Next to Die (32 page)

He looked behind quickly, but he knew there was no exit that way. There was no alternative but to walk forward. As he got closer, Susie turned around.

There was a pause as she took him in, that moment of recognition that bought them both a second to compose themselves.

‘Joe, what are you doing here?’ she said as she closed the door to the typist room, wanting to avoid the gossip that would start up behind her.

‘Just a nostalgia trip,’ he said.

She pointed at his eye. ‘What happened there?’

‘Not every client is happy with my work.’

That made her smile, and just for a moment he saw what had brought them together in the first place. There was a glint to her eyes, some fire beneath her demure exterior. It had been too hot for Joe.

‘You look good,’ he said, before he could stop himself. And he meant it. He had hardly seen her since they split. He had been out when she had collected her things, so he had been limited to glimpses whenever she walked past his office window.

Susie blushed. ‘Thank you,’ she said, and then she looked towards the office where he had caught her that time, further back along the corridor. Her shoulders slumped. ‘I’m still sorry for you finding out like that. I should have told you.’

‘I’m sorry about what I did after I caught you.’

‘I’d have done the same,’ she said.

‘How is it going with Mike?’

Susie shook her head. ‘His wife finding out made it stressful. It was never meant to be permanent. It was just, well, you know.’

‘Arms around you, because mine never were?’

‘Something like that.’ Her tone softened when she said, ‘Why couldn’t we ever talk like this before?’

‘Because it hurts less now.’

‘Okay, I’m sorry. So what are you doing here, anyway?’

‘Ronnie Bagley.’

Susie frowned at the name, and then said, ‘Oh, Haircut Ronnie.’

‘How come you remember that? I was the criminal lawyer, not you.’

‘Because he wanted to apply for an order to keep his girlfriend away from him, and he wanted his daughter with him. He came to me.’

Joe was surprised. ‘What, Carrie?’

‘That’s her.’

‘Why did he want to keep Carrie away?’

‘That was the main problem: he wouldn’t say, and so we couldn’t do anything for him.’

‘You know that he’s been accused of killing Carrie, and his child?’

‘Yeah, I heard Matt bitching about you,’ she said, and then, ‘but it doesn’t seem right.’

‘How so?’

‘Because he was scared of her, but he loved his child. It was the way he talked about her.’

‘So what happened?’

‘He stopped coming in once he realised he would have to pay a lot of money for a lost cause.’ She looked at Joe, concern in her eyes. ‘Is it something I didn’t do? If I’d got the court order, perhaps he wouldn’t have been able to kill them.’

‘No, it’s not that. You know we don’t run our clients’ lives, we just help them out from time to time.’ He smiled. ‘Thanks for the catch up, Susie. I’ve got what I need.’

He turned to go, but Susie grabbed his hand. When he stopped and looked back to her, she stepped forward and kissed him, her lips soft and warm on his, and just for a second he felt his own fires begin to burn. She pulled away, her eyes opening slowly, and whispered, ‘We never did say goodbye properly, Joe. You know, one last time, just to spite each other, to get closure.’

He let go of her hand and stepped back. ‘You’re with someone else. Infidelity hurts.’ And when he turned to go this time, Susie didn’t stop him.

‘You’re a bastard, Joe Parker,’ she said.

He didn’t try to argue. He was too busy wondering why the news about Ronnie Bagley bothered him so much.

Joe left Mahones and walked quickly back to his office. So Ronnie had been his client a few years earlier, and he wanted him to know that, as if it was somehow important. And what was his jibe before, that it was all his fault? What was his fault?

As he got to his office, he saw his brother’s car outside, a young woman in the passenger seat. Joe rolled his eyes. Time for more wisdom from the self-appointed patriarch. When he walked into the building, Sam was sitting in reception.

‘What can I do for you, Sam?’ he said, trying to hide the weariness he felt.

Sam pointed at Joe’s eye. ‘What happened to you?’

‘Another dissatisfied customer.’

‘Have you called it in?’

‘No, I haven’t, and I won’t. It was just one of those things.’

‘I tried to contact you last night.’

‘My phone got smashed, during this,’ Joe said, and pointed at his face. Sam had seemed tense, but that seemed to make him relax. It had the opposite effect on Joe. ‘What’s wrong?’ Then Joe noticed Marion taking an interest in what was being said, and he pointed to the stairs. ‘Let’s find somewhere more private.’

They were heading along the landing when Gina appeared. Sam looked at Gina, and then back to Joe, his eyes wide with surprise.

‘Gina’s worked here for a year,’ Joe said.

‘Hello, Sam,’ she said.

‘You were there for us when Ellie was murdered,’ Sam said. ‘You inspired me to join the police, and now you do this?’

‘What is “this”?’

‘Helping crooks.’

‘Helping people.’

‘Did you think that way when you were on the job?’

‘No, not really.’

‘So were you right then, or right now?’

‘I see the other side now, that’s all. Things aren’t always clear-cut.’

Joe coughed to interrupt. ‘What do you want, Sam? To find out more about Ronnie Bagley?’

Sam’s jaw clenched.

‘I think we should speak privately,’ Sam said, glancing at Gina, as if to say that it was something best kept between them.

Gina put her hand on Sam’s arm. ‘It’s good to see you again, Sam. I’ll leave you two to it.’

Both men stayed silent until she was gone, and then they went into Joe’s office where he said, ‘You’re on police time now, so it must be something to do with the job. Are you here to milk me for information again?’

Sam pushed his glasses back up his nose. ‘I’m not here for an argument, Joe. If you’re still angry, fine, enjoy your bad mood. You play the game more than I do, because my job is to find things out, to get to the truth, whereas yours is just to try to weasel out of it. That’s what lawyers do, isn’t it, help people weasel out of things? So keep your moral high horse to yourself, Joe, because what I did was nothing compared to things your clients do. But you don’t judge, do you, unless it’s me?’

‘So you’ve come to justify yourself?’ Joe said, sitting down. ‘Well, you’ve done it. Goodbye.’

The brothers stared at each other. Sam still standing, Joe with his arms on his desk.

A few seconds passed before Sam said, ‘I’m here about Ronnie Bagley.’

‘Fuck off, Sam. I’m not going to tell you about my client.’

‘It’s not about the case,’ Sam said, his voice rising. ‘It’s about Ruby.’

Joe paused at that. ‘Ruby? What about her?’

‘Tell me about Ronnie Bagley first.’

‘Why is Ronnie more important?’

‘I’m worried he’s a threat to Ruby.’

‘Ronnie? What do you mean, a threat?’

‘Ruby was followed. Yesterday.’

Joe didn’t like the clench to Sam’s jaw. ‘Followed? Where?’

‘Down the path.’

Joe went to rub his brow, but then pulled his hand away, aware of his bruises. ‘What, where Ellie…?’

Sam nodded.

Joe looked down at the desk. It all came back to him in a rush of images: Ellie turning into the path, distracted by her headphones, the hooded man following.

When he looked up again, Joe said, ‘Did Ruby know who was following her?’

‘No. She didn’t get a good view, just saw some movement in the trees, but it was enough to frighten her. She said it was as if the person was trying to keep up with her. She didn’t say anything at first, because she knew what Mum would say, but she was being unusually quiet, so Mum got it out of her eventually.’

‘So what do we do?’

‘I’m going to have a look at some logs from the last few weeks, just to see if there are any reports in the area of a strange man hanging around. But I’m worried about Ronnie Bagley.’

‘But if Ruby didn’t get a good view, you won’t prove that he was the person in the trees.’

‘Think like a copper, not a lawyer,’ Sam said. ‘If we know who the person might be, I can make his life difficult. If it is Ronnie, we’ll try to get his bail revoked.’

‘Why do you think it’s Ronnie?’

Sam let out a long breath. ‘So I give up everything and you protect him?’

‘No, it’s not like that.’

‘If I tell you, if it comes to nothing, it doesn’t go beyond this room. If we lift Ronnie and you use this in the case somehow, we’re finished.’

‘We’re brothers,’ Joe said, ‘and if this is about Ruby, nothing else matters.’

Sam stayed silent for a few moments, and then said, ‘There is something you don’t know. It hasn’t been made public yet, but the press will latch on to it soon. There are enough of them hanging around the station.’

‘Go on.’

‘There are girls going missing. Five of them now. One went missing the other night. There is a link, and that is they all have parents connected to the Ben Grant case. A juror’s daughter. A barrister’s daughter. CSI. A detective. All these missing girls.’

Joe was confused. ‘What, the Ben Grant you arrested? Child killer?’

Sam nodded. ‘Your client’s dead girlfriend, Carrie, was Ben Grant’s most frequent visitor.’

‘The girlfriend Terry Day says is still alive.’

‘I’m not here for that argument.’

‘Okay, I understand, but why haven’t you gone public?’

‘Because we don’t want whoever is behind it to know we’ve spotted it. And Ronnie is involved.’

‘How?’

‘The only other link I’ve found between the missing girls is an internet profile that was used by Ronnie Bagley to groom them.’

‘Ronnie, a groomer?’ Joe was surprised. ‘Groomers go after kids. I didn’t think Ronnie was into that.’

‘Tastes change,’ Sam said, ‘because it’s all coming back to Ronnie. Ruby says that she was followed, and who has a bigger link to Ben Grant’s case than me? I was the one who arrested him.’

Joe felt that instant headiness of fear. The sudden rush of his heartbeat, the fast turn of his stomach. ‘Okay, if we’re sharing, I just found something out about him. At Mahones, we called him Haircut Ronnie.’

Sam paled. He sat down on a chair opposite. ‘Haircut? What do you mean?

‘Ronnie Bagley has got a hair thing. Used to snip hair from students and got caught. How don’t you know this?’

Sam turned away, his hand on his head.

‘Sam, what’s wrong?’

‘I went to see Ben Grant yesterday. He talked about how he killed his sister because of some hair fetish he had, but when we checked the records it turns out he had no sister.’ Sam pulled out his phone. He dialled Evans. When she answered, he said, ‘I need to go see Ben Grant again.’ When he explained what he knew, it took only seconds to get her approval.

‘I’ve got to go,’ Sam said. On his way out of the room, he said, ‘Mum’s worried. Think about going to see her.’ And then he was gone.

As his footsteps receded along the corridor, the silence around Joe seemed heavy. He thought again about the man who had followed Ellie all those years ago. And now Ruby.

The door opened slowly and Gina put her head into the room.

‘Everything all right?’ she said.

‘No,’ Joe said. ‘Not all right at all.’

Fifty-Four

As they were escorted along the prison corridor, Charlotte said, ‘So do you think Grant will have anything new to say to you today?’

‘He enjoyed yesterday,’ Sam said, cleaning his glasses with a tissue. ‘He’ll want to see the effect.’

‘Are you sure this is a good idea? You seem wound up. He might get to you.’

‘He lied to me yesterday. His story seemed to be nonsense, but now I’m wondering if there was more to it. Have you met Grant before?’

‘No, and I’m curious.’

‘He’ll enjoy that,’ Sam said. ‘He loves the attention. Yesterday was the first time I’d spoken to him since I arrested him, and he was just like I remember. He is like all of a man’s wicked side expanded to fill the whole. The thing is, he knows that, and I think it’s the part about himself that he likes the most.’

The door was unlocked in front of them and they were shown into the room. Ben Grant was already there, tapping the table with his fingernails, fast and impatient. When he looked up, his eyes focused on Charlotte straight away.

He sat back, his eyes looking her up and down, deliberate, to make sure she saw him. ‘I didn’t expect you to bring a friend.’

‘This is DC Glover,’ Sam said. ‘We’re working together today.’

‘You must have a first name though,’ Grant said, not looking away from Charlotte.

She shook her head. ‘Detective will do.’

Grant curled his lip. ‘I’ll find out,’ he said, and then, ‘Too old for me, anyway.’

‘And always out of reach,’ she said.

Charlotte was tough and confident, although Sam noticed that she pulled her jacket tighter as she sat down, so Grant couldn’t look at her chest. Grant must have spotted it, because he tilted his head and said, ‘Don’t be like that, Detective.’ He looked each way theatrically, as if he was checking that they couldn’t be heard, and whispered, ‘I’ll be using you tonight, if you know what I mean. I could have some fun with you, in here,’ and he tapped the side of his head with his finger.

‘All right, Grant,’ Sam said, his voice showing his impatience. ‘Pack it in.’

‘Oh, but why?’ he said, his hand over his mouth, feigning shock. ‘Isn’t everything better in the mind, where you can live out your fantasies without having to put up with all that contact, that need for affection, wanting to be held like a panting puppy? Tell me, Mr Parker, did you mention me to your wife?’ When Sam didn’t respond, he winked. ‘I reckon not, because that would be like giving in to me, taking your work home. So you just let her sit there, staring at the television, and you didn’t want to go near her? You made a mistake.’

Sam opened his notebook as a way of distracting him, but then Grant said, ‘What about your sister? Little Ruby?’