Separated at Death (The Lakeland Murders) (29 page)

‘Do you want to tell me why you want to see Ian?’

Ryan didn’t know why he did, but he told the whole story, and held almost nothing back, although he didn’t admit to knowing what was in the car he’d brought down from Carlisle.

‘So you really think that these people want to hurt you? Haven’t you been watching a bit too much television son?’

‘Not hurt, kill. I told you about that lad on the west coast.’

‘That might just be bragging. But it is odd that one of them lives in a big house, and drives a swanky car, I grant you that. When we first moved here, in 1960 it was, we bought our three-piece suite from Hamiltons. We’re both sitting on it now in fact. I wonder what made one of them get involved in all this?’

Ryan shrugged.

‘You do know that Simon Hamilton is the uncle of Amy, the young girl who was murdered up in Serpentine Woods last week?’

‘Yeah, what of it? I had nothing to do with that.’

The old man looked at him. That wasn’t what he meant at all.

‘Do you think my son knows about Simon Hamilton being mixed up in drugs?’

‘Dunno. Probably not. The coppers round here are as thick as shit, no offence.’

‘None taken.’ The old man smiled. ‘So why exactly have you come to see me then Ryan? What is it that you expect Ian to do about this?’

Once again Ryan decided to tell the truth. It seemed to have worked so far.

‘I haven’t got anyone else. It’s just me against them.’

‘And you think my son might want to help?’ The old man looked pleased. ‘Well you, young Ryan, might have made a rather good decision for once. Tell me, what do you want to do with your life?’

Ryan shrugged. ‘Dunno really. Not end up like my dad. Or my mum neither. Other than that, maybe try to get a job.’

The old man nodded. They sat and ate their Parkin. Ryan tried not to slurp his tea. He could hear a clock ticking somewhere.

‘Tell you what’ said the old man eventually. ‘Why don’t you wait here and I’ll take a walk down to the Police station, and see if Ian’s about. I expect you want to keep your head down for a bit, eh?’

‘Is that OK? I won’t nick nothing.’

‘Of course you won’t. I trust you Ryan. Just stay here, and don’t answer the door.’

The old man took ages getting his coat, his hat and his scarf, but eventually he called goodbye from the hall and left. Within five minutes Ryan was fast asleep on the Hamilton’s sofa. For the first time in days he felt properly safe.

When he came back an hour later the old man had a bag of shopping, and he set about making them sandwiches. And when Ryan woke up he told him that his son was out.  ‘But he’ll call as soon as he can. He’s a good lad like that.’

The old man’s ham salad sandwiches were tasty, and Ryan was eating his third when the phone started ringing. The conversation was brief.

‘He’s on his way here now. He says to stay exactly where you are. He’ll be about an hour.’ The old man looked a bit taken aback. Ryan wondered what his son had said.

Mr Mann was watching from the living room window as his son’s car pulled up, but even so he only just made it to the front door before Ian Mann’s key was in the lock. Ryan heard a short, whispered conversation, then Ian Mann walked in.

‘What the hell are you doing, you stupid little shit? Do you want to get my dad killed?’

‘Of course not.’

Mann didn’t look any calmer.

‘I won’t take any of your bullshit Ryan, and I don’t feel sorry for you. I’m not a soft touch like my dad. Understood? Now what’s all this about Simon Hamilton and drugs?’

Ryan told him what everything that had happened. About how he’d found Hamilton, and about the previous night. Mann walked to the window, and stood there, his back to Ryan, for several minutes. Then he turned.

‘Come in here a minute, would you dad?’ The old man came in from the kitchen, still holding a tea-towel. ‘Now listen, both of you. Ryan never said that stuff about wanting to get involved in Hamilton’s drugs business, all you were doing was trying to track down whoever had set you up. Right?’

They both nodded. ‘In fact, thinking about it Ryan never said a word to you, dad. He just turned up here, looking for me, and waited while you went down to the station. And Ryan, all you said was that you had information about Simon Hamilton. You both got that? Dad, he said nowt to you about anything.’

They both nodded again. ‘OK Ryan, you could be looking at GBH for what you did to Hamilton, so when you knocked at the door he went for you, and you fought back. You got that? It’s your word against his. Otherwise, if you stick to what I’ve said and help us from here I think you’ll get to slide on this little lot.’

Ryan looked surprised, and Ian Mann could see that.

‘It’s your lucky day son, because you said two words that are music to my ears: Simon and Hamilton. Otherwise I’d probably have just chucked you back, and let Simon and his mates do whatever they wanted.’

Ryan nodded, but he noticed the ‘probably’.

‘Right then, here’s what’s going to happen now. Dad, you’re going to my place, right now. Stay there until I come for you. There’s plenty of food in. Don’t be surprised if you end up sleeping there. If you do I’ll bring your stuff in the morning. Phone me when you get there, and don’t answer the door to anyone except me or a uniformed copper.’

The old man slowly put his outdoor clothes on again, checked that he had a key to his son’s house on Fellside, and set off. Mann watched out of the window as he walked up the hill.

‘Right Ryan, we’ll have to assume that you were seen this morning, and that your friends will have put the word out. I happen to know that Carl and his mate were back in Manchester again this morning, but they could easily be up here by now. And if what you say is true they’ll have people up here anyway. They’re bound to look for you down here on the estate, if they look for you at all.’

‘They’ll look for me all right.’

‘They probably will. And you know what, they’re going to find you too.’

‘What are you on about? They’ll kill me, like they did that lad in the harbour. I told you.’

‘Yes, you did. And I actually believe you. But that’s the price you’ll have to pay for keeping you out of jail, and for getting them off your back. See we know that Simon killed Amy, so we know what he’s capable of. But we don’t have enough evidence, and we don’t have a motive. Now if we can catch him and his cronies red-handed, trying to sort you out maybe, then that would be a big help. This is about nailing him Ryan, not saving you. As far as I’m concerned you’ve put yourself right in harm’s way, but Amy never did. So you sit quiet for a minute while I make a couple of calls, that’s a good lad.’

Andy Hall listened carefully to what Ian Mann had to say. There wasn’t time for any of the questions that rushed to mind.

‘Are you happy to sit tight where you are? Do you want me to send you a couple of extra bodies to help out?’

‘No, I’ll be fine. Ryan says that no-one saw him arrive, and he might be right. I had a run in with Carl Nelson’s minder this morning, and he was no problem.’

‘This isn’t the time to go all green beret on me Ian. I’ll have to go and talk to Robinson, and see if I can get any corroboration on all this. Ryan might just be bullshitting us, though I agree that him putting Simon Hamilton in the frame does reduce the likelihood of that. And of course it explains why he’s cash rich, and why the wife was covering for him. There’s no point talking to Sarah again though, she can go down with him, but I’ll have a quick word with John Hamilton, see if he can stand any of this up.’

Hall put the phone down, left his office and walked over to Jane’s desk.

‘We could have a job on, tonight or tomorrow. Make sure your phone and radio are charged, and that you’ve got your body armour, spray, the lot. Leave it in my office, and add mine and Ian’s to the pile too please.’

Superintendent Robinson was in a meeting with a couple of local politicians who Hall vaguely recognised, and he looked relieved when Hall knocked and came in. ‘Sorry, sir, but we have a major development on the Amy Hamilton murder inquiry.’

The politicians looked like rubber-neckers at a motorway pile-up, trying to look over their shoulders even as Robinson was ushering them politely from his office. As soon as they were out of the room Hall passed on what Mann had told him.

‘Not exactly a reliable witness, is he?’ said Robinson doubtfully. ‘He’d get torn to shreds in the box, the kid’s a right little rascal.’

‘But we’re not talking about him as a wit sir, Ian’s plan is to use him to get Simon Hamilton to show his hand. We know he’s clever, and that his lawyer’s damn good, and as things stand we don’t have enough to convict. Yes, we probably can link him to drugs now, maybe even get a conviction of some kind, but that still doesn’t give us a motive for him killing Amy. But if we can flush him out, get him to lash out at Ryan, then maybe we can get him for the lot.’

‘And the kid says that he’s not involved in Hamilton’s business at all?’

Hall smiled.

‘He’s not daft. Ian reports that Ryan is saying that he just wanted to know who’d set him up with that drug run, and that he pretended to be wanting to get deeper in to the game to see how they’d react.’

‘That’s crap, I assume?’

‘One hundred percent ordure sir, but as I say the kid’s not daft. He’s dropping Simon right in it, and coming out pretty clean himself. But I don’t really care. In six month’s time Ryan’s bound to get nabbed for something else, and this might be our only chance of getting Simon.’

‘So how do you want to play it?’

‘We know that they want to get hold of Ryan, so we use him to bring them to us. That’s what Ian is suggesting. Obviously we’ve got to be careful not to give Simon an entrapment defence down the line, so I’ll take advice on that from the CPS today.’

‘What resources will you need? Much as it pains me to say this we do have to consider Ryan Wilson’s welfare in all this.’

Hall laughed. ‘Leave it with me sir. I’ll get back to you as soon as I can, and we’ll move Ian and Ryan immediately. Just in case Simon is on to him already. It’s not impossible.’

‘And when are you planning to move on this Andy?’

‘Today if possible sir. We’ll try and set a meet up for tomorrow. They’re bound to be looking for Ryan, and we want to give them time to get themselves sorted. We might as well tie in as many of Simon’s cronies as we can.’

It took Hall two hours to sort out ground rules with the CPS on how they could proceed without risking an accusation of entrapment by Simon’s defence team at trial. Essentially they’d follow the protocol for a normal drugs bust in such circumstances. While the emails were flying back and forth on that issue Hall phoned a friend who owned a few holiday cottages in a little complex a couple of miles north of town. Because of the time of year none were in use, and Hall arranged to borrow a couple of them for a day or two. The location was perfect, at the bottom of a long farm drive, with no other houses nearby.

Then he asked the uniformed inspector to take a couple of cops off patrol, put them in civvies and get round to Mann’s dad’s place in the unmarked van that they kept at the station. Then he called Mann and gave him the details.

‘Ian, make sure that the cops take you to Patton the long way round. We need to be absolutely sure that friend Hamilton isn’t on to you already.’

Then Hall called Jane into his office, and briefed her on the situation. ‘We need to decide exactly what we’re going to get Ryan to say to Hamilton, but we’ll sort that out with Ian when we see him. I’ve got to liaise with drugs and tactical about how we’ll handle it when we do get them on the plot, so would you do me a favour and go to M&S and buy enough food to keep Ian and young Ryan going for twenty four hours? Then meet be back here and we’ll go and see John Hamilton. I’d like to bring him up to speed on all this, I think we owe him that much.’

‘Is that wise Andy? What if he’s in on it with his brother?’

‘There’s nothing at all to suggest that. But you’re right, I’ll be careful about what I say.’

Ryan was already getting on Mann’s nerves, and they’d only been together for an hour or two. Ryan had wanted to watch TV, and Mann said he couldn’t. He told Ryan to keep away from the window, while he took a quick walk up and down the road. It was snowing lightly now, so Mann was only interested in people sitting in cars, but there weren’t any. He let himself back into the house.

‘When are we getting picked up?’ asked Ryan.

‘In a bit.’

‘Where are we going?’

‘Somewhere safe. My boss is getting it sorted.’