The Binford Mysteries: A Collection of Gritty Urban Mystery Novels (3 - BOOK BOX SET)

by Rashad Salim

  I looked up and saw Shazia approaching. Suddenly I felt uplifted. She was with some of her girlfriends and much to my delight they walked on while she sat down beside me. I remember thinking it was such a major thing for her to do that. No girl had ever sat down beside me unless she had to.

  “I heard some cops came to your Geography class to see you.”

  I was stunned. “How did you know that?”

  That had only happened an hour and half ago. Then I remembered the speed of high school gossip. It felt like everyone knew and there was no way to stop it from spreading.

  She smiled and said one of her friends in my Geography class told her.

  The popular kids like Shazia were always in the know. Nobodies like me never were.

  “What did they wanna talk to you about?”

  I was glad she didn’t know. She didn’t know because I hadn’t told anyone and in that moment I realised what people meant when they said knowledge was power. By knowing something others wanted to know I became someone others wanted to know.

  This was my newfound status and when I saw how Shazia looked at me, the way she smiled, the way she laughed at my jokes, I felt guilty inside that it was all thanks to Rishi Malhotra’s murder.

  “Can I tell you somethin’?” I asked her.

  “Sure.” She looked at me intensely for what seemed like ages.

  I wanted to tell her about the white van man and my worries about being targeted.

  I wanted to tell her how scared I was.

  I wanted to tell her how I had been in love with her for years and never had the courage to say a word to her about it.

  There was a lot I wanted to tell her but in that moment I spotted Omar and Max in the corner of my eye. They had finally showed up and I cursed inward that it had to be in that moment.

  I looked back at Shazia and thought of Max – how he had spotted us together the previous time. But this time it was different. This time I was aware of how he had felt about her too. I wondered if he still felt that way and tried to clear my mind of him.

  “...What were you gonna say?” she asked.

  Behind her, one of her girlfriends called her. She turned to face them and stood up.

  “I have to go.”

  “Me too,” I said and stood.

  “Can we talk about this tomorrow?” I asked.

  I knew it sounded desperate but when she answered, that didn’t matter.

  “Sure. Take care.”

  I watched her leave.

  Take care.

  I played that over and over in my head long after she was out of sight. I couldn’t believe she had said something so casual but meant so much to me. Like a lot of other things over the last two days, it was something she had never said to me before.

  I couldn’t wait to see her again. Tomorrow seemed so far away.

  I knew I was falling even harder in love with her and I didn’t care. The way I saw it, we were getting to know each other deeper than ever before. There was something else too, other than the talk of murders and disappearances that had pushed me to talk to her more. It was that I was running out of time. School was going to be over forever in less than a month and the thought of not being able to see her everyday made me more desperate to get with her.

  The night before I had been plagued with worries and worst case scenarios about Rishi Malhotra’s killer coming after me – and the only way I got those thoughts out of my mind and fell asleep were by fantasising about what it would be like if Shazia Manzoor was my girlfriend. Dreams about us together wiped out thoughts of the white van man dumping my dead body in that canal.

  19

  Asim

  The night before, I had wondered how Max would react if Shazia and I got into a relationship but I had to admit I hadn’t given that much thought. I was thinking about his reaction to Shazia and my inevitable union when I caught up with him and Omar at the school gates.

  “Remember us?” Omar said as I reached the two of them.

  I grabbed one of his fat pecs and squeezed before letting go. He cried out in pain.

  Max was silent, which didn’t surprise me. Both Max and I, amongst Omar’s other friends often teased him physically about being overweight. It had always elicited laughs but Max was in no mood to banter with me.

  It made me wonder how awkward the walk home would be, considering how when the three of us went home together Omar was the first to split up while Max and I walked the same route, with Max pretty much walking me home before walking another couple of blocks.

  The three of us strolled down the main road while Omar did most of the talking. He stood between me and Max and it was pretty obvious he was carrying the conversation. He talked about different topics with me and with Max. He was having two different conversations and none of us tried to act like we weren’t aware of it.

  We talked about all kinds of bullshit that no one else really cared about – Max’s after school football sessions, how much work the builders had left to do at his house, my coursework progress, the stupid shit Omar had gotten up to during that day – but it was a tricky act the three of us were playing.

  We were avoiding the only two subjects worth discussing: me getting cosy with Shazia and Ravinder’s potential abduction.

  The pussyfooting got too much for me so I decided to lay it all down there and then. “Where do you think that fucker is?” I asked Omar.

  He was in the middle of some anecdote and stopped talking.

  “Who knows?” he said and turned to Max. “Where do you think he is?”

  “Who cares,” Max said. He stared ahead and kept walking. We all did.

  “Wherever he is, I hope he’s in one piece,” Omar said.

  “Since when did you give a shit about that dickhead?” Max asked.

  “Come on,” Omar said softly. “His life might be in danger.”

  “So what?” Max said. “You think he’d give a shit if it were you who went missing? He’d be taking the piss out of you in front of everyone, making jokes and shit like how there was no canal wide enough to dump you in.”

  Max had made a good point but instead of saying that, I laughed at his pun.

  “I don’t care,” Omar said. “Just think of his parents.”

  “Oh, fuck his parents, man!”

  That came off stronger than either Omar or I had expected.

  Max was venting but I knew it wasn’t Ravinder he was angry about.

  We walked in silence for a while.

  Max’s joke about Omar and the canal popped into my head again and I let a little laughter escape.

  Omar and I exchanged looks. He wasn’t amused.

  “What are you laughing at, Romeo?”

  “Nothing, man. Nothing.”

  I thought about changing the subject and the only thing that came to mind was that interrogation I went through with the cops investigating Malhotra’s murder but it wasn’t something I was comfortable discussing in Max’s presence.

  “When’s the wedding?” Omar asked me and winked.

  I gave him a stern look but he kept it up. I wanted to punch him just to shut him up but didn’t want to make a bigger deal out of it. “Shut up, ball-face.”

  That only spurred him on. “Have you picked out names for the babies too?”

  I glared at him and glanced at Max, who still stared ahead. He hadn’t looked at me once since I had joined him and Omar back at the school gates.

  I thought I’d change strategies and play Omar’s game, hoping he’d drop it.

  “We’re takin’ it slow for now.”

  I knew it was a mistake before I had finished talking.

  Omar’s eyes widened and he seized me with both arms.

  “You sly bastard, you’re not going out with her already, are you?”

  I had made it sound like Shazia and I were turning into love birds but we hadn’t got to that part yet.

  “Don’t get ahead of yourself,” I said. “It’s nothing serious.”

  Oma
r faced Max. “Can you believe this?” he asked him. “Our boy’s gonna be the first one to nail Shazia!”

  Omar had lost all fucking sense of tact but there was something liberating about it. He had freed me by bringing it up for me.

  “I don’t care,” Max said. “...I don’t.”

  Omar nudged him. “Come on...”

  “I don’t give a shit,” Max said. “I couldn’t care less.”

  Max’s words hurt me worse than I thought they would. I didn’t know how to talk to him anymore. He had upset me and had been gradually disappointing me for so long that I couldn’t hold back my anger at him anymore. “What the fuck, bro?” I said to him.

  “Don’t bro me.”

  “Oh, fuck off, man. What’s your problem?”

  “I don’t have a problem.”

  “Yeah, you fuckin’ do. You’ve been actin’ like a bitch for ages now.”

  He stopped walking, as did Omar and I.

  Max looked at me and I thought he was about to punch me.

  We had never fought before but if it was ever going to come to that now was the time.

  I didn’t have to wonder who’d win in a fight between me and him. We were about the same size but he would’ve clobbered me. He had a high pain threshold – something I had been very aware of during the many rough tackles he faced in the football games at school – and I thought my blows wouldn’t do anything to him.

  But he never hit me. He just stared at me in silence.

  “What?” I said.

  “Let’s calm down, shall we?” Omar said.

  “You think you’re so special now, don’t you?” Max asked me. “Just because you two got your names in all the papers.”

  “You would’ve got your name in there too if you had hung out with us on Saturday!” Omar said.

  Max turned to Omar. “You think I give a shit about getting my name in newspapers?”

  “Then what the fuck is your problem?” I said.

  “Yeah!” Omar chimed in. “What’s the matter? You think you’re too good to hang out with us now?”

  I was surprised Omar had lost patience with Max too but was pleased he was being vocal now.

  “You fucking guys, I swear...” Max shook his head. “There’s more to life than fucking about up and down the same old streets every fucking week!”

  “Oh, really?” I wasn’t convinced about his lack of enthusiasm about how we had spent our Saturdays all these years. He never seemed to have a problem with it before. Not until the last few months. “You got anything better to do?”

  “Yeah,” he said. “As a matter of fact, I do.”

  “Fine, man,” I said and raised my hands in surrender. “Do whatever the fuck you want. Just don’t say we never tried.”

  Max rolled his eyes and turned his back on us. He started walking away down a side road.

  “Now where you going?” Omar called out.

  Max didn’t answer.

  “Come on, bro,” Omar said sympathetically. “Don’t be like that. Come back!”

  Max showed us the middle finger and kept walking.

  “Fuck him,” I said in disgust.

  “We really pissed him off.”

  We stood there and watched Max get further and further away.

  “He’s such a drama queen, I swear,” I said. “All this over Shazia. Can you believe that shit?”

  “I dunno about that,” Omar said.

  “What d’you mean?”

  “I don’t think it was all to do with her.”

  “Face it, man. He’s jealous. Jealous ‘cause I’m close to Shazia and jealous ‘cause of all the attention I’m gettin’ over these crimes.”

  “Oh, yeah. You’re a proper celebrity now, right?” His sarcasm didn’t bother me. I was still angry with Max for that.

  We stood there in silence for a while. I wondered if my friendship with Max was over.

  “Did he tell you about Pakistan?”

  I looked at him in confusion. “Pakistan?”

  “...He never told you?” Omar was wide eyed in disbelief.

  “Told me what, you fat fucker?”

  He couldn’t contain his disbelief and laughed out loud. “Oh, man!”

  “What do you know, porkie? Just fuckin’ say it!”

  When he calmed down, he leaned in close. “His dad is flying him and his older sister out to Pakistan around September. His sister’s getting married.”

  I breathed a sigh of relief. I had thought it was a much bigger thing than that.

  “Congratulations to her then.”

  “It’s not just that,” he said.

  And then it hit me. “He’s getting married too?”

  “No! No, you fool, he ain’t getting married.”

  “Then what the fuck is the big deal?”

  “He’s moving there for about a year.”

  “Oh,” I said. I didn’t know what to make of that. “Is he okay about that?”

  “Not really. When he told me last week he was really depressed about it.”

  “Last week? You found out last week and now you’re tellin’ me?” I tried to seize one of his flabby pecs but he jumped back.

  “I thought you already knew! ...I thought he might have told you first.”

  “How long has he known?” I asked.

  “No idea but judging by the way he’s been acting all this time I’m guessing he’s known for a while now.”

  “I see...”

  We walked another block and just as we were about to part ways I remembered I had something to tell Omar. “Shit, I almost forgot to tell you.”

  “What?”

  “Those two cops came in today to talk to me.”

  “What?” He stared at me wild eyed. “When was this?”

  I told him all about it. When I finished, he stared out into the distance and shook his head slowly.

  “This is too much. You gonna tell your parents about them?” He was referring to DI Richardson and DC Cole.

  “I dunno, bro.” I had thought about going straight home and telling my parents but the last thing I wanted was for them to panic about it.

  “They really thought you had something to do with Ravi vanishing?”

  I nodded.

  “Fuck, man... Where do you think he is?”

  “No idea. All I know is he better he show up real soon or shit’s gonna get even more fucked up for me.”

  20

  DC Cole

  Richardson and I had returned to the police station and were catching up with WPC Burton and PC Enfield over tea and coffee in the open office floor when DI Shaun Clark came barging in and stormed up to Richardson until their faces were inches apart.

  “I just got off the phone with Binford School,” he snarled.

  “...And?” Richardson asked.

  “And after that I spoke to DI Rahman.”

  I sank lower in my seat and dreaded what was coming next.

  “You visited Ravinder Singh’s family. Not only that, but the two of you,” he glanced at me, “went to his school and questioned his friends and classmates.”

  “Shaun,” I said softly, trying to calm him down but he wasn’t having any of it.

  “I thought I made it clear you were to stay away from my investigation?” he asked Richardson.

  “You did but hear us out first,” Richardson said.

  “No! This is bloody typical of you, Richardson! Always sticking your nose into other cases and making a fucking mess every time.”

  Richardson leaned in close until he was almost nose to nose with him. “You fuckin’ moron, we had a valid reason for all that. Did you know your missin’ boy was classmates with the lad who found Rishi Malhotra?”

  “So what?” Clark asked. “What does that prove?”

  “Nothin’ yet,” I said, “But we’re workin’ on it.”

  “I’m going to do what I can to find Ravinder Singh,” Clark said to Richardson. “But when I’ve got you cowboys making noises and confusing valuable
sources, you make it bloody hard!”

  A door creaked open at the other end of the hall. I turned to see the Chief emerge at his doorway. He angled his head to get a better look at this scene Clark had caused before he came over to us.

  “What’s going on, Richardson?” Chief asked.

  “Nothin’, boss,” he said. “Just a misunderstandin’.”

  Chief looked at Richardson and then at Clark. “Clark?”

  Clark didn’t take his eyes off Richardson.

  “For the last time, don’t interfere with my fucking case.” His voice was low and steady. He turned and walked out of the office.

  The Chief studied Richardson and then me. “In my office now.”

  Chief Stein leaned back in his seat and shook his head. Richardson and I sat on the opposite end of his desk.

  I could feel the heat that was about to hit us and groaned. We told him what we learnt from talking to Ravinder’s classmates and why we thought there may have been a link between Rishi Malhotra’s and Ravinder Singh’s cases.

  “Ya know, Richardson, you’ve been a pain in my arse for as long as I can remember and the only reason I’ve tolerated it is because every now and then you do somethin’ right and that’s more than some of my men do.” Richardson tried to say something but Stein told him to shut up. “I was on the phone with Rishi Malhotra’s parents earlier today. And his head teacher. They wanted to know how far we had got in solving his murder. They asked me for what we had so far and you know what I told them?”

  Richardson said nothing.

  “I told them I had my best officers workin’ on it and that we were going to have a breakthrough eventually.” He shook his head and remained silent for a while. “I lied to them, Richardson. I lied because I couldn’t tell them the truth – that the officers on the case were busy stickin’ their noses where they didn’t belong!”

  “Look, guv,” Richardson said, “It’s like this. Ravinder went missin’ just like Rishi had and they both fit the same profile – Asian schoolboys. What if the key to Rishi’s murder is in Ravinder’s disappearance and vice versa?”

  “I can see why would say that but what evidence to you have to support that?”