Faceless (36 page)

He was undoing her top now and as he grabbed a breast he enjoyed the sight of his black hand against the whiteness of her skin. She was a lively fuck as well, really enjoyed it. But the crack would soon stop all that and then she would perform only for the drug and he could walk on to the next girl.

He liked the power he had over his girls. Some of them were so fucked up now that they hardly knew what day of the week it was yet they could still perform the sex act and that was all that bothered him and them. They knew they had to do it to get the drugs. Yet still they felt affection for him - he always found that strange. If he saw them and spoke nicely to them they still held a torch for him, would do anything he asked them, and it wasn’t just from fear, though he used that if he had to. He made sure they kept in mind what he was capable of. If one of the women needed a hiding he made sure it was given in front of some of the other girls so they all learned he would take no nonsense from them.

As he slowly fucked this girl in his car, making sure she had the time of her life, he was actually thinking about Tiffany and how he could take her down properly. She was an accident waiting to happen and he was going to make sure that accident would be one no one would forget.

Sadie Beasley felt she was in ecstasy every time she made love with this man. He was everything she had ever wanted. He was handsome, sexy and hard. Everyone knew who he was, she loved being seen with him, telling her mates about him. He was also going to set her up in a little flat so she didn’t have to listen to her mother’s griping all the time. Now that would really be something. Her own drum, she would love that.

Her mother didn’t have the sense to keep a man; her father had walked away from them without a backward glance. Well, it

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wouldn’t happen to her. No way. She was going to make sure she kept this fucker on his toes. He was all over her like a rash and she intended to keep him that way.

She was buttoning up her clothes when someone got into the back of the car. She turned to see a young girl smiling at her.

‘She’ll be perfect, Patrick.’

Sadie looked from one to the other in amazement and saw that Patrick was grinning.

‘You like her then, Maisie?’

The other girl laughed.

‘Perfect.’

Sadie was nonplussed.

‘What the fuck are you two talking about?’

‘You are going to share a flat with Maisie, a friend of mine.’ He introduced them with exaggerated courtesy. ‘Maisie, Sadie. Sadie, Maisie.’

Sadie realised that there was something going on here that she was not party to. Maisie and Patrick clearly had their own agenda.

Suddenly she was frightened. The atmosphere was charged and she realised that all her big ideas about Patrick were deluded. He was in complete control here and she was a fool if she had ever believed otherwise.

‘I want to go home.’

Patrick lit a joint and inhaled deeply on it before he spoke. He was looking into her eyes. She had nice eyes. Sexy-looking lazy eyes that gave away her youth. She thought because she looked so grown-up, she was grown up. She also disrespected her mother, and he found that disturbing. Black girls rarely did that, they respected their matriarchs. Wanted them to be proud of them even if they had to lie about their lives to garner that respect.

But then, girls like Sadie Beasley often had good reason to rebel against their mothers and the lives they led. He had worked that one out from the day he met Louise Carter. She had made her daughter Marie into what she was, and Louise knew it. Every time Marie did another outrageous thing her smugly condemning mother was just proved right. Marie had made her mother even more powerful with her actions, though she had never realised that. This girl’s mother was doing the same thing. If they wanted to prove the mothers wrong they should get a good job and make something of their lives because that was definitely not what the mothers expected.

Instead the girls played right into their hands. And his. He

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marvelled at his own acumen and patted himself on the back because, unlike the mothers, he knew exactly how to control these girls.

‘I want to go home now!’

He grinned.

‘Listen to her! Demanding things.’

Sadie was really scared and knew that she had to get out of the car. All the things her mother had said to her about Patrick Connor came flooding back into her mind in a rush of fear.

‘You will do what the fuck I tell you to do, right?’

She didn’t answer him, just stared at him with those big eyes, so he slapped her across the face.

‘I said, right?’

She nodded. He relaxed. He didn’t want to mark her too much. Anyway she was a shitter. All mouth and no fucking push, like all her kind.

‘Now Maisie is going to teach you all you need to know about being one of my girls, OK? From how to dress to how to put on a good show. You listen to her and you do what she tells you. I don’t want to hear any stories about you because if I do I will go round your mother’s and rip her fucking heart out. Do you understand what I am saying?’

She nodded, her whole face frozen from the terror inside her.

Patrick smiled gently and the action made him look handsome and kind again.

‘You do what I tell you and you’ll earn good wedge and get what you wanted: your independence and some street cred. If you go against me then I’ll be cross, and you don’t want to make me cross, do you?’

His voice was cajoling and friendly. He poked a finger gently into her chest.

‘Smile, Sadie. You just got what you wanted, sweetie. Not many people get that, do they? Remember the old saying, love. Be careful what you ask for, you just might get it. Well, you got it, girl. Enjoy it.’

Sadie felt as though she had just woken up in her worst nightmare, and of course she was absolutely right.

DI Palmer listened to the doctor’s diagnosis and sighed. He was a large man and he’was sweating freely. The murder of Petey Black had been shocking if not entirely unexpected. Someone was going to kill him at some time or else he’d get a large lump of a sentence.

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In a way Kevin Carter had done them all a favour. The manpower it took to keep going to the Blacks’ house was phenomenal.

‘In short Carter is unfit for anything at the moment. He is over the edge and needs proper psychiatric care. It will have to be arranged on remand. He cannot be released into the general population, the man is too disturbed.’

Palmer sighed again. He was itchy, the heat in the office was overpowering. He hoped to Christ they sorted it out soon; he was feeling a strong urge to put his head down on the desk and sleep. He had no real interest in what was going on here. The air was dry and he wanted to cough all the time. He sighed noisily and the doctor rolled his eyes.

‘Look, I’m sorry if I’m boring you. I was asked for my professional opinion and I am giving it.’ He stood up. ‘If you would excuse me …’

Palmer stood up too.

‘I’m sorry, Dr Jannet. I’m suffering here from the heating. It’s broken and we can’t turn the bloody thing off. Please, be seated and tell me what we need to do.’

The other man sat back down.

‘Carter is suffering from a severe form of depression, that much is obvious. He needs medication and psychiatric help as soon as can be arranged. He is a danger to himself and to everyone around him.’

‘Did he admit to the killing?’

Dr Jannet smiled.

‘Now you know better than that. Palmer. When he’s better you can interview him. Until then he needs care and medication.’

Palmer sighed again. He had never liked doctors and his opinion was not being changed by this supercilious prick sitting opposite.

‘So we can’t interview him then?’

Jannet shook his head.

‘He needs a suitable environment, a secure hospital. I wouldn’t recommend prison at this time unless we can’t place him anywhere else.’

‘So it’s a no-no, then?’

Jannet nodded.

‘A definite no-no. He really needs a secure place and some kind of help before he harms someone else.’

‘Fair enough. But we know he killed Black, he admitted it in the police car. His exact words were: “I will do the whole family, they need culling like rats need culling”.’

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Palmer grinned.

‘The worst of it is, he has a fucking point. The Blacks burned his wife but they’re also responsible for a one-family crime wave. The dead man’s wife is on remand for an arson attack on Carter’s wife.’

‘With respect. Palmer, that’s your problem. He needs to be moved and soon, OK? I will see what I can arrange.’

The doctor left and Palmer took off his jacket. He stank of sweat thanks to his polyester shirt. He called in a subordinate.

‘Give Carter whatever he wants food and drink wise. He’s being moved to a secure hospital, no way we can interview him now. It’s taken the doctors all this time to decide that. Still, he’s a nice bloke, see he’s taken care of, OK? But be careful, he’s still a handful by all accounts.’

‘OK, sir. His daughter rang and wants to know when she can see him.’

Palmer shrugged.

‘Who the fuck knows when that will be? He’s madder than the maddest madman at the moment, by all accounts. We’ll pass him over and see what happens.’

Sadie looked around the flat and breathed a sigh of relief. It was lovely, with a TV and video and a decent hi-fi unit. It was decorated nicely, too, with pale walls and expensive furniture. She could easily envisage herself living in this luxury. There was a bathroom with mirrored walls and a large corner bath.

She was cheering up by the moment. She had expected a right dump but this was something different. This she could live with.

Patrick watched her closely. He had seen this reaction time and time again.

‘Like it?’

His voice was friendly and she smiled brightly as she answered him.

‘It’s fantastic. Pat.’

‘You got to work for it, girl, you know that, don’t you?’

She nodded.

‘I have hand-picked you to work with Maisie here and you will earn top wedge, right, but you have to be up for it. I mean, five hundred a week is a lot of money.’

‘Five hundred a week?’

Her voice was excited. He knew she was already bragging to her friends in her mind. Imagining their expressions.

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He nodded.

‘And all the rocks you can inhale, girl. It will all be laid on.’

Maisie watched quietly as he groomed the girl for the bad news.

‘What do I have to do?’

She knew, they could hear it in her voice, see it in her face.

‘You do what you’re told.’

Maisie prepared a pipe and offered it to the girl. She sat down and inhaled heavily, needing the drug so she could listen to what they were going to say. Patrick made her a Scotch and Coke and afterwards she drank it straight down. It was drugged, and when she was incapable Maisie started to undress her while Patrick set up the camera.

Maisie stripped the girl expertly and surveyed her like a professional.

‘She’s lovely. Pat. We’ll do well with her. Get the make-up off her and she’ll look a lot younger. I have just the punter in mind. Shall I ring him?’

He nodded, fascinated, as he watched the girl set up a complete stranger and patted himself on the back once more because Maisie was going to improve his business no end.

Twenty minutes later a large bald man arrived. He had ill-fitting false teeth and a heavy belly covered in stretch marks. He was a property developer with too much money and a confirmed deviant thrill-seeker. He had no idea he was being taped and as Patrick watched him at work with the two girls he wondered if he would care anyway.

He wondered how Sadie would feel when she saw the tape and he informed her he was going to take it to her mother’s house. She would toe the line whatever then. He would play it by ear, but it should have been Tiffany at work for him tonight, not Sadie, and the thought rankled.

But she was going to be paid back in full. No one put one over on Patrick Connor, and if anyone should know that, it was Tiffany Carter.

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Chapter Eighteen

Marie was at the yard. Alan and she had made a kind of truce and she was throwing herself into her work so she didn’t have to think too hard about anything else. In the four days since the shooting, she had tried to come to terms with everything but was having no luck. She felt worse than ever. Every time she thought of her father locked away her heart felt as if it would burst in her chest. At least he wasn’t in the ‘Ville. He was getting medical help and that was the main thing, she told herself twenty thousand times a day. He was off his head, as Mikey so succinctly put it, and she knew it was because of her. She could imagine how her mother must have taunted him over the years, especially over Marie. If only Marshall had not topped himself her mother might not have been so hard to live with.

As she worked she felt the presence of another person behind her and turned to see who it was. Expecting a customer, or a friend of Al’s, she was amazed to see a large black man in a suit smiling at her. Her first thought was that Al was going up in the world if this was his new type of clientele.

‘Can I help you?’

The man smiled.

‘Marie Carter?’ It was a question.

‘Are you the police?’

‘No, I am not the police. Miss Carter. I am the adoptive father of your son Jason.’

He saw her face drain of blood and her worried expression as she gasped, ‘Is he OK? Is everything all right?’

She was standing now and he saw a fine-looking woman with a good figure and a natural grace. He understood now where Jason got his good looks. He was like his mother, only darker-skinned.

‘Calm down, he’s fine. He wants to see you and I wanted to make sure you didn’t mind.’

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He watched the changing expressions on her face. The joy, the hope and the fear. He guessed that the fear was at the thought of actually meeting her child face to face after what she had done to him and his sister all those years ago. He understood that but was amazed to see that she had the same fine qualities about her that were evident in her son. They had an identical presence, a way about them that kept in your mind long after meeting them. He was bowled over by her and was shocked to realise the fact.