.
‘Indeed. Listen, I was thinking of asking Bruno to speak to some of his contacts on the street, nose around a bit.’
‘That would be helpful, Monty.’
‘Good. I’ll organize it. If you hear anything, give me a call right away, will you?’
‘Of course. And I’ll let Alice know. She thinks a lot of Bruno.’
‘He’s a good man.’
‘Well, I think Alice is still on her crusade chasing the Deadwood hoods. If she gets herself in too deep, do you think Bruno would bail her out?’
‘He’ll take care of it.’
‘Good. At least I’ll sleep easier.’
‘Right, I’ll let you get on. Let me know if there’s anything else I can do.’
‘Thanks, Monty.’
I put the phone on the table. Mave picked up the piece of toast she’d been eating and held it in front of her chin. She’d chewed it into the shape of a smile. I laughed.
Mave said, ‘All guns blazing?’
‘Perfect start to the day,’ I stood up, ‘I’d better get ready.’
Mave dipped the toast crust into her tea, ‘That’s disgusting,’ I said, ‘look at all the grease floating on top.’
Mave shrugged, ‘Best I can offer is a promise not to do it at the Lord Mayor’s banquet.’
‘I’m going to shower.’
‘Eddie, what have you got booked this week?’
‘Two tomorrow at Market Rasen. Why?’
‘What about the weekend, Dil got any big plans?’
‘Not that I know of.’
‘Why don’t you take a break until we find Ben?’
‘No way.’
‘Why not?’
‘A million reasons. The BHA believe these horses are bolting only in the races I ride in, so they’d be glad to see me grounded. I don’t want them thinking I’ve got anything to hide. And people would say my nerve has gone if I stop now.’
‘Nobody who knows you would say that.’
‘Maybe, but somebody will start whispering. Anyway, Dil is hardly going to sign me off on holiday, is he?’
‘I’d have thought it would be a bonus for him and Vita. He wouldn’t saddle anything with any confidence now, would he? Why don’t you talk to him about it?’
I leant on the chairback, ‘Mave, I need to keep riding. There’s more chance of me picking up something on track about Ben, than if I’m just drifting around.’
She shrugged, ‘Fair enough.’
‘I need to speak to Dil anyway. I’ll call him after I’ve showered, and maybe drive down there.’
She nodded, and picked up her tea cup, ‘I’ll see what I can find in Ben’s phone records.’
‘What about tracing his movements on Friday via the phone masts?’
‘I did that on Friday night, while you and Alice were waiting for the police. He hadn’t been anywhere, or at least his phone hadn’t, outside his normal stamping grounds.’
‘What about the route he took to the beach?’
‘From his house, he went along Melling Road, a regular walk for him, down and across the canal, then back toward home, and-‘
‘Could you map it out?’
‘Sure. Give me two minutes.’
Towelling myself, I sidled up to Mave and her laptop. She flipped the lid so I could see the map and I leaned forward, water from my hair splashing and dotting the screen. Mave stood and snatched the towel from me, wrapping it roughly round my head, ‘Malloy! Did nobody teach you to dry your hair first?’