Streetwise (16 page)

Valerie Middleton was ploughing through what appeared to be an endless heap of paperwork when her mobile started ringing. She glanced at the phone and smiled. ‘Jeff Butler,’ she said, picking up. ‘To what do I owe the pleasure?’

‘Ah, the pleasure’s all mine. How are you, Val? Haven’t seen you for a while.’

‘That’s because they’ve locked me up in a small room and won’t let me out until all the overtime sheets have been done.’

‘Then this is your lucky night,’ he said. ‘I’ve just got you a get-out-of-jail-free card.’

‘Oh, sounds good. Tell me more.’

‘There’s been a shooting at Belles, two casualties, and one of them is Danny Street.’

Valerie’s posture instantly changed. She sat up straight, every part of her alert. ‘Fatal?’

DCI Butler gave a low laugh. ‘If I didn’t know you better, Inspector, I might have thought there was a hint of hope in that question. But no, not fatal, not for Mr Street at least. It’s not looking so good for the other guy, though. Jeremy Squires. Do you know him?’

‘Squires?’ she said, surprised. ‘Yes, he runs a business in Kellston. My God, he’s been shot?’ She paused for a second. Jeremy Squires was a respectable local businessman, a member of the Rotary Club and a generous donor to the Police Benevolent Fund. ‘Was it Street? Did he do it?’

‘I don’t think so, but look why don’t you come down and we’ll go through it all when you get here. We’re at the hospital, waiting to talk to him.’

Valerie was already on her feet. ‘I’ll do that,’ she said. ‘I’ll be with you soon.’ She thanked him for the call and hung up. Quickly, she grabbed her coat and bag and went out into the incident room. ‘Laura, we’ve got a shout.’

Twelve minutes later they were striding along the hospital corridors. They made their way to the Accident and Emergency Unit, which was rapidly filling up. It wasn’t even nine o’clock and already the doctors and nurses were run off their feet. They came across DCI Jeff Butler feeding coins into a drinks machine.

‘Hey, good to see you again,’ he said. ‘Fancy a drink?’

‘No, thank you. I’ve tasted that stuff and only just lived to regret it.’

‘Well, I’m desperate. So long as it’s hot and wet, it’ll do for me.’

‘Don’t say I didn’t warn you.’

Butler picked up his plastic cup of tea and grinned. ‘Cheers.’

Valerie smiled back at him. She liked Butler. He was in his mid-forties, a placid, unflappable Yorkshireman who took things in his stride and was rarely fazed by the trials and tribulations of the job. He worked out of Shoreditch, where Belles was located, but when it came to dealing with the Streets the two stations often collaborated.

‘This is DS Laura Higgs,’ she said, making the introductions. ‘Laura, this is DCI Butler.’

‘Just call me, Jeff. Nice to meet you, Laura.’

‘You too.’

Butler took a sip of the tea and pulled a face. ‘Right, let’s find somewhere to park ourselves and I’ll get you both up to speed.’

They carried on a little way up the corridor until they came to a small row of blue plastic chairs. Butler sat down and immediately leaned forward. ‘To be honest, we don’t know that much yet. Only that it happened at around eight fifteen. They’ve taken Squires into theatre – he was shot twice – and it isn’t looking good. He was conscious when they brought him in, but only just.’

‘And Danny Street?’ Valerie asked.

‘Oh, he’ll be okay. It’s only a flesh wound, nothing serious. They’re patching him up now. We should be able to see him soon.’

‘I’m sure he’ll be overjoyed at the welcome committee.’

Butler shifted up his broad shoulders. ‘Even Danny Street probably takes exception to being shot.’

‘Doesn’t mean he’ll tell us anything, though. I take it we’re presuming that he was the intended victim and that Squires just got in the way?’

‘Seems the most likely scenario, unless there are things about Mr Squires that we don’t know.’

Valerie gave a nod. ‘What on earth was he doing at Belles in the first place?’

Blunt looked at her and grinned again. ‘What do most men go there for? It sure as hell isn’t for the witty conversation.’

‘But Squires?’ she said. ‘He doesn’t seem the type. And it doesn’t quite fit in with the image he likes to project – you know, family man, pillar of the community.’

‘Maybe he had a secret life.’

‘Not very secret if he was hanging around Belles. Anyone could have seen him there.’

‘Did he say anything before he went into theatre?’ Laura asked. ‘Or in the ambulance?’

Butler shook his head. ‘Not as far as I know.’

Laura Higgs stood up and gazed along the corridor. ‘Right, I’ll see if I can find the paramedics who brought him in. If he was conscious, he might have told them something.’

Butler watched as she strode off and then turned to look at Valerie again. ‘So what happened to Swann? I thought you two were inseparable.’

‘On holiday,’ she said. ‘In Clacton.’

‘Clacton? In November?’

‘Don’t ask.’

Butler sipped on his tea for a while before saying, ‘I’ve got a couple of lads down at Belles taking statements from the punters and people who were passing by. We don’t know for sure that Squires was actually inside the club yet. He could have just parked his car on the forecourt, come back to pick it up and found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time.’

‘What are the chances?’

‘Slight,’ he said. ‘Of all the places to leave your motor, Belles would hardly come top of the list. Anyway, there are security cameras on the building. We’ll be able to see if he went in and out. Unfortunately, they only cover the space directly in front of the entrance and not the far part of the car park.’

‘And what was he doing with Danny Street? That doesn’t add up. It doesn’t make any sense at all.’

‘Yeah, well, maybe Mr Street can enlighten us.’

‘Don’t hold your breath,’ Valerie said. ‘He’s hardly known for his burning desire to help the police. And if something dodgy was going on between him and Squires, he won’t want us to know about that either.’

‘Maybe we’ll catch him before the shock wears off. No one likes getting hit by a bullet, no matter how crooked they are.’

‘What about Squires’s wife? Has she been told?’

‘Amanda,’ he said. ‘Yeah, we finally managed to track her down. She’s been informed. She’s on her way in.’

‘I think I met her once at some charity do. God, this is going to be a nightmare for her. Not only has her husband been shot, but he’s been shot outside a sleazy lap-dancing club.’

‘Maybe he made a habit of it. Maybe he’s not quite as squeaky clean as he’d like everyone to believe.’

Valerie gave him a look.

‘Got to keep an open mind,’ he said. ‘She wouldn’t be the first wife to decide she’d had enough.’

‘And bump him off?’

‘Or pay someone else to do it.’ Butler placed the still half-full cup on the seat beside him. ‘You were right about the tea. It’s filthy stuff.’

It was another five minutes before a young PC emerged from a side room and approached them. ‘They’re finished now, guv,’ he said to Butler. ‘You can go in and talk to him.’

Danny Street was sitting on the side of the bed, looking decidedly sorry for himself. His right arm was heavily bandaged. He glanced up as they came in and scowled. ‘Ah, for fuck’s sake. What do you want?’

Valerie smiled at him. ‘That’s not much of a welcome, Danny.’

‘I’ve just been shot. You think I’m fit to talk to you lot?’

Butler sat down beside him. ‘It’s a minor injury. You’ll live. Which is more than might be said for your pal, Squires.’

Danny narrowed his eyes. ‘Squires? Is that his name? He ain’t my pal. I hardly know the geezer.’

‘You just happened to be standing next to him when someone decided to try and take you out.’

‘What makes you think it was me they were after?’

‘Just a wild guess,’ Butler said.

Danny shook his head. ‘Nah, I don’t reckon so. I’m not the one who ended up with two bullets in me back.’

Valerie leaned against the wall and folded her arms. ‘So, do you want to tell us what happened, Danny?’

‘Nothin’ to tell, love,’ Danny said. ‘One minute I’m standing there, then I hear the noise, three bangs… one, two, three… next thing, he’s on the ground and I’ve got blood pouring out me arm.’

Valerie didn’t respond to the ‘love’. She knew he was only trying to wind her up. ‘Perhaps we could go back a bit. What was Jeremy Squires doing there in the first place?’

Danny’s lips slid into a contemptuous grin. ‘Jesus, I think even you can manage to work that one out.’

‘Are you saying he was a regular?’

‘No idea,’ Danny said. ‘I ain’t seen him there before, but that don’t mean nothin’. I don’t spend much time at Belles these days. Might be a regular, might not.’

Butler shifted on the bed. ‘So take us through what happened.’

‘Starting at the beginning,’ Valerie said. ‘From when you first noticed him.’

Danny glanced from one to the other. ‘Is he going to make it, this Squires guy? How bad is he?’

‘Why?’ Butler asked. ‘You worried about what he might say?’

‘Why should I be worried? I’ve got nothin’ to hide. I’m the innocent victim here.’

‘Well, that’s a first,’ Butler said.

Danny scowled at him. ‘You want my help or not?’

‘Just get on with it, will you?’

Danny waited a while as if his feelings were hurt and he needed some time to recover. ‘Okay,’ he said. ‘This is how it went. Sol comes over to my table at around eight o’clock with this grey-haired geezer I’ve never seen before. Bloke wants to talk to me, apparently. So I tell him to take a pew, and Sol clears off. Anyway, turns out he’s parked his motor in the Staff Only spaces on the forecourt and wants to make sure it’ll still be there when he leaves – not towed or clamped, right?’

Valerie heaved out a sigh, not even attempting to hide her scepticism. ‘Oh, come on, Danny. You really expect us to believe that?’

‘It’s the truth, I’m telling you. This guy’s in love with his motor, a brand-new Discovery it is. Can’t bear the thought of anything happening to it.’

‘So why didn’t he just ask Solomon Vale if he could park it there?’ Butler asked.

‘Why talk to the monkey when you can talk to the organ grinder? Anyway, you can tell he’s the kind of bloke who likes to go straight to the top. And, seeing as he’s been so respectful, asking for permission and the like, I tell him it’s okay so long as he doesn’t make a habit of it.’

‘Right,’ Butler said. ‘And then?’

‘And then I tell him to take a pew. Why not?’

‘Very sociable of you.’

‘Yeah, well, that’s the way I am, Mr Butler. Plus, he looked to me like the kind of geezer who had a few bob – nice clothes, nice watch – so I figured it was worth it. I mean, he may as well spend his cash in Belles as anywhere else, right?’

‘You’re all heart.’

‘And then what?’ Valerie asked.

Danny gave a shrug, a gesture he instantly regretted. The movement of his shoulders must have sent a pain down his arm because he visibly winced and hissed out a breath. ‘What do you mean?’

‘Did you talk to him, did he talk to any of the girls?’

‘Yeah, we had a chat.’

‘About?’

Danny pondered on this for a moment. ‘Cars,’ he said eventually. ‘Yeah, we talked about cars for a while. And then after about ten minutes or so he looks at his watch and acts kind of surprised at what the time is. He gets up and says he has to go.’

‘Bit odd, isn’t it?’ Valerie asked. ‘Ten minutes? He hardly had time to appreciate the atmosphere.’

‘You know what I reckon?’

‘Enlighten us.’

‘I reckon he got cold feet. He was looking round all the time, checking out the other customers. I’ve come across his type before – they’ve got the hots and fancy an eyeful, but don’t want to be spotted by someone they know. Worried about it getting back to the missus or the boss or whoever pulls their strings.’

Valerie studied him with care. Although Danny Street was a well-practised and proficient liar, he didn’t seem as cocky as he normally was. Some of that might have been down to the fact that someone had just tried to take him out, but she suspected something else. ‘That must have been a disappointment. There you were, thinking he was going to spend a bundle, and he just ups and leaves.’

‘It happens. Anyway, I was gasping for a fag so I decide to walk out with him, take a look at that fancy motor he’d been banging on about. And that’s when it happened.’ Danny made a shooting gesture with two fingers of his left hand. ‘We’d only been there thirty seconds and bang!’

‘Let’s go back a bit,’ Butler said. ‘So you’re coming out of the club. Was anyone else around?’

‘Only Sol on the door.’

‘Okay, so you’re walking away from the door and towards the street. What do you see?’

‘We were talking. I didn’t really notice. Bit of traffic, people going by. But it’s always busy round there.’

‘So you didn’t hear anything before the shots, didn’t notice anyone hanging around the gates?’

Danny gave a snort. ‘What, some geezer with a shooter in his hand? Yeah, sure.’

‘If it was a man,’ Val said.

‘What you saying? That some bloody tart shot me?’

Valerie could see the indignation in his face. Being shot by a man was one thing, by a woman was quite another. ‘I’ve no idea, but I’m keeping an open mind.’

‘Yeah,’ said Danny resentfully. ‘Maybe it was some tart trying to kill the geezer. The bitch certainly couldn’t shoot straight. Maybe it was his wife.’

‘How do you know he was married?’ Valerie asked.

Danny smirked. ‘Had the ball and chain on his finger, didn’t he? Anyway, you can always tell. Half the men who come to Belles are hitched.’

‘So you didn’t see anything?’ Butler asked.

‘Not a thing. One minute we were looking at the motor, the next…’

‘Okay, we get the picture. And after the shots, you didn’t hear anything else? Someone running away, the sound of a car accelerating?’

‘No. Shit, I’d just been shot. How much listening do you think I was doing? I was on my fuckin’ knees, mate, bleeding to death for all I knew.’

Valerie looked at his bandaged arm and rolled her eyes. ‘It was only a flesh wound.’

Danny glared back at her. ‘So, are we done here? Much as I love talking to you, I’d prefer to piss off home and get stuck into a bottle of Scotch.’

Butler rose to his feet. ‘You know the score,’ he said. ‘We’ll need to talk to you again.’

‘Yeah, yeah. Don’t leave the country, huh?’

‘You’ve got it.’

‘Oh, Mr Butler?’ Danny said.

‘Yes?’

‘Try not to be too disappointed. You know, about me still being alive and all.’

Butler grinned. ‘We already had the champagne on ice.’

Valerie turned to Butler as soon as the door was closed and they were back in the corridor. ‘He’s lying.’

‘Course he’s lying. The guy can’t help himself. Question is, which part is he lying about?’

‘Most of it, if past experience is anything to go by.’

Butler scratched his forehead. ‘Trouble is, you start making a list of people who might have a grudge against him and you come up with half the population of London.’

‘Maybe Squires can shed some light.’

‘If he makes it.’

Butler glanced up and down the corridor. ‘It’s going to be a while before he’s out of surgery. You fancy taking a look at the scene of the crime?’