by Roberta Kray
‘What’s that, then?’
‘About Bo and Greta.’
‘If this is about the motors, then I don’t know nothin’ else,’ Shauna snapped. ‘I’ve told you everything. That’s it.’
‘It’s not about the motors.’
‘Oh.’
Maddie, short on time, decided there was no point in beating about the bush. She may as well come right out and say it. ‘I’ve been told that they were blackmailing Adam Vasser. Is it true?’
‘What?’ As if she’d been slapped, Shauna flinched and her face went pale. ‘Who told you…? Why would…? What?’
Maddie stared at her. Shauna was more than flustered. There was a sense of panic about her. Her eyes darted around the room as if searching for an escape route. ‘So it is true. Why didn’t you tell me?’
Shauna shook her head furiously. ‘I don’t know nothin’ about any blackmail.’ Her hands did a manic dance in her lap, rising and falling and twisting round each other. ‘I don’t. Why would I? Why are you asking me?’
‘Oh, come on, Shauna. I can see by your face… and I’m not blaming you for anything. It’s not your fault.’ It was patently obvious that the blackmail story was true. Maddie felt a tiny stab of disappointment. A part of her had still been hoping that Cato had made it up, some tall story to get him off the hook and shift suspicion on to someone else. ‘I just want to know what you know. We’re mates, aren’t we? I need your help if I’m ever going to find out who killed Greta.’
Shauna seemed to relax a little, as if this wasn’t what she’d expected her to say. She thought about it a bit and then gave a shrug. ‘I won’t talk to the filth, though,’ she said sulkily. ‘Whatever I tell you, I ain’t repeating it to them.’
‘No one’s asking you to.’ Maddie leaned forward, her hands on her thighs. ‘Just tell me. That’s all you need to do. I won’t ever say it came from you. I promise.’
Shauna stared at the carpet for a while before lifting her gaze again. ‘Okay,’ she shrugged. ‘I did hear something. But not much. Only that Adam Vasser had tried it on with Bo. You know, he’d —’
‘What? Made some kind of pass?’
‘Yeah, and Greta was well pissed off about it. The guy had been coming round, all friendly like, drinking her coffee, drinking her beer, and all the time he’d had his eye on her feller. So she wanted to make him pay, didn’t she? Wanted some compo from him. She figured that was only fair.’
Maddie found herself thinking, yet again, how little she had known her sister. ‘And did he pay?’
Shauna shrugged. ‘I think so. Some, anyway, before… I’m not sure how much. She never said exactly. But she was well pleased about it. Reckoned she was sorted, that she could screw him for thousands.’
Maddie felt a wave of anger wash over her. What was wrong with Shauna? She’d known all this, must have realised that Vasser was a prime suspect, but hadn’t said a bloody word about it to the cops. All this time and… She bit down on her tongue, knowing that she had to keep calm if she was going to find out the rest. This wasn’t the moment to be losing her rag. She tried to keep her voice calm, without accusation, as she asked her next question. ‘But didn’t you wonder if Vasser had done it, if he’d killed them?’
Shauna grew antsy again, her eyes flashing. ‘How would I know? Bo and Greta were into all kinds of stuff. It could have been anyone. Maybe they nicked the wrong car. Maybe they ripped the wrong person off. I couldn’t be sure it was him, could I? I’m not going to go grassing him up to the pigs. You think I wanted to end up like Greta? That guy’s a fuckin’ psycho.’
And Greta was your friend, Maddie felt like hurling back. She swallowed down the retort and took a few deep breaths. ‘I understand,’ she said, trying to make her tone sympathetic. And actually a part of her did understand. When you lived on an estate like the Mansfield, it didn’t do to be branded a grass, no matter what the circumstances. Not to mention the fact that Adam Vasser would scare the hell out of anyone. The price for loyalty could sometimes be too high. ‘I really do.’
Shauna raised her hand to her mouth and chewed on her fingernails. ‘It might not have been him,’ she said, as if the more she repeated it, the more likely it was to be true.
‘What I don’t get, though, is why we didn’t find any money when we cleared out the flat. There was hardly anything in their bank accounts either. What happened to it all?’
Maddie had only been thinking aloud, but Shauna’s reaction was telling. She jumped up off the sofa with her hands curled into two tight fists. Her face was bright red, and her chest was heaving.
‘What are you saying? That I took it? Are you calling me a fuckin’ thief?’
‘No,’ Maddie said, staring at her. She hadn’t thought that at all… until now. ‘No, of course not.’
‘Well, it sounds like it to me. It was your bloody sister who was the thief. I wasn’t the one nicking motors or screwing Vasser for cash.’
‘Did I say you were?’
‘I want you to go. I’ve had enough. Just leave me alone. I’ve got a fuckin’ headache and you’re making it ten times worse.’
Maddie slowly rose to her feet. ‘You took the money, didn’t you?’
‘I didn’t! I didn’t!’ Shauna stamped her foot like a five-year-old. Her cheeks were bright red and she was starting to sweat. ‘It wasn’t me.’ And then, as she gradually realised that the game was up, her mouth twisted into a snarl. ‘You can’t prove it,’ she hissed. ‘You can’t prove anything.’
Maddie took a step forward, bringing her face close to Shauna’s. ‘You think I give a damn about the cash? This isn’t about that. It’s about two people who are dead. Remember them? Bo and Greta. It’s about finding out the truth.’
Shauna continued to glare for a moment, but then the rage seemed to drain out of her. Her shoulders fell and she slumped back on to the sofa. There was a short silence before she finally began to talk.
‘It went on for a couple of months. Greta was constantly banging on about it, saying she was set for life, that she had Vasser over a barrel. He was queer, an arse bandit and all that… and the guy was terrified of anyone finding out. Liked to pass himself off as a Jack the Lad, one of the boys. She bought a load of new stuff with the money, clothes and bags, a fancy TV, things for Zac.’
Maddie remained on her feet, looking down at Shauna, saying nothing.
‘A mate called me on the night that they found Bo. He said they’d found the body in the Thames. Greta was still missing, though, and they didn’t know what had happened to her.’
Shauna paused, her gaze fixed firmly on the carpet again. ‘I reckoned it wouldn’t be long before the law came round to search their flat. And then… well, they’d find all the cash, wouldn’t they? And they’d know it was dodgy, bound to. Anyway, I had a spare key – Greta was always locking herself out – so I figured I’d nip along the landing, grab the money and keep it at my place until…’ She glanced up at Maddie. ‘I never meant to keep it. I swear. I was just keeping it safe until Greta came back.’
‘Except she didn’t.’
Shauna gave a gulp, although whether it was from grief or guilt, it was hard to tell. ‘No,’ she murmured. ‘And then later I thought, Why not? Why not keep it? What else could I do with it, anyway? I could hardly give it back to Vasser, and I didn’t see why the pigs should have it.’ Her voice suddenly grew indignant. ‘I wanted to get me and Kyle out of that place, off the estate, but the council wouldn’t shift us. And I didn’t have the deposit for a private rental unless… and so that’s what I used the cash for, moving here. That and some stuff for Kyle. Why shouldn’t he have nice things for a change? Why should he have to go without when he don’t need to?’
‘How much was it?’ Maddie asked. ‘The money in the flat, I mean. The money you took.’
Shauna gave a shrug. ‘I dunno exactly. A few thousand?’
Maddie didn’t believe for a second that she hadn’t counted every penny. ‘Is that all?’
&nbs
p; ‘Five or six, maybe.’
It wasn’t really the taking of the cash that made Maddie so angry. It was all the lies and deceit from someone she had viewed as a friend. It was the fact that she’d withheld the information about the blackmail from the police and let Adam Vasser get away with it. The money was the evidence, and Shauna had removed it. ‘Five or six,’ she repeated softly. ‘Doesn’t seem that much, considering the risk they were taking.’
‘That was just the latest instalment. They’d spent the rest. They got loads out of him.’
‘Until he decided he’d had enough.’
‘You don’t know that,’ Shauna said.
‘No, but the odds are pretty good, don’t you think?’
‘I can’t give it back,’ Shauna said. ‘I ain’t got it any more.’ She looked up, her eyes faintly pleading. ‘What you gonna do?’
Maddie gave her a contemptuous glance. ‘What do you think I’m going to do? I’m going to nail the bastard who murdered my sister.’
38
By the time she left Shauna’s house, Maddie’s good mood had evaporated. Even the thought of Rick, of the night they had spent together, couldn’t restore her earlier spirits. All she had in her head now was how Greta had been as a child: kind, sweet-natured and generous, always laughing. What had happened to that girl? Bo Vale had happened to her, she thought bitterly, but then wondered if that was strictly true.
If she was dishing out blame, there were others who should take their share. Like their parents, for example, with their careless, selfish way of living. And Maddie knew that she was not above reproach herself. How much time had she actually spent with Greta in the final years? Hardly any. She’d been too wrapped up in her own life, her own career, to wonder how her sister was coping. If only she’d made the effort to talk to her more, to try and understand what she was feeling.
‘Adam Vasser,’ she murmured. It seemed likely, after everything she’d learned, that he was responsible for killing Greta. Unless he’d got someone else to do his dirty work for him. And Lena Gissing definitely knew about it. Why else would she have said those things in the cemetery? She’d been trying to warn her off, and you didn’t do that unless you had something to hide.
Maddie tramped along the road, avoiding the puddles that had been left by last night’s storm. A thin, watery sun peeked out from between the clouds. Summer was almost over and before long Zac would be back at school. She had things to buy for him before the new term started, new shoes and shirts and trousers. Mentally, she juggled her finances in her head, wondering how she would cope. The cheques from Cato wouldn’t be coming any more – the job he’d wanted doing had been completed – so she’d have to find another way to plug the gap.
As she turned into Violet Road, she saw Zac and Solomon bent over the open bonnet of Winston’s old Ford Escort. They were so absorbed they didn’t even notice her approaching.
‘Hi, there,’ she said. ‘What are you up to?’
‘Hiya, Maddie.’ Zac grinned and pointed at the engine. ‘Guess what? We’re fixing Grandpa’s car.’
‘Ah,’ she said, glancing at Solomon and giving him a nod. ‘Only from a distance there, it looked like the two of you were just staring at the engine.’
Solomon stood up straight and put his hands on his hips. ‘Are you dissing the workers, missy? I’ll have you know we wasn’t doing no staring – we was musing. Tell her, Zac. Tell her we was musing.’
‘Yeah, we was… we were.’
‘Sounds like hard work.’ She leaned over to look at the tangle of metal. ‘You come to any conclusions at the end of all this musing of yours?’
‘Sure have,’ Solomon said. ‘We reckon it’s broke.’
‘Now you’re going all technical on me.’ She smiled at Zac. ‘You ready to go, hon? Why don’t you go and say goodbye to Gran and Grandpa. And don’t forget your bag.’
Zac’s face fell. ‘Aw, do we have to go already? I want to finish the car.’
Solomon pulled down the bonnet. ‘Ain’t nothing more we can do here, pal. Not today. Soon as I get the spares, you can help me to fit them.’
‘Can I? Do you promise?’
‘Sure. Couldn’t do it without you.’
Mollified, Zac headed off inside.
‘Thanks,’ Maddie said. ‘Has he been okay?’
‘Yeah, he’s cool.’
‘Only he wasn’t too happy about me going out last night. I think he thought I might not come back.’
‘He ain’t said nothin’. He’ll be fine. You can’t stay home the rest of your life, hon. That the new squeeze I saw you with last night?’
‘Rick Mallory,’ she said. ‘And who was the divine creature you were wining and dining?’
‘That’s the lovely Louise.’
‘Where did you meet her?’
‘Around,’ he said.
‘Around?’
‘What’s wrong with around? Where’d you meet this Rick?’
‘In the cemetery.’
Solomon wiped his oily hands on his overalls. ‘Jeez, never realised that place was such a hotbed of romance.’
Maddie noticed Winston and Alisha coming out and said hurriedly, ‘Look, can we have a chat later? Not here. I need to talk to you about something.’
‘Sure. I’ll walk back with you.’
Five minutes later, after the goodbyes had been said, they set off for Morton Grove. Maddie always felt minuscule when she was beside Solomon, like she was walking with a giant. Every time she looked up at him, she had to lean her head back. While Zac was with them, they kept the conversation neutral, but as soon as he had run on ahead, Solomon said, ‘So, I’m only guessing here, but I’m thinking you’re after some boyfriend advice.’
Maddie laughed. ‘Yeah, right. And when was your last long-term relationship, exactly?’
‘It’s not the length, babe – it’s the quality. Didn’t no one ever tell you that?’
‘I’ll take your word for it.’
‘Okay, so if it’s not man trouble, this about that Cato business?’
‘You could say that. Yesterday, I went to —’
Zac chose that moment to come running back. ‘Can I go and see Kyle, Maddie? Can I? Please?’
‘Sorry, love, but he’s at his gran’s today.’ They were passing his house at that very moment and she hoped that Kyle didn’t suddenly appear. She had no idea whether he was there or not, but she wanted to avoid an awkward meeting with Shauna. Tomorrow, on the way to school, she’d have no choice, but until then she preferred to keep her distance. ‘We’ll be having lunch soon, anyway.’
Zac stared longingly towards the front door, as if by sheer force of will he could conjure up his playmate. ‘He might be back later.’
‘You’ll see him tomorrow,’ she said firmly.
Zac opened his mouth as if about to protest, but then saw the expression on her face. He could always tell when she wasn’t going to change her mind. He gave a sigh and jogged off towards home.
‘Can you come in?’ Maddie asked Solomon. ‘I don’t really want to talk out here.’
‘Sounds serious.’
‘It is.’ Maddie wished she could say otherwise. By telling Solomon, she was about to prise the lid off a whole can of worms. Once the information was out there, it couldn’t be taken back. Was she doing the right thing? Winston and Alisha would never get over the death of their son, but they’d had some time to come to terms with it. Now she was about to stir it all up again, to open old wounds and create fresh ones.
Once inside, she went to the kitchen, poured Zac some orange juice and banished him to the living room.
‘Why?’ he asked, standing on one leg.
‘Because I need to talk to Uncle Sol.’
‘What about?’
‘Stuff,’ she said. ‘Private stuff. We won’t be long. You can watch the TV if you like.’
Zac gave her a long look as if weighing up the pros and cons – the TV versus missing out on something interesting – but then ga
ve a shrug, took the glass of orange and went to find some cartoons to watch.
Maddie made two mugs of tea and sat down at the table with Solomon. She waited until she heard the sound of the TV before she started, and even then she kept her voice deliberately low. ‘I went to see Jay Cato. He told me… he told me something about Bo and Greta.’
‘Oh yeah?’
‘Yes.’ Maddie placed her hands around the mug, looked down at the table and then let the story spill out in one continuous stream without pausing to let Solomon interrupt. She told him about the dead bird, the stolen cars and the blackmail. The only part she missed out was about Shauna taking the money. When she’d finally finished, she raised her eyes to look at him again. ‘That’s it. That’s everything.’
‘You should have called me when you got that box. It’s sick, man, leaving something like that. Why didn’t you call?’
Maddie gave a shrug. ‘I don’t know. I suppose I thought you’d be at work. Anyway, Rick dealt with it. He buried it in the back garden.’
Solomon was quiet for a moment as if mulling it all over. His forehead creased into a frown. ‘Just ’cause this Cato says all this don’t mean it’s true.’
‘I know that, but I’ve asked around and had it confirmed. A friend of Bo and Greta, they said they’d heard the same thing.’
‘Who’s the friend?’
‘They won’t talk to you,’ she said, being careful not to specify the sex. She didn’t approve of what Shauna had done, but she didn’t want Solomon going round and shouting the odds either. Maddie reckoned she’d learned all there was to learn and it was best to leave it at that. ‘They won’t talk to anyone else.’
Solomon huffed out a breath. ‘So Bo was nicking cars for Vasser.’
‘You never suspected?’
‘Nah. Bo always did his own thing. Sometimes I didn’t see him from one week to the next. I got him some work on the doors, but he was never really into it.’ He shook his head in exasperation. ‘Vasser, though. Why the fuck was he messing with that psycho?’
