Grievous Angel

Twenty-One

It was six fifteen when I parked at Perry Holmes’s front door. I noticed that it creaked, and looked decidedly insecure when Vanburn let us in. ‘He doesn’t want to see you,’ he said to my companion and me.

‘He doesn’t have a say in it,’ I replied. ‘Take some advice, mate. Get on to your agency and have them find you a new placement. Every time you go into that pool, you’re swimming with a shark.’

‘A shark with no teeth, Mr Skinner.’ The guy had a gentle, sympathetic smile.

‘There are a lot of dead people who thought that.’

Perry was in his chair when we walked in. ‘You have no right here,’ he croaked. ‘What do you want?’

‘We’re here to tell you that your son Hastie’s been charged with murder.’

He made a strange sound in his throat that might have been a chuckle. ‘Then you’ll be embarrassed. My lawyer says you’ve got no chance, that you’ll lose and then we’ll sue.’

I treated him to a real laugh. ‘Wrong murders, Perry. We’re doing him for Weir and McCann, two of the three guys who raped Mia. Don’t fret too much about the third one. Hastie might have missed out on him, but he’ll do time for the attack.’

I’d been waiting years to see all of the confidence, all of the arrogance, all of the brutality, drain from Perry Holmes’s face. It was a wonderful sight, and I found myself regretting that a few of my colleagues, guys who’d spent their working lives trying to skewer him, weren’t there to see it happen.

‘I’ve got all the bricks,’ I told him. ‘I’ve built my case and it’ll stand against any defence. The only question is whether I charge you too, and with what. Are you a paedo, Perry? Are you a beast? Were you fucking Mia when she was only fifteen, when she used to follow Gavin Spreckley around? When you parked her with your own kids, were you grooming her for later when she grew up properly?’

His face filled with rage. It could have been scary if he’d been able to move. ‘No!’ he shouted. ‘Not me! It was Alasdair, my amoral brother, he abused Mia. Her disgusting uncle gave her to him; fifteen years old and he gave her to him, literally, to curry favour with us. As if that would! Gavin told me about it, when I found out that he’d been dealing to schoolchildren. He threatened to expose Al, the stupid bastard, to tell the police; stupid bastards both of them.’

I’ve never seen anything more ferocious than the look in Holmes’s eyes then. ‘He was going to die anyway,’ he snarled, ‘but because of that I told Al to make him watch as Johann strangled his nephew, then cut his hand off with a chainsaw, before he used it to cut off Gavin’s fucking head.’

He glared at me. ‘I rescued Mia, Skinner, from that awful family, from that den of vermin, from that hard whore of a mother. I’d have fucking killed her too, but for Manson. I wouldn’t risk my son against him.’

‘No,’ I murmured. ‘Not Manson. But you must have almost got up and walked when you found out that your daughter was fucking him. Derek came to you, didn’t he? He cried on your shoulder, told you she had another man, you confronted Alafair, and she told you who it was. I’ll bet you were apoplectic. But no, you couldn’t go for Tony, so you did the next best thing. You hired out-of-town talent to kill his driver, and added bonus, he turned out to be a Watson, half a Spreckley.’

‘I’ve sired the wrong daughter,’ Holmes growled, a little more calmly. ‘Alafair’s always been a problem, always trouble. But Mia, once she was away from her awful upbringing, she’s treated me like she was my own blood…’

His eyes fixed on me. ‘You have a daughter, Skinner: I know you have, for Mia told me she’d met her. The way it is between you and her, that’s how it is with me and Mia. How would you feel if your kid was picked up off the street by three animals, and…’ if he had the words he couldn’t say them, ‘… for a whole night? What would you do?’

‘As much as I could,’ I admitted, ‘without hurting her worse. In other words, whatever I could get away with. But if I used other people, I’d make sure they were better than your Geordies, or than Hastie, for that matter. He’s going to do life, Perry, just as you are in that pathetic chariot. You’d better be nice to Alafair, Daddy, for she’s all you’ve got left.’

He shook his head; it was the tiniest of movements, but he managed. ‘I’ve still got Mia. In spite of you, Skinner, I’ve still got her.’

‘Don’t bet on it,’ I warned him. ‘Mia’s on the verge of the big time, and she doesn’t need a helpless old geezer in a wheelchair holding her back. You, set against her career? I don’t think you stand a chance. So long, Perry, but don’t think you’re secure. The first chance I get to put you away, I’m still going to take it.’

We left him to his thoughts, to his new life of still, impotent, solitary uncertainty.

Outside, as we stood beside the old car that I was definitely going to ditch, I turned to Alison. ‘Love,’ I began, ‘there’s-’

She put a finger to my lips to stop me. ‘When you’re lonely in the dark of night, who do you call first?’

‘You.’

She frowned, then kissed me. ‘That’s all right then,’ she whispered. ‘Take me home and let’s crack that champagne, and the rest.’