BLOOD MONEY a gripping crime thriller full of twists

by Charlie Gallagher

  Lee thought for a moment. He left the bag and made his way over to the bed. He knelt and peered underneath. His suitcases had been pushed back and the dust had been disturbed.

  ‘They were here,’ he said to himself.

  Lee looked over to where he’d thrown Lizzy’s mobile phone. The pieces were gone.

  ‘Both of them.’

  CHAPTER 22

  Lizzy had been leading the way down an alley between some rundown hotels. It was the best way to get some distance between them and Peto Court while keeping out of sight, but there was another reason why she had chosen this route. There was someone she needed to contact. And for that she would need to be on her own.

  ‘We need to split up,’ Lizzy said. ‘Lee thinks I’m out collecting cash and he thinks you’ve fucked off. He’s gonna be suspicious if he sees us together.’ Lizzy pulled out the remains of her phone from her pocket. She fingered the touchscreen and sighed. ‘It’s fucked.’

  ‘Wait — did you pick that up from Lee’s place?’

  Lizzy looked at Sally. ‘Yeah. Why?’

  ‘You fucking idiot! When he sees it’s gone, he’s gonna know someone was in there!’

  It took a second for Lizzy to register this, then her expression changed from annoyance to panic. ‘Shit! He’s gonna kill us!’

  Sally shook her head. ‘He was always going to, at some point or other. The bloke’s fucking lost it. We can’t ever go back there anyway. I couldn’t, not after what we heard in there.’

  ‘We should still separate, though. Just for a little while, at least. He’ll be out looking for us and we’ll be a lot easier to find if we’re together.’

  Sally seemed uncertain. ‘Okay . . .’

  ‘It’ll be okay, Sal. We just need to keep our heads down for a bit. Think this shit out, work out what we do next.’

  The girls had been walking fast and were now halfway along the coastal path, a grassy oasis that ran the length of the lower Leas. It ran between the beach and the cliff. The two women arrived at a place where flowerbeds gave way to a grassy clearing shaped into an amphitheatre. The lawn was terraced, forming natural seating that sloped back up into the cliff. The entrance to the zigzag path was easy to miss at the back of the seating area but Lizzy knew it well and she made straight for it with Sally still behind her.

  ‘We’ll split up here. You can either go up the path or carry on towards Sandgate. I’ll sit and wait here for you to get a little way and then I’m going up the path,’ said Lizzy.

  Sally nodded. ‘Okay. I’ll just head up the path. I need to get some shoes, so I’ll go into town’. She plunged her right hand into her pocket. ‘Lizzy, here, take this, get some food and wherever you’re going, take a taxi.’

  Lizzy peered down at the wad of twenty-pound notes and hesitated. She knew what stealing from Lee Chivers meant. Then she snatched at the money. It wasn’t going to make any difference now.

  Lizzy watched Sally until she was out of sight. A well-dressed couple with a pushchair had looked Sally up and down as she passed, noting her greasy hair and dirty face, the sunken cheeks smudged with tear tracks. Her oversized hooded top was filthy from the grime under the bath, as were her skin-tight jeans. Her bare feet were scratched and bleeding. Lizzy didn’t think she looked nearly as bad. The last thing she wanted right now was to attract anyone’s attention.

  The zigzag path had seven levels, cutting back on each other in hairpin bends. The third turn from the top was partly dug into the cliff face. It was hidden and sheltered. Lizzy checked around her. There was no one nearby. She entered the covered area, and instantly the air was cooler. She stood up on a bench that faced out to sea and pushed her hand between two rocks behind it. She drew out a packet of cigarettes, still sealed in their plastic wrapper, and a Nokia mobile phone in a weatherproof case. She quickly pushed the cigarettes into her pocket and stepped down from the bench. She checked around her again, then continued her walk up the sloping path towards the Leas. Before she reached the top, she was already calling the only number in the contacts list.

  ‘Hey.’ The call was answered on the first ring.

  ‘I need to speak to you.’ Lizzy’s voice trembled.

  ‘Okay, when?’

  ‘Now. It has to be now.’

  There was a hesitation, but only slight. ‘Sure, okay. Usual place?’

  ‘Yeah, ten minutes.’

  ‘I’ll be there.’

  Lizzy ended the call. She felt in her pocket for her own phone. The screen was broken but she could still make out the number for Lee Chivers. Her finger hovered over his name. She didn’t know if this was a good idea, but she sure as hell didn’t have any others. She took a deep breath. She had to be calm for this to work. Her finger tapped his name.

  ‘Lizzy,’ Lee answered. He sounded calm.

  ‘Lee, what the fuck’s going on? I just seen Sally. She turned up in the town after her issue the other night and like gives my phone back, fucking smashed up. I just about managed to call you. She said something about staying the fuck away from you and then she left. Her feet were all cut, she ain’t got no shoes and she looked a right fucking state. Oh, and she gives me like a hundred quid?’

  Lee didn’t reply. Lizzy gritted her teeth.

  ‘I ain’t seen her today. She say where she was going?’ he said.

  ‘That’s the thing. She said about going to the cop shop. I told her to be clever, you know? You don’t just go talking loose round the filth, but she was upset. I ain’t seen her like that before.’

  ‘When was this?’

  ‘Like, ten minutes ago.’

  Another pause. His tone remained flat. ‘Where you at?’

  Lizzy thought fast. ‘You know where I am. I’m out collecting your money.’

  ‘You lying to me, Lizzy?’

  ‘No. Fuck no. What is it with you people today?’ Lizzy’s voice broke a little.

  ‘The shopping list — you got it?’

  Lizzy swore silently. ‘Okay, fine, you got me. I been busy this morning, I had to go see my ma. Don’t be fucking pissed at me, all right? I’ll get it done.’

  The shopping list. It was still in Lee’s flat on one of the kitchen counters. It was in code but Lizzy knew how to read it. It was a notebook, listing who owed what for drugs.

  A longer silence. ‘So, you coming back for it?’

  ‘Yeah, I’ll have to,’ Lizzy said with her eyes shut. With his attention diverted to Sally, she had planned on giving herself a bit of time, some breathing space so she could plan her next move. But now she faced having to go right back to him to keep up the façade.

  Lizzy stopped walking. Her head slumped forward. Lee would know that someone had been in the flat, she had made sure of that, but he couldn’t know there had been two of them.

  Lizzy had concocted this idea when she’d been lying under his bed, looking out at his bloodstained feet and the pieces of her phone. It had seemed like a good idea at the time.

  ‘You coming back now?’ His voice was a little more insistent.

  ‘Yeah, I’ll be half hour or so though, yeah? I’m the other side of Langthorne.’

  ‘See you then,’ Lee replied. ‘Say hi to your ma.’

  CHAPTER 23

  Sally bundled through the pharmacy door. She had been a daily visitor at this particular chemist’s shop recently. Her eighty mil script of methadone was part of her probation order and was supposed to be a substitute for the heroin and an effective way of weaning her off it altogether. It had worked for a couple of months, but then she’d been tempted to top up, just one bag, later in the day. That bag soon became two, and then she dropped the methadone altogether. Soon she was back to the levels she had been at when she first got into trouble.

  The woman behind the counter recognised her immediately. ‘Sally! How have you been?’

  ‘Fine.’

  The woman’s smile faltered as she took in Sally’s appearance, the dirt and the bruises. The bare feet.

  ‘How can we help
you?’ said the woman.

  ‘I just need some Sudocrem and some baby wipes. And some socks.’

  The assistant came out from behind the counter. She was watching Sally move around the shop. Sally thrust her hands into her pockets, she wasn’t about to draw attention to herself. The woman returned with the smallest size tub of the cream, some wipes and a pair of men’s socks. ‘You’ll want them loose,’ she said.

  ‘How much?’ Sally said.

  The woman waved her away. ‘Don’t you worry, Sally, it’s on us. I just want to see you get yourself sorted out.’

  Sally offered a tight smile, mumbled some words of thanks, and left the shop.

  Sally found a bench on the other side of the road, beside a ruined church. She ripped open the wipes and dabbed at her feet. The coolness was a relief and the cream was cooler still, so she dabbed it on thick. She paused for a few minutes, with her feet on the edge of the seat and her chin on her knees watching the traffic snake past.

  A woman of about Sally’s age was playing with her child. She leant over the buggy making silly noises and smiling. Sally found herself smiling, too. The woman caught sight of her, and her face hardened. She straightened up and pushed her child away. Sally’s gaze moved to the figure of the assistant, standing at the door of the chemist’s shop, watching her. As their eyes met, she turned away and moved further back into the shop.

  Sally pulled the socks on and got to her feet. The sooner she got out of this town, the better.

  The sports shop had someone to greet customers, a young lad of barely twenty, with a boy-band quiff. He neither greeted her nor disguised his contempt.

  An older man bustled out from behind the counter, a frown on his face. ‘We don’t have any toilets.’

  ‘I don’t need the toilet.’

  The man stepped in front of her, blocking her entrance, and looked her up and down. ‘What do you need then?’

  ‘I’m not wearing any shoes,’ Sally stated.

  ‘Okay.’

  ‘You sell them, right?’

  ‘Well, yes.’

  ‘Then how about you get me a size five in the pink Air Maxs over there.’

  * * *

  ‘So what did you need to see me for that couldn’t wait?’ Emily Ryker gave an encouraging smile. They were in the Burlington Hotel. It opened out onto the Leas like a smaller, shabbier Grand. Emily thought the Burlington was all the better for being slightly run down. She had a good relationship with the owner and it suited her needs. Where else would open the basement just so she could sit in a dark corner with a mug of strong, instant coffee for herself, and a McDonald’s for her guest?

  ‘I can’t eat that.’

  Emily looked puzzled. ‘You’re turning down a McDonald’s? Now I know there’s something up.’

  ‘He’s killed someone.’ Lizzy put her hand to her mouth.

  ‘Lee has?’ Emily wasn’t smiling any more.

  Lizzy’s hand was still at her mouth. She jerked a nod.

  ‘You want to tell me about it?’ Emily shifted her position, the coffee forgotten.

  ‘Not really, no.’

  ‘So what do you want?’

  ‘I need to be safe, Emily, but I know you can’t do that. I just thought that if I told you about it and then he did something to me, you would know. And then the bastard wouldn’t get away with it.’

  ‘Woah! Hold on there, girl. There are things I can do, you know. If you’re telling me there is a genuine threat to you and that he’s killed someone, then I have a duty to make sure you’re safe. If you’re a witness for us we can move you out of the area, place you under police guard, put you somewhere he will never find you.’

  Lizzy was shaking her head. ‘I can’t run. Not from him, I know I can’t, and I can’t be no witness. You can’t use me for that. I won’t say nothing on paper. That’s why I came to see you, because I knew you wouldn’t make me.’

  Emily touched her nose, a nervous habit of hers. ‘Jesus, Lizzy, I just want to keep you safe. Look, tell me what’s happened, off the record, yeah, and we can go from there.’

  Lizzy held her packet of cigarettes and opened it, her hands shaking. She offered the packet to Emily.

  ‘No thanks. You know I don’t smoke anymore.’

  ‘You brought a lighter though, right?’

  ‘Don’t I always?’ Emily took out the lighter, with a quick look around for the hotel staff. They knew to leave her alone when she was in here but she didn’t want to be pissing anyone off with the cigarette smoke. There was no one about.

  ‘Thanks for these, by the way.’ Lizzy narrowed her eyes against the smoke.

  ‘You’re welcome.’ Emily had been running sources for long enough to know the value of a packet of fags.

  ‘He came back to the flat earlier. We saw him out the window.’

  ‘We?’

  ‘Yeah, me and Sal. She’s been staying for a while. She’d had a bust up with him last night, a baddun, taken a bit of a beating, and he’d told her to do one.’

  ‘What was it about?’

  ‘She’d just come out of the nick, like. Your lot lifted her for a bulk choring, and he was pissed with the attention that put on her. Another copper on another day would have searched where she was living, see. I mean, she didn’t give his address, she ain’t that dumb, but he said it could’ve happened. He uses stuff like that to start riots when he’s in a mood.’

  ‘I know the sort.’

  ‘So when she left he was still angry, like proper angry, and I was still there so she came back this morning to check I was okay. She lost her phone ages ago, so she couldn’t call me. I let her up ’cause I knew Lee was out and he don’t come back much during the day. She was only supposed to stay a bit but we had some weed. She brought it round, she wanted to say thanks, see, ’cause I called some bloke up who came and got her. Sorted her out for the night.’

  ‘Bloke? What bloke?’

  ‘Someone had written a number and “Dad” on her papers from the nick. I thought it was her dad like, obviously, but she’d said he was dead before. Could just be some old fucker she’s sucking off for dark money.’

  ‘Okay.’

  Lizzy put her head in her hands, the cigarette between her fingers. The smoke drifted up through her hair. ‘Jesus,’ she muttered.

  ‘Take your time, Lizzy.’

  ‘We hid. You can’t get out of that place, can you? Can’t get round someone that’s coming in, and no fucker’ll help. I was under the bed and Sal got into the bath bit. She got hurt squeezing herself in. He came in and he was so angry. I mean I’ve seen him lose it, I know he can be horrible, I know what he can do, but this time he was . . . different.’ Lizzy let out a little sob.

  Emily waited for Lizzy to continue. She wanted nothing more than to start firing off questions, but she knew better.

  ‘He was on his phone and walking around his flat, like. I’m so fucking quiet, I ain’t breathing, under the bed, just a few feet from him. I guessed he was talking to the Russian ’cause of how he was, you know? He’s not scared of no one, but he talks different to him. He talked about some man, a man he had killed, and he was covered in blood. I could see the bottom of his jeans and they were covered in blood. Oh fuck!’ Lizzy broke down and sobbed. Emily moved round and hugged her, burying Lizzy’s face in her top, murmuring that everything would be okay.

  ‘He smashed his head in with a baseball bat. He said something about a dump or waste site or something like that I think. I was trying not to fucking listen, but he kept calling him rat, he must’ve said it like ten times.’ Lizzy pulled away. ‘Jesus, Emily, if he’d found me under that bed he would have killed me on the spot. The fucking bat was on the floor of his flat wrapped in black sacks. He woulda taken that out and it would be my head caved in and my blood all up his fucking leg. Fuck, Emily. Oh, fuck!’

  ‘All right, calm down, Lizzy. We’ll talk this out, see where we go from here. You’re safe now, hon, you’re safe now.’ Emily returned to her seat, where
she sat with her hands together, waiting for the tears to stop.

  ‘I will have one of those fags,’ Emily said. Lizzy pushed the packet of cigarettes towards Emily. Emily still had so many questions, and she needed the answers fast. She had a dead man who needed finding and now she knew who was responsible. This was big news and her mind was reeling. Emily lit the cigarette and took a long drag. The tobacco did its work, focusing her mind and calming her thoughts. She wondered why she had ever quit.

  Lizzy checked her phone. ‘I got to get going, Emily. I can’t be staying here. I got shit to do before I’m missed.’

  ‘Lizzy, we need to talk about how we keep you safe from now on. I want you to think about me writing this stuff down in a statement, so we can go and get him nicked—’

  ‘No, no, no! You told me we’re off the record. I can’t grass, not about this. I’ll be as dead as that poor fucker.’

  ‘And if you go back to him, who’s to say you won’t be dead too? You tell us what you heard and then I can deal with Lee. I can sort protection out for you because you’re a valuable witness. It’s the way it works.’

  ‘If I need to, I’ll get away from him. He can’t hurt me then.’

  ‘You just disappear, do you? And he won’t think that’s suspicious? If he thinks you have any idea what went on he’ll always see you as a threat. Whether you grass or not, he will treat you like you did already. And the stuff you need to live your life, you can’t get that without talking to people who know Lee, who work for Lee and who are fucking terrified of the bloke. If Lee Chivers wanted to find you, he could do it in hours.’

  ‘He’ll go for Sal first,’ Lizzy blurted out, and looked down at her hands.

  ‘For Sal? Why her first? So she got out too?’

  The tears streamed again, and Lizzy could only manage a nod.

  ‘What did you say, Lizzy? Does he know Sal was there?’