by Lee Weeks
‘You are indeed. But I trust Manson to continue doing a good job until people get used to things. Be careful not to rush in there. We need Manson to stay for now. In the future? Well, who knows?’
‘What about Della? She must have a large share of Paradise Villas. You can’t take that away from her altogether.’
‘Eddie didn’t leave it to her but we can still be generous, if we choose. If you choose. Give her a slice of the profit, if things work out well, if she behaves herself. After all, she’s never actually done anything to deserve it.’
‘She was Eddie’s wife. What more did you expect her to do?’
‘Okay. Never let it be said we did her wrong. You make a profit and she will benefit, won’t she? You’ve always fancied her – maybe take her as well as the business?’
Tony laughed.
After Laurence had left, Tony went to speak to Sandra in her room. She was lying in bed, propped up with pillows, a cooling eye mask on.
She lifted one side of the mask to look at Tony as he came into the room.
‘Mum? Laurence is going to take over Paradise Villas and Harold is going back to the UK today to track down the people who killed Eddie. They’re going to be dead meat.’
Sandra didn’t comment.
‘She’s not going to go quietly,’ she said, referring to Della.
‘I’ll deal with it.’
‘No, I want to know how you intend to do that. I don’t want any fuck-ups.’
‘I’ve said I can do it.’
‘What you say and what you deliver are two different things. You will have to scare her big time. You make sure every bone in her body feels crushed, every drop of self-esteem is squashed and you make sure she’s scared shitless. I don’t want her ever coming back. You sure about fixing Eddie’s villa? I want that place.’
‘I know. It’s fixed. It’s as good as yours.’
‘All legal?’
‘I got Eddie’s probate solicitor to change the will.’
‘How?’
‘Made him an offer.’
‘Would you stop with the Godfather stuff. It’s so fucking irritating. Was that the corpse that Della found? That was funny.’ Sandra chuckled. Tony spent a few minutes laughing too loudly. Sandra had begun to clutch her head in pain.
‘I want to be in there before the spring. Make me fucking happy. Because right now I’m having a hard job swallowing what happened to Eddie.’
‘Harold is going to have the plot of land at the back. We’re all going to be living within half a mile of one another. It will be great.’
‘If Harold’s going to have builders working on the plot of land, you better make sure they don’t dig up something that shouldn’t be out there. The earth is much too hard to dig deep. You’re a moron sometimes, Tony.’
‘It’s okay, we’ve thought about that, Marco and me. We’re tidying up the place.’
‘Why is that weirdo Marco still here? Get rid of him, we don’t need him.’
‘We do, Mum. He’s got all the right connections. He’s going to take over from Harold so he can retire. It’ll be okay, Mum. You don’t need to worry about any of it. I’ll take care of it all. Laurence looks interested in taking up his place in the family,’ said Tony.
‘Don’t you dare, Tony.’ Sandra sat up in bed, wincing. She slumped back a little and picked up a bottle of Lucozade. ‘He’s still wet behind the ears. I don’t want him ending up like Eddie. I can’t lose another son.’
Chapter 23
While Willis was at lunch with Ross, Bowie and Carter were in Robbo’s office, going through what they’d learned at the meeting.
‘What did you think about what he had to say?’ asked Bowie.
‘It was good to get clarification of some aspects to do with Tony and the new deal,’ said Carter, ‘but, if we were just after an answer to why Eddie was killed we’re further away than ever. But . . . nobody’s kidding anyone else about that aspect. This is all about getting Tony.’
‘And the NCA need us to do it,’ said Robbo. ‘You heard him: they need the cover of investigating Eddie’s murder to be able to interview people close to Tony.’
‘Don’t be so sure, Robbo,’ said Bowie. ‘They’ll hitch a ride along with us just as far as we’re useful, then they’ll flag down another car.’
‘We make the most it then. We use them just as much as they use us. We can’t odds it anyway. This is their department, their domain,’ said Carter.
‘He wasn’t interested in discussing the other ideas,’ added Bowie. ‘He doesn’t see Eddie’s death being anything to do with buying and selling villas, nor does he consider Eddie to be drug baron material.’
‘We still have to be thorough. We know Eddie had money problems,’ said Carter. ‘His manager at Paradise Villas, Billy Manson, says they were insignificant and the norm, but we know that ten years ago he was in a much stronger position that he is now. Maybe he was getting lazy. Maybe it was proving too hard to make the kind of living he wanted from it and he decided, you know what? I’ll do what Tony does.’
‘Pam, did you find any evidence of Eddie having offshore bank accounts?’ asked Robbo. ‘Was he the director of more than Paradise Villas? Does he have hidden money that we can’t see yet?’
Pam answered, ‘A few bank accounts. I’ve not found secret billions anywhere so far. I think Eddie was pretty straightforward with his money dealings. He could have chosen to become a tax exile, taken Gibraltar citizenship and then just lived in Marbella. He had options he didn’t take. He paid his taxes here. But, we know a lot of his work was done for cash. Most of it, I would expect, so he probably didn’t declare a lot of his earnings.’
‘He seemed to have a good work–life balance,’ said Carter. ‘I still can’t see him bothering to become a drugs baron. He must have seen how Tony lives and thought it can’t be worth it. But someone, something, could have put pressure on him to do it.’
‘So, hypothetically, Eddie would have needed the money for what?’ asked Bowie.
‘Not for anything to do with his business,’ answered Pam. ‘It seems to struggle on paper only. Both Eddie and the manager, Billy Manson, enjoy a great lifestyle from it.’
‘And, Eddie could have found money easily if he needed it, I’m sure. Tony would have been able to bail him out a few million if he’d had to pay off a client when a villa went wrong,’ said Robbo. ‘And again, what Ross said, did that mean he went in with his brother Tony or did he cross him? Which cartel would he have been doing business with?’
‘We will hope Willis has a decisive result from Spain. We know that Tony is mad as a box of frogs, so Willis is a good one to send. She will keep a calm head.’
Bowie was deep in thought.
‘Okay, I’m happy with working alongside the NCA, even though I think they are glory hunters. This was never just about finding out who killed Eddie.’ He looked at both Carter and Robbo. ‘This was always going to be about trying to rectify the wrongs of 2003. This is our chance.’
Chapter 24
Della came awake in a flash of pain to see Debbie standing over her. ‘What are you doing here, Debbie?’
Della rolled to one side and half sat up as she reached for some water. Debbie walked across to the window and drew back the curtains. Della squinted.
‘What time is it?’ She sat up in bed, wincing as she did so.
‘It’s two in the afternoon.’
‘Why are you here? Why am I in so much pain? It hurts when I breathe. Everything feels bruised. What the hell happened to me?’
‘Things got a little out of hand last night.’
‘Got out of hand? What do you mean?’
‘I’m glad you’re okay now. I left Sheena to look after you overnight.’
‘Jesus Christ, Debbie, what the hell is going on?’
‘Shush, keep calm.’
‘Keep calm? I’m beginning to think something awful happened last night.’
‘You live to tell the tale, that’s the mai
n thing.’
Debbie straightened the curtains. She stared out at the day. She had been in and out every couple of hours since Sheena called her at three in the morning to say Della looked like she was having a reaction to the drugs. Sandra had put a mixture of uppers and downers in Della’s drink. It was some prescribed and some more that Sandra kept for parties.
‘I remember Sandra turning up. What did she do, spike my drink?’ Debbie didn’t answer. ‘Christ, I thought as much. I always knew things would be difficult for me if Eddie was killed but I never thought that the family would turn on me like this. They tried to kill me.’ She looked at her hands. ‘And I remember digging in the soil. Christ Almighty, what’s out there?’ Della sat bolt upright. ‘Debbie, for Christ’s sake, I remember hearing a child calling for help in Spanish. She was out by the stone hut. We have to go and look, Debbie. I’m telling you, there’s a child out there.’
‘Stay where you are and rest. Sheena said that’s what you told her. I went up there to look – there is no one there. There’s nothing there to see. There’s no sign of any child. You must have been hallucinating.’
‘I’m telling you, I heard—’
‘You were off your face.’
‘Yeah, why was that? Sandra’s trying to kill me.’
‘No, she just wants to scare you.’
‘Why can’t they leave me alone, Debbie? Isn’t it enough that I lose my husband? What do they want from me?’ Debbie sighed. She ran her fingers down the side of the curtain. Della continued: ‘Tony is out of control, Debbie. I’ve seen the bruises on you. I know you cover for him but he tried to rape me. Is that the kind of monster you want to be married to?’
‘Marco tried to rape you, not Tony.’
‘What are you talking about?’
‘In the almond grove. Harold found you; he carried you back here. He helped me put you to bed.’
Della shook her head to try to clear it
‘I’m not talking about then. Tony broke in here while I was in the bath, earlier on, in the evening. He would have raped me if I hadn’t fought him off.’ Della struggled to talk, she took a drink of water.
Debbie was staring at her. If Della had expected her to explode and call her a liar, it wasn’t happening.
‘I need your help, Debbie. This is what they’d do to you as well; you know that, don’t you? Sandra is a poisonous old bitch and she doesn’t care about anyone but herself. She uses everyone, even Tony.’
‘I know.’
Debbie walked out and left Della on her own. She lay there thinking and then she went into the bathroom and switched on the lights around the mirror. The marble was cold under her feet. The walls were cold to her touch. Her mind was jumping from one event to another, confused. Which part of Eddie’s story was real? Had he been having problems with money? Yes, he could have. Would he have shared that with her? Probably not. But did he know he was going into a situation that could kill him? She didn’t think so.
She remembered Eddie’s expression as she dropped him off at the airport. He’d turned back towards her as he carried his case, she remembered thinking he was getting soppy in his old age. He was finally showing her some real affection, some trust.
‘Eddie?’ She looked into the mirror and smiled as tears distorted her vision and she saw him standing behind her.
‘What do I do now, Eddie? Tony has me a prisoner in my own home. My life here is over. I don’t want to start again without you, Eddie.’
‘Sorry, babe.’
‘What am I supposed to do without you? I gave up everything for you and now I find out that you betrayed me? It’s too hard to take in.’
‘Don’t believe it. You know in your heart that I wouldn’t go back to the old ways. You know I loved you.’
‘Yes, but the last few months were so hard between us, so strained. I even thought you were having an affair.’
‘I never would, Della.’
‘Maybe. But, maybe, I never really knew you.’
‘You knew me warts and all. You fell in love with a bad boy and you tamed him.’
She laughed. ‘Yes, I did.’
‘You know what you have to do, Della.’
She nodded. ‘Come out fighting.’
She got dressed and checked that she was on her own as she walked through the villa. She realised she still felt really rough. She felt as if she were still drunk and really hung-over at the same time. But, something needed looking at. If Debbie was right, plans were already being made to cover their tracks and clear the area. She had to look today.
The day was bright and sunny and warm again, the air had cleared from the rain. Della got a bottle of water from the fridge and walked out onto her patio, past the remnants of the fire from the night before. She slipped trainers on and headed off into the wasteland at the back of the villa. She followed the path that led to the old stone hut at the far end of the almond grove. As she walked she tried hard to remember what had happened the night before. She’d only snatches of memory and she didn’t know what sequence they came in. She remembered the fire and Sandra and she remembered that there were so many other people. As she walked forward she kept glancing around. She was so anxious, as if she were about to experience a panic attack. She felt the rush of fear that she had felt last night. She knew she’d run, crawled, for her life along this path.
Now as she approached the small stone hut, its wooden door hanging off its hinges, she felt the fear heighten. She felt it squash her lungs as if she were about to be attacked, but she could see there was no one around. The silence was only broken by the sound of the crunching beneath her feet. Della walked, head down, staring at the broken twigs, the swept undergrowth. It was flattened.
Della kept her eyes on the hut and racked her memory. She saw herself in the darkness. She remembered seeing the looming hut as she crawled forwards. She had been trying to reach the hut, but she hadn’t made it and her hands had sunk into soft earth. She remembered feeling her knees sink into the earth and then she had heard the child.
She crouched down and examined the earth. There were marks where hands had patted and smoothed it over. Della stood and went to the hut and pulled open the wooden door. Inside was so dark that Della got out her phone to get a better look. She bent double, went inside and took some photos. She smelled the air. There was some lingering scent that she couldn’t quite recognise and there was the smell of wet earth where the rain had seeped in and settled. Della tried to work out if a child could have been inside. There was nothing left inside. The earth floor looked clean, thought Della, too clean. Where was the natural debris? It was too staged.
As she turned to come out she froze. The scene from the previous evening came back to her. Tony and Sandra and Marco? They were there with her when . . . She remembered the face in the earth; now she knew what she had remembered was real – someone had been buried in the ground in front of her.
Della stood for a while trying hard to put the whole picture together. She stared at the flattened earth. She walked a few paces forwards and pressed her foot into the ground. It gave slightly on the freshly dug earth. She recoiled and she remembered being pressed into the earth and not being able to breathe.
She ran back to the villa. She spent the afternoon in her bedroom. She heard Marco coming and going. She had expected to hear from Laurence before he left for the airport with Harold. He always used to come down to spend the last hour with her and Eddie whenever he came to stay at Villa Cassandra, then Eddie would give him a lift to the airport. But not this time. She heard Marco throw his keys onto the kitchen counter. She guessed he must have taken them all to Málaga Airport.
Della went into the bathroom and bent over as she held the cold shower over her throbbing head. The pain was blinding; she was bruised on her legs, on her arms, her stomach. Her ribcage was turning black with bruising. Her neck was strained as if she had whiplash. She was still struggling to grasp what had occurred the night before. How out of control they had all become! She
was feeling a type of blind panic she wasn’t sure she could deal with.
When she came back into the bedroom she saw that she’d had a missed call from Laurence. She rang him back. He was ringing from a UK airport. She could hear the sounds of planes being announced in the background.
‘They attacked me last night, Laurence.’
‘What do you mean? Who?’
‘Sandra, Tony, Marco. All of them. Did you know?’
‘Of course not. Della, there’s no way I would have let them hurt you. What happened?’
‘They were going to kill me. I’m bruised and battered, Laurie. You have to help me.’
‘I will come back to Spain as soon as I can, Della. I intend to help you in every way I can. Keep calm. Just tell me what happened last night.’
‘Sandra slipped something in my drink.’
‘You’re sure?’
‘Yes. Debbie confirmed it.’
‘She wouldn’t have done that.’
‘If I just stay here I’ll end up in a shallow grave like the lawyer who Tony got to alter Eddie’s will. I phoned his practice to speak to him, he’s not been seen for two days and I have some pretty horrible memories from last night, one of which was seeing him! Oh my God, Laurence, I’m just sitting here, waiting to be murdered.’
‘Della, you need to keep calm.’
‘I’m going to have to do something. You weren’t there. Sandra will do anything to get rid of me. I’m telling you, Laurence: they’re after my blood.’
‘I said I’ll help you, Della. Tony has asked me to take over Paradise Villas and I have agreed, but only to stop it going under.’
‘You see! That’s my business, by right. What the hell is going on?’
‘Tony has got it signed over to himself. He’s managed to have Eddie’s will altered. I don’t know how. I hope it’s not what you think; but, if there’s any truth in that, if you think you’re right about a body out there, then don’t go near it. Tony is worse than I’ve ever seen him.’
