‘Looks that way,’ said Tony.
‘Pete’s grandfather died because of what Dolly set in motion against her father. Pete’s mother died too, because she found her dad dead and couldn’t get it out of her mind. It was one big fucking tragedy all round, Tone, and his family was ruined by it.’
‘Yeah,’ said Tony.
Annie paced around the room. ‘That little fucker sat there with us and cried like a girl. He wasn’t sad for Dolly, he was scared for himself. Well, he bloody should be. I want him found. I want him dealt with.’ She stopped pacing and looked at Tony full in the face. ‘I want it like you said, Tone. No cells, no cosy TV, no nothing.’
‘We’ll see to it,’ said Tony, walking over to the door. He looked down. On the cobbles below, behind the Jag, another black car had just pulled up and DCI Hunter was getting out of it with his new DS in tow. Annie joined him, looked down.
‘They’re on it,’ said Tony.
‘Yeah. Looks like.’
‘You going to tell them what we know?’ said Tone.
Annie thought. ‘Why not? They might find him.’
‘I’m hoping we find him first.’
‘I’m hoping we do, too, Tone.’
Tony held the shattered door open for her. ‘Breaking and entering,’ he said sadly. ‘Old Bill’s not going to like that.’
‘We found it that way. We didn’t break. Or enter. We just stood here in the smashed doorway and looked inside, right?’
‘Good plan,’ said Tony, and smiled. ‘After you, Mrs C.’
Annie went out of the flat feeling like a weight was gone from her shoulders. They knew Dolly’s killer now. All they had to do was finish him.
On the way back down to street level, they met Hunter and his new handsome young sidekick coming up.
‘Is he up there? Peter Jones?’ asked Hunter.
‘Nope. And I suppose you know-’ started Annie.
‘That he’s really Peter Jameson? Yes, Mrs Carter, we do. Son of Clarissa Jameson, née Biggs, the grandson of Arthur Biggs who ran a steam engine into Sam Farrell, Dolly Farrell’s father, and killed him.’
‘You might find the lock’s gone on the door,’ said Annie as she carried on down, Tony following.
‘Oh, big surprise,’ said Hunter, but he was almost smiling as he climbed on up the stairs.
121
Annie had Tony drive her over to the cemetery next day. She bought roses on the way; pink, Dolly’s favourite colour. Then she went alone to the freshly filled grave. Someone had put up a wooden cross; it would take time for the ground to settle, months before a proper headstone could be erected. Which was OK. Now that they had a handle on who had robbed Dolly of life, everything else would follow at its own pace.
They would find Pete Jones. Peter Jameson.
And then… Dolly would be avenged.
‘We’re on it, Doll,’ she whispered under her breath as she stood and looked at the cross there. ‘Don’t worry. We’re going to find that arsehole.’
‘Talking to yourself?’ asked a female voice behind her.
It was Ellie.
Annie gave her a sarky look. ‘No good talking to you, is it?’
Ellie stepped forward, looking sheepish. ‘Chris says it’s all OK now. That you and Mr Carter have sorted it.’
Constantine’s dead, if that’s what you mean.
She still wasn’t sure that Max had forgiven her for keeping to the code like she’d sworn she would. But wouldn’t he have done the same? She knew he would.
‘I suppose we have,’ said Annie.
‘Well, good. I’m pleased,’ said Ellie, impulsively linking her arm through Annie’s. Ellie looked down at the grave. ‘It’s so bloody peculiar. Thinking of Doll in there.’
‘She’s at peace now,’ said Annie.
‘If you believe in all that,’ said Ellie.
Annie wasn’t sure whether she believed or not. But she hoped Doll was somewhere else; somewhere better.
‘Chris said it was Pete Jones,’ said Ellie.
‘That’s right.’
‘That son of a bitch.’
Annie bent, wincing at the pain from her broken rib. It was getting better, but still there. She emptied the dead flowers Dolly’s sister Sarah had placed there from the vase, and put the pink roses in there instead. She placed the vase carefully on the grave.
‘Hurts still, does it?’ asked Ellie.
‘Not too bad. Got lots of painkillers. Another month, I’ll be able to get this strapping off. Can’t wait. It’s awkward showering with the damned thing on.’
‘What you going to do now then? Go back to Barbados? Or stay on? I mean, you and Mr Carter, it’s all OK now, ain’t that right?’
‘Dunno. I might stay for a while.’ We haven’t got Peter Jones yet. And Max? I just don’t know.
‘Oh. So it’s like that, is it?’
‘I don’t know what it’s like, Ellie. That’s the truth.’
‘Well, if you do stay on, why don’t we make a date then? Drink a toast to the old cow’s memory, eh? Next Thursday at the Ritz.’
Annie turned and looked at Ellie. For the first time in a fortnight, she actually felt like smiling. ‘It’s a date,’ she said.
122
At the entrance to the cemetery gates, Ellie went off in a cab and Annie was just getting into the Jag when DCI Hunter pulled up.
‘Mrs Carter,’ he said.
‘Something up?’ she said.
‘Nothing at all. Don’t worry – we’re going to find Peter Jones, I promise you that.’
‘And bang him up for – what? – ten years, twelve? What does he plead – insanity, the balance of his mind disturbed by family tragedy? Then he’s out, and what about Dolly? She gets a longer sentence than that. And so do we. All the people who loved her.’
‘It’s justice, Mrs Carter,’ he said.
It stinks, thought Annie. It’s not good enough.
She had all the boys out looking for the little shit, and their contacts were on the alert now. Added to that, she’d had a word with Alberto, and the Mafia street people were watching out for him, too. He wouldn’t get away with it. She was going to make certain of it.
‘Can I ask you a question, Mrs Carter?’ said Hunter.
‘Shoot.’
‘Who exactly is David Sangster?’
‘What?’ Annie was poleaxed.
‘David Sangster. The David Sangster who is on the board of the company that owns the house on the outskirts of Edinburgh, the one you stay in sometimes. And the castle you visit in the Highlands, he owns that too, I’m told. I’ve checked out all the other directors, and they’re kosher, but Sangster? He’s a bit more interesting. Lots of paper trails, all leading nowhere. So I repeat, Mrs Carter – who is he?’
Annie was silent for a long, long time. Then she smiled, sadly.
‘He was a friend of mine,’ she said.
‘Was?’
‘Yeah, he was.’ Annie took a breath and turned away and walked over to the Jag. She paused there as Tony opened the door for her, and she looked back at Hunter. ‘But he’s dead now,’ she said, and got in.
And he’s going to stay dead, she thought, as Tony got behind the wheel and started the engine.
123
When she got back to Holland Park, she found Max in the study, behind the desk. Chris was in there too, and Steve. All conversation halted when she showed up and stood in the open doorway looking at them.
‘What’s this, a board meeting?’ she quipped, breezing in, thinking, stuff them; they’d intimidated her once, they weren’t ever going to do it again.