Retriever of Souls

by Lorraine Mace

  “I went back for it and found... someone... crying. She’s not in my class, she’s a year younger than me, but I know her quite well because our class practises with hers. Anyway, she was all on her own in there and sobbing her heart out. I asked... her... what was wrong and she went mental, saying she couldn’t tell me, she couldn’t tell anyone or he’d kill her. All that sort of stuff. Anyway, I calmed her down and just sat there with her, you know? Just talking crap, sorry, talking about this and that. Anyway, it turns out she’s had sex. And she’d been forced, Dad. Not just once, either, loads of times by someone much older, but even though she told me that, she still wouldn’t tell me who’d done it because he’d kill her. She was hiding out so he wouldn’t find her.”

  Paolo waited for Katy to continue, but she was looking at him as if she’d reached the end of her story.

  “But what happened next, Katy? How does Father Gregory come into it? Did she tell you it was him?”

  “Not exactly, Dad, but I know it was.”

  He kept his irritation under control, but it was getting harder. “How can you know if she didn’t tell you?”

  “Because he came in. How could he even know she was in there if he hadn’t been following... her?”

  “He might have seen a light on, or even heard your voices if he’d been checking the school buildings; it could have been for any reason.”

  “Yeah, he tried to make out it was all innocent, but I saw how V... she reacted to him. She was terrified! And he offered to take her home and speak to her mother without even asking what was wrong with her. Of course he didn’t need to ask because he already knew and no way was he really going to speak to her mother.”

  “Katy! I can’t believe you’ve built this entire story around Father Gregory without any proof.”

  “But, Dad, listen to me. When he tried to make her go with him she begged him to leave her alone. Said she’d kill herself if he didn’t.”

  “So then what happened?”

  “The creep acted all concerned and asked me to walk home with V... her.” She glared at Paolo. “I know what you’re going to say, but it wasn’t normal behaviour, Dad. You’ve got to believe me. There was something weird going on between them, I could see it. And, what’s more,” she continued on a note of triumph, “you know I said it was really obvious that he knew why she’d been crying? Well, when he went to take hold of her arm, she went absolutely mental, screaming at him to keep away and not touch her. Now why would she do that if he wasn’t the one she was scared of?”

  “I don’t know, Katy, but surely that isn’t all you have to go on? There must be more. Have you spoken to the girl since?”

  Katy shook her head. “No, she’s avoiding me. But not only me, she’s avoiding the creep, too.”

  “Don’t call him that! Not yet anyway. How do you know she’s avoiding him?”

  “Because I was walking behind her the next day and she saw Father Gregory and ducked behind a bush until he’d gone past. Now, you tell me, Dad, why would she do that if she wasn’t scared of him?”

  “Okay, let’s say you’re right. I can’t do anything without proof or a complaint from the girl herself. Here’s what I want you to do. Apologise to Father Gregory...”

  “You must be joking.”

  “Just listen to me, will you. You apologise to Father Gregory. With a bit of luck that will satisfy the school and your case won’t come up before the board.” He smiled at the furious look on her face. “Cheer up, I haven’t finished yet. Once we know you won’t have to worry about getting expelled, I want you to get friendly with the girl and see if you can talk her into making an official complaint. If she does that then I can step in.”

  “But what if she won’t? She’s really scared of him, Dad.”

  “Don’t worry; I’m going to keep an eye on Father Gregory without him knowing. If you watch out for your friend and I keep tabs on him, between us we should find a way to discover the truth. Okay?”

  CHAPTER 10

  Paolo stood opposite Chief Constable Willows and wondered how the first good Monday morning he’d had in months had turned into a nightmare. He should have seen it coming after the weekend he’d had, but no, he’d believed his luck had changed at last and life was finally looking up. When he’d taken Katy home on Saturday to work out how they should handle her apology to the school, Lydia had been so relieved at Katy’s change of heart that she’d actually thrown her arms round Paolo and kissed him. He’d been floating on air ever since – until now.

  He looked around the chief’s office, hoping to find something he could comment on to stop the flow of angry words firing at him from across Willows’ incredibly neat desk. There was nothing. The man didn’t have so much as a photograph Paolo could ask about. Everything was rigidly in its place; even the coat hanging on the rack next to the door had been smoothed into a neat shape. Willows was known to be anally tidy and compulsively private. Paolo doubted that many, apart from him, knew that Dave was the man’s nephew. In Willows’ eyes, the biggest sin a copper could make was to allow private lives to impact on cases. And now he seemed to think that Paolo was guilty of that particular crime.

  “You have a grudge against Matthew Roberts, Paolo, and it’s affecting your judgement.”

  “That’s not the case at all, sir. I think his client is a piece of scum, that’s all.”

  “That isn’t all, damn it! Matthew Roberts tells me that you have been questioning Azzopardi again, Paolo. He’s complained that you are conducting a vendetta against his client. We’ve discussed this, Paolo. You have no proof of Azzopardi’s involvement in any of these recent killings. If you can get the man on something concrete I’ll be the first to back you, but right now it looks as though Roberts has right on his side. You’re hounding Azzopardi on a hunch and Roberts believes it’s to get at him rather than his client. You’d better have solid proof before you go within yards of Azzopardi. Roberts has promised to take action against you personally if you step over the line.”

  Well of course I’m pissed at Roberts, Paolo thought. The man has an above reproach persona and yet he works for scum. He forced himself to keep quiet, to stop the words from spilling out of his mouth. He wasn’t after Azzopardi to get at Roberts, he was after Azzopardi because the bastard was evil through and through. Telling Willows that he knew how Azzopardi operated because he’d known him for years wouldn’t cut any ice. Bradchester was too small for crooks on a national scale, but it was plenty big enough for Azzopardi’s set up. The problem was proving his crimes. Anyone who could testify against him was either too scared to do so or already dead.

  Maybe he wasn’t directly involved in killing the prostitutes, but it certainly benefitted him that his opposition’s girls were dropping out of sight. Paolo wondered if Dave had been able to establish a connection between Azzopardi and Liverpool. Unfortunately he’d been hauled up to Willows’ office before he’d had a chance to ask.

  “Sir, I promise I’ll keep my distance and not give Roberts any ammunition he can use against me.”

  “Good. I’m sure you have your reasons for believing Azzopardi has a hand in these murders, Paolo, and I’d love to see the man behind bars where he belongs, but you need to move very carefully. Roberts is extremely well connected, nationally, not just locally, as you know only too well. He appears on just about every talk show up and down the country. Heed my warning on this and keep me up to date on your progress. Good day.”

  Paolo heard the words of dismissal with relief and left the room. First things first, find out if Azzopardi had any Liverpool connections.

  He entered the main office expecting to see Dave sitting at his desk, but his chair was empty.

  “Anyone seen Dave?” he asked of the room generally, but only received negative responses.

  Paolo recognised a WPC who was dropping papers on one of the desks. She was the girl Dave had chatted up on Gallows Heath. He was about to ask her if she had any idea where Dave was, but spotted the blush that had crep
t up from her neck and suffused her face. Maybe asking her about Dave wouldn’t be the most tactful thing to do.

  He was glad he hadn’t when Dave walked in a few seconds later. The young WPC glared at Dave and walked out. Paolo was almost certain he heard the word bastard directed at Dave, but the WPC had spoken so softly, he couldn’t be sure.

  “Dave, in my office. Now,” Paolo ordered and carried on walking, not waiting to see if Dave was behind him.

  He threw his newspaper on his desk to join the mass of paperwork covering every inch of it, walked behind the desk and sat down. He waited until Dave had closed the door before speaking.

  “Did I hear that WPC calling you a bastard?”

  “I don’t know. Did you, sir?”

  “Don’t get funny with me, Dave. That’s the girl you took out after we found the body on Gallows Heath. Rebecca, I think her name is. Why is she swearing at you?”

  “No idea, sir. I didn’t hear her say anything.”

  Paolo could see from the look on Dave’s face that he didn’t want to talk about whatever was going on between him and Rebecca. Paolo didn’t particularly want to know, but he agreed with Willows, you couldn’t allow your personal life to overlap with the job. It would lead to problems they could do without right now.

  “Okay, must have been my imagination,” Paolo said. “But I don’t want any more opportunities for my imagination to see or hear anything else. Understood?”

  Dave nodded, but kept quiet.

  “Right, moving on. Tell me what you’ve found out about Azzopardi. Any business connections in Liverpool?”

  “Not as far as I’ve been able to ascertain so far, sir, but he does have family in the area. His sister married a Scouser and moved up there some years back. I don’t know how close they are, but Azzopardi might have been up there visiting.”

  Paolo smiled. “Good work, Dave. Get on to CC and fill her in. She and George can do some sniffing around while they’re up there. They might be able to find out if the sister’s husband is in the same line of business as her brother. If he is, what’s the betting they are on visiting terms?”

  “I wouldn’t give you odds, sir. If it’s in the blood then she’s sure to be as bad as Azzopardi.”

  Paolo nodded, although it didn’t always follow that just because one part of a family was as crooked as forked lightning that all the rest were. Maybe this sister wasn’t part of the criminal world, but her living in Liverpool pointed the investigation straight to Azzopardi yet again.

  “Any news on the Albanian pimp?”

  Dave shrugged his shoulders. “According to the girls I’ve managed to speak to, none of them have a pimp. They don’t know what one is. Don’t want to know what one is. And wouldn’t tell me even if they suddenly remembered. Only one thing I know for sure. Whoever is running those girls has them too terrified to say a word to us. Every one of them sweated buckets trying to come up with lies to cover up for the pimp who doesn’t exist. They are shit scared of him and I don’t think it’s just the normal pimp and prostitute power thing. I got the impression he, whoever he may be, has a greater hold over them than that.

  “One thing they did tell me about was a priest who hangs around there most nights. It seems he’s trying to get them to turn to God instead of turning tricks. They look on him as a bit of joke, but he might be worth investigating. They call him Father Gregory.”

  Paolo looked up in surprise. “Do they indeed? Hmm, I think I know who that is. Leave it with me.”

  “Right, you are, sir. I’ll call CC and fill her in on the Azzopardi family connection.”

  The phone rang, so he nodded to Dave to carry on. The caller display showed Lydia’s name. Heart beating just that bit faster, he flipped it open.

  “Paolo here.”

  “Hi. I’ve just left the school. They’ve agreed to let Katy back from tomorrow, but she has to make a public apology to Father Gregory. I’m not sure she’ll do it, Paolo. Can you come over tonight to talk to her?”

  “Sure, of course I will. What time?”

  “You could come for a meal, if you wanted to.”

  Paolo heart rate shot skywards and he almost couldn’t breathe. Don’t fuck this up, he told himself. Trying for nonchalance, he forced his voice to remain level.

  “Yeah, sure, a meal would be nice.”

  “Okay, if you get here at about six then you can talk to Katy while I’m busy in the kitchen. She’s less likely to fight if I’m not in the room. See you then.”

  Paolo remembered Katy’s comment from the weekend.

  “Lyds, before you go. Katy said something odd to me on Saturday. Are you two getting on okay? No problems?”

  He heard a sound between a laugh and sigh before Lydia spoke again.

  “Paolo, she’s fourteen and I’m her mother, of course we’re not getting on okay. She thinks I’m a pain and I think she’s deliberately difficult. But as far as I know we don’t have any real problems. What sort of odd comment?”

  His mouth moved, but the words refused to come out. How could he tell Lydia that Katy felt her own mother would have preferred it if she’d died instead of Sarah? He couldn’t do it.

  “Oh, she made some remark about believing you hated her sometimes.”

  There was silence for a moment. “She throws that comment at me at least once a day, usually when I’ve told her to do something she doesn’t want to do. I don’t know why she says it, or even if she believes it, but then she’s never confided in me the way she does with you. Maybe, while you’re convincing her to make the apology to Father Gregory, you could also find out what I’m doing wrong as a mother and put that right, too. After all, you seem to be Mr Fix-it where she’s concerned.”

  Paolo heard the bitterness in Lydia’s voice, but before he could say anything the phone went dead.

  ***

  Barbara walked into the pub and swallowed back the bile when she saw Larry behind the bar. Even though she knew he would be there, she’d been hoping that something might have happened to stop him from coming down from the flat upstairs. Preferably something excruciatingly painful, but non-infectious, so that Sharon couldn’t catch it. She forced a smile onto her face and walked up to the bar.

  “Hi, Leanna’s meeting me for lunch. What’s today’s special?”

  Larry’s gaze rested just a fraction too long on her breasts before focussing on her face and she felt the usual urge to throw a bucket of cold water over him.

  “There’s no special today. Sharon’s feeling a bit off colour, so I’ve told her to stay upstairs. The girls in the kitchen can handle all the usual stuff, though, so order whatever you fancy from the menu.”

  Barbara forced another smile. “Nothing serious, I hope. Want me to run upstairs and check her over?”

  Larry shook his head. “No, best not. I think she’s sleeping. I’ll tell her you and Leanna were in. You want your usual drinks? Go on over to your table and I’ll bring yours now and Leanna’s when she gets here.”

  Barbara walked away from the bar trying to figure out a legitimate excuse to go up to see Sharon. She was no nearer to thinking one up when Leanna arrived five minutes later. By the time her friend had taken off her coat and sat down, Larry was at the table with her drink.

  “Here you go. That’s my two favourite customers sorted. Give me a shout when you’re ready to order your meals.”

  As he walked away, Leanna turned to Barbara.

  “Okay, what’s going on? Why was it so important that I changed my lunch date to meet you here?”

  Barbara bit her lip. “I was hoping that Sharon would be here. We need to convince her to leave Larry.”

  “Where is she now? Hiding upstairs? Has he started knocking her about again?” She stopped as Barbara signalled with her hands to keep her voice down. “Am I right about Larry hitting her?” she finished on a whisper.

  Barbara nodded and leaned towards Leanna. “Can you think of a way to keep x-ray vision man occupied while I sneak upstairs to talk to Sharo
n? I can’t tell you why, but it’s really important that I go up and talk to her.”

  Leanna sat back against her chair, clearly deep in thought. Then she grinned. “I’ve just remembered one of the many, many conversations where Larry has bored me senseless. It’s payback time. I’m about to play damsel in distress.”

  Barbara signalled to Larry to come over. When he’d finished writing down their food order and was about to turn away, Leanna laid a hand on his arm.

  “Larry, do you know anything about cars?”

  “What sort of anything? Makes, engine types, horsepower? I know a bit. Why?”

  “Have you any idea why my car would start making funny noises?”

  “What sort of noises?” he asked, pulling out a chair and sitting down.

  Leanna put on such a soulful look that Barbara had difficulty holding back a giggle.

  “It starts okay, but after a while the engine seems to shudder and then there’s a sound like metal on metal. It’s in the car park if you want to listen to it.”

  Larry looked around as he stood up. “It’s quiet in here for the minute, so Gareth should be all right on his own for a bit. I’ll just shout your order through to the kitchen and then I’ll be with you,” he said.

  As he walked away Barbara finally let out her pent up laughter. “You might as well have batted your eyelashes and be done with it. Tell me, though, how did you know he’d fall for it?”

  Leanna grinned. “I told you, he’s bored me senseless a number of times. One of them was on the subject of being able to be your own car mechanic. Apparently he thinks no one should be allowed behind the wheel of a car unless they can do their own oil change, whip out an engine with one hand and God knows what else. He spent over an hour telling me about the inner workings of his car one lunch time when you were supposed to meet me here but got held up and couldn’t make it. I nearly hunted you down and slaughtered you that day.”

  Barbara smiled. “Lucky I escaped. By that I mean lucky I escaped the car lecture. Hush now, he’s on his way over.”