by J. E. Mayhew
“No, sir, I don’t think it can,” Kinnear said.
Chapter 37
He was just as she remembered him. Tall, good-looking, with a mane of raven black hair. He’d grown a beard and had been working out too, it appeared, but apart from that it was the same old Kyle Quinlan.
“Hi Laura, did you miss me?”
Laura hesitated, wondering whether to try and run. “Not really,” she said at last. She turned to Nick. “Okay, you can take me home now.”
“You aren’t going anywhere, Laura,” Kyle said. “Not yet anyway.”
Laura folded her arms. “You think we’ve got anything to discuss? You and I are finished, Kyle.”
“I never assumed anything else, after what you did to me,” Kyle said. His voice was mild, even jovial but there was an undertone of accusation in it.
“After the dog’s life I got, Kyle Quinlan, I reckon I deserved some compensation. You thought I’d just let you get away with that? All those beatings?” She turned to Nick. “Did he tell you about how he knocked me about? Even put me in hospital once.”
Quinlan winced. “I know what I did, Laura and I’m not proud of it, but I can’t undo the past. You can’t say that you didn’t lay a finger on me. I’ve still got a metal plate in my cheek to prove it. Every time I go through customs, it’s a little reminder of you.”
Laura snorted. “Sweet.”
“When you stole that money from me, Thorpe wanted my head on a pole, which is exactly what you thought would happen, right?”
“Maybe,” Laura muttered. “No more than you deserved.”
“But it was the best thing that ever happened to me. I ran for it. I left the country. I’d stashed away a few grand of my own, so I went to America. I’ve been working for a big outfit down in New Mexico. It was tough and I took a lot of knocks, nearly died a few times too. But it changed me. Made me stronger.”
“Am I meant to be impressed by this speech?”
Quinlan shook his head. “You know, at one point, I found myself kneeling in the desert with a gun to the back of my head and I thought, ‘this is it. I’m done.’ And I swore that if I got out of that fix, I’d come back home and stop running.”
“So you took the money from where I hid it.”
“Half the money, Laura,” Quinlan said, grinning. “You already took half for yourself, didn’t you?”
Laura felt her face reddening. “What if I did? Like I said, it’s less than I’m owed for the shit I had to put up with. All the money in the world wouldn’t compensate for that.”
Quinlan grinned. “Perhaps. And the cat’s out the bag now, isn’t it? I have the other half of the money and Thorpe is scouring the Wirral and Liverpool looking for you. You can’t go back.”
“Well, thanks for that, too. If you’d just left things as they were, I’d be perfectly happy, now…”
“And do you have a right to be perfectly happy? Shacked up with your big brave policeman to protect you? Things were unravelling the moment Josh Gambles opened his big mouth about me and set the police on you. Oh, yeah, I know all about that. I have my eyes and ears peeled. But do you think that’s going to go away? Gambles will keep agitating. He’s obsessed with your boyfriend. He won’t rest until he’s destroyed both of you.”
“We can handle Gambles,” Laura said but she couldn’t keep the quaver of uncertainty out of her voice.
“I’m sure you’ll do your best to ignore him and get on with your life, but he’ll keep on intruding. Making accusations. He has quite a following now, after his atrocities. You’d be amazed how many sick fucks there are out there just ready to do his bidding. Each one of them will be digging. And what they’ll find is the truth.”
“They won’t find anything. You took it.”
“But eventually, somebody will decide that it’s worth doing a bit of forensic accounting to answer the puzzle of why Laura Quinlan…”
“Vexley.”
“Okay, why Laura Vexley, part time worker and volunteer at a cat’s home can live on next to no wages. It’s all going to come tumbling down around your ears and then imagine the look on Will Blake’s face, Laura. What is he going to think?”
“That’s not fair.”
“I tell you what isn’t fair; leading a man into thinking you’re one thing when you’re not. That’s not fair. Will Blake thinks you’re a wronged woman, someone who has had a chequered life but has come out a better person…”
“And I haven’t?”
“No. You’re tough, independent, yes, but you’d never fit in with his life. You’re from the wrong side. Always will be.”
“No. I’m not.”
Quinlan held up his hands. “Fair enough. Then I’m going to make you an offer, Laura, for old times’ sake. And you’d better think hard before you decide.”
*****
Kinnear’s hand trembled slightly with excitement as he clicked the mouse to start the CCTV footage. “I was just looking through and it’s all middle-aged blokes coming and going, if you pardon the pun…”
“Okay, okay, Kinnear. Just calm yourself and tell me what you’ve found.” Blake just wanted to jump in the car and drive over to Wales. He could be there in an hour or so and he’d know if Laura was safe, then. Maybe he’d get some answers, too.
“Wait for it… there!” A dark saloon slipped up to the kerb outside Geri’s house and an old couple got out. Kinnear froze the shot.
“Jeez,” Blake said. “What are Xanthe and Roland Percival doing visiting Geri Sharpe?”
“I know. Weird, right?”
“No,” Blake said, stuffing the slip of paper with the address on it into his pocket. “It all makes sense. Ian Vale is giving his statement downstairs. I’ll have a word with him and then pay a visit to the Percivals and find out exactly what they’ve been up to. I suspect nothing good.”
Chapter 38
Ian Vale sprawled in his seat, sipping a coffee, a stupid grin spread across his stubbly face. Kath sat opposite him, leafing through a file. Blake came into the room and sat down across the table from him. “Sorry to keep you waiting, Mr Vale,” he said. He just wanted to wipe the smile off Vale’s face. “I had to check a few details. I hope you don’t mind.”
Ian Vale held up his free hand. “Happy to help, you know me.”
“So can you just go through the events leading up to when you found Florence Percival in the garage?”
“Yeah, like I told the journalists, I was searching the area as a likely spot for Hill to have hidden the little girl and sure enough, I heard her calling out from inside. So I smashed the lock with a brick and got her out. She was in a right state. Must have been there for days, poor little kid…”
Blake looked over at Kath, who nodded. “Yeah, it sounds familiar, sir,” she said turning to Vale and closing her file slowly. “Just tell me again how you came to find Florence Percival.”
Ian Vale’s smile flickered. “Well, like… I said… I was searching the area as a likely spot for Hill to have hidden the little girl and sure enough, I heard her calling out from inside there…”
“So you smashed the lock with a brick and got her out. She was in a right state. Must have been there for days, poor little kid…” Kath said. “Spooky…”
“What is?”
“How big was the brick you broke the lock with?” Blake said. “Was it a half brick or a complete one?”
“I-I dunno,” Vale said. “What’s going on here? Don’t you believe me or something? Wait, it was a half brick. Yeah, a half brick.”
“So what happened then?”
“I told you, she was in a right…”
“State, yeah, you’ve said that. What did she look like? Was she dirty? Mucky face? What made you think she’d been in the garage for days?”
“Well, she’s been missing for days, hasn’t she?”
“But, if you were locked in that garage for four days, what would you have to do? At the very least? Think about it.”
Ian Vale stared down at t
he tabletop, his face a picture of concentration. “I suppose I’d have to go to the bog at some point…”
“Did you see any evidence that Florence had been? Any at all? You’d have to drink? Did Florence look dehydrated at all?”
“I dunno,” Ian Vale said. “She must have been…”
“What were her first words when you opened the garage door?” Kath asked.
“She asked for her mum,” Ian said. “But she didn’t say much, to be honest. She was scared, poor kid.”
“Do you know Roland Percival?”
Ian’s eyes darted about the room. “No. Is he Florence’s dad or something?” It was a feeble lie.
“He’s Florence’s grandfather. A bit of a thespian…”
Vale looked alarmed. “A what?”
“Likes acting. Helps at an amateur dramatics group over in Liverpool. What about Geri Sharpe?”
Vale shrugged. “Maybe. What’s all this about?”
“Just answer the question. Do you know her or not?”
“Yeah, I know her. She’s done a bit with the Tor-Paedo group…”
“Ah,” Blake said, glancing at Kath. “The Tor-Paedo group.”
“What’s that meant to mean?”
Kath opened the file in front of her. “You were convicted of assault last year, weren’t you? Assault on someone called Norman Carter…”
“Yeah, well he was a fucking nonce wasn’t he? Deserved it.”
“And you were criticised by the police for compromising an investigation against a prolific child molester the year before, weren’t you?”
“So? We moved him on.”
“So you’d say that your methods aren’t really that orthodox. Many of these online vigilante groups only confront their targets and wait for the police. You delivered summary justice.”
Vale shrugged. “They just get a slap on the wrist, don’t they? Doesn’t seem right. I’d hang ‘em.”
Blake raised an eyebrow and looked at Kath Cryer who blushed. “Okay, Ian, I’m going to ask you one more time and I want you to think very carefully about your answer because it’s important. Do you know Roland Percival?”
“No,” Vale said. “I told you. I’ve never heard of him.”
“Okay,” Blake said. “We’ll leave it there. Arrest him for conspiracy to abduct a child. We’ll interview him under caution when his brief arrives. You do have a solicitor, don’t you, Mr Vale?”
*****
The case was bigger than she remembered, and Laura wondered how she’d managed to move it and bury it under the patio. It still smelt of the dank earth. The money lay inside, wrapped in plastic, row upon row of fifties. The other half of the haul.
“It’s all there,” Kyle Quinlan said, squatting beside it. He and Nick had dragged it from a cupboard and dumped it in front of her. “Must have been a logistical nightmare laundering it.”
“It wasn’t easy,” Laura said. Banking the first half had been tricky and she’d lost a lot investing in barely legal businesses that folded.
“It’ll be even harder this time because the authorities are suspicious, now,” Quinlan said. “And so is Harry Thorpe. But I’ve got contacts here and abroad who can quickly get this money cleared for you.”
She looked down at the cash. Once upon a time, she would have hugged Quinlan, grabbed a handful and thrown it in the air. Now, it didn’t seem as appealing. It was part of a past she wanted to leave behind. “What are you suggesting, Kyle?”
“We can use it to build something big. You and I in business together as partners again.”
“A criminal business?”
“That’s what I do. It’s who we are, Laura. We’re criminals but that’s not a bad thing. It just means we don’t take any shit. We’re just braver than ordinary people.”
“But I like being ordinary, Kyle. I like living in a small flat and going to work and coming home and having pets. I don’t want to be a criminal.”
“You already are,” he said. “Anyway, you can spend the proceeds of the business any way you want. We can channel funds into a cat sanctuary or a donkey hospital. I don’t care. It might even be a smart move.”
“Thorpe would love us setting up in competition with him.”
Kyle grinned. “Thorpe wouldn’t be here to object one way or the other, would he?”
“You see? You talk about snuffing someone out as though they weren’t a person with a life and feelings, and a family. I’ve never thought like that.”
“Thorpe would kill you in a heartbeat if he had the chance and not even worry about it, you know that, right?”
“So, this is your offer? To join you in your criminal world. Are you mad? No, Kyle, take your money and disappear again. Things have changed and I’m not the same person anymore.”
“That’s a shame, Laura. Really it is because I’m not going to disappear again. I’m back for good.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I’ve got plenty of money and I’ve already made contacts in this part of the world. I’m going to set up in business in this area. With or without you.”
“And what about me?”
Kyle Quinlan leaned back in his chair and spread his arms. “I made you my offer. I think that was more than generous. But I can see that you’ve moved on, Laura. When you set me up and took Harry Thorpe’s money, I had to run. Like I said, though, it was the making of me. If that hadn’t happened, then I’d still be standing at his right shoulder, roughing up losers or maybe even doing a prison stretch for him. So I guess I kind of owe you.”
“And how do you intend to show this warped sense of gratitude?”
Quinlan pursed his lips and steepled his fingers. “I’m going to give you a head start.”
“What?”
“Here’s a backpack,” Quinlan said, pulling the bag from under the desk and slapping it down in front of him. “You can fill it with as much cash as you can and then go. Leave here and go as far away as possible.”
“You want me to leave? A moment ago, you wanted me to be with you.”
“If you won’t be with me then you won’t be with anyone. I could kill you right now but I’m giving you the same chance you gave me. Fill the bag and go.”
“And what if I refuse?”
Kyle Quinlan sighed and opened a drawer. He pulled out a handgun, placing it heavily on the desktop. “I’ll shoot you here and then go after that dozy boyfriend of yours. He won’t know what’s hit him. Of course, if you stay away from him, he’ll be fine. So what’s it to be?”
“Doesn’t look like I have much choice, does it?” Laura said, snatching the bag from the desk. “You haven’t changed one bit, Kyle Quinlan.”
Quinlan just shrugged. “I’m giving you the same kind of chance you gave me. By the way, when I said I’m giving you a head start, I meant it. You’ve got twenty-four hours to get away from here, then Nick is going to come looking for you. You won’t have Harry Thorpe to worry about for much longer, but I want you to know what it’s like to be hunted. We’ll be watching Blake, too. If he starts searching for you, we’ll be right behind him. He’ll lead us straight to you.”
“You bastard,” Laura hissed.
“What can I say? I’m just a jealous guy. The clock’s ticking, Laura. Better grab as much of that cash as you can. What’s left will be invested in my new enterprise on the Wirral.”
Chapter 39
Roland Percival looked perplexed when Blake and Kath Cryer turned up at his door. He ushered them into the plush living room. “I didn’t expect to see you again, Inspector, you’ve arrested that hideous Leonard Hill and Flossy is safe. I thought we were done with it…”
“Just a few loose ends to tie up, Mr Percival.”
Percival cleared his throat. “Of course, yes, forgive me. Old age, you know. I’m sure I’m going senile. Maybe it’s all this stress.”
“Perhaps, Mr Percival. Your words strike me as odd, if you’ll forgive me.”
“You’ve lost me, Blake. What do
you mean, my words are odd?”
“I mean, most people would refer to Florence being safe first and foremost. We reveal so much in our off-the-cuff remarks, don’t you think?”
“I haven’t a clue what you mean, Blake.”
“Do you think Paul was with Tanya Ellman the night your daughter was murdered, Mr Percival?” Blake said, hoping to catch Percival off guard.
“What? Yes. Of course he was. She said so in court, didn’t she?”
“Yes, but we’ve had an interesting conversation with her that suggests that he wasn’t with her until much later in the evening. And that you helped her learn her lines for court. Why did you do that if you thought your son was innocent?”
“It was all a long time ago,” Percival said. “I don’t really remember.”
“You do know we’re treating Brendan Dockley’s death as murder, don’t you?” Blake said, deliberately jumping from topic to topic to wrongfoot the man. “Does your son have a temper, Mr Percival?”
The blood drained from Percival’s face. “Murder. Really? I-is Paul involved?”
“Is that a possibility?”
“No… I-I don’t think so…oh no. It’s all our fault. We should never have…”
“Inspector Blake, I didn’t know you were here,” Xanthe Percival said, entering the room. She glared at Roland. “You should have told me, darling.”
“They are suggesting that Paul murdered poor Brendan …”
Xanthe Percival’s face twitched a little at the news. “That’s dreadful. I don’t think Paul is capable of harming anyone, though, Inspector. How did Brendan die?”
“A blow to the back of the head, we suspect. His body was dumped in the lake in the lower park.”
Again, the woman twitched at the mention of the lake. “And why do you suspect my son was responsible?”
“I never said that. I merely asked if your son had a temper. It was your husband who asked me if Paul was involved with Mr Dockley’s death.” Blake turned to Roland. “You started to say something about it being all your fault, Mr Percival. Can you explain what you mean?”
“My husband is prone to being a little melodramatic. We found Brendan the post. If it weren’t for us, he’d be over in Liverpool still, instead of dead. I imagine that’s what you meant, wasn’t it, dear?”
