Chapter 34
‘Stop!’ I shouted again, pointing to a man standing at the side of the country road. ‘Isn’t that George?’
‘Not his car,’ Robyn said, slowing down and coming to a standstill while peering through the windscreen to where a man stood on the verge, bent over and obviously deep in conversation with someone sitting on the grass.
He looked to be trying to take the other’s arm, trying to get whoever it was into the car.
‘It is George,’ she said. ‘And, look, he’s with Joel! ’
My heart sank, not at finding Joel, but that George and Joel obviously knew each other.
Were they in cahoots, both part of the town’s drug suppliers?
Joel obviously had been. And was he, for all his protestations to the contrary, still?
And had George, as one of the big boys, got a hold on Joel again for whatever reason?
Probably to shut him up, now that Rob Traynor had been hauled away with Henry CB.
‘Well, George obviously knows Joel,’ I said.
‘Maybe they met down at St Mede’s,’ Robyn said, unbuckling her seatbelt. ‘Hang on, George was at Sorrel’s goodbye breakfast over at Kamran’s place, telling us about his hens and bees. D’you remember? When Andy Somerville brought Joel over from Castleford?’
Of course! And I also suddenly recalled the intense, drawn-out look Joel had given George when he’d come into the kitchen and seen George sitting at the table.
I was fed up with it all; the whole tangled mess as to who was involved in Joel’s other, shady world and who wasn’t.
I jumped out of the car and raced across the road.
‘Get off him,’ I shouted at George. ‘I know what you’re up to!
Where are you taking him? Trying to shut him up before he tells the police what he knows about you and that bastard Singleton and Rob Traynor?
You managed, with a bit of luck, to finish Blane Higson off, didn’t you?
Ha, well, you can just leave Joel alone.
He’s coming back with me and Robyn. He’s trying hard to get away from you lot, trying to move on and…
and become a… a… a good guy… a dancer for heaven’s sake!
’ I reached out, pushing viciously at George’s hand on Joel’s arm.
‘Get off him…! Come on, Joel, come on, sweetheart. I know you were telling the truth why you were down at Queen’s Gardens last night. I’m sorry I didn’t believe you…’
‘What the hell are you doing, Jess?’ Robyn was at my side, pushing me away.
‘George is obviously in with Singleton’s lot. He’s as much to blame for the drug problem round here as Rob Traynor and Singleton himself.’
I stood up to my full height, glaring at George, who simply stared back, somewhat arrogantly, at me. ‘Go on, admit it, George – or do you have a different name as well when you’re dealing? Bet you do – don’t want to bring the Sattar name into disrepute, do we?’
‘You are part of it all?’ Robyn turned to George.
‘You’re a part of all this Queen’s Gardens lot that’ve been trying to get at Fabian?
Slashing his tyres? Trying to get him to work for you?
No wonder you’ve been so chummy with me down at school.
Trying to find out more about what Fabian was up to, I bet?
’ Robyn obviously saw red because, without warning, she suddenly turned and thumped George just as viciously on the arm, where I’d grabbed it a few seconds earlier.
I nodded. ‘I saw you down at Queen’s Gardens last night.
I saw you, saw your car, speeding up and down the drive as if you owned the place.
Oh…’ A sudden thought came to me… ‘You probably do! Singleton was only renting the place for himself and Ruby. I bet you, George, own that great big place down there? Bet, when you took me out to your oh so lovely farmhouse, asking for advice on the kitchen – ha – it was just a cover to make you seem like a decent human being. I bet, really, you were casing the joint, looking it over and planning it as new headquarters for your lot! You knew the police were on to you all and wanted a new place out in the sticks! Out on the moors! Hmm? Hmm?’ When George didn’t say anything, I went on, ‘Go on, George, deny it all. Deny you weren’t at Queen’s Gardens last night… ’
‘You read too much cosy crime, Jess…’ George started.
‘Never read fictional crime,’ I snapped. ‘Haven’t got the time, watching out for real criminals like you and Singleton.’
‘And I wasn’t.’ George, as cool as you come, repeated the words. ‘I wasn’t there last night. Ask your mum. I was at the theatre with her and Kamran.’
‘Oh, I know that! Great alibi, getting my mum to vouch for you.’
‘Oh, for fuck’s sake,’ George finally said, ‘Will you just shut up for two minutes, Jess?’
‘It’s Jessica.’
‘I wasn’t there last night. I’ve never, in my life, been to Queen’s Gardens. I obviously know Rob Traynor…’
‘Well, yes, you can’t deny that!’ I snapped.
‘But I’ve only just realised who Henry Cavendish Brown is.’
‘Darren Singleton?’ Robyn put in helpfully.
‘Look,’ George said, moving back towards Joel, ‘can we get Joel home? He’s had a bit of an argument with some rusty barbed wire, and it needs looking at.’
We all turned towards Joel who, unsmiling, held up his right arm. There was blood on his white T-shirt. ‘Might need a tetanus jab,’ Robyn said.
‘Had one recently.’ Joel shook his head. ‘Just needs cleaning up a bit.’
‘Well, he’s coming with us.’ I turned to George. ‘I don’t trust you with him. You might drive off with him somewhere.’
‘All right, all right!’ George put up two hands. ‘But let me follow you back to your place.’
‘I don’t know what for,’ I said crossly, turning to Joel, who’d still said very little. ‘That OK with you, Joel? George coming with us, I mean?’
Joel nodded, and a minute later Robyn was turning back the way we’d come a short time earlier.
* * *
‘Mrs Butterworth, we did ask you not to leave the house.’ A rather more senior-looking officer than the two who’d been left to babysit Lola and me the previous evening was in the kitchen, drinking coffee with Mum, Fabian and Kamran.
He looked up in some surprise as the three of us trooped in, and actually stood as George followed us in.
‘Mr Sattar?’
Ah ha! So, George was known to the police.
‘George,’ the officer went on, shaking his hand.
‘Ralph,’ George replied, smiling back.
Oh, God, don’t tell me the local police were all in on it. We’d be needing that Line of Duty bloke and AC12 lot in next. And was that maybe a funny handshake the pair had just accepted from each other? I glanced across at Robyn, but she didn’t appear to have noticed anything untoward.
And then Fabian took charge. ‘I think, Superintendent, it’s pretty obvious that Jess here was just an innocent bystander down at Queen’s Gardens last night.
’ (Not so sure about the innocent, I thought, remembering Henry’s creeping fingers up my leg.) ‘She was there to collect Lola, her daughter, who is Singleton’s daughter’s school friend. ’
‘We need to have her down at the station for a chat, sir,’ the officer insisted. ‘I know you’re able to vouch for Mrs Butterworth, Mr Carrington, sir’ – (oh the kudos attached to one’s being a KC!) – ‘but we obviously have to find out what she can tell us about the set-up down there.’
‘She’s absolutely shattered,’ Fabian said. ‘Had very little sleep. You can see how exhausted she is. So, if I stand as guarantor that I’ll personally bring Mrs Butterworth down to the station – and act as her advocate once there – can we let her get some rest now and leave it until Monday?’
Ralph, the superintendent, looked about to argue the toss, but with Mum and Kamran backing Fabian, he appeared to relent. I guessed he’d have had to actually arrest me if he wanted me to go with him there and then.
Once Ralph had left, Mum turned to the rest of us. ‘Right, Kamran and I are going to take Joel back up to our place and look at that arm. Then, we’ll feed him and let him sleep.’ She turned to Joel. ‘You can have Sorrel’s room, Joel. Would you like that?’
‘Mum, he’s not a three-year-old.’ Robyn tutted.
‘Well, if that’s all right with you,’ Joel said shyly. ‘That all right, Jess? Let you have the house to yourself? A bit of peace and quiet? I seem to have caused you enough aggro for one day.’
When I hesitated, he smiled. ‘And you’re quite safe with George. I promise.’
‘Safe with him?’ Kamran frowned. ‘Why wouldn’t she be?’
* * *
Once the others had all left, I sat down at the kitchen table, George opposite me. I felt utterly drained.
‘Right,’ George said, handing me the coffee he’d made for us both. ‘You first.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Well, you’ve clearly got it in for me for some reason.’
‘George, I saw your car down at Queen’s Gardens. And how do you know Joel? What were you doing with him?’
George sighed. ‘I was on the way out to your place. I wanted to see you.’
‘You wanted to see me?’
‘Kamran rang me – told me what had happened last night.’
‘Right.’ I felt a flicker of disappointment George hadn’t wanted to see me because he, you know, wanted to see me.
‘On the way here, I saw Joel. Not sure where he was heading, but he said he just had to get out for a while. You thought he was still dealing; he was pretty upset. He’d tried to cross a field and ended up in the barbed wire.
I was helping him into the car when you arrived, all guns blazing.
’ George pulled up his sleeve, rubbing at his arm.
‘George, your car was down at Queen’s Gardens last night.’
‘Doesn’t surprise me.’
‘Oh?’
‘I wasn’t driving it.’
‘Who was then?’
‘Mina.’
‘Mina?’
George nodded. ‘When the car came back from the body shop – you know, after Blane’s accident – Mina took the keys. She appears to have laid claim to it now.’
‘So, whose car is that you’re driving?’
‘A company car,’ George said, slightly impatiently.
‘OK, so why on earth was your girlfriend down there?’
‘She’s not my girlfriend. Any more.’
‘I’m sorry.’
George actually laughed at that. ‘Don’t be. I’m not.’