Aim High (The Eddie Malloy series Book 7)

by Joe McNally

  But as he drew closer, seeing only the hulk of the Shack against the sky, no trail of smoke from the chimney, he knew it was empty. He remembered that the last time he’d seen Mave was at Eddie’s and he cursed himself for not checking she’d come back. Then again, that would have killed the happy homecoming surprise.

  No point in knocking…Sonny turned the handle. The door opened. He stopped, and considered phoning Mave. But what if something was wrong? He hurried in and switched on the lights.

  A mess. A stomach-churning mess.

  Only his head moved as he tried to take this in. Then he dropped his bag and ran upstairs calling Mave’s name.

  Two minutes later he sat on the bottom step taking in the aftermath of the burglary. How the hell was he going to break this news to Mave? Maybe a call to Eddie would be best. He’d know how to handle it. Eddie could tell her face to face.

  ‘Sonny,’ Eddie said, ‘Happy New Year.’

  ‘And to you, Eddie. Listen, is Mave with you?’

  Eddie judged the question to be too quick and too straightforward to carry an ulterior motive, but care was needed. ‘Not at the moment. Is everything all right?’

  Sonny told him about the break-in.

  ‘Jeez, Sonny, that’s grim news. What are your plans? Can you stay there until we try and sort something out?’

  ‘Sure. Sure, I’d hoped this would be a surprise visit, anyway. I’ll stay as long as I’m needed.’

  ‘Good. Let me speak to Mave and call you back.’

  ‘Should I ring the police?’

  ‘Not right away, I don’t think. Let’s see what Mave says.’

  ‘I’m sorry for pushing this onto you, Eddie. I’d tell her, but-’

  ‘Don’t worry. She’s in pretty good shape at the moment. I think she’ll handle it.’

  ‘Call me back, will you?’

  ‘Of course.’

  Eddie ended the call and ended his doubt about Sonny being involved in the break-in. Mave had been right. He called her on the throwaway phone and told her.

  ‘Did you ask him if the PC was still there?’

  ‘It crossed my mind, but I didn’t want to put him on the defensive. Defending Nina, I mean.’

  ‘I know what you mean…’

  ‘Do you think he’s back for good?’

  ‘Judging by how low he was yesterday on the phone, he could well be.’

  Eddie hesitated, then said. ‘We should either tell him we suspect Nina, or ask him about the PC and leave him to draw his own conclusions on it.’

  ‘The latter.’

  ‘Okay. He also asked about calling the police.’

  ‘Well, we don’t want that, and he can’t live in that mess, so the answer’s no, we want to see what we can find out ourselves.’

  ‘Okay. He’s going to ask when you’re due back.’

  ‘Oh…buggeration!’

  Eddie smiled. ‘That’s a new one on me, Mave. Effective, all the same.’

  ‘Listen, we’re going to have to tell him, aren’t we? I can’t stay hidden without him knowing why.’

  ‘It’ll put him on the spot with Nina.’

  ‘I know. I know…’

  ‘Look, that could work in our favour. I’ll arrange to meet him and we can take it from there. If he’s really finished with her, and we might have to take it on trust, then maybe he can help us nail her.’

  ‘That is, of course, assuming that it was Nina who broke in and not Buley or his cronies.’

  ‘True. Let’s see what he says. If he can’t be truthful about her now, he probably never will be.’

  ‘Okay. Let me know what he says.’

  Sonny hadn’t moved from his seat on the stairs, surveying the torn cushions, the broken books, the smashed drawers as though they were so many hypnotic objects.

  His phone rang.

  ‘Eddie.’

  ‘Sonny, I spoke to Mave. Listen, we need to meet, you and me.’

  ‘Did she go crazy?’

  ‘No. No, she’s fine, she’s okay under the circumstances. But all sorts of shit’s been going on while you were away. Mave won’t be back at the Shack anytime soon. I’ll explain everything when I see you. I’m at Ludlow tomorrow. You still got that caravan in Stourport?’

  ‘If I can find the keys, yes.’

  ‘Can you get there for late afternoon tomorrow?’

  ‘Should be able to.’

  ‘Okay. I’ll come straight there after racing.’

  ‘Mave’s not been hurt, has she?’

  ‘No. She’s fine. We’re just taking precautions.’

  ‘Good…that’s good, Eddie. Give her my love. Tell her I’m sorry.’

  ‘I will.’

  ‘You think it’ll be okay for me to spend the night here?’

  ‘If you can clear a space, by the sound of things.’

  ‘I’ll tidy up as best I can. Assuming you don’t want me to get the police in?’

  ‘No. No point. And if you could get the house back into some sort of order, that’ll make things easier when Mave comes home.’

  ‘Sure. Sure, I will. See you tomorrow.’

  ‘Okay. Oh, Sonny…is Mave’s PC unit still under her desk?’

  ‘Hold on…No. No, Eddie, it’s not,’ Sonny’s tone was dropping, fading. ‘The PC’s gone,’ he said.

  ‘Shit.’

  Sonny stayed silent. Eddie said, ‘Well, look, there’s nothing we can do about it now. I’ll see you tomorrow.’

  ‘Yes,’ Sonny was whispering. Slowly, he put the phone away. He buried his big tanned face in his hands and massaged it and groaned and pushed his fingers back through his hair until he gripped the jacket collar, and he tried to haul it forward, wishing he could draw it all the way over his head and down his body like some magical soft eraser, capable of deleting the past.

  He did not move for a long time, then another groaning sigh seemed to galvanize him and he rose muttering ‘Where to start? Where to start?’

  He began picking his way through the jumble, setting chairs upright, refitting cushions, collecting books. Three lamps were smashed. Sonny got bin bags and a brush and dustpan from the kitchen.

  When the solid objects had been cleared from the living room floor, Sonny set to shaking out the tumble of rugs and laying them in the order and shape he thought they had been in. From the blue fireside rug something fell and tinkled on the stone flags. Sonny looked at it. He took his right hand from the corner of the rug and bent to pick up the pendant he had given Nina.

  Sonny held it delicately by the clasp and raised it carefully to eye level. As the kinks in the gold chain freed themselves, the diamond slowly turned, sparkling in the light.

  62

  Eddie had resisted calling Mac, but come morning, he realized there was little choice. Care was needed. The major was Mac’s boss. The phone he was using was JCR issue. Eddie was due to ride out for Ben Tylutki before leaving for Ludlow, so time was tight. He drove to Mac’s place before dawn and was relieved to see a light on as he pulled into the driveway.

  Mac heard the engine and opened a curtain. He waved Eddie in.

  ‘You smelt the coffee pot, didn’t you?’ Mac said.

  ‘From a mile off.’

  ‘What’s new?’

  Eddie told him about Major Aubrey Severson. Mac didn’t say a word all the way through. Eddie looked at him. ‘You seem to be kind of absorbing this in slow motion, Mac, if you don’t mind me saying.’

  ‘I don’t know if I’m ring-rusty or my brain hasn’t woken up yet. Let me just make sure I’ve got this right…’ He summed up what Eddie had told him.

  ‘That’s a fair potted version, Mac. I don’t know where it leaves you, and I was in two minds when to tell you, but, we are where we are.’

  Mac stared into his coffee mug, then swirled the liquid slowly. He said, ‘How are you for time? Can you help me try and break this down?’

  ‘I’ve got half an hour.’

  ‘Right. The chairman of the Jockey Club is a crook, lea
ving aside the merits of legal arguments on shareholdings and insider dealing etcetera. He’s a crook, in spirit, if you like.’

  ‘Agreed.’

  ‘He’s involved with another crook, by all accounts, in Ivory.’

  ‘Correct.’

  ‘It seems highly likely that he prompted Tim Arango to recruit me, way ahead of the time when anyone could have reasonably concluded this was a JCR only issue.’

  Eddie made one fist of both hands, rested his chin there, and nodded. Mac said, ‘Tim Arango is not someone you’d file under “dimwit”, so how much does Tim know, if anything? And if he is not in on it, what questions did he ask of the major when my name came up?’

  Eddie said, ‘There’s no indication that Tim’s involved, or that he’s hiding anything.’

  ‘Right. So who took the decision to cease operations? Was it Tim, and did the major object, or was the suspension of racing instigated by the major?’

  ‘The major, according to meeting minutes.’

  ‘So, he believes it better to, in his lingo, retreat and regroup than to carry on against an unknown enemy.’

  ‘Fair comment.’

  Mac nodded slowly, then drank, staring at the table. He looked up at Eddie. ‘I don’t mind telling you that I haven’t a bloody clue what to do now. Your friend has found out pretty much all there is to know on the inside. It’s gobsmacking, and it’s immensely helpful to me personally in watching my back, but, with due respect to your friend’s hard work, it does not put me one step closer to finding out who’s behind this.’

  ‘True. But at least it gives you a motive, or what looks like a motive. If we accept that the motive’s correct, then we’re looking for somebody with a major grudge, no pun intended, against Ivory or the major or maybe both. Not only that, but it’s someone who knows what they’re up to. Now, I think it’s a reasonable assumption that the major and Ivory have told no one about this, and it’s hardly the kind of thing you stumble across. Whoever’s behind it, not only holds a grudge, but he has access to the same skills my friend has used, and I can guarantee you that those skills are as rare as a Motown song without a tambourine in it.’

  Mac looked puzzled. ‘I’m afraid I’m not up with popular culture, Eddie.’

  ‘True. That was a comparison I should have saved for my music-minded friend. But believe me…’ Eddie hesitated, furrowing his brow. ‘Having said that, my friend did say that accessing the IT systems at JCR and the BHA was ridiculously easy.’

  ‘He looked at the BHA side, too?’

  Eddie was on the verge of telling Mac that his ‘friend’ was a woman, but given the potential danger Mave was in, he resisted. ‘That’s right. The BHA were handling the case before you were brought in, remember?’

  ‘Of course. Anything worthwhile there?’

  ‘Not so far. But I don’t know how deeply that was dug into. The big discovery was a showstopper, I suppose.’

  ‘Would you ask your friend to have a good root around on the BHA side?’

  ‘Sure.’

  ‘Good. Thanks.’

  ‘What are you going to do?’

  Mac picked up his coffee mug and looked at Eddie. ‘I haven’t the faintest bloody idea.’

  ‘One thing worth thinking about. This is personal, isn’t it? The guy could have asked for a King’s ransom to leave off JCR, and there hasn’t been a single word from him. It’s personal. Big time.’

  63

  Even though none of his four mounts was placed, Eddie enjoyed riding Ludlow. To him it seemed the quintessential small English racetrack, and only the clothing of those attending gave you some idea what decade you were in. The main thing jockeys riding there noticed was that police levels were almost back to normal.

  Eddie sensed some element of guilt among his fellow riders that since the killings of Kellagher, Sampson and Blackaby, the atmosphere in the changing room had been much more relaxed and friendly. Nobody mentioned the dead men.

  As dusk fell, Eddie drove from one small town to another, twenty miles east, Stourport-on-Severn, where Sonny waited in his caravan by the riverbank.

  The site barrier was closed. Eddie called Sonny who said he’d walk up with the swipe card. Ten minutes later, they stood in the warm kitchen of the long caravan, all curtains drawn, the radio playing quietly and the kettle bubbling.

  ‘A change from the delights of Turkey,’ Eddie said.

  ‘A welcome one for me, Eddie. Once the tint on the rose-coloured glasses started to fade, everything seemed grubby and hollow and kind of hopeless. There’s no fool like an old fool, right enough.’

  ‘Not your fault, my friend. Love doesn’t discriminate in age or anything else.’

  Sonny smiled sadly as he made coffee. ‘And that’s a fine thing…so long as it’s on both sides.’

  Eddie offered a sympathetic shrug. Sonny said, ‘Let’s sit down. I’ve got something to tell you, though it might not be the biggest of shocks.’

  They settled in the U-shaped lounge. Sonny said, ‘It was Nina who broke into Mave’s house.’

  ‘She confessed?’

  Sonny drew the broken pendant from his shirt pocket and held it up. ‘She left this there.’

  Eddie nodded. Sonny said, ‘You knew?’

  ‘Had a fair idea.’

  ‘And you knew it had happened before I told you last night?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Mave, too.’

  Eddie nodded. ‘We went there three days ago.’

  ‘And you thought it was me?’

  Eddie watched him a while. ‘I did. Mave bet her life you weren’t involved.’

  Sonny’s look confused Eddie. He seemed partially relieved and a little amused, and he said, ‘What is it with women, Eddie? No matter what I did to Jo, no matter how much I changed, she never lost an ounce of faith in me. And no matter what I did for Nina, no matter what I gave up, she never gave a fuck about me.’

  ‘One of them knew you. The other didn’t.’

  ‘You knew me.’

  ‘I’m not a woman.’

  Sonny smiled sadly, ‘Which brings it round full circle.’

  ‘It does. But where do we go from here?’

  ‘God knows.’

  Eddie drank and watched him. ‘You in or out?’

  ‘Of what?’

  ‘Of this. Of trying to stop Nina. Mave would understand if you want to just lie low and stay neutral.’

  ‘How the fuck can I be neutral, when she’s trying to harm a kid I’ve loved and protected all my life!’

  Eddie, expressionless, watched and waited. The fire went from Sonny’s eyes. ‘I’m sorry. That was uncalled for.’

  ‘It’s okay. Any idea who was with Nina at Mave’s?’

  ‘None.’

  ‘What about her brother, the one who was placing bets?’

  ‘There was no brother. That was another piece of deception I should have said no to.’

  ‘So you weren’t stopped by the bookies from placing bets?’

  ‘I was, but it was a friend of Jonty’s who took over. We just thought it would seem more confidential if she conjured up a brother.’

  ‘What’s the friend’s name?’

  ‘Stefan. Stefan Gerraro.’

  ‘Could he have helped Nina in the break-in?’

  ‘I suppose so.’

  ‘Where does he live?’

  ‘I don’t know.’

  ‘What did she say when you told her about Jonty?’

  ‘She said she’d always believed he’d choke to death on his own vomit.’

  ‘Charming woman. Was that it?’

  ‘Pretty much.’

  ‘Did you tell her he was found at Haydock?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘That must have surprised her.’

  ‘She didn’t question it.’

  ‘Didn’t you find that strange?’

  ‘I wasn’t particularly thinking straight at the time, but, yes, I suppose it is.’

  ‘Did you get the impression when
she said about the choking thing, that she knew that was how he’d died?’

  ‘Not really. It was just one of her assumptions. She’s good at assumptions, Nina. Did Jonty die of choking?’

  ‘I don’t know. They haven’t announced anything, but what Nina says makes me very curious.’

  Sonny’s head went down. Eddie said, ‘Listen, I think we need to have a three-way conversation about what to do next, you, me, and Mave.’

  Sonny nodded.

  ‘What are the chances of Nina contacting you?’

  ‘Slim, I’d have thought. I’m a meal-ticket past its expiry date. And the last time we saw each other I cut her enough to sever all ties. Not literally, I mean, verbally.’

  ‘But if she thinks she can still get something out of you, she’d forgive you, if I can put it that way?’

  ‘Probably…Definitely. Why, what’s in your mind?’

  ‘I need to speak to Mave first. We both do.’

  ‘I can’t wait to see her again.’

  ‘I think we’d be better doing it by secure link, online, for now. You still got a laptop?’

  ‘In my bag.’

  ‘I’ll get Mave to set you up.’

  ‘There’s Wi-Fi here on the site.’

  ‘I doubt she’ll risk that. Let’s see what she says.’ Eddie stood. Sonny got up. ‘Can I call her,’ he asked.

  ‘Best not until we’ve figured out what to do. There’s other crap going on.’

  ‘What other crap?’

  ‘Nothing to do with Nina, but maybe twice as dangerous. Look, can we agree for now that you’ll stay here? Don’t call Mave. Ring me on this throwaway phone if you need to and buy yourself one of these tomorrow. And if Nina happens to call you, can you kind of leave the door open with her, for now, at least?’

  Sonny nodded, then rubbed his face and sighed. ‘Okay.’

  ‘Jet lag,’ Eddie said.

  ‘I wish. Life lag, it is,’ he sighed again, long and loud, and it seemed to relax him. ‘Life lag, Eddie.’

  64

  When Eddie got home that night, Mac was waiting for him. The big man got out of his car as Eddie pulled in behind him. Eddie still had his lights on full beam and Mac frowned and raised his arm, looking to Eddie like a monochrome flashbulb picture of some mob boss.