She was still holding the chair in front of her. Mickey lunged forward and swept it aside. It crashed against the wall.
*
They picked up the noise in the van.
“Jesus, what now? Beep her, Danny.”
Danny sent a two-beep pulse; their signal for ‘back off.” Jo spoke into her police radio. “Stand by.”
“Yay-okay,” from both cars.
*
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
“Nothing, nothing,” Cat said. “But I’ve been thinking. When you went to the house that night…”
“Go on. This had better be good.”
*
“She’s going too fast,” Jo said. “Beep her again.”
Danny sent the same signal.
*
“You said you were searching for drugs, right?”
No response.
“But you wouldn’t have had a chance of finding them, would you? Not in a place that big, with people just about everywhere. I didn’t think before, but where would you start? You could only look where there was no-one around and, as I say, that was nowhere.”
“And your point being what, exactly?”
“You didn’t go there to search for drugs at all, did you?”
Mickey remained silent for a long time.
“No, I didn’t,” he said, sounding calm and relaxed. “Not to search, exactly.”
“So what?”
“Because I knew where the stuff was. Jack had let it slip when he was pissed one night. Said something about there being much more valuable stuff in his wardrobe than designer clothes. So I went straight there…”
“To his bedroom?”
“That’s right. And there it was…”
“So what was in the rucksack?”
“Rucksack? What rucksack?”
“The one you were carrying when you left us.”
“I don’t know. I can’t remember…”
“You were carrying a rucksack and you don’t know what was in it? There wasn’t a load of crack in it, was there? And you didn’t happen to leave it in Jack’s wardrobe?”
There was an even longer silence. Mickey was staring into Catrina’s eyes. She could feel herself starting to tremble. But when he spoke, it was with the same quiet control.
“So that’s it. You think I set him up. That I took the stuff in with me and put it in his wardrobe. Well, that is the most fucking stupid thing I have ever heard… Why the fuck would I do that?”
“To get rid of Jack.”
“And – same question – why the fuck would I do that? He was just about my best mate. I nearly got myself arrested standing up for him in court. So come on, why?”
“Okay, Jason, then. To get rid of Jason.”
“I put eighty-K’s worth of drugs in Jack’s wardrobe to get rid of Jason? Have you any idea how fucking ridiculous that sounds?”
“Okay, what was in the sack, then?” she asked.
“Nothing. Well, a few tools. In fact, depending on how much of the stuff was there and if I’d had the time, I was going to take it. And you know why, don’t you, because I told you. I’m a legit trader now…” he raised his eyebrows in a gesture of innocence “… and I couldn’t have someone that close – best friend or not – putting the heat on me. Right?”
“And what were you going to do with the stuff?”
“I never got that far. There was just too little time; people milling around all over, like you said. I had to leave it and get away quick. So I honestly don’t know. Dump it I guess…”
“You told Dags you didn’t find anything.”
“I know. He didn’t need to know, did he? I wanted to keep Jack as clean as possible until I decided what to do.”
“And what about Jack? What were you going to do with him?”
“Again, not sure. Tell him what I’d done. Warn him off, perhaps. Possibly nothing; let him think someone at the party had found it and taken it – which would have been true, wouldn’t it? I was still wondering about that afterwards when he got arrested.”
*
“Send her terminate,” Jo said, with a sigh of resignation. “I reckon we’ve got as much as we’re going to get.”
Danny sent a single sustained beep.
*
Cat felt a rush of relief.
“Then I guess I owe you an apology, Mickey. It all makes sense now.”
She turned to retrieve the chair as calmly as she could and placed it back near the dressing table. Mickey didn’t respond. He stared at her, tense and unmoving.
“It’s hard to accept, though, isn’t it?” she continued. “Just like you said in court, you can’t really imagine Jack being involved in anything like that. Jason, just maybe – at a stretch – but not Jack. I mean…”
“Is it Jack’s kid?” Mickey asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Was it Jack who got you pregnant?”
“Oh, that. No… I was mistaken. I’m not pregnant. False alarm.” She paused, before adding, “And it couldn’t have been Jack’s, anyway, could it? I’d be at least six months by now…” She laughed, nervously.
Mickey continued to stare at her.
“Have you told this to anyone else?”
“What, about being pregnant?”
“No, about you believing I set Jack up.”
“No, of course not.” Cat could feel her face reddening. “It only came to me this morning. I don’t know why. I was thinking about Jack – as I do every day – pretty much all the time, in fact – and trying to make sense of it. I guess I’ll just have to accept that he was guilty. But it’s hard. I liked him a lot. I really did.” She dropped down onto the chair and began to cry.
“Because if you did,” Mickey said, grabbing her by the arms and pulling her to her feet again, “then you’d better go and fucking untell them while you’ve still got the breath left to do it.”
Cat was sobbing now. All the courage had flowed out of her.
“I haven’t, Mickey. I swear. Honestly. You’re hurting me!”
*
“Still standing by?” Jo.
“Yay-okay.”
Both cars responded together.
*
Mickey pushed her back onto the chair and glared down at her for a long time.
“I have nowhere near finished with you yet.”
He slammed the door as he left the room. After a couple of minutes Cat spoke to the surveillance team.
“Switching on the receiver now,” she whispered. “Sorry, I guess that didn’t go as well as we wanted.”
Jo nodded to Danny to turn on the voice transmitter.
“No that was fine, Catrina. You were brilliant.”
“I don’t think he believed me.” Cat’s voice was trembling.
“Believed you?”
“I mean, believed that I believe him; about that night. The way he looked at me. I’m scared, Jo. I don’t know what he’ll do…”
“Don’t worry; we’ll be watching him every minute. He can’t do you any harm now. Okay?”
“He won’t do anything himself. He’ll get someone else to do it. There are people who are so shit scared of him they’ll do anything he tells them to. It just takes a phone call… Fuck, I wish I’d never got into this.”
She started to cry again.
“Right, Catrina, here’s what we’ll do. We’ll pick him up as he leaves; before he can make any calls or anything. Okay?”
There was silence for a few seconds. “Okay.” Her reply was barely audible.
“Good girl. The best thing you could do now, I reckon, is to get on to that stage. Oh, and switch off your transmitter. Otherwise you might get some we
ird effects from the sound system. But if you need to speak to us or alert us about anything, switch it back on; we’ll still be listening. And if you can let us know somehow when he’s about to leave that would be great. But don’t take any risks. Okay?”
“Okay.”
“Honestly, Catrina, you did great. We’ve got him in the house on the night of the party, and in the very room where we found the drugs. That’s a massive step forward. More than we could have hoped for.”
“Right; if you say so.” Cat sounded unconvinced. “Speak later.”
“Oh, just before you go,” Jo said. “That thing about Mickey and Katey. Is that right? Is it a big thing with Mickey?”
“You bet it is. Worst kept secret at the Grange. I think only Jason, Jack and Katey didn’t know about it. Some time ago Mickey got some of his thugs to warn Jason off. Jay didn’t know it was Mickey’s doing, of course. Anyway, that’s when Jack came on the scene. Stepped in to save Jason and Mickey called them off. It’s like he’s just been biding his time ever since.”
“I heard about that, but I didn’t know Mickey had set them on to Jason in the first place. Anyway, thanks again, Catrina. As I said, you did really great.”
*
The contact was broken and Jo turned to Danny, shrugging in answer to his querulous look.
“What else could I say?”
Danny shrugged back without speaking.
“Anyway, let’s move.” She picked up the radio. “Victor Delta Nine to front entrance; joining you there.”
“Yay-okay.”
“Whisky Bravo Two stay in position.”
“Yay-okay.”
As she opened the rear door of the vehicle to get out, they heard Cat’s voice again.
“Bye, Mickey. See you later.” Then, in a whisper, “Just leaving; main entrance.”
Jo set off at a run round to the front of the building, speaking into the radio as she went.
“Both cars, immediately to strike, main entrance!”
*
Mags answered within three seconds, as always. Jo could imagine her seeing the name on the display and thinking perhaps this time it would be the news she’d been waiting for – some progress towards proving her son’s innocence. If that was the case, she was about to let her down again.
“Hi, Jo.”
“Hi, Maggie. Just to let you know that we arrested Mickey Kadawe today on suspicion of dealing Class A drugs. This has nothing to do with Jack and Jason’s case, so I wanted to make sure you got the information from me rather than be wondering what was going on. I’m sure rumours will be rife at Manston Grange.”
“Okay, thanks, Jo.”
*
Katey left immediately for Manston Grange when she heard the news from her mother. She found the place swarming with police officers, including the one who had invaded their home, with such devastating consequences, on that Tuesday morning five months ago, and who now – quite probably – was the main person behind removing Mickey.
Megan saw Katey arrive and rushed over to embrace her; they held each other, without speaking, for a long time.
“What’s happening, Megs? What are they looking for?”
“A bag or something. A rucksack, somebody said. I don’t know what Mickey will make of this. He’ll go ballistic when he finds out. He’s been at the Hall this morning with Cat and the band, but they reckon he left there not long after eleven. We’ve been trying to contact him but he’s not answering his phone. I don’t suppose you know where he is, do you?”
Katey took a deep breath. “He’s been arrested,” she said. “Just this morning.”
“Christ! What for?”
“Not a clue,” Katey lied. “Tax evasion, perhaps. I really don’t know. Where’s Cat right now? She might know something.”
“As I said, she was at the Hall earlier, but I don’t know whether she’s still there.”
“I need to go,” Katey said, hugging Megan again.
“Come back again soon. Please.”
“I will. I promise.”
She got Catrina’s mobile number from a chart pinned up in the large entrance hall, noting with sadness that Jack’s and Jason’s own contact details were still on the list.
“Hi, Cat, it’s Katey.”
“Katey?”
“Yes. Jack’s sister… Katey Tomlinson-Brown.”
“Oh. What do you want?”
Katey was surprised by the coldness in her voice.
“Nothing. Just wondered if you knew any more about Mickey.”
“What about him?”
“Are you alright, Cat? You sound sort of… anxious, I guess.”
“Look, I don’t know anything, right? I have to go.”
“I think you do, Cat,” Katey said. “And if you really don’t, well, perhaps you’d like to hear what I know.”
“What do you mean? What do you know? Tell me.”
“Can’t talk now, Cat. Not over the phone. Let’s meet up somewhere.”
There was a long silence.
“Okay. But I can’t today. Phone me tomorrow.”
She ended the call.
Katey phoned her back straight away, but Catrina wasn’t answering.
*
A figure appeared behind the frosted glass of Jo’s office door, hand raised about to knock.
“Come in!” Jo shouted. Tina stepped into the office.
“I’ve just had Denny Crosland of Witness Protection on the phone, ma’am. He says the four guys will be together at the combo in Dorking from six o’clock – about an hour from now. We could see them all today and save a few journeys. I know you said to check the party CCTV first, but…”
“I did, but only because I thought we’d have to wait for days before we could meet with them. Shit! I’ve got a meeting with the chief in half an hour. He wants an update on the fruitless search of Manston Grange – although he doesn’t know it was fruitless yet.” She paused for just a moment. “Tell you what; I’ll leave a message with Janice. I was surprised he agreed to us questioning these guys at all, so let’s do it before he changes his mind.”
*
Tina’s mobile trilled as they crawled forward in the heavy traffic along the A25. She pressed the green button on the steering wheel.
“DS Ramirez.”
“H, Tina. This is Denny Crosland. I’m going to have to leave you to it, I’m afraid. I was planning to stay to make introductions and such, but I’ve just been called back to base.”
“That’s okay. Looks like we could be a bit late anyway with this traffic. I assume they’re expecting us?”
“Yes, they are. You know your way to the combo, don’t you? It’s set out around three sides of a square with parking in the middle. They’re in North Turret – right-hand corner block, you can’t miss it, there’s a name plaque on the wall. They’re in Apartments 21 to 24. They’ve got a buzzer each on a speaker panel outside at ground level, but I’ll text you the four-digit building access code just in case they decide to fool around. I understand you want to see them individually, so you have a choice of their own apartment or there are some small communal rooms on the ground floor – nearly always empty. Sorry I won’t be there.”
“That’s okay, Denny. And thanks for moving so quickly on this. We thought it would take a lot longer to clear.”
“So did I, to be honest. The powers that be chose to fast-track the request. Good luck.”
*
It was 6.15 pm when they eventually arrived, the slow traffic having come to a complete stop for ten minutes due to an accident on the new by-pass, ironically named The Fastway. “Tempting providence, calling it that” had been Jo’s assessment.
The combo was designed like a fort with one side missing. Four square three-storey bloc
ks, one at each corner – the ‘Turrets’ – were joined together on three sides by two-storey rows of apartments. The missing side gave access to a central parking area surrounded by neat lawns and well-tended flower beds. The swimming pool, they assumed, must be at the rear of the complex. They parked in one of the residents’ reserved spaces in front of North Turret, facing the ground floor entrance just a few yards away.
They pushed open the car doors.
Then came the blinding flash, along with a deafening boom and the tinkling crash of a hundred shattering windows. The half-opened car doors slammed shut as the vehicle shot backwards a few feet. The windscreen was transformed into a dense web of fractured glass, but held together except for a few shards which dropped onto the dashboard.
Jo, temporarily blinded and deafened, fumbled for her door handle as the temperature inside the vehicle increased.
It wouldn’t open.
Throwing herself against it in panic, she forced it loose and rolled out of the vehicle onto the smoking tarmac.
She felt her way round the back of the car to the driver’s side as her eyes began to clear. She tore at the hot handle, ignoring the pain in her hands, and managed to wrench open the driver’s door.
Tina was barely conscious, her forehead bleeding from the impact of the door closing against it.
“Tina, I have to get you out.” Jo shouted at her.
Tina’s head lolled towards her and she opened her eyes. They came into focus, wide with confusion and terror. “Yes,” she whispered. “Please.”
“Can you move everything – legs, arms?”
“Yes.”
“Right, lean over to me.”
Jo felt rather than heard the running feet behind her, the anxious voices, the shouts and screams. She eased Tina from the car, willing hands helping to support her as they lifted her clear of the vehicle. Flames were finding their way into the foot well beneath the dashboard and flickering out from underneath the car around the front wheels.
Lost Souls Page 16