Takedown

by Heather Atkinson

  “You’re all pleased?” grinned Abi.

  “Of course we are dear,” said Rose. “Michael’s a lovely boy and you’re so happy together.”

  “That’s a relief. I didn’t know what you’d say because we haven’t been together very long.”

  “That is a good point,” said Faith. “Are you sure you’re not rushing into this?”

  “We’re sure,” said Abi. “We know this feels right.”

  “It might now but what if a year down the line your feelings for each other start to cool? I don’t want to sound like the prophet of doom but you’re still in the first flush of romance. What happens when that wears off?”

  “What do you know about it Faith?” scowled Abi. “You haven’t had a serious relationship in years. I’m sorry,” she sighed when her sister’s lips pursed. “I didn’t mean it to sound like that but we’re both adults and we know this is right.” She took her fiancé’s hand. “Me and Michael belong together.”

  An almost overwhelming sadness swept over Faith. Her sister had what she could only dream of. Who was she to spoil it for her? “In that case, congratulations.”

  “Really?” said Abi. “We have your blessing?”

  “Of course you do. I just wanted to make sure you both know that this is a huge commitment.”

  “We do and this is right Faith. I promise.”

  Faith looked to Michael for confirmation, who nodded, looking as determined as her sister.

  “What can I say then except welcome to the family Michael,” she smiled, kissing his cheek.

  The atmosphere turned festive, especially when Rose dug out a bottle of champagne she’d been saving for a special occasion. Faith was the only one who didn’t have a glass because champagne gave her headaches but she found herself getting stuck into the wine, enjoying how happy her sister looked while wallowing in self-pity. She’d never thought she would want to get married but she couldn’t help feeling envious of what Abi had. She glanced at Vance, who was laughing and chatting with his brothers. He didn’t seem to be experiencing the same sense of depression she was. Maybe Rose was right. Was Vance really her future? But then again, she couldn’t imagine not being with him. That would be more painful than never being able to have a normal relationship with him.

  She caught Rose watching her, knowing in her sharp blue eyes. Faith was sure she knew what was going through her mind and judging by the way Rose’s eyes gleamed it pleased her.

  “Faith,” said Abi. “Will you be one of my bridesmaids?”

  “Course I will,” she replied, forcing a smile.

  “Vance, will you give me away?”

  “I would be honoured,” he said with a mock bow, making her giggle.

  “What about us three?” said Kevin, gesturing from himself to Caleb and Jason.

  “I was going to ask Caleb to be my best man,” said Michael. “Seeing how my brother’s in prison.”

  “Oh wow, cheers mate,” said Caleb, shaking his hand.

  “Great,” smiled Michael with relief.

  “And me and Kev?” said Jason.

  “You can be ushers,” said Abi.

  “Awesome,” he grinned. “What’s an usher?”

  “You hand out the orders of service and tell everyone where to sit.”

  “Oh good. I like bossing people about.”

  “Yes, we’d noticed dear,” said Rose with a smile. Her gaze turned to Abi and Michael. “Have you set a date yet?”

  “April the twelfth. My birthday.”

  “And mine,” said Caleb.

  “Yes but you’re not getting married, are you?”

  “God no,” he chuckled. “I wouldn’t be so daft.”

  Abi narrowed her eyes at him. “If you’re not careful your role at the wedding will be toilet attendant.”

  He grinned and got to his feet to hug her, making her smile. Despite their bickering, the twins loved each other deeply.

  “I can put my ring on now,” said Abi. “I didn’t want to wear it earlier in case you spotted it before Michael could make the announcement.”

  Michael produced a small black box from his pocket, opened it and took out a glittering ring.

  “Oh that’s beautiful,” said Rose. “I’ve never seen so many diamonds before.”

  “It’s a double halo princess cut ring,” said Abi, brimming over with excitement as Michael tenderly slid it onto her finger. “Eighteen carat white gold.”

  “It’s very nice,” smiled Faith.

  “Have you decided where you’re having the ceremony?” said Rose.

  “Holy Trinity church on the south shore where you and dad got married,” replied Abi, who was admiring her ring, turning her hand back and forth to watch it sparkle in the light.

  “Oh Abi,” she breathed, tears in her eyes. “That’s lovely. And the reception?”

  “The Boulevard Hotel on the front. It’s five stars and they’ve got this gorgeous suite for wedding receptions. I mean, if that’s okay? Our family’s coined up now, so I thought it would be.”

  “And I’ll contribute of course,” said Michael. “I don’t expect your family to pay for everything.”

  “No, we’ll pay,” said Faith. “This is the first wedding in the family in donkey’s years, so it’s on us.”

  “My parents said they’d pay for the honeymoon,” he said. “Antigua.”

  “I’ve always wanted to go somewhere with white sandy beaches,” said Abi in a dreamy voice.

  “What do you want to go there for when we’ve got perfectly good beaches right here?” said Kevin.

  “Yeah, because Blackpool and Antigua are so alike,” she retorted sarcastically. “And I want to wear a bikini on my honeymoon and get a tan. I do not want to be wrapped up in thermals and eat winkles.”

  “Well that’s certainly something to look forward to,” said Rose. “We need to go shopping for your dress, which I am paying for.”

  “You don’t need to do that Mum.”

  “I want to. I’m the mother of the bride.”

  “Faith, you’ll come, won’t you?” Abi asked her. “As well as Donna and Chelsea. I want them to be my bridesmaids too. We can get the bridesmaids dresses at the same time.”

  “Sounds fun,” said Faith, forcing a smile. She liked Donna but Chelsea could be shrill and annoying.

  “I can’t wait,” smiled Abi, doing one of those silly little girly claps that Faith hated.

  Michael grinned, wrapped an arm around his fiancée and kissed the top of her head.

  “It’s lovely having something to look forward to,” said Rose. “And one of my children married at last and you’re not even the oldest Abi.”

  Both Vance and Faith looked her way but didn’t reply, refusing to rise to the bait.

  “It’ll be your turn next Faith,” said Abi.

  “Hardly,” she replied, forcing a smile.

  “You get on really well with Matthew and he’s a detective inspector now.”

  Faith didn’t even need to look at Vance to know he was jealous, she could feel it rolling off him. “I’ve had my fill of detective inspectors for one lifetime after Marlow.”

  “Oh God, sorry Faith. I didn’t think. It’s the champagne.”

  “It’s okay, don’t worry about it,” she said, patting her hand.

  On the bright side, Abi’s tactless remark forced her to drop the subject.

  “Don’t tell me you’re actually sulking because of what Abi said about Matthew,” Faith asked Vance as he drove them home in stony silence.

  “No,” he curtly replied.

  “Yes you are,” she smiled. “You’re sulking because you think there’s something between me and him.”

  “Isn’t there?”

  “No. He’s happy with Alice and I’m happy with you.”

  “I saw your face when everyone was talking about weddings. You looked like you were pining for the same thing.”

  “I was not pining.”

  “Yes you were. You were wishing you were
in a relationship with someone you could marry and don’t lie to me Faith, we’ve been through too much together for you to start lying.”

  “All right, I admit that maybe just for a second I did wish we were a normal couple.”

  “You do realise there’s nothing stopping us from getting married if we wanted to? We aren’t actually brother and sister. It would be legal.”

  “I know but if we broke news like that to the family I can guarantee they wouldn’t be as enthusiastic about it as they were about Abi and Michael’s wedding.”

  “They’d come round. Anyway, I didn’t think you wanted to get married?”

  “I don’t.”

  “You’re lying again Faith.”

  “Well, maybe I do, at some distant point in the future. Not now. We have enough going on. And I want to make this very clear – you do not need to worry about Matthew. Our relationship is purely professional.”

  Vance nodded. “All right Faith, I apologise.”

  “No worries,” she smiled, resting her hand on his thigh.

  She took her phone out of her pocket when it started to ring. “It’s Jules.”

  “You sound nervous,” he smiled.

  “Wouldn’t you be? Her bite is certainly worse than her bark.”

  “She likes you.”

  “I think so but what if it’s bad news?”

  “You’ll never know until you answer and I wouldn’t keep her waiting.”

  Faith put the phone to her ear. “Hello Jules. Oh wow, that’s great. Yes, I’ll tell him, he’ll be made up.” She hung up. “She’s completed the purchase of Eclectic on the north prom. We’ve to collect the keys from the agent in a couple of days, once the paperwork’s been done.”

  “That’s great news. So Caleb finally gets his own nightclub to run.”

  “He’ll be so pleased. I think you should help him run it.”

  “But I thought I was helping you with Pulse and Kev and Jason would help Caleb.”

  “It’ll take him some time to find his feet. What he needs is someone experienced guiding him and that isn’t Jason and Kev. He can’t be babysitting them while trying to run a nightclub. He needs your experience Vance.”

  “I’ve never run a nightclub before either.”

  “But you’ve got a cool head and you know how to deal with trouble. Kev and Jason are too volatile. It’s only temporary,” she added when he frowned. “Once Caleb’s found his feet at Eclectic then Jason and Kev can help him with it as planned and me and you can run Pulse together.”

  “I suppose that makes sense. Caleb’s a fast learner, so it won’t take him long to pick it up.”

  “Exactly.”

  “And you are the boss, so if that’s what you want then that’s what we’ll do.”

  Faith studied him, wondering if he was being sarcastic but he seemed to be being genuine. There wasn’t an ounce of bitterness in his tone. “Are you still okay with me being in charge, even though you’re the oldest?”

  “I don’t think age dictates suitability to lead and you’re the right choice Faith. You were born for this life and Jules wants you running things. Everything is going so well under your leadership. Why mess with that? And I don’t think an ex-copper is the right person to lead the family.”

  “As long as you’re happy.”

  “Faith, I’m living in a beautiful flat driving this fantastic car and I get to be with you every day. Of course I’m happy. I’ve got everything I ever wanted.”

  She smiled and squeezed his hand. “Me too.” Maybe she was overcomplicating matters with thoughts of weddings? She and Vance were finally together after being separated for two painful years. That was the important thing. “I love you Vance.”

  Gently he squeezed her hand. “I love you too.”

  She settled back into her seat, feeling happier. It was important to concentrate on what really mattered in life.

  CHAPTER 5

  Matthew was ready for tearing his hair out. He’d been attempting to interview the men Mickey Gunning had said he was with when Dillon Enfield was killed. At first he’d thought his luck was in because he’d found all four together in The Red Lion and Lil had said he could use her back room to speak to them one by one. However, they were all drunk and attempting to question them was like trying to control mentally deficient cats. They were slurring and muttering inaudibly and all his questions had been met with deranged giggles. When his attempt to interview the fourth man was as unsuccessful as the previous three interviews, he pulled open the door that led back into the pub where his men were waiting with the other three.

  “Right, nick the lot of them,” yelled Matthew, his patience wearing thin.

  “Sir?” said his detective constable uncertainly.

  “For obstruction. I thought that would sober you up,” he said when the men all stopped laughing. “Now you are going to tell me in a sensible, articulate manner what you got up to yesterday evening.”

  “We were here,” replied one of the men with a small pencil moustache whose name was Warren.

  “That’s better. Was anyone with you?”

  “Just Mickey.”

  “Mickey?”

  “Gunning. We played some snooker,” he said, gesturing to the table.

  “That’s a pool table.”

  “It is?” he said, looking genuinely puzzled. “No wonder I kept losing.”

  “Oh my God,” he sighed. “And what about you lot?” he asked the other three.

  “Yeah, we played,” said another of the men. “I won forty quid because he’s a dick who doesn’t understand pool,” he grinned, pointing at Warren.

  Young looked to the other two, who nodded.

  “There, that wasn’t so difficult, was it? Now I’m going to speak to Lil and if what she says doesn’t match what you said then you’re getting charged and flung into a cell for the night.”

  Leaving his men to watch over them, he stomped over to the bar where Lil waited.

  “DI Young,” she purred, tossing back her mane of red hair. “You are a vast improvement on our last DI. Much more handsome.”

  “Yeah, thanks. Did that group of orangutans come in here last night?”

  “Yes, unfortunately. The idiots caused two hundred pounds worth of damage.”

  “Do you want to press charges?”

  “No. If I did my business would fold in a week. Anyway, Mickey gave me the cash to cover the damage. He might be a nutter but he can also be a gentleman.”

  “What time did they arrive?”

  “About six and they left at about ten o’clock. I know they went to the Happy Shamrock afterwards because I’m good pals with the landlord and he told me they broke his jukebox. Mickey paid for that too.”

  “Right, thanks,” he sighed.

  “Judging by your expression that wasn’t the news you wanted to hear. Oh, I see. You think they’re something to do with Dillon Enfield?”

  “It was a possibility.”

  “Sorry to disappoint you.”

  “You’re a woman with your ear to the ground Lil. Who do you think did it?”

  “I reckon it was a jealous husband. He was getting a lot of threats.”

  “An oil painting he was not. How did he manage to charm so many women?”

  The corner of her mouth lifted into a smile. “Men really don’t understand what women see in men, do you? Dillon had a great sense of humour and there was just this charisma about him that was very attractive. It’s hard to put into words.”

  “Sounds to me like women don’t understand what they see in men either.”

  “Very good DI Young. It’s nice to meet a police officer with a sense of humour.” She leaned on the bar to whisper in his ear, “Why don’t you come back after closing time and let me make you smile?”

  “No thanks. I’ve already got a girlfriend who does that for me.”

  “She’s a lucky girl,” she winked.

  “You mean I’m a lucky man. Thanks for your time Lil and for the use of y
our back room.”

  “You’re welcome cutie. Don’t forget my offer, will you?”

  “How could I forget?” he replied, turning back to face his officers. “Let’s go,” he told them.

  “What about this lot Sir?” said the detective constable, pointing to Mickey’s friends.

  “Leave them. We’ve got other leads to check.”

  Faith jumped awake and looked around her darkened bedroom, wondering what had disturbed her. She paused to listen but could hear nothing. Vance was fast asleep beside her. If there had been anything to hear he would have heard it. In prison you learn to be a light sleeper. Squinting at the clock she saw it was two thirty in the morning.

  Knowing she wouldn’t get back to sleep now, she threw back the duvet and got to her feet, pulling on her thick cosy purple dressing gown before quietly slipping out of the room and closing the door behind her. She padded into the kitchen and switched on the kettle to make herself a cup of camomile tea, which always helped her sleep. While she waited for the kettle to boil, she wandered around the flat, checking the front door was locked and all the windows were closed. Not that she needed to, she knew they were. When you left open the window of a fourth floor apartment in Blackpool in autumn you tended to notice.

  Satisfied everything was secure, she returned to the kitchen to pour out her tea and sat at the kitchen table. As she gazed into the mug, inhaling the delicious aroma, she tried to force away the feeling of unease. There was only herself and Vance in the flat and everything was locked and secure, so why couldn’t she shake the sense of dread prickling up her spine?

  Recalling Vance’s words about her instinct trying to tell her something, she decided to have another look around, checking every room again but everything was as it should be.

  She took her tea to the window, staring out at the sea. As the wind was quite fierce the waves were rolling in on furious white horses. She opened the doors leading onto the balcony to let in a bit of fresh air and to listen to the waves crashing onto the shore. She loved that sound, it always soothed her.

  As she sipped her tea, goosebumps rising all over her body from the cold air despite her thick dressing gown, another sensation began to wash over her. It was an uncomfortable, prickling sensation.