SOMEONE DIFFERENT (31 page)

43 – Jay

It felt dead weird spending the old guy’s money.

According to her secretary, my solicitor was stuck in court all day, which meant I couldn’t get to see her until half-four. So I’d wandered around town all morning, trying to narrow it down to the stuff I really couldn’t do without, but even then, when it came to actually paying for it, it still felt proper strange. In the end though, I settled on deodorant, toothpaste, a toothbrush and a three-pack of boxers.

The woman in Superdrug had just put the receipt in my hand when my phone rang. Anna’s new number showed up, but I said cheers to the woman before I answered it.

‘Where are you?’ Anna sounded breathless.

‘In town; I’m just ... hangin’ out for a bit.’

‘You haven’t done anything, have you? You know, about the charges?’

Well, I hadn’t, had I? Not yet. ‘No,’ I said innocently.

‘Good. I need you to come back, Jay; to Grandad’s.’

‘D’ya?’

‘Yes, now; it’s important.’

‘Anna, are you alright – ya sound like proper freaked out.’

‘I’ll see you there in what? Half an hour?’

‘Yeah, OK, I’ll ...’

She’d gone. Jeeze, this new being bossy thing she’d got going on had really took off. She’d turned into a right stroppy old sod. I smiled – that’d make it better for her though, wouldn’t it; while I was inside.

It actually took about forty minutes for the bus to drop me at the pub near Anna’s, and then I had to go right round the back of the woods to make sure nobody saw me from the yard or her house. I knocked quietly on her grandad’s door, and she answered it straight away.

She looked proper worried at first, and the way she hugged me right hard made me start to feel the same. There was a kind of funny smell on her as well – not like her normal one – and it reminded me of the wood-shavings in the stables, but mixed in with lemons or something. ‘What’s up?’ I said, forcing her far enough away so I could see her face.

‘I’ll tell you in a minute, honestly. But there’s something you have to tell me first.’ She glanced at her grandad, who she’d obviously been talking to before I got there. ‘That warehouse, the one you and Billy broke into, where was it?’

Damn, what had she gone and told him about that for? I didn’t want him thinking about me like that. But I suppose it was too late now, so I just answered, ‘Don Street,’ I said.

‘I knew it!’ She shoved both clenched fists into the air. ‘Look!’

Anna took a piece of thin yellow paper out of her pocket, unfolded it, and handed it to me.

In big black letters across the top, it said
Ironico
. Bloody hell; where’d she got that from? I stared at it, then her.

‘Look at the name an
d address of the company they delivered to,’ she said, pointing to the top left-hand corner of the paper.

D.K.H. Imports Limited, Don Street, Sheffield
. I shrugged, ‘Yeah, so ...?’

‘D.K.H. – it stands for David Kilton-Hunt. That warehouse, that whole business, is owned by Rory’s dad.’

‘Bloody ’ell.’ The hand holding the paper slumped down. I glanced at her, her grandad, then back at the paper. She just couldn’t be right, could she?

The look on her face
though, told me she was pretty damn sure she was.

But I couldn’t get my head round it; surely that posh
- talking, minted-up snob, wasn’t really trafficking class As in from all over the world. And, more to the point, surely it wasn’t him who’d had Billy beaten up ... was it?

‘I’ll fuckin’ kill him.’ The words grated as they passed my lips. ‘It’ll not just be his bastard son I get sent down for, it’ll be him an’ all
– for his murder.’ I bent my head forward and reached for the work-top. That’s how they’d known about Anna the other night. He’d worked out who I was – who she was, and even though they’d been friends all this time, he’d still been prepared to threaten me with hurting her.

I turned around, flinging the door wide open.

‘No!’ Anna grabbed my arm. ‘Jay, no. We need to think about it; we need to do the right thing. If we’re clever, we could get them done, and get you off.’

I stopped, staring out at the garden, and the trees, and the chickens. Her idea was cleverer, wasn’t it; she was cleverer. Nothing would hurt him more than getting busted. Especially if it meant losing the business, the house, the cars ...

I pushed the door closed as I looked back round. ‘So, what ya sayin’ we oughta do?’

‘You said the solicitor you had the other day was really good, didn’t you?’

I nodded.

‘Well, maybe we should start with her. Can you phone her, see if we can arrange a meeting or something? As soon as possible?’

‘She’s busy, ’til ...’

Anna looked at me like the H
eadteacher at my old primary school used to. ‘And you would know that, because ...?’

She let me squirm for a second then smiled. Obviously, I hadn’t put anything past her when I’d lied that morning.

‘Are you supposed to see her today?’

‘Yeah, about half-four, but
–’

‘Right, I’ll come with you
–’

The door slammed into my back as Anna’s dad shoved it open. His gob dropped down that far, you could’ve driven a double-decker bus through it. His head twisted about as he looked at us one at a time, then, he took a deep breath, and went on one like you’ve never known.

‘What the hell is going on here? I can’t believe it. I let you out for an hour, Annabel, and don’t see you again for four. Dad, you’re supposed to be taking care of her; supervising her. And you!’

I thought his head might blast off his shoulders the way he yelled at me.

‘You! How dare you show your face on my property? I thought I’d made my feelings quiet clear about that, but obviously not; obviously it needs to be spelled out for you, again.’ He took his mobile out and tried to call a number – you wouldn’t have thought nine, nine, nine would’ve been that difficult.

‘Andrew, stop bein’ a wanker.’

My head shot round, and I really couldn’t help laughing as Anna’s grandad leaned back and rested his elbow against the windowsill.

‘Put that stupid telephone thing away, listen to your daughter for once, and you might just cotton on she’s got more sense and guts than the rest of us put together.’

Her dad started to go red. Even he was struggling to know what to say to that.

Anna shook her head. ‘But, G
randad ...’

‘Go on.’ He nodded. ‘Tell him.’

And after a second’s hesitation, she did – and so much better than I could’ve ever done. She used like right good words and remembered all the details, and when she got to the bits that made me feel crap about myself, she sort of explained it in a way that didn’t make me sound like such a dickhead.

The only thing I didn’t get, was when she said she’d walked into the wrong room at that Rory’s house, and that’s how she’d found the piece of paper. That bit was fair enough, I suppose, but she said the reason she’d gone there in the first place was to see if he was OK. And I didn’t believe that; she wouldn’t have done it, I knew she wouldn’t.

But it didn’t seem like a right good time to be asking her about it, so I didn’t. I guessed if she wanted to tell me about it later, she would.

When she’d finally done, her dad was the colour of a Milky Bar. He sat for ages, slowly rubbing his hands together and gazing at the cooker thing they called a range. When he did eventually speak, his voice was proper quiet. ‘Even if everything you’ve told me is true,’ he said. ‘It’s completely possible of course, that David had no knowledge of it. It could be anyone, some of his employees for instance, who are using the warehouse as cover.’

I thought about it.

Anna’s grandad straightened up. ‘Well, I’m sure the coppers’ll find out whether he knows owt or not. Fact is, we’ve got to report it. Somebody’s bringin’ that stuff into the country, and somebody’s got to answer for that lad’s death.’

‘He does know.’ These were my first words since Anna’s dad had walked in and they all looked at me. ‘There was a message, on Billy’s phone, just before we got jumped. And I can tell it were him now, I recognise his voice; oldish and posh, not with a Sheffield accent. He were warning us to watch our backs – he said he knew all the details.’

‘What happened to Billy’s phone?’ Anna asked.

‘I’m not sure, I don’t even know if it worked anymore after ... But the cops, they might be able to access it; from his network or whatever. Weren’t that what all that phone-hacking stuff were about, people listening to messages?’

Anna’s dad sighed. He still didn’t want to believe it, you could tell, but there was one other thing he needed to know – that they all needed to know – before we went any further with it.

I closed my eyes for a second; dreading their reaction. ‘I err, I ... oughta tell ya summat else,’ I said. ‘Ya know yesterday, when you drove off an’ that blue Mazda pulled up? Well that were Spenny ... an’ he knew about you.’ I nodded at Anna. ‘He told me, if I wanted to keep ya safe, I’d betta not make any deals with the cops.’

Her dad stuttered a bit. ‘That’s absurd; I know David, he would never hurt Annabel.’

‘But he would import Cocaine?’ He was fast, her grandad, and for the second time in a few minutes, he shut his son right up.

I knew I had to be totally honest with them. ‘They’ll hurt anybody if they get the chance, trust me. Me, Anna; anybody that gets in their way.’

‘But if they were all named, and tried, and locked-up, they wouldn’t get that chance, would they?’ Anna said it like it was the most obvious, straightforward thing in the world.

‘I don’t know, it’s not always as simple as that; there might still be a risk,’ I couldn’t bring myself to look at her. ‘It’s got to be up to you, Anna; it’s your choice.’

‘Then we do it. Without a doubt.’

‘Annabel, have you considered this properly?’ her dad said. ‘Have you thought about what you’re doing, what you’re letting yourself in for?’

‘What’s to consider, Dad? They’re criminals – lawless thugs, scum – where else do they belong?’

Her dad’s eyes, followed instantly by his words, cut into me like a flick-knife.

‘Well, all right then. But this is exactly the sort of thing I’ve been worried about all along; that you’d involve her in something like this, that because of you, and your stupid behaviours, my daughter would be placed in the worst possible kind of danger.’

I glared at my trainers. The mud I’d had to walk through had been that deep you could hardly see the white bits underneath anymore. As it’d dried, it’d started to flake off a bit, but there was no chance they’d ever come totally clean.

‘I’m sorry,’ I said. And I really, really meant it; it was the last thing I’d wanted, and she had ended up in danger, and it was all cos of me.

His hand touched me before I even realised he’d come to stand next to me. Anna’s grandad squeezed my shoulder, then said, ‘Let’s remember though, eh, it’s not him who’s smugglin’ drugs, an’ it’s not him who’s had his mate murdered, an’ it’s not him who’s threatenin’ to hurt our Anna.’

Everything was quiet for a minute, then her grandad turned away. ‘Any road up, I’m gonna have a cup of tea. Any of you lot want one, before you all go off and see that solicitor?’

***

Well, we didn’t all have tea, but we did all go and see the solicitor – even Anna’s dad – and she was totally wicked. She listened to what me and Anna said, asked us some questions and wrote it all down.

Then, as she put the lid back on her pen, she looked at me. ‘So, you’re one hundred percent certain that everything you’ve told me is accurate?’

‘Yeah.’

‘And you’re willing to make a statement to the police and give evidence in court to that effect, despite the threats that have been made against you and Miss Richardson?’

I glanced at Anna and she nodded. ‘Yeah,’ I said.

‘Well, then that’s very admirable of you both, and of course the police will take all necessary action to protect you. You should also be aware though, Jayden, it could be quite traumatic
– having to give evidence about your friend’s murder.’

Yeah, well, it’d been fairly traumatic having it on my mind all those months and not giving evidence.
‘It’ll be OK,’ I said.

‘Right. Is there anything else before I contact the police? Mr Richardson?’

Anna’s dad thought about it for a bit, then said, ‘No.’

Fiona smiled at him. ‘I
imagine you must be feeling very proud of these two youngsters? I know Jayden’s made mistakes in the past, but you have to agree he’s making the right choices now. Indeed, it shows a level of integrity that some adults might struggle to find, don’t you agree? ’