Merrily Watkins 11 - The Secrets of Pain (46 page)

He watched a few blokes leaving the Hardkit tent with leaflets, some shaking hands with a bulky bloke he figured he’d seen before.

‘Cockfights is a crime,’ Gomer said.

‘Who said this got anything to do with bloody cockfights?’

‘I never thought, see. Must be goin’ bloody senile, boy.’

‘What – this Eugene was a cocker?’

‘Eugene, he wouldn’t have the patience to feed up a cock for the ring, but he
let it go on
, see. Glenda Morgan had a fair few spells in hospital, them last years, and Eugene let all sorts go on when her’s out the way. Few quid yere, few quid there. Bad blood, Danny boy. Kenny Mostyn’s a rich man now, and still out on the hills, middle of a blizzard, callin’ the shots. Why’s he need to do that?’

Danny had no answer. Unless that was how Mostyn got his rocks off.

Inside the dark green tent, the Hardkit DVD was starting up again, with a blast of metal and commentary: ‘
You know me. I’m Smiffy Gill. I’m a bloke likes to grab life by the balls
.’

‘All right,’ Danny said. ‘You stay there, Gomer, you’ll only send your blood pressure through the roof. I’ll go back, see what I can do.’

The guy was outside the Hardkit tent and he’d been joined by another feller Danny recalled from the night of the storm.

Danny reckoned if he was right, one of them would have a bit of a Scottish accent. He strolled over.

‘’Ow’re you?’

They just looked at him. Danny nodded at the Hardkit sign.

‘Seems like good stuff.’

‘It’s very good stuff, ma friend,’ the bulky guy said.

Thickset, couple of days’ stubble. A big-money bloke on his day off. Danny put on a rueful smile.

‘Too bloody costly for me, I reckons.’

The other guy – sharp-faced and wary-eyed – said, ‘There
are
shorter, more economical courses that don’t involve staying here. But we’re not the best people to talk to about them. Sorry.’

‘Weeell,’ Danny said slowly, ‘thing is, I en’t that interested in the shootin’ weekends and all that. Just I was told to ask in yere about… other events.’

The Scots guy eyed him.

‘In connection with what?’

‘Poultry,’ Danny said. ‘Poultry contests. Kind o’ thing.’

‘Oh…’ The Scots guy grinned. ‘Right.’ Turned to his mate. ‘This gentleman’s looking for a poultry contest.’

‘I usually talks to Kenny, see. I was told he’d be yere, but he en’t.’

‘That’s quite true, ma rustic friend. He isn’t.’

‘I’d ring him,’ Danny said ‘but phones, you never knows who you’re talkin’ to, do you?’

‘You do not.’

‘See, I’d arranged to bring a bird. Kenny, he was gonner let me know when and where, kind o’ thing.’

Starting to sweat a bit now. If Kenny Mostyn was to walk in now, he’d be stuffed.

‘You’re a breeder yourself, then?’

‘Of many years standin’.’

Putting a bit of menace under his voice now. If you looked like a bit of a hard bastard, why not play to it?

‘Good for you,’ the Scots guy said.

Danny looked him in the eyes.

‘If this is a problem for you fellers, just forget you seen me. I’ll call by the shop tomorrow. If I can find the time.’

The two guys looked at each other.

‘Ah, well,’ the Scots guy said. ‘That possibly could be a wee bit too late, you know?’

‘Bloody
is
tonight, is it?’ Danny slapped his thigh. ‘Fuck.’

The bald guy gave the Scots guy a look, and the Scots guy looked at Danny with no fear at all but definitely a measure of respect.

‘Y’know how it is, pal. Busy guy, Kenny. But if you want to stick around, I believe he’s due to call in later.’

‘Sure to.’

Danny nodded, a bit curt, walked away without looking behind him, to find Gomer. They went back to the Jeep on the parking area, where they unwrapped the sandwiches that Danny’s wife Greta had put up for him, sat there eating them very slowly, not saying much, Danny pretty unsure how he felt about this.

It was around four-thirty before a battleship-grey BMW four-by-four pulled in. HARDKIT in a neat curve across the bonnet. They watched a man jump down. He had on a shiny suit and a bow tie and carried an overnight bag.

‘Wassis about?’ Gomer said.

Danny moaned.

‘Bloody dinner, ennit? It’s on the tickets Lol give me. This feller can’t be goin’ to no cocking tonight.’

‘Mabbe afterwards,’ Gomer said. ‘Mabbe a few of ’em, sittin’ with their cigars, watchin’ the feathers fly.’

‘Not yere. Savitch wouldn’t risk it.’

‘We better find out, then.’

‘Aw, Gomer…’

‘En’t gonner get a better chance.’ Gomer sat back, tilted his cap over his eyes. ‘Mabbe a long night, boy.’

D
ARTH
V
AYNOR AND
Elly Clatter arrived in the CID room simultaneously, Bliss ejecting from his office, all caffeined-up.

‘I’m not wearing this, son. Not like she can hide in a cupboard under the frigging sink.’

‘Last her dad knew,’ Darth said, ‘she was living with a bloke in a flat in Belmont. We turn up there, front and back, only to find the guy in the sack with somebody else. Didn’t know where Victoria had gone. Didn’t seem too upset, mind.’

‘Just grateful he’d still got both eyes. How long since she went?’

‘Days. “Duh, whatever day this is” – that kind of guy, you know? Observant.’

‘Right.’ Bliss looked around. ‘Where’s Rich? I want this frigging city dismantled.’

Elly Clatter said, ‘Francis, if I could just—’

‘
What?
’

‘BBC are here. They—’

‘No! Tell them to piss off. Tell them we’ll let them know soon as—’

‘Francis.’ Elly’s hands on his shoulders. ‘They
know
. It’s all over the Net. Carly Horne was with some of her mates when Karen picked her up?’

Karen came over, nodding. Bliss moaned.

‘Kid’s a big social networker,’ Elly said. ‘There’s now a
Friends of Carly
Facebook site, campaigning for her release?’

Bliss let out his breath in a slow rasp. If he
ever
came face to face with the little twat who invented Facebook…

‘So what that means
is
?’

‘Sky,’ Elly said. ‘And BBC
News 24
. So far.’

‘What it also means,’ Karen said, ‘is that wherever Victoria is, she’d have to’ve gone blind and deaf not to know we’re looking for her. Meanwhile, Carly’s denying everything and Joss is saying very little. Time for you to have a go, boss?’

‘Yeh,’ Bliss said. ‘I think it could be.’

Mentally sharpening a knife on a steel.

A mile or so before Ledwardine, Merrily’s phone chimed and she pulled onto the verge.

‘I don’t know quite what you were expecting,’ Fiona Spicer said, ‘but I’ve just been given the results of the post-mortem.’

It was as though her voice was in a straitjacket.

‘Natural causes.’

‘Oh.’

If he’d been younger,’ Fiona said, ‘they’d be using terms like… if I can say this…
Idiopathic Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy
? I’m told it means a sudden, inexplicable heart attack. In an older man, even one as fit as Sam, it’s… less inexplicable.’

‘Had you… any reason to think he had a heart problem?’

‘No, and if he had I’m not sure he would’ve told me. He liked to deal with his own problems. As you know.’

‘Yes. How do you—?’

‘Angry. Cheated. Angry that he won’t see his daughter married.’ Finally, fissures of a deep grief under her words. ‘Cheated by his God. Nobody to blame but his damned God. Can you understand that?’

‘Yes. I can understand it. Fiona—’

‘I’ve a few other people to call. And Emily’s arrived. Our daughter. And her fiancé. I suppose that means they’ll release his body, so we can… Perhaps I could call you tomorrow, if that’s convenient – I do remember what Good Friday involves for a vicar.’

‘Whenever you like. If I’m in church, I’ll call you back as soon—’

She’d gone. Would not share the sob. Merrily put the phone on the dash and told Lol. Felt like she’d been kicked.

‘I realize people can go for years without knowing they have a heart condition, but this is… There may still be an inquest, but it’ll be a quickie. No reason for anything to come out. Not now.’

She picked up Lol’s hand, below the bandage. Since he’d told her about his minutes of fear inside Byron’s compound, she’d felt they were together again, in a deeper sense.
Flitting in and out of one another’s energy fields, like neurotic damsel flies. It must not go on
.

‘I was thinking I could leave it for a while. Until after Easter. See if it made any more sense. Now… if I don’t do something now.’

Lol squeezed her hand, as if to show he still could.

‘Start by telling James.’

‘About the possible re-emergence of an ancient Roman pagan cult and the possible involvement of a retired SAS trooper in the theft of a bull?’

‘We both know what you can tell him.’

‘Lol, I hardly like even to mention it out loud.’

‘You mean bull?’ Lol said. ‘
Mansel
Bull?’

Merrily put on her sunglasses and started up the car.

‘Thanks for saying it first.’

‘Watch much TV, Carly?’

Carly looked up, ebony hair still slanted defiantly across one eye.

Bliss said, ‘Bet you’ve seen all them women’s-prison reality shows. Could be worse inside, couldn’t it? Get to wear your own clothes, have yer hair done, decorate the cell.’

‘Think you’re scaring me?’ Carly said.

‘Of course they’re a
bit
misleading, them shows. They only talk to the mouthy prisoners, the ones who’re a bit of a laugh. And speak English. No point in following one of the many
smouldering, resentful East European ladies on Her Maj’s guest list.’

‘I fear you’re sailing perilously close to racist shores, Inspector,’ Mr Ryan Nye said.

Everyone’s favourite duty solicitor, all glossy black hair and geek specs. Interesting how the smarmy twat was always first out of bed for something newsworthy.

Bliss shook his head.

‘You know me better than that, Mr Nye. I’m just thinking how aggrieved certain migrant ladies in the slammer might feel at having to share a landing with someone who set up two of their innocent compatriots to get murdered.’

‘Innocent, bollocks!’

Carly halfway out of her chair. Bliss smiled.

‘Had it coming, did they? Look, Carly, I’m just giving yer a chance to make things easier all round. We’ll have the DNA matches up soon, and that’ll be that. Though I think it’s only fair to tell you that poor little Joss has already seen the light.’

Ryan Nye looking at him, trying to work out if he was lying. Bliss just looked sad.

‘It was that ugly scratch just below the left shoulder blade that did it. No wonder she was wearing a high-necked sweater. You got any scratches anywhere, Carly? We can get yer a plaster and a dab of Germolene. Should I summon a doctor and a nice police lady to hold your clothes?’

‘I
never
…’ Carly wrapped her arms around her chest. ‘You listening? You won’t find no DNA ’cause I never touched either of them women.’

‘Could be you never did, Carly, but that doesn’t make a lorra difference nowadays. Whether or not you struck any of the fatal blows, you still helped engineer a double murder. The courts draw few distinctions any more. You were
involved
, kid.’

Bliss paused, the flat of a forefinger angled thoughtfully under his bottom lip.

‘Now, it
could
be you didn’t realize it would get that far. If you were able to convince us of that, it might help you no end.
Though
pairsonally
, Carly, I’d find it hard to credit, ’cause your attitude so far has been unremittingly cocky with norra hint of remorse. The attitude, in fact, of someone who feels the world can only be a better place without the likes of Maria and Ileana Marinescu. Someone almost proud of her—’

‘No!’

‘
Yes
.’

Carly said nothing. Bliss was also silent for a while. Coming on like he was thinking something out. Giving it nearly half a minute before he said, ‘How well do you know Victoria Buckland, Carly?’

Now was that a little shudder?

‘See, we know Victoria of old, and she’s gorra hell of a talent for self-preservation. The very last person to put both hands up and say, No, no, it’s all down to me, officer, those kids had nothing to do with the actual violence, I’m a grown woman, me, and there’s no way I’d let young girls take the rap for smashing anybody’s—’

‘Inspector…’

‘Mr Nye?’

‘Perhaps we could save some time. May I have a word in private with my client?’

‘Absolutely, Mr Nye,’ Bliss said. ‘I’ll be just outside, if required.’

T
HE TIN-ROOFED LEAN-TO
that James Bull-Davies called his study overlooked the stable yard. They could see Alison out there forking sodden straw into a barrow. James’s face was stretched, his washed-out eyes mottled with uncertainty.

‘Normal way of things, this makes very little sense, even you must see that.’

‘Normal way of things,’ Merrily said.

She wouldn’t sit down.

‘Never your favourite word, is it, vicar? Normal.’

Out in the yard, Alison tossed the fork into the barrow. She looked tired.

‘I should be doing that,’ James said. ‘Should’ve been done hours ago, but we had to go into town this morning, see a man about an overdraft. Or a woman, as it turned out.’

‘Things are bad?’

‘Recession, still. People don’t want to burden themselves with extra horses, feed bills, vet bills…’

‘It’ll lift.’

‘My lifetime, you think?’ James frowned, watched Alison wheeling the barrow away. ‘Should’ve made William Lockley clear out his own shit.’

‘May not be his to clear,’ Merrily said. ‘Not all of it.’

She felt the ground becoming marshy. She’d left Lol on the square, in search of Danny and Gomer. Feeling obliged to come here alone.

‘And I know my limitations, James.’