Bad Blood

by Kelleher, Casey

  ‘Oh go on then, Dad. But only if I can have pepperoni.’ Evie smiled.

  ‘I will too, I’m starving. Then I’m going to hit the hay.’ Kelly yawned. Her dad had set up the spare room for her and while she was knackered, it would be a shame to go to bed so early. The kids were over at Terry’s mum’s house for the night, and Kelly wanted to make the most of her very rare night of freedom. Besides, sleeping here would be like staying in a five star hotel compared with going home. Kelly knew as soon as her head hit the pillow she’d be out for the count. Heaven. Before that, a slice of pizza and one more drink was just what she needed.

  ‘Dad. You’ve got a visitor.’ Nathan showed Officer Mansell in and then stood in the doorway with his brother and Raymond, observing.

  ‘I’m so sorry to bother you this late at night, Harry,’ Mansell apologised profusely. Turning up at Harry’s place at this time of the night was a liberty, he knew, but he didn’t have any choice. ‘I’ve been trying to get hold of you all evening. I just wanted to give you the heads up before some of my colleagues turn up.’

  ‘Your colleagues? What do they want?’ Harry asked coolly. Shocked that Mansell had showed up unannounced like this, and aware that his youngest daughter was in the room, Harry hoped that whatever it was that the officer had to tell him was bloody worth the rude interruption.

  ‘It’s Terry . . .’

  ‘Terry?’ Harry felt himself stiffen at the mention of his useless son-in-law’s name.

  What had the dipstick done now? If Terry had dropped him in it, there was going to be a world of shit.

  ‘Terry? What’s happened to him?’ Hearing her husband’s name, Kelly sat bolt upright in her chair, suddenly feeling sick with trepidation. Staring from her father to the officer, she felt a flutter of panic rise up inside her.

  Their conversation earlier suddenly sprang to the forefront of her mind. He had sounded really upset. Irate even. Maybe she had underestimated just how angry he actually was. God, what if he’d done something really stupid. She’d never forgive herself.

  ‘I’m afraid that Terry is missing, Mrs. Stranks.’ Mansell had half hoped that Terry had headed straight here after he’d escaped. But he could tell immediately by the surprise on everyone’s faces that neither Kelly nor Harry was aware that Terry had even bolted, so there was no chance that they were hiding him.

  Unfortunately, Mansell’s governor wouldn’t be so believing. Already, half the squad had their money on the fact that Terry would be lurking around here somewhere, hidden under the false security of his notorious father-in-law’s shady wings. They were going to be turning up any minute.

  Terry had actually done right by Harry, and kept his trap shut since he’d been brought in. Mansell’s colleagues had no evidence that Harry was even involved, only hearsay and a strong suspicion. They’d thought that they’d get Terry to talk too; they’d even managed to put the shitters up him by threatening him with a hefty prison sentence.

  Terry looked like a man that they could easily break down, and just a few choice words could have led them to the man they really wanted to catch.

  Harry.

  Now he’d done a runner and Mansell was in deep shit because of it.

  ‘What do you mean, Terry is missing? How can he be? You lot only nicked him yesterday. He’s in hospital under bloody police arrest.’ Kelly narrowed her eyes accusingly. She had only spoken to Terry a few hours ago. This officer had obviously got his facts wrong.

  ‘I’m afraid that he absconded from the hospital earlier this evening. We are doing everything in our power to locate him. We’ve got one of our units watching out for him over at his home address – your home address – and we’ve just sent another to his previous address, which we believe is his parents’.’ Mansell turned to Harry apologetically. ‘But the governor wants this place searched too.’

  ‘Why? Terry ain’t bloody here. What does Porter think he’s playing at, huh? He knows not to come sniffing around here.’ Harry shook his head. The last thing he wanted was the pigs round, tearing his place up. Not that they would find anything. That wasn’t the point. They couldn’t just turn up here as and when they felt like it.

  ‘It ain’t him, Harry. The order came from higher up. Porter tried to hold them off, but they ain’t budging on this, and they can’t just take your word on it, Harry, they want to see for themselves. My head’s already on the chopping board because Terry did his little Houdini routine under my watch, and not only that but he’s gone and caused a whole world of shit for himself too. He’s a wanted man. Even more so after tonight’s antics. Gone and caused murders he has.’

  Harry raised an eyebrow, questioning Mansell.

  ‘He battered one of the hospital porters. Left the bloke in a bad way too. Smashed the poor guy’s skull in . . . He’s in the ICU and he’s critical,’ Mansell added, just so Harry would realise the seriousness of the situation.

  Putting her hand to her mouth, Kelly gasped in disbelief. ‘No, not Terry. He wouldn’t have done that . . .’ Kelly’s hand shook as she tried to take everything in.

  ‘Fucking hell.’ Harry shook his head. Terry had just made the situation a million times worse. There would be no coming back from this. He was a wanted man now.

  ‘Well I think me and the boys should get out there and have a look for him too,’ Raymond chipped in as Kelly broke down crying. ‘Better that one of us finds him than the Old Bill.’

  Harry nodded. Raymond knew everyone, so once word got out that Terry was on the missing list it wouldn’t take long for someone to come forward with an idea about where he might be holed up. Harry would put money on it.

  ‘I better ring Freda, she’s got the kids for the night. She’ll be having a fit if the police have turned up and told her what her precious bloody son’s gone and done now. She’ll be a nervous wreck.’

  Harry nodded as Kelly went out to the kitchen to phone her unsuspecting mother-in-law.

  ‘Like I said, Harry, I’m sorry to disturb you. I knew you’d want a heads up. The governor is shitting bricks over all this as it is.’

  Harry nodded. He appreciated that Mansell was risking himself further by personally coming here to deliver the news himself. ‘I’ll walk you out,’ he offered, as he led the way to the front door.

  ‘If you spot him, I want to be the first to know, you got me?’ Harry said sternly as he thanked Mansell for his services by slipping some notes into his hand.

  Mansell nodded. It went without saying that Harry would be the first person he called. Harry knew that.

  Look after Harry Woods and Harry Woods would look after you. That was always Mansell’s priority.

  People who said crime didn’t pay talked out of their arses as far as Mansell was concerned.

  ‘You can count on it.’ Mansell nodded gratefully.

  Watching as the officer crossed the driveway through the pouring rain and hurriedly got into his car, Harry let out a long, controlled breath.

  Terry was now a wanted man, with a list of offences that were getting longer and more serious by the second. If Terry got caught now, he’d be looking at doing a real stretch.

  Which meant that the chances of him opening his trap to try to wangle himself a deal had just soared sky fucking high.

  Staring until the officer’s rear lights had shrunk in the distance, and slipped out of view, Harry stood for a few more seconds. Savouring the calm before the storm.

  Raymond was right. They needed to find Terry before the police did and make sure that he didn’t open his mouth. Before they disappeared off to look for him, Harry wanted to speak to Raymond and the boys alone.

  They needed to sort this shit out once and for all.

  He’d worked too hard for too long building up his business for someone like Terry Stranks to fuck it up for him now.

  If Terry was already playing games in order to save his own ar
se then there was no telling what he might do next.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Soaked through, Terry pulled the sopping wet hospital gown up and over his head and slung it over the stable doors. Standing there naked, his body shook uncontrollably as he unclipped the horse’s worn looking blanket.

  ‘I’m sorry, mate, but I need this more than you do. I’m freezing my nads off here.’ Terry eyed the horse as he pulled the blanket from his body, but if Terry’s presence was causing the animal any unease, the horse didn’t show it.

  Huddling in the corner, Terry wrapped the blanket tightly around himself, tucking his freezing cold feet deep into the bale of hay. The barn was damp and the stench of horse shit and piss was so strong that he couldn’t help but gag. Seeing as it was pissing it down outside, Terry was just glad of the shelter.

  ‘Fuck,’ he grimaced as a prick of brambles hidden amongst the dry straw plunged into the open gash on the sole of his foot. Pulling his foot back out from the bale, he saw that his feet were cut to ribbons. The small areas of exposed skin that hadn’t been shredded were covered with large red welts.

  He had run for miles tonight, through the dense woodland. He’d felt the jagged branches and twigs crunching beneath his bare skin as he had run, slicing viciously through his skin like jagged knives penetrating hot butter.

  Still, he had continued. He had no choice.

  Now, carefully wrapping the blanket around his feet, Terry winced in pain.

  Knackered, he clawed big handfuls of hay in around his body, surrounding himself in a mock cocoon.

  The horse stood watching, then as if bored by his unexpected visitor, he turned and stood at the other end of the stable, his back to Terry.

  Closing his eyes, Terry lay his head back against the dry straw that he’d scooped behind him as a makeshift pillow. His mind was racing as he wondered how many police officers would be searching for him. He’d heard the sirens as he darted through the trees. On foot and hidden in the undergrowth, no matter how big the search party was they’d have their work cut out if they wanted to find him.

  He’d knocked that porter clean out.

  It was all that sour-faced bitch of a nurse’s fault. If she hadn’t sent the poor guy in to escort him while he was taking a piss none of this would have happened. The bloke wouldn’t have got hurt.

  Just thinking about that sickening crack he’d heard as he bounced the man’s head off the tap still made him feel physically sick. He could still visualise the bloke’s body, slumped lifelessly on the toilet floor.

  It had been an accident, hitting him that hard; Terry’s strength had surprised even him.

  Still, it was done now. He’d escaped, that was the main thing.

  When Terry had spotted this place, he hadn’t believed his luck. He was exhausted, and this little old barn was a perfect place to hide out in while he got some well-earned rest.

  Terry had seen an old farmhouse a couple of hundred metres away in the distance, where a lonely porch light shone out indicating that there were signs of life, but otherwise the house stood in darkness. He figured that he’d be safe to hide out here for at least a few hours.

  Closing his eyes, Terry listened to the sound of the raindrops dripping through the hole in the roof, as he tried to figure out what his next move would be. The police were bound to have his house covered, so he wouldn’t be able to go back there.

  If he tried to call Kelly, she’d more than likely tell her dad. Right now Harry Woods getting wind of his whereabouts was the last thing that Terry wanted.

  Kelly might be gullible, but he wasn’t. He didn’t trust that man an inch.

  Terry was stumped. He didn’t have a clue what to do next.

  All he did know was that he couldn’t get caught.

  He wouldn’t survive five minutes in prison, let alone five years. Not a chance.

  His plan had been to escape. After that he had no idea what he was going to do next. He hadn’t thought that far ahead.

  Right now, alone and exhausted, all Terry Stranks wanted to do was sleep.

  Chapter Twenty

  Yanking down the tight red miniskirt that had ridden up around her waist as she had crouched down, exposing her minuscule thong and her pasty white arse cheeks, Paige Carter continued to brush her hand through the grass scouting for discarded dog-ends. She was on a come-down and desperately needed some nicotine to take the edge off. The heroin-induced high she had experienced earlier had long worn off, and already she was clucking for her next fix.

  ‘Shit.’ Knocking her bag over, Paige watched as the contents tumbled out; a lip gloss and a pound coin rolled off the small stone wall and dropped down into the water with a small splash.

  Sighing, she shoved the remaining contents roughly back in her bag. The lip gloss she could live without, but she had planned on using that last pound to buy a pack of Rizla on the way home. She’d been picking up manky cigarette ends for the past ten minutes so that she could make herself a couple of decent sized smokes.

  She’d have to try to ponce some money off someone on the way back home now, but at just gone three in the morning she’d be lucky if there was anyone around. Anyone worth talking to anyway.

  She should be kicking herself for spending all her money on her hit earlier, but even she knew that if the chance to score came up again and she had the money, she wouldn’t think twice about going for it. Shooting up, she had waited eagerly for the initial hit to get her, willing the rush to take over. She lived for that rush.

  When it had come, it came hard and fast.

  She was no longer slumped up against the dirty wall in the secluded cold underpass, just a skanky druggy with vacant eyes and a deadened soul, with a dirty needle sticking out of her arm.

  No, instead Paige was transported a million miles away from the shithole that was her grim reality.

  Flying high for those few short hours, she felt the warmth that she longed for, that she craved. Right down to her bones. The rush she got from it was one of the best feelings in the entire world. The hit had been just what she needed. Mind-numbingly potent, she had surrendered her mind and body to it completely, embracing the oblivion that it gave her.

  It was euphoric, but as always it hadn’t lasted nearly long enough. Her habit was getting worse.

  She lived and breathed for her next hit. Even the threats from her pimp, Rusty, about what he would do to her if she rocked up back home with nothing to show for her night’s earn didn’t scare her nearly enough anymore to be seen as a deterrent. Heroin was all she could think about, from the minute she woke up until the minute she finally slipped into her bed at night.

  She needed the drug like she needed oxygen.

  Rusty would go ape shit later, and he’d probably beat the hell out of her like he had last time. The memory of him dragging her around their flat by her hair as he whacked her head off every surface was still fresh in her mind, but so was the feeling of her last hit.

  And that recollection was far stronger.

  Out here on the streets, touting for business and getting into cars with strange men, it was soul destroying. She earned her money the only way she knew how: by letting men paw her body as they made her perform countless shameful acts.

  Heroin helped her to forget all of that. It helped her to survive.

  Her hunger for her addiction far outweighed any promises she had made to Rusty. It wasn’t him who had to lie down with his legs wide open, while vile disgusting men used his body for their own sexual satisfaction. It wasn’t him who was humiliated and violated on a daily basis.

  Picking out one of the fag butts that she had stowed away in her bag for later, Paige sat back down on the wall, and lit it. Ignoring the acidic taste of what could have been dog piss on her lips, she relaxed as she took a long pull of the fag.

  As she cast her eye over the Thames, she thought that the rive
r always appeared so breathtakingly beautiful at night. Paige felt the familiar sadness inside her as she took in the glistening lights from the bridges and buildings as their reflections shone down like mesmerising pools of colourful magic, dancing on the water’s surface.

  She was too old to believe in magic, and too cynical. She knew better than most that the world was really a cruel and unforgiving place. Shaking her head at her naivety, she knew that like everything, the river’s beauty was just an illusion. If she looked closer she could see the thick film of scum that floated up against the wall where she sat.

  Shivering, Paige wrapped her arms around herself; hugging her body, she tried to keep warm.

  A car had just pulled in slightly further up, catching her attention, and Paige stared suspiciously as it parked on the grass verge.

  Her patch was a notorious working girls’ spot, but the other girls had gone home now. The chances of someone driving out here looking for business at this time of the morning were slim.

  Watching as the big burly bloke got out of his flash motor and started to walk down towards her, Paige took in his immaculate suit and his well-groomed appearance. He was massive. His huge frame looked even bigger than Rusty’s, and Rusty was one of the biggest men that Paige had ever seen.

  He was a punter, she was sure.

  The Old Bill wouldn’t have been so conspicuous. They would have turned up wearing a stereotypical anorak or something; they stood out a mile off and Paige could always tell a copper from a genuine paying customer.

  Getting up as the man neared, Paige stuck out her tiny chest, and plastered one of her irresistible smiles on her face. It made a change to see a decent looking fella out looking for a lay. Especially one as good looking as this guy; he couldn’t have been short of offers from girls. Still, Paige knew how it worked. He was probably married, and fancied a bit of strange to relieve himself from the boredom of monogamy.