The Thing Itself

TEN

‘You’re looking pleased with yourself,’ Gilchrist said, glancing across at Williamson as they drove back into Brighton from Donna Cassidy’s house in Milldean.

‘Fancy getting a quick half somewhere?’ Williamson said.

They parked in the small courtyard of a thatched pub opposite the youth hostel at Stanmer Park.

‘OK — what have you been up to?’ Gilchrist said as they sat down with their drinks — pints not halves. ‘You’re looking insufferably smug.’

He tapped his glass against hers.

‘Did you see that pile of mail? On the table by the front door? There was a phone bill.’

‘Jesus, Reg — you didn’t? They could hang you up by your balls for stealing that.’ Gilchrist stuck her hand out. ‘Let’s see it, then.’

Williamson shook his head.

‘I didn’t take it; I just borrowed it for a couple of minutes. It was already opened.’

‘And?’

‘I got a mobile number she phoned a lot lately and a foreign landline number that I hope is in France.’

‘Did you memorize them?’

Williamson looked at her over the rim of his beer glass.

‘I scribbled them down.’

‘Jesus, Reg. With your handwriting we’re fucked.’

Williamson took a crumpled piece of paper from the top pocket of his jacket. He tossed it on to the table.

Gilchrist spread it between them.

‘Did you use a spider instead of a pen?’

‘Give me a break. I was in the loo scribbling it down as fast as I could.’

‘What’s that — a two or a five?’

‘Pass.’

‘And that?’

‘Look, we can try options, Sarah. Don’t be a pain in the arse.’

Gilchrist patted his hand.

‘Only kidding, Reg. This is great — but what the hell can we do with it?’

‘What do you mean?’ Williamson said.

‘Well, if we pass it on to the Met, we’ve got to explain how we got the numbers. Same if we try to do anything with them.’

‘Bugger that,’ he said. ‘We track the locations down and worry about the legalities later.’

‘You want us to go down there? How? How can we justify it? Plus, he’s a very dangerous man.’

‘What about Bob Watts and his mate, Jimmy Tingley?’

‘You’re suggesting we use vigilantes?’

Williamson looked at her again over his glass.

‘Let’s see what the numbers show us, then decide.’

Sarah Gilchrist bumped into Philippa Franks coming out of a cafe in the North Laines. Franks had been a member of the armed response unit that had killed the apparently innocent citizens in Milldean.

‘How’s retirement suit you, Philippa?’

Franks, along with several others, had taken early retirement on the grounds of ill health to avoid any possibility of criminal proceedings. Gilchrist was sure Franks knew much more than she was letting on.

Franks shuffled a little.

‘I’m retraining to be a social worker,’ she said.

‘You’ll be good at that,’ Gilchrist said.

‘Terrible what’s going on at the moment.’ Franks gave a little shudder. ‘That man impaled on a stake on the Downs as a warning. John Hathaway over in France. They’re saying he was done the same way.’

She looked intently at Gilchrist. Gilchrist nodded.

‘He never had much chance, Hathaway,’ Franks said. ‘Having the father he had.’

‘You knew his father?’

‘I know I’m not looking great but do I look that old?’ Franks smile was tired. ‘My father knew them both. He used to run a pub that Dennis Hathaway “protected”. Then John took over the collecting when he was still a teenager. He was in a band. Charlie Laker was the drummer. Dad said it was God-awful but they got all these bookings in Brighton because everybody was frightened of his father.’

‘The men who killed Hathaway thought he had something to do with the Milldean thing. It was in revenge for that couple in the bed. You remember, Philippa — the two people that were shot to death by policemen in your presence.’

Franks looked down at her feet.

‘I don’t know anything about that.’

She kept looking down, but Gilchrist stared at the top of her head until she looked up.

‘I think you do. Don’t you think it’s time you told?’

Franks started to walk past her.

‘Not as long as I’ve got my kids to protect, Sarah.’

Gilchrist watched her go. When Franks was about ten yards down the street, she called after her: ‘We’ve located Bernie Grimes.’

Franks seemed to falter for a moment then carried on. Without looking round, she raised her hand in a little wave.