A Lesser Evil (55 page)

Alfie ranted on for some ten minutes about how he tried to get the card parties back to how they used to be, but Trueman had only to wave a handful of notes at Molly and she’d jump to get whatever he wanted.

Roper felt this was probably true, but guessed Alfie had almost certainly done some criminal work for Trueman too, which made it impossible for him to complain or back off when Trueman began bringing other men with the same tastes with him for these evenings.

Alfie explained in his uniquely crude manner that Trueman and his mates liked one kid to share between them, because the watching was as stimulating to them as the actual sex. They didn’t care whether it was boys or girls, as long as they were young. Molly provided them.

The youngsters, according to Alfie, were often runaways, attracted to London’s bright lights. Molly found them roaming around Soho and befriended them, offering them a bath, a meal and a bed for the night.

Roper could well imagine what a plausible mother figure Molly could be when she put her mind to it. In the past she’d almost convinced him that she was a kindly, rather naive woman. Mike, Alfie’s nephew, had also said he thought she was ‘right nice’ when he first went to live there.

Alfie said how she usually found a kid on a Thursday, made a fuss of him or her, even gave them new clothes, and then when Friday came she told them there would be a party that night. Before anyone arrived she’d give them a few drinks to relax them, and more often than not the kids thought the first overtures from one of the guests, someone taking them on their knee or giving them a cuddle, was just affection. At that point Molly would give them a drink laced with a few drops of sedative. Alfie claimed he had no idea what this was, all he knew was that she got the stuff from someone up in Soho.

‘There was a lad one night, they buggered him one after the other till’e was bleedin’,’ Alfie said indignantly. ‘I couldn’t stand it and I sez that’s the end. But Trueman,’e picked up a knife and said he’d cut off me cock and stick it in me mouth if I caused him any trouble. ’E meant it an’ all. I got to’ear that anyone who crossed’im ended up disappearing.’

‘You mean like John Bolton ended up in the river?’ Wallis asked.

‘’E what?’ Alfie exclaimed.

‘You didn’t know?’ Roper said, well aware that Alfie was kept in isolation for most of the time for his own safety, therefore unlikely to hear any gossip or news. ‘Well, I suppose you wouldn’t hear in here. Sunday week it happened. They say he was about to grass up Trueman.’

To Roper’s surprise Alfie looked genuinely upset. ‘John were a good bloke, known’im all me life,’ he said, his lip quivering. ‘’E told me I were gettin’ in over me’ead with Trueman. Too right I was, look where I am now!’

‘But he introduced Trueman to you, didn’t he?’ Roper asked.

‘Naw, whoever told you that? It were some bloke Molly knew what brought Trueman round.’

‘But Bolton was seen going into your house with Trueman.’

‘Once’e did, John’ad done some job fer Trueman and John dropped’im off at mine. I asked John to come in fer a drink fer old times’ sake.’E didn’t stay long though.’

Roper felt this was true because John Bolton had said something similar when he was pulled in for routine questioning after Angela’s death. He explained that he had hung around with Alfie as a kid and had freely admitted going to one card game back in June because of their past connection. He said he never repeated it though because he didn’t like the way Alfie lived or what he had become. But he said he found it hard to blank the man entirely because his childhood pal had never stood a chance because of his family background.

‘What d’you reckon Bolton was going to grass Trueman up about?’ Roper asked.

‘’Spect’e guessed what was going on.’ Alfie had the grace to look a little sheepish. ‘John didn’t like stuff like that. Always were a bit of a gent, even when we was kids. There weren’t no love lost between’im and Trueman anyways. I’eard Trueman sacked’im from’is club cos John wouldn’t kowtow to’im. See, John weren’t nobody’s man, know what I mean?’

That was exactly what Roper had always felt about John Bolton too. A rogue, but one with pride and a kind of honour.

Alfie went on to complain that meeting Trueman had ruined his life. He said his old mates stopped coming to the card parties, and Molly became greedier and greedier.

‘She always’ ad’er eye on the main chance, but once ’e came along she were impossible. Trueman knew ’ow to play ’er,’e’d tell her she was beautiful and that, but it were only so she’d get’im what’e wanted.’

Roper found Alfie making himself out to be a victim a bit tedious; he preferred it when the man swaggered and boasted. But he sensed Alfie was getting things off his chest because he felt safe now Trueman was locked up and couldn’t come after him. If Roper pushed him a bit harder, he might reveal even more.

‘Molly said you buggered that young lad too,’ Roper lied, almost believing it himself because he managed to say it so calmly. ‘She said you couldn’t even wait your turn.’

‘She fuckin’ what?’ Alfie turned purple, his eyes nearly popping out of his head. ‘I ain’t a poofter. I only goes fer women. It made me sick just to ’ear ’em at it, bloody perverts. Then they expected me to stow it away fer ’em.’

Roper felt a prickling down his spine. Alfie wasn’t the most articulate of men, and that last statement could have meant anything from comforting the abused lad to cleaning the floor. But Roper had a feeling it meant a great deal more than that. He glanced sideways at Wallis and saw he had reacted to it too. He was rigid, leaning forward on to the table, his eyes glued to Alfie.

‘Molly told us the lad died,’ Roper bluffed. ‘She didn’t tell us that you had to get rid of the body though. Where did you take it?’

For the first time since his arrest Alfie looked stricken with fear and an animal smell wafted from him. His mouth opened and shut again. Clearly he realized he’d dropped himself right in it.

‘It’s okay, Alfie,’ Wallis said calmly. ‘Molly told us about this ages ago. We haven’t questioned you about it before because we were waiting to get Trueman in custody. Molly said it was you who killed him, but we don’t believe that. It was Trueman, wasn’t it? It’s safe to tell us, he can’t get at you now.’

Alfie was gulping so hard his Adam’s apple looked likely to burst out of his throat. ‘’E never meant to kill’im,’ he blurted out. ‘One of the blokes said they thought’e just accidentally broke the kid’s neck while’e was’olding him.’ Alfie stood up, miming bending forward over someone and holding on to their neck. The mime made Roper cringe because it was clear Alfie had been an avid observer at this gang bang.

‘One minute the lad were crying, the next he went all limp. He were dead.’

Roper felt sick, and even without looking at Wallis he knew he was in the same state. But they had to continue what they’d started now. A body along with a statement would keep Alfie and Molly in prison and hopefully Trueman would hang.

‘And you were made to get rid of the body? Where did you take it?’

‘I dunno exactly, it were dark and I don’t know me way that far out in the sticks. It were way beyond Lewisham, I know that much. Trueman told Chas to drive us.’E knew the way.’

Roper closed his eyes for a second. He felt he ought to be elated, for everything was falling into place. He was certain the place Alfie was referring to was the same place the two women were taken to. He also felt absolutely certain it would transpire that Trueman or one of his associates had bought that land when the farmer died.

Harry Brown had put forward the suggestion that one of the men at the building site where Dan Reynolds worked might have something to do with Fifi’s abduction, and Roper had checked some of the men out. Charles Bovey, better known as Chas, didn’t have a criminal record, but he was a well-known thug. And there were two complaints on record that he had sexually assaulted young girls, but in both cases the complaint had been withdrawn. Roper hadn’t felt able to pull him in for questioning because there had been nothing concrete to tie him into Fifi’s disappearance.

‘Does Chas Bovey drive a black Daimler?’ he asked almost in a conversational manner. He knew perfectly well that Chas had a green Consul, but two separate people had claimed to have seen a black Daimler in the street on a couple of Friday nights and he hoped to get the name of the owner.

Alfie shook his head. ‘No, he’s got a Consul.’

Roper feigned surprise. ‘Molly said it was a Daimler!’

‘She wouldn’t know a Morris Minor from an’earse,’ Alfie said with a wolfish grin. He didn’t even seem to be aware that he’d admitted being part of crimes that were beyond the pale. ‘Maybe she’s got mixed up with Trueman’s mate, Tony Lubrano,’e’s got a Daimler, she were always asking’im to take’er up West in it.’

Both police officers pricked up their ears at the name Tony Lubrano. Like Trueman, he ran several shady businesses in Soho and was another man they’d been taking a keen interest in for several years.

‘You could be right there, Alfie,’ Wallis chimed in, lying with as much flair as Roper. ‘Molly was talking about Tony being there that night, and we thought she said you went off in his car.’

‘Yeah,’e was there all right, but not’is car. We went in the Consul.’

‘When did this happen, Alfie?’ Roper said.

Alfie looked at him suspiciously. ‘Didn’t Molly tell you that an’ all?’

Roper gulped. He had started to think Alfie was a complete fool, and that was a mistake, for what he lacked in real brains, he made up for in low cunning. He had to keep the man sweet for a little longer, until he’d signed a statement.

‘She did, but as she’s lied about mostly everything, I just wanted you to confirm it,’ Roper said in honeyed tones. ‘My God, Alfie, I feel for you, she’s trying to lay all this on to you. What on earth did you do to her to make her turn against you? I always thought you were rock solid.’

‘I dunno.’ Alfie shook his head sadly. ‘But I ain’t gonna let’er blame me for all this. The gloves are off now. I ain’t even begun to tell you yet what she can be like.’

Roper felt that he’d had more than enough for one day. He was sickened in a way he’d never been in his whole career as a policeman. The lad who died in such a brutal and horrific manner would probably turn out to be some young kid turned loose from a care home without any supervision. Unloved from birth, and with no one to mourn him now he was gone. And those other youngsters, what had happened to them after their ordeal? He could bet it had marked them for life.

But Roper couldn’t stop now. They still needed the finer details, names and dates, to ensure Trueman, Alfie and Molly would never walk free, and the other men involved could be brought in and charged. He just hoped he could get through it without throwing up.

Two hours later, once outside the prison gates, the two policemen lit up cigarettes and stood silently for a moment gathering themselves.

They felt they had the truth at last, and a statement to go with it, but what they’d heard had disturbed and revolted them so badly they could barely look at each other. Wallis had said as they came away from Alfie that he doubted he’d ever be able to walk down Dale Street again without seeing the hideous images of what went on in number 11.

‘I think it’s time for me to retire,’ Roper sighed. ‘It just gets worse all the time. When I joined the force we nicked men that were just thieves. You could understand why because they were born into nothing, jobs were hard to come by and they had families to feed. But now you get stuff like this!’

‘Did you see his face when he said they buried the body just before Christmas?’ Wallis asked incredulously. ‘He was so bloody gleeful that it snowed at New Year and it stayed around for weeks. He thought he was talking to men that had the same sick mentality as him!’

Roper shuddered. He felt he needed a bath in disinfectant to make sure none of Alfie’s sickness had transferred to him. ‘I’m not so sure I can feel proud of myself,’ he admitted. ‘I only got all that filth by lying to him. Now we’ve got to do the same to Molly. But I don’t suppose she’ll be such a pushover.’

‘Were they both as evil as that when they met, or did they make each other that way?’ Wallis mused aloud as they walked to the car.

‘I don’t even want to think about that one.’ Roper half smiled. ‘If I did I might feel tempted to collect up all their children and grandchildren and kill them off to make sure the Muckle genes don’t spread any further.’

Chapter Twenty-One

‘Your mum’s watching us from the kitchen window,’ Dan warned Fifi as she turned in her seat to kiss him.

It was a Sunday afternoon in mid-November and they were down the garden sitting by the summer house in a patch of sunshine. It had been raining incessantly for the last two weeks, but as today was dry and sunny, after lunch Fifi and Dan had volunteered to rake up the fallen leaves that lay like a thick orange and yellow carpet on the lawn. But halfway through the job they’d got bored and sat down for a rest.

‘Let her watch,’ Fifi murmured. ‘I don’t care.’

Dan returned the kiss, wishing he could whisk her indoors and go to bed for the rest of the afternoon. But he knew Clara would see that as a step too far.

‘If only we had a place of our own,’ he murmured, still holding her tightly. ‘Shall I find us another flat to rent?’

‘I don’t think I can trust you with that job again,’ Fifi joked.

They both laughed because here in the safety and seclusion of the Browns’ garden, the recent events in London seemed just a bad dream.

Dan had found himself a job during their first week back in Bristol. It was with a local building company who did repairs and renovations as well as building new houses. Dan really liked it as he did a great deal more than just bricklaying. This week he’d been installing a bathroom, doing the plumbing and tiling, and on Monday he was starting on building a garage. His wages were almost as high as in London and the firm had so much work coming in they were turning some jobs away.

Fifi was doing temporary secretarial work for an agency at the moment while she kept her eyes open for a permanent job. She was fully recovered in every way now, eating like a horse, sleeping like a baby without any nightmares, and very happy to be back in the safety and comfort of her family home. It was Dan who suffered the nightmares and paranoia.