Phil Rickman - The Secrets of Pain

‘Dangerous, you think.’

‘Very. I think.’

James said. ‘What about Savitch?’

‘That’s all circumstantial. The link is Hardkit, which supplies the equipment and know-how for Savitch’s hunting and paint-balling weekends.’

‘Was at his press launch today. Everything in place, all boxes ticked. Green energy, but also farmer-friendly.’ James craned forward onto his elbows. ‘No right at all to resent that man. My family, what’s left of it, we can’t do anything for the community any more – barely hold ourselves together. But Savitch is… Used to hear him sneering at anything that didn’t fit his ludicrous concept of what country life should be about. Now he smiles tolerantly, witters on wistfully about tradition. Not a sham, as such, he just…’

‘You can’t stand him, can you?’

‘Is it that obvious?’ James looked pale with defeat. ‘But he’s such an insubstantial man that it’s hard to see him getting down and dirty with the likes of Jones and Mostyn.’

‘I don’t think he does. I think that killing, for Savitch, is something done from a safe distance with a twelve-bore and nice gloves. I think he simply passes some clients on to Jones, probably via Mostyn, for a cut. And even then, I suppose, it’s like SAS selection – many won’t go all the way.’

‘And the ones who don’t slink quietly away? Don’t like it, Merrily. Army turns out men. Danger of this creating…?’

‘Monsters.’

‘All right. What’s the bottom line?’

‘That’s where it gets even more speculative.’

‘Then speculate.’

‘I’d much rather go and lie down in a dark room, but…’ Merrily pulled out her cigarettes without the usual request for clearance ‘… it’s just about conceivable, James, that, somewhere along the line, this takes in the killing of your cousin Mansel.’

She lit up, as the legs of James’s wooden chair screeched on the stained flags.

William Lockley was back on the phone within half an hour of James’s call. James just listened, his chin retracted, eyes half-closed.

‘Have to remember Mrs Watkins is not actually in your employ, William,’ he said after a while, then spent some more time listening and then barked, ‘All right, will do,’ and hung up. ‘William conveys his respects, with a polite request for you to pop into Hereford.’

‘Me? I’d’ve thought…’ Merrily had her cigarettes out again. She shut the pack and pushed it back into her bag. ‘Where in Hereford?’

‘Seems Colin Jones is coming into police headquarters in about an hour. Seems that after the events of last night, the police thought it might be a good idea to visit his premises. Jones said he wouldn’t be there today but, as he’d be in Hereford, he’d be happy to call in at Gaol Street. He says he won’t be pressing charges against the man who broke into his premises.’

‘Good to know,’ Merrily said, guarded.

‘Lockley thinks it would be a good idea to make the most of Jones’s presence. In view of what you told me, they’d like you to be there when they talk to him. As a consultant.’

‘They?’

‘William himself and the Senior Investigating Officer. Howe.’

‘Annie Howe asked for me? I don’t think so, James.’ She watched Alison leaning the barrow up against the house wall, then taking off her leather gloves. ‘I expect I’m the one who’ll look stupid if none of this stands up to scrutiny.’

‘That bother you?’

‘If it bothered me, I’d be in a different job.’

She called in at the vicarage to put out dried food for Ethel and check the answering machine. For once, no messages. On the way out, she noticed a brown Jiffy bag propped up against the wall and took it back inside.

The bag contained a large-format, lavishly illustrated hard-back book.

RISKING ALL

The SAS Experience

Another kill-and-tell Regiment memoir. By Trooper Z. There was a sheet of Black Swan headed notepaper, marking a page, Barry’s scrawl across it: More from the Public Sector.

There were just pictures on the marked pages, in colour. One with a pencilled cross against it showed a bunch of smiling guys in T-shirts holding up white mugs. The caption said:

Teatime in Colombia for (L to R) Greg, Syd, Jocko and Nasal.

Various guns were laid out on the parched grass in front of them. Syd was only vaguely recognisable; his teddy bear’s eyes were covered, like all their eyes, with a black rectangle. All dead. All dead now.

Except for Byron, of whom there was no sign.

Carly said, ‘Victoria… I reckon she thought Joss didn’t like her. Well, nobody likes her that much, to be honest. And like most of them she don’t care, but Joss was her little sister, you know?’

Little sister. Lemon hair and a frozen scowl. But you forgot; underneath, they were both little girls, citrus-haired Joss and Carly, with her black nails. Little girls who got the life beaten out of two women they didn’t know.

Carly said, ‘Victoria’s, like, I’ll find out who they are and we’ll deal with them?’

Bliss nodded in an understanding kind of way, while wondering how he could make her cry.

‘She explain exactly what she planned to do to them?’

‘Just deal with them. We never thought. It’s not like she’s, you know, gone that far before, is it?’

‘As far as we know, Carly. As far as we know. Tell me what you saw.’

‘Didn’t see nothing. I wasn’t looking. I mean, it was cool at first, but then you thought, like, maybe it’s not…’

‘Not that cool, eh?’ Bliss said. ‘Killing people.’

Carly turned away. Bliss eyed her with dispassion.

‘Let’s go back. I’m talking about after Joss phoned Victoria to say the sisters had left the Monk’s Head and were heading up towards the Cathedral. What happened then? What did Victoria do?’

‘She’s, like, in the middle of the street? The narrow street with the cobbles?’

‘Church Street.’

Amazing how kids could be born and grow up in this city and didn’t know the names of its streets.

‘And she, like, she’s got her arms folded – like this? And she’s not moving. Like, if anybody tries to come past, they’re gonner get… you know? And when these two seen her just standing there-’

‘The Marinescu sisters?’

‘Yeah. They, like cut off into this other street?’

‘East Street.’

‘Yeah.’

‘And did you follow them?’

‘We started to, but Vic walks over then, and she’s with this guy?’

‘Guy you knew?’

‘No.’

‘Joss know him?’

‘Don’t think so.’

‘You know who he is now?’

‘No.’

‘I’ll be asking you to describe him in a minute, and it better not be like the description you gave of the non-existent fellers who followed the Marinescus out. But let’s not break the flow.’

‘Uh?’

‘Was there anybody else in East Street?’

‘No.’

‘What happens next?’

‘Vic… she puts on these gloves.’

‘Kind of gloves? Black suede? Woollen mittens?’

‘Rubber gloves. Long. That, like, unroll up your arm?’

‘And the guy? He put on gloves too?’

‘I din’t see, to be honest.’

Bliss glanced at Mr Ryan Nye, who was looking down into his hands. Not yet five o’clock, but the light seemed to be fading early today, as if something had sent the year into reverse. Up at the end of the table, Karen was watching the tape machine as if it was a lie detector.

Bliss said, ‘Go on, Carly.’

‘Vic catches up with the… you know, the women, and she’s talking to them? We couldn’t hear what they were saying. Then, it’s like one of them… she just trips? Like, stumbles over? And the bloke’s come out of, like, nowhere, and he catches her.’