Blood Rush (Lilly Valentine) (30 page)

So he’s not irked about Chika. It’s about money. Always money.

‘Since this shit with Malaya and Chika, people are taking liberties. They think I can’t do nothing cos the place is full of feds,’ Danny roars. ‘Well, they wrong.’

The audience mutters its agreement. Demi just nods.

‘We get out there and we find them.’ He lowers his voice and somehow that’s worse. ‘And when we find them, we bring them back here for me to deal with.’

Everyone begins to file out, so Demi stands too.

‘You, stay.’ Danny points at her.

She gulps. Why has she been singled out? She looks around her in panic. The others won’t meet her eye. When they’re alone Danny crosses the room to her. Up close, she can smell him. Sweat and cigarettes.

‘I want you to go over to Solomon Street. The police are
crawling
over the house but they won’t pay any mind to a younger like you,’ he says. ‘Speak to any junkies you can find. Someone knows who did this.’

Demi nods and backs out of the room. When she’s almost out of the door, Danny narrows his eyes at her.

‘And Demi,’ he says, ‘don’t you ever keep me waiting again.’

Annabelle’s cooker was spotless. Regardless, she scrubbed at it ferociously.

‘Have you really no idea where she might have gone?’ asked Lilly.

Annabelle reached for a bottle of hob cleaner and poured a generous amount of it on to her cloth. Her elbow moved in a frenzy as she pursued non-existent dirt and germs.

‘Annabelle,’ Lilly prompted.

As if she hadn’t heard, Annabelle threw open a drawer and extracted a wire brush. She held it up triumphantly before
attacking
the cooker.

Lilly raised her voice. ‘Annabelle, if you intend to ignore me then why the hell did you ask me over here?’

When Annabelle bent so that she could inspect her work at eye level, Lilly got up to leave. She needed to find Tanisha, if possible before Jack. Everything would look much worse if Tanisha had to be cornered by the police.

‘I think I know who killed Chika Mboko.’

Lilly skidded to a halt. ‘Come again.’

Annabelle went to the sink and rinsed her cloth under the tap. The water ran chalky white with cleaning fluid.

‘I had my suspicions as soon as I heard,’ she said. ‘But now they’ve conveniently found evidence linking Tanisha, I’m almost sure I know who did it.’

Lilly remained in the doorway, immobile and slack jawed.

‘I think you’d be better sit down Lilly.’

Lilly flopped into a chair, leaning her forearms on the table and letting them take her weight. Annabelle squeezed the last drop of moisture from her cloth, folded it neatly and, at last, took a place.

‘Almost ten years ago I fostered a boy named Daniel,’ said Annabelle. ‘He’d had a particularly difficult childhood but I was confident that with love and patience he could turn his life around.’ She paused as if considering how best to voice her story. ‘I underestimated the task.’ Annabelle swallowed. ‘Nothing seemed to help and Daniel went from bad to worse.’

‘A lot of foster placements break down,’ said Lilly.

‘It was more than that.’ Annabelle’s expression was pained. ‘He seemed to want to destroy everything around him, to take
pleasure
in it. He’s the only child I’ve ever been frightened of.’

Annabelle’s words struck a chord. Wasn’t that what Miriam had said about Chika?

‘In the end he broke me and I didn’t foster again,’ said Annabelle. ‘Then I met Tanisha.’

‘What does this have to do with Chika’s death?’

Annabelle put up a hand, begging for patience. ‘Since he left, Daniel has raised his game. He’s a big man these days. Drugs, guns, money-lending, you name it. He has a lot of power, Lilly.’

Lilly nodded. Whoever controlled the streets, controlled the people.

‘And that’s why I went to him,’ said Annabelle.

‘Went to him for what?’

‘For help.’ Annabelle put her face in her hands, rubbing her temples with her fingertips. ‘I knew he ran a lot of the gangs on the estates, so I asked him to intervene.’

Lilly couldn’t hide her shock. ‘You wanted him to interfere with a witness?’

‘I just thought he could speak to Chika. I was sure she was making the whole thing up out of spite anyway,’ said Annabelle.

The temptation to chastise was hot on Lilly’s tongue, but she stopped herself. Something told her that Annabelle’s story was about to get worse.

‘It was foolish to ask Daniel for a favour. I should have
remembered
that he’s not the sort of person to do the right thing,’ said Annabelle. ‘With someone like that, you have to fight fire with fire.’

‘How?’

‘I threatened him.’

Annabelle sat very upright in her chair, every inch the proper country lady, with her sensible clothes and clean nails. Not a woman who had just admitted to threatening a dangerous gangster.

‘I told him that if he wouldn’t help I would go to the police, that I would tell them exactly what he had done.’

Lilly pressed harder into the table to support herself. Men like the one Annabelle had described didn’t take threats lightly. ‘What did he say?’

‘He said he’d consider my offer.’ She let out a laugh. ‘Those were his actual words. Then one day when I was shopping, his car pulled up and he told me we were going for a little drive.’

She looked up at Lilly and even now her eyes were filled with fear. ‘Daniel is a very bad person.’

‘Did he hurt you?’ Lilly asked.

Annabelle shook her head. ‘He didn’t need to. He told me about the last person who had tried to persuade him to do
something
he didn’t want to do. That the man’s wife had been found in a canal and no one ever did work out why all her toenails were missing.’

Lilly’s throat constricted.

‘When I heard the knife had been found, I knew it was him,’ said Annabelle. ‘I crossed a line and this is my punishment.’

Lilly’s head whirled. None of it made any sense.

‘The knife has Tanisha’s prints all over it.’

Annabelle pointed to the block on the work surface. Lilly had seen her client take a knife from it and cut an apple. Now, one was missing.

‘Anyone could have sneaked in and stolen it,’ said Annabelle.

It seemed unlikely. And yet this was such a big house, a thief could have got in undetected.

‘Someone like Daniel would certainly know enough people capable of it,’ said Annabelle.

‘What I still don’t understand,’ Lilly said, ‘is why you even thought you could intimidate him. I’m sure the fact that he’s a crook won’t come as any surprise to the police, they just can’t pin anything on him. They never can.’

‘But that’s the point, Lilly, I
can
pin something on him. I have cast-iron proof that he had sex with an underage girl.’

‘Proof?’

Annabelle’s face was dour. ‘He’s the father of Tanisha’s baby.’

Trick and Jamie are hiding under the slide where they first struck up their friendship. They huddle together, counting the money for the third time. The blood on the third roll makes Jamie tremble. He refuses to think about JC’s head and how it split open like the shell of a boiled egg to reveal the white inside.

‘This is it,’ Trick whispers. ‘This is what I’ve been waiting for. We can go anywhere we want. Paris, maybe, or Las Vegas. I’ve always wanted to go there. See Elvis and that.’

Jamie doesn’t point out that Elvis died a long time ago. Or that they don’t have passports. Or that a thousand pounds won’t be enough for the plane tickets.

Trick lays his head on Jamie’s shoulder. ‘Where would you like to go?’

‘I don’t mind.’ Jamie can feel tears sting his eyes.

‘As long as we’re together,’ Trick’s voice drifts away. ‘That’s all that matters.’

Solomon Street is shut off by police cars at either end. The feds buzz around like flies, their radios humming and crackling. Demi is in her school uniform, her smile wide.

‘What’s happened?’ she calls out to one of them.

He looks her up and down before deciding she’s a harmless kid.

‘Someone’s been attacked,’ he says.

Demi opens her eyes as if she’s shocked. ‘Killed?’ The copper doesn’t answer. ‘Did you catch who did it?’ asks Demi.

‘No,’ says the copper, ‘but don’t you worry, miss, we will.’

‘Yeah right.’ Another girl has arrived to rubberneck, her eyes hooded, her mini-skirt revealing a rash over her thighs.

‘On your way,’ the copper hisses at her. ‘There’s nothing for your sort here, now.’

She makes a face at him and moves off. Demi moves with her.

‘Were you in there, then?’ Demi asks. ‘When JC got bumped?’

The girl eyes Demi with suspicion. ‘What do you know about it?’

‘I know I’ve got a bag of glass in my pocket with your name on it if you tell me what went down.’

The girl scratches her thigh, picking at the edges of a scab with her nail. She holds out her hand and Demi drops the wrap
without
making contact. She’s seen impetigo before and knows it’s catching.

‘Two of ’em, both white,’ the girl tells Demi. ‘Pair of queers.’

‘What?’

‘I seen ’em, with their hands all over each other.’

‘Do you know what they’re called?’

The girl shakes her head and looks over Demi’s shoulder, already bored with the conversation, desperate to use the gear.

‘I seen one of ’em around, you know, here and on the estate.’ She wrinkles her nose. ‘Proper habit he’s got.’

Demi almost laughs. Yet, if she’s learned one lesson in recent times, it’s that no one sees themselves as they really are.

‘The other one’s new. Some posh bastard slumming it.’

‘Do you know where they went?’ Demi asks.

‘No idea,’ the girl is already scurrying away, ‘but I doubt they’ve gone far.’

Annabelle brought Jack into the kitchen.

‘Tanisha’s not here,’ said Lilly.

‘Fuck it,’ Jack punched his thigh.

‘I think you should listen to what Annabelle has to say,’ said Lilly.

Reluctantly, Jack rested his hands on the back of a chair. He clearly had no intention of sitting.

Annabelle relayed the same account and Lilly watched Jack’s reaction throughout. Nothing in his face gave him away. He just listened in silence until Annabelle finished.

‘Thank you,’ he said, and turned to leave.

Lilly waved Annabelle to remain where she was, and went after him. At the door, she grabbed his arm.

‘I know it sounds unlikely,’ she said.

‘It’s a pile of shite and you know it,’ he replied.

‘Maybe or maybe not,’ Lilly still held his arm, ‘but think about it for a second. If Tanisha has gone to find this man, she could be in danger.’

He didn’t respond, but he didn’t move. Lilly took her opportunity.

‘If he thinks there’s any chance that Tanisha or Annabelle would get the police involved he might decide to do away with the evidence.’

‘I’m not convinced,’ he said.

‘You don’t need to be,’ Lilly replied. ‘You want to find her as much as I do. If we keep her safe into the bargain, I’ll be happy.’

He hesitated, then nodded and went back through to the kitchen.

‘What’s this mystery murderer’s full name?’

‘Daniel Kanio,’ said Annabelle.

‘Address?’

Annabelle shook her head.

‘What about his car?’ Lilly asked. ‘You said he picked you up in a car.’

Annabelle fluttered her hands helplessly. ‘I don’t know. Black, I think.’

Jack groaned and Lilly knew she would lose him if she couldn’t get something more concrete.

‘Was it the guy I saw you with?’ she asked. ‘I was on the porch and you didn’t see me at first. You got out of a black car and said he owed you.’

‘Yes, that was Daniel.’

Lilly turned to Jack. ‘Black Merc, private reg, DK … something.’

Jack pinched his brow and pulled out his phone. ‘DK 639?’

‘That’s it,’ Lilly squealed.

‘I’ll see what I can find out.’ He pointed to Annabelle and Lilly in turn. ‘You two stay here, and if Tanisha gets in contact, call me immediately.’

* * *

Demi trudges through the Clayhill, asking every user she comes across if they know anything. The name Trick comes up a few times, but no one knows where he is. If they’ve got any sense, this pair of jokers will be long gone. Then again, junkies aren’t well known for their common sense, are they?

That’s something Gran always says Demi has. Or used to.

When she gets to the edge of Clayhill, where Hightown begins, she knows she should go back. She may not be an official
member
of the CBD, but she’s known. If Yo Yo’s crew catch her slipping into their area, they won’t stop to ask for her credentials. She looks skyward, at the Nike trainers hanging from the telephone wire. A warning that anyone with common sense should heed, but Demi pushes on until she finds what she’s looking for. Sorry Gran.

An ordinary gate. To an ordinary swing park.

She pushes it open and goes inside. The place is deserted, no children playing and laughing. A prickle of recognition stings her. This is where it all began. This is where Malaya was attacked.

She imagines the scene. Chika, fit and fast, searching for
somewhere
to hide. Malaya, fat and clumsy, being tackled to the ground. She makes her way to the slide, where a dark patch tells its ugly tale.

‘Why the fuck didn’t you just do like Gran told you, Malaya?’ Demi demands. ‘Why didn’t you just go to school and stay out of trouble?’

Something stirs. A snuffle from under the slide. A dog? Demi peers into the cubby-hole. Two figures, completely out of it, wrapped in one another’s arms, blood spattered across their jeans.

Demi pulls out her phone and calls Rocky.

‘Tell Danny I think I just found them.’

‘No address, no phone number, no nothing.’

Carla Chapman smiled up from her computer. ‘Sorry, Jack, but this guy’s completely off the radar. Even the car’s registered to some woman in Ilford who died three years ago.’