‘Listen to me you prick, I didn’t know about Emmie, no one wanted to hurt you. I shouldn’t have said it but you need to start talking.’
‘Get the fuck off me.’
‘Not until I get some names.’
‘No chance.’
Vaughn slammed his head down again on the concrete floor.
‘You and I both know you love her; we both do. Give me some names, Alf, don’t be a prick because you’ll regret it later.’
Vaughn saw the backup officers run into the room and he knew any moment they’d be dragged away.
‘Jason Hedley, you need to speak to him.’ Alfie winced in pain as the officers pulled him away. ‘Wherever he is, you’ll find Oscar and Emmie.’
Vaughn opened the window in his Range Rover and decided he was going to buy a packet of cigarettes. After the guards had arrived, they’d all been frogmarched into another room whilst the prisoners were taken back to their cells.
They’d waited for over an hour in the tiny locked room before they’d been eventually let out by two flustered looking prison officers. It’d been a hell of a wait as there’d only been two chairs in total, even though there’d been over thirty visitors crammed in.
In the chaos of the visit, he hadn’t heard his phone ringing and had missed a call from Oscar. He braced himself before listening to the message.
‘I’m disappointed not to get hold of you; I was rather looking forward to having a chat. Thought you might be missing someone? Don’t worry, she’s in safe hands. I’ll be in touch but I thought I’d send you a picture. This is becoming rather a habit don’t you think?’
Vaughn took a tentative look in the photo messages inbox and saw a glimpse of Casey, bound and gagged like Emmie was. He groaned angrily and flung his phone on the dashboard.
‘Fuck, he’s got her. I knew it but Jesus, now it makes it real.’
‘We need to speak to the police, Vaughn.’
‘We can’t. Oscar has his fingers up a lot of people’s arses; you couldn’t survive in this game if you didn’t. The minute we step into a police station, he’ll get wind of it. There are plenty of bent coppers about who are happy to mow the lawn on you if it means them getting a couple of holidays abroad each year. We need to go and see Jason Hedley – his name is the one which keeps cropping up. Somehow, you need to persuade him to let you go to the party he’s hosting.’
‘What about you?’
‘No, Jason and I have crossed paths too many times. No one down here knows you, so it’ll be perfect. All you have to do is use your acting skills and persuade him you’re desperate to have some perverse pleasure and let him know Lola sent you.’
‘I don’t know, it sounds chancy.’
‘That’s because it is.’
In every brothel they’d driven to, Josh had got the same answer from the overly done-up receptionists with their caked-on makeup and cleavages which would make a priest sweat.
‘Sorry treacle, I haven’t seen him. He turns up when he wants. I only work here; I’m not his keeper.’
‘Fine, I’ll leave my number and if he comes in, please get him to call me.’
The receptionists hadn’t even bothered to look up.
‘I think we’re hammering on brick walls, Vaughn.’ Josh sat back in the passenger seat as he drank a watery coffee
;
he knew it would be doubtful they’d come across a man like Jason Hedley so easily. Men like him only were found if they wanted to be.
‘I just got a call from my old buddy. I think we’re in business.’
Without warning, Vaughn sped off, causing Josh’s hot coffee to go spilling onto his lap.
Vaughn sped through the back streets of Islington, passing the Moorfield Eye Hospital and onto the City Road roundabout before turning left at Pitfield Street
,
then finally into Ashford Street.
Vaughn pulled up outside a disused block of offices and switched the engine off.
‘I hope you can play cards, because you’re off to the casino.’
Vaughn opened the glove compartment, pulled out a brown padded envelope and handed it straight to Josh.
‘There’s twenty thousand big ones in there, I want you to take it and make it look like you know what you’re doing. Give the impression if you lose it, there’s plenty more where it came from. Excuse my pun, but if you play your cards right and Jason
is
in there, he’ll come to you like flies gather round shit.’
‘You’re kidding, right?’
‘Just go in and act normally.’
Josh didn’t answer. He looked out of the tinted black car window, everything telling him to get out of the car and leave the Met to deal with it. His career would most certainly be on the line if anyone got wind of what he was doing. It was unbelievable to him how a couple of phone calls from Cass had turned into him being passed twenty thousand pounds by an infamous gangland criminal, albeit a retired one.
‘I thought you said you were with me. Not having second thoughts?’ Vaughn spoke to the back of Josh’s head as he gazed out of the window. For someone who was supposed to be a detective he had the balls of a fucking gnat. What Casey had seen in him, he didn’t know. Anyone would think he’d asked him to take out the President of the United States rather than go into a private casino and spend twenty grand of someone else’s money.
‘I need to think; problem with that?’
Vaughn actually had a great big steaming problem with that but he held his tongue. A few moments later, just as Vaughn was about to lose his patience, Josh spoke.
‘Okay, tell me exactly what you want me to do.’
Josh hadn’t thought he was dressed appropriately to go into a casino in his dark blue jeans and white shirt, but Vaughn had insisted as long as he had the members’ card it wouldn’t be a problem. Vaughn had been right; the laid back atmosphere and casually dressed punters made it feel less like a casino and more like a pub.
The decor of the casino was very understated, with plain cream walls and a thick red carpet specked with grey. The only feature which separated the place from any other social venue was the punters sitting down at the tables with large wads of cash piled in front of them.
Josh decided to go to the roulette table in the centre rather than showing himself up playing cards.
‘Lay your bets.’
‘I’ll have an outside bet. Five hundred on black.’
Josh placed some of Vaughn’s money on the black and watched the ball whirl round, clattering over the tilted circular track running around the circumference of the wheel. Although he was there for purposes other than to enjoy himself, he couldn’t help feeling a flutter of excitement in his stomach as the ball slowed down and bounced over the coloured numbers. He could feel the tension from the other punters round the table who’d placed inside and outside bets ranging from fifty pounds to double his.
‘Red 18.’
The sigh was audible from the others as the Japanese croupier called out the result and Josh was conscious of his shoulders dropping in disappointment.
‘Bets again gentlemen; rolling in one.’
‘Three thousand on red.’
Josh decided to go along with Vaughn’s advice and give the impression of not caring about the money; and really there was no reason he should – he doubted it was earned by good honest work: but he couldn’t help feeling guilty. It wasn’t in his nature to be frivolous with money and he didn’t enjoy the idea of wasting it, no matter who it belonged to.
‘Like a flutter, I see.’
Josh turned, rather startled after being so engrossed in the action on the green felt table, and saw he was almost shoulder to shoulder with a man whose teeth seemed to have been blasted with Dulux Brilliant White. The overpowering smell of expensive aftershave hit him and Josh moved to the side slightly, feeling rather uncomfortable having his personal space invaded.
‘It’s a fool’s game, but a rich fool’s.’
‘And which one are you, a fool or a rich man?’
Josh went along with the game.
‘I’d probably say a bit of both.’
‘I prefer cards myself. Do you play poker?’
‘No, never bothered learning. I thought seeing as I was going to lose my money anyway, what’s the point in spending hours learning to do it?’
The man laughed and then reached out his hand to Josh to introduce himself.
‘Jason Hedley.’
Josh was already prepared with his introduction. He shook Jason’s hand and smiled.
‘Good to meet you Jason, I’m Kelvin Armstrong.’
Jason nodded towards the roulette table and grinned as he held Josh’s hand in a firm grip.
‘Looks like lucky number seven isn’t shining on you today, Kelvin.’
‘Perhaps not in cards, but maybe in other matters. You’re a hard man to get hold of, Jason – I’ve been looking for you. Lola sent me.’
Oscar splashed water over his face as he relaxed in a bath full of bubbles in his large white marbled bathroom. His plan was coming together better than a bishop with a whore. He’d wanted to show Alfie not to fuck with him, and now he was going to fuck with Alfie instead. He was going to bring him and his whole empire down. As for the almighty Vaughn Sadler, it was fun to see him chasing all over London as if he was a fucking kitten after a piece of string. He was going to destroy him and leave him a broken man.
Everything was falling into place. The money, the women and the reputation, but especially the party. He was looking forward to seeing Casey squealing like a pig. Since she’d been on the scene she’d caused nothing but trouble. If it wasn’t for her, his ex-wife Lola would be pushing up fucking daisies; and for that Casey was going to pay.
He would stand back and watch as the sick and the perverse acted out their darkest sexual fantasies on her and he’d laugh when she bled, pleading for him to tell them to stop. Oh yes, pretty little Miss Casey would regret ever putting her nose into his business.
Holding his nose and leaning backwards, Oscar submerged himself under the hot water with a large smile on his face.
Josh stood in the hothouse, watching Vaughn re-plant a small pink rose bush. It was not what he had been expecting to see when he agreed to come back to Vaughn’s house.
It’d gone surprisingly well with Jason, and for a man with such a fearsome reputation he’d been very open about the party the minute Josh had talked about Lola sending him.
‘So apart from gambling, what other vices have you got?’
‘The same as any other man.’
‘I don’t know what any other man’s vices are, Kelvin. I know my own, but I wouldn’t presume to know yours.’
‘Where’s this going, Jason?’
‘Just curious to know how you like to spend your money.’
‘Well as I said, I was looking for you – surely that tells you something?’
‘Perhaps but I’d like you to spell it out. I wouldn’t want us to have any crossed wires, would I?’
Josh had instinctively sensed it was important to play on Jason’s overblown ego.
‘I met a guy called Rainton when I was serving a three for GBH in Strangeways and it turns out we had the same taste in women. He mentioned Lola and after I got out I decided to go and see her and she told me you were the man who could make things happen; she said you would sort me out. I’ve been out for a while and I’ve been asking around a bit, but you weren’t an easy man to find.’
Josh had stopped and watched Jason mull over what he’d just said. It was usually risky having an alias; in his experience they nearly always could be torn apart, but Kelvin Armstrong was as strong as an alias got. He’d used it when he was working undercover last year on a case involving underage girls working in a prostitution ring, and his department had made sure it was watertight.
‘I know Lola but I don’t know anyone called Rainton. When were you serving?’
‘Came out in June. Served all my time at Strangeways.’
‘Rainton?’
‘Sam Rainton. He knows you. Anyway, no matter.’
‘No, hang on, why don’t you leave me your number and let me have a think about it.’
It’d been an hour after he’d left the casino that he’d got the call from Jason. Josh had supposed he’d got someone to run a prison computer check on Kelvin Armstrong and his fictitious cellmate, and like magic the names would’ve popped up, confirming to Jason what he’d said was true.
‘We’ve got a party next month, I’m sure you’ll like it.’
‘I heard you were hosting one sooner than that.’
‘Well, not everything you hear is the truth.’
‘Whatever the price, I’ll double it. I’m in the mood for a good time; it’s been a while.’
Josh had waited, saying nothing and waiting for Jason to make the next move without seeming too keen.
‘What if we say thirty Gs?’
‘A bit steep, but I think I can manage it.’
‘Okay, meet me at the Grosvenor House
Hotel in the tea room at two. Bring the money and later on someone will call you with the details.’
‘I have to take back everything I said about you or thought about you, Josh; I’m impressed.’
‘I think we should inform the police.’
Vaughn slammed down the flower pot and faced Josh angrily.
‘Listen, we know Oscar’s providing the girls for the party, which means he’ll be there. What we don’t know is if Emmie or Casey will be – and if we do anything hasty we may never get them back.’
‘If they are there, we call the police. That’s the deal, Vaughn. I’m not going to this party if I don’t get your word.’
Vaughn pushed his face inches away from Josh and poked him in his chest.
‘I don’t like your attitude.’
‘At this stage, Vaughn, I don’t care what you like and what you don’t like. You can’t do this without me and I won’t do this without that promise.’
Casey stood in front of Emmie and smiled weakly; she was worried.
‘Are you okay?’ Emmie faced her, looking anxious. Casey knew Emmie wanted her to be strong and assure her everything was going to be fine and as hard as the pretence was, Casey was determined to do just that.
‘Think it must be the food; not exactly haute cuisine in here, I might even complain to the chef.’
It raised a smile from Emmie.
‘Are you ready to get dressed?’
Emmie nodded and Casey saw her lip quivering as she tried to fight back the tears.
‘Listen to me, Emmie, I will do anything I can to make sure we get out of here but I need you to be brave for me. Can you do that?’