To Catch a Rabbit (31 page)

Sean could imagine Burger’s lack of charm in breaking the news.

‘Anyway,’ Stacey continued, more quickly now as if she might change her mind if she hesitated too long, ‘we went to the morgue and there was this room with the body under a sheet and they pulled it back and for a second I saw Phil.’

Rick held his hand up to stop her. Sean was relieved to have time to catch up. His hand was beginning to ache.

‘And Mr Mackenzie went with you?’

‘Yes.’

‘And did he think it was Philip Holroyd?’

‘We both did, I think. And then as I looked at it, the face changed. It was swollen and messed up and a weird sort of colour but it wasn’t that. The hair was wrong, shorter than Phil’s and it had grey hairs in it. His ears were too big. I looked at Johnny, I remember, and he said, yes, that’s him and the woman turned to me and I said, yes. And that was it.’

Sean was writing so fast he was afraid the biro was going to tear through the page.

‘Did you discuss it afterwards?’ Rick leaned forward as if willing her to meet his eye.

‘I was in a kind of trance. I remember later someone saying they’d want a DNA match and did we have anything of Phil’s? Johnny said he’d bring something, a jacket Phil had left up the farm; it would have his hair and skin he said. My phone kept ringing. It was Karen but I couldn’t speak to her. I kept putting it back in my pocket until eventually Johnny took it and switched it off.’

‘Did you see the jacket?’

Stacey shook her head.

‘Did Phil own a grey, suit jacket?’

‘No. Phil’s never owned a suit in his life.’ She sighed and no one spoke. The tap dripped into the sink. As Sean wrote Stacey’s words on the pad, he heard someone moving about upstairs.

‘Did you have any idea who the man in the mortuary was?’

She shook her head again. ‘I never asked. Johnny moved us in here, and I’ve been on tablets ever since. Nothing’s real.’ She waved her hand at the television screen on the wall and towards the dresser stacked with expensive looking china. ‘I’ve got all this. Everything I wanted. But all the time I’ve just been waiting for a knock on the door.’

‘Mrs Holroyd,’ Rick’s chair creaked as he shifted in his seat, ‘was your husband’s life insured?’

‘Yes.’ Her voice was almost inaudible. ‘My dad got him to start paying into a scheme when Holly was born.’

She sank her face into her hands and started to sob. Rick pushed his chair back and stood up. He looked around and picked up a roll of kitchen towel, which he plonked down in front of her. He patted her shoulder, just once, as if he wasn’t sure it would help.

‘You’re doing very well,’ he said.

She reached for the kitchen towel and tore off a sheet, dabbing at her face. Sean had got as far as
when Holly was born
when Rick began to speak again.

‘Did you know that John Mackenzie was operating brothels in several temporary vehicles?’

‘Several?’ she looked up. ‘No, I didn’t. Several?’

Rick ran his finger down the bristles on his cheek. He said nothing.

‘Wait.’ Stacey seemed to catch her breath, to calm her own sobs. ‘There’s a trailer in the barn. I knew there was something wrong. It’s the one they were looking for, isn’t it? Where that Chinese girl died?’

Sean wrote furiously while Rick waited for Stacey to say more.

‘Holly’s rabbit is a bit of a Houdini; he gets out all the time and he heads for the barn. You know there are people sleeping there? I think he’s after their food. I wouldn’t have gone in there otherwise. I always keep out of the business side of things. Anyway, I went to look for the rabbit. I’d never been in that barn before, so I had a look about and there was this trailer. I was just curious, so I looked under the cover to see what it was.’ She paused to blow her nose on another piece of kitchen towel. ‘It was like a chippy van. I was thinking it might be good to get it going again in the summer, out the back of the pub. Jackie might like it for barbies and that. Anyway when I asked Johnny about it, he went mental. It’s the only time he’s laid a hand on me, but it put the fear of God in me. I had to cancel my mum coming round for a week, because I couldn’t let anyone see what he’d done to my face.’

Sean guessed Lizzie was in there now, dusting the tarp for prints, exploring Su-Mai’s trailer. If Stacey was telling the truth her prints would be on the tarp, his too. He hoped Johnny had left some of his own, enough to nail him as Su-Mai’s pimp.

‘Do you remember seeing any other vehicles in the barn?’ Rick asked.

‘I think there was a car and a couple of tractors. That big tractor was there.’  She looked up at Sean. It was the first time she’d acknowledged his presence. She hadn’t said a word about him saving her daughter’s life. He told himself she was probably too embarrassed.

‘Did you ask Johnny about the car?’ Rick walked slowly back around the table to his seat and sat down heavily. Sean thought he looked knackered. He wondered what Arieta had told him during their all-night chat.

‘You must be joking,’ Stacey said. ‘Not after he flipped his lid about the trailer. Anyway, I thought it was just some junk.’

‘Did you ever see him drive it?’

‘No, he always drives the Range Rover. He wouldn’t be seen dead in a green car, he thinks green’s unlucky.’

Someone knocked on the door from the hallway.

‘Come in!’ Rick called.

It was Karen Friedman.

‘I’m sorry to interrupt, but would it be okay for Stacey to come up and give Holly a goodnight kiss? She won’t settle.’

‘Aye, go on, we are more or less done here,’ Rick stood up again and offered Stacey a hand. She let him help her up from the chair. ‘You’ve been a real help and now I think you should get some sleep. There’ll be an officer here all night and then maybe we could ask you to come in tomorrow and put this on tape. Would you do that?’

Stacey nodded. ‘I don’t owe Johnny Mackenzie a bloody thing any more. He could have killed my daughter in that fire. I’ll tell you whatever you need to know.’

‘Thank you.’

Sean put the pen down after she’d gone and waited for Rick to speak. Mrs Friedman was putting on her coat. She muttered something about getting out of their way and went outside into the yard.

‘So,’ Sean said when she was out of earshot, ‘if the body wasn’t Philip Holroyd, who was it and who killed who?’

‘Whom.’

‘What?’

‘Who killed whom,’ Rick said with a grin. ‘It’s more grammatical.’

‘Whatever.’ Sean wanted to know how Arieta was. Nan was sure to ask. But he wasn’t sure about the protocol. He tried to sound casual. ‘Did you get much from Arieta Osmani?’

Rick’s smile faltered slightly. ‘Has Lizzie been sharing?’

‘Not exactly. I suppose it’s none of my business. Sorry.’

‘Look, you’re a lucky bastard, Sean. You’ve done some good stuff on this case, but you’ve also broken a few rules. I suppose on balance you and the Force are about even.’

‘So?’ He knew he was pushing his luck, but Rick was a mate, or so it seemed when they’d been out clubbing. When someone’s wiped the sick off your face it kind of bonds you. Or maybe it was the other way round. Maybe he was bonded to Rick in grateful servitude. Thinking about it made his brain fuzzy again. God, he was tired.   ‘Fuck it, Rick. Is she okay? I understand if it’s off limits, but my nan’s going to ask and right now, I’ve put her through hell, so...’

‘All right! Keep your hair on!’ Rick sighed. ‘In answer to your original question about who killed whom; well, according to your little Kosovan friend, the victim was the driver of a green car very like the one that’s in that barn, but she doesn’t know his name and until we find the plates, neither do we.’

‘So Mackenzie killed him!’ Sean hit the table with his fist and sent the dog running out from underneath. It stood at the door, looking back, one ear raised warily. ‘I knew it.’

‘Slow down. Mackenzie just tidied up the mess. His little business plan was going horribly wrong, so he was on damage limitation.’

‘Then who, or is it whom?’

‘You’re too impatient. You wanted to know how the girl is.’

‘Yes?’

‘Thin, not very fragrant but remarkably well, considering she’d just confessed to manslaughter. Now why don’t you nip out and see what Lizzie’s got for us. She’s been sniffing round that barn for at least half an hour. If you’ll excuse me, I need a piss.’

As Rick disappeared further into the house, followed by the dog. Sean sat still at the table, tracing a pattern in the wood with his finger. The grain was like a contour map, getting steeper and steeper. He kept feeling as if he was almost there, but the hill just kept getting higher. There was a murmur of voices upstairs, a creak of a floorboard but no more answers. He signed and dated his notes, put the notebook in his pocket. But he didn’t get up. He was thinking about Arieta. When they’d travelled on the bus into town, she’d pressed her face up against the window.
Nobody must run, nobody should leave.

When Rick came back he was still sitting there.

‘Taneesha McManus,’ Sean said. ‘We’ve been assuming she was an accident. But I bet she wasn’t. I think she was planning to leave Stubbs. We need to talk to her friends.’

Rick laughed. ‘Okay, boss, I’ll get on to it first thing in the morning.’

‘Sorry, way beyond my pay grade, I know.’

‘Don’t worry. Let’s get finished here first. Stubbs has got so much shit coming his way, he won’t know what’s hit him.’

Karen walked towards the drive. The air was cleaner away from the farmyard and she breathed it in slowly. Leaning on the gate, she stared across dark fields, lined with the looming outlines of hedges. Here and there the black skeleton of a tree jutted up, fingers pointing at the moon. She imagined it must be pretty in the summer and suddenly it occurred to her that by next summer all their lives would be completely different. Perhaps this whole farm would belong to someone else and Holly wouldn’t have all this space to play in. Karen would have a holiday with Sophie and Ben, but without Max. Maybe he would have the children and she would be free to do something on her own. The cold metal of the gate worked through her coat to her elbows. It felt like there would be a frost tonight, maybe even snow. Perhaps she would go on a walking holiday to the Pyrenees or one of those charity hikes to Machu Picchu; anywhere warm would do.

She heard the office door open and footsteps behind her on the concrete.

‘Are you all right out here?’ Charlie put his arm round her waist. ‘I won’t be long. Just a few loose ends I need to check with Rick Houghton.’

Karen turned to face him, searching his eyes for information.

‘Karen?’ he said, and she wondered if she’d spoken her thoughts out loud. ‘There’s something you should know. The body in the caravan wasn’t Philip. Arieta Osmani made a statement. She confessed to manslaughter. The man was a client.’

She held her breath. On the way here in the car, and through all the chaos around them since, she’d tried to think how she was going to tell him. Now he was making it easy for her.

‘I know,’ she said. ‘I know it wasn’t Philip. I’ve spoken to him’.

Charlie didn’t say anything.

‘Arieta left her handbag in my house yesterday morning.’ Karen measured her words, laying each one out carefully for him in the order she’d planned. ‘There was a phone number. I checked on the Internet and the code was Pristina, Kosovo. I dialled the number and the man who answered spoke no English. He put someone on the line to translate. It was my brother.’

‘Why didn’t you tell me?’

She couldn’t make out if he was angry or disappointed in her, or both.

‘I wanted to confront Stacey, but not on my own. That’s why I asked you to come with me. I wanted to know why she’d identified the wrong man.’

‘She lied. People do. Mackenzie had quite a hold on her.’

Karen turned away from him. There was more she needed to say. ‘Phil took Mackenzie’s van and some stock he was supposed to deliver. But he didn’t push the caravan into the quarry. They just panicked and left it where it was.’

‘They?’

‘I don’t know what she told you. But Phil says it was his fault, not hers.’

Charlie didn’t move a muscle. She wondered if this was what it was like being interrogated. It felt like hypnosis. If he didn’t say anything, she knew she would have to fill the silence. She ground her boot into the gritty concrete.

‘He’s coming back, Charlie, he’ll be here by tomorrow. He wanted me to tell you. He thought the man in the caravan was attacking Arieta. She was tied up and this guy was about to hurt her.’ She was surprised at how calm her voice sounded to her own ears. The joy at knowing Phil was alive had altered every other feeling. She had no fear about what would happen next. They’d agreed, she and Phil, that the truth mattered now: nothing else. ‘The man turned on him. I suppose it will all come out in court, but there’s no reason why you shouldn’t hear it from me. Phil thumped him, and then - it sounds almost farcical when you think about it - the other guy went for him, but tripped over his own trousers. They were still round his ankles. He fell and hit his nose, full force, on the gas heater. Then he didn’t get up. That was it.’

‘And they ran away and left him?’

‘He was dead, Charlie. Phil wouldn’t have just left someone, I know he wouldn’t.’

‘That’s not the point.’

‘He told me that he tried to use his phone, but Arieta was scared. She stamped on it to break it. They didn’t move the caravan though.’

‘No. I know. The track fragments were from a Range Rover. I think Mackenzie must have reversed it to the edge and then let gravity do the rest. I hope those tyres haven’t melted too much to get a match.’

The door to the farmhouse kitchen slammed and PCSO Denton came into view, heading for the barn.

‘I’ve promised I’ll help Sean Denton trace the Chinese girl’s family.’ Karen said, watching him standing at the barrier of incident tape, speaking to someone inside. ‘He wants to make sure her ashes get sent back home for burial.’

Charlie didn’t reply. He put his arm round her shoulder and pulled her towards him. He kissed her on the head and let her go.

‘I’m a police officer, Karen, you need to tell me everything you know.’

She turned away from the barn and faced him. Phil’s voice on the phone was still fresh in her mind.

‘Okay,’ she said. ‘He left from the ferry terminal in Hull. He waited until the last minute for the girl. She said she had to check on a friend, but she never came.’