BLOOD MONEY a gripping crime thriller full of twists

by Charlie Gallagher

  Lizzy nodded. ‘I’ll see what she says.’

  ‘I’m relying on you, Lizzy. She listens to you. This is best for all of us.’

  Lizzy smiled at him. ‘I’ll give her a call.’

  ‘Fuck that! Let’s have a burn first, shall we? Chill us both out.’

  Lizzy nodded again, with more enthusiasm.

  CHAPTER 28

  ‘Sally Morgan!’ a woman called out to her.

  Sally slowed her pace a little.

  ‘I know who you are, Sally, and I know that right now you need my help.’

  Sally turned to look at the driver, who seemed vaguely familiar. She kept walking, facing forward again.

  ‘Are you talking to me?’

  ‘We’ve met before. You got beaten up. I know who did it and I know why — because you wouldn’t sleep with those men he brought to the flat. I wanted you to tell me about him, what he was doing, and you refused.’

  Sally suddenly remembered. ‘I don’t talk to coppers.’

  ‘We both know that isn’t true, don’t we?’

  ‘What does that mean?’

  ‘Listen, Sally. You’ll be dead by the end of the day if you don’t get in this car right now and listen to what I have to say. Give me five minutes and then you can get out if you want to and I’ll leave you alone. I promise you.’

  ‘You promise me?’ Sally stopped. She was walking up a terraced street. It was quiet, at the top end of town, as far away from Peto Court as she could get and still find places to go for drugs. ‘A fucking copper?’

  ‘You should give us coppers a bit more of a chance, Sally. Some of us just want to help you.’

  ‘And why would you want to help me?’

  ‘Because I don’t want to see you hurt. You or Lizzy.’

  ‘I can look after myself.’ Sally started walking again.

  ‘Of course you can. That’s why you’re heading off to score. I know who the dealers are round here. They’ll be the same ones Lee Chivers knows. Come on now, Sally, you’re a clever girl under all that dirt. You know that Lee Chivers has already sent a message out to his network. They’ll be speaking to him at the back of the house while someone stalls you at the front. And Lee Chivers really wants to talk to you.’

  ‘You don’t know anything about me. I can disappear, you know.’

  ‘You think? How about I drop you up at Saltwood after?’

  Sally walked over to the car.

  ‘That’s right, Sally, I know where you’re going. How long do you think it will be until other people get to know too? There’s no such thing as disappearing, not when you gotta keep popping your head back out to get yourself a bag of brown. It makes you careless.’

  ‘I got no choice.’

  ‘Get in the car and I might be able to change that.’

  Sally looked around her. The road was empty. ‘Why would I trust a copper?’

  ‘Sally, at the very least I’m not going kill you. Which puts me ahead of a lot of people in this town right now. Get in the car. I’ll take you to a new setup I know. They’re in competition with your man Chivers so there’s no chance of them tipping him off.’

  ‘You’re going to take me somewhere to score?’

  ‘No. I’m going to take you somewhere and leave you in the car, and then I’m going to go score for you.’

  ‘Why the fuck would you do that?’

  ‘Because you’re known. You’re Lee Chivers’ girl. You turn up at another crew asking for product, they’re going to see you as a threat and they might do something stupid. I’m here to keep you safe, not put you straight back in harm’s way.’

  ‘I’m not his girl.’

  The driver shrugged. ‘Way of speaking.’

  ‘I can’t say I’ve ever heard of a copper scoring for someone before. There’s gotta be some sort of a twist to this. Gotta be!’

  The driver leaned over and pushed the passenger door open, then she sat back, her hand extended. ‘I’m Emily Ryker,’ she said, ‘And I’m not like other coppers.’

  Dover Road was a long road that ran right through the centre of Langthorne. Parts of it were quite deprived, the terraced houses containing bedsits opened up at points to allow for purpose-built blocks of flats. The largest example was called Rowan Mews. Built in the 1970s, it boasted all the penny-pinching features of that era, including landings that ran around the outside of the building, open to the elements and protected by a wire mesh. The ground-floor flats opened straight out onto a grey expanse of concrete, where kids had drawn hopscotch boards and abusive graffiti in among the empty communal clothes lines.

  Tracey Wickham lived in one of these ground-floor flats. Emily knew her by reputation only and had never met her. Like many addicts, Tracey had been made vulnerable by her inability to fund her addiction. A London-based gang who had been branching out into towns easily accessible by train had bullied her into allowing her home to be used as a “cuckoo” address. The gangs considered Langthorne, and Lennokshire as a whole, to be a soft target and would send their youngest, newest recruits out to gain a foothold.

  Tracey Wickham answered the door on the fourth knock. Emily had seen the window curtain twitching and had stood, looking at the ground, where they could get a good look at her. People like Tracey could spot a copper a mile away.

  ‘Who are you?’ Tracey opened the door a crack, and looked Emily up and down, and then beyond, in case there was anyone waiting in the background.

  ‘Emily.’

  ‘What do you want?’

  ‘What everyone wants that comes here.’ Emily made a show of checking around her. ‘Are you online here or what? ’Cause that’s what I got told.’

  Tracey didn’t move. Emily had seen pictures of her, some from recent surveillance, and she was going downhill fast. She looked fragile and ill, older than her forty-something years. Her condition had probably worsened since the arrival of her new guests, who would be supplying her with a regular intake of her favourite class A drug, keeping her sweet in return for a roof over their heads. Tracey was taking risks. There was the constant danger of getting raided and evicted from her home, of being hauled into the nick, or of a violent break-in by a rival gang.

  ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ said Tracey. She looked Emily up and down for a second time and made to push the door shut. Emily tried again.

  ‘Look, I’m new to the town. I ain’t here for me and I’ve got a couple of places to try so I don’t really give a shit whether I get it here or not, but you could save me a lot of time.’ Emily held up two crisp twenty pound notes that Sally had given her.

  Tracey hesitated, her eyes on the cash. ‘You think I’m stupid? I got people turning up here once before what I didn’t know. I gave them the time of day and then two months later I’m down the nick, ain’t I? They was coppers.’

  Emily knew that Tracey had been caught dealing drugs to anyone who came to her door. She tried to think on her feet. ‘Tell you what. What about I give you this forty quid and then I fuck off. Then in a few minutes I’m going to walk back past your flat and there might just be two white, two dark, and anything extra that gets chucked in for the inconvenience left on top of that bin there. Then it’s got nothing to do with you, right?’ Emily waved the money at Tracey, who seemed to be thinking hard. Finally she made a decision, snatched the money from Emily’s hand and closed the door.

  Emily walked round the corner of the block of flats and checked her watch. It was nearly 3.30 p.m. The day was flashing past and there was much still to be done. She gave it two minutes, most of it spent fidgeting with her hands and wishing she had bought a pack of cigarettes. She walked back to the flat, checking for any uniform cops who might be around. A tissue had appeared on top of the bin. She grabbed it, feeling something firm inside. She made her way quickly back to the car.

  ‘Fucking hell, I was just about to come looking for you. You took ages.’

  Emily threw the package onto Sally’s lap and started the engine. ‘Yeah. Seems pe
ople are wary of the police round here.’

  Sally tore hungrily at the tissue. Five wraps spilled onto her lap, three contained a murky brown substance and two were lighter in colour and firmer. They were tightly wrapped in bits of torn up blue-and-white carrier bag.

  ‘Five for forty?’

  Emily shot a glance at Sally’s lap. ‘They obviously want you back.’

  Sally looked like a starving person staring at a big plate of food. After the events of the past day, her pangs were back with a vengeance. ‘Anywhere in Hythe will do,’ she said, scooping the wraps back up and pushing them into her pocket.

  ‘I told you I’d take you to Saltwood. I can drop you round the corner if you like.’

  ‘Round the corner from where?’

  ‘From where you’re going.’

  ‘So you know everything, do you?’

  ‘Yeah. It’s kind of my job to know everything. Although days like today, I wish I didn’t.’

  ‘What was going on earlier? Something happened on the Leas that had you lot all running towards it. How come you’re not there?’

  ‘We all have our jobs to do. I did a good few years of running towards stuff. Now I’m supposed to be one step ahead.’

  ‘You didn’t see that coming, though.’

  ‘No. No one did. It sounded pretty serious.’

  They drove to Saltwood in silence. It was one of the more affluent districts.

  Sally broke the silence. ‘I lied earlier.’ Emily didn’t reply. ‘I have had a copper score for me before.’

  ‘Your dad?’ Emily said.

  ‘You really do know everything! Did he tell you? I didn’t think he would ever tell anyone about that.’

  ‘No. You kind of both told me. You’re quite alike, you know.’

  ‘We’re definitely not.’

  ‘I mean you’re both pretty see-through.’

  ‘My mum always says I’m impossible to read. But then it takes an effort to get to know someone.’

  ‘I expect it would take an effort to get to know you.’

  Sally produced a tight smile. ‘I guess I can be difficult. Most people will never understand what I need and why. I’ve given up trying.’

  ‘That’s true, and when they love you more than anything in the world, it makes it ten times more difficult.’

  ‘My mum detests me. I’m everything she didn’t want her little girl to become.’

  ‘I wasn’t talking about your mum. And I doubt that’s true. You respected her enough to use her maiden name, after all.’

  Sally shrugged. ‘I needed a name so I wouldn’t embarrass my dad. No one wants some loser crackhead as their little girl.’

  ‘Your dad doesn’t see you like that. He still sees his little girl.’

  Sally shook her head and turned her face away, staring out of the window as the car joined the motorway and picked up speed. ‘I knew that, early on when it was all starting to take hold. They were both in massive denial about the whole thing, but, fuck, I needed their help. I couldn’t speak to Mum. I’ve never really been able to speak to her, she just flies off the handle, you know, doesn’t listen. But I spoke to Dad. I told him I had a problem and I couldn’t sort it out on my own.’ Sally sniffed, and took a few moments to regain her composure. ‘He did everything he could to help me. We tried everything. We talked about it, rowed about it, once he locked me in for ten days. They sent me to this rehab place out in the arse end of nowhere — did the lot. Nothing worked for long.’

  ‘I’ve worked around the drug scene for as long as I care to think, Sally, and the one thing I always hear is just how it grabs you and it don’t let go.’

  ‘My dad had this idea. I guess we’d tried everything else. He insisted I go back and live with him and Mum and he would let me shoot up there, but only if he got it for me. He said if I was going to do it anyway then he might as well do what he could to make it as safe as possible. Fuck, he hated it and I mean hated it, but he went out and scored for me, used his own money. There was one rule.’ Sally gazed towards the window. ‘He said that I had to take it in front of him. I never wanted to, but when you get the hunger, you know . . . He never said a word, but I could see it in his face, the hurt. He might as well have stood there to watch me burn.’

  ‘It didn’t work then?’

  ‘It just made me move out. It was the first time I ever saw my dad look at me like that — real disappointment. Not even that. He was disgusted with me and I couldn’t cope with that. I’ve been in some states. It happens a lot and you very quickly lose all your self-respect, but he was the one person I just couldn’t stand being that weak in front of. Since then I’ve barely been back. I can’t even look him in the eye and when I do, I just feel like what we had, the father-daughter thing, I just feel that at that moment it kinda changed forever. Like there’s no way back.’

  Emily took a moment to compose an answer. ‘I don’t know everything, Sally. Don’t tell anyone I said that, I have this reputation to protect.’ Emily giggled and Sally managed a smile. ‘But I do know that your dad loves you. I know that for absolute certain, and he misses you like crazy.’

  ‘I miss him too.’

  ‘And you need his help more than ever now, don’t you?’ Emily decided to steer the conversation towards what she really wanted to talk about.

  ‘Just what do you think I need help with?’

  ‘I talked to Lizzy.’

  ‘When?’

  ‘Since you last saw her.’

  ‘You know Lizzy?’

  ‘Enough for her to call me first when she realised the trouble she was in. She told me what happened, what you girls heard when she was under the bed and you were under the bath. You must have been terrified in there, Sally. Jesus.’

  ‘I didn’t hear anything.’ Sally’s hand went to the door handle and she sat forward a little.

  ‘I can understand why you’d say that, Sally, but I know those flats well and you must have heard what he was saying. You have to think about what he did. I mean, it’s massive, Sally, and we need to do something about it.’

  ‘Why aren’t you doing something about it, then?’ Sally snapped. ‘If you know what happened, if you know who was responsible, why the fuck are you here buying me drugs and running me home?’

  ‘It’s not as easy as that, Sally.’

  ‘Yeah, it is. Someone does a crime, you know who it is, you go pick them up and throw away the key. Isn’t that how it works?’

  ‘What crime, Sally? I’ve got no victim until one of you tells me where he is. I’ve got no suspect until one of you names him formally. Without you, I’ve got nothing. If you help me then I can get him off the street and you won’t have to be scared of him anymore, you won’t have to be scared of anyone. I nick him now without your help — nothing will stick and he’s back out in a few hours with the raging hump and a damned good idea who got him locked up.’

  ‘I won’t have to be scared of anyone? If I talk to you on record? You don’t know everything after all.’ Sally turned back to the window as they pulled off the motorway at the top of Hythe. ‘You can drop me anywhere here. I’ll walk.’

  ‘Talk to me, Sally. Tell me what you know and I promise I will keep you safe.’

  ‘Who are you to be making promises like that? You can’t promise me anything. Please stop the car.’

  Emily indicated and cars overtook her, blasting their horns as the Fiesta crawled along the side of the road. Emily was delaying Sally for as long as she could.

  ‘You have to start looking after yourself, Sally. It starts here. This can be a turning point for you. I’ll get you away from the area completely. Your dad will be on-board with it, you know he will.’

  ‘Lizzy said no, didn’t she? That’s why you came after me. I can’t help you either.’ The Fiesta had now come to a halt and Sally pushed open the door.

  ‘No, actually,’ Emily said, and immediately wished she hadn’t. ‘Lizzy’s on-board. She’s going to talk to me formally once she’s got a
few bits sorted, and when she does I won’t be the only person coming after you, Sally.’

  Sally stared at Emily, who held her gaze. ‘You were doing well, weren’t you? Helping me out. The lift home, the talk about me. You’d almost built up a little trust with me there, but if Lizzy had talked to you, you’d be with her now and the threat to me would already be behind bars. You came to me to try and play me off against her. Well, I’m not that stupid.’ Sally got out and stood by the door.

  ‘I just want to keep you safe!’ Emily shouted. She sounded desperate.

  ‘Then leave me alone and don’t mention this to my dad. If he finds out, I’ll be gone, back into town, and you will have destroyed the one safe house I have. And besides, I’m not sure how he would feel about you buying me drugs.’

  Sally pushed the door firmly shut.

  Emily watched her walk away. The indicator ticked in the sudden silence. She swore. Her last chance had just walked away.

  CHAPTER 29

  Helen Webb had her phone in her hand when it erupted into life. The number on the screen had a Maidstone area code. She wasn’t used to being cut off from events and she hadn’t enjoyed the last couple of hours, wondering whether her career was over.

  ‘Helen, it’s Deputy Chief Constable Darren Lewis here.’

  Helen raised her eyebrows. She hadn’t expected the second most senior officer in the entire force to call her personal mobile phone.

  ‘Sir!’

  ‘Have you been kept in the loop today? I know you’ve gone home. Your office said you are feeling unwell?’

  ‘Er, yes, sir, that’s right. I came over a little unwell. Maybe I’ve been working too hard.’

  The DCC ignored the comment. ‘The chief was on your patch today, Helen, as you are aware. You were due to attend the same event, I believe?’

  ‘That’s right, sir, I was.’

  ‘Helen, this may come as a bit of a shock to you, but there was an incident at that event. Someone approached and opened fire, and the chief has been injured. We think he was the target.’

  ‘Jesus!’ Helen was truly shocked. Of course she had known of the threat, but suddenly the seriousness hit home. She hadn’t believed that the chief would actually get hurt. She’d imagined some bungled attempt, the offender shot by police. Not this.