The Piggy Farmer (The Barrington Patch Book 3)

by Emmy Ellis

  At the breaker’s yard, she parked where the scrappy waved her to, a spot with space around it, and everyone got out, keeping their wigs on. He came over, smiling, blow torch in hand, and opened the passenger door. A quick blast, and the seat caught fire.

  “Crush it afterwards,” Cassie told him and walked off, Mam and Lou in tow.

  Earlier, she’d hidden her car behind a large metal storage container, no questions asked, as always. They’d gone inside and put their disguises on, then she’d driven them to the allotment. Now, they all needed to put carrier bags over their shoes, especially Lou’s boot, then they got in her car.

  Cassie drove away, going over everything they’d done so far, her mental checklist, ending on CCTV. It wasn’t a worry, and neither was the route she’d taken to the allotment. No one had been around, not even dog walkers or other drivers. Lenny was watching out for them above, paving the criminal way.

  “I like your weapon.” Cassie glanced at Lou in the rearview.

  “It has meaning.” Lou smiled her creepy smile and stared out of the window. She looked spookier than usual with that wig on, a short purple thing Mam had dug out of a locked chest in her wardrobe, one of many hair pieces nestled inside with sunglasses, sets of contact lenses, and leather gloves.

  Had she used them when she’d worked the estate with Dad, pre-Cassie? Funny how Cassie had gone down the same route, buying her blonde wig to hide who she was for when she dropped Doreen Prince’s money off on the weekly, although the subterfuge there could stop now as Doreen working for her was out in the open since she now wrote The Life.

  I’m more like my mother than I realised.

  Cassie headed for the farm, snatching her wig off and tossing it on the passenger seat. She hadn’t left them in the stolen car to be burnt because totally trusting the scrappy wasn’t something she was prepared to do. “Like I said briefly earlier, I want the police to know they’ve been targeted.”

  “Why the change of heart?” Mam asked beside Lou.

  Cassie shrugged. “Because if they’re busy with Gorley, Knight, and Codderidge, they won’t be interested in the squat. Get your wigs off. We don’t want anyone seeing us and associating them with my car.”

  “Oh, I didn’t get a chance to tell you. That won’t be a problem, the police.” Mam took off her black curly wig, then nudged Lou to do the same with hers. “I received a phone call after I’d sent Barney on his way. The police car being close to the squat isn’t an issue. The officer in question will make out he knocked on the door, getting no answer. On the back of my suggestion, and considering the cleaners covered the area with snow where the car was torched, our inside man is going down the route that Bob switched off the tracker at that location somehow, disposed of the vehicle, and started a new life elsewhere.”

  Cassie was well aware Mam wasn’t mentioning the police contact’s name. Didn’t she fully trust Lou?

  “But with Gorley being torched, and the other two being killed tonight, the pigs may well realise the cases are connected.” Lou sniffed. “Not that I care about your decision to leave that load of scum where they died, but I do think it would have been better if Marlene was involved.”

  Has she lost some of her bravado? Is she realising we might get caught and she could go down for a stretch? It’s a bit fucking late now.

  “There are pluses to each scenario. Yes, my first instinct was to cover it all up…” Cassie wasn’t about to admit to Lou she’d got rattled when she’d first seen Bob in the boot, hence him going to Marlene. “But then I thought of how we’d be sending a strong message. Twenty-three years have passed, yet still the job gets done—people will cotton on to the significance in the end, that all those four officers were on certain cases together, and maybe the police will come to question you because you were involved in one of them, so be prepared for that.” Cassie wouldn’t worry about it now. Like Dad had said, business first, worry later. She could be making the biggest mistake of her new role, but time would tell.

  “He didn’t need much persuading to do what I asked. The copper, I mean,” Mam said, thankfully changing the subject. “Amazing what ten grand can do.”

  Cassie turned onto the farm track and drove around the back. She reversed by the mudroom door. Ben came out of the pig barn a few metres away and gazed over.

  “Will he be an issue?” Mam asked.

  “No,” Lou said. “I told him I was going with you two for a coffee. God love him and everything, but he’s a bit dim, easily persuaded to believe whatever I tell him. My brother’s the same, his dad. Not the sharpest scissors at the salon.”

  “Okay.” Cassie sighed, tired. She still had to go and see Hua, buy the cakes, and wanted a nap this afternoon. There was a chance she’d get to the squat. She’d warned Jimmy not to go outside for a fag until she’d given him the all-clear, and he’d let Shirl know to steer clear, too. Anyroad, Shirl was ill with the flu and wouldn’t be a problem. “We’ll meet up again later, as planned. What are you telling Joe?”

  “That we’re having a few drinks at your mam’s place and I might stay over.”

  “That’ll raise red flags, the staying over bit,” Mam warned. “You never do that.”

  Lou shrugged. “Okay then, I’ll come back home.” She sounded mardy. A brat.

  “But you’ll have blood on you.” Cassie frowned. Lou couldn’t be thinking straight. “We’ll put boilersuits on.” Clearly, there was still a lot they needed to fine-tune. It was all very well knowing how they’d kill Knight and Codderidge, but the small print needed some tweaks. They’d been so intent on getting Gorley, they hadn’t had time for an in-depth conflab about the other two.

  That could lead to mistakes. She’d already made one by killing Nathan Abbot and didn’t plan on doing that again.

  “Fine. See you later.” Lou got out.

  She waved to Ben, who tromped back inside the barn scratching his head, maybe because Lou had carrier bags over her shoes, shit, and she entered the farmhouse, her shoulders straight, the usual slouch completely gone.

  Bob’s and Gorley’s deaths had boosted her.

  Mam switched to the passenger seat, and Cassie set off, glad to be away from the mental woman. The way Lou had behaved in the shed reminded Cassie of herself, her monster, and it was unsettling, akin to looking in a mirror and seeing all the parts of herself she didn’t like. Parts she had to be in order to run the estate.

  “She’s not right in the head,” Mam said. “Bats in the sodding belfry.”

  “You think? Fucking hell, she’s always been weird, but…”

  “I know. Look, let’s get through this for her then forget about it. I’ve always felt guilty that I still had you and she didn’t have Jess. The Mechanic planned to take you next, so thank God your dad stopped him before he could snatch you. So I owe it to Lou, this…this insane nonsense. I’m not much liking it, I have to say. Killing coppers is a bit too close to the bone for me, but hopefully, once she’s killed them all, she’ll calm down, stop overthinking everything.”

  “What she’s doing will never bring Jess back, so why is she bothering? It’s like she’s righting a wrong that won’t have the outcome she thinks it will—making everything better. Okay, I can see she’s already stronger, and the murders will give her the sense of justice she’s after, but will this be the end of it? Who else will she think of to blame? We could be killing people for months to come.”

  “No, I won’t allow it, and neither should you.” Mam smoothed her brunette hair which had gone cotton-woolly from the wig. “It’s Knight and Codderidge, then she’s got to accept we won’t be entertaining owt else. You do realise that if she goes off by herself, like she did with Bob, you’ll have to give her a warning, no matter who she is, and if she ignores that, she’s dead.”

  Cassie hadn’t even entertained that. Lou had been in her life from the start, was like an aunt, family—otherwise, Cassie would never have helped the woman to this extent. “But she’s your friend. So much for ‘Graftons do
n’t squeal’ with regards to people they love.”

  “They do on occasion, just that your dad preferred to be blinkered when it came to his mates. Lou doesn’t get to break the rules. The only people who can get away with things is me and you—we’ll cover up for each other. But anyone else? No, Lou is a resident, albeit not on the actual Barrington, but she’s under your rule—Handel Farm is within your jurisdiction, so to speak. Besides, her and Joe wanted it that way.”

  Bloody hell. Mam was serious.

  “Right. Then let’s hope she doesn’t fuck up after tonight.” Cassie pulled into Mam’s driveway.

  In the hallway, they removed the carrier bags and their shoes, placing them inside a black rubbish bag along with their gloves. Cassie left it by the front door. They showered and changed, then went downstairs, and she added their clothing to the bag. She was trusting Lou to get rid of her own.

  “I’ve got to speak to Hua so will be back in about an hour,” Cassie said. “Have the police gone from the burn site?” She swiped up the black bag, needing to know the answer because she had to burn it and the contents at the squat.

  “Yes. I didn’t want to say an awful lot in front of Lou. Our new contact is DI Gary Branding, and he turned up there alone, saw no patrol car, and reported the location as vacant, that there must have been a glitch in the tracker for it to report Bob as being there. He didn’t even get out and poke around and wrote in his report that no snow had been disturbed.”

  “Fine. So he replaces Gorley, yes?”

  Mam nodded. “He’s been hankering to help for years, so it was an easy decision to choose him.”

  “Then I’ll pop in and visit Jason, burn this,” she held up the bag, “and see if I can get some information out of him today. A confession.”

  “Good luck there.” Mam smiled. “Make sure you get home quick. You need sleep to be on your game tonight.”

  Cassie nodded and left the house. She put the wigs in the bag and stuck it in the boot. In the car, she sighed with exhaustion, lethargy taking hold of her, but she pushed on, driving to the Jade despite her eyes hurting, gritty from lack of sleep. It was ‘weigh day’, and Hua would be in the office using the little scales and bagging the drugs—unless she was so upset about Zhang Wei she’d asked Yenay to do it.

  She parked and used her key for the takeaway, seeing as it wasn’t open yet. Noon was an hour and fifteen minutes away. Li Jun stood in the kitchen, and he peered through the rectangular cutout in the wall behind the counter, pausing in his task of slicing onions. His sons, the skinny Dequan and the chubby Tai, carved various meats on white plastic chopping boards. Yenay stirred the boiling rice in a huge steel pan on the hob, appearing lost in thought. That or the milky-looking water was mesmerising.

  Cassie lifted the counter hatch and went into the kitchen. “Is Hua in the office?”

  “Yes.” Li Jun bobbed his head. “She is upset, as we all are.”

  “I can imagine.”

  Cassie glanced at his sons, who kept their heads down, expressions blank, then she eyed Yenay. The young woman didn’t stare belligerently, as Cassie had thought she would. Instead, she appeared ashamed.

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “My dad shouldn’t have done what he did. We all know the rules, and he broke one.”

  “I’m sorry, too.” Cassie gave a taut smile. “But you know what has to happen when people don’t toe the line. It was quick, he wouldn’t have suffered, so there is that.”

  “Thank you.” Yenay used a tea towel to lift the pot by the handles and moved to the sink.

  Discussion over then.

  Cassie walked into the office and closed the door. Hua sat at the desk, a pile of weed in a baking tray, small baggies, and the weighing scales on top. She peered across at Cassie, her eyes red, her cheeks swollen from crying. Up on her feet, she came to Cassie and hugged her, taking her aback.

  “I am so humiliated by my husband’s actions,” she said. “Your father gave us a good life, and Zhang disrespected that. I love him, I will always love him, but I am disappointed in him.”

  Cassie pushed her away—gently, but she needed to separate them all the same. “He was doing what he thought was right. For his son. I understand that, but despite me telling him Jiang’s death had been avenged, he wouldn’t listen. He felt the killer’s family had to pay. That’s not how it works. If the rest of the family are innocent and know nothing of what their relation did, they remain alive; you get the same courtesy.”

  Hua slumped onto the chair, defeated, no doubt, confused as to why Zhang Wei had left their takeaway intent on badgering Cassie, trying to get her to see things his way. “He was crazed with grief. Did not know what he was doing.”

  “I imagine he was.” But he knew exactly what he was bloody doing. “Have you seen The Life?”

  Hua nodded, her fringe swaying, and she worried her hands. “Zhang has gone to China. I will always say this. When people ask, this is what I tell them.”

  Cassie believed her, but she had to ask, “Will there be any more problems? From you or Yenay? Li Jun? His wife and sons?”

  Cassie didn’t think Li Jun would dare, and his missus, Nuwa, had been the one to persuade him to work for Dad all those years ago, agreeing to the terms no matter what. They knew the rules, the whole lot of them, but they must be conflicted. They’d thought of Lenny as family, treated Cassie and Mam as such, too, yet a member of their true family had hurt the ‘adopted’ ones. It had to burn, having their loyalty tested like this.

  Hua shook her head. “No. We will continue as we did when Jiang was murdered. As Li Jun says, we smile on the outside and cry on the inside.” She gestured to the drugs. “I am here, as usual. I will always be here, the same day every week.”

  “And The Golden Dragon?”

  “It is in my name, Zhang Wei wanted it that way. I will run it.”

  Satisfied this saga was over, Cassie left the room, nodding to Li Jun to let him know she’d drawn a line under the whole sorry business and no further action was needed. And that he mustn’t bring this up again. Sad as it was, and much as she wanted to hug the old man, she couldn’t linger here, nor could she allow herself to show sympathy in front of the family. Anyroad, she had cakes to buy and Jason to visit, then she could get some much-needed sleep.

  She strode out and down the street to The Pudding. The bell jangled with her push on the door, and the usual scents of baking wafted around her, as always, reminding her of childhood when Lenny had brought her here.

  What she wouldn’t give to go back in time and relive those days.

  Nicola Faraday, her dyed-black hair stuffed inside a net today, spray-painted the edges of some white icing roses with soft-pink dye. She glanced over the counter, a big smile in place to greet her customer, but stiffened upon seeing Cassie, that smile dropping. “Oh God…”

  “Don’t get your knickers in a twist, it’s nowt to get in a bother about. I only want a coffee cake.” She’d opted for Mam’s favourite, knowing Lou also liked it. They’d sit at the island later and eat it, drinking champagne in celebration, and Cassie would remind Lou that this was it, over, no more deaths for Jess unless the man in the back of the van was found.

  But Lou thinks it was Gorley. Barmy cow.

  “Oh, okay.” Nicola took a flat box from under the counter and set it up, her hands shaking.

  Cassie had thought this before on her last visit, but Nicola was overly nervy around her, like she was hiding something. Of course, she could just be shitting bricks because Cassie presented herself as a hard bitch who’d barb your face if you looked at her wrong.

  “Everything sorted from before?” Nicola asked.

  Rude of her to ask, but Cassie wouldn’t pick her up on it today. She was too tired. “Yes.”

  “Good. I didn’t like the idea of there being trouble down here. Those kids haven’t come back, the ones by the lamppost.”

  No, they wouldn’t have, because Jason had bloody sent them here to keep the street clear so Brett Da
vis could rob drugs from the Jade, and Cassie had warned them to stay away. The fact that the robbery hadn’t happened, and Jiang had been sliced with a machete instead, wasn’t owt Nicola needed to know. She was the same as everyone else on the estate, under the impression Jiang was in China.

  This woman here was fishing, that much was clear. Had Helen Davis, the woman who ran the nearby laundrette, Brett’s aunt, been gossiping to Nicola while drunk? She’d better not have. Cassie had been sure the woman would keep her mouth shut about the Jiang murder business, seeing as her nephew was the one who’d killed him, but alcohol loosened lips, didn’t it, and Helen wasn’t known for keeping secrets.

  Maybe Cassie needed to pay her another visit at some point to further establish the rules.

  “No trouble,” Cassie said. “Nowt for you to worry about anyroad. And the lads won’t be hanging around out there anymore.”

  Nicola placed a coffee cake from the glass counter inside the box. “Doing owt nice tonight?” She indicated the cake.

  “Me and Mam are having a night in with Lou. A few drinks, the cake.”

  “Oh. Nice.”

  Cassie didn’t want to indulge in chitchat any longer so remained quiet while the sale was rung up and she paid. She said goodbye and left, sensing Nicola’s stare on her back, but she didn’t fret about it. Nicola was an older woman, had worked in her little shop for years under Lenny’s reign, before that even. She’d be stupid to push it.

  Cassie placed the cake box on the passenger seat then drove to the squat, parking around the back so if any pigs came along, despite DI Branding saying the area was clear, her car wouldn’t be seen. She’d promised to message Jimmy and let him know if she was on her way, but she’d forgotten.

  She WhatsApped him: I’m here.