DS Jessica Daniel series: Think of the Children / Playing with Fire / Thicker Than Water – Books 4–6 (99 page)

‘How much do you reckon this place cost?’ Cole asked as they both took in the hallway.

‘Seven figures? Eight?’

They were interrupted by the clicking of heels as someone Jessica assumed was Tia Long entered the room. She was wearing a short dark skirt with a matching jacket over a tight white blouse. Her
black hair was tied tightly away from her face, which was tanned and made up to perfection. Her legs were a similar colour, which certainly hadn’t been gained from the overcast Manchester
skies.

She walked with the confidence of someone who couldn’t believe their luck. ‘I’m on the way to visit my solicitor,’ Tia offered as a way of greeting. She insisted there
was nothing she could add that wasn’t in her statement, pointing out that, although she had said it was fine for them to visit, ‘I didn’t actually think you’d turn
up’.

Before she could leave, Cole added: ‘Is Nicky still around?’

Tia’s snort of ‘yeah but good luck’ did not bode well as she told them he was somewhere in the house and then unbolted the door, letting herself out.

Alone in the hallway, Jessica didn’t get the opportunity to speak before Cole. ‘Let it go.’

‘Let what go?’

‘You know. Just think what you might be like if you were in a situation living with a man like him. You’d be skipping out of here cock-a-hoop too if you found out he’d
died.’

Jessica couldn’t deny that but he then answered her follow-up question before she could ask it.

‘We’ll still look into her, don’t worry.’

With the echo of the door closing still sounding around the house, Cole led the way through the door the maid had entered a few minutes earlier. It led into a long corridor with doorways on
either side. Jessica could see daylight, following the chief inspector as he walked to the end, which opened into a kitchen.

The maid from before was nowhere to be seen but there was an older woman wearing the same uniform chopping up potatoes on a large worktop in the centre of the room. Her eyes widened in a panic
at the sight of people she didn’t know but Cole held up his identification and asked where Nicky was. Her grasp of English wasn’t as strong as the first maid’s. Instead, she
shrieked an accented ‘Mister Nicky’ so loud it made Jessica wince.

The reason for the woman’s call soon became obvious as a man with a baseball cap on backwards sauntered out of an adjoining room with a tube of crisps in his hand.

‘Pipe down, would you?’ he said aggressively before noticing Cole and Jessica in the doorway. ‘Who are you?’

Cole introduced himself and Jessica, adding: ‘I thought your stepmother told you we were coming?’

Nicky chewed a crisp with his mouth open, laughing. ‘Yeah right, mate, I don’t have a mum.’

Jessica was trying to place his accent but it was a mixture of everything, part local but with an over-pronunciation she guessed came from his private education. He was exactly how she would
have pictured him: short hair gelled forward, expensive clothes and the inbuilt aggression of a pitbull being held on a leash while being poked by a stick. Everything he said sounded like a threat
and his body language might as well have been backed by a tattoo across his forehead reading ‘bring it on’.

‘We were hoping to talk to you,’ Cole said politely.

Nicky nodded, chewing another crisp. Without speaking, he strolled past, leading them through the house, past the entrance into the far wing and then opening the doors into a room that was so
big it contained a full-size snooker table with a row of sofas on either side. The decor unsurprisingly matched the rest of the house but a large window at the far end filled the room with
daylight.

The teenager had the swagger of someone beyond his years and marched up to a rack of cues, picking one out and offering it to the DCI.

‘Fancy a game?’

The chief inspector was clearly flustered in a way Jessica doubted he usually would be by an eighteen-year-old. He stumbled over a reply before declining.

‘Do you know who killed Dad?’ Nicky asked.

‘We’re still bringing all of the information together at the moment.’

‘So no then?’

‘Not yet,’ Cole replied.

Nicky was tapping the cue on the edge of the table but even the way he was holding it made it look like a weapon. He told them exactly what he was intending to do with the cue to whoever it was
that had killed his dad.

The attitude to authority was something he clearly shared with his dad but Jessica could see there was something far more reckless about him. Nicholas would never have threatened anyone in front
of a police officer, he would keep anything like that behind the scenes, while maintaining his public persona.

‘If you were doing your jobs properly, you would already know who did it,’ Nicky replied after his ticking off, as he picked the balls out of the various pockets and began arranging
them on the table.

‘This is why we are talking to as many people as we possibly can,’ Cole said.

Nicky hammered the white ball into the reds he had just arranged, sending them hurtling across the table. ‘Do you think I had something to do with it?’

He hadn’t asked as if he was outraged at the suggestion, more as a challenge.

‘I didn’t say that,’ the chief inspector replied, his voice level in a way Jessica could never have managed herself. It was pretty clear why he had come. ‘But we need to
get a full picture of everything, which is why we are currently talking to as many people as possible.’

Nicky smirked at Jessica, letting her know as if she didn’t already that he was trying his best to wind them up. As Jack had pointed out about Tia in the hallway, Nicky was another who
most likely couldn’t believe his luck. She didn’t know what type of relationship he had with his father but, from what she had seen of Nicholas, he didn’t seem the type to be
close to anyone. Sticking his only child in a boarding school for an extended period hardly gave the impression he was concerned about him. Ruby had told her Nicholas was only interested in
winning, not in their son, so it was perhaps no wonder this was how he had turned out.

Jessica initially assumed Cole had come along to stop her saying anything stupid under provocation but, after a little more back and forth, he mentioned something she hadn’t expected.

‘The other reason we came was to ask you for a favour,’ he said, as straight-faced as he had been throughout.

Nicky put the cue on the table and looked up, half in amusement, half bemusement. ‘Are you having me on?’

‘Not at all.’

Nicky looked towards Jessica, making sure it wasn’t a joke, but she had as little idea of what was going on as he did. ‘Go on then, Grandad,’ he said.

‘I take it you saw everything that happened in the city centre a few nights ago?’

Nicky grinned. ‘Did you have fun?’

‘We were hoping that, given all the good work your father did for the area, you might be able to come to the community centre later today to talk to some of the local young people.
I’m sure a lot of them would look up to you.’

Jessica couldn’t believe what she was hearing, doubting Nicky had ever been near the estate his father came from. He certainly hadn’t spent any time living there.

Nicky took off his cap, smoothing his hair forward. There was a grin apparently fixed to his face as he left them hanging. ‘What’s in it for me?’ he eventually asked.

‘We were hoping that with everything your father helped to create that perhaps you would want to build on his good work?’

Jessica knew Jack must be annoyed at the sycophantic way he was being forced to grovel and realised orders must have come from the chief superintendent or higher. It was no wonder he
hadn’t left it to her as she would have stomped in and told Nicky he was going to do it, or she would find a way to make life difficult for him.

He would have laughed in her face.

‘I’m a bit busy tonight,’ Nicky said. ‘There are a few things on TV, or I might take one of the cars out for a drive. They are mine now, after all.’

He winked at Jessica, as if expecting her to laugh along.

‘We can’t force you to, all I can say is that it would be very much appreciated. We’ll make all the arrangements to pick you up if you want, we don’t need you to talk for
long, it will just be to a lot of people roughly your age. I suspect they’re looking for someone new to lead them.’

Jessica sensed Cole had chosen the word ‘lead’ carefully enough to insinuate there was status to be gained, knowing full well Nicky would never have the gravitas his father had
managed to buy for himself.

Nicky’s stance didn’t change but Jessica could tell he was going to agree moments before he did. The DCI promised someone would be in touch within an hour or two but, as they turned
to leave, Nicky called them back.

‘You do know I’m taking over, don’t you?’

He spoke confidently, picking the cue back up.

‘Regardless of what Tia thinks, or anyone else says, this is why Dad brought me back. I’m taking over the clubs, the pubs, the lot.’

Cole didn’t respond and Jessica wouldn’t have trusted herself to. Instead they walked out of the house to the car and drove away.

They were barely at the end of the road when Cole pulled over to the side, leaving the engine idling. He looked at Jessica. ‘Thoughts?’

‘I wouldn’t have been so diplomatic if it was me.’

‘I know. What else?’

‘Someone’s going to have to keep a very close eye on him.’

‘Exactly.’

Although it wouldn’t have been her way of doing things, Jessica had to admit that bringing Nicky onto their side, at least temporarily, had somehow done the trick. His
speech outside the boxing club his father paid for, along with the myriad of arrests, had calmed things far more than she could have guessed. After a week of recriminations and accusations, it also
meant the police’s day-to-day workload was more or less back to normal.

That didn’t mean they had got anywhere.

No useable fingerprints had been recovered from the sink and the fire door had provided them with nothing either. Hours had been put into scouring the local CCTV footage and, although they had a
few hooded figures hurrying around the surrounding streets during the early hours when Nicholas had been killed, there was nothing specifically to say they were anything other than people heading
home after a night out.

Jessica stared at herself in the washroom mirror, thinking how everything from the past few weeks had aged her. She had even started wearing make-up to cover the paleness under her eyes, knowing
she should visit a doctor soon. The nausea wasn’t easing and she felt tired all of the time. Each day, she kept telling herself she would go tomorrow.

‘No Adam?’ Izzy asked chirpily.

Jessica hadn’t heard her enter. ‘I thought it was a work-only thing.’

It was a lie but that was what she had told him.

Izzy tilted her head to the side and Jessica knew she wasn’t fooling anyone. ‘Mal’s at home with Amber anyway. This is pretty much the first night I’ve been out on my own
since having her.’

‘I wouldn’t get too excited.’

The constable waved her hand dismissively. ‘Aah, stop moaning. You’re the only one who hasn’t got dressed up.’

‘I was busy at the station and only got here a few minutes ago.’

It was a half-truth; she had only just arrived but, instead of being busy at the station, she had deliberately waited around in order not to have to go home.

‘You look nice,’ she added quickly, changing the subject.

Izzy did a twirl and was clearly delighted. ‘It took me ages to find a dress the same colour as my hair.’

‘You
are
very purple,’ Jessica conceded. ‘But you do know the worst thing to do in a comedy club is stand out?’

‘Really?’

‘Everyone who comes on stage will single you out.’

‘We’ll have to sit near the back then. What time’s your friend on?’

‘Hugo? I don’t know, last I think.’

Izzy stepped into a cubicle and locked the door behind her. Jessica was ready to leave when she heard her friend shouting over the top. ‘Dave said he’s really funny.’

‘It depends on whether you mean funny-weird or funny-ha-ha.’

‘Have you seen his act?’ the yelled reply came.

Jessica realised her friend was happy to conduct a full conversation, regardless of where they were. It was the exact kind of thing she would have done as a teenager with Caroline. She peered
closer into the mirror, rubbing her eyes.

‘Hugo’ was the stage name for a friend named Francis she had met through Dave. ‘Not
this
act,’ Jessica said. ‘But pretty much everything he does is a sort
of act.’

‘How do you mean?’

Jessica untied her hair, letting it fall behind her, then combed it with her fingers, trying to pull out a few of the knots. ‘He’s a bit different. You’d really like
him.’

‘Do you like him?’

‘In small doses.’

As she pulled out a loose hair, Jessica could hear Izzy laughing from the cubicle. ‘Like Dave then?’ Jessica didn’t share the enjoyment. Possibly taking her lack of an answer
the wrong way, the constable added: ‘Cheer up, it could be worse, we could be at a different club tonight.’

After his talk at the boxing club, Nicky had launched himself into his father’s business as he had promised. Jessica had no idea if he had any experience, but knew Liam was sensible enough
to show him the basics. Driving to work a couple of days previously, Jessica couldn’t fail to notice the huge banner hanging across the road advertising the ‘grand reopening’ of
Nicholas’s club. There were tackier versions on posters around the city with a silhouette of a half-naked girl and an unfunny play on words, which Jessica knew would attract younger men, and
they were also offering buy-one-get-one-free on all dances. Business-wise, Jessica had no doubt it would be a big success but there was something monumentally distasteful in the women’s
services being offered as if they were a supermarket product. With the business front being relaunched, Jessica couldn’t help but wonder how much of his father’s other activities Nicky
might also be involved in.