Cold Killers (8 page)

‘Yes, I am glad I made such an impression on you,’ he laughed. ‘I am never allowed to forget you, even if I wanted to: my aunt and uncle speak of you often.’ Paulo
mimicked, ‘Dan used to make it like this, Dan’s way was the best, et cetera, et cetera. You are a lot to live up to.’ He smiled.

Dan shook his head, touched but embarrassed. ‘It was a long time ago. I learned how to cook here.’

Paulo left for the kitchen and they ate. Willis was glad not to be the one having to talk. She loved Italian food. Over their partnership, Carter had taken her into some of the best Italian
cafés in London. He was a great cook, as well, they were right. The food on the table was her idea of heaven. As they finished one plate of antipasti, Paulo came out with lobster ravioli and
fresh, stone-baked pizzas.

‘Did she come here?’ Carter asked as he started eating.

‘Yes, she came here for an afternoon,’ said Fredo, and Connie stopped eating to hear what he was going to say. ‘Her heart is broken,’ continued Fredo. ‘She has so
much to cope with, my poor little Della.’

Connie nodded. ‘You saw her, Dan?’

‘Very briefly. I gave her a lift after the wake. She didn’t want to stay at the country park with the others; I can understand why.’

‘She was grateful for that.’

Fredo proposed a toast.

‘To happier times,’ Fredo said, then shook his head sadly as he looked across at Willis. ‘That’s the problem, Ebony. You fall in love with your daughter’s
boyfriend. You want her to stay with him for ever, to have beautiful babies and to take over your business some day, but then they go and spoil your dream by making a mistake.’

‘We can’t say it was a mistake, Fredo. It was her choice,’ Connie said, looking slightly anxious now as she listened to Fredo spill his heart across the table.

‘I know, I understand. But for me? It was a big mistake. It’s one hell of a family she married into. I think she sees trouble ahead. This is a tough time for Della.’

Carter looked at Connie, who nodded. ‘She doesn’t tell us much. But . . .’

‘It’s like marrying into the Mafia,’ added Fredo in a whisper. ‘She cannot go where she want, or see who she want. The family do not accept her; they never have. We are
very worried for her.’

‘Can you help her, Dan?’ asked Connie.

Willis watched Carter’s reaction closely as he stared into his wine glass. She could see that it was a big thing for a proud, private woman like Connie to beg for help for her
daughter.

‘I can try but I’m not sure how, or whether she’d want my help. At the moment we are working on trying to find Eddie’s killer.’

‘Huh . . .’ Fredo shook his head. ‘Good luck with that. We heard what they did to him. This was one Mafia to another; I don’t think you’re ever going to find who is
responsible.’

‘Then you think Eddie was involved with organised crime? With something he shouldn’t have been?’ asked Carter.

‘No, not him, but surely the family is,’ answered Fredo. ‘I know that Eddie wanted to break away from them; Della told us that they were going to move. Eddie was getting ready
to turn his back on the family.’

A silence ensued, while Carter drank his wine.

‘Is that what brings you here?’ asked Connie. ‘For information about Eddie?’ Willis glanced Carter’s way as an uncomfortable feeling had landed at the table.

‘No. I was just reminded of times gone by, that’s all.’

‘Della said it was nice seeing you again,’ said Connie with a smile.

Carter nodded. ‘Yeah, it was nice to see her too, after all these years. She’s as beautiful as ever.’ Connie and Fredo looked at one another and Connie smiled and nodded.

‘I can’t tell you how much she could do with a friend right now, Dan,’ she said.

‘I understand, I will do my best,’ said Carter. He looked across at Willis.

Willis asked, ‘Have you had anyone come in here looking for Della or talking to you about Eddie?’

‘I can’t think of anyone,’ answered Connie, looking across at Fredo, who shook his head to confirm. ‘No one strange.’

‘Dan, if this was a Mafia execution of Eddie,’ Connie asked, ‘does that mean all of us could be in danger?’

Carter paused before answering. He looked at Willis, who hesitated to answer for him.

‘We don’t know the answer to that yet, Connie,’ replied Carter. ‘We think it could have something to do with Eddie’s brother, Tony.’

‘That no-good piece of shit,’ said Fredo, throwing his napkin on the table in front of him and sitting back in his chair in disgust. ‘We always knew he would be trouble for
Eddie and Della.’

‘Did Della ever talk about Tony and Eddie being involved in something illegal together?’ asked Carter.

‘No, of course not. Eddie was straight.’ Connie bristled. ‘He built top-of-the-range luxury villas for people all around the world.’

‘He was no Boy Scout,’ said Carter. ‘He set up the business with stolen money.’

‘It’s a long time ago,’ Fredo said defensively.

‘People were beaten up, doused in petrol, they thought they were going to die. The robberies they were involved in were brutal,’ Carter answered.

Carter stopped eating and wiped his mouth with the napkin. The table had become tense.

Fredo stared at his wine and shook his head slowly. ‘This is all in the past, Dan. He served his time in prison.’

‘Yeah, but he kept the spoils. The money from the diamonds was there waiting for him when he got out. His Paradise Villas was set up with it.’

‘What can we say, Dan?’ Fredo looked up. ‘Is this important now?’ he asked. ‘Is this still a reason to kill him?’

Carter shook his head. ‘No.’

‘Dan, we understand exactly the way you feel. But, we have learned to live with these facts over the years,’ Connie said. ‘We know about his past but the man we knew was gentle
and kind. He was a good husband to Della. He didn’t deserve to die like that. No one deserves that.’

‘No, of course. That’s for certain,’ Carter answered. ‘We will do our best to find out who did it, and why. We are looking into his company, just in case there was
trouble with a client of his. We talked to the manager at Paradise Villas before we came here today; do you know him?’

‘Billy Manson? Yes, we know him well,’ answered Connie. ‘When Eddie was over here working he’d come and see us and bring Billy with him. They often ate in here and
Billy’s even been here with his family a few times. He has two great kids and a lovely wife, Jo.’

‘Eddie and Billy seemed like good friends,’ agreed Fredo, ‘not just colleagues. I know Eddie relied on Billy to run the business for him. He trusted him, so can you. Billy will
tell you the truth.’

‘But we haven’t seen Billy for about a year now.’

‘What about Eddie? When was the last time you saw him?’

‘About six months ago,’ answered Connie.

‘Was that usual?’ Carter looked from Connie to Fredo.

‘No, we were thinking it was a long time since we saw him,’ answered Fredo. ‘Della said he had been working hard, that was all.’

‘She said Eddie was ready to start afresh, leave the family,’ Connie added.

‘Now it’s too late,’ said Fredo. ‘Poor Della.’

Della got back to the villa after her talk with Tony; she had a rest and then got up and ran herself a bath. Her head and heart felt in freefall. She was trying hard to take
one emotion at a time and not feel so overwhelmed that she fell apart. The one thing she was sure about was that Eddie’s family wouldn’t be waiting to catch her if she fell,
they’d have already placed the daggers out.

Slipping into the warm water, she submerged her head and listened to the hum of silence in her waterlogged ears.

She listened to her own breathing, felt the tickle of the warm water creep across her scalp. She opened her eyes and saw Tony’s grinning face.

As she raised herself up out of the water, Tony’s hand grasped her throat and she felt the water rush into her nose as she fought for breath. She instinctively pulled at his hands around
her neck but changed her defence to attack and punched hard into his face and throat. The last blow sucked all air from his windpipe and his face was out of her view as she rose in one leap forward
and out of the bath. She stood naked, coldly angry, coughing. She watched him choking, retching on the floor. She was shaking with anger and with adrenalin.

‘Get out of my fucking house, Tony. You ever come in here again uninvited, I will kill you.’

Tony rolled onto his side and lay staring up at her, his eyes red from the effort. He clutched at his throat. Now he was so wiry and thin, all his ribs stuck out like a fossil.

Tony considered her for a moment and then he smiled and raised himself to his feet, breathing hard. His face was dripping wet. His eyes were black and mad. He was nodding with some deep
understanding that had just dawned on him.

‘Okay, princess. You have it your way. I can come in any time with the bulldozers. I can start knocking the walls down around you, and I will.’

‘You don’t own my house.’

‘I will soon. I spoke to the lawyer; now we have a new will. It signs everything, and I mean everything, over to Yours Truly. You, my little caged bird, are free. Free to fly away.
And’ – Tony turned to leave after wiping his face with a towel nearby – ‘I suggest you fuck off before I bury you in this place. Pack your bags and leave. You better be nice
to me – I’m the only thing stopping you getting sliced up like Eddie right now. Of course, they would take their time with you.’

Della felt the vomit rise acidic in her throat as she locked the door after Tony had gone and made a dash for the toilet. She tasted bitter bile as she retched. The porcelain toilet was cold
beneath her hands as she gripped the sides.

Afterwards, she stood, washed her face and looked at the blotchy reflection staring back at her and averted her eyes. This was no time to feel sorry for herself; she was too scared to be a baby
now. She was going to have to fight for everything she had left. Tony had some mad, vicious plan; she could see it in his whole demeanour. He looked delirious about it. Tony clearly knew a lot more
than he was saying about Eddie’s death.

She went back to lie on her bed to try to calm herself. Could Eddie have left her so unprotected? He must have known this would happen. After an hour of staring at the ceiling and thinking
things through she got up and went into the dressing room and opened the shoe closet. Then she knelt and uncovered Eddie’s personal safe. Her hands were shaking as she turned the combination.
Surely, there must be deeds to the villa somewhere? She tried to open it. Twice she went wrong. Eddie had put in an anti-theft device. She knew she had one more attempt before it would be blocked.
She went to Eddie’s side of the bed and pulled out the drawer. There was the book he always kept there. Della knew what page he’d told her the code was on. It was the sum of their
birthdays. Hers was the 12th of February; his was the 9th of July. She added up the combination of numbers and turned to page 30. She took the first sentence on the page and the first letters of
each word and wrote down the corresponding number to the position of the letter in the alphabet. Then she went across to the safe and carefully fed in the numbers. Her hands were still shaking as
she reached inside and pulled out the files.

‘So, you were one of the family, basically?’ Willis said to Carter as they drove back towards London. The rolling grey mass of low cloud was inching over them
ahead. The day had already turned dark at four o’clock. The cold air was settling in. The atmosphere in the car was even colder.

‘Yes, I suppose I was.’ He looked across at Willis. She was staring at him intently. He’d seen the look before. It meant she didn’t understand,
didn’t accept some piece of the puzzle. If he had thought that giving her a bit more of the picture would help her, ease her mind, it hadn’t worked. He felt a slash of anger rise in
him. It wasn’t often he’d had to justify himself to his colleagues.

‘And you haven’t been back since you and Della split up?’

‘No, I just didn’t think it was appropriate.’ He tapped the steering wheel, irritated.

‘No, maybe not. What do think will happen to Della now?’

‘I don’t know.’ He shrugged, pretending indifference. ‘She lives too close to Tony to be safe. If she asked me I’d tell her sell up and leave, find a new
life.’

‘Is her life in danger?’

‘Got to be. If Eddie’s was, then so is hers.’

‘The family were prickly when you talked about Eddie’s past. Can they really think of him as an honest businessman?’

‘I suppose it’s because Eddie kept a low profile after he came out of the nick. He was pretty young when he went inside. The Butcher brothers were two of many done for a spate of
high-profile diamond and gold heists across Europe. They were part of a slick operation. They were paid well for their silence. One thing they didn’t do is grass anyone up. Eddie went into
property building with his share, while Tony went into building himself a drugs empire.’

‘How did it feel today?’ Willis had pushed back in her seat. She was watching Carter’s reaction to her questions.

Carter glanced across and gave a shrug.

‘Let’s keep this to what’s relevant. I’m getting tired of being cross-examined on personal issues. What it seemed like to me was a family who didn’t want to attend
the funeral of their son-in-law, someone they were fond of, because they’re scared. They think he was killed because of something Tony’s involved in.’

‘They like Manson, the manager of Paradise Villas,’ said Willis.

‘Yes, they know him and his family. That flies in the face of what he told me. They have no reason to lie so he must be.’

Marco rapped on the door.

‘You ready, princess?’

Della watched the door, as if she expected Marco to burst through it, and mow her down in a hail of bullets.

‘Are you talking to me?’ she answered and waited, listening. She heard a shuffle as Marco’s weight shifted and he leaned against the door. She knew he would be grinning.
‘Call me “señora” or Mrs Butcher.’