Hush Hush

by Mel Sherratt

  ‘Come on now, Grace.’ Eddie’s voice was jovial, almost taunting her with its cheerfulness. ‘No need to take things so personal.’ He paused, steepling his hands together. ‘Speaking of which, you have two nephews who are dying to meet you. My wife is keen too, and I’m sure Kathleen would like to see you again. Any time you’re free to call for Sunday lunch, it will be a pleasure.’

  ‘I think I’ll be pretty tied up for the next fifty years.’ Grace opened the door to leave.

  ‘Do your team know who you are yet?’

  She stopped and turned back to him. It was a threat that he could follow through with at any time.

  ‘It’s none of their business,’ she replied.

  ‘Really?’ Eddie scoffed. ‘I wonder how they’ll react when they realise they’ve been conned. I wouldn’t like to be in your shoes.’

  ‘I wouldn’t like to be in your shoes if I find out that it was you who told them.’

  She stared at him until he dropped his eyes. Then she left to find Perry.

  Damn that man. It was so hard to tread the line between doing her job and keeping a civil tongue in her head. What was it with him and Leon that instantly had her back up?

  ‘Any luck?’ she asked Perry as she rejoined him.

  Perry shook his head. ‘No one heard or saw anything. I would say the loyalty in there is pretty thorough. They don’t even care if they get into trouble.’

  ‘Let’s check his locker before we go.’

  There was nothing in it, except a towel hanging on the inside of the door and a washbag containing a few toiletries.

  Back in her car, Grace pulled out of the car park, trying not to show Perry how rattled she was. Time to see if Leon Steele would be as unpleasant as his brother.

  TWENTY-SIX

  Clara Emery had been ecstatic when she’d got the job at Posh Gloss. She’d been working at Powder and Puff in Hanley for several years, learning the business as a junior and then a stylist. When a manager’s job opened up, she’d assumed she would automatically get it, but it was advertised and that nasty bitch Michelle got it. She’d questioned the owner, Roberto, about it, saying she had worked tirelessly for him for years and thought he owed her, but all he’d done was say she could take care of the nail bar. At the time she had hated him for it, but jobs were hard to come by and she’d stuck it out.

  When she’d been offered the position at Posh Gloss, she hadn’t been able to contain herself when she’d given in her notice. Roberto had thought she’d never leave. He offered her more money to stay on, but she refused to back down. She would be getting a good salary working at Posh Gloss, even though she was working the reception too, and Kathleen Steele had told her there would be bonuses for the right person. It hadn’t taken her long to work out what the bonuses were for. Kathleen wanted her to keep an eye on everyone, report back to her if she saw anything untoward, or anything she thought Kathleen should know about.

  Clara was twenty-six and had met Trent Gibson shortly afterwards. He was two years older than her and seeing someone else at the time, but it hadn’t stopped them flirting almost immediately. She had been sharing a bed with him a week later. He had a bad-boy charm about him that she idolised, and he was well in with the Steeles. Pretty soon so was she.

  During the past year, she’d been sleeping with Leon and Trent in equal measure. Both knew about the other, although she’d always deny it. She knew they were using her, but she was using them. She could be devious too.

  So she had a lot to thank Roberto for. Because her life had changed dramatically since the day he’d overlooked her, taken her for granted, and she loved every minute of it. The danger, the allure, the money. Nothing spelt all that out except being in with the Steele family. Leon was only a stepping stone to better things. She had her sights set on Eddie really.

  She reached for her phone to send a message.

  Job done.

  Eddie cursed loudly. That stupid bitch Clara was going to get it in the neck for talking to the police. He’d told her to be helpful to them, keep them happy. That had meant not blabbing her mouth off, not arousing suspicion.

  He jumped up and locked the door to the office. Alerted early enough, he’d searched Dale’s locker this morning. He went over to the safe in the corner of the room. Reaching behind it, he pulled out a plastic bag. Inside it was an untraceable pay-as-you-go handset. It wasn’t Dale’s usual phone: Eddie had seen his smartphone plenty of times and had the number stored in his own too. This one had been hidden inside his washbag.

  Knowing it was too risky to keep it there, Eddie slipped the phone into his pocket. He needed to get rid of it as soon as possible.

  Next he called Leon.

  ‘Where are you?’

  ‘At home. Why?’ his brother asked.

  ‘Grace is coming to see you.’

  ‘What does she want, did she say?’

  ‘She wants to know where you were last night, and so do I. Dale Chapman is dead.’

  ‘What the—’

  ‘If you have anything to do with this, I’ll break every bone in your body.’ Eddie banged the palm of his hand down on the desk. ‘I don’t want the police here, not so soon after Josh.’

  ‘Hey, slow down, bro. What happened to Dale?’

  ‘Beaten to a pulp on the driveway of his home.’

  ‘Fuck. Does he have cameras?’

  Eddie realised he didn’t know. Grace hadn’t told him because he’d been so hell-bent on talking her down. ‘I’m not sure. Look, she’ll be over to your gaff soon. So make sure you get your alibi straight.’

  ‘I haven’t done anything! Although I need to stop her getting to Trudy before I do.’ Trudy was Leon’s wife. ‘I didn’t get home until midnight last night. I stopped by at Clara’s.’

  ‘You weren’t on shift?’

  ‘Trent’s got a stag do next weekend. We swapped shifts, which is why I visited Clara when I finished.’

  ‘I suggest you get your house in order, so to speak.’

  He disconnected the call, annoyed by the effect Grace was having on him. Seeing her again had been a real shock, and it brought back painful memories of his father. He tried not to think about George on a regular basis. He had been such a bad influence in his life and his murder hadn’t been unwelcome, despite his anger that the police still hadn’t caught his killer.

  He thought back to the first time he had seen his half-sister. He’d been fourteen and had been coming home from boxing practice. He and Josh had been fooling around, pretending to uppercut each other as they raced along the pavement. He loved his boxing sessions after school. They were the thing that kept him sane. He and Josh had just been in the ring and he was pumped up because he’d won three out of three fights.

  He’d been telling Josh what a wuss he was and then he’d spotted George. He was sitting in McDonald’s and he was laughing at something. Eddie saw him reach across the table for a woman’s hand. She smiled back at him. There was something in her eyes that at the time he’d confused with love, but he now knew had been George’s power over her.

  There was a girl sitting next to the woman. She looked a couple of years younger than Eddie, about twelve. She was sipping on a strawberry milkshake. He wondered if George had bought it for her, and the Happy Meal box he could see next to it. George would never take them to McDonald’s. He said they didn’t deserve nice things. He said they had to earn them and so far they hadn’t. Eddie hadn’t really understood what he’d meant by this.

  As he laughed again, George turned and looked out of the window and that’s when Eddie had been spotted. He’d only been a few metres away on the pavement. George glared at him, and then his smile returned as he leaned over to the woman and kissed her. Not a peck on the cheek, but a lingering lips-on-lips kiss.

  When he got home, Eddie knew he’d be in for it. George would make out he’d been watching him, following him, trying to catch him out. He ran up to his room.

  All night he wondered if George was with her and t
he girl, or if he had gone to the pub, or out on another punching exercise to knock down one of his enemies. Eddie knew of his reputation. George should be good at fighting, the amount of practice he’d had dealing out punches to his family.

  He had so many questions. Who was the woman and why was he seeing her? That hadn’t been just a friendly kiss. They looked as if they were a couple. How long had he known her? Was that why he didn’t live with Eddie’s family? Did he live with her some of the time too? That wasn’t fair on Mum after everything he put her through, put them all through. And the girl, who was she?

  It had taken a while, but he’d clicked eventually. She had reminded him of someone, with her dark hair and eyes. She’d been huddled over her drink and then she’d put her head up and smiled at something George had said. It was then that he’d noticed the familiarity. She was the image of Jade.

  It was past midnight when George had got home. Eddie had worked himself up into such a state that he was ready for him. How dare he make a fool out of their mum. How dare he play around behind her back.

  The door to the bedroom opened and his father came into the room. He sat down on his bed.

  ‘What did you see?’ he asked.

  ‘Nothing,’ Eddie replied. Across the room, he noticed his brother pretending to be asleep, not wanting to be drawn into anything.

  George sighed loudly. Then he grabbed Eddie’s hair and pulled him across the bed.

  ‘I said, what did you see?’

  ‘Nothing!’ Eddie cried. ‘I saw nothing!’

  ‘Best keep it that way. Because if I ever find out that you breathed a word about what you didn’t see, then I will make you regret it in the most painful way I can think of. Have you got that?’

  Eddie nodded fervently, tears pricking his eyes.

  George pushed him and he fell heavily to the floor. As George made to leave the room, something snapped inside Eddie at last and he stood up.

  ‘I wonder what your friends would say if they knew that you beat up your family,’ he said. ‘And going with another woman behind our mum’s back? That’s not manly either. That girl looks like Jade. Is she our—’

  George’s fist came at him before he could finish the sentence. Eddie’s head reared to one side with the force. Blood poured down his face as vessels in his nose burst. A blast of pain like nothing he’d ever felt before exploded inside his head. George never usually went for the face. It was hard to hide the damage and deny any wrongdoing. Eddie would be off school for a fortnight with this. George would be in for it if anyone saw what he’d done.

  He’d stood there holding his nose, blood coming through his fingers. ‘You bastard,’ he muttered under his breath.

  He came towards him again. Eddie stepped away but George pulled his head back and grabbed the bridge of his nose, pinching hard.

  Eddie didn’t want his father to touch him but he needed to quell the bleeding. Once it was stopped, George released his grip and put his face down to his.

  ‘Don’t act all hard, son,’ he said. ‘You’re not a man yet and from what I’ve seen you’re a long way from it.’

  And then he laughed.

  Eddie drew his fist back and smashed it underneath George’s jaw, just like the uppercuts he’d been practising with Josh earlier. He was aware he couldn’t cause the damage his father did but he was sure as hell going to hurt him.

  George put his hand to his chin where Eddie’s fist had caught him and rubbed it. Eddie braced himself for what was coming next. What happened floored him, but there was no punch.

  ‘Well, well, well,’ his father smirked. ‘It’s about time.’

  Eddie stood there, catching his breath.

  ‘Maybe you are a man after all.’ George’s hand came towards Eddie and he tried not to cower. He placed it on his shoulder. ‘I’ve wanted you to fight back for a good while now. I’m surprised it took you so long, but I’ll put that down to having some kind of respect for your old man. But I’m warning you, don’t ever hit me again.’

  Now, in his office, Eddie brought up new camera footage on his computer. He had to be sure that Chapman wasn’t followed as he left their establishment. It was the first thing the police would be checking.

  Twenty minutes later, his conscience was clear. He had seen Chapman and his car leaving at 20.30. No one had got in the car with him. There had been fifteen cars left in the car park then and one by one he watched as their owners came back and drove away. No one had followed Dale Chapman outside. It didn’t take into account the blind spot, but he would have seen a vehicle driving out of it if there had been one parked. Which meant that someone must have been waiting for Chapman at his own property.

  He breathed a sigh of relief. For now, it seemed this murder wouldn’t be linked to them after all. But clearly it couldn’t be a coincidence that Chapman was a gym member, that he had been there before he died, that he had been arguing with Leon. And it had brought Grace to his door again, which was infuriating.

  Eddie rubbed at his chin, deep in thought. Two people murdered and leading to their gym wasn’t good. He needed to keep an eye on his brother and sister.

  TWENTY-SEVEN

  Grace parked outside Leon Steele’s home, a little surprised to see it was only a few streets away from his brother’s address. The house was a detached new-build with no more character than the dozen or so around it. She and Perry squeezed through two cars parked side by side in front of a double garage, a black Range Rover and a red Mini.

  The front door opened as she got to it and Leon came out on to the step, making her realise that Eddie had most probably been in touch with him. Although she had assumed that would happen, it denied them the element of surprise.

  She held up her warrant card, even though she knew it wasn’t necessary. ‘Can we have a few minutes, Mr Steele?’

  ‘Come in,’ he ushered, ‘and Grace, please call me Leon.’

  ‘It’s DS Allendale.’ She gritted her teeth.

  Inside, Leon showed them through a large and bright hallway, marble tiles clicking under their feet, and into a kitchen with an island at its centre. It opened out into a huge breakfast room, the garden through the window showcasing a weeping willow tree in the middle of a large lawn.

  A woman was sitting on a settee close to a set of French doors. She stood up when she saw Grace, revealing pale wide-legged trousers and a jumper that slipped elegantly off her shoulder. Blonde hair trailed down her back and she smiled from a perfectly made-up face. Grace thought the shade of her ruby lipstick made her seem a bit drained, but it matched the colour of her nails as she held out a hand.

  ‘This is my wife, Trudy,’ Leon introduced. ‘Perry, you know.’

  ‘DC Wright,’ Grace said.

  ‘And this is DS Allendale – Grace.’

  ‘Ah.’ Trudy gave Grace the once-over. ‘I’ve heard so much about you already.’

  Grace didn’t take kindly to the emphasis on the word ‘you’. She realised that Perry was bound to have caught it too.

  ‘What can we do for you?’ Trudy asked.

  ‘We’re investigating a murder that took place last night.’

  ‘Eddie has just rung,’ Leon said. ‘We couldn’t believe it, could we, Trudy?’

  Trudy shook her head. ‘Not another one.’

  Grace nodded. ‘I wanted to check on your movements last night, Leon. What time you left the gym, what time you arrived home; did you go anywhere else in between?’

  ‘That’s outrageous!’ Trudy piped up. ‘You can’t think Leon had anything to do with this murder!’

  ‘We don’t think anything, Mrs Steele,’ Grace said. ‘It’s our job to investigate, so we never jump to conclusions. It’s evidence that matters.’

  ‘Relax, babe,’ Leon told Trudy. ‘There’s nothing to worry about. If it helps matters by saying where I was, and gets the bastard who did this to Dale, then I’m happy to oblige. I don’t have anything to hide. Do you think it’s the same man who killed Josh?’

  �
�We’re keeping an open mind at the moment,’ Grace replied.

  ‘I left the gym just after nine p.m.,’ Leon told them. ‘Then I stopped off to see a friend and got home just before midnight.’

  ‘A friend?’

  ‘Graham Frost.’

  It wasn’t a name Grace was familiar with, but it seemed Trudy might be, as she straightened up beside her and glared at Leon. Perry seemed to know it too by the discreet look he gave her.

  Grace frowned. ‘Do you have a contact number for him?’

  ‘You want to speak to him as well?’ Leon sank back into the armchair. ‘This is all a bit formal, isn’t it?’

  ‘We heard that you and Dale were seen arguing,’ Perry joined in. ‘Is that true?’

  Leon pulled a face. ‘We had a few words the week before last, that’s all.’

  ‘What about?’ asked Grace.

  ‘He was angry that the changing rooms were a bit messy after he’d finished his workout. I told him to mention it to the front desk, not me. He said I was above myself just because I was the manager. It was something and nothing. He apologised when I next saw him.’

  ‘Which was?’ Perry got out his notebook and pen.

  ‘Last night, just before he left the boxing club.’

  ‘Did you speak to him?’

  ‘Yes, we had a chat about the Stoke match.’

  ‘Did you sign out of the building?’ Grace asked.

  ‘Of course.’ Leon nodded.

  ‘We all do,’ Trudy joined in, throwing Grace yet another icy look. ‘For health and safety reasons.’

  ‘You work there too?’ Grace couldn’t stop the cattiness from entering her voice.

  Trudy glared at her. ‘No, duck. I don’t have to work. I have a good husband who provides for me while I take care of the house and our son. And don’t you dare judge me! Especially knowing who your father was.’

  ‘That’s enough, Trudy!’ Leon sat forward.

  ‘Well, she needs to be put in her place.’ Trudy looked at Perry. ‘Has she told you yet?’

  Grace blushed. ‘I just need a phone number to corroborate what you say and I’ll be on my way.’