The Vine Cross (The Vine Series Book 1)

by S P Dawes

  Hayley moved back onto the lawn to sit down and watch them.

  Jesse walked over to her and discretely handed her the letter, facing her. “I think you need to open it.”

  Taking it carefully, she contemplated opening it.

  His family were happily distracted, singing and dancing around.

  Sliding her little finger under the flap, she released the letter inside. Pulling it out and unfolding it. She realised it was an invoice for the flat repairs. Hayley hadn’t realised she was holding her breath until a sigh of relief, deflated her lungs.

  Jesse took it out of her hands quickly and scanned it. When he lowered it, she could see his relief. They both laughed at each other’s anxiety, and Jesse placed his head on top of hers. “I thought that was bad,” he whispered.

  “So, did I,” she confessed, still trying to regulate her breathing. Picking up her glass of wine from the floor, she downed it.

  Jesse laughed; his imagination was getting away with him. He rubbed her head with his hand.

  The rest of the night was a happy one, the music carried on playing with impromptu dancing and singing to the most popular tunes. Hayley laughed so much her cheeks felt like they’d never go back to normal. Michael, Rob, and Jesse all took it in turns to pull the women up onto their patio dance floor. Showing off their skills, and the women enjoyed the spectacle they were making of themselves. They drank throughout the night while the air was still warm, even though darkness had descended hours ago.

  Jesse sat on a deck chair with Hayley side saddling his knee when his Dad started this rendition of ‘A Wonderful World.’ Rob sat on the floor and Caitlyn on the chair behind him, with her arms hung around his neck. Marie was watching her husband from her chair with stars in her eyes and love in her heart.

  “Look at your mum,” whispered Hayley in Jesse’s ear.

  Jesse glanced over and saw his mum falling in love with his dad all over again.

  “They’re always the same,” he whispered back. “I hope it wasn’t his singing that clinched the deal?”

  “I’ve not heard you yet,” she whispered. “I might change my mind,” she teased.

  “What, with my voice? Never! I’m a regular old Bublé,” he answered sarcastically.

  “Really?” She laughed.

  The next song to come on was ‘Shut Up and Dance,’ Jesse moved her off his knee, so she pinched his chair as he stood up. Grabbing the tongs off his Dad, being used as a microphone, he started singing. When the chorus arrived, Michael and Rob jumped up, finishing it with him. When they had finished, the women were in stitches and the men sat down exhausted.

  “Very Buble-esque,” she said as he retrieved his seat from her.

  “Right, we need to go,” Caitlyn announced to the world in her drunken state.

  Rob groaned, trying to stand up without falling back down again.

  “Just stop here,” offered Marie.

  “Can’t,” Rob replied, pointing to Hayley, “she’s pinched my room.”

  Hayley pulled a face and mock apologised.

  “Hayley can bunk up with me,” said Jesse without thinking.

  Wide-eyed, Hayley didn’t know where to put her face, and Marie and Michael looked embarrassed for her. “That’s OK, isn’t it?” He tapped her on the arm.

  “Err... yeah,” she said timidly. She wasn’t aware they were making it common knowledge they were sleeping together.

  Rob grabbed Caitlyn, and they rushed inside.

  Hayley saw the light go on in the room above that she’d been using. Her stuff was still in there, and it made her feel a little uneasy.

  “I’m going to grab another beer, want one?”

  Hayley shook her head and took back the seat as he entered the kitchen with his Dad.

  “Sorry about my tactless, son. He just doesn’t think sometimes,” said Marie gently. “But he likes you, I can tell.”

  “I like him,” replied Hayley, shyly and shocked at how true it was.

  “It’s nice to see him happy again. He’s had a rough couple of months.”

  Hayley nodded; she was aware of his failed marriage.

  “Right, I’m going up sweetheart, too old for these late nights,” she laughed.

  Hayley smiled, saying goodnight as she made her way inside. Two minutes later Jesse came out with his head down, smirking.

  “I’m sorry,” he mouthed. When he got closer to her, he knelt down, leaning his arms on her legs. “I didn’t mean to ‘out’ us, I just didn’t think,” he said remorsefully.

  “Your mum say something?” He nodded like a child; the drink had made him less in charge of his faculties.

  They turned the music down, but it remained audible when ‘All of Me’ by John Legend came on. Jesse held his hand out and Hayley took it. Pulling her up, he placed one hand on her back and raised the other in the air, and swayed.

  Lost in each other while the music played, Jesse sang the lyrics close to her ear, and she smiled contentedly. Safe in his arms. Hoping he meant every word.

  Chapter 16

  Monday came round again, and the alarms rang out in the house simultaneously. Jesse groaned, rubbing his forehead; he could already feel the hangover. Throwing his pillow at the alarm, he rolled over.

  “Morning sleepy head,” Hayley said brightly.

  He’d forgotten she was there. Smiling, he kissed her, wrapping his arms around her and nestling her in closer.

  “You need to get up,” she reminded him.

  “I am,” he smirked, eyes closing.

  “For work!” Explained Hayley, running her fingers along his forehead.

  Jesse shook his head, refusing.

  “You do, get up, or you’ll get sacked,” she laughed as he tried arousing her under the covers.

  “Spoil sport,” he said finally, swinging his feet onto the floor.

  Watching him get dressed and make himself look more presentable, by slicking his hair back and placing his tie around his neck, she wished they could have longer in bed. He made the Windsor knot in the mirror, hung on his door, then turned to Hayley, who was still in his bed with his quilt wrapped round her like a cocoon. Placing her index finger in her mouth, she bit her nail seductively, looking him straight in the eyes.

  “You’re such a tease,” he said, leaning over the bed. She laughed, diving under the covers, as he tried to rip them from her. “Right, I’m going before you really get me in trouble.” Opening the door, he left.

  Hayley popped out of the sheets, gazing up at the ceiling. She was happy, content, fulfilled, and she loved it.

  Jesse strolled into work at eight, making his way to his desk in the incident room when Dave came crashing in behind him.

  “We’ve got him!” He exclaimed, throwing a tape on Jesse’s desk. “CCTV from the club at the weekend shows Paul Gleeson dealing, and the kid he gives the gear to, died on Saturday night.”

  Jesse thought he sounded far too excited about someone dying, but he was aware he had been trying just as hard to get something to stick. This was the breakthrough they needed, and Jesse knew how much it meant to him personally. Dave had lost his daughter to drugs six years previously.

  “OK, let’s get everything together and make sure this arrest is watertight,” replied Jesse, looking at his desk clock. “Be ready in an hour.”

  Dave nodded and ran off to collect all the info they had. Needing to put it in one place and plot what they believed had happened over the course of the last few weeks, with what they could prove. The last thing they needed was for the Crown Prosecution Service to throw it out or the lawyers to find wriggle room and destroy their case.

  At nine, the incident room was a mass of paper and evidence bags. Jesse walked up to the whiteboard, grabbing a black marker from the table next to it.

  “OK, so we’ll go back from the previous O. D, what happened on Saturday night?” Rosa stood as elegantly as always. She pinned photographs to a corkboard on the wall.

  “This is Shaun Mayfield, twent
y-three, worked at the local timber yard on Hawton Lane. He bought something outside of this nightclub.” She put another picture up of the Vaults, a club set back from the street. “Twenty minutes later someone called an ambulance, but they pronounced him D.O.A.”

  Dave stood up and pinned a picture on the boards. “This is Paul Gleeson; all we know is that he is a convicted criminal. Not much need for him to be out selling drugs to the kids on the street, after all he’s got plenty of skivvies but it looks like he did, because in this picture,” he added another, “we can clearly see him handing that kid drugs.” Pointing to the smaller profile in the picture. “Shaun died twenty minutes after this video footage.”

  “Is that the best picture we’ve got?” Jesse asked. The quality was awful, and they could argue in court that it could be anything, being handed over.

  Dave looked deflated. “No, the CCTV was across the road on an antiques shop. It’s not meant to capture images this far out, but I’ve had this blown up, hence the graininess.”

  “The lawyers are going to have a field day with that,” sighed Jesse.

  “It’s enough to bring him in, and question him.” Dave argued, determined not to give up.

  “Not being funny, but if we drag this guy in, he isn’t squealing,” Martin was rocking on his chair at the back in front of a computer. “They’ll wrap up tighter than a virgin in a red room and move on,” he warned.

  A few sniggers went out at his comparison, and Jesse trained his face not to show his amusement. Martin had a habit of dropping them in, in intense situations to lighten the mood.

  “What about the girl? Sir?” Asked PC Rigger, shooting Martin a look that she was less than amused.

  “What girl?” Asked Jesse.

  “Hayley Timpson.”

  Jesse’s blood pressure instantly dropped, causing him to lose balance for a second.

  “Dave said someone broke into her flat and it was likely a threat or a warning. Her workplace was robbed too. We know they stripped the place of synthetics that could bulk out coke. We also know someone organised the whole thing, maybe planted Hayley there? Who’s saying she didn’t get cold feet…” continued Rosa.

  “Wow, that’s a jump and a half! You, taken up pole vaulting?” Martin laughed, turning to Jesse as the others sniggered. “Even if that was true, which is highly unlikely. We’ve got nothing on this girl. As far as I can see, she’s just another victim of some thug.”

  Jesse didn’t know where to look in case his feelings betrayed him. Worse, he was trying to work out whether Rosa had seen something he hadn’t.

  “What? And it’s a coincidence that her place of work gets robbed the night before they cover hers in paint?” Asked Dave, unconvinced.

  Jesse’s head swam. At what point had his girlfriend become involved, and why was this the first he’d heard of it?

  “And we all know there’s no such thing as a…”

  “Coincidence!” Shouted everyone in the room apart from Jesse, whose world was imploding. Jesse’s uncomfortable stance wasn’t unnoticed by Martin. He was sure his friend had turned a shade of green.

  “It makes little sense. She doesn’t have access to the keys or to the CCTV which they wiped, bar the one in the staff room. She has no priors. No money worries. No more than anyone else anyway. She seems to have no connections, no family. She’s clean.” Martin was watching Jesse stare at him intently, as if trying to communicate something unspoken.

  “Can we get back to the case rather than conspiracy theories?” Jesse snapped, growing in annoyance with Dave, who was like a dog with a bone. Convinced from the start that the two incidents related, he was determined to be right, even if that meant bending the truth as much as possible to make it fit.

  “You’re forgetting that Leon Carter said someone was after her. Shouldn’t we be asking why?” Asked Dave. “He stated that he was told to set Hayley up for the burglary, but it didn’t work. So, his boss will be less than happy,” he added.

  “When did he say it was Hayley?” Jesse asked, annoyed with the drop of additional information.

  “Last night, turns out, he knew after all,” answered Dave. “Just took some squeezing.”

  Jesse was unsure how much squeezing took place and why he wanted this to be the truth so much? “So, we’ve got nothing else on the drugs case, other than a druggy now using a girl’s name as a potential target?” He would have to chase that up at some point. Find out who he was working for, or if it was personal. The room fell quiet and everyone looked around at one another.

  “OK, do we have any movement on the murders?” Jesse felt better on safer ground, away from anything remotely involving Hayley until he had time to look into it himself. He needed to talk with her.

  “We still can’t connect these girls, other than by their image and locality, sir,” PC Rigger replied.

  “There’s still the potential that this could be a sex trafficking thing. They’re all young, dressed up to the nines. They could have been meeting a client. We can’t find anything that points to them being here illegally,” said Rosa. “Vice seems to bagging that up too.”

  “You’ve been in touch with vice?” Jesse asked.

  Rosa nodded, “We’ve got a name, ‘Demy’. Comes from Averham. Dad owns his own business in marketing, they’re loaded. Shares mainly, but it might be worth checking in what? Check if finance has anything open at the minute.”

  “Why, do they think he’s involved?” Asked Martin, feeling he had missed some key information.

  “Just that when we sent them pictures, they said they’d found similarities with an old case. They’re sending information through ASAP, sir,” answered Rosa.

  Jesse nodded.

  Rosa moved nervously in her chair. “I’ve been keeping in touch with someone I know in Vice. Demy’s definitely involved. I’ve got pictures of him with some guys outside the containers at a port, they look like they’re exchanging something.” She pinned the photos up. “This guy, I’m told, is a Russian King pin, they’ve been watching him for a while, but waiting to catch him with as much as possible. There’s only two reasons he’d be meeting Demy, and that’s shifting gear or girls?”

  “If he’s involved in trafficking, is he the one killing them or one of his clients?” Asked Jesse thoughtfully.

  “He’s only been out two weeks,” added Rosa. “Since the murders started. Their own surveillance shows that he enters that warehouse on a regular occurrence, but doesn’t seem to take or leave with anything.”

  “So, we’ve got nothing other than a name?” Replied Jesse. “Where is he right now?”

  “We don’t know. He disappeared last night. They lost him.” Rosa added.

  “Right, Rosa, get in contact with Vice. If they have info on him, especially his whereabouts, we need to know. If it involves him with trafficking, let’s hope they have more on him than we do.”

  Jesse left the room and pushed a pound coin into the coffee machine at the end of the corridor. He rested his head on the machine while the cup whirled around. Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath. None of his leads had led him any closer to catching anyone. Leon seemed to be the only one finding anything, but that was only to help gain immunity for himself, as he didn’t want to go to prison. Jesse would have to use that to his advantage. He needed to understand what he knew about Hayley and why he’d brought her into it?

  “Sir, DC Turner told me to give you this, it’s just come through.” PC Rigger passed him a photograph. “It’s the symbol off a packet found at Garden of Eden.”

  Jesse opened his eyes and took the photo.

  “They said to keep an eye out for it.” His blood ran cold, he’d seen it before. “Sir?”

  “Just tell Dave thanks.” PC Rigger smiled awkwardly and scurried away.

  Once she’d left, Jesse punched the coffee machine. There was no way he could keep Hayley out of it now. But he needed to find out how involved she was, urgently. “Shit!”

  Martin strolled over to the ma
chine. “They not got your coffee?”

  Jesse shook his head.

  “You alright? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

  Jesse had known Martin long enough to call him a friend.

  “What was up in there?” He asked, thumbing behind to the incident room.

  “I’m in the shit.” Jesse turned round and leant back on the machine.

  “What have you done?” Asked Martin in a singsong voice that showed he wasn’t taking Jesse’s predicament that seriously.

  “Hayley.”

  Martin eased his head from side to side, to show that what he’d just told him meant nothing.

  “The girl with the paint job, possibly star fucking witness.” Jesse paced the room, pushing his hands through his hair. “She’s who I’ve been seeing.”

  “Shit!” Exhaled Martin, suddenly very alert to Jesse’s thoughts.

  Jesse handed him the photo of the plastic pouch. “So?”

  “She has that,” admitted Jesse solemnly. “She has that symbol burnt on her back.”

  “Double shit!”

  Jesse nodded.

  “Is she part of this?”

  Jesse was still pacing.

  “You need to bring her in,” said Martin.

  “As what?” Asked Jesse, feeling his blood pressure rising.

  “At the minute, a reliable witness. If she has this, then it’s highly likely she knows who put it there.”

  “Yeah, I doubt very much she will want to go tell us that horror story on record.”

  Martin took the coffee from the machine and handed it to Jesse, moving to the side to check no one was coming. “When did you find this out?” He asked, trying to keep his voice low.

  “About what, the fact she’s a witness or the symbol?”

  “Both.”

  “About two seconds ago from Dave. I saw the burn mark on Saturday.”

  “And you’ve sat on it?”

  “I didn’t know about it, no one told me Hayley was being treated as a witness. They’ve only just handed the photo over of the brand.” Jesse pushed the door to an empty meeting room and held the door open for Martin to follow. He pulled out a chair and sat down before his legs finally gave way.