Betrayed (16 page)

‘I know this is hard for you,’ Rosie said. ‘Just take your time.’

Wendy continued. ‘He said that he saw me and Jimmy having a snog outside the pub when I finished my shift. He said it made him horny. Then he put his hand on my thigh and touched my breasts. I said to him to stop because I wasn’t interested. But he was turned towards me and leaning over me trying to kiss me. I tried to push him away and said I didn’t want to and that I was going out with Jimmy and I really liked him. But he wouldn’t listen. He said to me that he was Jimmy’s boss and that he wouldn’t mind me giving the boss one. Then … Then …’ Her voice trailed off and her eyes filled with tears. ‘Then he was on top of me and pushed the seat back so I was lying under him. He
pinned my hands above my head and held my wrists tight with one hand as he undid my trousers and pulled them down. I was crying at that point …’ She sniffed. ‘He told me to shut the fuck up or he’d really hurt me. So … so …’ She wiped her tears. ‘So I just lay there and let him do it. I couldn’t stop him. I was terrified.’

‘What a bastard,’ Rosie said, shaking her head. ‘And to think he’s still out there. He’ll keep doing that, you know. People like him don’t stop.’

Wendy nodded, wiping her tears. ‘I keep telling myself I should have stayed and gone to the police. But after he did it, he sat for a few seconds before he drove me home, and he told me that if I mentioned this to anyone he would make me disappear. He said he could do that. He said that I wanted it anyway because I didn’t even fight him. But that’s a lie. I was too frightened, I thought he was going to kill me.’

‘He’s a monster,’ Liz said, putting her arm around Wendy’s shoulder. ‘He’ll get his day, Wendy. Don’t you worry, pal.’

Wendy swallowed. ‘Then when he dropped me outside the house, he grabbed my arm and said to me did I know who he was and just how powerful he was. I nodded to him. And he said again, if you do anything about this you’re dead meat. He said he would put a bullet in me, and he might even put one in Jimmy as well just for badness. Or my ma.’ She took a tissue out of her bag and dabbed at her nose.

‘You must have been distraught, Wendy.’

‘I was. I didn’t even know what I was doing. As soon as I got into the house, I went straight into the shower and scrubbed myself red raw. I felt filthy. Then I came out and couldn’t stop crying. I didn’t know what to do. I put some clothes on, but I was shivering. I phoned Jimmy and started sobbing to him, but when I heard him saying he’d be over and that he’d kill Eddie, I knew he would get killed himself. Before I knew where I was, I was in the back of a taxi and heading for Glasgow airport. I sat there all night and when things opened in the morning I booked a flight to Malaga. All I had with me was the clothes I stood up in.’ She looked at Liz. ‘And I’ve been here since. Luckily, I’d been saving money up in my house and I had about five hundred quid below my mattress, so I didn’t take my bank card.’

Rosie looked at her. ‘Or your passport,’ she said, looking at both of them.

Wendy glanced at Liz, who raised her eyebrows and coughed.

‘Just tell her, Wendy. You might as well tell everything.’

‘I used a false passport,’ Wendy said. ‘False name on it.’

‘You used a fake?’ Rosie asked.

‘Yeah,’ she said, a little sheepish. ‘I’ve had it for a few years.’

‘We’ve both got one,’ Liz said.

Rosie puffed, taken aback. ‘What are you, a couple of gangsters?’ she joked, hoping it was the right thing to say.

She was glad when Wendy and Liz giggled like errant teenagers.

‘Long story,’ Liz said. ‘That’s for another time. But basically, we got ourselves in a bit of bother over here and needed to move fast. Fake passports are easy to get.’

‘I see,’ Rosie nodded, but didn’t much like what she was hearing. She could imagine McGuire when she told him. But part of her was quite taken by their chutzpah. It took balls to turn up at an airport with a fake passport.

‘I’ll buy you dinner when I come over again in a week or so and you can tell me all about it.’ She paused. ‘So. The big question is, girls, are you prepared to help me a little while we nail this bastard McGregor to the floor?’

Wendy looked at Liz, and after a moment they both nodded.

‘Yeah,’ she said. ‘Aren’t we, Liz?’

‘You bet we are. But we need to talk about it and get a bit more on what’s going on. Plus, we need to know that there are guarantees for our safety.’

Rosie finished her drink and put the glass on the table.

‘I’d be lying to you if I said it was without its dangers. Right now, we’re not sure how this is going to pan out. But as far as you two are concerned, then I’d just want you to keep your eyes and ears open for me. Maybe watch Flinty Jackson’s place in the next few days. See if you can pick any knowledge up discreetly.’

‘Okay,’ they both said.

‘But before you go,’ Rosie said, ‘I need to ask you something,
Wendy. You must have been tempted to get in touch with your parents. And Jimmy?’

‘I was,’ Wendy said. ‘I am. I’m dying to get in touch with them, because I saw the appeal in the
Post
. But I’ve just stayed lying low until I at least get my head together. I’m kind of getting there now, thanks to Liz. So I will do something soon.’

Rosie took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

‘To be honest, I think it’s better not to say anything right now. Let’s wait until we get this investigation under way. Until after the Rangers fans come to Spain for the match.’

She stood up and took money out of her bag and left it on the table, looking at her watch.

‘I’ve got to see a contact down here now. I’ll be in touch in the next few days, once I get to Seville.’ Rosie turned and left the bar.

‘So you leave me bleeding to death and now you come back here looking for my help?’

Rosie was smiling before she turned around. The voice, perfect English and full of the usual Spanish indignation, could only belong to one person.

‘Javier!’

He came towards her, grinning broadly.

‘You got a fucking nerve, woman.’ He kissed her on the lips then wrapped his arms around her, hugging her tight.

‘You’ve no idea how worried I was,’ Rosie said, her face
pressed against his neck. ‘Honest. I cried all the way home on the flight.’

Javier released her and gave her a sarcastic look.

‘Oh, yeah, sure. That’s why you bombarded me with visits in the past few months. Phone calls about my welfare.’ He put his arm around her shoulder as they walked outside of the hotel. ‘Come on. Let’s go.’

‘I was in Kosovo, Javier. Up to my eyes in all sorts of shit, then just back from Belgrade a few weeks ago,’ Rosie blurted, even though she knew he was winding her up.

‘I know. I saw the paper. Don’t you ever get tired fucking people up all over the world?’ He frowned. ‘They’re gonna get you one of these days. You know that, don’t you?’

‘That’s why I need your help.’ Rosie gave him a playful dig. ‘They won’t get me when you’re here.’

‘Fuck they won’t,’ he snorted. ‘They nearly did the last time. Bastards got me instead.’

He stopped next to a car and pressed a set of keys, clicking the alarm off.

Rosie looked up at his face, a little thinner than when they’d last worked together here a few months ago, but still a handsome bastard, and he knew it.

‘You saved my life, Javier.’ Just saying it brought a flashback of the night in Fuengirola when he took a bullet as they tried to escape the Russian gangsters. She was surprised at how choked she felt. ‘I’ll honestly never be able to
thank you enough. No bullshit.’ He hugged her again and they stayed like that for a moment.

‘It was a scary time, Rosie,’ he said, his face serious. ‘The whole trip. When I think back, I’m surprised sometimes we made it out alive – what with Morocco and all that shit.’

‘Me too.’ She stepped back. Enough of the sentimentality. She looked at his car. ‘Nice wheels. New?’

‘New to me.’ Ever the gentleman, he opened the door for her. ‘Your paper paid for it.’ He grinned as he went around and got in the other side.

‘Oh, the insurance,’ Rosie said as she sat in the passenger seat. ‘Hope they didn’t skimp on you.’

‘No fucking way. I wouldn’t have let them. They paid me decent compensation, I’ll give them that. Wounded in the line of duty. Should have got a medal – and that’s just for working with you,’ he chuckled. ‘But they took care of my hospital bills and compensated me while I wasn’t able to work.’

He drove out of the street and down towards the seafront – a mile-long stretch of high-rise hotels and English pie and mash bars serving everything but Spanish food.

‘Are you okay now, Javier?’ Rosie said, touching his arm. ‘Seriously.’

‘I was.’ He gave her a sideways glance. ‘Until Rosie Gilmour got into town.’

‘I’ve got a lot to tell you,’ Rosie laughed, rolling down her window to relish the setting sun twinkling on the water.

‘Good. You can tell me over a very expensive dinner then. I’m taking you to my favourite restaurant and you’re paying.’

‘I’ll be glad to,’ Rosie said, and meant it.

After dinner they sat on the terrace with coffee and brandies and Rosie watched as Javier gazed out at the yachts moored in the harbour. He had listened while she went through chapter and verse of the investigation so far, constantly interrupting her, as he always did, to point out the various pitfalls. As she expected, he was already ahead of the game. She had sent him a photograph of Flinty Jackson last week after she’d called to give him the bare bones of the investigation, and to ask him to come on board.

‘I’ve seen this
coño
,’ he said. ‘I had a look at him a few days ago, and I talked to a couple of trustworthy Brit friends I have out here. People in the know. Not some of the pricks you see around here in bars who think they are hardmen, I mean real gangsters.’

Rosie decided not to argue with him. This was Javier. If he wasn’t running the show, then the show wasn’t running. Or at least he had to believe that. They’d clashed many times before because his strident ways brought out the fire in her, and for some reason she brought it out in him. One time, after a blazing row during an investigation, she’d left Spain without even saying goodbye. But things had changed last year when she’d come down to the Costa del Sol in search
of the missing toddler, and all of them had been too close to death to be concerned about egos. She loved working with him, but she knew the next few weeks would be challenging.

‘So, overall, Javier. What do you think?’ She put her hand up. ‘I want to nail this guy to the floor before they leave Spain.’

He nodded slowly, then half smiled.

‘Of course you do. You’re Rosie Gilmour. I know you like to kick doors in.’ He handed her a cigarette and flicked the lighter under it.

‘You know what I mean. Ideally, we get them here, with the drugs, red-handed. Plus … don’t forget the kind of monster McGregor is. He raped that girl. He’s probably raped more girls and threatened them the way he threatened Wendy.’

‘Rosie,’ Javier leaned forward and squeezed her arm, ‘I’m on your side. Of course I am. For the rape of a young girl alone, I’d cut his
cojones
off. But these people are UVF. You know the risks. They don’t take prisoners.’

‘I know that.’

‘And if they are connected to people here, like that Flinty
coño
, then it will make this tough. I don’t want us to end up at the bottom of the ocean with a UVF brick tied around our necks.’

Rosie nodded. ‘Me neither. Adrian will be here too.’

Javier pursed his lips and puffed.

‘Jesus! Much as I like your big Bosnian boyfriend, he is one crazy
bastardo
. I still can’t believe he actually threw that paedo
coño
down the well in Morocco.’

They both laughed, remembering how justice was meted out to the murdering paedophile who had used children for snuff porn films.

‘I know. But he got what he deserved.’

‘Yes. But we were in the middle of nowhere. Here on the Costa del Sol, there are more gangsters than sun loungers. And many dealing drugs, coke especially. You put the heat on one, it affects them all. We need to be careful. We need to think this through.’ He took a long drag of his cigarette and let it out slowly. ‘Maybe we should get the cops involved here.’

Rosie put a hand up. Javier was a former detective with the Guardia Civil, but she wanted him thinking as a journalist, not as a cop.

‘I don’t fancy that, Javier. Spanish cops? They’ll not let us anywhere near it. I want to be close if they are getting busted. Cops won’t let us do that.’

‘We’ll see. Let me think.’ He wagged a finger. ‘And before you say anything, of course I won’t make a move on the cops until we speak about it and decide. Anyway, changing the subject. What time is your flight tomorrow?’

‘Late afternoon.’

He drained his glass and stood up.

‘Good. No need to rush back to your hotel. Come on. I’ll
take you to a very nice bar and buy you a drink. You can tell me about Kosovo.’

Rosie finished her brandy and got to her feet, glad Javier was up for the job, but slightly annoyed that she found herself traipsing behind him like the hired help.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Predictably, McGuire was less than impressed by the fake passport story when Rosie gave him the lowdown on her return from Spain. She had to keep a firm grip on them, he stressed. But for the moment he was more interested in putting the squeeze on the rent boy who supplied the crack cocaine to Jamie Coleman. Do whatever you have to do, he told her, but the
Post
wouldn’t be paying him one brown penny for his information.

The telephone conversation between Rosie and the rent boy had been brief, and she was a little surprised that her bluff had worked. She told him she knew all the details of what he did for a living, and a lot more about the dangerous coke he was pushing. Either he met her or she would pass the lot to the cops and he’d be in the pokey before nightfall. But she wasn’t that confident that he’d turn up for the meeting, as arranged, at the Clydeside.

She stood watching the Broomielaw traffic, her eyes
peeled for the red Ford Fiesta he said he’d be driving. Matt was positioned around fifty yards away in a doorway on the edge of the River Clyde for a snatch pic. He would need to wing it, Rosie told him. She’d no idea if the boy would even get out of his car. After a few minutes, a red Fiesta came towards her and slowed down. She inclined her head a little so she could get a look at his face behind the sun visor, and he seemed to nod in her direction. The car pulled in just a few yards up the road. Rosie walked to it, and the passenger window slid down as she approached.