Good Bait

The sun shone, still weakly, but without a breeze they could delude themselves of its warmth. The tour of the stables was more interesting than either Cordon or Letitia had expected — some of the huge Breton horses weighing up to a ton — and Da

Afterwards, they sat outside a patisserie in the town square, Cordon and Letitia drinking coffee and sharing some kind of almond pastry, while Da

Letitia caught Cordon’s look and instead of giving him a warning glance, she allowed herself a smile.

‘Good day?’ he asked, as they settled back into the car.

‘Not bad.’

Leaning across, she kissed him on the cheek, and from the back seat, Da

It couldn’t last.

40

Hugo French lay there, blocking out the sound, for as long as he could. Turning over, turning back. Moving the pillow beneath his head. Covers tugged this way and that. Kids. No, not kids. Older. Young men by the sound of them, their loud, overlapping voices rising up to the second-floor bedroom where he slept. Young blokes, not so very long out of the pub, standing around outside the house, arguing the toss. About what, Hugo didn’t know. Couldn’t tell. Just the odd word clearly audible, the pattern of phrases repeated over and over, the slightly dodgy double glazing unable to keep them out. ‘No, wait. Wait, wait, wait. Listen. Just fucking listen!’ Every second or third word, the swearing. Like some kind of punctuation, like breathing.

Time was, it would have been Mary awake before him, pushing back the duvet and padding to the window, thinking nothing of throwing it open and sticking her head out, complaining.

People sleeping …

Haven’t you got a home to go to …

Call the police if you’re not careful …

Not any more. The space beside him cold and uncomprehending. He rolled over on to his side and as he did so, the noises seemed to falter and fade. Thank Christ! They were moving away.

But then again …

‘Listen, you bastard! Listen, will ya! Fuckin’ listen!’

Over and over and over …

Hugo levered himself into a sitting position, feet seeking out his slippers; tightening, as he stood, the cord of his pyjamas; reaching his old dressing gown down from behind the door. For heaven’s sake let me buy you a new one for Christmas. That old thing’s a disgrace.

Carefully, he shuffled to the window. Stood there for several moments, nervously, before easing a small space between the curtains and squinting down through the gap.

Yes, he was right. Four young men, standing in a tight little group, facing one another, hands every now and then gesturing, heads lifting with the rise and fall of voices. On their way back from some party, he supposed, an extension at the pub on the corner. Nothing wrong with his eyesight, he didn’t recognise any of them. Not from this street, he was certain. Not from round here. Why they’d chosen this street, he’d no idea. Unless that was their car, parked right by where they were standing. He hadn’t seen that before, either. Nothing flash, nothing racy. Could be theirs, no saying.

One of them turned abruptly and started to walk away, and Hugo thought, okay, this is it, at last they’re going. But right off he seemed to change his mind and turn back again and now … now what were they doing? One of the others leaning over the roof of the car, something being tipped out onto a piece of … foil, was it?… yes, a piece of foil … and one of the others dipping his finger and then putting it inside his mouth, rubbing it across his gums. Hugo didn’t believe what he was seeing. This perfectly ordinary, quiet street, not yet two in the morning, four blokes, illuminated by the nearest street light, not giving a bugger about who saw or heard them, messing around with drugs — cocaine, he supposed that’s what it was, cocaine — he’d read about it enough times, seen it on TV. Maybe that’s what they’d been arguing about all along, buying or selling, he didn’t know, the price, who was to pay, how much.

It angered him; knotted inside him.

And the blank windows opposite, blinds down, curtains closed, none of the neighbours, not that he really knew most of them, not now, not any more, no one interested, sleeping through it all, not caring.

Below, one man pushed another and laughed, then went back to what they were doing.

The telephone was on the bedside table.

The community support officer when he’d called round — some kind of scheme they had, crime prevention — had left a card with the number of the local station. You keep it there, where it’s handy. Any strange noises, anything untoward, don’t be afraid to use it. What we’re there for. Your taxes.

Not my taxes, Hugo remembered thinking, not now it was just a few bits and pieces and the pension.

He dialled the number.

Dawn Pritchard was parked up outside the twenty-four-hour convenience store near the junction when the call came through; her partner, Richie Stevenson, inside buying God knows what. Snickers, Peppermint Aero, KitKat, Bounty. Likely a can of Coke or Red Bull. Whatever it took to get him through the rest of the shift without dropping off. The wonder was, all the sugar and stuff he gorged on, he still looked like a stick insect, so thin when he turned side-on it was just possible to miss him altogether. Whereas Dawn, as she knew to her cost, only had to look at a bar of chocolate or even a Diet Pepsi and she was having to loosen the buttons at the front of her uniform jacket.

‘Richie!’ Passenger door open, she shouted across the pavement at the figure standing chatting at the counter. ‘Come on, let’s shift it.’

The call from the dispatch room had been graded S for soonish, as opposed to I for immediate, which Dawn knew gave them an hour’s window in which to respond, as against a maximum of eight to twelve minutes, but so far the night had been quiet as the proverbial, and anything was better than nothing.

‘What is it?’ Stevenson asked, peeling back the wrapping from a KitKat, snapping it in half and offering her two fingers.

She shook her head. ‘Group of men causing some kind of disturbance. Possible drug involvement. That part’s uncertain.’

‘Lady Margaret, you said?’

‘Lady Somerset.’

Big houses, semi-detached for the most part; a few still family homes, but not many; the majority divided into flats, two, three or even four to a building. The address she’d been given, another hundred metres along on the left side, before the road curved downhill.

‘Where they supposed to be, these blokes?’

‘I don’t know, just standing around.’

‘Well, no bugger here now, they’ve scarpered.’

‘No, wait up. There, over there.’

‘Where?’

‘There.’

They were sitting inside a silver Saab, silver-grey, four men; the interior light on and then, as the police car approached, swiftly switched off.

‘What do you think?’ Stevenson said.

Dawn pulled up just sufficiently ahead of the Saab to block any attempt to drive away.

Both officers got out of the car.

While Stevenson went around the rear of the Saab and on to the pavement, Dawn knocked on the driver’s window and motioned for him to wind it down.

Stevenson shone his torch from the other side: four faces, young and white, blinking away from the light, heads down, avoiding his eyes.

‘Now I need you,’ Dawn was telling the driver, ‘to step out of the car.’

No movement.

‘That would be now.’