Broken Dreams

by Nick Quantrill

  ‘What can I do for you?’ I looked at my watch. I had more important things to be doing.

  ‘The police will be coming for me today but I want you to carry on. I’ve told Jane to sort the money out for you. You’ll only have to ask her. I’ve made sure there’s enough in the bank account.’

  I picked up my coffee and waited for him to continue.

  ‘It’s important, Joe.’

  ‘I know.’

  ‘I didn’t kill Jennifer.’

  ‘I know.’

  ‘It’s important you believe me.’ I’m guilty of what the police are going to arrest me for and I deserve everything I’m going to get for it, but I’m going to pay for it. I know that. I’m finished, totally finished. Nobody is going to work with me now.’ He leant forward, agitated. ‘But I’m not a murderer. I’m not going to prison for that.’

  I hadn’t changed my opinion of the man; I still didn’t think he’d killed his wife, but I wanted more. I didn’t trust him. ‘Why didn’t you tell me about my wife sooner?’

  He put his mug down. ‘It wasn’t my place.’

  ‘You were using me.’

  He said nothing.

  ‘You used me to try to get Salford off your back? You think Salford killed your wife, and if you got me to prove it, he’d be off your case. The whole mess you’ve made of the regeneration work might go away?’

  ‘It wasn’t like that.’

  ‘What was it like, then?’ I was starting to see things more clearly. ‘We’ve both lost our wives, and that gives us some sort of strange bond other people can’t understand. I know how it feels, how helpless you are, how much anger and bitterness you’ve got inside you? My wife was killed because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time and because of Salford’s greed.’

  ‘He killed my wife, too.’

  ‘We don’t know that.’

  ‘Who else would it be?’

  I shrugged. I felt like I was slowly starting to see things more clearly, but I wasn’t ready to share it yet. ‘I don’t know, what about Taylor?’

  ‘He’s nothing.’

  ‘He’s got motive.’

  ‘You’re my only hope, Joe.’ Murdoch was visibly upset.

  ‘You used me.’

  He shook his head.

  ‘You used me and when you thought I was going to walk away, you used the only card you had – my wife.’

  I wasn’t sure if I felt pity or revulsion. ‘My friend had a brick thrown through her window, just because I was investigating your wife’s death. It was a warning. Can you imagine how scared she was? Can you imagine how her young daughter felt?’

  ‘I’m sorry.’

  I shook my head. ‘I don’t think you are.’

  He blew his nose and wiped his face before looking at me. ‘I’m sorrier than you could ever imagine.’

  ‘I thought when we first met we were both looking for the same thing – justice.’

  ‘We still are.’

  ‘We have different ways of trying to get it, then.’

  Murdoch exhaled and sat back. ‘I wanted Salford and Johnson off my back. They were trying to ruin me. I didn’t know what to do and I thought you could sort it out for me. I thought if you put Salford in the frame, he’d leave me alone.’

  ‘And you expected that would work?’

  ‘I wasn’t thinking straight. Above all, though, I want the truth about what happened.’

  We were going round in circles. Despite the way he’d behaved and misled me, I still wanted to get to the truth behind Jennifer Murdoch’s death. I wrote a note for Sarah, asking her to check something out for me, before showing Murdoch out of the office. I promised to stay in touch and continue looking into his wife’s murder, but it felt like a final goodbye.

  If the net was closing in on Murdoch, the same would apply to Salford, and if Don’s old colleague, Gerard Branning was anything to go by, the police would most likely be rubbing their hands at the prospect of taking him in. It was now or never. I was planning on driving to the casino, but noticing my hands were shaking, I parked up at Queens for a shot of whiskey to settle the nerves. An hour later, and I handed over a ten pound note to the taxi driver and told him to keep the change. Looking up, the casino looked dull and lifeless in the daytime. The area was deserted and quiet. The only vehicle I could see parked in the car park was Salford’s Jaguar. I pulled the mints from my coat pocket and threw two into my mouth. I didn’t want Salford smelling the alcohol, thinking I was scared of him.

  The entrance was unlocked and the only person who challenged me as I walked into the building was a cleaner. She told me to sit down and wait, she’d see if Salford was available.

  ‘Mr Geraghty?’

  I turned to see a man staring straight at me. Salford was older and frailer than I imagined he would be from the photographs I’d seen.

  I nodded. ‘That’s me.’

  ‘I understand you want to see me?’

  ‘That’s right.’

  He nodded to the cleaner. ‘We’ll be in my office.’

  Salford’s office was far more impressive than Johnson’s. Rather than a cheap, self-assembly table and a bank of CCTV monitors, the office’s centrepiece was a solid cherry oak table. I glanced around the room, the same CCTV monitors were discretely stacked in the far corner, but a flat-screen plasma television dominated the wall. He switched it off.

  ‘It’s about time we had a talk, Joe.’ Salford poured two generous whiskeys and passed me one. ‘Are we on first name terms?’

  I nodded, unsure how I should react. I thought when we met I’d be angry and full of hate for the man. Instead, I was stood in the middle of his office, frozen, not knowing what I should be doing.

  ‘I know you’ve been asking around my businesses.’ He gestured to the chair opposite him. ‘Sit down. I hear you were a bit handy at rugby in your younger days. More of a football man myself, but I admire any sportsman. I wish I’d had the talent.’

  He’d done his homework, but I ignored him. ‘I work for Christopher Murdoch’ I said, sitting down. ‘His wife was murdered.’

  ‘I know.’

  ‘She was a regular in this place.’

  ‘So are a lot of people.’

  Salford was all smiles and joviality. It was unnerving. ‘She was murdered.’

  ‘So you said. I don’t see how I can help you?’

  I laughed. ‘I think you can.’

  His mood darkened. ‘I don’t think I follow you.’

  I held his stare. ‘I think you do.’

  Salford sat back in his chair and laughed. ‘Maybe you should be looking closer to home.’

  ‘He didn’t kill his wife.’

  ‘How can you be so sure?’

  ‘I’m sure.’

  Salford nodded and put his drink down. ‘Decisiveness - I like that in a man. I could probably use you in my organisation.’

  ‘Did you kill her?’ I asked, getting to the point.

  Salford laughed, stood up and paced the room before standing behind me. I couldn’t see him, but I knew he was inches away from me. I didn’t move, staring straight ahead.

  ‘I didn’t kill her.’

  ‘Convince me.’

  He leant closer. ‘Why would I need to do that’ he whispered in my ear.

  ‘You were jealous. You wanted her, but she didn’t want to know.’

  ‘Don’t be ridiculous.’

  ‘She was an attractive woman.’ I shrugged. ‘Who wouldn’t fancy her?’

  ‘Not me.’

  ‘She wouldn’t be the first, would she?’

  ‘Excuse me?’

  ‘I’ve spoken to Julie Richardson.’

  He stepped away and sat back down behind his desk. ‘You have been doing your homework.’

  ‘I’ve seen her face.’

  Salford turned away from me. ‘It was a long time ago.’

  ‘Not to her. It’s like it was yesterday.’

  He turned back to me. ‘Decisions have consequences.’
<
br />   I nodded. He wasn’t wrong, though I doubt it was any consolation to her.

  ‘You don’t like it if you don’t get your own way?’ I said.

  ‘Who does?’

  ‘So you killed Jennifer Murdoch because she couldn’t pay the money she owed you? Because you couldn’t get your own way?’

  ‘Come on, Joe. You can do better than that. One minute it’s I fancied her, the next it’s I killed her because of money. Make your mind up.’

  ‘She owed you money.’

  ‘She owed me a lot of money.’

  ‘Why didn’t you stop her credit?’

  ‘Let’s put it down to wider business interests.’

  ‘Her husband is an influential businessman.’

  ‘So I understand.’

  ‘Why did you threaten to kill her?’

  Salford laughed. ‘Who said that?’

  ‘Her husband.’

  He shook his head. ‘Wasn’t me.’

  I drank my whiskey, feeling it burn down my throat. ‘Johnson did the threatening?’

  ‘If he did, I didn’t know about it. He always had a temper, even when we used to go to the football as lads. Thinking’s not his strongest attribute.’

  It was my turn to laugh. ‘Of course you knew.’

  Salford shook his head. ‘I didn’t know and that’s the truth. I know the Murdoch’s, and I know what his job is. Truth is, though, he’s a bullshitter. I listened to his plans, and what he wanted to do, but it’s pie in the sky. This is Hull, Joe; we don’t go in for the kind of change he was proposing.’

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘On Hessle Road?’

  I nodded.

  ‘I was brought up there and I can tell you, it was a rough place to be a kid; survival of the fittest. We had nothing; no money and no way of getting out. And from where I’m sat, the area hasn’t changed that much apart from the dossers and Eastern Europeans who live there.’

  ‘Like Anastazja?’

  ‘Who?’

  I let it go. ‘It was a chance to make things better’ I said. ‘For everyone.’

  ‘Murdoch is a dreamer’ he continued. ‘He had nothing to offer me or my business. I didn’t want to have any involvement with his project. There’s too many obstacles, too much bureaucracy when you’re dealing with the council.’ He smiled at me. ‘There wasn’t going to be enough fun for me to get involved. You’ve got to like and trust the people you’re working with, and I didn’t.’

  ‘The money’s good, though. The project’s worth millions, so a cut of that’s hardly loose change’ Salford said nothing, so I continued. ‘Compulsory purchase orders. You remember Derek Jones? He told me how it worked, how you forced people out of their homes because you wanted to tell sell them to the council for a large profit.’

  Salford looked baffled. ‘Derek Jones?’ He laughed. ‘Why are you wasting your time talking to that loser?’

  ‘He didn’t have much good to say about you, either. Do you remember his nephew, Jimmy? Died from a drugs overdose?’

  Salford said he couldn’t remember. ‘Derek’s always had an overactive imagination. He’s probably spun you a fairytale.’

  My anger was rising. ‘What about the people you forced out of their homes? You made them derisory offers, but they were hardly free to choose whether or not to accept, were they? I think the catch was, if they didn’t accept, they’d be forced out. How about burning their houses down? How does that sound?’ I slammed my glass down onto his desk, not giving him chance to answer. I was too angry. ‘We all lose things we love, don’t we.’ I pointed at him. ‘It cost you your daughter.’

  Salford looked like he was going to hit me before standing up, walking around the desk and pouring me another whiskey.

  He sat back down. ‘You think you’re bringing me news?’

  I watched him slowly sit back down. ‘You know about her?’ I asked.

  Salford shook his head. ‘Suspected.’

  ‘Because Donna left?’

  ‘It doesn’t take a genius, does it?’

  He was genuinely upset so I waited for him to compose himself. ‘Chelsea’s nearly ten years old now.’

  I shrugged.

  ‘Have you seen her?’ he asked me.

  ‘No.’

  ‘But you’ve spoke to Donna and I’m definitely the father?’

  I nodded again.

  ‘I knew it.’

  ‘You scared her off by making her have an abortion. She wasn’t going to have another.’

  ‘She told you that?’

  I said nothing, waiting for him to continue.

  He picked up his telephone and told whoever answered it he wasn’t to be disturbed. Turning back to me, he told me it hadn’t been so simple. ‘I had my wife to think of. I couldn’t tell her I’d got Donna pregnant.’

  ‘And you’d already put Donna through one abortion.’

  ‘I’m not proud of that, but what could I do? I had my business to think about, and so did Donna. She wanted to be a singer and I was managing her band. They weren’t up to much, but in those days my dick ruled my head. I wanted to have some fun with her, and she was willing. I had the money and influence to throw around and she liked it that way. It was convenient for both of us.’

  ‘Like with Julie?’

  ‘That was different.’

  ‘How?’

  ‘I would have left my wife for her.’

  I laughed.

  Salford leant forward, pointing at me.

  ‘Show me some respect, or I’ll start to get fucking annoyed. I’m letting you sit in my office and talk to me like this, so watch your mouth.’

  I held his stare, saying nothing, waiting for him to continue. ‘Julie was everything my wife wasn’t. In many ways, we were perfect together. But at the end of the day, I stayed with my wife for the kids and because it’s easier.’

  I thought back to Richardson’s small flat and the situation she found herself in. ‘But you had to cut her face to shreds?’ She wanted revenge.

  ‘Sometimes you have to do things you don’t like. I work in a difficult industry, as I’m sure you appreciate. If I let people take advantage of me, I’m finished. And when she grassed on me, I had no choice. I couldn’t have it.’

  ‘Couldn’t you have told her to disappear?’

  Salford laughed and shook his head. ‘She had to pay for what she’d done. It was expected.’

  ‘How did you find her if she was in a safe house?’ I asked, remembering what Branning hold told me.

  ‘You pay the right people. Nothing more difficult than that.’

  The case had haunted Branning. He’d wasted his life chasing a ghost. People like Salford are always one step ahead of the police. ‘Don’t you feel any remorse?’

  ‘For Julie?’

  ‘Or Donna.’

  He poured himself another drink and thought about the question.

  ‘However I reckon it up, Julie got what was coming to her. She was a big girl and happy enough to take the money and all the trimmings when it suited her. If you do that, you have responsibilities. Number one on the list is to keep your mouth shut.’

  I felt ill sat in his office. The air seemed to be warmer, the room smaller. I had to press on. ‘What about Donna? She hadn’t done anything wrong.’

  He slugged back his whiskey. ‘You’re probably about right. I paid for her abortion and I thought she’d learn the lesson. She couldn’t have the baby. I didn’t want it, and knowing her family, I bet they didn’t, either. After a bit, things got back to normal and I thought that was it. Before she disappeared, she started to make noises to others that she might be pregnant, but I never got chance to talk to her. She left.’

  ‘Did you pay her off?’

  ‘Didn’t get the chance. She just went. Everybody assumed she’d gone to London, like she’d always threatened to.’

  ‘And you didn’t care?’

  ‘Not at the time, no. I didn’t want a baby and it saved me a headache. Besides, I didn’t
know for certain she was pregnant.’

  ‘You knew.’ I could see how it would have unfolded. Salford was used to rampaging around the city, doing as he pleased. A pregnant teenager causing trouble for him with his wife didn’t appeal very much. Having forced Donna into one abortion, he’d have no problems with her having another, however much persuading she needed. The room was silent other than for the clock on his desk. ‘What’s the situation with Chelsea?’

  ‘What?’ I couldn’t believe he was even asking the question.

  ‘Do you think I could see her?’

  ‘Shouldn’t think so.’

  Salford sighed. ‘I’d just like to see her, see what she looks like.’

  I thought about Debbie to remind myself what I was doing here. Salford opened a drawer and put a cheque book on the table.

  ‘I want you to speak to Donna for me. I’ll pay you. I need to know something about my daughter, however small or insignificant it seems to you. I just want to know something.’

  I shook my head. ‘I can’t do that.’

  ‘Why not? I’m paying you.’

  ‘Find somebody else. I’m not interested in helping you.’

  He wrote out a cheque and handed it over. Payable to cash. ‘Can you make sure Donna gets this? Call it back pay for Chelsea’s maintenance.’

  The cheque was for £25,000. ‘I’ll see what I can do’ putting it in my pocket. I doubted Donna would take it, but it wasn’t my decision to make. If she decided to cash the cheque, Salford would know about it.

  Salford stood up and took a cigarette out of his pocket. ‘Smoke?’

  I shook my head.

  ‘Probably wise of you. I’m going to go outside and have this. You’re going to stay here and wait for me and then we’ll talk about what you really came here for.’

  Salford poured us both another whiskey. I left mine sitting in front of me. I was starting to feel the effects of the alcohol and I wanted to keep a clear head. I needed to keep asking questions.

  ‘I’m dying’ Salford said to me.

  I looked at him properly. His skin was pale, his eyes had little colour in them. I put his weariness down to the kind of life he led, but now he’d said it, it made sense.

  ‘The doctor’s say there’s nothing they can do for me, and believe me, I’ve had second and third opinions on it. I’ll be dead within the year.’