Burning Greed

by Diane M Dickson

  Freddy Stone was still lying in a heap but when she shook his shoulders he mumbled a response. She stood in the middle of the room, at a loss. Hammering on the wood would be a waste of time and energy, the area outside was deserted. She took off a boot and hammered against the window but the glass was reinforced with wire and shrugged off her assault with ease. So now, on top of everything else, she had a wet foot.

  “What the hell are we going to do now, Freddy?” She knew he wouldn’t answer but it reminded her that she was not quite alone.

  Pounding at the glass had made her head and arm ache. It was throbbing again, and she felt her sleeve sticky where she knew it was bleeding. So, she’d buggered that up on top of everything else. Standing in the dark she was at a loss as to what to do next. Was sitting waiting for dawn the only answer? She felt pathetic.

  Chapter 62

  There came the rattle of the lock, the scrape of the edge of the door on debris, and Tanya scuttled back to the far wall, lay down in the grime and closed her eyes. The click of leather on concrete evidenced his passage, first to where Freddy Stone was possibly still in the recovery position. Would he notice? She held her breath, heard the shuffle of movement, a groan. She felt him come nearer to her, he poked her with his foot. The brightening of colour behind her lids told her that he had a torch and was shining it on her face. She mustn’t react. Not yet. In her weakened state she wasn’t sure that she could match him in a physical struggle. She had never met him, Charlie told her he was small, that didn’t mean he wasn’t strong. He had beaten Julie, he was a bully and he was probably worried and desperate. It made him a dangerous opponent. It was too great a risk with a damaged arm and a pounding head. He pushed roughly against her legs with the toe of his shoe.

  “Hey, hey pig!”

  Tanya concentrated on keeping her breathing low and even, her eyes closed, her face impassive. He kicked a little harder.

  “Hey. Can you hear me?”

  She sensed him draw back his foot, braced for the pain as he made ready to kick her harder. The scream of sirens in the road outside was salvation.

  For a moment hope soared, she didn’t know how it could be, but maybe help had arrived. Alan Parker cursed and ran to the rear of the unit, but the noise faded as the emergency vehicle sped past on the main road. She heard him laugh under his breath, then the clink of his shoes on the metal rungs of the ladder.

  As he walked over the mezzanine floor there was the sound of broken ceiling cladding falling to the ground. The boards creaked and cracked with every movement. Tanya rolled over and crouched in the darkness, waiting, listening.

  Freddy Stone spoke, “Oh shit. What the hell…”

  The movement upstairs stilled.

  It was time to do something. If he came back down, things could turn very nasty, very quickly. She rolled, clambered to her feet, leaning against the wall. Her injured arm screamed at her and there was another moment of dizziness. She pushed through them, turned and moved towards the ladder, planting her feet carefully, making as little noise as possible.

  Freddy muttered again, “Hey, where are you? I can’t see, man.”

  She willed him to be quiet, to not draw Alan Parker away from whatever it was he was doing. She climbed, instinct told her to hurry, sense told her to take care. Thirteen rungs. She swallowed hard as her head raised above the charred and crumbling edge of the platform.

  Parker was kneeling in front of one of the cabinets, she heard the screech as he struggled with the drawer. She used the sudden, welcome noise to cover the quiet thud of her shoes on the final steps off the ladder.

  His torch lay on the floor, the bag beside him. It was about four metres from where she stood. He had his back to her. She braced and stepped forward. Her foot kicked against the edge of a plastic box, invisible in the darkness. He was up and coming towards her before she had time to steady herself.

  Tanya reached for the chair, dragged it in front of her. Alan Parker stopped, squinting through the dimness.

  “Alan Parker I am arresting you on suspicion of the murder of Suzanne Roper…” She didn’t get any further, he ran at her. She stepped away dragging the chair with her towards the rear wall.

  He took a couple of steps, muttering under his breath. She swivelled the chair back and forth. Backed into the corner it was only a question of time before he dragged the chair from her weakened grip and then he would have her.

  Freddy Stone called from the front of the unit, “Hey, man. What the hell is going on? That was some bad shit, man.”

  Parker turned his head towards the ladder. With all the strength she could muster, Tanya dragged the chair in towards her body and then launched it across the space. It hit his side and glanced off, toppling first onto the boards and then through the broken safety rail.

  Alan Parker rocked on his feet, grabbed out at the upright at the top of the ruined staircase. Tanya ran at him, dived low and attempted to grab him around his ankles. He kicked out, his shoe connected with her jaw and, as lights flashed in her brain, just before the darkness came down she heard the splintering of wood, and his yell of horror.

  She felt herself falling, heard the thunder as the upper floor collapsed and then there was nothing.

  Chapter 63

  Part of the roof collapsed as the mezzanine fell. The grey dimness of dawn lit the destruction: the tangle of blocks, wood, wires and roofing sheets. It was hard to breathe. Tanya’s back was twisted, her legs were trapped, and the air was full of dust and soot. She coughed and tried to move – it was agony. There were a couple of pieces of debris across her thighs, but she was able to push them aside one-handed. Her arm was useless, just a mass of pain. Fractured she thought. Her mouth was swollen, she had bitten her tongue and broken a tooth. One eye was stuck closed with sticky mess that she supposed was blood. She wiped at it and pried it open to peer around blearily. She heard a groan and turned to see Alan Parker, a heavy concrete beam across his body. He was trying to push it away, but it was a hopeless task.

  There was a trickle of blood from his mouth, bubbles of it as he breathed. She turned onto her knees and struggled across the mess towards him.

  “Keep still, just stay still and I’ll get some help. Where’s Freddy?” she said.

  She peered around but there was no sign of the other man.

  Parker reached out his hand, clawing at her. She took it in hers and folded her fingers around it.

  “I’ve got to get out, the wall has come down at the back, I can go and fetch help. But you need to keep still. Okay?”

  He shook his head. “I’m sorry. Please help me. I’m sorry.”

  “I will. I’ll go now.”

  “I didn’t kill her.”

  “What?”

  “I didn’t kill Suzanne. You have to believe me. I didn’t kill her. She fell. We were arguing, and she fell from the top of the stairs.”

  “But the fire?”

  “I panicked. I panicked when I saw she was dead and... I’m sorry.”

  “Why were you arguing?”

  He coughed and a spurt of blood splashed Tanya’s face. He coughed again, and tried to push at the beam.

  “She wanted more. All the time she wanted more. I’d helped her, taken her off the streets. I’d dealt her in. We had a good thing going, skimming off the top, just a bit from each shipment. But it wasn’t enough – she always wanted more. Greedy bitch, blackmailing me, threatening to drop the customs people on me. I told her it would come back on her as well, but she just didn’t care, all she wanted was more supplies. I couldn’t do that, I gave her money and it was never enough. But I didn’t mean to kill her. You have to believe me.” He was crying now, the tears tracking cleaner lines across his face.

  Tanya knew that she needed to get help, that he wouldn’t survive without treatment, but he wouldn’t let go of her hand and leaving him in such distress seemed heartless.

  “I’m sorry about it all. Will you tell Julie, tell her I never meant to hurt her? I was on the edge,
all the time. It was all a mistake. I should have stuck with the cars. That was fun, then I got greedy. I was scared, every day; scared that they’d decide I was no more use to them, or that they’d find out what we were doing. I should have told them no, right at the start but the money – it was so much money. I wanted to impress Julie with the money.”

  Tanya needed facts. She could see that he was fading, and this could be the last chance. Maybe it was cynical, but it was instinct. “What was it, what were you doing?”

  “The cars, you can hide a lot of drugs in a car and I didn’t think they’d notice the bit we were taking. When you do it regularly the customs people get to know you, they don’t check once they know you. They just stamp the paperwork and wave you through. Keep clean for a long time and they know you. That’s why I was useful, I was clean for such a long time.”

  “So, you weren’t stealing cars, you or the men who worked for you?” she asked.

  “No, no they were never supposed to steal cars, did they steal a car?” he looked puzzled for a moment. “No, that’s wrong, they shouldn’t have done that. It was one of the rules... never supposed to steal them and draw attention to them. Had to be squeaky clean, that’s part of it.

  “Me and Suzanne though, we’d got it sorted. Skimming just a bit, but enough to keep us going –just a sideline. Till she got too greedy, and we argued. I have to go away now, abroad, when I get out of here. I’ll go away, I can’t stay here where they can find me, not now it’s all gone wrong.” He coughed again; blood flooded across his chin and down on to his neck.

  “Who are they? Who were you working for?”

  He coughed out a sort of a laugh. “No, no. I’m not telling you that. How long do you think I’d last if I told you that?”

  Tanya was struck by the poignancy of the question from a man who was so obviously on the brink of death. There were other things she needed to know.

  “What about Colin?” Tanya asked. She leaned in, he’d closed his eyes. “What about the homeless man?”

  “Collateral,” Parker said, there was a rattle deep in his throat, a gasp, and she felt the grip on her hand relax.

  “Alan, Alan. Can you hear me? Just hang on Alan, I’m going to get help.” But she knew – even as she pushed to a crouch and struggled toward the break in the wall – she knew he was gone.

  She staggered to the end of the alley, flagged down a passing car and used the driver’s mobile phone to make the calls. Once it was done, as she felt herself sliding into oblivion, she managed to speak just one last time.

  “Tell them there’s another man. Underneath, they have to look for another man.” Duty done, she let herself drift away.

  Chapter 64

  There was surgery on her arm, but apart from painful bruising and the damage to her face, which was all repairable, she had got away lightly. They kept her in hospital for four days. The DCI came to see her but wouldn’t talk about her future. “Later, Tanya. When you’re better. You did well, you solved two murders and, though we didn’t bring him to justice, you caught Alan Parker.”

  “But the cock-up? My failure to check facts? What about that? I screwed up,” she had insisted.

  “There’ll be an inquiry. It’ll be looked at. Your personal situation will be taken into account, the business in Scotland. We’ll have to wait and see what’s decided. But first of all, you need to get well.”

  He smiled at her and continued, “On the upside, the drug squad is grateful to you. It seems that the people who sourced the cars for him were pretty well innocent, until they stole the Honda of course and that is very minor in the overall picture. But it has given them information they didn’t have before, they have high hopes that it’ll lead to more, quite a lot more.

  “On top of that, it has highlighted some really serious failings by the customs and border forces. They probably have more reason to worry than you have, to be honest. I shouldn’t be surprised if heads don’t roll there. I expect most of it will be hushed up, of course. Well it’s embarrassing, isn’t it? You are going to be busy answering questions, I think you should be prepared for that. The whole thing will most likely roll on for a while and could become much bigger. I think you should be pleased.”

  It wasn’t enough, and she worried about it constantly, sleepless in the uncomfortable hospital bed. There was nothing to do in the end but wait and hope.

  When they said she was ready to be discharged, Charlie was waiting to take her home, but before she left the hospital Tanya went to see Freddy Stone.

  Still attached to several machines, bandages on both arms and his face bruised and swollen, he had been much more badly hurt than she had when the mezzanine had collapsed. He had been underneath it, trying to reach the back door as the whole cascade of beams, concrete blocks, floorboards and furniture came down on top of him. It had taken them hours to dig him out.

  “They won’t give me long with you, Freddy, but please, just for my own peace of mind, will you clear up some things?”

  He turned to look at her and tried to nod. “If I can,” he whispered, “I owe you. If you hadn’t brought help I would have died in that place under all that crap.”

  “We were both bloody lucky. You should know that as soon as they say you’re well enough you’ll have to make a full statement. I’m being forced to take sick leave for now, with all of this,” she indicated her bandages, “and some other stuff, I don’t know what’s happening after that. So, just for me. Why were you there? Suzanne Roper was your supplier, yes?”

  “Yes. I’d known her for a while, when she used to – well you know – when that was her patch. That was how we first started dealing.”

  Tanya nodded. “Right, did you know where she was getting the drugs?”

  “Not at first, but then, a couple of times when I’d met her, waiting in the alley, I’d seen her going into that unit. I put two and two together, well it didn’t need much to make it obvious. The night she died, I saw her going in there. I thought she’d be out in just a bit, so I waited. She was ages though and, in the end, I just gave up. I left her to it. I couldn’t have done anything though, could I? I mean I couldn’t have saved her?”

  He paused for a minute, Tanya helped him take a drink from the glass at the side of his bed.

  “I needed supply. I had people hassling me. I went back, hung around, found Parker. He agreed to sell me what I needed but the price was wrong. I told him I knew what he’d done. It was stupid but I told him. It was supposed to help me make a deal. Thought I could make some real money. I had people who were waiting for stuff, a good market. He agreed to deal me in. When I went to collect the first batch, he gave me some blow. A sample, he said. God knows what was in it, but it flattened me. I couldn’t have saved Suzanne, I couldn’t – could I?”

  “I don’t expect you could have,” Tanya said. “Alan Parker told me that she fell.”

  “Why are you asking me about it though?” Freddy said. “Can’t you ask him, he’s the one that did it? And I think he was trying to kill me. He should be arrested for that.”

  “Alan Parker died, Freddy. His injuries were too severe and we’re still trying to piece things together. With what he told me and the evidence we have, we’re getting there. One thing though, why did you tell us you’d seen Colin?”

  He looked at her blankly.

  “The homeless man,” she said.

  “Oh, him. Is that his name?”

  “It was.”

  “Yeah, was. Well, because he was there.”

  “In the alley?”

  “Yes, I saw him, he was down at the end with that shopping trolley he always had. He used to follow Suzanne about, I think he had a bit of a thing for her. He was just standing there, and I thought that if you found him he’d say that he was in the alley and it would take the attention away from me. I didn’t want to be blamed for the fire. I was scared shitless. I mean, a crazy, homeless guy – you’d look at him first, wouldn’t you?”

  Tanya watched as he shifted i
n the bed and a flash of pain moved across his face. He was quiet for a moment and then there was a hint of moisture in his eyes. He turned to look at her.

  “Is it my fault he was killed? Is he dead because I told you he was there, and you went looking for him?” he asked.

  “Well, you were suggesting he was to blame, pointing the finger to save your own skin. Anyway, we believe that Parker was responsible for Colin’s murder. We got DNA from under the poor bloke’s fingernails, it matched with some we got from the warehouse and of course from Parker himself so we know it’s all linked together.”

  Tanya wondered for a moment if the kinder thing would be to say it might have happened anyway. However, that wouldn’t be the truth, and in the end, it was truth that mattered.

  “We don’t know. The only people who can really answer that are dead, aren’t they? We don’t know why he met with Alan Parker or why Parker killed him, we can only guess. I’m sorry but it’s something you are going to have to find your own peace with. As am I.”

  He nodded and cleared his throat. “I’m sorry. I know it doesn’t make any difference, but I’m sorry. Am I going to be done? You know for the drugs?”

  “Yes, you will have to answer for dealing drugs. You need to be prepared to be arrested, as soon as you’re well enough.”

  “I suppose I’ll lose my job.”

  “Yes, I imagine you will. There could be jail, but that’s not for me to say.”

  Tanya gathered her things together and stood carefully, holding out a hand. He had a hard road ahead of him, he would carry some guilt for a long time. There was no need for her to hold a grudge. He nodded and touched one of his heavily bandaged hands to hers. “Get well soon, Detective Inspector.”

  “And you, Mr Stone.”

  Chapter 65

  As DCI Scunthorpe had said, there was to be an inquiry. He tried to reassure her. “At the end of the day, Tanya, you were lied to deliberately. How much difference it actually made, it’s difficult to judge.”