The Retirement Party

by Graham Miller

  DC Angel was also aware that she was attracting stares and nudges. Interestingly, she was getting most attention from a mixed group of boys and girls who were gossiping to one side. Eventually one of the boys approached Lucy. DC Angel could tell immediately there was a problem.

  'What've you brought her here for?' He jerked his head to indicate DC Angel.

  'This is DC Angel and she needs your help.' They all looked at her.

  'I'm not bloody well helping her!' His face was set and rigid.

  'Listen, we're here to build bridges. I wouldn't have thought you'd have turned up if you suddenly had a problem with the police.'

  The teenager looked sullen. The group had all gone silent to watch the exchange. DC Angel decided to break the tension. 'Is it me you've got a problem with?'

  'You nicked my kid brother. Banged him up on remand, opposed bail. The whole thing. No way I'm helping you.'

  DC Angel looked closer at him. Large jaw and dark hair, cropped close round the back and sides. She could see the family resemblance. 'You'd be an elder brother to Ceiran Knight?'

  'Yeah. Anthony.' He still stared angrily at Angel.

  'Do you know why we arrested your brother?'

  'They said something to do with computers. Must be copyright or something like that.'

  'Right. You need to come with me. We'll have a chat in private.' Without waiting for a response, she walked off to the police van. By the time she reached it, she could sense that Anthony had followed her.

  They were just behind the van, where they wouldn't be overheard but Angel could still be seen by Lucy.

  'I know you've got a brother, but have you got a sister? Or a cousin or niece?'

  'Sister. Why, what's it to you?'

  'We arrested your brother on suspicion of being involved in making the WankyBoi videos.'

  Anthony went pale. 'That's as maybe but he'd never send stuff like that to Sherri, would he?'

  'But these videos get passed around, don't they?' She paused for a moment. 'You've got to understand. This is serious. We couldn't ignore it. I know it's your family.'

  DC Angel could see the emotions warring on his face. He wanted to uphold his family honour, but he didn't know if he should support his brother or protect his sister. Either way, it was clear that the news wasn't as much of a surprise as it could've been. Without a word he turned on his heel and stalked back over to the group. He stopped by his car, one foot on the sill, a dark look on his face.

  DC Angel followed him back over to the group, who were now watching the pair of them with undisguised curiosity.

  'I'm looking for a car.' She could see the sideways glances and worried expressions. 'It's not one of your cars, nothing like that. We've got a car running around on false plates and we need to trace it. We thought as you guys know so much about cars, you might be able to help narrow it down.'

  There was an awkward pause as they all looked at each other. Several glances were directed at Anthony who was still staring off into space. Eventually he noticed that everyone was waiting for him to say something. To tell them either to co-operate or not.

  'Do what you want!" he shouted. 'I don't really care. I've got to go now. Talk to my parents.' With that he slid into his car seat, slammed the door and left the car park faster than was advisable considering the police presence. Lucy frowned an unspoken question at Angel but she just shook her head. Not now.

  'How'd you know it's not one of us?' a tall spotty lad asked. 'Could be a mate or a cousin or something?' Other teenagers were nodding and starting to drift away. Desperate to get them to help, she moved towards a group of girls. 'It's Dark Car Man. We think he might be connected to those two women who've been killed round here. And we need your help to catch him.'

  The girls looked mutinous for a moment. But there were sideways glances as they looked at each other to reach a decision. Eventually one of them, with hair in a ponytail and huge earrings broke the silence. 'Have you figured out what make it is, then?'

  'We know it's a Ford. Fiesta or Focus.'

  'Kev! Fords are your thing.' She turned to look at a short boy. There was a tilt of the head as she summoned him to help. Kev shuffled forward. He was slightly overweight.

  'I'm still not sure. What if it's, like, someone we know?'

  'Kev, what if your sister or girlfriend gets done by Dark Car Man.' There was a pause as they stared each other down. Eventually the girl won and Kev smiled, revealing a gold tooth.

  'What you got then?'

  'We've got these photos. We think that it's the same car in all the photos, even though the number plates change. But we're not sure. And even if we were, without knowing what the number plate really is, we can't trace it.'

  'Naughty! I work at the Ford dealership. They're proper strict on the plates there. Every one has to be written in the book and only certain people can make them up. If even one blank plate goes missing, someone gets a disciplinary. You wanna look into that. He must've bought a shady machine from somewhere. eBay most likely.' He lapsed into silence as he flicked through the photos. 'First off, that's never a Focus. It's a Fiesta for sure. John, come over here and hold this still.' Another lad sloped over and pinned the first photo down on a bonnet. Kev got his phone out and held it over the photo.

  'Hold on a minute!' DC Angel started to intervene. 'You can't go taking photos of those.' She wasn't a hundred per cent sure if she should even be showing the photos around but she knew she didn't want them on some teenage boy's phone.

  'Nah, you're all right, it's safe. Unless you've got an old-school magnifying glass, this is the best way.' With deft moves of his fingers, he zoomed in his camera to examine the details of the photo. DC Angel checked but he wasn't clicking to take pictures.

  'It's a Fiesta all right, mark seven, post facelift,' Kev announced.

  'What's that mean?'

  He almost rolled his eyes, then flicked through until he had a photo of the car from the front. 'See, they brought out a new Fiesta in 2008 – a complete redesign. But those ones had the narrow-slit grille with the Ford badge in the middle. Then in 2013 they did a facelift. Same car, different trim. They got this grille,' he tapped the trapezoid grille on the photo. 'They did it across the whole range, Focus, Galaxy, everything got the same grille.'

  'So...'

  'So, this car is definitely 2013 to 2017. That's when they brought out the new one. And it's a five-door hatchback.' He was warming to his subject now. 'When a car leaves the factory it's totally stock. But pretty soon people change the wheels or add a tow bar, or stickers. Or they have an accident and things are fixed differently.' Quiet fell over the car park as he focused his phone on each photo in turn. DC Angel noticed a couple of people behind him faking yawns and rolling their eyes. Without a word he got some glasses out and slipped them on, oblivious to the looks and nudges this caused as well. 'See here. That's a dealer sticker, and the corner's missing.'

  DC Angel took the photo and squinted. There was a yellow rectangle at the bottom of the rear screen, missing one corner.

  'I can't see which dealer it is, but they're a bit old fashioned, you don't see many. And with that corner missing...' He trailed off as he flicked through the photos. 'There. Look at that rear wheel arch. Soppy driver can't park. Below that the wheel trim has a bit missing, must've clipped a kerb as well.'

  DC Angel looked at another photo. Just visible on the rear edge of the wheel arch was a white scratch – three faint parallel lines. 'And here,' Kev said passing her another photo. 'You see, different plates, same scratch, same sticker, same wheel trim.' He looked smug as if he'd just won an argument. 'You were right. It is the same car, just with number plates that have changed.'

  'Thank you.' DC Angel's head was spinning. With this definite range of only four years, she could reduce the number of vehicles to check. And she could discount any car with a tow bar. Maybe she just needed to trim the list down as far as she could, then go and physically see each one. If it was parked outside a house, it would
only take a few seconds to tick it off based on the details.

  'Yes.' A thought occurred to DC Angel. 'And you're sure, whoever this is, they haven't you know, changed the wheels or tried to make it look like a different year?'

  Kev took the photos back and had a quick look. 'I don't think so. Look those are standard Fiesta wheels with wheel trims. That makes it povo spec.' DC Angel frowned and held up a hand to interrupt him. 'Just means that it's the lowest trim level, short for poverty specification. Most cars nowadays come with factory fit alloys so it's quite rare to get one still on steels. That's the first thing you'd change – put some alloys on it. No, that looks like a stock mark seven point five to me.'

  DC Angel nodded slowly. A plan was slowly starting to form. She had not realised the complexity of looking for the Fiesta. To her, it had just looked like any other car on the road. But to an expert it was as distinctive as if it was a classic or had a custom paint job. 'Thank you, Kev, you've been really helpful.'

  'That's all right, you know.' He cast a shifty glance at the group of girls who now seemed happier with him. 'Oh, and if you do get a range of dates, add two months on.'

  'Why?'

  'Well, sometimes they flog off the pre-face lift cars cheap after the new ones come on stream. So they can be registered weeks or even months after their build date. Or you might get lucky and get one of the early, pre-release ones.'

  'Thanks.' DC Angel was distracted, already formulating a strategy for refining her search.

  'Do you think it's DCM who's killing those girls then?' Teenage girl with big earrings was back.

  'It might be. It's a line of enquiry that we're following. Obviously, we don't want it spread about too much.' She paused, then asked, 'How are you coping? Has it had much impact?'

  The teenager put her head on one side. 'I mean, we're always careful, you know. You have to be. But now, if I need to get home, I'll be more likely to go with a friend or get a lift, even a taxi sometimes. But there's always some girls who just don't care. And those who always bang on about #MeToo and "time's up" and think that we shouldn't be frightened off the streets.'

  'You sound like you don't agree.'

  'I mean they are right and all that. But there's not much point having a cause if you're attacked or killed is there?'

  DC Angel nodded. She'd missed talking to the kids, getting a feeling for what was happening at a ground level. But she also had a new strategy to work out. 'Thank you. And you, Kev, that was really helpful.' She said goodbye, thanked Lucy and went home. For the first time since she'd seen Mazey's body under the bin bags, she felt a little bit of hope.

  Chapter Forty-Two

  On Monday morning, DC Angel was in bright and early, hopeful that she could finally make a start on reducing down the list of potential Dark Cars. However, as soon as she had sent off a revised query to the DVLA database her phone rang.

  'DC Angel.'

  'Hi, it's Julie Walker.' There was an awkward silence, filled by her saying, 'the social worker in the Kelsey Teague case.'

  'Right, right, yes.' Angel swiftly changed her thoughts away from the DVLA and over to what she knew of Gregory Watts.

  'Well, if you want to meet up with her, I've managed to arrange it.'

  'Good, excellent. I could probably...' Angel was quickly trying to work out when she'd be free to go tilting at windmills.

  'Thing is, it has to be today.'

  DC Angel made a quick decision. 'Okay then. How long do you need?'

  'Well, she's around an hour away by car. Maybe forty-five minutes if the traffic isn't too bad.'

  DC Angel wanted to swear. She made quick calculations in her head, guessing when Haines would call a meeting for his officers to feed back what they'd learnt. 'Okay then,' she said nervously, 'when do I leave?'

  'You'll come alone?'

  'Yes, alone.' DC Angel did not want to drag anyone into her own bad decisions. She stuck her head into DCI Haines' office.

  'Boss, I've got a vague lead on the Taylor and Evans killings. Are you okay if I take off for a bit? I need to be north of Bristol.'

  Haines looked down at his desk and shrugged. 'To be honest, even a vague lead is stronger than anything we've got at the moment. But remember what I said earlier. Teamwork. Take notes. I want to see it on the computer by the end of the day. And mobile on, stay in touch.'

  During the long drive north, up the coast and around the edge of Bristol, her misgivings grew. Finally she found a parking space on a side street in a suburb of Bristol. She met Julie and together they walked along a short footpath and came out into a large park. Julie steered Angel over to a bench where they sat down next to a mum who was watching a toddler on the play equipment.

  This was Kelsey Teague – Julie Walker made the introductions then Angel asked about her history with Gregory Watts.

  'Well, I'll be the first to admit that I was young and naive. I think I was the second Mrs Watts and thought I could change him.'

  'Mrs Watts?'

  'Figure of speech.' She waved the idea of marriage aside with a hand. 'I never married him, he's not the marrying type. Thankfully. I had enough trouble getting rid of him as it is.'

  'What went wrong?'

  The small girl came running over. She was, like most children, oblivious of her mother's friends. When she'd been sorted out and sent back to the climbing frame, Kelsey saw the look on Angel's face.

  'Oh, no, she's not one of his. No, once we settled here, we wanted one of our own. I mean, Sean's lovely with Kyle, treats him like his own, but well you know how it is. Where were we?'

  'What went wrong between you and Watts?'

  'Well, I had a lovely baby, but then I grew up a bit, went to a mother and baby group. Spoke to the other mums. Started to see how screwed up he was.' She paused as if deciding what to reveal. 'He controlled everything. What to wear. Where to go. All that stuff. I didn't even have a bank account. Every Sunday night Greg and me would sit down with the accounts and he'd go through the receipts and check the budget.'

  'Seriously?' Angel was proud of being independent and had been balancing the books since she was sixteen. 'What did he check for?'

  'Everything, clothes, food, even knew how many nappies I went through. I must admit,' she said wistfully, 'I was in great shape. Plenty of fresh food, no booze or fags, even went to the gym. It was a ladies only place though. I can see from the look on your face that you don't approve, but I was like a princess. In great shape, fabulous clothes, going to all the right parties in his flashy car.'

  Complete with a tower to be locked up in, Angel thought.

  'Anyway, I went to the mother and baby group and realised how weird it was. Greg and I started arguing because I wanted to buy more grown-up clothes. I just wanted to update my look, not be as young looking. And then his eye started wandering. From what I understand, it's a pattern he goes through, even now.'

  DC Angel thought about the drive north and needed to know why they were so far away from home. 'So, you got away from him? I've heard he tends to treat his exes well – child payments, visitation rights, etc.'

  'Yeah, that's the reward if you play the game his way. As soon as I met Sean, the rows started.' She caught the look on Angel's face and continued. 'Between me and Sean, and Sean and Greg, and me and Greg. Sean got all macho and said we didn't need Greg's money, thought I should cut him off. Greg for his part, didn't like Sean, thought I could do better and didn't mind telling me.' She paused to take a deep breath. 'We went out for a drink. Kyle was with my mum, all safe. Anyway, me and Sean were sniping at each other about Greg all night. Some bloke bumps into Sean on the way back from the bar; Sean's not going to back down without an apology.' She looked hard at DC Angel. 'I don't know if you've had a chance to look, but it all kicked off. Sean's a good bloke but he'd had enough of Greg pushing his buttons and me being scared about how we'd cope without the money. We all got arrested and what would've been a caution for breach of the peace went tits-up when they found gear on Sean. It was
only a small bit of cannabis – less than a teenth – but he was feeling angry so he wound up the coppers too.'

  DC Angel nodded sympathetically. A teenth was slang for a sixteenth of an ounce - the smallest weight you could buy. She knew all too well that with an amount that small the line between a stern talking to, a caution, and a charge was very fine and down to the discretion of the arresting officer.

  'Well, once Sean was charged, then the gloves came off. We had Greg's lawyers going on about an unsuitable environment for a child, all that crap.'

  Julie leaned forward. 'This is where I came in. I never liked Gregory Watts from the moment I met him. The fact that he was moving on to his third schoolgirl in under eight years set alarm bells ringing.

  'Anyway, Watts just threw money at it. Had private detectives following Kelsey, hired lawyers to keep making ridiculous demands,' said Julie. That was when I pushed back with my experience, suggesting that because he was currently living with a pregnant seventeen-year-old then he wouldn't be able to cope with a small child as well.'

  'How did it end?' Angel asked.

  Julie took a deep breath and looked at Kelsey. She took up the conversation. 'We sat down and had a long chat, Julie and me. Between us we figured out that Greg Watts doesn't have bottomless pockets. And what was probably bothering him most was that I was around; he could see me and his kid all the time. I had a long chat with my family. Eventually I picked a date and moved up here. Before Kyle started school so I could change his name as well.'

  'But you said he employed a private detective. Surely you were worried he might just follow you up here?'