by Roberta Kray
‘And when was the last time you saw Mr Squires?’
‘Now, let me see… it must have been last Thursday. Yes, that was the day we had the exhibition. He came in the afternoon with his wife.’
‘And who did he talk to?’
Carlisle raised his hands in an exasperated fashion. ‘I really have no idea, Chief Inspector. The gallery was crowded. I don’t follow my clients around to see who they’re conversing with.’
‘Was Danny Street here by any chance?’
The question, coming out of the blue, clearly flustered Carlisle. ‘No. What? Why should he be?’
‘But you do know him?’
‘Yes. No. I mean, I know of him. I know who he is. But we’re not… I’m not personally acquainted with him.’
Butler left a short silence during which Carlisle didn’t meet his gaze. ‘Okay, well, I think that’s about it.’ He looked at Valerie. ‘You all done?’
‘Only one last thing. Does the name Ava mean anything to you, Mr Carlisle?’
‘Ava? Do you mean Ava Gold?’
Valerie stared across the desk. ‘You know her?’
‘Hardly. I’ve met her once… no, twice. A dark-haired girl, yes? But I always remember names. It’s something that I pride myself on. She was here last Thursday as it happens. She came to the exhibition.’
Valerie’s eyes flashed with interest. ‘Did she indeed. Do you know if she came with anyone?’
‘I’m afraid not. As I mentioned earlier, it was a busy day. When I spoke to her – and that was only briefly – she was on her own.’
Valerie pushed back her chair and stood up. ‘Thank you for talking to us. We appreciate it, especially at this difficult time.’
Carlisle looked relieved as he escorted them back to the front door. ‘A tragic business. I’m only sorry I couldn’t be of more help.’
As soon as they were on the street, Valerie turned to Butler and said, ‘Well, there’s a turn up for the books. Ava and Squires in the same place at the same time last week. So much for the two of them never having met.’
41
Ava dashed from the Kia to the Mercedes, shook the rain from her hair, turned on the heat and then sat and waited for Chris Street to come out of the house. It was a miserable morning, cold and wet and grey. The rain was bucketing down, hammering on the roof of the car and streaming down the windscreen. She had a strangely claustrophobic feeling, as if her darkest thoughts were closing in on her.
She drummed her fingers on the wheel, impatient to be off. Where was he? The longer she had to wait, the more time she had to dwell on things. Lydia’s face rose into her mind and she tried to push it away. With suicide, there was always a legacy of guilt. It was impossible to still those persistent voices, those nagging doubts about whether you could have done more.
All the same, she preferred to be here rather than at home. The atmosphere at the flat was fraught, with Tash and Hannah barely talking to each other. The relationship was on its knees, slowly disintegrating, and it was only a matter of time before it all fell apart. And that, of course, wasn’t the only thing she had to worry about. A man she didn’t know had called out her name as he lay dying. Ava, Ava. What the hell was she supposed to do about that?
Suddenly, above the sound of the rain, she heard the front door slam and seconds later Chris was climbing into the car.
‘Morning,’ he said. ‘Still at liberty, then? I thought you might be running errands for some fat dyke in Holloway by now.’
She gave him a cool look. ‘Ha, ha. I’m glad you find it all so amusing.’
‘Still got Old Bill on your back?’
‘Yes. They’re convinced, unsurprisingly, that I must have something to do with Squires. Did you manage to find out anything from Danny?’
Chris pulled his seat belt across, shaking his head at the same time. ‘Sorry, he disappeared before I got the chance to have a proper talk. But he said he’d meet us in the Fox at lunchtime. You can ask him all you want then.’
‘Oh, okay,’ she said, not entirely looking forward to the rendezvous. Danny Street freaked her out and she didn’t relish the prospect of having to be closer than a few feet from him or to ask him anything face to face. She’d been hoping that Chris would ask the difficult questions for her. ‘So where to? Where do you want to go?’
‘Shoreditch.’
‘Belles? Isn’t it closed? I thought the cops would still be crawling all over the place.’
‘They are. I want to go to Maple Street. You know where that is?’
Ava breathed out a sigh as she drove the Merc through the gates and on to Walpole Close. ‘Why do you always ask me if I know where places are? I’ve been driving round London for years.’
‘Are we a touch irritable this morning?’
‘Yeah, well, you’d be irritable if…’
Chris Street glanced at her, raised his hand and rubbed at his chin. ‘Oh, shit, sorry. I should have thought. Was that girl – Lydia is it? – was she… was she a good friend of yours?’
‘No,’ she said. ‘I hardly knew her, but that’s half the problem.’
‘You’ve lost me.’
And then, before she knew it, Ava was telling him all about Tash’s infatuation and how she’d had to cover when Hannah started asking questions. ‘So you see, the cops now think that I was the one who was close to Lydia and even if Tash tells them the truth, they’re not going to believe her. They’re just going to think that she’s covering because we’re mates.’
‘My, those lesbians have mighty complicated love lives.’
Ava snorted. ‘Well, I don’t think you need to be lesbian to have complications in that department. If I remember rightly it wasn’t that long since you were rushing round to Wilder’s with —’
‘Yeah, yeah, no need to remind me. I get it. We all make mistakes, huh?’
She gazed through the rain-soaked windscreen as the wipers flipped back and forth. ‘Anyway, none of that explains why Jeremy Squires was calling out my name.’
‘The guy had just been shot. He was probably delirious.’
‘But why Ava, for God’s sake? Why, of all the names in the world, did he have to pick on mine?’ She tapped the wheel in frustration. ‘You’re sure Danny didn’t say anything after the shooting? I mean, he was there with Squires. He must know something.’
‘He says they were chatting about cars.’ Chris gave her a sideways glance. ‘What do you reckon, then? Was Lydia the one? Did she do it?’
‘I’ve no idea. There’s nothing to suggest that she was actually involved with Squires, but then there’s nothing to say she wasn’t either. And she was upset, really upset, on Saturday night. But… I don’t know… It’s all a damn mess.’
‘Maybe Lydia mentioned your name to him and it just kind of stuck in his head.’
‘So much so that he’s calling it out on his deathbed?’
‘Well…’
‘Exactly. It doesn’t make a blind bit of sense.’
By the time they reached the border of Shoreditch, Ava hadn’t gleaned any more information than she’d had on waking up that morning. She felt frustrated and anxious, scared that her life was about to spiral out of control. Although she kept telling herself that the police couldn’t prove anything – there was nothing to prove – the tightness in her chest remained.
She manoeuvred the Mercedes carefully through the line of traffic until they arrived at Maple Street. When they reached a wide office block covered in scaffolding and tarpaulins, Chris told her to pull in beside it. He sat and stared at the building for a minute or two.
‘Not much work going on,’ he said eventually.
‘It’s not really the weather for it.’
‘But not inside either. Look, it’s all locked up.’
Ava peered through the rain. ‘What is this place?’
‘It’s supposed to be Borovski’s new casino. But I heard a rumour that he’s pulled out, that he’s decided to open up in Whitechapel instead. Seems li
ke that rumour could be true.’
‘And that matters because?’
‘Because we’ve got a deal with him. Or at least, we thought we had. And now he’s pissing off somewhere else.’
‘And hasn’t told you.’
‘Not a word. He was trying for that place in Whitechapel for ages, but couldn’t get the planning permission. That’s why he decided to come here.’
‘Must have twisted someone’s arm. Maybe he’s got a friend on the council.’
‘Bunged them a fortune, more like.’ Chris raked his fingers through his hair. ‘Shit, this is all I need.’ He opened the door to the car. ‘There must be someone about. I’m going to have a butcher’s.’
As soon as Chris had left, Ava got out her mobile and called her father. His voice, when he answered, sounded strained and hoarse.
‘Are you okay, Dad?’
‘It’s just a bit of flu, love. Nothing to worry about. I’ll be right as rain in a couple of days. How are you? No more trouble from the law, I hope.’
‘Nothing serious,’ she said, not wanting to burden him with her concerns when he was ill. ‘Are you sure you’re all right? You sound terrible.’
‘Yeah, I’m fine.’
‘And no problems with, you know, what we were talking about…’ She didn’t want to mention the robbery. Ava doubted if the police had a tap on his landline phone, but you could never be sure. If they suspected her of murder, they could probably do anything they liked. And what about her own phone? She knew that it was possible to place a tap inside it, but were there other ways of listening in?
‘No, love. No problems at all.’
‘Good,’ she said, relieved that she had one less thing to worry about. At least for the moment. ‘Why don’t I call by after I’ve finished work? I can bring some food over, save you cooking for yourself.’
‘You don’t need to do that.’
‘I want to,’ she said. ‘I’ll see you later.’
Chris came hurrying back through the rain just as she was hanging up. ‘Any joy?’ she asked as he got into the car, but one look at his face told her everything she needed to know. ‘Bad news, I take it.’
‘It’s that all right. I found a security guy who said work stopped a week ago. And he doesn’t reckon it’s going to start again anytime soon. Place is up for sale again.’
‘Ah,’ she said. ‘Well, I hope you haven’t sent your Russian friend the falcon yet. Maybe Carlisle will give you a refund.’
‘I’ll shove that fuckin’ falcon up Borovski’s arse! Jesus, I bet this is down to Wilder.’
‘You can’t be sure of that.’
‘No, but I can take a bloody good guess.’
Fearing that he might be about to do something rash, she said, ‘Just promise me that you’re not going to go over there and start waving that gun about.’
‘I couldn’t if I wanted to.’
‘Huh?’
Chris, as if he’d said more than he intended to, quickly looked away from her.
‘What do you mean?’ she asked.
Slowly, he turned his face to meet her gaze again. He hesitated, but then decided to come clean. ‘It’s missing. I don’t know where it is.’
‘What? How can it be missing?’
He gave a shrug. ‘It was in the pocket of my other overcoat. I meant to take it out, put it somewhere safe, but then I forgot all about it. And then this morning… I was going to lock it in the safe, but…’
‘Jesus, how long has it been missing for?’
‘How the hell would I know? One day, three days? I haven’t seen it since Friday. Danny says he hasn’t taken it. The old man says the same. Course either of them could be lying. And Dad can’t remember what he was doing yesterday, never mind a few days ago.’
‘So who else has been to the house?’
‘Only Silver. Oh, and the cleaning woman, Mrs Phillips, but somehow I can’t see her as an avid arms collector.’
Ava thought about the gun that had been used to kill Squires. Could it have been the same one? Perhaps Silver had taken it, but she’d hardly try and shoot her own boyfriend. Unless Danny had persuaded her to kill Squires, his perfect alibi being that he was standing right beside the guy when he was shot. ‘Silver, then. Have you asked her?’
‘She denies it, but she’s mad enough. Come to that, she’s nuts enough to take a shot at Danny. Those two are…’ He pulled a face. ‘They’re both crazy. They’re as mad as each other and off their heads most of the time.’
‘So what are you going to do?’
‘What can I do? It might turn up again. It might not. I’ll just have to wait and see.’
Ava gazed up towards the dark, cloud-filled sky. This wasn’t good news, not good at all. Could it really be a coincidence that the gun had disappeared at the same time as the fatal shooting of Squires? Somehow she doubted it.
42
The Fox was busy, doing a brisk lunchtime trade. While they stood at the bar, waiting to be served, Ava scanned the pub for Danny. There was no sign of him. A small part of her hoped that he wouldn’t show, but the bigger part wanted desperately to find out what he knew about Squires.
Eventually Maggie McConnell came over and said, ‘Hello, dear. Sorry to keep you waiting. How’s Tash bearing up?’
‘Not so good. It’ll take a bit of time, I guess.’
‘It’s such a shame. Give her my love. That poor Lydia; it doesn’t bear thinking about.’
Chris ordered the drinks, a pint for himself and a Coke for Ava. As Maggie was taking the money she asked him, ‘And how’s your father now?’
‘He’s fine,’ said Chris sharply. ‘Why shouldn’t he be?’
Maggie raised her eyebrows and retreated to the till.
‘She was only asking,’ Ava said. ‘No need to bite her head off.’
‘Looking for gossip, more like.’
They found a free table against the wall and sat down. ‘Didn’t you mention that you were thinking of trying to buy this place? You won’t have a hope if you get on the wrong side of Maggie.’
‘I haven’t a hope anyway. The old man’s not interested.’
‘Couldn’t you raise the money yourself?’
‘I might have had a fighting chance if the Borovski deal had gone through, but that’s dead in the water now.’ He took a mouthful of his pint and glowered down at the table. ‘Bloody Wilder’s seen to that.’
‘You don’t know that for sure. You can’t know that it was him.’
‘So why do you think he was schmoozing the Russian at that Beast place?’
‘I didn’t say he was schmoozing, just that they were… talking to each other.’
‘Friendly, you said. More than friendly. No, Wilder’s behind this. You can bet your life on it. Somehow he’s managed to persuade Borovski to change his plans and open the casino in Whitechapel instead. God, Wilder’s going to pay for this. I’m going to make damn sure he does.’
Before Chris could begin to dwell on Guy Wilder’s ruination of his life, Danny turned up with Silver in tow. She was wearing white trousers, white boots and a white fur jacket. On a snowy day, Ava thought, she’d be in danger of disappearing entirely from view. While Danny went to the bar, Silver slid into the bench and stared across the table.
‘So, you’re Ava.’
‘That’s me.’
Silver inclined her head as if to study her better. Her blue eyes blatantly roamed across her face and down the upper part of her body. Finally, she turned to Chris and nodded. ‘She’s pretty.’
‘I’m sure she’s pleased you think so,’ he said drily.
Ava looked from one to the other. ‘I am here, you know.’
‘I’m just looking out for him, hun,’ Silver said. She gave a weird little giggle. ‘Poor Chris hasn’t had much joy on the girlfriend front recently.’
Ava suddenly remembered that she and Chris were supposed to be a couple. With everything that had happened recently, the pretence felt somewhat farcical. However, as
she didn’t want to embarrass him, she had no choice but to play along. ‘I guess he’s the fussy type. Some men are like that.’
Chris shifted uncomfortably beside her. She guessed that he felt as awkward as she did about the whole situation.
