A Lesser Evil - Lesley Pearse [133]
Yvette’s warning kept reverberating in her head, and she had no doubt that this had something to do with her going to the police on Saturday. But how did they find out? And how did they know Dan hadn’t been with her all weekend?
She mentally collated all the scraps of information she’d collected over the past weeks, and she realized that someone at Dan’s work must be connected to Alfie and his card games. It was probably he who set up the attack in the alley, tipping off Alfie about what time Dan would be leaving the site. And when Dan said he’d walked out on her, this same man saw a golden opportunity to grab her.
But there were dozens of men working on the building site – any one of them could be one of Alfie Muckle’s relatives or cronies. She wondered if Dan had ever talked about how she was always going on about the murder, or how she watched out of the window? She couldn’t imagine him doing so, but maybe if he was growing irritated with her he had to let off steam?
But why snatch her? What possible use could she be to them? She’d already told everything she knew to the police!
As the morning slowly ticked by, Fifi became more and more frantic. People didn’t get snatched or abducted for no reason, it was either to shut them up or to hold them to ransom. The latter seemed unlikely in her case; people in the street knew she was more or less estranged from her family, and they weren’t rich anyway. Therefore the reason for her being here must be to shut her up.
She had to suppose John Bolton was killed because he knew too much. But what did they think she knew? Did they think she’d seen something more from her window?
Dan had often talked about the police tipping the wink to villains who had paid them. Could it be that the man in the Jaguar had been told she’d recognized him as one of the men who played cards at Alfie’s?
That had to be it. Perhaps he was afraid she’d be called upon to pick him out in an identity parade.
Whatever their reasons for wanting her, there was a cold certainty about the way it would end. They’d have to kill her, for she could identify the men who had brought her here.
Just the thought of that brought her out in a cold sweat, and her heart beat faster. She wished to God she’d never gone to that council depot.
Chapter fifteen
Frank was washing up his supper things when he saw Dan come in through the front door. ‘Hello, Dan,’ he called out. ‘First sighting of you in days. Been doing overtime?’
As Frank spoke, he left the kitchen and went down the hall towards Dan. He saw that the lad didn’t look his usual glowing self. He was positively gaunt, with dark circles beneath his eyes.
‘Yeah, overtime,’ Dan replied, but he didn’t look directly at Frank. ‘Must go, things to do.’
Disappointed that Dan didn’t want to chat, and a little concerned at his appearance, Frank watched him walk up the stairs, noting that he wasn’t in his work clothes. Could he have lost his job and didn’t want to admit it?
It was after seven and Frank hadn’t seen or heard Fifi come in from work yet. She’d been behaving a bit oddly too; she hadn’t gone out once at the weekend, and last night when he spoke to her about John Bolton, she barely responded.
‘Maybe they’re having a bad time,’ he thought, going back into his kitchen to finish clearing up.
He was watching ‘Z’ Cars later, when there was a knock on his living-room door. ‘Come in,’ he called out, knowing it was Dan by the sound of his footsteps on the hall lino.
‘Sorry to disturb you, Frank,’ Dan said, putting his head around the door. ‘Fifi’s not back yet. Did she tell you if she was going somewhere this evening?’
‘No, she didn’t,’ Frank said. ‘Come in, son, and shut the door. Didn’t she leave you anything for your tea?’
‘I’m not worried about that,’ Dan said, coming in hesitantly. ‘I just expected her to be here, that’s all.’
Frank could see the lad was troubled. His eyes were dull and he had a slump to his shoulders. ‘You two had a row?’ Frank asked, seeing no point in being anything