Guts for Garters

by Linda Regan

  Banham glared at Mrs Ghaziani with his piercing blue eyes. ‘In our country,’ he told her, ’we have a law, and it is my job to see that is carried out.’ He turned towards the door. ‘We’ll be in touch,’ he put his arm protectively on Alison’s back and headed back down the stairs.

  The father followed them to the door. His heavy, high brow furrowed as he spoke. ‘As soon as possible, we want our daughter,’ he said again. ‘This country has a lot to learn from Pakistan, about families and morals.’

  ‘What do you think?’ Alison asked Banham as they fastened their seat belts and he fired the engine.

  ‘I think you look very tired,’ Banham said tenderly. ‘And I think nothing can be done until tomorrow. The post-mortem will tell us more. So that’s it for us, until the morning.’ He touched her hair and then stroked her pale cheek tenderly with the back of his fingers. He loved the feel of her face against his hands. ‘I think I’ll cook you supper and put you to bed.’

  She lowered her eyes, and then threw them northward, letting out a loud sigh.

  ‘What’s wrong? Have I said the wrong thing again?’

  ‘I’m not ill, quite the opposite. I’m in the early stages of pregnancy, and,’ she turned to look at him, her eyes were intense. He knew that when those grey-green eyes were staring like that her temper was bubbling..

  He just wasn’t any good at saying the right things, but the truth was, he loved her to distraction.

  He lifted both his hands defensively. ‘And what?’

  ‘And I am,’ she smiled, ‘delighted I am pregnant with your baby. But don’t try and mother me, or I’ll lose my enthusiasm.’

  ‘I won’t,’ he shook his head. ‘I promise I won’t. I won’t.’

  Banham fired the ignition before she said anything else. He didn’t speak another word until they got to the end of the road. ‘I will take you home, though, and would cooking you dinner be too much?’ he asked tentatively.

  ‘Let’s just pick up a takeaway,’ she said.

  ‘As long as it’s not curry or Chinese, they can be quite spicy. Spicy food isn’t good for mums-to-be, I read.’

  ‘You’re doing it again.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Being all smothery-mothery.’

  ‘Sorry.’

  ‘Don’t be sorry, just don’t do it.’

  ‘OK.’ He drove for a little longer in silence and then he said, ‘We are having fish and chips, I’ve decided. That’s not mothering, that’s the voice of your boss, being decisive; and stopping you eating the wrong things. Fish is very good for you.’

  ‘That’s fine,’ she nodded.

  They drove in silence for a few more minutes, then she said, ‘I fancy three gherkins and a pickled onion.’

  ‘Jesus!’

  ‘I wouldn’t mind a night of lust with the DCI,’ Stephanie giggled to Georgia as they pulled into a parking spot a few roads away from the Aviary Estate.

  ‘Dream on, he’s all loved up with Grainger.’

  ‘I bet I could change his mind if I could just get him in the sack,’ Stephanie laughed. ’

  ‘If it’s not food, it’s sex with you,’ Georgia said with a grin. ‘Shall we talk about something else?’

  ‘It’s better than discussing the shade of paint you’re redecorating your bachelorette pad with,’ Stephanie teased.

  ‘Not to me, it isn’t.’

  Stephanie lifted her bag across her neck so it was secure, then looked all around. Three squad cars were parked spasmodically along the road. She looked down the alleyway, as they made their way from one road to another and then into the side road towards Sparrow block on the Aviary. Rain was spitting and the wind was blowing.

  ‘There are garages all round here,’ Georgia said walking past a row of lock-ups by Magpie and Lark blocks. ‘The description has been circulated to all officers, but two more pairs of eyes can’t hurt. Let’s take a walk around all the other lock-ups.’

  ‘Harisha Celik may well be lying.’

  ‘I hope he is,’ Georgia said turning to Stephanie. ‘Otherwise it means Alysha Achter might be giving us duff information. She’s never done it before, but …’

  ‘You’ll feel let down,’ Stephanie said finishing the sentence.

  ‘Yes, I will feel let down. And I’ll be furious, I have put my head on the block for her so many times, and if she is misinforming, then I will have her guts for garters.’

  ‘Good, because sometimes I think …’

  Georgia stared at her,’ Go on, what do you think?’

  ‘I worry that you have an emotional attachment with her. She has no mother, and you have no children. Her mother came from the Caribbean, where your mother came from.’

  ‘Observant of you,’ Georgia said, looking around as they approached a row of garages. She dug in her pocket for a torch. ‘Yes, I am fond of her. She’s grown up on this crime-ridden estate without any parental guidance, and she’s been badly abused. We have given character references to social and probation officers on her behalf, and kept her out of youth offenders’ on account of her being an informant.’

  She shone the torch, then switched it off, and looked back at Stephanie. ‘Of course I feel a responsibility towards her. She’s fifteen, not sixteen, you know it, I know it, but somehow she’s managed to change all her official papers and become a year older. I also don’t believe, for a second, that she even has a father. In the three years since we have known her, we’ve never seen him, not once.’ She walked on and turned into another dark alleyway around the back of the estate. Two young black girls moved away from the corner of the alley as Georgia approached. ‘So here she is, on this estate,’ Georgia carried on, ‘surrounded by hardened criminals. She swears she doesn’t drink or take drugs and she survives by informing for us. Why wouldn’t I believe her? Her past information has solved cases for us. So of course I don’t want her to be playing us. Deep down, under that tough front, I think she’s vulnerable, and I think she likes to know we are here if she needs us. I know of no other officer who has an informant on this estate, so she is like gold dust to our department.’ Georgia shifted her shoulder bag across her body and pulled her torch out again.

  They walked on, talking, and looking at the garages. Neither noticed, in the dark night light, that they were walking over dried spots of blood.

  Then Stephanie spoke again. ‘Given the choice between Alysha Achter and Harisha Celik, I’d believe her over him.’

  Georgia nodded and smiled. ‘You know, you are right, as usual. You’re too clever for a sergeant. Alysha does bring out maternal instincts that I never thought I had.’

  ‘Perhaps you should seduce the DCI.’

  Georgia laughed. ‘Oh, do stop.’

  ‘The truth is, I think you’d probably rather paint all these run down garages than bed anyone. Look at the state of that one? She indicated to one that was hanging off its hinges, and covered in black gang graffiti.

  ‘That’s black paint, not red,’ Georgia said looking closely, ‘And all these garages are peeling and need painting. No sign of the one Celik says exists.

  ‘It could be anywhere.’

  ‘Maybe it doesn’t exist.’

  ‘Let’s hope not.’

  They turned the corner and headed to the stairs of Sparrow block.

  Alysha had full make-up on and sported newly plaited cornrows that had been weaved with orange, red, and yellow beads entwined in the hair.

  ‘People are gonna start talking if you keep coming round,’ Alysha said as she opened the door. ‘What you want now?’

  ‘Have you got access to a lock-up?’ Georgia asked walking straight into the flat and then the kitchen and looking around.

  Alysha followed. She pulled out three mugs to make tea.

  ‘Why would I want a lock-up?’ She avoided looking at Georgia by busying herself opening a packet of tea bags and putting one in each cup.

  Georgia’s tone was hard. ‘You tell me,’ she said.

  Alysha looked up. �
��What is this? Are you accusing me of something, or something?’

  ‘You’ve had your hair done,’ Georgia said. ‘Cornrows cost a lot to have done, don’t they?’

  Alysha stared at her. ‘What’s this about?’

  ‘Alysha, we aren’t stupid.’ Stephanie told her. ‘We know you’re far from squeaky clean. We’ve got you off the hook for soliciting many times.’

  ‘That was years back. I don’t do none of that no more. You know I don’t. I’m on probation. I don’t want to go to prison, I don’t want no more of any of that, I want to get it right now. Oh, and just for the record, Tink does my hair, for free. Should you want her services, I’ll let her …’

  ‘Cut the butter wouldn’t melt in your mouth act,’ Georgia snapped. ‘This is me you are talking to. Do you have access to a lock-up?’

  ‘No.’ Alysha banged the mug down and turned angrily to face Georgia. ‘Listen, I put my neck on the line and I help you, let you know what’s going on around here. If I was found grassing up to feds, I’d be dead. You and I both know that.’ She held Georgia’s eyes. ‘I don’t do no soliciting. You told me to stop, and I did. I manage OK. I get a bit of money from you lot, and what I get from the social. Why’d you think I have a lock-up?’ She looked at them, and then breathed a sarcastic sigh, and half-laughed. ‘Oh I get it, you arrest Celik, the,’ – she indicated with her long, vivid orange, nails the inverted comma signs – ‘guilty as hell bastard who has a business going on with a stack of machetes and firearms that could kill half of South London, and he tells you it’s me that’s doing it. So, cos you can’t prove its ’im, you come round to ask if I’ve got a lock-up. Are you ’avin a laugh? Is that what this about?’

  ‘No, this isn’t a laughing matter,’ Stephanie said sternly.

  ‘I don’t know where he keeps them,’ she raised her voice. ‘I only know he deals them.’

  ‘Then you need to find out exactly where this lock-up is, because without any proof, we don’t have a case,’ Georgia told her. ‘What about Zana Ghaziani, and Burak Kaya, have you any more information for us, on them?’

  ‘I’m asking around,’ she said lowering her eyes. She then lifted her head and said,’ You know I do all this, put my head on the block for you all the time, and do you even care that the council won’t put no money into building up the kids’ playground area down there. I mean, in the end it stops crime, don’t it? Cos it keeps the kids occupied, an’ then they don’t go wrong as they grow up. Oh an’ we need money to rebuild them youth clubs an’ all that.’

  ‘I’m sorry, Alysha, it isn’t my job,’ Georgia told her, although she secretly admired the girl for caring. ‘I have asked you to ask around about Zana Ghaziani. What have you found out?’

  ‘I’ve said, I’m on it, but as yet nothing more to report.’

  ‘Well get on it more,’ Georgia pushed. She then turned and walked out of the kitchen, into the untidy lounge room and started looking around.

  Alysha followed. ‘Why am I getting all this interrogation and grief? I ain’t done nothing.’

  ‘Where did you really get your hair done?’ Georgia said without looking at her. ‘Hair extensions aren’t cheap, you said you were short of money.’

  Alysha became angry. ‘What you accusing me of, here? I ain’t done nothing. My pal Tink, she’s the real business at it. She does all this.’ She looked at Georgia, both trying to read the other, ‘If we ’ad enough money we’d open her a hair an’ beauty shop round here.’

  Georgia didn’t answer. She turned and started looking around the room. There was a picture of Alysha with Tink, Lox, and Panther on the side. ‘Is that Tink? The skinny one with the pink hair?

  Alysha looked a bit shocked. ‘Yeah, that’s her. You know her. She grew up round here. She’s given up doing punters, she just wants to do hair and beauty, an’ practices on me, that ain’t no crime.’

  When Georgia didn’t answer Alysha started to get irritated. ‘Listen, we are just trying to survive. We don’t do no soliciting, and we don’t take drugs no more, none of us. We all just hang out together, just girls havin’ a laugh, that’s all.’

  Georgia turned to face her. ‘Your gang, is it?’

  Alysha was getting angry. ‘Everyone’s got a gang of mates, ain’t no law says you can’t have mates. We look after each other, an’ we all want good stuff for the kids on the estate. We are working on it, too. I know I gotta stay clean and out of trouble, but I also gotta watch it down here. There’s a lot would kill me soon as look at me if they knew I was snitching to you feds, so I need my mates.’

  Georgia’s tone softened. ‘I am aware how vulnerable you are,’ she said speaking kindly for the first time since she had entered the flat. ‘And I told you, you can call me anytime, I am your friend, your very good friend, but if you break the law I will be your worst nightmare. Do you understand?’

  ‘I ain’t done nothing.’

  ‘Good, because there’s no getting round me if you have.’ She looked Alysha in the eyes and Alysha looked at her back. ‘So you need to tell me the truth. Are you pulling a girl gang together?’

  Alysha frowned, then lifted her eyebrows and cocked her head to one side. ‘I’ve got mates, girls, yeah, told you, we have to be in gangs round here, and I have mine, but we don’t do nothing other than paint our nails and do girls’ stuff, and try and help the kids to get their play area back.’

  ‘Do your girl gang friends know you inform for me, because that could make you vulnerable?’

  Before Alysha had time to answer, Georgia’s phone rang. She checked the screen and put it to her ear.

  ‘I’ll be right there,’ she said into the phone after listening to the caller.

  ‘Sergeant Green, Steph,’ she called urgently into the kitchen, ‘cancel the tea. Something’s come up.’

  Ten

  Just as Banham walked into the room, holding a plate of fish and chips, Alison’s phone rang. He waited while she took the call, watched her take both gherkins from the plate and munch into them as she spoke. ‘Uniform officers at the Aviary have located a lock-up that matches the description Celik gave us. I’ll have to go.’

  ‘I’ll drive you. I’ll put the fish and chips back in the paper and you can eat them in the car.’

  ‘No,’ she shook her head. ‘We’ll reheat them and eat them when we get back, that’ll be better.’

  He watched as she ate the gherkins. ‘You want to be careful of indigestion,’ he told her but his words trailed off as he realised she wasn’t listening. Her teeth were holding the second gherkin in a vice-like grip while she used her hands to pull on her fur-lined parka and then covered her long hair with a woolly, bobbled cap.

  ‘Just as well it’s me and not Georgia Johnson driving,’ he said as he grabbed his own thick sheepskin coat.

  ‘Why?’

  ‘She forbids strong-smelling food in her car, and if you leave dirt from your shoes, or empty sweet papers in there, you live to regret it.’

  ‘I’ll remember that,’ she said, disappearing into the kitchen and reappearing with the pickled egg she’d persuaded Banham to get at the takeaway. It was wrapped in kitchen foil, which she slipped discreetly into her pocket. Banham held her eyes for a minute, then her said tenderly. ‘You need to watch your intake of acid, your stomach –’

  ‘You said you wouldn’t nag me,’ she interrupted.

  ‘I suppose eating is out of the question,’ Stephanie said feebly as they made their way from the bottom of the stairs on Sparrow block across to the run-down garages by Crow block.

  Georgia nodded. ‘Yup, and sex,’ she told her lightly. ‘So get used to it, it’s going to be a long night.’

  Stephanie raised a woolly gloved hand in a mock gesture. ‘As I had my mind set on the DCI, I accept no sex, as Grainger is back,’ she said shaking her head. ‘But going without supper, now that really is way past the call of duty.’

  ‘With all the faeces around here and the stink of urine, I’m not sure I ever want to eat aga
in,’ Georgia said.

  ‘As soon as we’re finished, I’m buying us both a large Chinese takeaway,’ Stephanie said.

  ‘Time we’ve finished here, all we’ll get will be a disgustingly greasy kebab,’ Georgia told her. ‘Served by an equally disgusting shop owner who is only open late because if anywhere else was open, then no one would buy his food. Oh, and I’ll have to watch you don’t get desperate enough to try and seduce him,’ she teased. ‘So, better idea – we go to a twenty-four hour garage and get you a curled-up sandwich, less likely to give you the runs.’ She noticed the painful expression Stephanie had pulled. ‘Or you could give up food just for today,’ she suggested.

  ‘I’d rather give up being a detective.’

  About a dozen uniformed officers had surrounded the dark red garage. The paint was certainly peeling down the door which also displayed the skull and cross that Celik had described and there was a padlock securing it.

  Georgia’s heart hit her boots. If Harisha Celik was telling the truth, which now seemed likely, that also meant that Alysha Achter was lying to her. The arms and drugs that Georgia was confident lay the other side of this garage door would now lead back to Alysha. Harisha would never give up his own supply.

  Georgia was up to her neck in it with the DCI as it was. An informant who gave duff information would only serve to lessen his confidence in her detective skills. The team had been giving her grief for months about Alysha. None of them, including Stephanie, fully trusted the girl. All frequently brought up Alysha’s past record for underage prostitution, selling class A drugs, and use of a firearm. Georgia always defended her, believing that the system had let her down. If it turned out that the girl was playing Georgia, then not only would Georgia look a fool, having allowed her, normally, sound judgement to be shaken, but it would stand in the way for her future promotion. In the short time she had been a DI, she had already made mistakes. She knew that Stephanie was the more experienced of the two of them, and had passed her DI exams, but had turned the post down because of her domestic responsibilities. Georgia needed to prove her worth, and as joint SIO on this case, she needed a good result if she was to win respect from the whole team.