Follow the Leader (16 page)

‘Not like me.’ Perry couldn’t help but smile to lighten up the mood.

His smile was barely returned as Charlie composed himself again.
‘Sorry – brings a sour taste to my mouth just thinking about it now.’

‘It’s all just helping us to build a better picture of who his killer might be.’

‘And the killer of Mickey Taylor and Suzi – Sandra Seymour?’ Charlie asked. ‘They’re linked in some way, aren’t they?’

‘You know I can’t tell you that.’

‘Which leaves me to believe they are. Can you tell me if I’m in any danger?’

Perry shook his head again. ‘For all we know, it could be anyone next. It could even be me.’

Chapter Nineteen

Rhian stood at the bottom of the stairs, barefoot in a skimpy nightdress, a long-sleeved cardigan falling off one shoulder in a way that she knew looked sexy. She had decided that getting Joe on side was the best way to find out what had happened, and they’d made love twice that morning. Normally at nine o’clock on a Sunday morning, they’d still be asleep, recovering from a skinful the night before. But as Joe was driving to London, he hadn’t wanted to touch a drop and she’d stopped after a couple of glasses on her own. She hadn’t had such a clear head at the weekend for ages. Definitely a bonus for what she had planned to do for rest of the day.

‘Do you have everything?’ she asked as Joe came downstairs, carrying a small bag. ‘Toothbrush? Toothpaste? Deodorant?’

‘Yes, Mum,’ he grinned, reaching the bottom.

‘Someone has to look after you.’ She pulled him close. ‘I’m going to miss you.’

‘I’ll be back before you know it.’

‘Erm, that was the part where you should have said that you would miss me too, you big jerk.’

Joe laughed. ‘I’m going to miss that cute little ass of yours. You’re a dicktease, wearing that thing.’ He put his hand up her nightdress and gave her bottom a squeeze, pressing him to her as he kissed her deeply.

‘Just in case you forget me while I’m gone,’ he said afterwards as they broke apart. ‘It won’t be long and this will all be over.’

‘Until the next time?’ Rhian pouted, shiny eyes full of lust.

‘There’ll always be a next time. That’s what you love about me. You can’t deny that.’

Rhian tried to keep her face straight but failed miserably. ‘Your modesty.
That’s
what I love about you.’

‘Not my charm and good looks?’

She shook her head with a cheesy grin. ‘Nope.’

Waving him off moments later, she closed the door behind him and grinned even more. One thing was certain: she wasn’t going to miss him tonight. She reached for her phone and sent a text message to Laila to say the coast was clear to come over. Then she raced upstairs to pack her own bag. She and Laila were booked on the eleven-ten train to Manchester to do some real shopping: Stoke would never be able to compete with that. She’d booked a room at the Midland Hotel and they were going out that night too. She couldn’t wait!

When she arrived at the station following the identification of Frank Dwyer, Allie was just about to head upstairs when she spotted someone in the reception area. It was the oatcake man. He delivered the Staffordshire delicacies across the city, stopping off at their station every Friday morning. She doubled back quickly, hoping that if a breakfast order had been placed, someone from her team would have thought to add her usual two filled with bacon and cheese to the list.

‘Graham!’ She smiled as she walked towards him. ‘I’m starving. Did anyone order anything for me?’

‘Hi, Allie. Yes, I think so.’

Allie studied him as he checked over his list. His clothes were clean, beiges and browns. A plain man in all senses of the word. He had a full head of blonde hair, greying slightly at the roots; his face was neither attractive nor ugly.

‘Two bacon and cheese oatcakes, with extra crispy bacon,’ he told her when he looked up again. ‘I’ve only just dropped them off. They should still be warm.’

‘Oh, thanks. You’re a good one.’ Allie turned to head back inside the main building.

‘I’ve been following the news,’ he said.

She turned back to him again.

‘Well, I expect everyone in Stoke has.’ He looked sheepish. ‘I can’t remember ever hearing anything like this before. They’re all connected to the schools, aren’t they?’

Allie remained straight-faced. No one had given that information out but it was clear that the public would make their own assumptions.

‘I went to them too,’ he explained.

‘Did you?’

He nodded. ‘You don’t remember me?’

She shook her head. ‘No, sorry.’

‘I knew Mickey Taylor and Suzi – Sandra Seymour and, well, everyone knew dirty Dwyer. He was a teacher there. P.E. was never my favourite subject. I hated sports,’ he said with a grin.

‘And the others?’

‘They were in my year. So was Karen Baxter – she’s your sister, isn’t she?’

Allie took a sharp intake of breath. She didn’t really talk about Karen outside of her immediate circle of family and friends
anymore
.

‘I can still remember finding out she’d been attacked,’ he went on. ‘Sorry, it must have been awful for you.’

‘I don’t remember much of her school years now,’ she said, avoiding his question.

‘Yes, I blanked out a lot of them too. All those weird clothes and haircuts.’ He smiled. ‘I – I just wondered if you’d thought that maybe Eve might be a nickname for a person.’

Allie wondered if anyone had already thought of that. ‘It’s a line of enquiry we’re looking into,’ she assumed. ‘Do you have someone in mind?’

He shrugged. ‘Not anyone in particular, but you remember us kids? We all wanted to be different so we made up names. Maybe Eve was someone without any reference to Eve in her name.’

Allie’s mobile phone rang. She pulled it out and checked the screen but it was an unknown number. She smiled at Graham apologetically and headed back upstairs while she took the call.

The aroma of bacon wafted towards her as soon as she opened the door to the incident room. She made her way over to her desk, relishing the small parcel she could see waiting for her. She scooped it up quickly.

‘I’ve just had a call from the Co-op,’ she told Sam as she turned to leave again. ‘The boy named Danny – he’s there with his mates. I’m going there now, see if I can catch him.’

Twenty minutes later, Allie parked as near to the top of Sneyd Street as she could and walked up the bank towards the Co-op. On a corner and opening up on to Hanley Road, it was a busy shop at any time of the day or evening. As she drew level with the building, she spotted a boy fitting the description that Mrs Green had given her. He was sitting on a concrete bollard opposite two other boys, who looked similar in age.

‘All right, lads,’ she said as she approached them.

None of them spoke.

‘I’m after Danny. Is that you?’ She looked at him deliberately.

‘Depends what you’re after him for.’

‘I’m Detective Sergeant Allie Shenton and I’m investigating the murder of someone I think you know.’ She looked at the other boys too. ‘Someone you
all
know.’

‘It’s about Frank, isn’t it?’ Danny stood up. ‘It had nothing to do with us.’

‘I don’t bite,’ she told him, hoping she could gain his confidence before he legged it.

The other two boys followed suit and all three began to move off.

Allie reached for Danny’s arm. ‘Look,’ she lifted a foot up, ‘don’t make me chase you in these heels. I’ll break my bloody neck.’ She smiled. ‘I only want to ask you a few questions. You’re not in trouble of any kind.’

‘We haven’t done anything,’ he said.

‘I know.’ Allie nodded her head. ‘Two minutes, that’s all I need.’

Danny shrugged. ‘Why me and not them?’

‘Two minutes.’

Eventually, Danny nodded. ‘Okay.’

Over the road was a church with a low wall around its front. She pointed to it and they crossed to it in silence. Then she sat down and showed him her warrant card.

‘What’s your surname, Danny?’

‘Am I under arrest?’ he asked.

‘No.’

‘Peterson. It’s Danny Peterson.’

‘Will you sit for a moment? I’ll get neck ache looking up at you, and the sun is in my eyes.’

A pause.

‘Where do you live, Danny?’ she asked once he was in her level of sight again.

‘Greenbank Road in Tunstall.’

‘With your parents?’

‘My gran. Mum moved to Rhodes last year. I don’t know who my dad is.’

‘Did you not want to go with your mum?’

He shook his head. ‘She didn’t want me to go with her. She says I’m a troublemaker and she can’t deal with me.’

Allie tried not to feel too sorry for the boy. It wasn’t right that some children got pushed aside for new relationships, but equally he might be putting on a front.

‘Danny, you do know that Frank is dead?’

‘Yeah.’

‘And that he was murdered in his home.’

Danny nodded.

‘Where did you meet him?’

‘Here.’

‘At the Co-op?’

When Danny nodded, Allie held in a sigh. ‘Is that where you hang out?’

‘Mostly.’

‘With those two? Are they your friends?’

‘Yeah, but I’m not telling you their names.’

She took the mobile phone he was more intent on giving attention to and placed it on the wall in between them. She expected him to reach it back but he didn’t.

‘I don’t want their names, Danny,’ she told him. ‘I’m only after information about Frank, anything that might help me to find out what happened to him on Friday night.’

‘It wasn’t me! I didn’t do anything!’

‘Do you think I’d be sitting here with you if I thought you had?’

Allie could see the boy’s appeal to predators. His looks made him seem a lot younger than his sixteen years. Jet black hair and olive skin, clear skin and sparkly eyes. He was obviously not sleeping rough, as his clothes were clean and so was he. His jacket was expensive, looking out of place with his cheap jeans and trainers. She wondered if he had saved money for it or if it was a knockoff from a market stall.

‘Did you visit him a lot?’ she questioned over the thunder of a lorry roaring past.

Danny shook his head. ‘It was pissing – chucking it down with rain one night, and he said we could go to his house to keep dry. We thought we’d have a laugh, and being three of us, we knew we’d be okay. Safety first, and all that.’

Allie nodded. ‘So you went to his house. What happened there?’

‘He made us tea and some toast. We watched the telly for a bit and then we left.’

‘Anything else?’

‘No.’

‘Did you ever visit on your own?’

Danny looked more interested in the cars coming past on the road.

‘Danny?’

‘Yeah, a couple of times.’

‘And Frank behaved okay with you?’

‘He didn’t touch me. That’s what you want to know, isn’t it?’

‘I need to check.’ Allie nodded. ‘It isn’t common for men to invite boys into their homes like that.’

‘Well, I’m okay.’ Danny shrugged off the comment.

‘Did he ever give you money?’

‘Just a fiver.’

‘Just the once?’

He nodded. ‘He didn’t ask me to do anything for it either. He just said I could treat myself but I wasn’t to tell the others or they’d all be trying to fleece money from him. He bought me a pizza too.’

‘Can you remember where he got it from?’

‘I think it was Farm Fresh or something like that. It wasn’t very nice – too thin.’

Allie frowned. Of course, she supposed pizza didn’t have to be brought in. Frank was a pensioner and until they’d looked into his financial records, she’d have to assume he was on a pension. It probably only cost a pound or two from the freezer shop. Maybe a takeaway pizza was more of a treat.

‘Danny, did you ever share a pizza with Frank from Potteries Pizza?

Danny shook his head and reached for his phone. ‘I liked Frank,’ he said. ‘Was there a lot of blood?’

Allie tried not to smile at how his sentence had flipped from caring to grisly in a matter of a second. ‘I’m glad to hear that,’ she replied. ‘But you need to be careful. I don’t want to hear of you going into anyone else’s house, do you hear? People won’t always be as nice as Frank.’

‘Okay.’

His head was down over his phone again. Allie watched him for a moment and then stood up. She couldn’t tell him that what Frank had been doing seemed like a perfect grooming trick. Lord knows what might have happened to him if Dwyer hadn’t been murdered. She made a mental note to find out where Danny lived and see if she could see his Gran. He seemed a decent kid; she hoped he’d stay that way.

His friends were walking back to him now. Allie crossed the road to her car. Glancing back before she opened the door, she looked at all three, laughing about something on Danny’s phone. Innocence and youth, she mused. And after the indecent images they’d retrieved from Dwyer’s computer overnight, Allie was glad that none of them had been hurt too.