Times of Trouble (17 page)

‘
No, I’ve never heard
of him.’

‘
You look like you
do. People don’t usually look scared when I ask them if they know
someone who they’ve never heard of.’

Wolcott held onto the
silence for a few seconds, hoping Frank would come up with some
sort of explanation.

‘
Is there anyone else
living at this address, who has a bank account number…’

‘…
98764359845 at the
Old Broad Street branch of the Bank of Scotland?’ Singh finished
off the details for his boss.

The man looked at
Wolcott, then Singh and then at the ground. Wolcott hoped he
wouldn’t start a string of excuses. But it soon became obvious he
didn’t have it in him.

‘
I thought he
wouldn’t tell. That it would be too embarrassing,’ he
mumbled.

Singh coughed into
his fist. Wolcott hoped the lad had a tickle in his throat, and
wasn’t suppressing a laugh.

‘
It would appear he
did find it embarrassing, but the thought of being hassled for more
money for the rest of his life was rather more…uncomfortable… than
what you were threatening.’

‘
It wasn’t my idea. I
just did what I was told.’

It was his last bit
of defiance, before the will to care left him
altogether.

‘
So you are admitting
you have been trying to blackmail Matthew
Harrison-Brown?’

He nodded.

‘
Do you want to
explain the ‘it wasn’t my idea’ statement?’

The man still stood
staring at the ground, his eyes unmoving, his arms hanging by his
sides as if he didn’t have the energy to lift his hands.

‘
It was the man I
worked for, Danny. He came up with this plan, and I was just
following orders…’

‘
We hear that a lot
Mr Sporalli. What was this plan?’

‘
Danny owns…owned…a
gym....’

‘
Danny who?’ Wolcott
asked, like an irritated headmaster.

‘
Danny Wright. I did
his accounts, you know, freelance like.’

The man didn’t look a
bit like an accountant, but Wolcott reasoned that there were so
many business students graduating in London every year, there must
be some who didn’t look the part.

‘
He got involved in
this other stuff, too. His girlfriend, and her friend were, you
know, working girls. Danny – er - scheduled their work, you know,
dealt with the clients, the payments.’

‘
So Danny was a pimp
and these girls were prostitutes?’

Wolcott drew a
straight line to the conclusion Sporalli was eventually going to
get to himself. It was less painful to have the guy answering
questions than to listen to his slow and drawn out explanation.
Sporalli nodded and babbled nervously on.

‘
High class, like. He
thought they could make some extra dough, so he worked out who some
of the clients were, and then went after them, saying he’d tell
people about their private meetings if they didn’t pay
him.’

The man whined like a
schoolboy, every syllable intimating his lack of remorse. It was a
tone that grated on Wolcott’s nerves.

‘
And these payments
were organised by you, into the bank account set up by you, and
laundered through the gym by you. Is that correct?’

‘
Yeah, I was told to
do it. Like I said, it was Danny who made all the plans. He talked
to the punters, and all.’

‘
Oh really? We’ve
been told you made a call just two days ago. Harrison-Brown is very
sure who he spoke to.’

This wasn’t strictly
true, but it was getting results. The man seemed to crumple even
further into himself. He didn’t react, just stood uneasily on his
feet, staring at the two detectives.

‘
So this Wright, can
you please tell me where I could find him? It sounds like we need
to have a chat with him as well.’

‘
That’s just it. He’s
dead. Murdered. Someone came after him, and the girls. The girls
were shit scared, so they pissed off, excuse my French.’

‘
Murdered?’ said
Wolcott, momentarily distracted by this possible complication of
his case. ‘When and where was this?’

‘
That’s the Chelsea
murder, sir. We had notice of it a few weeks back.’

Wolcott grunted. He
never read inter-office correspondence. Why bother, when Singh
would do it for him?

Sporalli was
interested in nothing but his own skin.

‘
So I’m the only one
left,’ he whined. ‘And they’re after me too. I don’t know why. They
seem to think I know something, but I don’t.’

‘
Like what?’ Wolcott
asked.

‘
Like I said, I don’t
know. They threatened to hurt my family too, if I told anyone. It’s
only me mum left. She’s in a home. But I don’t know
anything!’

‘
So can I assume this
is who you were expecting to be standing on your doorstep? The men
who threatened you?’

A small
nod.

‘
And why you have
created a cave of filth rather than go outside?’

Another small
nod.

‘
Right, I think
you’ll have to come to the station with me, Mr
Sporalli.’

Wolcott had met
hundreds of people like Sporalli. Terrified and weak when pushed,
but conniving and opportunistic when it suited them. Wolcott
wondered what this man really knew, and what he had told to
whom.

‘
Can I have a shower
first?’ Sporalli bleated, looking desperately pathetic, his robe
falling open enough to show more than too much skin. Wolcott’s day
was not improving.

Chapter 16

When we got home,
Liam disappeared up to his room, and I thought it would be a good
idea if I cooked dinner. I’d didn’t want him to think I was a high
maintenance guest. But on finding all the cupboards empty, I
distracted myself from deciding whether to venture out and shop by
opening Liam’s laptop. I heard him coming back down the stairs, and
he immediately noticed me on his computer.

‘
Are you looking up
more cheap hotels for us to visit tomorrow? I’m really looking
forward to trekking all over Sydney again.’

‘
Sarcasm noted. No,
I’m just checking my email. Did you need the computer?’

‘
No, you go ahead. I
was just going to think about dinner. There should be something
edible in the cupboard.’

‘
Don’t worry about
dinner. I was just going to the shop, after I’ve done this. I think
I saw a supermarket on King Street.’

He looked very
pleased at this suggestion. What man doesn’t love to hear a woman
offer to cook? To complete the scene of being a kept man, Liam
turned on the TV.

As my email inbox
loaded, my attention was suddenly fixed on the latest message,
received at 3:30 that afternoon, from Facebook. I had another
message from Tina! I tried to stay calm as I clicked to open it.
After all, it was possible she was just writing back to tell me
she’d got nowhere. But when the email appeared, and I read it, I
was momentarily lost for words.

‘
Liam!’ I
shrieked.

He jumped off the
sofa, and I swung the laptop around so he could see what I was
looking at.

‘
Someone’s seen
Sophie!’

Was it ok to believe
it could be true? I needed him to say something before getting
excited. He read the email aloud, as if trying to believe it
too.

‘
You’ll never believe
it, but when I asked everyone from school if they had seen Sophie,
Kylie wrote back and said it was such a coincidence, she saw her on
Saturday! Kylie lives in Sydney now and she’s a nurse at a medical
centre. She said Sophie came in with her baby and she instantly
recognised her! Can you believe it! Do you want me to put you in
contact with Kylie so she can tell you more details? I hope it’s
been of use.’

Liam stared at me,
waiting for me to react. Hundreds of thoughts were rushing through
my mind.

‘
It’s got to be her!
The baby! It’s Charlie! She must have Charlie! Liam, this could be
our best hope yet!’

Could it be true?
Tina had actually done what she promised, and asked around, and now
someone had seen Sophie! What were the chances! But Liam didn’t
look ready to celebrate quite yet.

‘
Are you sure this
Kylie person isn’t making it up? Are you sure she would recognise
her?’

I wasn’t going to
admit I had no idea who Kylie was, but I already had plans for
contacting her.

‘
She went to school
with Sophie. Of course she would recognise her. And she lives in
Sydney and said Sophie had a baby. It just adds up too much to be a
coincidence. I never told Tina that Sophie was in Sydney, so it’s
not like Kylie knew to look out for her. She saw her last week!
It’s such a lucky break!’

Liam started to walk
quickly around the room, not sure what to do with his sudden burst
of energy.

‘
Ok’, he said, ‘what
next? We need to speak to Kylie. Call Tina and tell her you need to
speak to Kylie.’

‘
I don’t have Tina’s
number.’ I tried to keep the impatience from my voice. Couldn’t he
have worked out that I hardly knew these people? ‘Tina was Sophie’s
friend at school. She hasn’t seen me for over 10 years. But mum
might be able to help me to get in contact with Kylie. There’s
still a chance her parents have the same phone number they did when
Kylie was at school. If mum can find her parents, they can put us
in contact with her.’

Liam looked like he
was going to burst if we didn’t jump into action that very
second.

‘
Then call your mum!
Quick! We need to get onto Kylie, and find out where she
works.’

He looked like he was
starting to panic. How odd that I was the calm one.

Thankfully, mum
answered her phone, and was eager to help. Her organised study
drawers would have a stack of old school buzz books in them
somewhere. She sounded more hopeful than she had since first
telling me of the search. She focused on looking for the phone
number, before asking me for more details about what we had
found.

‘
There was only one
Kylie in Sophie’s year 12 class. It must be her,’ mum explained, as
I tried to remember her.

‘
What was her last
name?’

‘
Granger. Her address
was in Maylands. Have you got a pen? I’ll give you the phone
number.’

Liam was getting more
and more impatient as I spoke to mum. He wanted me to get off the
phone, and call Kylie’s parents, but mum wasn’t easy to hang up on.
She was still worried, still needing reassurance I wasn’t going to
get myself killed.

‘
Ok mum, I’ll call
you later, and let you know what we find.’

I hung up and quickly
typed in the number mum gave me, hoping desperately that Kylie’s
parents hadn’t moved house. I wasn’t going to admit to Liam how
little I liked using my phone, especially calling someone I didn’t
know. I hoped he wouldn’t register how nervous I
sounded.

The phone seemed to
ring for ages. Or was that just because I was so impatient?
Finally, a man answered, his voice snappy, as if he’d been
interrupted in the middle of something important.

‘
Hello, what do you
want?’

‘
Is that Mr
Granger?’

‘
Yes, what do you
want? You’re not trying to sell me something are you? I’m eating my
dinner. You people always call when I’m eating dinner. It’s very
rude…’

A bit taken aback, I
tried to get him to listen.

‘
No, I’m not selling
anything. I went to school with your daughter, Kylie. And I would
really like to speak to her. Are you able to tell me where she
works?’

‘
What? Kylie? She
doesn’t live here anymore...’

There was a woman’s
voice in the background. The phone was partly covered, but I could
hear Mr Polous telling the woman I was looking for Kylie. Then I
heard the woman take the phone.

‘
Hello? Who’s this?
You went to school with Kylie?’

‘
Hi, this is Ellen
Goddard. I went to school with Kylie, well, my sister Sophie was in
her year, but I was a few years behind…’

‘
Oh!’ she cried, ‘I
remember you, dear! Aren’t you the piano player? Such a talent! We
used to love to hear you play at the concerts. There was one time
you played something that was just so beautiful, now what was it,
I’m sure it will come to me in a second…’

Oh dear. Liam was
making hand gestures at me, trying to get me to hurry things along.
I rolled my eyes, hoping to make him see I was trying my
best.

‘
Yes, that’s me.
Look, sorry to be rude, but I would really like to get in touch
with her. You wouldn't happen to know where she works, would you?
It's a long story, why I need to know...’

The woman was a bit
taken aback by my tone, but it had the desired effect.

‘
Well, she used to
work at a lovely clinic in Lane Cove, but that was a while ago... I
just can't think of the name of the place she works
now.....'