Broken (54 page)

 

Kerry looked terrible. Her eyes were black-ringed and she looked as if she needed a good bath. Kate could smell her across the table, a mixture of hand-rolled cigarettes and sweat. She looked back with a sneer on her mouth and a set to her shoulders that told Kate she was not in for an easy time. But she didn’t care. She could play the game, too.

She started it by lighting a cigarette. Kerry stared at it with undisguised longing. Kate pushed the pack across the table and the prisoner lit up with alacrity.

‘I miss the tailor-mades more than anything.’

‘More than your kids, I should imagine, knowing you like I do.’ Kate made sure she sounded nasty and was gratified to see the expression of bewilderment on Kerry’s face.

She quickly recovered herself.

‘You sound happy today, Burrows. Your boyfriend getting shot must have given you the right hump.’ She laughed at Kate’s dark expression, at her obvious shock that someone on remand knew so much about her.

Kerry drew deeply on the cigarette. ‘You make me laugh. You’re trumping a known face and
you
look down on
me
?’

Kate was aware of the PO listening to all that was said.

‘A sewer rat would look down on you, Kerry. At least they take care of their babies.’

The other woman looked smug. She knew she had Kate on the hop and she was enjoying it.

‘Patrick Kelly, eh? Bit of all right and all, him. Do you help him with his work at all? I mean, with your knowledge of the law and that . . .’ She was smirking again, revealing yellowing teeth coated with tobacco and tea stains.

Kate had had enough. ‘Think you’re so clever, don’t you, Alston? But knowing what you do about Patrick Kelly, aren’t you nervous of insulting his bird? Only he can be very unpredictable where I am concerned.’

Kerry looked uncertain now.

‘I mean, I have pull in here, but not half the pull that he has. He knows everyone who is anyone, my Pat.’ This was said in a low confidential tone of voice.

‘He also had a daughter murdered, as you probably know, so a case like yours makes him all the angrier. Funny that, isn’t it? He worshipped his daughter but she died. While you . . . you try and kill your own kids. You hand them over to paedophiles and transvestites without a second’s thought. Like me, Patrick finds that weird. Thinks people like you should be hanged. And let’s face it, love, in here anything could happen, couldn’t it?’

Kerry was so astonished at Kate’s threats that she let the cigarette burn down until her fingers began to smart.

‘Fuck you, Burrows.’ She looked at the PO, and whined childishly, ‘She’s threatening me.’

The PO grinned. She was an old hand. She knew what was going down and she laughed as she said, ‘Good! Save me a fucking job, won’t it, nonce?’

Kerry glanced from one woman to the other, deflated now.

‘You bastard, Burrows.’

Kate smiled. ‘I have come here today to help you, as a matter of fact. But let’s get one thing straight, shall we? I’m not taking any more shit from you, OK?’

Kerry watched her warily, puffy eyes gleaming with cunning. ‘Pull the other one. It plays “A Hard Day’s Night”.’

This time Kate was the smug one.

‘Oh, but I did. I came here to say that I actually believe you aren’t guilty of trying to kill your child. Guilty of being a nonsense certainly, but not of attempted murder. You see, I think you know very well who took your kids but it wasn’t you.’

Kerry screwed up her face. ‘What the fuck are you on about?’

Kate heard the hesitation in her voice and knew she was halfway there.

‘Well, I heard a snatch of gossip that there’s a transvestite involved. Someone you all know. This person has been to visit Regina Carlton, and just have a guess who the TV said he was?’

She smiled before carrying on, watching the changing expressions on Kerry’s face.

‘He said that he was Suzy Harrington. Wore a wig, had make-up plastered everywhere. Except the nurse was convinced he was really a man.’

‘So who was it then?’

Kate shrugged and played her ace.

‘Could it have been DI Barker by any chance?’

Kerry stared at her for a few moments and then she started to laugh. She couldn’t stop herself. She was absolutely screaming with laughter. Her eyes were watering and she was waving one hand at Kate as if trying to tell her she couldn’t take another joke like this.

Kate watched her stony-faced.

Between gales of laughter Kerry kept saying, ‘Barker! Dressed as a woman!’ It would set her off again.

Kate waited, smoking quietly, until she’d calmed down. Wiping her eyes with the back of her hand, Kerry sniffed as she said seriously, ‘Barker? You honestly think this is something to do with him?’

Kate nodded.

‘You are so far off the wall, lady. Barker’s a cunt but he ain’t got nothing to do with all this. At least if he has, and this is the truth, it’s only something to do with Suzy. Now that’s all I am willing to say and it’s off the record. You never heard it from me. I hate him, and I mean
hate
him, but I fear him as well. His arm is a damn sight longer than yours or that poncey bloke you hang around with. Take it from me, lady, that is a fact.’

Kate was inclined to believe her. She didn’t know why.

‘So Suzy could be involved with him then?’

‘Could be, probably is. But about the other business . . . If he was involved, the kids
would
have died, take it from me. He don’t know when to stop.’ She had said too much already and she knew it.

Kate pushed the cigarette packet across the table again and Kerry took another, lighting it slowly, pulling the smoke into her lungs and blowing out a perfect smoke ring.

‘So who is the TV then?’

Kerry shrugged. ‘No idea, mate, and that’s the truth. But it ain’t Barker.’ She was on the verge of laughter again.

‘How about Lesley Carmichael? What do you know about her?’

Suddenly the humour was gone from Kerry’s face.

‘I know even less about that, love.’

She was on the hop and Kate knew it.

‘We are reopening that enquiry - you should get a visit soon.’

Kerry didn’t answer her but said brightly, ‘Bobby was in to see me last week. He said that you were all right. I was surprised, he don’t normally like Old Bill.’

Kate smiled gently. ‘You like Robert, don’t you?’

‘He’s all right. Bit of a pain at times.’

‘He’s got you out of enough shit, I understand. He’s very protective of all you girls. The only person who has ever stuck up for any of you.’

Kerry shrugged. ‘He has reason to. Good reason.’ ‘What do you mean?’ Kate frowned.

Kerry leaned across the table and picked up the cigarettes. ‘I’ll swap you a bit of info, OK?’

Kate nodded and Kerry took the cigarettes and placed them in front of her on the scratched table.

‘He gets his rocks off with us all.’

Kate was puzzled and it showed. ‘In what way?’

‘Well, I used to suck him off, you know. For a few pounds or help with stuff I needed.’ She was staring at Kate now, her face a mask of glee at the shock she saw registered on the woman’s face.

Kate shook her head in denial. ‘I don’t believe you. He’s gay.’

‘No, he ain’t. In fact, now I think about it,
he
dyes his hair. Wears make-up sometimes, too. But I can honestly say I have never seen him dressed as a woman.’

‘But you have sucked him off, as you put it?’

Kerry nodded. ‘On more than one occasion, dearie. We all have at some point. He calls us his girls. It’s one of his things that you have to put on lots of red lipstick so it goes all over his cock and his underwear. It’s what he gets off on. That and Appletise - he drinks it all the time. Been to his house? He has this thing about apples. The smell is everywhere.’

Kate’s numb mind was already registering where she had smelled apples. It was at Robert’s house! That was what Trevor had remembered.

As the enormity of what she was thinking hit her she felt sick. She had actually been round to his home and spoken to him and the chances were that Trevor had been there all the time.

But then she was dealing with Kerry here. Hardly a trustworthy witness. And Kate couldn’t afford to let her see what a shock she had just been dealt.

‘So, you have nothing to say about poor little Lesley? I thought you were her mate.’

‘I ain’t got no mates, Miss Burrows, never did have. Ain’t you sussed that one out yet?’

Kate opened her mouth to comment and thought better of it. Instead she asked: ‘Would Mary Parkes have had anything to do with Barker or Bateman?’

Kerry shrugged easily, as if she were in her own home with a mate, chatting about inconsequentials. ‘Dunno. You’d have to ask her.’

‘Don’t you care what you’ve done, Kerry?’

It was said seriously and the girl had the grace to think for a while before answering.

‘To be honest, no.’

It seemed to Kate that her attitude summed up all the rottenness at the heart of this enquiry.

 

Kate arrived home to find Kenneth Caitlin and Jenny sitting in the lounge drinking her mother’s Holy Water: a litre bottle of Black Bush whiskey from duty free.

They were all pleased to see her. She took one look at the bright eyes and merry faces and regretted that she was going to have to piss all over their alcoholic fireworks.

She sat down and sighed. Took a large sip of the drink they’d poured her and stunned them all by saying, ‘I think I know who it is. And I think they still have a child on the premises.’

She looked into their eager expectant faces. ‘I think it’s Robert Bateman.’

No one said a word for a few seconds.

‘This came from Kerry?’ Jenny questioned her.

Kate nodded. ‘I went to see the nurse from the psychiatric wing this morning. She said the person who called herself Suzy Harrington was a man. A TV. She said they had the wig and the make-up but it was definitely a man. Now Suzy, ugly as she is, is definitely a woman, right? She’s well-built with curves in all the right places. Then I saw Kerry and, according to her, Robert asks the girls for sexual favours.’

She saw the look of surprise on Jenny’s face and shrugged.

‘That’s what I thought. Then she said he has some weird hang-ups and one of them is his love of apples. His house smells of apples, I noticed it when I was round there. When Trevor said something about an apple smell it bugged me. But in Robert’s house it’s an underlying smell, if that makes sense. You don’t notice it immediately, it’s just
there
.’

She watched them look at her in amazement.

‘He also told me about Barker, and about Barker’s wife being named Debbie not Mavis. Well, I phoned Ally Palmerston . . .’

Caitlin grinned. ‘. . . and she told you what she had told me. That Barker’s
new
squeeze is called Debbie. An ex-child prostitute from Lancashire.’

‘How the fuck would Robert
know
that unless he had seen Barker recently or dealt with people who had contact with him? I think we have the murderer and abductor of the children, I really do. It all makes sense. We have to go and get a warrant now.’

‘We have no real evidence, though,’ Jenny objected.

Kate looked into Kenny’s face. ‘There are still children missing. I think that’s enough.’

‘I can’t believe it, can you?’ Jenny was completely poleaxed. ‘He was the one person who looked out for the girls, he was there in front of us all that time.’

Kate nodded. ‘I know. But we have him now.’

Caitlin replenished his glass. ‘When you’re finished I’ll give you all I’ve dug up on Barker. It makes an interesting story, as Jenny already knows.’

Kate pushed her hands through her hair.

‘I’m still going to see his ex-wife, Mavis, ask her about the murder of young Lesley Carmichael. See if he’s in with the girls and our paedophile ring. I still want him. I want them all.’

She finished off her drink and stood up.

‘We’d better go. Robert Bateman can’t be left at liberty for another night.’

Robert Bateman was rinsing his father’s hair in the bath. The old man was emaciated, his body a mass of bruises and scratches. As Robert looked down on him he felt a great tide of emotion wash over him. Sometimes he loved him so much. So very, very much.

After all, he was the child now.

The thought made Robert frown.

Not that Dad had cared very much for his own child, of course. He felt angry then. Dad had used him, beaten him and hurt him whenever he’d felt like it.

Robert was shaking his head now, as the bad thoughts began taking him over again. Oh, he had not been a happy bunny when he was young. Tears stung his eyes and self-pity overwhelmed him.

His mind wandered back to his first memories of his father and mother.

He had been very small, sitting on the bed watching as his mother had carefully applied her make-up. She would take ages drawing a lip line, making her mouth look far poutier than it was. She would then paint it a vivid red, a blue-based red that made her even teeth look whiter than ever. Then she would smile at herself in the mirror.

He would clap his fat little hands and she would put some lipstick on him, smiling as she painted his face. Brushed his hair and painted his toenails. Then she would envelop him in her slim arms, a wave of cheap perfume washing over him, livening his senses.

He loved the feel of her, the way her soft large breasts bunched up as she hugged him, showing the cleavage she was so proud of.

He loved the way her merry eyes watched him as he played in the park. He loved the way she attracted attention wherever they went, from women as well as men.

He had adored her.