Saving Tara Goodwin (Mystery Book 1) (29 page)

Looking at him, Frank realised he wasn’t as strong as Anderton and it wouldn’t take long before he let go and dropped off the balustrade.

‘Hang on, Hillsdown, I’ll be back in a minute. Don’t fall yet.’

Tara was drinking tea with Evelyn when Frank suddenly barged in, ‘Tara, come quickly.’

‘What is it? What’s wrong?’

There was no time to explain, so taking her along to her apartment, he shut the door and led her across the lounge to the coffee table, and standing her with her back to the curtains, opened them wide enough to clearly see Hillsdown.

‘Tara, there’s something I want to say.’

She gazed at him, her eyes showing puzzlement, ‘Alright. What is it?’

‘Now look, I’m not very good with this kind of thing, but a lot of people light a candle when they’ve had troubles, and I think it’s supposed to mean the end of a really bad time and hopefully the beginning of something better, so I thought that if you lit this red candle, it might help to wipe out the past.’

Hillsdown could now see and hear everything through the gap in the curtains.

Tara smiled, ‘Well that would be wonderful, but could it really happen?’

‘I don’t know, but it’s worth a try. So here, take this.’

Frank placed the Zippo in her hand, ‘Now light the flame.’

Hillsdown felt a growing panic as he stared at the long red candle beneath the twine.

Tara lifted the lid of the Zippo, and when she flicked at the wheel, a yellow flame shone, and picking up the candle, Frank tilted the wick towards her and stared out across the balcony into Hillsdown’s pleading eyes.

‘Now light the wick.’

Tara held the flame steady until the wick began to burn brightly, and taking the lighter from her, Frank placed the candle back down onto the table.

Hillsdown became mesmerised as he looked at the yellow flame so close to the twine, and with muffled sobs, realized there was no way back.

Looking through the parting of the curtains, Frank saw Hillsdown’s eyes wide with terror as he stared at the flame of the red candle, his body convulsing with whimpering sobs, his legs shaking with uncontrollable fear as tears ran in endless streams down his cheeks.

Then gazing out to him, Frank pushed the red candle directly under the nylon twine.

Hillsdown stood frozen as he watched the thin nylon become engulfed in the flame, and as it suddenly stretched and came apart, he felt himself slowly falling backwards and silently out into space.

In a flight of nonsense, Hillsdown began to fall in a spiralling rush to the concrete, his dirty handkerchief wedged in his mouth, his trousers billowing out as he relieved himself, his hands holding tightly onto the broom head.

He swooped down, and not a sound was heard except a gentle
crump
as he landed in a rush beside Anderton.

2
8

With Tara returned to Evelyn’s apartment, all the doubts crowded back in on Frank.

He knew when Angela checked the Sanderson file it would almost certainly confirm Glenndenning as Mr G being the buyer of the file copy, and she would want to take immediate action to clean up all the loose players in the game.

Time was running out fast and he had to find somewhere to hide Tara before he could arrange for her to slip away to Moon Shadow, but right now he had to put in a call to the main gate security lodge.

‘Hi sarge, it’s Frank Lewis. Now listen carefully, I want you to make a note in the log to say that CI Hillsdown had a tragic accident at the manor house.’

The sergeant groaned, ‘And what sort of accident was it, sir.’

‘Well he was trying to figure out how Anderton came to fall off Miss Goodwin’s balcony and then he did the same damned thing himself.’

The sergeant looked out through the office window, but couldn’t see any flying pigs.

‘So they both made the same mistake, did they, sir?’

‘Well others could tell you better than me, but it sure caught up with them in the end.’

The sergeant remembered the disgusting child porn magazine found in Hillsdown’s car.

‘Yes indeed. So we’ll need another sheet then.’

Walking back to Evelyn’s apartment, he’d more or less thought things through.

‘Evelyn, is there a phone in this place that doesn’t go through the internal system.’

She thought for a moment, ‘Yes, there’s a pay phone for contractors on the ground floor, it’s in the booth by the canteen and has a direct line out.’

‘Good, I’ve got some calls to make. So empty Tara’s rooms of all her personal things, and when you’ve packed it all up, fix yourself an overnight bag because you girls are having a night out.’

Taking the lift to the ground floor, Frank took Duncan’s business card from his wallet and put in a call to the sergeant’s tavern.

‘Hi Duncan, this is Frank Lewis, we met last night.’

‘Yes sir, I remember. So how can I help?’

‘I need accommodation for two ladies, tonight.’

Frank heard the phone clunk down and the turning pages of a book.

‘We seem to be quite full, but I do have a cancellation, a double with twin beds.’

‘That’ll do fine. So book it for me and they’ll be over in about an hour.’

The next call was to Ted Willis at the garage.

‘Ted, it’s Frank. How’s my car coming on?’

Ted smiled, ‘All finished, old son, but whether she’s street legal is another question.’

‘Oh, never mind that. Now look, I know this is short notice, but I need a favour.’

‘Of course, you know that. So what is it?’

‘Well you remember that office party I was talking about.’

Ted thought of the names in the game,
Monty,
and those bastards,
Daniels and Coogan.

‘Yeah, I remember, ‘cos I wasn’t exactly crazy about the guest list.’

‘No, neither was I, and now the cork’s popped out of the bottle.’

‘I see. So what can I do?’

‘I need my car with the box and supplies by lunchtime tomorrow. Can you manage that?’

With the mention of his box, Bertha jumped into his mind, ‘No problem. Where?’

Frank gave him directions to the Sergeant’s Tavern.

‘And Ted, there’s something else. Your long lost niece wants to visit you for a while, but she’ll need a lot of care and attention.’

‘My niece?’

‘Yeah, you remember. Lovely little Tara. Blonde, blue eyes and quite tiny. She’s twenty something now and looks like an angel, so you’ll be surprised when you see her again.’

Ted formed a mental picture, ‘Yeah, but I’m sure to recognise her now.’

Frank spoke quietly, ‘Someone wants to give her grief, she’ll need looking after.’

‘That’s okay, no problem. What are uncles for?’

‘Good man. So bring my car over to the tavern, leave the keys up the exhaust and take Tara away with you, but Ted, you’ll need transport home, so use someone reliable.’

Reaching for his notebook, Ted dialled Sammy’s number at the caravan park, and soon a dark voice came on the line.

‘Yeah?’

‘Sammy, it’s Ted Willis. Are you free tomorrow?’

‘Depends what you got in mind.’

‘I need a car and a driver to collect a package, it’s legal, ish, but no guarantees.’

‘How far?’

‘About fifty miles, then straight back.’

‘Any fun?’

‘Could be.’

‘You goin’ tooled up?’

Ted remembered that lying to Sammy was like inviting a stay in intensive care.

‘Yeah.’

‘Okay. How much?’

‘Five hundred.’

There was a short silence, ‘What’s the crack?’

‘We meet tomorrow morning, ten o’clock sharp in the old rail yard, then you follow me till I drop off a car, and you bring me and a passenger back here.’

Another short silence, ‘Okay, it’s yours. Tomorrow at ten.’

Ted smiled, with Sammy on board he could relax a little.

Sammy Paradise was a renegade and hadn’t done an honest day’s work in his thirty years, but he was smart and never been caught.

What kept Sammy in business was his word, his word was his bond, his heart and his soul, and to Sammy it meant just the same as his gypsy handshake. Having accepted a job he would see it through come hell or high water.

Frank went back up to Evelyn’s apartment, and when he saw Tara’s small pile of innocent knickknacks on the sofa, he thought it didn’t look much to show for a life, and carrying the luggage down to Evelyn’s car, he carefully explained the arrangements.

Evelyn would stay with Tara tonight and they wouldn’t make calls or leave the tavern.

In the morning, Evelyn would return to Thornley and say they’d enjoyed a girls night out in Oxford, but in the morning she’d found that Tara had gone off on her own.

At lunchtime tomorrow, Tara would be collected by a man called Ted Willis and she would stay with him until her final move to the safe house could be arranged, and with everything agreed, he stood in the sunshine and watched the Pontiac drive away.

Christiana stared down to the slumbering Lucinda, their love making, wine and drugs having finished her, and tiptoeing out, found the mournful old house to be as silent as the grave as she made her way down the stairs. Peeping into the kitchen, she saw Martha sat at the table, her tea looking old and glazed as she stared out through eyes wet from tears.

Leaving her to her misery, she went through to the lounge, and easing open the French windows, stepped out onto the terrace.

The evening was drawing in now, the sun slipping low, the straggly shadows reaching out across the flagstones to her toes.

Making her way to the left hand side of the house, she saw there was no proper path on this side and had to pick her way through the flowerbeds, bushes and trees, and having almost reached the front of the house, could now see her car away across the gravel.

Pushing on, she suddenly stopped dead when she saw a long ladder standing against the house, and it reached right up to a bedroom window.

Looking up, she recognised the tall colourful statue in the window and realised it must be Lucinda’s bedroom. So what the hell was going on?

There was no-one in sight as she stepped onto the ladder, but her eyes suddenly narrowed when she saw a pair of gumboots standing in the flower bed. Arthur’s gumboots.

She felt a surge of anger. Had that bastard been watching them on the bed having sex?

Calming herself, she wondered where he was now, but there was no sound or movement, and looking more closely, saw the lower sash of the windows was now fully pushed up.

My god, was that disgusting old man up there?

Was he up there in Lucinda’s bedroom while she lay naked and fast asleep?

Dropping her purse into the flowers she began to silently climb the ladder, and peering over the windowsill, could see the top half of the room, and raising herself up, looked over to the bed, and froze.

Arthur was there, he was leaning over Lucinda as he licked and suckled at her breasts, then spreading her legs, he began running his fingers along her thighs, and moving down, slipped his tongue into the cleft of her.

Christiana gripped the smooth stone of the windowsill, and was about to shout when her heart missed a beat. Lucinda had woken and was staring up through wide eyes.

So what the hell would happen now?

Christiana goggled, but Lucinda began to speak, lazily and far away as if in a dream.

‘Did you film it, Arthur? Did you film my wonderful Chrissy with me?’

He paused from his pleasure, ‘Yes ma’am.’

Christiana’s thoughts became frozen,
What did she say?

‘And did you get it all? Everything?’

‘I did, ma’am.'

‘That’s good, she’s so gorgeous in yellow. And where’s the camcorder now?’

‘It’s under the bed, ma’am.’

Christiana stared in disbelief.

‘Excellent. So that will make another juicy film for my collection.’

‘And it should be a good one, ma’am, ‘cos it’s the best sex I’ve seen for a long while.’

‘Yes, but that’s the difference with true love, true love makes nice movies, not like those bitches in the hole, they didn’t care if it was a nice movie or not, all they wanted was the good life, but you like good movies, don’t you Arthur.’

‘Yes ma’am, and you did say I could, you know, if I got a good film for you.’

Lucinda sighed, ‘Oh god. I did, didn’t I. Oh well, come on then, but don’t be all day about it, I’ve still got that damned paperwork to finish.’

As Frank’s official Jaguar cruised up to the gates of Angela’s security lodge, it reminded him that it could only be a matter of hours before it became obvious that Tara had left Thornley forever.

But Evelyn could soon be in the Cardinal system and Angela would have even more control over Thornley, so that at least should make her smile, but he noticed tension as the guard checked his ID, and as the car drove through, another guard picked up the phone.

It was a bad sign. So when he was dropped off, he walked over to the stone bridge, and lighting a cigarette, stood quietly for a while, but as his thoughts drifted away along the babbling stream, there came a long shadow and the silvery fish scattered in all directions.

‘So, you’ve decided to come back earlier this time.’

Turning, he saw Angela, her eyes shining intensely, her body stiff as if in anger.

‘Frank. Are you working for me, or against me?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘What do I mean? Well let’s start with Mr Dudley.’

‘What about him?’

‘He’s dead.’

‘Yes, I know.’

‘Well of course you do, you idiot, you’ve let your Cardinal status go to your head. Jesus, I gave you more credit than that, and didn’t we agree Ambrose Dudley was our man on the inside? So how the hell are we going to get the password now you’ve killed him?’

‘I didn’t.’

Angela fumed, ‘Christ, I know I said you could use piratical methods if you needed to, but for god’s sake, that’s three dead in one day, and Sergeant Jenkins thinks he’s in the middle of a frigging war zone and we’re rapidly running out of body bags.’

‘I just told you, I didn’t kill Dudley.’

‘Oh, come on, don’t play the innocent. Ambrose Dudley was alive and well when you signed in at floor security, then later, you walked out with a body bag over your shoulder and Dudley hasn’t been seen since.’

‘Angela, try to pay attention, I had nothing to do with Dudley, or his death.’

‘But Sergeant Jenkins said …’

‘Well bollocks to Jenkins, he saw two plus two and made five out of it.’

‘Oh. So who did kill him then?’

‘Anderton, but he was only following orders.’

‘Anderton? So why would the frigging clerk of works, kill the Head of Station?’

‘Because Hillsdown made him do it.’

‘Hillsdown? The chief of police, but why the hell would he do that?’

‘Because Mr G wanted it done.’

‘And who the fuck is Mr G?’

‘He’s the one you want, and I reckon he’s the big noise behind this whole mess.’

Angela stood back in surprise, ‘Really? But I thought …’

Frank turned away, and leaning on the bridge, looked down into the swirling water.

‘But that’s the trouble, you’re always thinking, then you get it all ass-backwards and chew my balls off before you even know all the facts, and to be honest, I’m getting totally pissed off with the whole damned thing.’