Dead Wrong

Chapter Fifteen

I couldn’t fathom out why Sonia Siddiq had claimed that Ahktar Khan was a stranger to her and her husband. Surely the witness testimony would be just as valid if Siddiq knew the victim. I tried to find a reason for the denial. Why did it matter? What changed if Rashid Siddiq had known Ahktar Khan? I turned it over and over in my mind but came up blank. Apart from the startlingly obvious conclusion that Rashid Siddiq had wished to obscure the relationship because if it was known about, it could lead to awkward questions.

‘OK,’ I muttered aloud as I paced my office, ‘if Rashid Siddiq has something to hide, then why come forward in the first place?’ He could have just left it. Nobody knew that the Siddiqs had seen Ahktar being killed, so why speak out? Conscience? From someone Emma had described as a heavy with involvement in drug smuggling? It didn’t add up. My investigation was revealing new facts and the picture was shifting, but it was still jumbled; nothing was in focus, no clear relationship between the different elements.

I was even more bemused by Zeb Khan’s clumsy lie, his denial of any contact with Rashid Siddiq. The two men worked together. Whatever was going on, I was sure the fabrication would be well worth exploring in court.

I sat down and wrote a brief report for Mr Wallace outlining who I had spoken to, what points might prove useful for Luke’s defence, and what I thought was worth further scrutiny. I also totted up my time and expenses and prepared an invoice.

Hoping he’d be keen to retain me, I listed what further action I’d take: corroborate that Rashid and Ahktar were known to each other and that Rashid and Zeb were colleagues; continue to examine the Siddiqs with the hope of discrediting their reliability; attempt to meet with Joey D; discuss hypnosis with Luke and arrange for it if he agreed; and meet with Dermott Pitt, Luke’s lawyer, to tell him what I’d uncovered.

I rang Mr Wallace to arrange a time to meet and he was eager to see me as soon as possible. We fixed on first thing the following morning. I also rang Golborne and booked to see Luke on Monday morning.

Then I went to pick the kids up.

Friday morning and the journey through town was just as laborious as before. Little looked to have changed in the bombed area and we were still diverted, following buses and coaches along small side streets. I saw a poster on a hoarding: They went for the heart of Manchester but missed the soul. Together we can rebuild our city. My eyes teared up. I sniffed hard and waited for the queue to move.

Victor Wallace answered the door himself this time. It was a dull damp day so there was no sitting in the garden. No coffee either, as if all he could concentrate on was the case. As soon as we were settled in the study he began to quiz me. ‘You said there was new information. Does it exonerate Luke? What does Pitt say?’ In his eagerness he was almost hectoring me, his shiny face alert, eyes bright with hope.

‘I’ve brought this,’ I handed him my report, ‘it summarises the main points and where I’d like to go next.’

He scanned it, nodding, looking up at me and then back at the paper, his head bobbing to the rhythm of the sentences as though he would memorise them.

‘Good, good,’ he muttered, then directly at me: ‘Good. This is what we need and more of it. Start with Pitt. I’m seeing Luke later today, I’ll fill him in but I think you should see him yourself.’

I smiled. ‘I took the precaution of booking a visit for Monday. He’s agreed to hypnosis too, and I’ve arranged for someone I know to see him on the Tuesday.’

He frowned momentarily. ‘Do you think he’ll remember something?’

‘Maybe. It can’t do any harm, anyway.’ Unless Luke did it and he remembers the unthinkable. I kept that possibility to myself.

‘Could it stir up…he’s not very bright at the moment.’

‘No. It’s a form of relaxation; it should help. She’s very good, the woman I know. I trust her. She said you can’t make someone say or do anything they don’t want to; the patient’s got to feel safe and comfortable.’

‘And he’s agreed to it, you say?’

I nodded. ‘He rang last night.’

‘OK.’ He turned back to the papers. ‘I’m not clear exactly on this stuff about the eye-witnesses. They said they didn’t know Ahktar but you think they did?’

‘Well, Rashid did, certainly. I don’t know about Mrs Siddiq.’

‘Is it important?’

‘Only because it’s a discrepancy. It might help discredit them,. If they’ve lied about that, what else might they have lied about? It shows they are less than honest.’

‘Why would they do that?’

I shrugged. ‘I’m still trying to figure it out. It could be a red herring.’

‘But this business with the Deason boy should set some alarm bells ringing?’

‘I’d have thought so. Although at the time the police were happy to leave it, once his grandmother showed them his knife and they knew it wasn’t the murder weapon. Now he’s been away so long, maybe we can interest them in why he ran and what scared him so much he’s not come back.’

He grunted assent, still referring to my notes.

‘I’m interested in Zeb Khan too,’ I said. ‘He claims to have seen the lads quarrelling that night. It gives the prosecution some motive, but he was the only one to see it. Plus he lied outright when I asked if he knew Rashid Siddiq. They work together, according to Emma, Zeb’s ex-girlfriend. Zeb owed money, quite a lot apparently. Emma said he was thinking of selling his flat, he was a regular drug-user and may even have been involved in supplying drugs. We know he was on drugs that night.’

‘They all were, weren’t they,’ he said bitterly.

‘But there should be plenty of scope to undermine his testimony,’ I persisted. ‘I don’t think there was any argument; I think he made it up afterwards to fit the facts. Nobody else could believe it. He believes Luke killed his cousin, and he wants justice.’

‘It’s not justice if it’s the wrong person,’ Mr Wallace burst out.

‘You don’t need to convince me.’

‘God, I’m sorry. But there is some hope. I was afraid,’ he took a deep breath and sighed, ‘I was afraid you’d come back and tell me there was nothing you could do.’

‘There are chinks. No more than that yet, but it’s a start, something to work away at.’

He paid my invoice and I promised to let him know if anything significant cropped up. Before leaving I asked him for a photo of Luke.

‘There’s this one, it’s the most recent.’ It was the band, the photo that had been in the newspaper. Luke and Ahktar were in the middle, by the drums, the other boys Josh and Simon to right and left. They weren’t smiling, but I suppose they were aiming for one of those moody boy-band poses.

‘They had loads of those made up like postcards with some stuff on the back so people could ring up and book them. They’d played a couple of times at school.’

‘Were they any good?’

He shrugged, smiled ruefully. ‘They thought so, and their friends liked it. I used to play, when I was Luke’s age – guitar.’ He cleared his throat. I thought he was embarrassed that he’d told me but then he carried on: ‘I can’t bear it, you know, him in there, all this. It’s tearing me apart. I feel so…so damn useless.’ His voice rose with frustration. ‘I can’t do anything for him. I can’t look after him. I’m his father and yet I can’t stop it happening. What it’s doing to him, watching him change…Christ, how can I ever make it better?’

His eyes glittered as he held my look. I recalled the moment when Dr Khan had told me about identifying Ahktar’s body. The grief stretching his eyes wide.

There was no answer.

There was something else I wanted to work away at or someone. Mrs Deason’s face changed from polite enquiry to dismay when she saw me on the doorstep. Her shoulders stiffened and for a second I thought she was going to close the door in my face. She didn’t; however, nor did she invite me in. I don’t know whether it was the rain or the worry, but she looked careworn and the brisk energy I’d enjoyed on our first meeting had drained away.

‘Have you asked Joey if he’ll talk to me?’

‘He’s frightened.’

Of what? ‘He can’t hide for ever. Does he know about Luke, about the trial?’

She nodded, her eyes failing to meet mine, wanting to be anywhere but here.

‘Has he told you what he’s frightened of, who he’s frightened of?’

She shook her head, swallowed.

I took the photo from my pocket. ‘This is Ahktar and this is Luke. Did you ever meet them? I know Joey brought friends home sometimes; they had parties here, I believe. Luke’s finding it very hard, being locked up. He’s depressed. His father’s worried sick. Imagine the shock; your best mate is dead and you’re awaiting trial for murder. Can’t even go to his funeral. He’s a nice boy, Luke. He’s had a lot to cope with already, you know. His Mum died when he was twelve, now this.’

She turned her head away, compressed her lips.

‘Please, Mrs Deason, ask Joey again. Remember, I’m not working for the authorities. I can meet him wherever he wants, hear what he has to say. I still won’t know where he is hiding, but I may be able to help Luke.’

No response.

I put the photo away. ‘It won’t be all that long,’ I said, ‘till I have to report my findings to the defence lawyers. They may want to follow things up. It could soon move out of my hands. It might be easier for Joey to see me now than have the police looking for him.’

Her face became cold and blank at the threat.

‘You’ve got my number,’ I said. ‘You can ring any time.’

Some things just fall into place. It doesn’t happen often and there’s nothing quite like it – it makes my blood sing. I don’t know whether it’s luck or destiny, or whether it’s down to me. But it makes up for all the dead ends and the diversions, all the cold leads and the false starts.

On that Friday morning I took a wrong turning as I drove away from Mrs Deason’s house, and instead of heading back towards Manchester I found I was going the other way, bound for Bury.

I wrestled with the glove compartment to find my A-Z and pulled into the roadside so I could plot a route back. I was only five minutes from the well-appointed Deason home but already the territory had changed. This was a much poorer area; the terraces along the road had doors opening straight onto the pavement. The place looked tired and drab and hard-up. Few of the occupants had bothered to clean their windows or wash their nets, though here and there one stood out smart with new paint, glowing white curtains, silk flowers or doll in full Flamenco gear on the windowsill, highlighting the shabbiness of the neighbouring houses.

I took the next side street, intending to go round the block and back to the main road. Some of the houses had been converted into shops. A grocer’s and off-licence on one corner, Betty’s Hair Salon on another. I passed a small row of shops further on – chip shop, bookies, video shop and at the end of the row A.J. Henson’s Knives for Crafts, Sport and Leisure.

I stopped the car and sat there for a few moments. Let my theory filter down like a marble on some complicated run, clunk, clunk, clunk.

Inside the shop, everything was displayed in shiny lock-up cases or chained up on the wall in amongst hunting memorabilia. Dusty stuffed birds perched on plinths and fish that could have been carved out of wood but were probably pickled in lacquer, hung stiff and dull from the ceiling. In pride of place above the counter hung a huge tiger’s head, mouth bared, teeth exposed. I felt a wave of nausea for the mentality that continued to display the trophy while the tiger itself faced extinction. I thought of Maddie’s awkward questions when we watched wildlife programmes. ‘But why do they kill them, Mummy? That’s so mean.’

Why? Because some people enjoy hunting down animals, because some people are starving, because…

The tiger was incongruous too in this backwater of north Manchester. These beasts had never prowled round Collyhurst or roared from the hills in Heaton Park.

The buzzer that had sounded when I went into the shop brought a man out from the back. He was small and bespectacled, with black greasy hair and bland, casual clothes.

He smiled. ‘Can I help?’

Sometimes it’s best to tell the truth. I showed him one of my cards. ‘I’m a private investigator. I’m working on a case involving people in the area. I’m afraid I can’t go into details, but I’m interested in any records you have of knife sales over the Christmas and New Year period.’

He pulled a face. ‘We don’t have any sort of stock breakdown like that.’

I tried another tack.

‘Do you remember selling a knife to an elderly woman, early in the New Year? She was probably well-dressed, and had a Southern accent.’

He pursed his lips, shook his head. My theory teetered like a tower of blocks. Shit. I turned to go. ‘Is there anyone else works here?’

He drew a breath. He didn’t like my persistence but it was laziness rather than obstruction.

He put his head through the door behind the counter. ‘Carla?’

Carla emerged – young, plump, apple-cheeked with a set of rings and studs in her nostrils. There was a tension between the two of them which made me slightly embarrassed. Had I interrupted something? It would more than explain his reluctance to indulge me in my search and prolong my stay.

I described Mrs Deason as best I could to Carla. Did she remember her buying a knife?

‘Oh, yeah,’ she didn’t hesitate. ‘she had the name written down and everything. A late Christmas present for her nephew, she said.’

‘You’ve a good memory,’ I complimented her.

‘Well,’ she demurred, ‘she stuck out a bit really. We get mainly lads in or anglers, you know.’

‘How did she pay?’

‘Cash, I think.’

‘Can you remember when it was?’

‘First day back after the holiday. Would have been the second of January.’ She glanced at Mr Henson for confirmation.

He nodded. ‘I was at the suppliers,’ he chipped in. ‘Carla was on her own for the morning.’

Mrs Deason had made her purchase just in the nick of time. The police had called on her that very same afternoon, to check on Joey’s knife.

‘I reckon she was the only person came in,’ said Carla. ‘That’s another reason I remember – it was dead as a graveyard.’

‘No one’s ever got any money after Christmas,’ he observed.

I took down the details of the knife that Mrs Deason had bought and Mr Henson showed me a model. It was bigger than I remembered, with a broad, slightly curved blade and a horn handle.

I felt a little eddy of giddiness as I imagined the damage it could do. Thought of it slicing through Ahktar’s jacket. One cut, one move, one moment – that was all it had taken.