Collide-O-Scope (Norfolk Coast Investigation Stories Book 1)

by Andrea Bramhall

  Leah pulled onto the road and made her way down to the roundabout farther away from them. Kate watched, waiting for her to turn back on herself and head for the bridge.

  “My mum had to go to work, and she’s been gone ages, and she’s not answering her phone.”

  “Hold on, Sammy, one sec.”

  Leah crossed the bridge and flashed past them. They were heading back towards Kings Lynn. Kate pulled out two cars behind her and followed.

  “Sorry, kiddo, I’m with you now. What do you mean she went to work? She was supposed to be with you today. Staying in the house.”

  “There was an emergency at work. William phoned her and she drove your car. She told me to stay in her office and not come out, and said I could call if I needed her. But she’s not answering.”

  She watched Leah overtake a lorry and cursed, knowing that she wouldn’t be able to do that without killing them in the oncoming traffic. She had to settle for overtaking the cars in front and waiting for another opportunity to take the lorry. She pulled wide in the lane to look for the opportunity and make sure Leah wasn’t getting too far ahead. “Okay, we’ll call the campsite and see what’s going on, kiddo. Want me to give her message for you?”

  “I haven’t left the office, but I need a wee. I’m hungry and bored and lonely and I want to know when’s she coming back.”

  Kate smiled. “No problem, I’ll pass it on.”

  “Thanks, Kate.”

  Kate passed the lorry and ducked back into her lane, putting her foot down. She closed the distance to Leah. “When did you both get there?”

  “Before lunchtime.”

  Kate glanced at the clock on the dash. “That’s more than six hours. Does she usually leave you alone this long?”

  “No. She says I can’t be left for five minutes ’cos I get in trouble. But I’ve been good, Kate. I’ve not done anything bad.”

  “That’s okay. I’m sure you’ve been really good.”

  “Merlin’s been bad, though.”

  “Has she?” Kate smiled knowing that Merlin was getting the blame for whatever Sammy had gotten up to.

  “Yeah, she’s eaten all the cereals and spilled milk on the desk and on Mum’s keyboard.”

  “I didn’t know she drank milk.”

  “It was my milk. But she spilled it over.”

  “Well, I’m sure we can sort it out.”

  “Phew. She’s been worried.”

  Kate chuckled. “I’m sure she has. Okay, I’ve got to go and call your mum now. She’s probably just got really busy and didn’t hear her phone or something.” Sammy hung up and Kate glanced at Jimmy.

  “I’m already dialling,” he said. “You just keep watching the road.”

  “Thanks, Jimmy.” Kate caught up to Leah’s car and decided to wait until they were on a quieter road before pulling her over. Perhaps after the turnoff at Hillington.

  Jimmy hung up. “Shit.”

  “What?”

  “Gina left William in the information centre after sorting the problems at five o’clock.”

  “An hour and a half. It doesn’t take an hour and a half to walk from there to my house, never mind fifty yards to her office.”

  “The car’s still there. At the campsite. William found it on the campsite.”

  “So where’s Gina?”

  “He doesn’t know, but the last time he saw her she was talking to Ally in the car park.”

  “Shit.”

  CHAPTER 33

  Gina rubbed her arm, trying to coax the circulation back. She tried to ignore the fact that Ally was standing in the middle of her sitting room after shoving her on the sofa. “Look, Ally, I already told you. I don’t know where Matt is. Why would I? I’m not his wife. I’m not his girlfriend. The only thing we talk about is Sammy.”

  “Then why are you sweating?”

  Gina couldn’t deny it. She could smell it herself. The pungent aroma of fear mingled with sea salt, diesel, and dead fish that had permeated Ally’s clothes a long time ago. Gina was glad she was in her house and not on Ally’s boat. A fishing boat was not a nice thing to be on. Especially when you’re scared. “Because you dragged me off the street and you’re scaring me. Acting like some gangster badass. This is Brandale Staithe, not some fucking gangster movie.”

  Ally laughed. “Matt was right about you, wasn’t he?”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “He always said you were fucking clueless.”

  “About what?”

  “Everything.”

  Gina’s pride squawked loudly but her sense of self-preservation managed to muzzle that bitch. She was trying to goad Gina into letting something slip. Oh, you’re so not getting anything out of me.

  “Vague, Ally. You’ll have to be more specific if you want me to know what you’re talking about. I’m clueless, remember?” There, that should satisfy my pride and keep me safe. Ish.

  “Well, did you ever wonder why he ran off after you fucked him?”

  Gina cocked her head to one side. “Briefly. But then I figured out I’m a lesbian so I didn’t let it bother me.” She lied. About the bothering her bit, not the lesbian bit.

  Ally grinned. “Well, well, well. Perhaps not so clueless after all.” She looked Gina up and down. “Just gutless, then.”

  “Where do you get that from?”

  “Never done anything about it, have you? Just sat in this little cottage drying up.”

  “Now who’s clueless?” Shut up!

  “Oh, really? Well, let’s see if I can figure it out.” She drummed her fingers on her lips. “Oh, yeah. You and Connie were always pretty close. How did it happen? Did she take you under her wing, as it were?” Ally sat beside her and leaned in close. She wrapped her arm around Gina’s shoulder. “Did she get you drunk and lean in like this?” Ally rubbed her head against Gina’s hair. “Did she make you think she was going to leave Leah for you?”

  “You haven’t got a clue. Connie and I were only ever friends. She was in love with Leah. Even after she threw her out, she loved her.”

  “You don’t abandon the people you love, Gina. You do whatever it takes to help them. Whatever it takes.”

  Something in her head shifted. Gina thought of how she’d been more than willing to lie for her daughter, she’d have told Kate she shot Connie before letting anything happen to Sammy. Ally was right, whatever it took. The wrong things for all the right reasons. “You did it.”

  “Did what?”

  “You killed Connie.”

  Ally laughed but there was something in her eyes—a flicker, a shadow, a ripple in the dead pools that glinted out at her. Fear. “You shouldn’t be going around slandering people like that, Gina. It could get you into all sorts of trouble.”

  “Why, though? You don’t love Leah. You treat her like crap.”

  “I wouldn’t spit on that useless piece of shit if she were on fire.”

  “Then why? You said you don’t abandon the people you love.”

  “And I never have.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “All the better for you. Now tell me where Matt is and we can get this shit over with.” Ally pulled a gutting knife from her belt. Gina froze. “Come on, Gina. Where is he?”

  Gina just shook her head.

  “Think about it like this, you can tell me now and I’ll go home before your kid gets here, and leave you with nothing more than a little piss in your pants.” Ally stood up tall and towered over her. “Or you can refuse to say anything and I’ll start practising my knife skills. Then there’ll be crying, and blood, and talking and maybe your kid sees you with a few nasty scars from now on.” Ally put the tip of the blade to the corner of Gina’s mouth and scraped the cold steel along her cheek, hard enough to feel, but not hard enough to draw blood. “Or you can be real brave and tell me nothing at all. And do you know what’s going to happen then, Gina? Do you? Can you imagine?”

  Gina shook her head.

  Ally wrapped her fin
gers in Gina’s hair and twisted her head to look her straight in the eye. “We wait a few hours for the tide. And then I’ll take you out on the boat.” She smiled and Gina saw spittle collect at the corner of her mouth. “Ask me what comes next, Gina,” she said quietly.

  Gina couldn’t work up enough saliva to make her voice work.

  “Ask me!” Ally shouted.

  “What comes next?” Gina whispered, her voice shaking, crawling past her lips with barely enough force to be audible.

  “Bait.” Ally whispered the word into her ear. Slow and low, dragging it out so it sounded like “Bay” and “T”.

  Gina shivered. Her breath was coming thick and fast but it wasn’t right. In, and in, and in, but no out. The muscles in her hands locked, her fingers stiffened into talons and her vision shrank. The focus of her world shifted until all she could see was the bait station she knew was on every fishing boat. She could see the steel table covered in chopped fish, guts, and dried blood. She could see the wicked grinder bolted into place. Effectively it was a massive blender designed to chop up frozen fish leftovers to use as bait. The noise was horrendous, and the bite of the grinder unforgiving. Bones, sinew, muscle—it all broke apart beneath the power of it. And that was all she could see. That and the dead eyes of the fish at one corner. Mouth hanging open, slimy, and its black, dead eyes covered in a film of mucus.

  “I can’t…I can’t tell you what I don’t know.”

  “No? Really, Gina, is that the best you can come up with?”

  She tried to slow her breathing down, she tried to listen to her heartbeat, but it sounded more like a flutter than a beat. Like the wings of a hummingbird, fluttering too fast to see, too fast to hear distinctly, just a hum. A hum in her ears that still didn’t manage to drown out Ally’s voice as she toppled over.

  “Oh, for fuck’s sake, that’s pathetic.”

  CHAPTER 34

  “Stella, you need to get someone—”

  “I’ve already got a WPC going to the campsite to stay with Sammy. She’ll be fine. Timmons is on his way here. He wants you to pick up Leah as per the plan. We may need her for information.”

  “But—”

  “No buts. Orders. I’m on my way to speak to William now and find out what happened and when. Arrest Leah and put her in a cell. Let her stew, let her get antsy. She’ll surely be needing a fix soon. The more she’s on edge, the easier it will be to interrogate her.”

  Kate knew Stella was right, and that it was the best plan. But the time it would take to pick Leah up, get her booked in, and then get out to Brandale Staithe as well…it was too much.

  “If they were going to kill her, why take her somewhere else?” Stella asked.

  “I know, I know.”

  “We’ll find her.”

  “I’m sure we will. But will it be in time?”

  “We’re doing everything we can, Kate.”

  “Don’t make me tell Sammy her mother isn’t coming back, Stella. Don’t make me do that.”

  “Drive safely, Kate. But drive fast.”

  Kate had no intention of doing anything else. She followed Leah off the A148 and through Flitcham village. She overtook the car that separated them and flashed her lights at Leah. A three-flash burst, then a second burst. Leah’s car slowed. She flashed again, one burst, then a second. Leah’s car slowed more and she indicated left. As soon as they stopped, Jimmy jumped out of the car and ran to Leah’s door. She rolled down the window and he reached inside and pulled the keys out of the ignition. Leah tried to grab them back and Kate could hear her shouting but couldn’t make out the words. She watched without seeing as Jimmy pulled open the door and helped Leah out of the car. He cuffed her wrists behind her back, walked her to Kate’s car, and pushed her into the back seat.

  “I’ll drive her car back to the station. Forensics will want it. There’s stuff all over the passenger seat. I wouldn’t want to leave it here to be picked up,” Jimmy said. “Have you got a set of coveralls and shit in your boot?”

  Kate nodded and pushed the button that released the lock. “Help yourself.”

  “You go on ahead. By the time you’ve booked her in, I’ll be with you.”

  She nodded and waited until he’d closed the boot again and set off.

  “I haven’t done nothing. You can’t do this,” Leah said.

  “Leah, I’ve got pictures of you participating in a drug smuggling operation,” Kate replied. “Do you really want to start out playing the innocent victim role?”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Did you know?”

  “What?”

  “Did you know what they were going to do to Connie?”

  “What?”

  “The Robbins’. Did you know they were planning to kill Connie?”

  “They didn’t kill her.”

  Kate looked at her through the rearview mirror, the stubborn set to her jaw, the tilt of her head. She hadn’t known. She still didn’t know. Kate wondered for a moment if Connie might accomplish in death what she probably wouldn’t have achieved had she lived. Would Leah get help now when she finally realised that Connie had died trying to help her? Would she help herself when she saw what her supposed friends had done? She saw how Leah twitched on the backseat, trying to itch her arm against the seat back. Probably not.

  It took more than thirty minutes to get Leah back to the station and booked into her accommodation for the night. Jimmy had just finished booking Leah’s car into evidence when Kate found him.

  “Ready?” she asked.

  He simply nodded and followed her back out to her car. They didn’t speak during the drive. No need. Stella would have answers for them when they got there or she wouldn’t. They’d have a plan in place or they wouldn’t. No point in trying to guess until they got there, until they knew, then they would do whatever needed to be done.

  Stella and Timmons were outside Ally Robbins’ house. Patrol cars blocked the road from the Jolly Roger to the beach turn-off. No one was getting past the house. Blue lights thrummed and Stella nodded when they hauled themselves out of the car.

  “House is empty. We’ve already arrested Cedric and Adam. They were at the harbour getting the boat ready for a run tonight.”

  “Gina and Ally?” Kate asked.

  “They weren’t there.”

  “The harbour office?” Jimmy suggested.

  “Empty,” Timmons said. “All empty. We have no idea where Ally is and those bastards have gone quiet.”

  “The tide’s out and the boat’s in dock,” Kate said, looking down the harbour road.

  Timmons nodded. “We’ll find them.”

  Kate checked her watch. Almost nine o’clock. She needed to think. She needed to stop reacting and think. She ran her hand cross her face. “Okay. What do they know? What are we sure Ally knows?”

  Jimmy frowned at her, then smiled slightly. “She knows Green is missing, but not where. She knows Connie is dead and that they burned whatever evidence she had in the houseboat.”

  “How did they know about the houseboat?” Stella asked.

  “Ally was there when I asked Leah if the key was hers. She must have recognised it. Does she have some connection to the houseboat?” Kate asked.

  “None that we’ve been able to trace,” Stella said. “The owner was a Mrs. Webb. Lives in one of the properties that back onto the marsh.”

  “Cedric’s sister. She was married three or four times. They don’t talk much now,” Jimmy said. “Had a falling out about five or six years ago. Never knew what about.”

  “Why didn’t you mention this before?” Kate asked.

  “I didn’t know the houseboat was Mrs. Webb’s or I would’ve done,” Jimmy said.

  “Okay, what else do they know? What could they want from Gina?”

  “They know Matt’s not been seen for days,” Stella said.

  “And?”

  “They don’t know where he is.”

  “And?”

  “If they
suspected he was in custody—well, you heard what he said. They’d have changed the drop location or cancelled it altogether, right?”

  “That’s what he said. Doesn’t mean he’s right.”

  “He’s worked with them for a long time now. Let’s assume he does know what he’s talking about. They didn’t switch locations or cancel it. So they don’t know we know.”

  “They’re looking for Matt,” Kate said. “They just want the intel.”

  “Only thing that makes sense.”

  “So where would Ally take her?” Jimmy asked.

  “Information gathering can be a messy business,” Timmons said. “She needs somewhere private, but they left the campsite on foot.”

  “They did?” Kate said. “How do you know that?”

  “Ally’s car’s here. Adam and Cedric’s are also accounted for. Gina’s vehicle is still at the campsite.”

  “You’ve checked Gina’s house, right? That’s less than two minutes from the campsite,” Kate said.

  They all looked at each other.

  “Oh, for God’s sake.” Kate turned her back on her colleagues and shouted to the nearest PC. “You, assign PCSOs to watch all locations and get every other available officer to the other end of the village. Move these bloody cars, and get the nosey friggin’ neighbours back in their houses.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Jimmy was revving the engine while she screamed orders. Timmons was on his phone. Everyone else was jumping in their vehicles and heading one mile east. From one end of the village to the other.

  “What will Ally do to her?” Jimmy asked when Kate climbed into the car and ignored the bong-bong, telling them both that she wasn’t wearing her seatbelt.

  “Depends what Gina tells her. If she tells her Matt Green’s in custody, she’d be smart to run. If she doesn’t,” Kate said, “Ally Robbins has a lot to lose. Her base is here. Her haul, her network is here. She’s worked long and hard to put this into place. It’s not something she’ll be happy to give up on.”

  “If Gina doesn’t tell her what she wants to know, what will she do to her?”

  Kate didn’t answer as she tried not to picture what was happening to Gina.

  “What will she do to her?”