Cath Staincliffe - Dead Wrong

‘I don’t like this,’ Siddiq said to Zeb.

Zeb climbed into the driver’s seat. ‘What about Sonia, the video tape from the club?’

Trust them to remember that – my spur-of-the-moment threat.

‘Destroyed,’ I said, ‘they tape over them after a fortnight’ The bluff worked.

‘You told anyone about this notion that Sonia wasn’t there?’

I thought my way around it. ‘It would help,’ I said diplomatically, ‘if you could find someone else who remembers seeing her, like you did. It might come up.’ I talked as though there would be a trial, that Luke would stand accused. Whatever Jay had promised, I needed to convince the two men who had me captive that the deal was sound.

The silence on our return journey was interrupted by the bleeping of my mobile phone. Ray calling to check why I wasn’t back. The phone was still in Siddiq’s pocket. He fished it out and handed it to me, indicating I should answer it. I did.

Dermott Pitt’s voice ricocheted round the car. ‘Sorry to ring so late again but you did ask to be informed as soon as we’d made any progress. Thought I’d give you a try, see if you were still switched on. CPS have been back to me.’

My neck prickled and I moved to cut the connection. Siddiq clocked what was going down immediately. He gripped my wrist and took the phone from me.

‘We gave them the tape and the Deason boy’s evidence put the fox among the chickens all right,’ Pitt’s voice went on suavely, ‘should be no problem with the bail application and they’ve as good as said they’ll refer the whole thing back to the police. So your Mr Siddiq should be off the streets pretty sharpish. Good news. Thought you’d like to know. I hope to-’

Siddiq cut him off and slammed the phone against the headrest in front of him. ‘Shit.’

‘Fuckin’ ‘ell,’ swore Zeb. ‘I knew she-’

‘Park-up, off the road,’ barked Siddiq.

‘Where?’

‘Anywhere,’ he shouted, ‘somewhere quiet.’

My mind went wild with confusion, I fought to concentrate, to make a plan but I couldn’t settle my panic. And I knew that now they would never let me go

‘Showcase,’ said Zeb. He swung into Hyde Road, drove fast past the bus depot, used-car showrooms and derelict buildings. The multi-screen cinema had a large car park. It would be deserted, this time of night.

‘She taped him,’ said Zeb, ‘she taped Joey D. The law have got it now. Shit, man. This is doing my head in.’ He swerved into the car park which was large, black and floodlit. The rain had stopped but everything was glistening in its wake. There were cars near to the building, presumably for late screenings, but the far end was empty.

Zeb parked as far from the buildings as possible, at the very perimeter. We could not easily be seen from the busier end of the car park. There was just one car nearby. I assumed it was a breakdown or stolen. Or a courting couple? Hope leapt for a moment until I looked and saw no sign of people, no steamy windows.

Zeb turned round to face us. ‘She pretends to do a deal and she’s already stitched us up. Bitch.’

‘Get out of the car,’ Siddiq spat the words at me and got out.

‘What you going to do?’ asked Zeb, following him. ‘Rashid, what you gonna do?’

‘Get out of the car!’ Siddiq screamed at me. I climbed out trying to plot an escape route, uncertain where to run. Siddiq gripped my arm again. It hurt badly. ‘No one does this to me,’ he hissed, ‘you’re going to have an accident. Fatal.’

Zeb began to speak rapidly. ‘Hang on. Think it through, man. You can’t…they’ll know it’s you. They’re looking for you, soon will be, and they know she dropped us in it. They’ll do you for her as well. We’ve got to think it through. We need to be clever, this time.’

‘I’m the one goes down, not you, not your fucking brother. We should have just left it, left Ahktar. If we’d just left it…’

‘Don’t blame me, man. It wasn’t my idea to do the whole witness stuff. Don’t lay that on me, that was Jay.’

‘He blew it. Worried about the Force rooting round, worried it’ll get too close, for comfort. Wanting it sorted. And this tart pulls it out the bag like a fucking magician.’

‘Killing her won’t help, will it, eh?’ I couldn’t believe Zeb was pleading for my life. ‘It’ll make it worse.’

‘I’m not doing it. You are.’

‘No way. You’re mad, guy.’

‘You run her over.’

‘Shit!’ He shook his head, backing away, ‘They’ll trace the car, anyway.’

‘Torch it, report it missing. Joyriders.’ Siddiq took the keys from Zeb and dragged me round to the boot. ‘They knocked her down, reversed over her. Freaked out and torched the car.’ He opened the boot, got out the spare petrol can.

‘And how did she get here? Her car’s in friggin’ Old Trafford. Use your brain. This is mental. I’m not doing it, I don’t want any part of it. You’ve lost the fucking plot, man.’

‘You are part of it, you wanker. You’re pushing so much up your nose your brain’s melting. If it wasn’t for you, none of this would have happened. None of it!’ he bawled. His grip on my arm was so hard my fingers were going numb.

‘I know that. You think I don’t know that? You think I don’t think about that? It was my cousin,’ Zeb was losing his temper, too, waving his arms as he ranted. ‘But you should have known. Hell, Rashid, you work with me and don’t give me that crap about the jacket. You need your bloody eyes examining. You cocked it up, Rashid – not me, not Jay, not Mohammed – you! Jay should have dumped you then; I should have dumped you. I couldn’t believe it, you killed my cousin and then you tell me it should have been me! Like it’s my fault! Bloody ‘ell, man.’

He shook his head, still incredulous at it after all this time. ‘You’re telling me my darling brother’s ordered my doing over, ‘cos I’ve overstretched the bank, and you’re telling me you’ve killed my cousin by mistake and you’re asking, begging me for help. Threatening to grass us up if I say anything. I still can’t believe I did it, but I helped you out, Rashid. Don’t you forget that, man. I got Luke.’

‘Oh, yeah? You didn’t give a fuck for your cousin; you don’t have no honour, Rangzeb, none. All you care about is snorting it up your nose and saving your arse.’

‘I lied for you. I set Wallace up for you and you, you just pull us all deeper in the shit…’

‘Shut it,’ his rage distorted the words.

‘They’ll know you done Joey D now. They’re soon gonna suss that.’

‘It was an overdose,’ I blurted out in surprise.

‘Oh, yeah? And how come he gets pure smack? Little gift Rashid arranges to come his way once he’s tracked him down in Chester.’

Oh no. I felt sudden tears and sniffed them back.

‘He wouldn’t have taken stuff from any of you. He was petrified,’ I protested.

‘He didn’t know who sent it, someone else made the delivery,’ Zeb said scornfully. ‘And now you want to do her. It’s not my head that’s in a mess, Rashid. You’re a fucking psycho. I’m out of here.’ He wheeled and stalked off.

Rashid lifted me up and threw me into the boot, as if I was a child. He slammed the lid down. It didn’t catch. In the gloom I could see the line of light begin to stretch. I reached out and grabbed it, held it down, my fingertips clinging to a ridge of metal along the edge. It was instinct: a chance to escape. The boot must have looked all right to Rashid. My heart was pounding. I wriggled round trying to get in a good position for climbing out.

I could hear footsteps grating on the tarmac. Grunts and a shout. It sounded as though they were some way from the car.