No Holds Barred (16 page)

‘Meanwhile, I've been living in an empty cottage in the woods on the other side of the farm,' he countered calmly.

‘Cool! Is that where I'll be staying?' Drew put in, showing his first sign of interest. A slight boy, with his mother's bone structure and his father's generous mouth, hazel eyes and wavy brown hair, he had an intense, sensitive nature, and his parents' break-up had affected him deeply.

‘Look, Drew  . . .' Daniel began, hating to disappoint him.

‘I imagine so, darling,' Amanda cut in, going round to the back of the car to retrieve a sports bag and a rucksack. ‘Sounds deadly to me, but no doubt it'll be right up your street.'

‘Amanda, can I have a word?' Daniel asked, quietly fuming.

‘Only if you're quick,' she said, dumping Drew's luggage by the car's front wheel and looking pointedly at her watch. ‘I've got a plane to catch.'

‘A plane?' He felt control slipping away.

‘Yes, that's right. You know – big red and white thing with wings.'

Daniel ignored her flippancy.

‘Where are you going?'

‘The Maldives,' she said, adding defiantly, ‘For two weeks.'

‘Who with?'

She raised an eyebrow. ‘I don't see that's any of your business.'

‘Not Paxton?'

That shocked her; she stared. ‘How the  . . . ? No. With Yvonne and Paul, actually.'

Paul ‘Jono' Johnson was one of Daniel's colleagues from his policing days at the Bristol Met, and Yvonne, his wife. They and Amanda were welcome to each other, he thought. Like Daniel's ex-wife, Jono had proved to be less than loyal when he had needed support, and his wife was a plump, painted doll who cared only for money and status.

‘When was this all organized?' he demanded. ‘And why didn't I know?'

‘You did know!' she retorted. ‘I told you, weeks ago, that I was thinking of going and you said you'd be happy to have Drew.'

‘In principle, yes, but always depending on commitments. You knew that. We never talked specific dates, never settled it. It was only ever a possibility, as far as I remember, and I didn't know what the situation would be here at that point.'

‘Oh, that'd be right. You don't want me, either,' Drew said, leaning on the roof of the car and looking sulky.

‘No, it's not that, Drew. It's just that it's taken me by surprise and it's really not the right moment.'

‘It's never the right moment,' Drew complained, turning away and scuffing the gravel with his trainers.

‘I emailed you on Saturday,' Amanda stated.

‘But I haven't got the internet. There's no landline at the cottage,' Daniel told her. ‘Didn't you wonder why I didn't reply?'

‘How was I to know you'd hidden yourself away in the backwoods?' she snapped. ‘I thought you'd have soon told me if it wasn't all right, so I assumed it was.'

‘No internet?' Drew turned round. ‘What do you do all evening?'

‘You'll find something to do,' Amanda said impatiently. ‘Go out looking for your bloody owls, or something. Look, this is pointless. I have to be at the airport at eight thirty. If I don't go now, I'll miss my flight.' She walked over to Drew and gave him a quick hug and a peck on the cheek. ‘You'll be fine. See you in a fortnight. Bye, darling!'

Before Daniel could think of anything else to say in protest, she was settling back into the driver's seat of the silver car. Starting the powerful engine, she lowered the window.

‘I'll text you in a day or two,' she called, as she put the car in reverse and backed out, and Daniel wasn't sure if she was talking to Drew or to him. A wave of a small, neatly manicured hand and the car swept out of the yard and away up the hill.

Drew continued to scuff his toe in the stones, but after a moment he looked up under his brows at his father, saying nothing.

Feeling sorry for him, Daniel swallowed his frustration with Amanda and smiled.

‘Well, it was a bit of a surprise, but a nice one. It's good to see you, Drew,' he said warmly.

‘You don't mean that.'

‘Of course I do. I'm not mad at you – it's your mother. She always winds me up. I tried to ring you earlier, but you didn't answer  . . .'

‘Mum took my phone away. I was playing games on it and she said the noise was giving her a headache,' Drew said, pulling a face. ‘So what
do
you do in the evenings?'

‘Well, actually, the last few evenings I've borrowed a horse from Jenny and gone riding,' Daniel told him. ‘You could come with me if you like  . . .'

Drew's answer was to purse his lips and shrug his shoulders once more, and Daniel didn't pursue the subject. He knew Drew liked riding but guessed he wasn't in the mood to be overly enthusiastic about anything just at the moment. He couldn't blame the boy; he must have felt that neither of his parents wanted to be bothered with him.

‘OK, well, let's put your bags in my car and then you can come and help me hose the lorry down,' Daniel suggested. ‘Taz'll be pleased to see you. See, he's looking out the window.'

Knowing there was little food at the cottage, Daniel treated Drew to a pub meal. Remembering that Boyd and his cronies frequented The Fox and Duck, he decided in favour of The Crown, at the opposite end of Great Ditton. Taylor Boyd would find out about Drew's arrival soon enough, even if the village grapevine hadn't already alerted him, but Daniel wanted to delay the inevitable meeting until he had at least had a chance to speak to Drew.

A part of him still hoped he could come up with an alternative and safer solution to the problem of what to do with Drew for the next couple of weeks. In the meantime, however, he needed to impart a few carefully chosen words of caution on the subject of the Boyds – enough to make the lad wary, without scaring him.

Their meal was interrupted by two phone calls: the first was from Jenny at the hospital. She sounded exhausted and said that Gavin's condition seemed to have stabilized once more and that the doctors were unsure whether the increased brain activity he had briefly shown was the harbinger of changes to come or just a blip.

‘It's the not knowing,' she told Daniel. ‘You feel you could cope if you just had something definite to focus on, but this uncertainty drains you. I'm longing to come home and be with the kids, and yet I feel I have to be here just in case he does wake up.'

There was little Daniel could offer in the way of comfort. All he could do was promise to keep an eye on things at the farm while she was at the hospital.

The second call was from Jo-Ji Matsuki.

‘Hi, Joey – sorry, Jo-Ji.'

‘Joey's OK. I'm used to it,' Jo-Ji said with deep resignation.

‘I tried to ring you earlier but no answer. What've you got for me?'

‘Well, I did some digging on your Boyd family, and I find they are very well known to our lads in your neck of the woods. Farm theft, aggravated assault, possession of firearms, receiving of stolen goods, suspected arson, harassment and threatening behaviour, to name but a few things they've been had up for. In fact, it would be quicker to list the charges they haven't faced. The family has been linked to a number of robberies at stately homes in the area, and the younger son, Ricky, currently has an ASBO served on him.'

‘That doesn't surprise me in the least. And they're all still walking about scot-free because  . . . ?'

‘There's never enough evidence to make the charges stick,' Jo-Ji said disgustedly. ‘The family you know is only a small part of a Boyd dynasty that covers most of the south-west. Some of them are travellers; some, like your little lot, have put down roots and settled. No one messes with them – or if they do, they don't do it a second time. Their names come up again and again, but when push comes to shove, witnesses change their stories, evidence disappears and alibis are cast iron, whenever called for. Most of the cases never get to court. Are you getting the picture?'

‘Clear as day,' Daniel replied. ‘And have you found anything to link the Boyds to the Butcher Boys?' He lowered his voice as he said it, casting a quick glance round at the clientele of The Crown, but it was, as Sue had suggested, an eatery more than a traditional local, and most of the diners were chattering family groups or loved-up couples.

‘Now, that's the interesting thing,' Jo-Ji said. ‘I haven't found anything as such, but take a guess what Lynda Boyd's name was before she married your friend Norman.'

‘Aha, not Butcher, by any chance?'

‘Got it in one. And the Butchers – as a family – are right up there with the Boyds at the top of the local police's Most Wanted list.'

‘Well, well,' Daniel mused. ‘I suppose the name could be a coincidence  . . .'

‘Not when you take into account that three members of the Butcher family were had up for illegally owning fighting dog breeds – as recently as last year.'

‘Convicted?' It was said with little optimism.

‘Pleaded ignorance. Looking after the dogs for a friend,' Jo-Ji replied. ‘Judge let them off with a caution. No actual mention of the Butcher Boys, as such, during the trial, but, interestingly, the dogs in question mysteriously disappeared from the holding kennels before the ink was dry on the charge sheet.'

‘So, well organized and possibly well connected, too,' Daniel said. ‘What now?'

‘I suggest you keep your eyes and ears open and your head down. And if you discover anything at all, you report it to your local nick. You're not a copper now, remember? You get mixed up with those guys and you'd have no back-up. It's not worth the risk.'

‘I know, but it's so bloody frustrating not to be able to do anything,' Daniel complained. ‘Anyway, thanks for that, Joey. You're a star.'

As he returned the phone to his pocket, the waitress appeared with their desserts. When she'd gone again, Daniel found Drew watching him with a strange expression on his face.

‘What's wrong?'

‘Who were you talking to?'

‘Someone I used to work with.'

‘When you were a cop?'

‘That's right. He had my drugs dog when I left the dog unit.'

‘So what were you talking about? Police stuff ?'

‘Kind of  . . .' Daniel hesitated. How much to tell him? His son was mature beyond his years,and sometimes he had to remind himself that the boy was only nine. ‘Listen, Drew, how are you with secrets?'

‘I would
never
tell!' Drew declared, bristling with indignation that it should be doubted.

‘Well, I haven't told anyone here that I used to be a copper. Do you think you can remember not to give me away?'

‘Is that all?' Drew asked, disappointment evident on his serious young face. ‘That's
easy
!'

‘But it's important,' Daniel assured him.

‘Are you undercover?'

Daniel hesitated. He supposed he was, inasmuch as he had come, unheralded, as a sort of minor troubleshooter.

‘Kind of, but only to help Jenny sort out her business.'

‘Who are the Butcher Boys?'

‘They are a criminal gang, and that's something else you mustn't mention. OK? Don't even mention the name.'

‘Why? Are they violent?'

‘Very.' Daniel was searching his memory for any other compromising snippets the boy might have overheard during his phone conversation. ‘And there's another family, called the Boyds, that you want to be a bit careful around. One of them works at Summer Haulage with me. His name is Taylor.'

‘If he's a criminal, why does he work at Summer Haulage?' Drew went straight to the point, as only a child can.

‘Because Jenny's husband isn't from round here and he didn't know the family's reputation,' Daniel told him, wishing for Jenny's sake that he could be sure it was the truth.

‘He's the one in hospital.' Drew tucked into a large portion of sticky toffee pudding.

‘That's right. They think he might have been attacked, but he hasn't woken up yet, so they don't know for sure what happened.'

‘Did the Butcher Boys do it?'

Daniel was about to say no but he stopped short. After all, wasn't it a possibility? He already suspected that, as a thrill-seeker, Gavin Summers might have been tempted towards the dog-fighting world, and if that was the case, it was entirely possible the connection had proven a dangerous one for him. Hadn't Jo-Ji said the gang would be hard to get into, but even harder to get out of in one piece? Maybe Summers had discovered that to his cost.

‘I don't know, Drew,' he said truthfully. ‘It's possible.'

‘Are you going to find out?'

‘Maybe. If I can. But—'

‘I know, I mustn't tell anybody,' Drew said, rolling his eyes heavenwards. ‘Yada yada yada  . . .'

Daniel made a mock swipe at him across the table.

‘Cheeky little Herbert!'

ELEVEN

W
ith Jenny still at the hospital, and the children staying with her mother, Daniel had no option other than to have Drew with him in the cab all day on Friday. However, if he'd thought it would be any hardship to the lad, he'd have been wrong; Drew loved every minute of it. In turn, Daniel found his enthusiasm infectious and his chatter helped pass the time.

Back at Maidstone Farm at the end of the day, Daniel saw Jenny's Land Rover parked outside the house, and after hosing the truck down, he told Drew to wait for him and went to see if she was about.

The door was open, so he rapped on it and leaned into the cool kitchen. Jenny was standing at the sink with her back to him, apparently staring into space. She jumped when Daniel spoke her name, and turned round quickly.

‘How is he?' Daniel asked. She had wet hair and wore no make-up, the dark shadows beneath her eyes accentuating the natural paleness of her skin. He thought she looked exhausted.