The Dirty Game

by Solomon Carter

  Luisa nodded. Adriana followed suit.

  “Tell us what to do. We don’t want to disappear like Ileana…” said Luisa.

  “You do what you have to, but when you meet a suspicious man, when you sense something is not right about them, don’t take any risk. Your gut gives you those feelings for a reason,” said Dan. “Listen to it. Call us immediately. Get the licence plate number.”

  “What will he look like?”

  “He could be an older man with grey hair… or it could be a big man with a head like a rock,” said Dan.

  Eva leaned forward. “We don’t know,” said Eva. “They could look like anyone. So be careful. He will go for one of you. Make sure you call us.”

  Eva gave Adriana and Luisa their business card. The girls looked at it and studied it. They nodded and smiled gratefully. Dan gave Luisa the fifty Eva had given him, while Eva produced another set of notes for Adriana. “Look after yourselves girls, okay?” said Eva.

  They got out into the cold evening, and walked back to their gang. Dan turned to Eva. “What do you think?”

  “I think when the killer returns, those two will be hard to miss. We know he has a green car. We should check if Chauncey has a green car,” said Eva.

  “Maybe Rowntree likes green when he’s not on duty.”

  Eva sighed. If Rowntree knew about this he would have told her she had done it again. She’d crossed the line. But only for good reasons… who knew what Rowntree did it for. But these days she could hazard a guess. “We’re getting nearer, Dan, but we haven’t got enough yet.”

  Dan nodded. “We are going to have to wait for the bastard to strike again.”

  “When he does, we have to hope he targets those girls…” said Eva, “and that they do the right thing.”

  There were far too many ifs in this case for anyone to feel happy. Dan started the engine and pulled out onto the Golden Mile.

  Luisa and Adriana walked slowly towards the rest of their friends. They spoke happily in their own language. It was the happiest they’d been in days.

  “We tell the others they paid us twenty each, okay?” said Adriana.

  “Why not ten?” said Luisa.

  Adriana shook her head. “They’ll never believe ten. They will believe twenty.”

  “Okay. They gave us twenty each. Fine. And what if we see that green car? Will you call them?”

  Adriana screwed up her face and grinned. “No way! If a trick picks me up, it’s for fucking. He does that, he pays. If he doesn’t pay, I will kill him first. You need to become tough, like the others, Luisa.”

  Luisa nodded with pursed lips. Adriana was right. But they said poor Ileana was tough too…

  Twenty-two

  Before breakfast the next morning, they’d already been digging. Eva risked an early call to Eleanor Duval. The woman happened to know that Chauncey owned a smart new Jaguar – and it wasn’t green, so the Chauncey-green car theory was kaput. Next Eva picked up a voicemail from Jim Greer.

  “Miss Roberts… you’ve been poking around where I specifically asked you not to go. Family and business do not mix. I had to assure my sister-in-law that you would be leaving Nathan out of this matter from here on in. Leave it alone, Miss Roberts. You’ve earned your fee already. If you keep pursuing this line I promise you, there will be repercussions, including Alabaster cancelling the agreement. And by that I mean, we won’t pay. Is that understood? Now let’s conclude this. Deliver a report of your work to my office by the end of the week and I will release payment. Goodbye.”

  “No one likes the truth, do they?” Eva said to Dan as she hung up the voicemail. Dan was at the wheel again, the well-manicured gardens of Marine Parade and its fine Estuary view below streaking past the windows.

  “People want the truth, Eva. At least they think they do. But when the truth’s requires us to face up to things we don’t want to face, then nobody likes the truth much at all. Who was that? The old man at Alabaster?”

  Eva nodded.

  “Yeah, I remember his reaction when I started pressing his people. I mean, come on, it has to be one of those guys.”

  “And Nathan?”

  “You know the story. He’s the distancing mechanism – the once removed factor that helps keep the guilty party feel safe. But they’re not safe at all. Not now.”

  Today was about waiting and hoping no one else got attacked while they waited. And it was about getting closer to the Alabaster thief. They couldn’t do much apart from wait on the killer – and it was difficult to endure. They were lucky to have Alabaster as a distraction. Thankfully, it was a distraction that paid – if they could get close enough to catch the thief.

  Nathan Fielding was a member of two therapy groups – one in Rendon and one in Kingsleigh, just beyond the Southend borough border. Kingsleigh was a busy but still sleepy place, a bus stop town on the route between Basildon and Southend. After scanning the area for Autism therapy services and clubs, she’d come up with these two. Eva made the calls and pretended to be Mrs Fielding, asking if Nathan needed any extra money to pay for his food or expenses. The Rendon therapy service were surprised at the question as all food was built into the cost paid by the NHS, so Eva wheedled out of that call as quick as she could. The second call was different.

  “Oh, yes. Some expenses would be very helpful. We’re going on an outward bound trip to Upminster in two weeks. The outdoor adventure place, if you know it. It costs seventeen-fifty. We have sent a letter about it,” the woman had said at the other end.

  “Oh, that’s not a problem. When do we pay?” said Eva.

  “Nathan can bring it with you when he comes in on Thursday.”

  “Fantastic. Oh, and what time does the session end this Thursday?” said Eva.

  “Three pm as usual.”

  “And you’ll drop him off?”

  “Erm. We don’t usually, do we? He’s fine getting home by himself now, what with that fancy new bike you got him.”

  “Yes, yes, he loves that bike. Thanks then. See you soon,” said Eva. And the job was done. They had a time and an opportunity to find Nathan Fielding and speak with him alone.

  Today was Thursday. It was two-twenty-six and the black Jag was on its way to the therapy club for an unexpected visit.

  They stood at a bus stop, trying to look like people waiting for a bus. Eva and Dan looked across the road to the red brick building of the therapy centre. It looked as if it had once been a primary school, maybe a hundred or so years before. Now one half of it was a nursery, while the other half offered group therapy sessions for different groups each weekday – people who had suffered strokes, people in the early stages of bereavement, and craft groups for people with mental health problems. The Thursday group was one of these. Eva glanced across the road and at her watch, and pretended to look down the road for a bus. To a casual observer they looked like people waiting for a bus. To a more seasoned eye, they were nothing like your average bus passengers. They were not elderly, they had no shopping or children. They did not look like the kind of people who depended on public transport to get around.

  “They’re opening the doors now,” said Eva.

  On the side of the building the glossy yellow doors opened and were held that way in school-teacherly fashion by two women, one big and one small. There was lots of chatter and smiling as a queue of very different people made their way out. A short guy who looked as if he had Downs Syndrome paced out, followed by a woman with blonde and grey streaky hair, whose head bobbed nervously as she bade farewell. Most had carers and family waiting for them. Fourth in line was Nathan Fielding. Today, on the catwalk of life, Nathan had gone up another level. Loud jeans with some bold white print smashed all over them hung low from his waist down over some red trainers. His baggy hoody was spring green with the word FITCH prominent over his chest. He didn’t say a word to either lady as he left the building. He walked straight towards a bike rack where his Claude Butler was stored. Dan wondered how the hell he was going to ride t
he bike with those baggy jeans on his legs. He soon got his answer. The boy walked the bike to the old painted gates, nodded a goodbye, and kept on walking.

  “Is he going to push that thing all the way back to Rendon?” said Eva.

  “Well he can’t ride it. Look at those strides he’s wearing. They’ll be shredded before he gets a third of the way home.

  “Autism has its quirks. I supposed walking a push bike three miles could be considered one,” said Eva.

  “Playing late night Sudoku with Alabaster’s accounts, that’s a quirk too, don’t you think?” said Dan “If he’s walking, we can catch him.”

  “I don’t think he’s going to run, Dan. I’ve met Nathan before. Come on.”

  They crossed the road dodging between the busy London bound traffic. Nathan didn’t look. In fact he didn’t look away from his destination until Dan and Eva were immediately beside him.

  “What do you want?” said Nathan as he looked at each of them. His eyes were alive with a wild spark, but his face was slow and barely responsive.

  “You know what I want,” said Eva.

  “I told you I didn’t trespass,” said the Nathan, the autism making him more a boy than a man in her eyes.

  “We know you didn’t trespass,” said Eva.

  “So why are you hassling?”

  “Because we want to know who invited you into that building…”

  “Alabaster’s offices?” Nathan stopped and looked around. “My mum doesn’t like you. And she told me not to talk to you.”

  Dan grinned. “But she didn’t tell you not to talk to me, did she?”

  The boy looked at Dan and blinked.

  “So,” said Dan. “Who invited you into that office?”

  “No one invited me.”

  “No one? But you didn’t trespass,” said Dan, “So someone must have invited you, am I right?”

  “No. You’re wrong. Can I go now?”

  “In a minute,” said Dan.

  “Okay. One minute,” said Nathan, looking at a massive white digital watch hidden under his sleeve.

  Dan accepted the challenge. “Who asked you to go to Alabaster?”

  “No one.”

  “Who asked you to mess around with those computers at Alabaster?” Dan was going quick-fire at the questions, as if the right one might crack the code.

  “Who told you to go to Alabaster’s offices at night?”

  “No one. You’re running out of time. I need to go.”

  “Who at Alabaster asked you to help them by going to their offices at night?”

  “No one.”

  Dan had a hunch. He took away the half of his last sentence. “Who at Alabaster asked you to help them?”

  The boy stiffened and looked at each of them in turn. “They asked me not to say.”

  Dan and Eva shared a silent, celebratory glance at one another.

  “Who is they?” said Dan.

  “They asked me not to tell you who they were. I’m not allowed to tell anyone.”

  “No. I bet you’re not,” said Eva.

  “And I’m not allowed to talk to you at all,” said Nathan. With that, Nathan turned his body to block Eva out of his sight.

  “Okay. Talk to me. Three questions,” said Dan.

  “You’re time’s almost up,” said Nathan.

  “Three questions?”

  “You’re breaking the rules.”

  “I won’t break these rules. These are the new rules. Just three questions and we’re done.”

  Nathan nodded. “Just three.”

  “The person who asked you to help them: Are they a big fat woman with dark hair and glasses?”

  “No.”

  Dan nodded. “The person who asked you to help them: do they have a red face and speak quietly, and have grey hair?”

  “No,” said Nathan.

  “Last question. The person who asked you to help them: Can they speak foreign languages, and have their hair slicked right back and have photographs of their family behind their desk?”

  Nathan nodded. He didn’t say no, and he didn’t say yes either but he nodded. Then he stopped nodding. “That’s it. I’m going home now.”

  “Hey, Nathan,” said Dan. “Well done. You didn’t break those rules.”

  “Thank you,” said Nathan with proud eyes. Then they let him walk away.

  “That arrogant, slick-haired son of a gun. I knew that greasy guy was the worst one.”

  “It’s brilliant progress, but it’s still not conclusive, Dan.”

  “It is for me. We’re not part of the judicial system, Eva. You saw what I saw. He told us without telling us. It’s Bruno, the Brylcreem kid.”

  “But we need more to convince Jim Greer.”

  “You’ll never convince the old man. He wants his head in the sand.”

  “Actually Dan, I think there is one way.”

  They watched Nathan Fielding push his bike along. He’d not gotten far, but he was happy following the rules set out in his head. Eva liked rules too, even if sometimes you had to break them to make sure the rules still worked for everyone else. And now she was going to break the rules again, to make sure a devious, lying scumbag didn’t use an autistic young man as his patsy. Life was about to get interesting at Alabaster Properties – hopefully for the last time.

  Twenty-three

  Hope you’re okay. Meet up for coffee and catch up when you like. I’ll wait to hear from you.

  Eva pressed the send button and waited until her iPhone made that cute little pop sound to let her know the message was sent.

  She’d been sending texts to Jess once a week for the last few weeks now, and still she’d heard nothing back. Life had thrown so many unexpected curve balls, but she had never expected her former protégé to reject her so easily now they’d parted company. Eva liked Jess a great deal – her cockiness and her quirky fashion sense were great fun to have around during the dull cases. But when the shit hit the fan, Jess just didn’t have what it took. Under pressure she held up for a little while, and then she folded like a house of cards. But Eva also remembered the girl’s potential. In her first year Jess had looked like the real deal. Eva wondered what Jess was doing now, and then Eva put the uneasy feeling to one side. She had enough on her plate right now. Tonight she and Dan were going to take that little piece of R and R time they always promised themselves but never seemed to get. Tonight was dinner for two – one of those Marks and Sparks deals for ten pounds with a bottle of white wine thrown in. The wine label said ‘white wine.’ Either Dan had chosen badly, or M&S was going downhill. It was a good job there was another bottle of crisp and lively Pinot Grigio chilling in the fridge. They both knew she had an insatiable taste for a dry white wine, but she’d been a good girl lately, so it was time to cut loose.

  Eva put the Paella in the Microwave and placed the Fontadella bread in the oven to warm. All her suits were in the wardrobe. Tonight she wore a plain T, cardigan and leggings.

  “Wow, glad to see you’re making the effort,” said Dan, deadpan.

  “Making the effort? Like you? You wear jeans and a T shirt to the office, and you wear Jeans and a T shirt at home. You’d wear jeans and a T shirt in bed if you could.”

  “Not if you were there, I wouldn’t,” he gave her a wink

  “So what movie did you order tonight? Jane Eyre? Maybe a Jennifer Aniston comedy?” said Eva, as deadpan as Dan.

  “Yeah right. It’s the one where Jane Eyre gets even with the guy in breeches using his Uzi nine millimetre, and Jennifer Aniston is a gangster.”

  “Now, that sounds different.”

  “Sorry to disappoint you, honey. But it’s Jason Statham again.”

  Eva sighed. Dan’s choice was just as she guessed. The little foibles of her lover were to be expected by now, even celebrated when things were good. Let him watch his silly boy movie if it made him happy. She would enjoy the food and the wine and snuggle with her own real life action hero later on. But with half a bottle of wine gon
e and the dinner plates in the sink, life took another sharp turn…

  Jason Statham was attempting to survive another gunfire onslaught in a hotel dining room, while overturning tables and kicking the heck out of every gun toting Chinese he could lay his hands on. Eva lay against Dan’s body, lazily tracking the movie while Dan was upright and alert, his eyes glued to every bone crunching delivery, when her mobile phone started to ring. She waited three rings, then slowly put her wine glass down and picked it up. She didn’t recognise the number, but she answered the call. Dan shook his head at the interruption,

  “Hello?” asked Eva.

  No one answered. “Hello there?”

  There was no answer again. Someone had made the usual faux pas of making an accidental call, the mobile calling Eva without their knowledge. It happened so many times. You’d hear someone you recognised but they didn’t hear you. She was curious and pressed the phone tighter to her ear, but the movie gunfire was too much. She stood up, pressed a finger to her ear and walked into the kitchen. Now she heard a car. It was the muffled engine noise you hear inside a car – the engine purring, the noise changing as the gears change. There was music in the background, maybe classical or maybe just a radio advert. Then there was talking.

  “Where are we going?” said the female voice.

  Eva’s eyes had been idly roaming her kitchen, not fixing on any one thing as she listened. Now her eyes froze and widened. She put a hand to her throat as her breath caught.

  The response came from a male voice. A younger, lighter voice than she’d expected.

  “Leigh. It’s nice round here isn’t it. It suits a pretty girl like you.”

  “Leigh,” said the girl with emphasis. “It looks like a nice place. You must have lots of money.”

  There was laughter. She heard the mockery in the man’s laughter.

  “Come on!” said Eva, talking to voices who couldn’t hear her. Where in Leigh? She thought.

  “Wow, this street is full of big houses. So ostentatious, so pretty. What is the name of this road? I’d like to buy a house here one day…”