Tainted Lives

by Mandasue Heller

  ‘I can’t take the risk,’ West said. ‘Come on, lad. Pack it up.’

  ‘All right,’ Harry agreed. ‘Just give me a minute to get out of the application.’

  Thinking that Harry was disconnecting, West breathed a loud sigh of relief. ‘You’re a bloody genius, I’ll give you that,’ he said, taking a wander around the suite. ‘You should come and work for my lot. You’d have every criminal on record stitched up in no time.’

  ‘Think they’d pay what I earn now?’ Harry grinned wryly over his shoulder.

  ‘You’ve got a point there,’ West conceded. ‘Probably wouldn’t earn enough in a lifetime to afford a week in this joint.’ Looking around now at the plush couches arranged as a sort of informal conference area, the enormous, comfortable-looking bed just visible through a dividing door, the not-so-mini bar, he whistled through his teeth. ‘I didn’t know they had places like this in Manchester.’

  ‘It is nice, isn’t it?’ Harry said, his eyes still riveted to the screen. ‘I had to get the best to keep my mother from freaking out. She thinks Manchester’s some kind of slum where the rats and the people coexist in perfect harmony.’

  ‘It is,’ West chuckled.

  ‘Got it!’ Harry exclaimed suddenly. ‘Look, Mr – Tony.’

  ‘What d’y’ mean, “got it”?’ West demanded, hurrying back to Harry and peering at the screen. Single-view now, it was the opening page of the Central Health Register. West felt a thrill of pure panic. ‘Oh, for fuck’s sake, Harry, I thought you were turning it off.’

  ‘I will – in a minute. But we’re in now, we might as well have a quick look.’

  ‘Make it quicker than quick,’ West scolded, intrigued despite himself.

  Tapping in Mullen, Harry added Walker/Ford/Owens/Johnson, then Manchester: Central, sex: female, age: twenty-seven. Pressing enter, he almost cheered when the information they had been looking for appeared as if by magic.

  Name: Sarah Louise Mullen. Born: St Mary’s Maternity Hospital, Manchester. 08.10.77. Mother: Margaret Linda Mullen–Spinster. Father: Unknown. Address: 12Corbett Street, Longsight, Manchester.

  ‘Get to the latest entry,’ West ordered, desperate to get disconnected before the SAS came flying through the window.

  ‘She’s not seen a doctor this year,’ Harry said, scrolling back. ‘Ah, here we are. Last medical information logged in February 2003. Missed appointment with a bereavement counsellor.’ He looked up at West questioningly. ‘Wonder what that’s all about?’

  ‘No details?’

  ‘Well, I could get into the records of the GP who put her forward for it, but I don’t really want to intrude on her personal files unless we absolutely have to.’

  ‘Yeah, whatever.’ West flapped an impatient hand at the screen. ‘What else?’

  ‘July 2000,’ Harry read. ‘Appointment at an antenatal clinic – one month check-up of her daughter, Kimberley Marie Owens.’ Sighing, he rested his elbows on the bureau and brought his hands up to his mouth. Seeing in black and white that Sarah was a mother had made him feel peculiar. Pulling himself together after a moment, he cleared his throat. ‘Well, I guess it’s clear what her name is now. She obviously married Pete.’

  ‘Pete? He was one of the gang, wasn’t he?’

  ‘Yeah. Vinnie’s best mate.’

  Shaking his head, West said, ‘Wonder what attracted her to one of your tormentors?’

  ‘He wasn’t the worst,’ Harry murmured, squashing down the feeling of betrayal. ‘He always just seemed to be going along with whatever Vinnie wanted, but I got the impression he wasn’t particularly comfortable when it got vicious. Maybe he changed when he got free of Vinnie? Stranger things have happened.’

  ‘They have that,’ West agreed, putting a fatherly hand on Harry’s shoulder. The lad was obviously suffering. ‘Is there an address?’

  ‘Flat three, Danika Court, Hulme.’

  ‘Phone number?’

  ‘Yeah. It’s . . .’

  Jotting it and the address down, West repocketed his notepad. ‘Right, turn it off,’ he said, sighing with relief when the screen immediately went blank. ‘And don’t ever do that to me again, you little shit. I’m too old for that kind of malarkey.’

  Pulling up outside Danika Court a short while later, West unclipped his seat belt.

  ‘Come on, let’s go see if she’s in.’

  ‘I don’t think I should come.’ Harry peered out at the flats, his heart sinking at the thought of his lovely Sarah spending her days and nights within those drab walls. ‘It might be better if you speak to her on your own. Pete might get annoyed if I turn up accusing his best mate of all sorts.’

  ‘Okay, wait here, then. I’ll try and get her alone, tell her you want to see her. If she wants to discuss it with hubby afterwards, that’s her business. Won’t be long.’

  Harry watched until West had disappeared through the flats’ communal door. Letting his gaze wander, he tutted with disapproval at a gang of kids throwing bricks at an abandoned car on a patch of waste ground. This wouldn’t happen in Surrey’s leafy suburbs. The police would have rounded them up and prosecuted the parents by now.

  He was just wondering how he could have become so far removed from this kind of normality after spending his first ten years living exactly like this when the car door was yanked open. His heart catapulted into his throat.

  ‘Shit!’ he squawked when West jumped in. ‘You scared the bloody life out of me! I thought someone was hijacking the car.’

  ‘This shit-heap?’ West chuckled. ‘I don’t think so. It’s all Beemers and Porsches with this lot. She’s not here.’

  ‘Oh?’ Harry was disappointed. ‘Did you speak to the neighbours? She might be having coffee with a friend or something.’

  ‘More likely a beer and a spliff round here. But it’s not that. She’s moved. A month ago, according to the woman next door – not long after her husband died.’

  ‘Pete’s dead?’

  ‘Yup.’ West started the car and pulled away. ‘Crushed by a train. Oh, shit!’ He slapped a hand down on the steering wheel. ‘I remember that. Pete Owens. Yeah. He drove onto the tracks, doped himself up with smack and alcohol, then just waited for the train to do the rest.’

  ‘Suicide?’

  ‘Well, yeah.’

  ‘Christ. That’s awful. No wonder Sarah needed counselling.’

  ‘Obviously she didn’t, seeing as she missed the appointment,’ West reminded him. ‘Anyway, it looks like she might be getting a different kind of comfort.’

  ‘Oh?’ Harry sensed that he wasn’t going to like what he was about to hear. He was right.

  ‘Seems she had a fella coming round after hubby snuffed it. Apparently, he started staying over a few weeks after the funeral. Then, about a month back, Sarah and the kiddie moved out and the new bloke helped take her stuff away – what she didn’t leave or give away, that is. Looks like she did a complete clear-out. Only took clothes and toys, and a couple of personal bits.’

  ‘Think she moved into a furnished place?’

  ‘More likely in with lover boy, and he didn’t want reminders of his predecessor.’

  ‘Not likely to forget if he’s got to look at the guy’s daughter every day.’

  ‘Shouldn’t be a problem if he’s a decent bloke.’

  ‘What’s his name?’

  ‘No idea. Seems our Sarah’s as reserved as ever. She didn’t tell the neighbours anything. First they knew was when they saw her taking the boxes out.’

  ‘So what do we do now?’

  ‘The neighbour reckons Sarah’s best mate might know where she’s gone.’

  ‘Oh, right,’ Harry murmured, feeling a sharp twinge of jealousy. He had always thought of himself as her best mate. Still did, even after all these years.

  ‘Whatever he’s done, I’m not interested,’ Hannah said when West flashed his badge. ‘I haven’t seen hide nor hair of him for three days, so you’re wasting your time asking me where he is. What’s he done,
anyway?’ she asked then, folding her arms.

  Smiling, West said, ‘I wouldn’t know, love. I don’t know who you’re talking about.’

  ‘You’re not looking for Steve?’ She narrowed her eyes.

  ‘Not unless he’s the one Sarah Owens went off with.’

  ‘Sarah!’ She snorted. ‘With my Steve? You must be joking. He wouldn’t go near her if I was dead and buried.’

  Harry felt himself bristle.

  ‘I thought you were supposed to be her best mate?’ West said.

  ‘Yeah, I am. I love the girl. It’s just my Steve ain’t too fond. He thinks she’s stuck-up.’

  ‘Ah, I see . . . Would it be possible to come in for a moment and have a little chat about her?’

  ‘If you’re not gonna be long.’ Hannah stepped back. ‘Only I’ve got to go and pick my little one up from the youthy in fifteen minutes.’

  ‘Shouldn’t take long.’ Smiling, West went inside and took a seat at the kitchen table. ‘Bigger than they look, these houses, aren’t they?’ he commented, looking around. ‘Couldn’t fillet a fish in my place.’ It was a lie, but he knew the women in these areas liked to think they were a step up the ladder. And feeding their egos tended to loosen their glued-shut mouths.

  ‘I like it.’ Hannah sounded proud. ‘Especially since the Direct Works put the new units in. I got to choose for the whole block, so I got the best. See that?’ She pointed at a tall free-standing unit. ‘They threw that in extra. None of the others have got one. Only me.’

  ‘It’s really nice.’ West nodded approvingly. ‘Classy.’

  ‘Cup of tea?’ Hannah offered, suddenly in no hurry to get rid of them. The beauty of her new units hadn’t quite worn off yet and she still enjoyed showing them off. But, more importantly, she wanted to hear what West had to say about Sarah. No one had heard from her since she’d left, and Hannah couldn’t wait to spread the gossip.

  ‘That’d be nice, thanks. Harry?’

  ‘Er, yeah, thanks,’ Harry muttered, sitting down. He thought the units were cheap crap. And if she made another crack about Sarah, he’d tell her.

  ‘So, what’s Sarah been up to?’ Hannah asked, handing the teas out and plonking herself down at the table with a greedy gleam in her eye.

  ‘She hasn’t done anything wrong,’ West said, disappointing her. ‘We just need to talk to her, and her neighbour said you might know where to find her.’

  ‘Well, I don’t,’ she told him gloomily. ‘She never even said she was going till the day itself, and then she didn’t say where, She just said she’d get in touch.’

  ‘And has she?’

  ‘Not yet, no. But she will. We were like that, me and her.’ Hannah showed them her crossed fingers. ‘It was me who helped her through it all when Pete died, you know? Poor cow didn’t know if she was coming or going, so I had to take over most of the arrangements. I went to the inquest with her, an’ all. Right joke, that was.’

  ‘Oh?’ West raised an eyebrow. ‘What happened?’

  ‘The judge making out like Pete was a junkie.’ She pursed her lips disapprovingly and reached for a cigarette. ‘He wasn’t, and I said as much to your lot, but they were dead set.’

  ‘As I recall,’ said West, ‘the autopsy revealed he’d taken heroin before the crash.’

  ‘So they said, but I know he didn’t,’ Hannah stated authoritatively. ‘But would they listen to me? Would they buggery. I reckon he was spiked, and I stand by that. I knew Pete. Drink and dope, yeah. But smack? No way!’

  ‘What did Sarah think?’

  ‘Same as me, to start with. But she changed her mind once she heard the autopsy report. She got real pissed-off with Pete after that, said he’d taken the easy way out and dumped all his shit on her and Kimmy.’

  ‘Pretty typical reaction,’ West remarked, lighting a cigarette. ‘Especially after a suicide.’

  ‘Yeah, but it wasn’t, was it? And if Sarah was any kind of wife, she wouldn’t have been so quick to condemn him like that. He might have been a waste of space, but what man isn’t? He had nowt on my Steve when it came to being a shit. She should have thought herself lucky.’

  ‘So they weren’t too happy?’

  ‘They were okay. No better or worse than anyone else. Not bad enough for him to do what they said he did, I’ll tell you that for nothing.’

  ‘Sounds like you don’t think too much of her?’ Harry interjected, trying not to let his disapproval show.

  ‘It’s not that, love.’ Hannah looked at him for the first time. ‘I just don’t agree with how she handled things. She’s my best mate and I do care about her, but I wish she’d done better by Pete after he died. She did her best when he was alive, bless her, but carrying on with his mate straight after like that . . .’ Leaving the rest unsaid, she shook her head and dragged deeply on the cigarette.

  ‘His mate?’ West cast a glance at Harry.

  ‘Yeah, Vinnie.’ She spat the name out. ‘Sarah fetched him round one time when she come to get Kimmy. I’d had the kid for a couple of days, you see – giving Sarah a bit of space to get her head together. Anyhow, she turns up this night with him, and suddenly she’s all fine.’

  ‘You say his name was Vinnie?’

  ‘Yeah. Said he was an old friend of hers and Pete’s and he was looking after her.’ Snorting softly, Hannah flicked her cigarette aggressively. ‘That’s what I didn’t agree with. It wasn’t decent so soon after Pete. But you can’t tell Sarah nowt once she’s made her mind up.’

  ‘Is she still seeing him?’ West asked, feeling the emotions coming off Harry in waves.

  ‘Pfft! It’s him she’s gone to live with.’ Hannah rolled her eyes. ‘Not right, that. Shouldn’t do it to the kiddie. She’s only just lost her daddy, and all of a sudden she’s got a new one. Poor little thing hasn’t got a clue, she’s just all excited about being a bridesmaid.’

  ‘Bridesmaid?’ West’s eyebrows rose sharply. ‘They’re getting married?’

  ‘So she says. I told her she was being an idiot rushing into it like that, but she reckoned they was going to wait a few months.’

  ‘Have they set a date?’

  ‘Yeah, Kimmy’s birthday. But I couldn’t tell you when that is. Round summer, I think.’

  ‘June,’ Harry murmured, remembering the date of the one-month check-up.

  ‘Yeah, somewhere in the middle,’ Hannah said. Then, catching sight of the time: ‘Oh, sugar! I’m gonna be late.’

  West stood up. ‘Sorry for keeping you so long. Can we drop you off somewhere?’

  ‘No, thanks.’ She yanked her coat on. ‘I don’t want to be seen in a car with a pair of five-Os. People round here can smell you lot a mile off. They’d think I was a grass or something. No offence.’

  ‘None taken.’ West smiled. ‘One last thing . . . I don’t suppose you’d know where Vinnie lives?’

  ‘Never asked.’ Hannah opened the back door and stepped outside, waiting for them to follow so that she could lock up. ‘Didn’t like him, so I wasn’t exactly planning on visiting.’

  ‘Been invited to the wedding?’

  ‘Have I buggery, and I doubt he’d let her ask me even if she wanted to. You could see in his eyes he couldn’t stand me. Couldn’t wait to get her away that time they came for Kimmy. If she had any sense, she’d run a mile and never look back.’

  ‘Oh?’ West held the gate open to let Hannah out of the garden.

  ‘If you ask me, he’s not right,’ she said, her voice and face clearly displaying her dislike of the man. ‘Looking down his nose at me and Steve like we was dirt. And I thought it was weird how he thanked me for looking after her, like I’d done him a favour. I said she was my mate, so course I’m gonna look after her, but you could still tell he was trying to cut me out of the picture. Anyhow, don’t suppose it’s much help, but he was driving a right flash black jeep when he brought her round that time. Proper shiny it was, with blacked-out windows and that.’

  ‘Don’t suppose you’d know the
registration?’ West asked, thinking the chances were zero.

  ‘I do, as it happens.’ Hannah was smug. ‘VW One-One. Said to my Steve at the time how it should have been on a Volkswagen not a jeep.’

  Shaking his head approvingly, West said, ‘You are a true star, Mrs . . . ?’

  ‘Hannah will do,’ she said, buttoning her tent-like coat. ‘You lot and last names always spells trouble in my book.’

  Climbing into the car, West and Harry watched until Hannah had waddled out of view.

  ‘You can say what you like about the people round here,’ West remarked, ‘but they’re not short of nous. Looks like she had your mate sussed from the off.’

  ‘He’s no mate of mine,’ Harry muttered darkly.

  Picking up on his distress, West said, ‘I know it’s a shock, son, but Sarah’s not stupid. If she thinks she’s in danger, she’ll get herself out of it.’

  ‘What if she doesn’t realize?’ Harry’s face was pale and troubled. ‘And what if we don’t find her?’

  ‘Don’t panic.’ West started the car. ‘It’ll be a piece of piss tracking him down with a number plate like that.’

  40

  Vinnie still hadn’t come home by eight but Sarah wasn’t overly concerned. He quite often got back a lot later than this. And after his tantrum earlier, she wouldn’t be surprised if he went for a drink or five before coming back with his tail between his legs.

  She’d just put Kimmy to bed when she heard his mobile phone ringing. Smiling, she went through to the living room, glad that he’d decided to come back early after all. They’d be able to clear the air now and still have enough of the night left to crack a bottle of wine and watch a nice romantic film before making up properly.

  Vinnie wasn’t there, but the phone was still ringing. Following the sound, she traced it to the floor behind the couch where it had fallen when he threw his jacket there. Picking it up just as it stopped ringing, she frowned at the name displayed on the screen: Carina.

  Who the hell was Carina?

  Sarah sat down heavily, her heart hammering in her chest. Could this be the reason he’d been so distant lately? Did he have another woman?