Local Gone Missing(84)

Brennan writes it all down.

“Do you know where the rest of the drugs are now?”

“Under our dog’s kennel in the yard. I heard Liam telling someone on the phone. I haven’t touched anything.”

Well, it’s almost true. I had to check they were there after I heard Liam telling Dave he’d hidden them last night. I had to be sure before I went to the police. But I wore my rubber gloves.

“I won’t be a minute, boss,” Caro says as she skips out of the room, and I expect she’s gone to arrange for Liam and the ecstasy to be picked up.

I’m ready. I made sure Cal was at his babysitter Jenny’s before I came in.

“I’m just going to talk to the police about something,” I’d crouched down to say to him. “Nothing to worry about. I need to help them and then I’ll be back and we’ll go to the beach and get an ice cream. Okay?”

Cal hadn’t looked convinced but Jenny told him he could play on her laptop.

“Twenty minutes’ screen time only, Cal,” I’d said. I don’t let him play those horrible video games.



* * *



—

Elise is looking at me hard.

“We will need you to make a formal statement about your husband’s activities and all the information you can give us about Spike Jefferies.”

I hesitate, dig my nails into my palms and blurt, “I can’t. Liam and Spike will know it was me who shopped them, won’t they? They’ll come and find me. I’m frightened about what Liam would do.” And I touch the old bruise on my face.

“Has your husband hurt you?” Elise says carefully, and I look away. “Has he?” And I nod.

“Look, it’s essential you give your statement. This was a very serious offense. You do see that, Dee?”

I’m Dee now. And I nod again.

“But you may need to go and stay with someone. Is there family who could help?”

“No, they’re all dead.”

“I’m sorry. Friends?”

I shake my head. I need to think. “Can I have a glass of water?” I say.

After I’ve sipped the cup of tepid water brought in by the young constable, I say, “There’s something else.”

“What?” Elise says.

I hesitate, just long enough for her to lean forward to push me. Letting her think she’s got the power.

“About the Sunday after Charlie went missing. The night you say Charlie died. I don’t know where Liam was that night, or when he came home, so it might have been him in the van. We’re sleeping separately, you see. Things have been tense at home—he’s been very jumpy lately, what with Charlie owing him all that money and then the drugs investigation.”

Elise is lapping it up and I hope it’ll mean Liam is kept in custody. Just long enough for me to get away. She takes me through the whole thing again and then smiles at me.

“Thank you, Dee. I know how hard this must have been for you.”

“Okay. But I need to go home now to pick up Cal—and our things. While Liam is being questioned. I’ve got to make arrangements.”

“Of course—I’ll give you a lift if you like.”

I try to smile my thanks but it’s the last thing I need. I want to be on my own to plan my next move.





Sixty-five


MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2019





Elise


Caro has got her confession from Liam by the end of play.

“He broke down and cried like a baby. Said it was a stupid practical joke that had gone wrong. That no one was supposed to take them,” Caro told Elise afterward. “Ade Harman planted them in a bag Pete Diamond was carrying around that night—but after Ade collapsed, Liam went and found them to make sure no one else took any and hid them in his van. When he got home, he says, he pushed them under the kennel until the fuss died down and he could get rid of them.”

“And lying about his whereabouts on the Sunday?”

“He says he panicked when he said Dee could confirm it but claims everything else he said was the truth. And at the moment, we’ve got no forensic evidence to put him in the basement.”

“Not yet. But tests are still ongoing.”

“Okay, but in the meantime I think Dave Harman is ready to talk, boss,” Caro said.

“Great,” Elise said.

The pub landlord and his legal adviser were seated side by side, heads together, when the detectives marched in. No sliding into chairs, feeling their way, winning confidence this time.

“Mr. Harman,” Caro said, “we have evidence that you bought one hundred tablets of MDMA from a known dealer in Brighton and that you were part of a conspiracy to supply those drugs at the Diamond Festival.”

“No comment,” Dave said, his face porridgy gray with fear.

“Liam Eastwood introduced you to the dealer, didn’t he?”

“No comment.”

“And you conspired with Mr. Eastwood and your son, Adrian, to smuggle the tablets into the festival?”

“I am not a drugs dealer!” Dave Harman banged a hand on the table, spilling water from a plastic cup.

“You did this in order to get the festival shut down, didn’t you?”