by K Leitch
Once he felt strong enough Turk had crawled back to the shabby room that he had rented. After disposing of Lucy’s body he had needed to disappear, he was well aware that the police knew his address on the ‘Buttercup’ estate. He had treated his various wounds as best he could with the help of his Bosnian girlfriend Paula, who had the muscles and the facial hair of a cage fighter and had managed with much swearing and shouting to manipulate his shoulder back into place and bind his ribs so tightly that he could hardly breathe, and then he had lain low.
But as he had allowed his body to heal he had started thinking, and the more he thought the angrier he had become…who the hell did that fucking bastard think he was dealing with? How dare he speak to him like that. Didn’t he realise that people shrank away from him in terror? He was a man to be respected…feared, not punched and stamped on…Turk was determined to be avenged.
CHAPTER 29 - CARLA
DCI Riley was on Carla’s back…he wanted Kathy Hunt charged with the murder of her daughter ASAP.
‘But sir, I am not at all convinced that she did kill Lucy,’ Carla argued. ‘I just can’t see her being capable of it…oh don’t get me wrong I can see that she could have, in a drunken moment, hit her too hard etc. But I can’t see her being physically capable of carrying the body all that way and moving all the stuff in that garage to hide it right at the back. Most of the time sir she is unconscious, or on her way to being unconscious…it just doesn’t make sense to me that’s all…’
‘For crying out loud Carla we have enough evidence to charge the woman ten times over. It was well known that she hit those kids, she was so pissed most of the time that she probably doesn’t even remember that she ever had a daughter. We’ve got the girl’s blood and hair on her living room floor…what more do you need…her bloody diary giving us blow by blow details of how she did it?’
‘No, I do see that the evidence is overwhelming sir it’s just…well what about the abuse of the body, the sexual interference how does that fit with what we know of the mother. Surely it’s worth just…’
‘Look,’ Riley said running his hands through his hair impatiently, ‘for all we know the mother may have abused the girl herself. She was a prossy after all; maybe she was into little girls on the side who knows. Charge her Carla…and then perhaps we can all move on.’ The DCI’s voice took on a note that brooked no argument so Carla just nodded and left the office.
She didn’t know why this case bothered her so much. Of course the death of a little girl was tragic, and there was no denying that Kathy Hunt was a diabolical mother, Andy Hunt didn’t realise it now but he was so much better off in the home than living with that old soak. But instead of the usual elation that she felt when she had ‘got her man or woman banged to rights’ so to speak, she felt uneasy…as though she had missed something.
Oh god fuck it, she would just charge Kathy and move on as the DCI said…after all it would free up a bit of time to take a more active role in Ted’s investigations.
So later that day, Kathy Hunt was formally charged with the murder of Lucy Hunt and of the concealment of the same. She would appear before a magistrate in the morning and probably be remanded in custody until her case came to trial, which could be anytime between six weeks and six months.
Frank had been preoccupied ever since that evening when he had found Linda at Carla’s and discovered Ted’s secret investigations. He wasn’t his usual jokey self, just coming in getting his head down and then leaving at the end of his shift. He wasn’t unfriendly just not so communicative, and Carla was a bit worried about him.
Today there had been two sightings of Elliot ‘Nellie’ Dentch and Tony ‘Turk’ Lahars that they needed to follow up on. One particularly came from someone who claimed to be a neighbour of Nellie’s, he said that Nellie had returned to his flat in the early hours of yesterday morning and that as far as he was aware he was still in there.
Once again Carla and Frank found themselves heading towards ‘Buttercup’. Nellie lived right in the heart of the estate in a second floor flat that belonged to his parents. As it had to be assumed that he would be armed, Carla had brought some armed police with her and she would let them enter the property before she went in herself.
The leading officer banged on the door.
‘Police…open up,’ he waited but there was nothing from inside, he banged again and waited…nothing.
‘Ok,’ said Carla, ‘we go in…after you constable.’
The door fell away easily with the help of the battering ram that was used to force it and the armed police rushed in, running through the flat pushing doors open left and right as they did so.
A terrified looking elderly woman appeared at the top of the stairs. ‘What’s going on…what do you think you are doing…get out of my house,’ she shouted waving her hands around.
Carla approached her, ‘Mrs Dentch?’ she asked her.
‘Who the hell are you people, you’ve got no right to be in here…this is my house.’
‘Are you Mrs Isla Dentch,’ Carla asked again.
The woman nodded, ‘Yes that’s me…who are you?’
‘I’m DI Carla Right Kenley CID, and this is DS Frank Hill. We have reason to believe your son Elliot is in the house…is that right?’
‘No…he’s not here I haven’t seen him for ages…hey…be careful in there, some of that stuff’s irreplaceable you know,’ she looked back at Carla, ‘You won’t find him, he’s not here.’
‘Well we’ll keep on looking if it’s all the same to you…wouldn’t want to waste a perfectly good warrant would we, and while they’re searching maybe you could answer some questions.’
Half an hour later Carla and Frank were back in the car heading back to the station empty handed. After practically tearing the flat apart there had been no sight of Nellie and nothing in his room to give them any idea where he could be hiding. Mrs Dentch had been no help at all, and had spent most of the time shouting at them to be careful with her things.
They had removed some stuff from Nellie’s room though…some photographs and a note book that contained lists of numbers and letters some underlined and some with dates next to them. Carla thought it might be worth taking a closer look at it.
Back at the station Carla went straight to her office to study the note book. The lists seemed to be divide up into two columns, one headed G and the other M:
G
M
27/5
G5B1
4B2G
14/6
BG2
BG4 (£1200)
8/7
BG6
3B
And so on, pages of the same thing, sometimes there were dates in the margin and sometime there was an amount circled next to one line of the column. On one page two names ‘Jude’ and ‘Gavin’ were written near one of the columns each highlighted with an *.
Carla sighed as Frank came in carrying a couple of coffees, ‘Well he was up to something but I’m buggered if I know what…here see if you can make anything of this,’ she passed the book to Frank who sat down opposite her and started to go through it.
‘Well it would help if we could figure out what ‘G’ and ‘M’ stand for…someone he was working for maybe?’ he said after a couple of minutes, ‘I suppose ‘B’ could stand for ‘Buttercup’…maybe he was meeting someone at ‘Buttercup’, or had to pick up something from ‘Buttercup’.’
‘And who are Jude and Gavin,’ mused Carla, ‘why are they highlighted I wonder, may be this is about drugs…lists of drugs dealers on ‘Buttercup’, and maybe the dates are when a new batch of a certain drug is being delivered…’ she broke off as her desk phone rang. It was WPC Wendy Hailsham from the front desk.
‘Hi Wendy, what’s up,’ she answered.
‘Ma’am, you’re not going to believe this but we have someone claiming to be Tony Lahars on the phone wanting to speak to you…’
‘Bloody hell,’ said Carla shocked, waving her hand at Frank trying to get
his attention. ‘Well you’d better put him through Wendy…’ Carla put her hand over the phone, ‘It’s only Turk on the phone wanting to speak to me…’
‘You’re kidding…’ began Frank.
Carla held up her hand as a voice came over the phone, ‘This is DI Right Mr Lahars, what can I do for you?’
‘Well it’s more like what I can do for you init?’ said Turk. ‘I’ve got some information about that girl, and not just that neither…that paki that got shot, I can tell you about that too…’
‘Well that’s very interesting Mr Lahars, maybe you’d like to come to the station and then we can take a statement from you…’
‘Nah,’ growled Turk, ‘I ain’t coming to no station, not until we make a deal, and I ain’t going down for no child killing, so if you want to ‘ear what I’ve got to say then you have to cut me a deal…’
‘I’m afraid it’s not as easy as that Turk,’ Carla said raising her eyebrows at Frank who was listening. ‘We are looking for you in connection with four armed robberies and the killing of Amish Patel, those are all very serious offences. I would need to know just what information you had for me before I can make any promises and I can certainly tell you that you will still be looking at a custodial sentence if…’
‘Yeh yeh blah blah,’ said Turk, ‘I just need your promise that I ain’t going to go down for killing nobody, and especially not some kid, cus I ‘ad nuffin to do wiv any of that…and I will need police protection, you ‘ave to give me that or I’m not saying anything right?’
Carla sighed, ‘Look Turk, why don’t you come to the station off your own back, and then give us any information that you’ve got. I can promise you that you will be listened to, we will be very interested in anything you can tell us about the killing of Lucy Hunt…but you need to come in and let us take a statement from you, obviously we will keep you as safe as we can…’
There was silence on the other end of the phone, but Carla could hear him breathing so she kept quiet and let him think about what she’d said, finally he said, ‘Yeh, ok.’
Carla released the breath that she hadn’t even realised she was holding, ‘Good,’ she said, ‘that’s good Turk, where are you now, shall I send a car to collect you…’
‘Nah man…don’t want no prying eyes seeing me getting into no police car do I?’ Turk said with a nervous laugh. ‘I will come to the station…later ‘bout seven, after it’s dark.’
‘Ok I will stay here and wait for you…don’t let me down now Turk, because we will find you sooner or later you know, much better that you come to us…ok?’
‘Yeh man…whatever,’ Turk said hurriedly and rang off.
‘Wow,’ said Carla looking at Frank, ‘well that’s put the cat amongst the pigeons…seems we were right Frank, there’s more to Lucy’s death than we thought. I wonder if he’ll come…I bloody hope he does, and he might be able to tell us what these bloody lists are all about.’
‘He’s had a bust up with Nellie hasn’t he,’ Frank whistled under his breath. ‘Wouldn’t want to be in his shoes if Nellie ever finds out he’s spoken to us though…he’ll be dead meat.’
‘Well we’d better make sure that we keep this very quiet then Frank,’ Carla said thoughtfully, ‘just between the two of us for now ok? Obviously we’ll have to let the DCI know if he gives us anything interesting, but until then let’s keep it zipped.’
‘Yeh sure,’ said Frank, ‘if he turns up of course, which I very much doubt he will.’
Seven o’clock came and went with no sign of Turk, by nine Carla had to concede that Frank had been right after all, Turk had obviously got cold feet and Carla was kicking herself. Why the bloody hell hadn’t she pushed him into waiting for a car to pick him up…or Carla could have met him somewhere. They had come so close to getting some hard evidence against Elliot Dentch, and maybe finally finding out what really happened to little Lucy. She had blown it, what a stupid cow you are, she thought angrily. She finally went home at about ten thirty feeling despondent and frustrated.
CHAPTER 30
His lungs were screaming in protest, every breath was agony, and his shoulder was a constant burning pain as Turk ran for his life. He stumbled his way along the narrow alley that ran behind a row of terraced cottages, he was so close now…he could see the glinting of the lights on the opposite side of the woods, if he could just make it into the cover of the trees he was sure he could get to safety.
He heard the pounding footsteps behind him and urged his broken body forward again…nearly there…nearly there. He crashed through into the woods and was surrounded by darkness as the canopy of trees engulfed him.
Must keep going, must keep going was his mantra as he clawed and slashed his way through the bracken and brambles…oblivious to the pain as barbed tendrils ripped the skin on his hands and nettles attacked viciously, leaving red welts all over his arms.
Like a hunted animal he kept running blindly, deeper and deeper into the woods, the unmistakable sounds of his pursuer closing in on him. Surely soon he would see the reassuring twinkle of lights coming from the houses on Kenley Green, the police station on Kenley Green. He ran on, he must be nearly there…an icy panic ran through his veins as it began to dawn on him that there were no lights ahead. He swung round in a circle hunting desperately for a sign…a landmark, something to aim for… nothing…just the huge shadows of trees and brambles that surrounded him…he must have been running in the wrong direction…oh god oh god…where to now…he was lost.
Turk flung himself behind a tree, landing with a grunt of pain as his shoulder connected with the tree trunk. He flattened himself against its solid structure, trying to make himself invisible while he figured out which way to go.
The woods around him were as silent as the grave, apart from the rustling of the trees and the call of a tawny owl. His heart was beating so loudly in his ears that it was drowning out all other noises anyway. Turk strained to hear any sounds of footsteps approaching, he could hear nothing…maybe he’d lost him…after all these woods were as much a mystery for him as for Turk. He let out a breath slowly…he’d just relax here for a while and figure out what he was going to do.
How the fuck had Nellie found out about his phone call to the police, he’d only told Paula…surely she wouldn’t…but then she had been really pissed off with him about that little kid down the hall. Fucking hell all he’d done was give the kid a little kiss and a squeeze, silly cunt she’d been raving about it…shouting and screaming, no wonder he’d had to give her a bit of a slap…what did she expect silly cow. But maybe she’d told Nellie about the phone call… my god if he found out it was her, he would cut her up so bad children would cross the street when they saw her coming, he would…
The air around him suddenly seemed to shift and his thoughts of revenge were abruptly cut short, as he felt cold steel at his neck.
A huge shadow moved round from the other side of the tree, and stood in front of him, striking terror into his heart.
‘Where the fuck do you think you’re going Turk?’ Nellie whispered with barely restrained anger, pressing the knife harder against Turk’s throat…it broke the skin and a trickle of blood ran down onto his shirt collar.
‘Now look Nellie,’ began Turk trembling with fear, ‘I ain’t done nuffin to you have I…you said to leave you alone and I ‘ave…so…’
‘A little bird told me that you’ve been talking to the filth fella…have you Turk? Have you told them about me?’ Nellie pressed his face close to Turk, he could see the blazing fury in his eyes…he began to struggle.
‘No you got it all wrong…I ain’t told no one…you know me Nell, I don’t talk do I?’
‘Then why you running fella…what‘s got you so scared?’ Turk started shaking violently, Nellie pushed the knife harder. ‘You’re a fucking liar, you were going to dump me to the filth, you fucking slag.’
He brought his knee up hard between Turk’s legs…who collapsed to the ground holding onto his privates and gr
oaning. Nellie pulled out a hammer from inside his jacket and slammed it into Turk’s arm, there was a loud crack as a bone was shattered, Turk let out high pitched squeals as the hammer came down again and again, connecting with bone and muscle. Nellie threw the hammer to one side and started pounding into Turk’s face with his bare fists, blood and teeth flew everywhere as he worked out his anger in a frenzied attack.
Turk lay almost dead at Nellie’s feet a few minutes later, his arms and legs were shattered and useless, his face looked like chopped liver…he was gulping and gagging on his own blood. He watched Nellie as best he could through swollen eyelids, as he stood over him looking him up and down as if examining his work.
‘Who you gonna tell now fella?’ he taunted, ‘you should have known better than to try and turn me in…you won’t be saying anything to anyone any more.’ And with that he pulled apart Turk’s already broken jaw, grabbed hold of his tongue and cut it from his mouth with one swipe of his knife, he threw the severed tongue carelessly onto the floor next to where Turk lay.
Turk’s mouth filled with blood and he began to choke…Nellie just laughed and walked away.
CHAPTER 31
Life got much better for Andy now that he had a friend in Daniel. In many ways, despite the age differences, the two boys were very similar, both dealing with their own demons in their own way. They shied away from the rest of the kids in the home, keeping themselves to themselves and never joining in any of the group activities that were organised for their entertainment.
Other than Daniel, Andy liked Lilly who worked in the kitchen, she was a larger than life character always laughing and smiling. She could be a hard taskmaster though, and expected those who had been assigned chores, to do their jobs well or they would face her wrath…which was not to be underestimated; an angry Lilly was a thing to be feared. Luckily for Andy she seemed to have a soft spot for him and so he had only seen her nice side, he liked to sit with her after dinner sometimes and listen to her stories; she always seemed to have something to talk about.
