Storms (14 page)

‘I needed to know what you’d been doing, Kyle’.

Kyle grabbed his phone from her. ‘You read my messages? They’re private!’

‘Kyle, I’m not angry with you’ said Annabel. ‘But you must understand that what you’ve been doing with Tim is wrong’.

‘Why is it? It makes me happy’.

‘But you’re too young, Kyle’ Annabel pleaded. ‘Son, it isn’t your fault’.

‘It isn’t Tim’s fault either’.

‘He took advantage of you’.

‘I wanted to be taken advantage of! Don’t you see? I wanted this as much as he did!’

‘But he’s the adult and he should’ve resisted’.

‘Like you should’ve resisted when you started shagging the married hotel handyman?’

Annabel slapped his face. The look on his face said it all. Wrong move.

‘Oh Kyle, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have done that’.

‘No, you shouldn’t. Because it’s made me more determined than ever to carry on with Tim’.

‘No you can’t because you’re underage and I absolutely forbid it!’

‘See if I care what you think’.

‘Kyle, he’s breaking the law’.

‘Then it’s a stupid law if it stops people loving each other’.

‘But you’re only fifteen and he’s forty-three. It is all absolutely wrong and I’m going to put a stop to it’.

‘Mum, if you make trouble for Tim over this then I promise you I’ll take off from here and you’ll never see me again’.

Annabel could feel tears running down her cheeks. ‘Kyle, what the hell has happened to you? I could never imagine you’d speak to me like that’.

Kyle started to feel guilty. He loved his Mum. He always had done. It was his Dad he despised and really didn’t want to upset his Mum. She’d been there for him all the way. She always had been. But now he felt like he was kicking her in the teeth.

‘I’m sorry, Mum. Okay? I’m sorry if I’ve hurt you. But this thing with Tim has made me feel so much better about myself and about life. It’s lifted me right up there and I just don’t want to come back down’.

‘But you have to, son’ said Annabel. ‘And I’d be failing you as your mother if I didn’t take steps to put a stop to all this’.

Kyle started to cry. Annabel tried to comfort him but he pushed her away.

‘You do that, Mum. You do that and I will hate you for the rest of my life!’

Kyle ran out of the kitchen and up the stairs. Annabel was crying herself now but there was only one person who could help her. He always said he’d be there if ever she needed anything. Well she’d never been more in need of help than now and so maybe it was time to see just how good his word was.

Ollie Wright pinned the pictures of the three murder victims on the white board in front of the entire squad. First Leroy Patterson, then PC Tyler Moore and finally Aidan Richards.    He then put up a picture of John Squires who remained the chief suspect. Chief superintendent Geraldine Chambers was also in attendance.

  ‘Thanks, Ollie’ said Jeff, stepping forward. ‘John Squires is an angry man. He’s also an unapologetic racist. As you all know his mother Evelyn Squires was prevented from getting to hospital by a mob from the Gorton estate that prevented the ambulance she was in from moving. She died as a result. He had every motive to carry out a vendetta campaign against the Gorton boys gang and I’ve always said that this was something personal. This is something aimed fair and square at the Gorton boys because they’ve done something that’s ripped the heart out of the killer in some way. And I suspect it was something that the police either couldn’t do anything about for some reason or wouldn’t do anything about. I’ve spoken to DCI Mike Phillips who the senior officer who placed PC Tyler Moore into the undercover operation as Melanie Patterson’s nephew Jackson Williams. As far as he’s concerned there was no crime that his team overlooked in order to protect PC Moore’s identity.

Then there’s the matter of the white transit van that was seen by Ralph Johnson who lives in a flat on the second floor of Wavertree Gardens over the road from the main route into the Gorton estate. His front room window gives him a clear view of the entrance into the estate and he’s written down many of the comings and goings of the last few weeks. He’s been trying to get in touch with us for a while apparently. He saw the van drive into the estate last Tuesday night and watched the driver get out and dump the body of Tyler Moore. He didn’t get a close look at the driver but we’re bringing him in this afternoon to view some pictures that will include John Squires’.

‘And what if Mr. Johnson doesn’t positively identify John Squires as the man he saw last Tuesday night?’ asked Chief Superintendent Chambers. ‘Where would that leave us?’

‘Ma’am, John Squires has no explanation for the van being registered to him other than it is registered to him because it’s his’ said Jeff. ‘And like I say he has the motive’.

‘But?’

‘Where did he take them? Where did he get hold of the gruesome equipment he used to kill them? These are questions he will have to answer if Ralph Johnson positively identifies him but if Johnson doesn’t then we’ll keep going back to the basic questions until we find a way to the end of this’.

Rebecca smiled as she led Ralph Johnson through the station. He was clearly enjoying the attention and why should she bother about that. The old bloke was probably as lonely as fuck and hadn’t had any real attention for months, maybe even years. He had told her that he had two daughters and a stack of grandchildren none of whom he saw on a regular basis. That was the trouble with families these days, thought Rebecca. Nobody seems to give a shit. He said he’d put his best clothes on but he still had that smell of an old person who’d given up taking any real care of himself. He was lovely though. She’d really quite taken to him.

‘I’ve got a nurse who looks a bit like you’ said Ralph.

‘Oh yeah?’ said Rebecca.

‘Her name is Monica and she comes to dress the ulcers on my leg twice every week’ Ralph announced proudly. ‘She’s a good sort although I don’t think she posted the letter I’d written to the police’.

‘Why do you think she didn’t do that, Ralph?’

‘Well she said she was worried I might get into bother with that whole Gorton boys gang and whoever was doing them in’ Ralph explained. ‘She thought I should just lead a quiet life and not get myself involved with anything’.

‘She was only looking out for you’ said Rebecca.

‘But I could have given you that registration number long before I did and you could have been working on it sooner’.

‘Oh well’ said Rebecca. ‘You were trying to do the right thing. What’s Monica’s surname by the way?’

‘Her surname?’

‘Yes. Just as a matter of interest’.

‘Well it’s Parkinson. Yes, that’s it. Monica Parkinson. She works out of the surgery on Palatine Road’.

‘Oh yes I know that place’ said Rebecca. ‘My aunt Shirley goes there’.

‘Is she pretty?’

‘Behave’ said Rebecca. ‘Yes, she is pretty but she’s been well spoken for to my uncle Dennis for nearly forty years’.

‘Pity’.

‘You’re incorrigible’

Ralph chuckled. ‘Well I’m sure I am if I knew what that meant’.

Jeff and Rebecca set Ralph up in a more comfortable room than the standard ones they used for interviews and showed him several pictures of known criminals who might’ve had reason to want to ‘score’ against the Gorton boys. It was all subterfuge however. It was when they got to the pictures of John Squires that their interest in Ralph’s answers really picked up.

‘Was this the man you saw driving the transit van, Ralph?’ Jeff asked.

‘No’ said Ralph. ‘As I said to you before I didn’t get a good look at him but I do remember his build as being more stocky than that. And he was shorter too. This man here is too tall to be the man I saw’.

Jeff got home that night in time to read his son Toby a bedtime story before tucking him in for the night. He always tried to get home in time for this and felt guilty when he couldn’t. After Toby’s Mum died Jeff had made every effort to be there for his son whenever he needed him. But it wasn’t always easy with the job that he had.

‘Goodnight, soldier’ said Jeff who then kissed his son. ‘How many weeks now to your sixth birthday?’

‘Twenty-two, Daddy!’

‘Only twenty-two? That still leaves me lots of time to plan our little trip to Disneyland’.

‘I can’t wait, Daddy’.

‘Me neither, mate. Now before you go to sleep is there anything you want to talk to me about?’

‘I don’t think so, Daddy. Everything’s cool really’.

Jeff smiled. ‘I’m glad about that, mate. Now have a good night’s sleep and I’ll see you in the morning for breakfast’.

Jeff then went downstairs and poured himself a glass of red wine from a bottle he’d already opened. He then asked Brendan his live-in nanny and housekeeper if he’d like one too. Jeff didn’t think of Brendan as just an ‘employee’. He’d become part of the family.

‘That would be great thanks, Jeff’ said Brendan who was warming up Jeff’s dinner of lamb casserole with a selection of roasted vegetables.

‘That smells wonderful’ said Jeff who wasn’t very hungry but didn’t want to tell Brendan that after he’d gone to all this trouble. Ralph Johnson declaring that John Squires was not the man who’d been driving the white transit van had proved a blow to the whole case. He’d had to let John Squires go. Chief Superintendent Chambers was getting edgy.  The higher reaches of the force and the press were both on her back. It was Jeff’s job to produce a result that she could then go to all the hungry wolves with. He’d have to get all the heads together again in the morning. Somewhere in all the stuff they already knew there was something for them to go on.

‘Well I hope you’ve got an appetite because I made plenty’ said Brendan. ‘But no pressure. I can freeze what you don’t eat’.

Brendan sat talking with Jeff at the table whilst Jeff ate. Something about the flavours in the casserole ignited Jeff’s appetite and he managed to eat most of what Brendan had dished up for him without feeling like it was a chore. Jeff had to smile. They were a right pair of sad fuckers sat round the dining table like an old married couple. Jeff knew that Brendan wanted to find himself a boyfriend but couldn’t seem to find the right guy and Jeff himself had reached the stage of grief where he was ready to smell a woman on his sheets again. But it wasn’t as simple as that. He’d have to go through the whole dating thing before any of that happened.

Jeff was just about to open another bottle of wine for them to share when the doorbell rang. He sighed heavily.

‘Do you want me to get that?’ asked Brendan who was already making for the door.

‘Would you mind? Whoever it is can get to bloody fuck. I’m not in the mood tonight’.

A few seconds later when Jeff had opened the second bottle of wine and poured a glass each for himself and Brendan, he felt the draft come through the house from the front door still being open. Brendan than reappeared in the dining room.

‘Who is it?’ Jeff asked.

‘Jeff, there’s a woman here with her teenage son. She says she’s your sister Annabel and the boy is your nephew Kyle’.

Ralph was feeling very pleased with himself that he’d made some sort of a contribution to a police investigation. It had raised his spirits no end and he couldn’t help boasting about his experiences to Monica when she came round with his new set of tablets to control his blood pressure. He didn’t even notice at first how cross the news was making Monica.

‘What did you tell them, Ralph?’ she asked.

‘I told them everything I knew. They were very impressed’.

‘What was it exactly that you told them, Ralph?’ Monica demanded in a sharp voice.

‘I gave them the registration number of the white transit van and … anyway, what’s it to you what I told them?’

‘You gave them what?’ she asked as she stepped forward towards him.

‘What the hell has got into you? You’re making me nervous’.

‘You couldn’t help yourself, could you?’ she sneered. ‘You’ve got such a sad fucking excuse for a life that you couldn’t help meddling in things that don’t concern you. Don’t you understand? Are you too thick to see? I didn’t post your stupid letter to the police because I didn’t want you to get involved. But now you’ve left me no choice, Ralph’.

‘What are you talking about? Get out! Go on, get out and send me a different nurse’.

Those were the last words spoken by Ralph Johnson before nurse Monica Parkinson punched him in the face and carried on punching and kicking the old man until she could confirm that he was dead.   

STORMS THIRTEEN

Jeff was driving Annabel up the M61 to Blackpool. Kyle had stayed at Jeff’s house in the care of Jeff’s brother Lewis.