The Late Greats Read online

  ‘Why would I?’

  ‘Because he’s wanted back up here.’

  ‘I’m not his keeper.’ He sipped his drink. ‘Tell me what Priestley had to say, then’

  ‘He wanted to tell me he hadn’t killed Tasker.’

  ‘That’s all?’

  I nodded.

  ‘Not much of a defence, is it?’ he said.

  ‘Depends if he needs one or not.’

  ‘Did he mention Lorraine Harrison?’ Whittle asked.

  The question threw me. ‘Why would he?’

  ‘You know who she is?’

  I said I did. I didn’t offer anything further.

  Whittle made sure he had my attention. ‘I’m led to believe Priestley has a thing for her.’

  I thought about it. ‘Major told you this?’

  He nodded his confirmation. ‘I’m sure I don’t need to tell you Tasker and this Harrison woman had a relationship in the past. Seemingly, it caused a lot of tension in the band. I don’t suppose we’ll ever know the full story, but I would suggest if there was some jealousy between them, it gives Priestley motive as a potential suspect. Maybe you should speak to this Harrison woman and see what you can find out?’

  I said I would. Lorraine definitely hadn’t said anything like this to me about Priestley. And nor had he.

  He drank up and got ready to leave. ‘Keep me informed, please.’

  ‘One other thing’ I said, stopping him leaving. ‘Now you know I’m doing my job for you, you can call off whoever you’ve got following me.’

  Whittle looked puzzled. ‘Why would I need to have people following you?’

  Once Whittle left, I sat in the corner of the pub and stared at my drink, thinking things over. If it wasn’t Whittle or DI Robinson having me followed, I had no idea who it was. It was beginning to weigh on my mind. I was sure they’d introduce themselves before too long, but it was the manner in which it would be done that worried me. I didn’t expect it to be a civil chat. My mobile vibrated in my pocket. I answered it.

  ‘Fancy a chat, Mr Geraghty?’

  It was Robinson. ‘When?’

  ‘I’m in the car park.’

  ‘Where?’

  I heard a car horn sound.

  ‘Your assistant told me where I’d find you.’

  ‘She’s my partner.’

  ‘Of course. Don’s daughter?’

  ‘That’s right.’ I put the phone back into my pocket and left the pub. I spotted Robinson, walked over and opened the passenger door. ‘What can I do for you?’ I said.

  ‘We’ve got a few things to talk about.’

  ‘I thought we might have.’ I got into his car.

  He drove out of the car park, turned left towards Beverley Road. ‘I’ve spoken to Mr Whittle, who I believe you know’ he said. ‘He tells me that Kane Major has had to return to London on urgent business.’

  ‘That’s right.’

  ‘Are you happy about that?’

  ‘About as happy as you, I should think.’

  He smiled. ‘I’m pleased we’re on the same page. Now, to be frank, I don’t know who this Mr Whittle thinks he is. If he thinks he can come into my station and demand I answer his questions, he’s very much mistaken. Kane Major remains a person of significant interest to me and I haven’t finished with him yet. I want him back here in Hull immediately.’

  ‘I’m not his keeper.’ I used the line Whittle had used on me. I looked out of the window. He turned onto Cottingham Road. A hundred yards further, he indicated left again. Newland Avenue. We were heading back to where we’d just left.

  ‘I assume you can speak to him. Tell him I’ll be much happier if he comes back and makes himself available to me.’

  ‘I’ve been trying his mobile. It’s switched off.’

  ‘Try harder.’

  ‘I’ve tried.’ I didn’t like the situation any more than he did, but I didn’t like his attitude either. ‘You must have contacts down there who could give him a knock.’

  ‘No luck so far.’ Robinson pulled up. We were halfway down Newland Avenue when he pulled over. I was about twenty minutes away from my flat. He turned towards me. ‘I warned you, didn’t I? I told you to leave this alone, Mr Geraghty, but you didn’t listen to me. You had your chance.’ He turned away again. ‘I’m not going past your flat, so you best get out here. You and Mr Whittle had best get your heads together on this and make Major reappear or there’s going to be trouble.’

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Julia rang my mobile. She apologised for earlier. I told her there was no need. I understood. She was calmer now and ready to talk about it some more. I said I’d go to her hotel. It was cold, but the walk to the city centre would help me think.

  Her hotel room was a mess. Her laptop was on the bed, in the middle of notes, newspapers and various printouts. I put them into a neat pile and sat down. She looked better. She’d had a shower and changed.

  ‘I wasn’t expecting it to hit me so hard’ she said, sitting down opposite me. ‘It’s only his brother, after all. It wasn’t even Gary.’

  ‘It’s only natural’ I said.

  ‘It’s been so many years since I’ve seen either of them. I didn’t think it’d bother me anymore.’

  ‘A bit of a shock to the system’ I said. ‘It’s understandable.’

  She smiled. ‘You could say that. I don’t know what I was expecting, really. He just looked so old and nasty.’

  I’d read somewhere you get the face you deserve when you hit forty and Trevor Bilton didn’t look like a five-a-day man to me.

  ‘I used to think Gary had an edge to him. Nothing serious’ she said. ‘I suppose being a stupid teenager, I did it to annoy my parents. Eventually, they gave me an ultimatum. I either had to stop seeing him or leave home.’

  ‘Really?’ It seemed a bit extreme.

  ‘I ignored it at first. I didn’t think they meant it, but it blew up into a massive row. I packed my bags and moved into Gary’s flat with him.’

  I nodded. ‘How long did you stay there for?’

  ‘A few months. At first it was great, but it didn’t last long. His brother started to get involved. Trevor was always digging away, encouraging Gary to stop me from seeing my friends and having my own life.’ She shrugged. ‘That was the way he treated his girlfriend. I used to hate Trevor. Really hate him. If he told Gary to do something, he’d do it without question. If Trevor hadn’t been around, it might have worked out better, but in the end, I had to get away from both of them.’

  I reached across for her hand. This time she let me. ‘We don’t have to talk about this’ I said.

  She took a deep breath. ‘I want to. If we’re going to deal with them, you need to know what they’re like.’

  ‘How did you get out?’

  ‘I ran away. I stole some money and got on a bus to London. I had a friend who was studying down there and she was kind enough to let me stay with her whilst I got myself sorted out. I told her I’d fallen out with my family, but nothing more than that. You’re the first person I’ve really told about this. I couldn’t go back home after the arguments. I wasn’t there when Mum died and Dad never forgave me. It was a horrible time, but it made me grow up fast. I knew I didn’t want to become reliant on anyone ever again. I wanted to go back to my studies and be me again. I found a part-time job and got myself sorted. Made a life for myself. Maybe in a perverse way, it helped me to focus. I knew what I wanted and I was so desperate to start again, I threw myself completely into it and here we are. I’ve got everything and I’ve got nothing. I’ve got a career, but I haven’t got a family.’

  I paced the room. I wasn’t sure what to say to her. Or what she wanted me to say. I turned the conversation back to Trevor Bilton. ‘Can we trust him?’ I asked.

  ‘Of course we can’t trust him.’

  ‘He’s the best lead we have.’ I said, thinking aloud more than anything. Once he’d told us he knew Tasker’s girlfriend, we’d left the pub. Julia had to go back t
o her editor to get permission to pay him for his story. As we’d left, he’d given us twenty-four hours to sort it out, otherwise he’d go elsewhere. Holding off for old times’ sake, he’d said.

  ‘I’m going to contact him tomorrow and set something up’ Julia said.

  ‘Right.’ We needed him. If Julia could cope with the situation, I would have to.

  ‘How are things with Sarah and Don?’ she said to me.

  ‘Sarah’s doing her best, but she’s caught in the middle. She wants to help, but she doesn’t want to upset her dad. I haven’t seen Don. He’s staying away from the office.’ I knew a gulf had opened up between us all, but I didn’t know how to go about fixing it.

  Julia changed the subject. ‘I’ve been speaking to some contacts in London about Kane. Let’s say he has some problems. Things haven’t been going so well for him of late.’

  ‘You do surprise me. They build you up and they knock you down.’

  ‘It’s not for those without a thick skin.’ Julia looked at her notes. ‘On the back of his initial success, he’d pumped a load of money into a new nightclub in London. At first, it was a big success, glitzy opening, the place to be seen, but these things change like the wind. One week you’re the big thing, the next you’re staring at an empty club wondering where everyone’s gone.’

  ‘It’s a tough life.’

  ‘It’s collapsed like a pack of cards and it’s taking its toll on him. He’s paranoid and thinks people hate him. The word is that he’s hitting the drink and drugs pretty hard.’

  ‘How hard?’

  ‘Hard enough for it to have been noticed. He’s stressed out. New Holland’s reunion was his get out of jail free card. He’d seen other bands do it, so why not New Holland? It would have gone a long way to digging him out of his financial problems.’

  And he’d got Greg’s new demos, I thought. He’d said he was going to make Tasker a star again. It sounded more like it was a plan to dig himself out of a hole.

  ‘What if he hadn’t been able to persuade them to reform?’ I couldn’t imagine the demos would be much good to him if Tasker didn’t have the profile to launch them.

  Julia shrugged. ‘Sounds like he’d be in serious trouble.’

  There was a text message from Sarah to say she’d finished running the searches on the Bilton brothers. I needed to know what she’d found out. The hotel was next to the remodelled travel interchange. I jumped on a bus. I wasn’t sure how pleased to see me she would be, but it wouldn’t wait. I sent a message back so I wouldn’t wake Lauren.

  We sat in her front room, the television down low.

  ‘Don’t tell Dad I’ve been doing this for you’ she said.

  I said I wouldn’t. She was still prepared to help me and I didn’t want to throw that away.

  ‘I’m still working on some of the stuff you asked for, but this is what I have so far.’

  She passed me a copy of her notes. ‘I had to speak to some of Dad’s old contacts about Trevor Bilton. He’s well known to them. He’s not a massive player, but he seems to keep a lid on things on the estate in his own way, so I think they just prefer to keep an eye on him to make sure he doesn’t get too far out of line.’

  I nodded. That was the harsh reality of the situation. If it wasn’t him, it’d be someone else. Better the devil you know.

  ‘I can’t believe she wants to deal with him’ Sarah said. ‘He’s hardly a reliable source.’

  ‘It’s her job, I suppose.’

  Major had told me that he thought Tasker was involved with some bad people. And I knew his girlfriend was involved with Trevor Bilton. It wasn’t a good situation.

  ‘What are you going to do?’ Sarah asked me.

  It took me a moment to register what she was asking me. I pushed aside the thought of Siobhan. Sarah repeated the question. I answered this time. ‘Julia’s going to set up a meeting tomorrow’ I said. ‘It’s her call. What did you find out about his brother?’

  She passed me another sheet of paper. ‘Gary Bilton is an interesting case.’

  I read. He worked on the estate as a community worker. I smiled at the irony of the situation. ‘Do they still get on?’ I asked.

  ‘Like peas in a pod apparently. Work’s work and blood is thicker than water.’ She cleared the empty mugs away and sat back down. ‘What did Whittle have to say?’

  I told her about our conversation. ‘He was testing me. He wanted to make sure I was asking the right people the right questions.’

  ‘I suppose you can understand that.’

  Sarah brought me up to date with the news coverage. The investigation was going quiet, which meant they were either very close to a breakthrough or nowhere near to solving the case. Judging by how harassed DI Robinson looked when I’d spoken to him, I thought it was probably the latter. I suspected we’d be talking again soon.

  ‘I’ve got something else for you’ said Sarah. She passed me another printout. ‘Jason Harrison. I wanted to check him out.’

  ‘Good idea.’ I read the notes on Lorraine’s husband. He’d had been arrested in the city centre ten years previously for fighting and received a fine and conditional discharge. It was clear that Harrison had been the aggressor. Exactly the kind of man who might lose his temper if he was involved in a confrontation with someone he didn’t like. And it tallied with what his mother-in-law had told Sarah. I rubbed my face and tried to think through what it meant. I thanked her for her work.

  ‘You should go home and get some sleep’ Sarah said.

  I said I would. I had one more visit to make before I called it a night.

  I couldn’t leave it. There was still an hour left before closing time. I walked back to my flat and collected my car. Heading across the city, I parked up on the road opposite the pub I’d met Trevor Bilton in earlier. The main entrance was open this time, but I headed for the same side entrance. That way, I knew the layout. A gang of teenagers rode quad bikes around the car park and shared a bottle of cider. If they were shouting at me, I wasn’t interested. The place was busy, a duo on stage singing a Beatles track. Nobody was listening, rather they were huddled in small groups, talking and laughing. I nudged my way through the drinkers and made it to the bar. No sign of Trevor Bilton, but this was the place to start. I could feel people staring at me. I was willing to bet everyone knew everyone else in this place. I was an outsider. The barmaid made sure she’d served everyone else before making her way over to where I stood.

  ‘What can I get you, love?’ she asked.

  ‘I want to speak to Trevor Bilton’ I said.

  She was in her fifties, but she looked like she knew how to handle herself. She carried on chewing her gum. She looked me up and down, shook her head and walked away to pour a pint of lager for someone else.

  I waited for her to finish before repeating myself.

  I felt someone barge into the back of me. ‘Are you deaf, cunt?’ he said to me.

  I turned to look at him. It was one of the sidekicks I’d met earlier. ‘Talking to me?’ I said.

  ‘Who else?’ He smiled and leaned in. ‘Cunt.’

  I smiled back. ‘Where is he?’

  ‘I suggest you fuck off while you still can.’

  ‘I’m going nowhere’ I said.

  The other guy from earlier appeared and told me to follow him.

  I ignored the stares as we headed to the corner of the room. We went around the back of the stage, one of them in front of me, one behind. I was told to go up. I tensed as we climbed the stairs, ready for their attack. It didn’t come. I was directed into a room which was a make-shift office. Trevor Bilton closed his laptop and stared at me. I smiled. ‘Does the landlord know you’re up here?’ I said, attempting to lighten the mood.

  He walked out from behind the desk and headed across to the window. ‘You’re beginning to get on my fucking nerves.’

  It was dark outside. I had no idea what he thought he could see. He wasn’t in the mood for banter, but I still thought I might get mor
e out of him if Julia wasn’t with me. ‘Am I supposed to be scared of you?’ I said.

  He turned to face me and smiled. ‘That’s up to you. I didn’t want to be rude in front of Julia, but you were always a right cunt as a kid. Do you remember me now?’

  I shook my head. ‘No.’

  ‘You always thought you were God’s fucking gift. To be honest, I wish I’d broken your legs back then.’ He grinned. ‘But there’s always time for that.’

  We eyeballed each other. He eventually let it go.

  ‘You’re here because of Julia?’ he said.

  ‘I don’t want you taking her for a ride’ I said.

  He smiled. ‘That was always Gary’s job’ he said. He winked at me. ‘I’m sure you know what I mean.’

  I’d heard enough. I stepped forward and threw a punch. It connected perfectly with his jaw. He fell backwards against the wall. I told him to watch his mouth.

  He slowly pulled himself back up. Blood trickled out of his mouth. He sat down at his desk. ‘That wasn’t a very wise thing to do, but I’ll let it go, seeing as we’re business partners.’ He grinned through the damage I’d done to his teeth. ‘You tell Julia to give me a call’ he said, before spitting blood onto the floor.

  I walked back down the stairs and into the pub. Punching him had been a mistake. I’d let my emotions get the better of me. It was momentarily satisfying, but I’d probably pay for it when he sent his men after me. I pushed my way through the groups of drinkers and out into the car park. I saw the same men I’d seen earlier sat in their car, watching me. I was still angry, my first thought was to walk over to them and ask who they worked for. If DI Robinson and Whittle were telling me the truth, were these men connected to Trevor Bilton? But why would they stay outside as I’d attacked their boss? It didn’t make sense. It wasn’t the right time to be confronting them, though. If I was going to approach them, it was going to be on my terms.

  I drove home through the busiest roads I could think of, before weaving my way around the side streets of the Avenues to make sure they weren’t following me. Once I was sure I couldn’t see another car in my rear-view mirror, I quickly pulled over and switched my lights off. I sat and waited for a few minutes until I was sure I wasn’t being followed. Satisfied I was alone, I headed to my flat.