They went through the rigmarole with the recording apparatus. Eddie hadn’t spoken except for a gruff ‘no’ when Jordan asked him again if he wanted a solicitor present. He sat with his arms on the table in front of him and now and again he rubbed at his face. He was unshaven and grubby.
“Have you been offered a drink – something to eat?” Jordan asked.
“I don’t want anything – oh no, I want a Coke – just a can of Coke, that’s all.”
Jordan turned to the constable standing by the door and nodded. “Okay. Do you need anything else?”
“I just want you to find our Molly.” As he spoke the tough exterior crumbled in front of them. His hands began to shake and he gulped loudly. For a moment it seemed he might be about to throw up.
“Are you alright?” Jordan asked.
“No. I’m not bloody alright. I’m in the shit, good and proper, and there’s no way out for me. But find our Molly. I’ll help you as much as I can. Find our Molly and that bloody thug Mariano and the bitch Lili. You do that and I’ll tell you and your mates anything. I’ll tell you everything but first you have to get my sister home safe.”
Chapter 60
They brought him his Coke and Eddie swigged it back in big gulps. He took in a deep breath and blew it out noisily. “I never intended this. All I ever wanted to do was get on a bit and have a better life than Dada. But I’m a prat and it’s all gone to cock and now my family are dead or in danger. I’m sorry. After all the effort my parents took to keep us safe, I’ve screwed it up. We’re cursed. Our family.”
Jordan didn’t speak, he sat quietly and waited, and Eddie told them all of it. He told them about his problems with Señor Santos. “He’s a thug. He owns the building my bar is in,” he said. “I rented it on the understanding that I could buy it after two years. Then after two years the price went up and then up again. In the end it was clear he was never going to let it be mine. So, I called him out on it and we came to an agreement. At least that’s what I told myself. He was playing me; God, I am an idiot. I agreed to do some stuff for him, and he promised to let me buy the bar. I knew a lot of what I was doing was sailing a bit close to the wind, but it was only small stuff and everybody’s at it, aren’t they? I bet half the people in this place are on the make one way or another, more than half. How else can you get anywhere? You have to be ready to play. At first it was just a bit of fiddling the books, messing about with the ordering and yes, okay, I let his blokes do a bit of drug trading out the back. I didn’t do it though.”
Eddie stopped, looked across the table at Jordan, waited for an approval that never came. He shook his head and then carried on. “Anyway, it got to be more and more and then the stuff with the guns started. He knew about Dada. God knows how he found out. I never told him, but people like him, they’re connected. They can find out anything if it’s going to get them what they want and, as I say, there’s always some bugger on the make, someone with an eye to the money.” He shrugged again. “He’s been doing it for ages. It’s huge, well organised and there’re people everywhere making money off it. I never liked it. People were dying, I knew that and a couple of times I told him I’d had enough, I didn’t want to do it anymore. That was when he threatened my family. Told me that if I didn’t help him with all of it then everything Dada had done, and Mam, all those years of looking over their shoulders would have been for nothing.
“So, you just carried on? Breaking the law, helping terrorists,” Jordan said.
“What else could I do? Look, it was nothing much at first. Just storing stuff for him. Guns, chemicals. Arranging to have things collected and then the property business. He got me to go into that with him. I didn’t do anything, it was just in my name, so it didn’t lead back to him. He never even paid me for any of that. We cleaned the money up through the books there. I didn’t really understand what it was about. I just signed papers when he told me to, and I got deeper and deeper in so in the end I couldn’t get out.”
“And your mother?” Jordan asked.
Eddie paused for a minute, coughed and wiped a finger under the corner of his eye. “Poor Mam. It was my fault. I wanted to get out from under. I just wanted it all to stop. I wanted to live quietly without all the worry. That was why I went to Spain in the first place. To get away from the constant stress. I wanted to go back to the old country eventually and buy a bar there, but all of this was making it impossible. I’d thought I could do it, maybe in another couple of years. All the people who had a beef with Dada are ancient now. The new lot aren’t bothered about the things he did. Okay, if they’d come across him, they’d probably have seen him off. But they weren’t really bothered anymore. He was old news. So, I told him I was moving on; said I was leaving, I’d had enough. Santos told me what he’d do but I didn’t believe him. I never thought he’d do it, not to an old woman.”
“So, who was it killed your mum? Do you know?”
“It was Mariano. It must have been. When I heard about Mam, I was scared shitless. I came across from France in the back of a van – paid some bloke at the port and then hitched up from Dover. I never thought he’d turn my mam over to that nutter Mariano and Lili, his girl. She’s just as bad. I bet they used to torture kittens. Honestly, they’re out of their heads. Some of the stuff I’ve seen them do, well, it’d turn your stomach. And he did, he just had my mam killed as if she didn’t count for anything.”
“And they have your sister?”
The power of speech left him, and Eddie just nodded and buried his head in his hands. He muttered quietly, “I reckon so. There’s no other explanation.”
“So, you’re going to help us to find her?” Jordan said.
He looked up and nodded. “If I can. I rang her. I told her to hide herself somewhere. I gave her money. I thought she’d go somewhere – not Southport. For Christ sakes. Why didn’t she go far away? I meant her to get further away, go somewhere they wouldn’t look and what does she do. She goes to the seaside an hour away. Stupid bitch. They must have already been watching her. She made it easy for them, didn’t she? And, well, now they’ve got her.” He thumped at the table top with his clenched fist. The empty Coke can bounced and rolled to the floor with a clatter. The uniformed officer moved from the door into the room. Jordan shook his head.
“But they brought the baby back. That’s good, yeah?” Constable Howarth had been silent until now but obviously thought his comment might calm Eddie. It didn’t work.
Eddie turned to look at him and sneered. “Don’t be so bloody daft. Of course it’s not good. It’s the worst possible thing. The only reason they’d bring Jakey and leave him would be because they don’t want to have to look after him, or… you know?”
“No, you tell us,” Jordan said.
“Well, they love kids, don’t they, the Spanish? They wouldn’t want to hurt him.”
“But they might well hurt Molly?”
“If she was no use to them, yes.”
“How could she be of use to them?”
“If they used her to get to me. If you lot hadn’t interfered and found me. You really don’t know what you’ve done.”
“Perhaps it’s time you told us, Eddie,” Jordan said.
Eddie pushed his hand into his pocket and pulled out a cheap mobile phone. He handed it over.
Jordan took it, turned it so he could see the screen. “Where did this come from?”
“The box,” Eddie said.
“In with the baby?”
As Eddie nodded, Jordan fired up the device. On the home screen was a picture of Molly. Her terrified face captured as the dreadful wallpaper, her eyes filled with tears.
Chapter 61
Jordan opened the messages. There wasn’t much. Just one small speech bubble.
“You’ve had nothing since this?”
“No. I was waiting in the hut.”
Jordan made a short entry into his notebook. “Constable, take this down to the digital forensic department. Have a word with DC Denn fir
st – he’s got a mate down there. Tell them what’s happening. Alert them to the fact there could be more messages or even a call. What we need urgently, though, is to know where the phone was when that message was sent. Do not leave until they’ve agreed to prioritise it. Don’t take no for an answer and don’t let the phone out of your sight.”
“Do you want to divert the calls, boss?”
“What?”
“In case a call or a message comes in – we can have it diverted to your phone.”
“Can they do that without it showing the caller?”
“I can ask?”
“Do it. You have my number?” DC Howarth nodded and waggled his own handset as evidence. “Don’t hang about – we need this done now.”
“Boss.” He dragged open the door and they listened to the pound of his feet as he thudded down the corridor.”
“What’s going to happen now?” McCardle asked.
“You just stay here. I have a call to make.” Jordan left the room and dialled the number for David Griffiths. He believed the DCI was still in Spain, but he needed his help.
“Jordan, hello there. Congratulations are in order, I hear. Everyone is rather pleased with you.”
“Thanks. That’s all probably a bit premature, to be honest. Are you still in Spain?”
“I am. Another couple of days, I reckon, and then I’ll be heading back.”
“I need a favour?”
“Another straw donkey – maybe a sombrero?”
“Ha! No. Listen, are they sending someone up to collect Eddie McCardle?”
“They are. Should be on the way already.”
“Can you put them off for a bit?”
“What? Why would I do that? We need him under arrest and answering our questions. I need him answering questions. The quicker we get some names from him, the quicker we can set things in motion here to wind all this up. It may seem like a jolly to you but it’s not. I’m in an almost empty hotel and spending most of the time in a back room in the local nick. I’m sick of fish and tomato sandwiches and, though the local bods are nice enough, you know what it’s like when you’re an outsider. No, we need him in custody at St Anne Street.”
“But I need him here. Molly is still missing. She’s out there in the hands of a couple of vicious killers. I need him just for another couple of hours. It’ll benefit all of us, trust me.”
“I understand, I do. But he’s going to be in custody. Any help you need you can still get even if he’s down in the city. What’s the problem?”
“I need him physically, here.” Jordan stopped. He couldn’t explain his thinking to a senior officer. He knew what he was hoping to do would be vetoed even if he let his own DCI know. Letting David Griffiths know would guarantee he’d be told it wasn’t on and to find another way. There might be another way. But given the length of time it would take to organise something else, he believed he needed Eddie McCardle. In the flesh.
“Sorry, Jordan. I am. But we have to take him off your hands. We have officers here raring to go and all we need are locations and names to formalise everything. My people should be with you in the next hour.”
Jordan opened the interview room door. “Thank you, Constable. I’ll look after him now. Mr McCardle, would you come with me?”
“Are you sure, sir?” The bobby on door duty looked puzzled and unsure.
“Yes, it’s fine. I just need Eddie here to come and have a look at some images up in the incident room.”
“I’m not sure, sir. I thought S and O were collecting him.” Now he looked uncomfortable.
“Really. It’s fine. I’ll bring him back as soon as I can. You go and grab a cup of coffee and I’ll give you a buzz.”
Jordan had rank and spoke with confidence and, with a glance at McCardle, watching back and forth between them, the uniformed officer decided that making a decision was above his pay grade and he’d just do as he was told.
“Come with me, Eddie. Bring your coat.” As he spoke, Jordan leaned out to scan the corridor and then set off for the car park. He spoke into his phone. “Terry, has PC Howarth spoken to you?”
“Aye. I sent him down to my mate.”
“Okay, meet me outside. Quick as you can. Tell your mate to speak only to you or me by phone if he needs to.”
“What’s going on, boss?”
“I’ll tell you in the car.”
Chapter 62
Jordan plipped the key for his own car. Transporting a prisoner in anything other than an approved vehicle was just going to be another black mark. But he needed something inconspicuous, and his grey Peugeot was as vanilla as they come. He put Eddie McCardle in the back and drove around to the station door to wait for Terry Denn.
By the time the DC was in and belted up they were already out in Wavertree Road. Jordan handed a page from his notebook to Terry. “Put those co-ordinates into Google Maps and get directions.”
A few minutes passed in silence as Denn poked at the screen on his phone.
“We haven’t got very long. Those last figures are a time and date I reckon, and we have about” – Jordan glanced at his watch – “just over an hour.”
“Shit, no pressure then,” Terry said.
“I’ve already looked to see where it is,” Eddie said, “while I was waiting in the shed. You’re okay heading for Everton, I reckon. You need to head towards Ormskirk. I was going to get an Uber from the allotments. I’d planned part of it out.”
“Do you know Ormskirk, Terry?”
“Not really. Well, no not at all. It’s out in the sticks. My mam used to go for the market. It’s all farms and fields out there. Not my thing at all, boss.”
“Eddie, if you’ve already looked. What can you tell me?”
“I just looked up the location from the coordinates. Just what you saw on the phone. I don’t even know whether it’s where they’re staying or just where they want me to go. Well, you saw. There was nothing just those numbers.”
“The only thing we can do is go there, on time, and if she’s there I’ll get your sister back. I don’t want you trying anything funny. You stay in the car unless I tell you otherwise.”
“He might be armed.”
“What?”
“Mariano. He was usually armed. I can’t imagine him not being.”
“He won’t have been able to get a gun into the country,” Terry said.
Eddie McCardle gave a sarcastic snort. “Oh yeah, because they don’t know how to do that, do they?”
“Is there anything else we should know?” Jordan asked.
“Well, like what?”
“It just seems to me that they are very keen to find you. As far as I can see they could find plenty of people to run the bar – Terry’s brother runs one in Spain, that’s right isn’t it, Detective Constable?”
“Yeah. Has done for years now. Hasn’t done anything cockeyed though, far as I know.”
“No, I wasn’t suggesting he had. It’s just that there is no shortage of people looking for that sort of work in a holiday place, I shouldn’t think. Then there’s the money laundering. You said yourself you didn’t know much about it – ‘Just signed the papers’ I think you said – so they didn’t really need you. I’m sure they’re more than capable at forging the odd scribble. Now it’s all set up.”
There was silence from the back of the car.
“Nothing to say, Eddie?”
“I needed money. I needed to get out from under. I wanted to move to Ireland and be free.”
“So, you’ve what – skimmed a bit off the top? But it was your bar, that wasn’t necessary,” Jordan said.
“I might have given you the wrong idea about the estate agency. I’m not stupid. It wasn’t difficult to direct some of the money my way. He owed me. All I’d done. All those years when he said he’d let me buy my place and he kept taking rent. Way I see it, I only took what was mine.”
“But it’s not how he sees it, is it? Señor Santos.”
“Oh great, s
o this has just got a bit more complicated,” Terry said. “Not only have they got his sister, and guns probably, but they are very, very annoyed with him.”
Jordan glanced across the car. “Do you want out, Constable? I’m committed now, there is nothing else I can think of to do if we’re to try and get Molly. But if you want out, I’ll drop you at the first opportunity.”
Terry stared out of the windscreen in silence for a few moments. “I’m hoping you’ve got some sort of a plan here, boss. My mam’s going to be bloody fuming if I turn up shot.”
Jordan didn’t answer because winging it didn’t even come close to what he was doing. All he knew was that there was a young mum in danger, and he wanted to take her home to her son.
Chapter 63
It was late afternoon, and the traffic was becoming heavier. Jordan glanced at his watch. Apart from the co-ordinates on Eddie McCardle’s phone there were the current date and the numbers “17:15” which could only mean a quarter past five. Why that particular time? Maybe it was simply arbitrary. It didn’t matter, he had to be at the location before then and didn’t have any idea what to expect. There were just so many unknowns and his stomach clenched at the thought of what he was doing. He knew it was wrong, he should have made proper arrangements. Once he found out there could be guns, or at least a gun, involved he should have gone to DCI Cross so they could mobilise armed response teams. They should have been liaising with the West Lancashire force and the Serious and Organised team. But that would have taken time they didn’t have. Mariano was expecting Eddie to be there and, if he was as unstable as McCardle said, there was no telling what would happen to Molly if he didn’t show up. Jordan knew he wouldn’t be able to live with the knowledge he’d had the chance to help the girl and let it go. So, he drove on.
“Terry, look on Street View. I need an idea of what sort of place we’re going to?”
Thank heavens the young constable was sticking with them even though they were bending the rules past breaking point. They were putting themselves and a civilian at risk. He had to know his career could well be on the line. “Terry. I really appreciate this. I’ll take full responsibility if there’s any crap afterwards,” Jordan said.
Body by the Docks: detectives investigate a baffling mystery Page 19
