Max put the phone back on to the cradle, looked at the address she’d scribbled down, then picked up the phone again. Waited.
‘Steve?’ he said. ‘We just had a call from Jackie Tulliver, he’s in the shit. Go to . . .’ Max reeled off the address. ‘He was in his motor, watching Redmond Delaney’s place, but it sounds like Delaney dragged him out of a phone box near there.’
Annie eased herself off the bed and started putting on the clothes she’d worn yesterday.
‘What are you doing?’ asked Max.
‘Coming with you.’
‘No, you’re not.’
Annie stopped moving. ‘Yes, I am. I asked him to find Redmond.’
‘Why, for fuck’s sake?’
‘Because it was the Delaney mob who Dolly asked to do a hit on her dad. Turns out he died in a railway accident, but I’m thinking, was it an accident? I don’t know, but Redmond can give answers to that. Max, this is my mess, not yours.’
Max let out a sigh. ‘Well, hurry the fuck up then,’ he said.
When they got to the address Jackie had given them, Steve was already there, standing beside Jackie’s old car. The empty phone kiosk was ten yards away. There were large detached houses on this side of the road, and a dense stretch of oak woodland on the other. Jackie’s car engine was still running, headlights blaring; the driver’s door was open, the light inside the car was on. Steve took out a heavy-duty torch from his own car.
‘There’s no blood in here,’ said Annie, peering into the car’s messy interior. Jackie’s car reflected its owner’s character; outside it was OK, but inside it was littered with sweet wrappings, empty beer cans, carrier bags and inches of dust, leaves and other crap.
‘I’ll have a look around,’ said Steve, and went off first to the phone booth and then into the wooded darkness on the other side of the road.
Annie looked at Max. ‘What if Redmond took him inside the house?’
‘Why would he do that? Just as likely Steve’s going to trip over Jackie, stiff as a board and stone-dead any minute, back there.’
‘Christ.’ Annie shuddered. If Jackie was dead, then it was her fault. ‘You heard Jackie screaming, same as I did.’
‘That might not have been Delaney.’
‘Bullshit.’ Annie leaned against the warm bonnet of the car, her legs shaking. Her hands were shaking too. That soul-chilling scream had sent a bolt of fear right through her – fear for Jackie. Taking a handkerchief out of his pocket, Max wrapped it around his fingers and leaned in and switched the engine off, then took the keys out of the ignition. The lights went out as Max closed the car door and locked it, wiped the keyhole, pocketed the keys. Annie pushed herself away from the car and started walking.
‘Where you going?’ said Max.
‘Where do you think?’
Max came and placed himself in front of her. ‘No, you’re not.’
‘Look – if he did this—’ she started, stepping around him.
Max grabbed her arm. ‘You don’t know he’s done anything.’
‘I know he’s fucking evil. I know that.’
Steve came back, the torch throwing a wavering cone of white in front of him. He reached them and flicked off the torch. ‘Nothing,’ he said. ‘The phone was off the hook, that’s all. No sign of a struggle.’
‘He could be inside the house. We can’t just go,’ said Annie, shaking her head as if to clear it. ‘Jackie’s done what I asked, he’s found Redmond. We’re here. So you can do what you fucking well like, but I’m going over there and I’m going to speak to him.’
Redmond himself opened the door. Not a housekeeper, not a servant, not a henchman – although there was a man coming in through the back door into the kitchen at the end of the hall when they arrived at Redmond’s house. He was tall, stooping, dark-haired, scruffy and mean-eyed.
Annie was instantly struck by how little Redmond had changed since she’d seen him last. He still had those killer-cold green eyes, that long, pale, perfectly symmetrical face, the neatly trimmed red hair. Last time she’d seen him he was wearing a priest’s cassock; this time he was in dark slacks and an expensive-looking cream shirt. He was devastatingly attractive as always.
Annie thought of all that he had been in the past, and all that Jackie had told her about Redmond and the female parishioners. And she was suddenly very glad that she had Max and Steve standing right behind her. The sight of Redmond gave her the dry heaves.
‘Mrs Carter! And Mr Carter, I see. And a friend too. What a pleasant surprise,’ said Redmond smoothly.
‘Cut the fucking bullshit, Redmond,’ said Max, before Annie could open her mouth. ‘Where’s Jackie Tulliver?’
‘I sent Jackie to find you,’ said Annie.
‘Did you?’ Redmond looked perfectly composed, the picture of innocence. ‘Please, come in.’
Feeling like a fly stepping on to a spider’s web, Annie crossed the threshold of Redmond Delaney’s home.