Vanished Beneath: DS Lasser six (The Lasser series Book 6) (47 page)

'Give it a rest Albie, Sharon Cliff might have been a mistake, but what did you do when she died, did you come to us and confess? No, you went out and did Hancock in the Vic and to top it all off you were even thick enough to go after Mellor.'

'I...'

'I mean, have you any idea how Norvil will react when he gets your name?'

Albie started to shake as if the fence were electrified.

'The man is an
animal
and you go and kill his
bloody brother,
' Bannister shook his head as if he couldn't believe the stupidity of the man.

'Please you can't tell him!'
Albie wailed.

Lasser leaned in close. 'Listen Albie you tell us everything you know about the woman and we might be able to get you in solitary confinement for the rest of your days.'

'But...'

'Now why did she get in touch with you, who gave her your name?'

'She said she got it from Donny Elliot, she said you lot had collared him and she was looking for someone she could trust to get this stuff out there...'

'But didn't you think it strange that she gave you the name of the person she wanted you to try it on?' Lasser asked.

'I don't know, I didn't think, I mean, when she mentioned Sharon I knew she'd be up for it, she loved stuff like that, anything new and...'

'But didn't you ask how she knew Cliff?'

'No,
she just told me the name and left me some cash I...'

'So you saw the pound signs didn't you, Albie, you had no idea that she was setting you up.'

'Honest, I didn't have a fucking clue.'

'Just like she set you up to come and get the cash from the bin,' Odette said.

Albie's head slumped forward, the trail of snot plopped into the short grass. '
I trusted her
,' he whispered.

'Only because you had no choice,' Odette said. 'She had you good and proper didn't she? You couldn't run, you couldn't come to us, she stitched you up knowing all along that when you'd taken care of Boris Mellor that she was going to grass you up.'

'I fucking trusted her,'
Albie repeated as if he couldn't believe he had been so foolish.

'This woman played you and Elliot she knew she needed an idiot and you couldn't wait to jump in there - could you Albie?'

Albie looked up and nodded slowly.

Lasser sighed. 'One more thing before we go, did she want you to go after Norvil Mellor as well?'

'No fucking way.'

Bannister frowned. 'Are you telling porky pies, Albie?'

'That's what I was doing here - she said Boris was the last one. I thought she'd want the other one done as well but she said no, it ends with Boris.'

Bannister spun him around again and clapped a nylon tie cuff to Ross's wrist.

'Right you two I'll take care of our friend here, you two go and pay the Frodsham girl a visit I want her brought in for questioning and I want it done right now.'

'But...'

'Don't bloody argue with me Lasser, me and Albie here will take a leisurely stroll back to the car won't we Mr Ross?'  

Albie nodded.

'So get a move on I want answers and I want them bloody quick.'

Odette and Lasser set off at a jog, when Lasser glanced over his shoulder Bannister was blowing a cloud of smoke into the air. When the DCI spotted him he gave a small contented wave.

'
Tosser
,' Lasser mumbled.

Odette gave him a curious sidelong glance.

120

Pitt awoke with a start, the light coming in through the bedroom window felt cool no more than a token gesture from a sun than was on the wane.

He checked his watch with bleary eyes blinking at the screen in disbelief when he realised he'd been asleep for almost two hours. Slipping from the bed, he stretched his arms towards the ceiling, the funny thing was he hadn't heard from Norvil all day. Pitt frowned, after the state he was in he'd been expecting the scrap dealer to be on the blower every five minutes for an update.

Cracking his head from side to side, he wandered onto the landing and into the bathroom before taking a leak. While he relieved himself, he studied his reflection in the mirror, all things considered, he was a good looking bloke, only trouble was getting a bird was pointless, the amount of steroids he took meant that his tackle no longer worked properly.

With a frown, he shook the last of the droplets away before pushing his shrunken member back into his trousers and flushing the toilet.

Turning on his heels he headed back into the bedroom and looked down onto the deserted street. This estate was a shithole overrun with animals who didn't give a toss about anyone else other than themselves. It reminded him of the place he had been brought up in, the same box like houses the same weed infested gardens. Pitt shuddered at the memory before moving back to the bed.

Dragging out his phone, he brought up the name Norv and pressed the call button, after a few seconds it went through to voice mail.

'It's me Norv I've found some of the stuff and I'm at the house but the birds not shown up yet so I'm gonna hang around for a bit and see if she turns up. If not, what do you want me to do?' he paused as if waiting for an answer before ending the call.

His stomach rumbled and he suddenly realised how hungry he was.

'Might as well see if she's got any nibbles in,' he mumbled before heading down the stairs to scavenge for food.

121

Amy pulled up outside the house and turned off the engine, looking at the place where her sister's life had started to come apart made her feel sick.

Her eyes travelled down the street as if looking into the past, when she'd moved away from the area she'd begged Kylie to come with her but her sister had refused, saying she'd met a bloke and they were going to live together.

Amy had been offered a job in Liverpool, a good job with prospects, it offered her a way out of this town that clung to you like a foul smell, this town that offered nothing but a life with no hope.

The move had worked out well, within six months she'd been promoted, her salary had risen dramatically and she moved into one of the dockside apartments. Only problem was she had to work endless hours to keep ahead of the game and the visits home had become infrequent and in the last four months non-existent.

She'd spent three days trying to contact Kylie without any luck, in the end she'd made a conscious effort to drive back to the town she hated so much.

When she'd looked through the window her sister had been slumped in front of the fire in just her bra and pants. Amy had knocked on the window in an effort to wake her, her fists banging ever harder in rising fear.

In the end she'd dragged her phone out and called the police and ambulance service.

She'd tugged on the door in desperation and then hurried around the back, her eyes taking in the unkempt garden, the washing hanging on the makeshift line as if it had been there since the year dot. Scrabbling in the border she'd found half a brick and slammed it against the glass of the back door, reaching in she had felt the key in the lock and twisted it before barging through the door.

The smell of the place had taken her breath away, from the corner of her eye she saw the mound of dirty pots in the sink and then she was running down the hallway and into the living room.

'Kylie!'
she'd screamed her sister’s name before sliding to her knees by her side.

Kylie's eyes fluttered but refused to open, her hair was drenched with sweat. Amy had looked down at her body, at the scars and bruises, the red-pitted marks that looked like cigarette burns.

'Oh Jesus, Kylie what has he done to you?'

Amy's hands had fluttered over her body in fear of touching her, terrified to hold her.

Then she'd heard laughter and snapped her head around, two teenage boys stood peering in through the front window their faces pressed up to the glass, one of them poked out his tongue and slid it across the window, the other one grinned in at her.

'Spread her legs and give us a look!'

Fear had turned to anger and Amy had flown across the room.

'Animals!'
she screamed, her fury swamping all other emotions.

One of the boys leapt back as her hands hit the glass, the other one didn't move.

'Come on, we can give her a good
seeing to,'
he said with a sneer.
'Everyone else has.'

Amy’s hands made a squeaking noise as they slid down the glass, when the boy moved back from the window she could see he was holding his erect penis in one hand.

'Come on what do say bitch ya gonna let us fuck her or not?'

Amy turned and vomited onto the floor the sound of their diminishing laughter drilling into her brain.

Five minutes later the paramedics had arrived and before she could even register what was happening she was in the back of the ambulance as it flew towards the hospital.

Amy sighed at the memory before unclipping her seatbelt and climbing from the car, she headed down the path towards the front door on leaden legs. 

122

'What I can't understand is why the killer would want to leave Norvil Mellor alive?'

They were heading through Leigh town centre, the shops closed for the day, the streets deserted.

'Maybe it was something Boris did and Norvil wasn't involved.'

'But if it is drug related then surely they come as a package.'

Lasser shook his head. 'Well like we said before the drugs are secondary, this is all about revenge, and I can guarantee Boris will have done something bad, it's the way he was made, act first and then hope his brother can clean up the mess.'

'So what do we know about Kylie Frodsham?'

Lasser indicated right and turned down the side of a row of boarded up shops, the plywood sheets covered with flyers. 'To be honest not much, it was Joseph Crank’s sister that mentioned her but only as a link with Mary Sheldon. I mean, you know what the jobs like, you set off to do one thing and then something happens and it gets pushed to the end of the bloody list.'

'Tell me about it.'

Lasser sniffed. 'And where the hell did you learn to run like that?'

'I used to run for the county, cross-country and long distance but I'm not as fast as I used to be.'

'Christ I'd have hated to see you in your
prime,
' Lasser mumbled.

'That's what the cigs do to you, but you didn't do too badly.'

'That's the first time you've tried to spin me bullshit,' he said with a smile slowing down to let a young couple dash across the street.

'OK then, you ran like a girl.'

Lasser barked out a laugh and Odette grinned at him.

Five minutes later, they were out of the town centre and heading into open fields. Odette looked out of the window and frowned. 'I thought the estate would have been back that way,' she said hooking a thumb over her shoulder.

'Ah well, you have to think of this place more as a leper colony rather than a housing estate.'

'That bad?'

'Oh yes the place would make a good setting for one of those zombie holocaust movies but believe it or not there are some good people, it's just that they're slowly being pushed out by the bad.'

Lasser came to a roundabout and swung left, the estate seemed to leak into view like a spillage from a chemical warfare's factory.

Odette frowned as they drove down a street littered with diamond chunks of broken glass. Nearly every other house was boarded up, galvanised sheets of metal over the doors and windows rather than the normal cheap plywood.

A gang of kids ranging in age from late teens to mere children of ten or eleven watched as Lasser drove slowly by, their faces pinched, eyes narrowed.

'What chance do they have living all the way out here?' Odette asked with a sigh.

Lasser grunted in response and then took a sharp right turn. Even though the light was rapidly fading none of the streetlights were firing into life and Odette suddenly realised where all the broken glass had come from.

'They've smashed all the streetlights.'

'The council got sick of replacing them, it was costing thousand, besides the hoodies don't like em, they like to sneak around in the shadows.'

'Very dramatic.'

Lasser shrugged. 'You know what I mean. Ah, this should be the one,' he pulled up outside the house and snatched on the handbrake. 'Right lets go and see if the elusive Kylie Frodsham is at home.'

Climbing out, Lasser walked over to the gate and held it open for Odette who moved straight for the door and banged on the woodwork. Lasser moved to the window and peered inside frowning in surprise when he saw the neatness of the room.

Odette banged again.

'I'll check round the back,' Lasser said as he headed along the side of the house.