Death on Account (The Lakeland Murders) (16 page)

The electric gates opened, and Sheridan’s Audi crunched down the gravel drive. The house looked as if it had been built last week, but to two hundred year-old plans. Hall didn’t recognize two of the sports cars in the drive, but the 4x4s were familiar enough.

‘This is just the beginning’ said Sheridan. ‘And if he offers you the tour, take it. Whoever said that crime doesn’t pay should come out here and take a look.’

Billy Cafferty opened the door himself. He was polite, and duly offered the tour. Hall doubted that he’d ever seen so many bathrooms.

‘Sorry Mary isn’t here to say hello, but she’s out getting a few bits for when Tommy gets home. He has a suite over the garage block, but he usually eats with us.’

‘It’s a lovely place, Mr. Cafferty’ said Hall.

‘Billy, please, and you don’t really think that, do you, Mr. Hall? You’re thinking this is just sort of the place you’d expect to see a second-generation immigrant with a few quid live in, aren’t you? I expect your house is full of stuff that’s been handed down.’

‘Not unless all my ancestors were Swedish and were handy with an Allen key’ said Hall. Cafferty looked confused. ‘Most of the stuff in my place is from IKEA.’ He was just about to explain when he saw the penny had dropped.

‘So you’re not worth robbing then?’

‘Hardly.’

‘Fancy a coffee?’

Cafferty used an integrated machine to make coffee for all four of them. It was excellent.

‘Columbian’ said Cafferty, when Jane complimented him on the beans. ‘Best of everything comes from Columbia, you know. Anyway, what did you want to talk to me about, Inspector? Tony said it was just informal.’

‘Since you have a personal interest in the Williams case I thought we’d bring you up to date.’

‘Personal interest? Hardly. I barely knew the man.’

‘I meant the connection with your brother’s case. Anyway, we know who did the job, a man named Sanchez. Very much a top of the league contract killer. We’ve got a Warrant out for him, but we’ve got no chance of arresting him really.’

‘Well done, Inspector. So it’s case closed then is it? Back down the lodge for a snifter later I expect.’

‘Anything but. We’ve only just got started. We need to find out who paid Sanchez, and also how Williams’ true identity came to be compromised.’

‘I hope you don’t suspect me. I’ve never heard of this Sanchez.’

‘Oh I don’t expect to make a direct connection, nothing like that. Would you be interested to know how it works from here?’

‘Not really.’

‘Ok then, we’ll just enjoy our coffee and leave you in peace to enjoy, well, all of this really.’

‘Thanks. I will. I’ve earned it. The hard way, believe me, Inspector.’

‘We’d better be getting back to Kendal’ said Hall, when he’d finished his coffee.

‘Someone nicked a shopping trolley?’

‘We’ve got a serious crime unit for that sort of thing’ said Hall, smiling.

‘Tony here tells me that you’re a clever bloke. University, all that. And I expect your girlfriend here is too. So how do you reckon you’ll be able to find out who paid this Sanchez character?’

‘It’s all about joining the dots. Since we think it was you who was behind this, what we’re trying to do is connect Sanchez to one of your crew, then work our way back to you.’

‘Join the dots, eh?’

‘Yes. You see Sanchez didn’t mind that he was identified. He didn’t even bother cleaning the mobile that he dropped into a bin at the airport. I think he wanted to be identified.’

‘Why would that be?’

‘Because it increases his value on the open market. As far as we know it’s the first time he’s come to the UK to kill. Maybe he’s looking for new customers. Anyway, now what we have to do is find out who brought him back to the airport last Tuesday evening.’

‘How will you do that?’

‘Jane, you explain.’

Jane did explain, and Cafferty listened carefully.

‘But no villain would have a car registered in their own name. That’s rule one, that is.’

‘True enough’ said Hall. ‘But they also know that cars they drive have to be legal, and that they have to have a good reason for driving them if they’re stopped. So there’ll be a connection somewhere, believe me.’

‘Yeah, so what? You can’t check every car that turned up at the airport around the time that Sanchez arrived. There must be hundreds, maybe thousands.’

‘Well what Jane’s told you helps us narrow down the odds. Get the number down to one that we can reasonably check, or rather Tony here can.’

‘So you’re looking for a car that was spotted near where that burnt out car was found, and also near the airport. And then you’ll check up on all of those.’

‘That’s the plan. Well that’s a plan. We’ve got lots of other ways of coming at this. That’s what I wanted to tell you.’

‘I’m sure you have got lots of plans, and lots of computers and stuff. But what the people on my side of the fence have is loyalty, and that counts for a lot.’

‘Loyalty? Don’t you mean fear, Mr. Cafferty?’

For the first time Cafferty seemed keen to see them go, and Hall was happy to oblige. The smell of polish, money and air freshener was starting to get to him.

‘Was that any help?’ asked Sheridan, as he drove them back.

‘What did you think? You know the man’ said Hall.

‘Honestly? It was a good effort, get him thinking a bit, but it’ll get you nowhere. He’s much too canny to react when you poke him with a stick like that.’

‘Poke him? I was just making conversation.’

‘Andy, I don’t know you very well, but you don’t strike me as the kind of bloke who ever just makes conversation. What do you say, DC Francis?’

Jane laughed. And she had no intention of replying.

Ryan Wilson was cooking a meal when Ian Mann knocked at his back door. Mann had nicked him numerous times, but this time Ryan knew he was in the clear. He’d had a proper job for weeks, and his first salary cheque had paid for the mince he was frying. He knew that he and his brother wouldn’t see a lot of his mum’s benefit cheques now, but he’d given up on her anyway. She was too far gone, and they both knew it. Ryan just hoped that she wouldn’t die before his brother had done his exams.

‘All right, Sergeant?’ he said.

‘It’s Ian. I’m off duty, probably permanently.’

‘Oh yeah, I heard what happened. The old Ninja skills came in handy then?’

Mann’s expression told Ryan that he didn’t want to talk about it.

‘I wanted a word if you can spare a minute, maybe later?’

‘Give me half an hour, then pop back?’

‘That’s fine. I’ll just drop in on me dad.’

Ian Mann did go and see his dad, but he tried the back door first. It was locked. He phoned the insurance company while his dad made tea, and his father was adamant that he wouldn’t get a new car. ‘That Rover should have seen me out.’ Mann told him not to be daft, and promised to take his dad to a couple of garages the next day. ‘I want something British mind’ said his dad, as Mann was leaving.

Ryan passed Mann a beer, and gestured through to the sitting room.

‘How’s your mum?’

‘Same. She doesn’t get out much now.’

‘You heard about my dad’s car?’

‘Aye. Shame. It was a nice old motor. Thought about having it myself like, back in the day. Easy to nick, those old motors.’

‘Know who did it?’

Ryan didn’t answer. Mann still looked like a cop, and talked like one too.

‘Come on, Ryan, it was the Walker lads. We all know that. I just wanted to ask you if they’ll leave him alone now.’

Ryan took a drink. ‘Hard to say. It depends, but I expect so. They know their dad’s a twat, so they will only have done it because there was a few quid in it for them. I expect their old man bunged them a few quid.’

‘So you don’t think I need have a word with them?’

‘Fuck no, that’s the last thing you want to do. They’d never leave your dad alone then.’

‘Pretty much what I thought. OK, I’ll leave it for now. So what’s this about you having a job? My dad says he’s seen you going to and from work.’

‘Aye, it’s just labouring like, but it’s a start.’

‘So you got nowhere with the army?’

‘Not sure. They said all my convictions counted against me, but if I keep out of trouble for twelve months I’m to come back. They were very impressed by your letter, mind.’

‘You keep at it, Ryan. Shame you haven’t got any exams, but you’ve got time on your side.’

‘So how about you? What will you do if you get kicked out of the cops?’

‘No idea. I haven’t got any exams either. Are there any jobs going where you are?’

‘You’re too old, marrer. You wouldn’t last a week.’

Mann laughed and finished his drink. He walked past his dad’s house and thought about going on past Eleanor’s. It was only another two minutes, but it was in the wrong direction, and Mann needed a piss. It must be Ryan’s cheap beer he thought, and turned on his heel. If he hurried he’d be home in ten minutes.

If Mann had walked on, and stopped outside Eleanor’s house, there’d have been nothing to see or hear. Her living room was light was on, and there were lights on in the upstairs bedrooms of the Walkers’ house. But an hour later things would have been very different, because even from the pavement you could have heard the music coming from one of the pair of semis. The windows were closed, and the music wasn’t recognisable because the two brothers were playing the same rap tune on both of their stereos, to see which was louder. Next door the lights were all out, but Eleanor and her daughter was still there, and wide awake. It was just that Eleanor couldn’t stand to see the fear in her daughter’s eyes anymore.

Monday 6th May

Andy Hall woke from a dream in which he was running along narrow paths, between buildings, then fences, then on the edge of a field. It was all uphill, and the landscape seemed familiar somehow. Perhaps he’d had that dream before.

He’d worked all weekend, and he’d be in today, Bank Holiday or not. He’d been at Jane’s until late the previous night, and he’d told her that he would tell Gill that he wouldn’t be able to see her again. It felt odd, like being a teenager, talking about these things. He’d tried not to talk about Carol to Jane, and how he felt about the fact that she’d left, but as he looked back he realised that he’d failed. He made a mental note to stop doing it. Like all coppers Hall knew that actions speak louder than words, and that recidivists are just people who keep making the same mistakes. He couldn’t change who he was, but he certainly could try to change how he was.

In this spirit of change he tried whistling in the shower, but that wasn’t a success. He couldn’t carry a tune. For some reason he thought of the wolf-whistle, a sound he hadn’t heard in years, and remembered that as a kid he’d been envious of the lads who could do it. He never could.

When he got to work he chatted to Jane. It felt completely fine, not strained, and not different either. There’d been no further developments in Merseyside.

‘Looks like Billy Cafferty is home free, and will be able to enjoy his family reunion without a care in the world’ said Hall. ‘Merseyside are bound to scale back this week. Sanchez did Cafferty a favour in a way, because when he was identified the heat went out of the conspiracy investigation.’

‘So that’s it?’

‘Ray emailed to say he wanted to show me something he’d found, but it can’t be that earth-shattering or he’d have said what it is in the email. And the chance of the information about Williams coming from here was always a hundred to one against anyway. It was just that one call from Kendal to Sanchez on the day of Williams’ death, but it could just have easily have been someone else, keeping an eye on Williams until Sanchez turned up.’

There was no-one in the office, but Jane still lowered her voice.

‘So you’re going to talk to Gill?’

‘She’s on early turn, out with Nobby Styles again. I said I’d buy her a coffee in town after.’

‘Does she know what you want to talk about?’

‘Judging from the tone of her text, and the fact that I’ve been dodging her all weekend, I’d say she does.’

‘She’ll know it’s me.’

‘Really? On the basis of what information?’

Jane laughed. ‘This isn’t police work, Andy. Put it down to feminine intuition, even though I know you think there’s no such thing. And anyway, realistically, how many available women do you actually know?’

Hall smiled. ‘Harsh but fair. It’s a fair cop. And I was just starting to think that I’d become irresistible in my old age.’

‘Don’t fish for compliments, Inspector. Haven’t you got work to do?’