Private London

Chapter 91

‘Studying to be a pharmacist?’ I asked.

‘Media studies, actually,’ Tim Graham replied petulantly and Suzy slapped him around the head.

‘What was that for?’

‘If there’s one thing I hate more than students,’ she said, ‘it’s bloody media-studies students.’

I tipped the contents of the drawer over him. Folded packets of paper. Bags of dope. Lumps of resin. Bottles of pills. I guess Tim Graham was your go-to guy on campus for recreational chemicals.

‘You don’t know who you’re dealing with,’ he said angrily.

‘Are you threatening me again, Tim?’

‘It’s not me you have to worry about.’

I knew who he was talking about. I’d get to him later. I picked up a DVD that had landed on the floor and put it in my pocket.

‘You got no right to take anything.’

‘You want to wait here with him, Suzy, while I phone this through to the police?’ I said.

‘No. Don’t do this, man. We can work something out.’

Man? Was he living in the 1960s?

‘Start talking.’

‘It was all supposed to be a joke.’

‘Some joke.’

‘Well, not a joke. Payback for Hannah’s old man. She was always ragging on about him. We were just going to wind him up. You know?’

‘I haven’t got the faintest idea.’

‘Laura asked me to get some of the guys to help.’

‘And you just went along with it.’

‘Laura said she’d make it worth my while, you know what I mean.’

He gave me a conspiratorial nod. I felt like smashing my fist into his face.

‘So it was all supposed to be an elaborate joke. Hannah getting back at her father. What went wrong? How did my god-daughter end up in hospital?’

Graham stood up from the bed, holding his hands out apologetically. ‘Like I said, Chloe wasn’t supposed to be there. Laura brought someone along. A real heavy dude.’

I had a fair idea who the ‘dude’ was and I had a fair idea who had introduced him to Laura Skelton.

‘Collect that stuff up,’ I said to Suzy.

‘Hey, come on, man.’

‘That’s “Mister Carter” to you.’

‘I told you all I know.’ Graham looked over nervously at his stash. ‘I need to move that on.’

‘Not going to happen.’

Suzy upended a kitbag that was lying on the floor and then scooped the drugs into it.

‘I got to sell that to pay for it. You know how this works. They’ll kill me.’

‘Hopefully,’ I said.

‘Shit,’ Graham said. I thought he was going to start crying again.

‘Where’s Laura Skelton now?’ I asked him.

‘I don’t know. Honestly. She hasn’t been seen since yesterday. Nobody knows where she is.’

‘Come on,’ I said to Suzy and walked to the door.

‘They’re going to hurt me bad,’ Graham called out to me.

‘Get used to it,’ said Suzy and kicked him full in the nuts.

He really shouldn’t have called her a bitch.