The Garden Party (29 page)

‘Yes, boss,' Ainsclough replied. ‘But one of us will drive . . . you'll be in the passenger seat . . . We'll go in two cars in fact. Switchboard? Hello, can you please put me through to the Bedfordshire Constabulary . . . in Luton. Yes, I'll hold . . . thank you.'

‘Long Liz' Petty stood slowly as the three men walked purposefully side by side towards her.

Snakebite, who carried a golf club, Rainbird, and the man they called The Baptist. They had, she noted, aged a little, as was to be expected, but they were definitely the same three men whom she had first seen, amongst other men, at that dreadful party nearly ten years ago.

‘You're not going to run?' Snakebite asked coldly, as the three men stood in front of her. ‘Pity.'

‘Pity?' Petty asked. ‘What's the pity about?'

‘We thought we'd be having a little fun with you . . . chasing you round the lawn till we caught you . . . so . . . pity.'

‘Well, sorry but you're not going to have any fun . . . not with me.'

‘You've got bottle, I'll say that for you,' The Baptist commented. ‘Me . . . I reckon I'd try to make a run for it.'

‘There's nowhere to run to.' Petty lowered her head. ‘Just make it quick . . . no need to spin it out; there's no audience . . . not like the last time.'

‘That wasn't the last time.' Rainbird smirked. ‘It was the last time you saw anything . . . but we've been quite busy over the years . . . our little system . . . golf club, swimming pool . . . bonfire . . . now it's your turn. Talking to the law . . . you should have stayed shtum . . . and you a street girl . . . you should have known better.'

It was then, ‘Long Liz' Petty would later recall, just as Rainbird and The Baptist were stepping backwards to allow Snakebite room to swing the golf club, that the air was rent by the sound of klaxons, of barking dogs, of shouts, of squealing tyres. The three men turned away from Petty and looked towards the house, and Petty also turned and ran . . . instinctively realizing there was then some hope of escape. She ran beyond the remnants of the fire to the very bottom of the garden and then turned. She saw police officers in uniform and also in plain clothes spill out of the rear door of the house and on to the lawn . . . amongst them she recognized Penny Yewdall.

She saw Snakebite lift the golf club as if to strike at the officers . . . and continued to watch as The Baptist slowly took it from him and dropped it on the grass. She saw a police officer, a male, step forward and approach Rainbird, and she was able to read his lips as he said, ‘It's over . . . Arnie. It's all over.'

‘M
eet Alice Adnam.' Liz Petty smiled as Penny Yewdall sat on the bench beside her.

‘Hello, Alice.' Penny Yewdall returned the smile.

‘They're not very friendly in here.'

‘They think you're a criminal,' Yewdall explained. ‘The majority of people who go into witness protection are criminals who have turned Queen's Evidence to avoid prosecution, so don't take it personally. It's better if as few people know your real identity as possible, including police officers, so let them think you're a crim.'

‘OK.'

‘So why Alice Adnam?'

‘They showed me a list of names and asked me to choose one. It was in alphabetical order so I just took the first one. Tell you the truth, I am getting to like it. I'll get a new social security number. If I want a passport I'll have to use my real name. They explained that I can't be issued with a replacement birth certificate.'

‘That is the one proviso of a new identity, so don't plan any long distance travel for a while.'

‘Yes.' Long Liz sighed. ‘Penny, if you lot hadn't rescued me . . .'

‘You're safe now.' Penny Yewdall looked at the room; it was large and cavernous like a small aircraft hangar, she thought. Two uniformed police officers stood by a car with a plain-clothed driver waiting to drive ‘Long Liz' Petty into her new life, as Alice Adnam.

‘I'm going to the south-east,' Petty said.

‘You don't have to tell me,' Yewdall cautioned. ‘In fact, you shouldn't.'

‘Well, I'm a soft southern flower and I won't do well in the cold north and I want to learn to speak French.'

‘French?'

‘I'm going to do what you suggested, Penny. Take evening classes; French for Beginners. I might meet someone. If I do, I won't hide my past.'

‘Good. Always the best policy.'

‘And if I live near Dover or Ramsgate I can get a ferry across to France for the day, once I have the basics; see if I can go into a café and order some food. I don't need a passport to travel within the European Community.' Petty reclined on the hard bench.

‘You have it all planned,' Yewdall observed. ‘It's a good sign.'

‘It is?'

‘Yes . . . positive attitude.'

‘I dare say. So it was what you wanted?'

Penny Yewdall smiled. ‘Yes, it was a good result, a very good result. Rainbird, Herron, Magg, McAlpine, Primrose and Harley all with multiple life sentences . . . Pearl Holst, with ten years for conspiracy to murder, with four years for procuring for the purposes of prostitution swallowed up in that. I dare say that that will please her family no end. Your testimony and Davinia Bannister's testimony, and you putting your hair in the shed where Convers and Tyrell had done the same thing seven years earlier – nice DNA profiles to be had there to match the bones dug up in a wood in Enfield. And the Forensic Accountants are looking at their assets, Rainbird and Co.'s assets, I mean. Anything that cannot be proven to have been obtained lawfully, or bought with lawfully earned money, will be seized and sold off as proceeds of crime and the money donated to the public purse. So, if they come out, they'll come out to very little at all. A very nice result all round.'

A stern and stoutly built woman police constable approached and handed ‘Long Liz' Petty a padded envelope. ‘Your documents.' The constable spoke in a cold, detached manner. ‘Your new National Insurance Number, a Post Office savings account book in your name, with five hundred pounds credited to your name to start you off. Anything else you earn or claim as being unemployed. Do not make contact with the Metropolitan Police for any reason. If someone from your past finds you and threatens you, you must walk into the nearest police station and explain the situation; let them contact the Metropolitan Police, and you'll be given another new identity.'

‘Long Liz' Petty nodded. ‘Understood,' she said.

‘If you'd like to get in the car, please?' The WPC turned and walked away. ‘Long Liz' Petty and Penny Yewdall stood.

‘Well, I suppose this is it . . .' Long Liz said. ‘I'll send you a postcard from time to time.'

‘Yes, I'd like that . . . care of the Murder Squad, New Scotland Yard. Send me one when you arrive, and one each year after that.'

‘Miss Adnam!' The woman police constable stood indignantly by the car holding the rear door open. ‘We can't wait.'

‘Gotta go . . .' Petty began to walk to the car ‘Gotta new life to catch.'

The room was hushed. The man and woman stood up together, holding hands. The man said, ‘Hello. We are Harry and Kathleen and we are alcoholics.'

And the people in the room chorused, ‘Hello, Harry and Kathleen.'