David Belbin - Bone & Cane

‘Whose car is this?’

‘A friend’s.’

‘Didn’t want to risk being seen in a cab? You’re in trouble, a little bird tells me.’

‘I’m not in any trouble,’ Nick said.

‘Your girlfriend got you off, did she?’

‘She’s not my girlfriend,’ Nick said. ‘Just an old friend.’

‘You can’t be friends with a good-looking woman you’re not related to,’ Ed said. ‘Not without thinking about sticking it to her all the time.’

He was right, so Nick shut up. With the roads empty, the journey to the airport only took forty-five minutes, less if you didn’t stick to the speed limit. Nick didn’t want to spend that time talking about Ed’s philosophy of sex. He wanted to talk about murder. But it had to be Ed who brought the subject up.

‘What time’s your plane?’

‘Seven-thirty. Plenty of time for check-in.’

‘And you’re going to . . .?’

‘Far, far fucking away. The land of five-star fuck-and-suck with constant sunshine and warm seas on tap.’

‘Not taking Polly?’

Ed didn’t reply.

‘I suppose her and her kids would cramp your style.’

‘What the fuck is it to you?’ Ed asked. ‘You want her back?’

‘Why, have you finished with her?’

‘I won’t be using her for the next three weeks anyways. You offering to keep her in training for me?’

‘We were okay until you showed,’ Nick said, keeping his eye on the road ahead.

Ed laughed. ‘Look on your face, when you walked in on me and her. You had no idea, did you?’

‘Why should I? Did you think she’d have told me?’

‘Told you what? That she were kicking you into touch, or that she were fucking me before I got sent down the first time?’

This was the opening Nick needed to seize on, but his brain was slow at this time of the morning, whereas Ed seemed his usual self: bold, teasing, arrogant. He chose his words carefully.

‘What about when you got out the first time. Were you fucking her then, too?’

‘What do you think?’

‘The way Sarah tells it, you were arrested for the murders within two weeks. And wasn’t there a working girl in the story too? Doesn’t give you much time to see Polly.’

‘Her husband had gone by then, just her at home wi’ the two kids. She had all the time in the world for me.’

‘Was it then she told you Terry Shanks had been recording you?’

Ed turned to look at him but Nick kept his eyes on the road. ‘Where’d you hear that?’

‘Sarah. She said that was how you got caught.’

Ed was silent. Nick glanced round to see his reaction. Blank. He took a right turn at the roundabout by Nottingham University. The Derby Road was only a single carriageway, with the university on one side and Wollaton Park on the other, but it was wide enough for him to easily overtake a milk float.

‘I could tell you it all,’ Ed said as they bypassed Beeston.

‘Go on.’

‘But then, after we got to the airport, I’d have to kill you.’

Nick laughed unconvincingly. ‘It’s Polly I’m interested in,’ he said, ‘not getting you to confess what you did or didn’t do.’

‘Good thing,’ Ed said, ‘’cos I’ve got the money now, free and clear. And if you think I’m coming back to this shithole, you’ve got another thing coming. There’s enough in the kitty for me to start up again anywhere. Offshore account. No tax, high interest. What’ve you got to show for your five years inside?’

‘Fuck all. You mean it? You’re not coming back?’

‘What’s it to you?’

‘You work for my brother.’

‘That’s not it. You want to get back together with Poll. I’ll bet she’s the best you ever had.’

Nick played along. ‘We seemed to be getting close, for a while.’

‘You don’t get close to Poll,’ Ed says. ‘She keeps it all in.’

For a moment, Ed seemed to have stopped boasting. Nick had to be careful not to force it. ‘I thought she needed me,’ he mumbled.

‘She pulled the old hard-done-by routine on you, did she?’

‘You could say that.’

‘Aye, me too. I was a real sucker for her. All that time inside, thinking about when I got out, knowing she were on her own, waiting. Then, when I go to see her, she’s not interested.’

‘What do you expect when she thought you’d killed her brother and sister-in-law?’ Nick said, taking the exit for Long Eaton and the M1.

‘I didn’t mean the second time,’ Ed muttered.

Nick considered what he was saying. Polly had given Ed the cold shoulder when he got out of prison after doing six months for theft. Was that a motive for murder? Ed killed Terry and Liv to get back at Polly? It didn’t add up.

‘I don’t understand,’ he said.

‘I’ll tell you what,’ Ed said, ‘your life’s so fucked up, maybe you deserve a bit of advice.’

‘Go ahead,’ Nick said, adrenaline making him accelerate to ninety, before he remembered that he needed to make this journey last as long as possible.

‘If Sarah’s not interested, don’t go after Polly. She might have you, but she’ll lie to you, use you, take what she can, fuck you up and spit you out. She can’t help herself.’

‘Thanks for the warning,’ Nick said.

‘I’m tired of talking. Put radio on.’

Ed didn’t say another word during the journey. When they got to the part of the news where Sarah’s appointment was announced, he turned to Nick.

‘You knew about that?’

Nick nodded. Ed laughed long and hard.

Fifteen minutes later, Nick pulled up outside Departures at Birmingham Airport. They’d made good time. He would be back in Nottingham by six, when the sun rose.

‘You’re really not coming back?’

‘To Nottingham? Never. Police there’ll do me for the smallest thing, first chance they get. I’ll see what I find. I hear word Cuba’s opening up. My money’ll go a long way over there. I might get into tourism.’

‘There’s still one thing I don’t get,’ Nick said.

‘Only one?’ Ed asked, getting out of the car.

Nick put the hazard lights on and helped Ed unload his heavy bags. ‘Killing Terry makes sense. Revenge for putting you inside. But waiting around to kill the wife was such a big risk. It screwed your alibi. The kids could have been with her.’

‘Is that why you drove me here?’ Ed asked. ‘You thought you’d talk me into some kind of confession?’

‘They can’t try you again,’ Nick pointed out.

‘But they can try the real killer,’ Ed said. ‘It weren’t me killed Terry, all right? I’ll tell you one thing about Liv. The photos in the paper didn’t do her justice. She were right fit.’ He lowered his voice. ‘I like it best when they’re frightened.’

Ed loaded his stuff onto a baggage trolley.

‘I can manage from here,’ he said. ‘Hold on. I owe you something.’

Ed reached into his pocket.

‘I don’t want . . .’

‘Did you think I’d forgotten?’ Ed interrupted, as Nick stood, unguarded, in front of him.

He kicked Nick in the balls, hard. When Nick fell to the ground, in agony. Ed leant over him.

‘You’re lucky I’m only wearing trainers,’ he said. ‘If I’d known you were driving, I wouldn’t have packed me boots.’

37

Sarah took the 8.03 train to St Pancras. At least travelling first-class gave her a measure of privacy and peace. She needed quiet after sleeping badly, her mind alternating between excitement at her new job and sadness at being forced to dump Nick so soon after starting things up again. She’d had no choice and he’d understood. That didn’t stop her feeling bad about it.

‘Mind if I join you for a few minutes?’

‘You mean until they come and inspect the tickets?’ Sarah waved Brian Hicks into one of the free seats opposite her.