Hard Evidence (24 page)

Delaney stepped towards him. 'Why don't you
take a hint and leave?'

The man shook his head. 'I paid my money. I
want my service.'

Delaney pulled out his warrant card. 'Maybe
you'd like to be serviced down at White City.'

The man bristled, his red eyes tightening behind
the steel frame of his spectacles.

'You can't do that. The nature of my business
transaction with Aisleyne here is perfectly legal
and you know it. I'm going to take your name and
report you.' He looked across at Kate and smiled.
'Unless of course this other one is available.'

Delaney would have moved towards him but
Karen stepped forward, reaching into her pocket,
and stuffed some notes into his hand.

'Come back later, Reginald. Give me half an
hour.'

'I can't come back later. I've got work to do.'

'Do you want me to tell Marjorie?'

The small man paled and seemed to deflate
somehow.

'There's no need to be nasty.'

Karen smiled. 'I'll make it up to you.'

'How?'

'I'll do the egg custard, no surcharge.'

The small man nodded, pleased, and made his
way out into the corridor.

Delaney gestured towards Kate as the front
door shut. 'This is Kate Walker. She's a colleague.'

Karen shrugged. 'So why are you here?'

'Don't be stupid. You know what we're here
for.'

'She don't look the type.'

'Don't fuck me around, Karen. I can make your
life a whole lot more miserable than that loser
pimp of yours.'

'He's not my pimp.'

Kate uncrossed her arms. 'You phoned him,
Karen. You obviously want to help.'

Karen shook her head.

'I don't want to get involved, Delaney. People
are getting hurt all around you. I don't want to
end up like Jackie Malone or her lowlife brother.'

'That's not going to happen.'

Karen shook her head, conflicted.

Delaney leaned in. 'It's your choice. You tell me
everything you know and I put a stop to this. If
you don't, you could be next on their list.'

'They don't know about me.'

'I found out about you. You willing to take a
chance they won't?' He reached into his pocket and
pulled out a six-by-four photo of Jackie Malone's
mutilated body. 'You want to end up like this.'

'For Christ's sake, Delaney, you've made your
point. Put that away.'

'Start talking then.'

Karen sighed and picked up the cigarette papers
from the table and a small bag of grass. 'Jackie's
boy, Andy.'

'Go on?'

'It's all to do with him.' Karen started rolling a
joint. 'He was supposed to be with his uncle. Only
he wasn't. They had a falling-out. He came back
to London.'

'But he didn't go back to his mum?'

'No. You know what Andy's like.'

'Yeah, he's thirteen years old.'

'Anyway, he had mates. A whole bunch of them
living in a squat up Finchley Road. All ages.'

'And?'

'And he used to work the begging game. On the
streets, down on the tubes. Billy used to organise
it. Homeless sign, skinny dog, borrowed baby.
You know the kind of thing.'

'I know the kind of thing. So Andy used to beg
in the streets?'

'But one day he got picked up by a social
centre.'

Kate looked over at her. 'What social centre?'

Karen shrugged. 'Looked after stray kids. Not
your usual wagman, though.'

'Wagman?' Kate asked.

Delaney waved Karen on.

'So Andy got taken to a home. Residential. Out
in the country, though.'

'Where in the country?'

'Somewhere near Marlow.'

'Henley?'

Karen shrugged again, then lit up the joint and
took a long drag on it. She held it out to Delaney,
who shook his head, and then to Kate, who smiled
politely.

'No thank you.'

'So what was this place called?'

Karen shrugged at Delaney. 'I don't know. Just
a big house, somewhere betweenMarlow and, like
you say, Henley. But the thing is. It was a set-up.
A group of them, all with short eyes. They made
films there.'

'Short eyes?'

Karen nodded to Kate. 'They liked children. Pae-dophiles.
Nonces.'

'And what happened to Andy?'

'He got away, didn't he? He's smart, that kid.
Not a proper runaway like the rest of them.
Christ, he's lived his whole life on the move.'

'I know he's a smart kid, Karen. Are you telling
me he did something stupid?'

'Yeah, he did. His uncle Billy found him and
made him tell him all about it.'

'And Billy thought he'd earn out of it?'

'Yeah. Blackmail. The cocksucker. But the point
is, Andy knew who one of the men was. The one
who did the filming. Alexander Moffett. His mum
and I were in a porn film he made.'

Delaney nodded, picturing her in a black wig
and industrial levels of make-up. 'Melody
Masters.
Sin Sisters
. Right?'

Karen nodded. 'That's right. She'd taken Andy
to the set once, kept him in the car, and he saw
Alex Moffett. So he knew where he was based.'

She took another nervous drag on her joint.
'Jackie didn't want anything to do with it, though,
Jack. And neither do I. These people . . .'

'Where is he, Karen?'

'Who?

'Andy. Where is he?'

'He doesn't want anything to do with you.' She
glanced over at Kate. 'With any of you.'

'You saw what they did to his mother.'

Karen nodded, scared. 'You reckon you can help
him?'

'Yes, Karen. I can.'

Karen looked over her shoulder at the closed
door by the cooker, opposite the one they had
walked in through. She took another long drag on
her joint, her eyes glazing slightly but not so much
as to mask the fear that lurked in them.

Delaney walked over to the door and opened it.
Behind it was a bathroom, and standing in it was
a boy with dark curly hair. Delaney immediately
recognised him, just as he had when he had seen
the film he had been sent. The dark-haired boy
abusing a much younger girl. Jackie's son. Andy
Malone.

Andy glared at Delaney as he walked into the
kitchen, his head held high. 'I ain't coming in with
you.'

'What's going on, Andy?'

'Why don't you ask your boss?'

'Who?'

Andy looked at him for a moment. 'Don't tell
me you don't know. That pervert Moffett's partner.
One of yours, Delaney. Captain Scarface.
Why don't you ask him?'

Delaney nodded, his face suddenly darkening
like a front of bad weather. He looked across to
Kate, who, despite the humid, sweltering heat in
the squalid kitchen, had lost all the colour in her
own face, and Delaney remembered what Bonner
had said about someone on his team having loose
lips.

Delaney pulled his seatbelt around himself, jerking
angrily as it stuck in its mechanism, and looked
across at Kate.

'What did you tell Walker, Kate?'

'Just that I'd spoken to the caretaker. That he
could give you an alibi for the . . .' she looked back
at Andy as he glared at her from the back seat of
the car, 'for the day of the incident.'

Andy squirmed uncomfortably and leaned
forward between her and Delaney, his dirty face
scrunched into a frown.

'Where you taking me?'

Delaney looked back at him. 'We've got a visit
to make first, and then we'll take you somewhere
you'll be safe for a while. Now sit back and put
your seatbelt on.'

The boy snorted. 'Fuck off.' He sat back on the
seat. 'What are you going to do, arrest me?'

Kate smiled soothingly in the rear-view mirror.
'It's going to be all right, Andy.'

Andy snorted again. 'Get real, Lady fucking
Diana. You don't know the guy.'

Kate looked out the window, wishing it were
true.

Delaney finally gave up on his seatbelt, turned
the key and gunned the engine.

The traffic was bumper to bumper once they hit
the main road. It was peak rush hour; cars were
overheating and being abandoned, clogging up
the roads and slowing movement down to an
infuriating crawl. Delaney slammed his hand
angrily on the horn, joining in with a pointless
chorus of honking that had absolutely no effect.
He knew that the cemetery was open in the
evenings for people to visit outside of work hours,
but it closed at seven and there was only twenty
minutes to go.

The sound of a siren joined in with the horns as
an ambulance approached, heading the other way.
Delaney looked out of the window, watching it
pass, and then mentally slapped himself on the
forehead.

'You're a doctor. You got one of those green
lights, Kate?'

'Yeah, I have.' She reached over to her glove
box and took out her flashing green light. She
opened her window and put it on the roof, and
then flicked the siren on.

Delaney pulled out of the traffic, moving over to
the right, and smiled approvingly as the cars ahead
moved left to let them pass.

They arrived at the cemetery five minutes before
locking-up time, but there was no sign of Bill
Hoskins near the gates or in the parkland. They
hurried down the path to the caretaker's hut,
calling out his name as they approached. But there
was no answer, and no sign of him. As Delaney
reached the hut, he could see the door was open.

He turned back to Kate, who had a tight grip on
Andy's arm. 'Keep hold of him.' Then he put his
hand under his jacket, curling his fingers round
the grip of his pistol, and walked into the hut.

There was nobody there. The armchair was
empty. A book was lying face down on the floor.
He looked around the hut, his professional eye
sweeping round and taking it in. It was sparse
but cosy. A battered upholstered wing chair. A
small desk. A gas ring with an old aluminium
kettle on it. A bookshelf with a number of
well-read paperbacks. All mysteries, by the looks
of them. Andy came into the hut, followed by
Kate.

'What a dump. What are we doing here?'

'Shut it.' Delaney opened the desk drawer.
Inside were a number of work-related letters from
the council, an address book and a home electricity
bill. Delaney put the other items back in the
drawer and kept the bill. It had Hoskins' address
on it.

He turned round to see Kate looking closely at
the armchair.

'What have you got?'

'A stain, Jack. It's small and it could be gravy or
coffee . . .'

'But?'

'But I think it's blood.'

Back in the car, Delaney handed the electricity bill
to Kate and told her to look Bill Hoskins' road up
in the A to Z. Kate flicked through the pages until
she found the right one.

'It's about five minutes from here.'

'Good.' Delaney fired the engine up.

'What are you going to do if . . .'

'If he's still alive?'

'Yeah.'

'I'm going to get him and laughing boy here
somewhere safe, and then I'm going to go in.'

He crunched into first gear and spun away, the
gravel kicking up from his back tyres like shotgun
pellets.

About fifty yards behind them, a grey Volvo
pulled out of its parking space, a lot more
smoothly, and headed in the same direction.

Bill Hoskins lived in a mid-terrace house built
somewhere in the late Victorian era. A lot of the
houses in the row were showing signs of disrepair,
shabby paintwork, overgrown gardens. But Bill's
was neat and orderly. His small front garden as
manicured as the cemetery where he worked. Kate
watched as Delaney took his finger off the bell
button that he had just pushed for the fifth time,
and knew with a cold certainty that Bill was never
coming home. Delaney shouldered the door open
and ran inside, but Kate knew there was no one
waiting for him. There was going to be no one to
miss Bill Hoskins. He had spent his life looking
after the dead, and now his own body had been
dumped somewhere, she knew it. Dumped with
no ceremony, no respect. Suddenly Kate wasn't
scared any more. She was angry. People were
going to pay, her uncle most of all.

Wendy was a little flustered as she ushered
Delaney, Kate and the boy into her kitchen. 'It's a
shame you missed Siobhan. She's at a friend's for
her tea, but she shouldn't be too long.' She lifted the
lid on her large range cooker and put a kettle
identical to Kate Walker's on the hob. Her hand
was shaking a little so that the kettle rattled heavily.

Kate watched her. 'I keep meaning to switch
mine off. It's been so hot, and I could quite
happily survive on salads.'

Wendy looked over at her and smiled. 'I know,
it's been unbearable. Seems crazy to keep them on
just for cups of tea.' Seemed pretty crazy talking
about the weather and range cookers to a strange
woman in her kitchen, who had arrived with her
fugitive brother-in-law and a filthy-looking child
in tow too. She shook the thought away as she set
out some cups and saucers and smiled reassuringly
at the wild-haired youth standing next to her. The
boy didn't smile back. Judging by the look in his
slightly feral eyes, he probably hadn't smiled in a
long, long time.

'Would you like a tea, Andy?'

'You got any lager?'

'Behave yourself,' said Delaney sharply.

'Or what?'

Delaney gave him a flat look. Andy stared back
at him for a moment or two and then looked
away.

'Whatever.'

Wendy smiled again, feeling the corners of her
mouth as she forced the muscles to work.

'I've got a Coke.'

Andy nodded sullenly. Wendy got a can of Coke
from the fridge and handed it to Andy, who took
it and sat at the kitchen table.

Delaney took his sister-in-law by the arm and
led her into the hallway.

'Thanks for this, Wendy.'

Wendy nodded. 'It's okay.'

'We'll be back for him in a couple of hours.'

'What's it all about, Jack?'

'I want you to look after something for me.' He
pulled a letter from the inside pocket of his jacket
and handed it to her.

Wendy looked at it, scanning the words quickly.
'What's this? Thirty thousand pounds?'

'It's with my solicitors. It's part of a deposit for
a flat. I listened to what you said the other day,
and you were right. I need to have somewhere that
Siobhan can stay.'

'You could have kept it in the bank. You don't
need cash.'

'It's off the record. Keeps the amount under the
next level of stamp duty.'

'Isn't that illegal?'

Delaney looked at her without answering.

She nodded. 'Right.'

'Just keep it safe, should anything happen.'

'Don't say that, Jack.'

Delaney kissed her on the cheek. 'It's going to be
all right, Wendy.'

Kate started the car and looked across at Delaney.
'You sure we're doing the right thing?'

'We need to go to his house, Kate. We need
proof. Something that will stand up in court. The
word of that kid isn't enough. He's a thirteen-year-old
child but he's already a career criminal,
and a jury will see that. We need something tangible
to tie your uncle in. We need hard evidence.'

Kate pulled out into the road, flipping the visor
down. Even at eight o'clock the sun was bright
and dazzling as it dropped lower in the sky.

As their car turned left at the end of the road,
out of sight, the man in the Volvo that had
followed them from the cemetery earlier took off
his sunglasses. The scar on his cheek throbbed a
little in the heat, the white flesh becoming more
and more prominent as his face grew more and
more tanned. It was like scar tissue from a burn,
and Superintendent Walker ran a finger subconsciously
along it, stroking almost tenderly as he
looked across at Wendy's house and smiled.

Kate leant on her horn as a slow-moving Range
Rover blocked her path ahead. 'Bloody Chelsea
tractors. They should have been banned by now.'

'I'd have thought they were just your thing.'

'You'd have thought wrong.'

'Not for the first time.'

'And you a detective, too. You should know you
don't judge a book by its cover.'

Delaney turned amused eyes on her. 'No.
You've got to get between the sheets.'

Kate laughed, and then her smile faded. 'We're
just going to break into his house?'

'Unless you've got any better ideas?'

'We should go in. Put it in the proper hands.'

'I go anywhere near a police station and I'll be
in a cell faster than you know it. And by the time
anyone listens to you, if they ever do, your uncle
will have covered all his tracks. You can be sure
of that. There's no one left to testify against him
except the boy.'

'And Kevin Norrell.'

'If he makes it.'

Kate looked out of the window guiltily. It would
be ironic if she had killed the one man who could
have put her uncle away for good.

'Why you, Jack?'

'Why me what?'

'Why you? Why send you the tape? Why was
Jackie Malone looking for you? Why are you in
the middle of all this?'

'A couple of years ago, little Andy was involved
in drug-dealing. Ten years old and working as a
delivery man. Deals on wheels. Not uncommon
nowadays.'

'What kind of world are we living in?'

Delaney shrugged. 'London.'

Kate shifted gear, crunching the gearbox
angrily.

'I was involved in his arrest. He was a kid, so
there wasn't much we could do to him. They
hadn't yet brought the age of criminal responsibility
down to ten, but given his mother's record,
he would have been taken into custody.'

'What did you do?'

'I did a deal. He gave me the name of a major
player and I covered up his involvement. He
wasn't charged.'

'I see.'

'But even though he was a kid, he still put some
major names in the frame. I promised Jackie I'd
look out for him. She put him on the road with her
older brother, a traveller, for a few years. Figured
if they couldn't find him they couldn't hurt him.'

Kate looked at him for a moment as they paused
at a red traffic light.

'She was your friend?'

Delaney nodded angrily. 'Yeah. She was my
friend.'

'And then Andy came back to London?'

'Yeah.'

'Is it safe to leave him with Wendy and
Siobhan?'

'She'll take care of him.'

Kate looked at him pointedly. 'I wasn't talking
about Andy being safe.'

Delaney shook his head. 'He may be all kinds of
stupid, Kate. But he's not that stupid.' He pulled
out his pack of cigarettes and took one out. The
last one. He looked over at Kate and held it up.
'Do you mind?'

'Did your wife like you smoking?'

Delaney was taken aback. If anybody else had
asked that question, he would have snapped back
at them that it was none of their goddam
business. He didn't talk to anybody about his
wife, apart from his daughter and his sister-in-law.
Strangely, though, he didn't feel like making
a smart defensive remark. He felt like talking to
her about it. And he wasn't sure what that meant
at all, apart from the fact that Kate reminded him
of Sinead. Not just the looks, although the long
dark hair was hers, and the intelligence in the
eyes. It was more the comfort he felt with Kate
now; he could be himself, and what was more
surprising to him was that he did want to be
himself again.

He smiled. 'She asked me to give up shortly after
we became engaged.'

'And did you?'

'She never saw me smoke a cigarette after.'

Kate laughed and said again, 'And did you?'

'No. I never did.' He looked thoughtfully out of
the window. 'Right up until the day she died.'

Kate flicked a sympathetic glance sideways at
him.

'I don't mind.'

Delaney nodded and opened the passenger
window. As it slid electronically down, the heat
burst in. Delaney flicked the unlit cigarette out of
the window and pushed the button to close it.

'Do you mind Siobhan staying with your sister-in-law?'

'It was the best thing for her at the time.'

'And now?'

'Maybe it still is. I've been looking to buy a
place of my own again.'

'You're renting?'

'I sold the house. Pretty much everything in it.
At the time it seemed like a good thing to do.'

'You don't feel that way now?'

'You can't just sell your memories.'

Kate nodded, lost in her own thoughts. 'Maybe
you shouldn't try.'

Delaney nodded. 'It was Siobhan's house too.'

Kate suddenly looked back at the road. 'Shit!'
She flicked her indicator and pulled the car to a
squealing stop at the side of the road.

'What are you doing?'