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  The call had gone as well as he could have hoped for. There was a chance, just a chance, that she would not go to the police. The longer she waited, the less likely it would be that she would break her silence, the less a threat she would represent.

  Ron did not agree.

  ‘You’ve got blood on your hands,’ he said. ‘She’s the one person who can link you and me to DCI McDonald. She’s got to go.’

  Michael shook his head. ‘I’ve never seen anyone easier to control. Jangle jewels and the high life in front of her, indulge her in her fantasy that one day she’s going to be a Hollywood actress, and she’s putty. Believe me, Ron, I can control her. When she found out about McDonald she called me, not the police, just as I knew she would. She’ll stay in line.’

  ‘You should have discussed it with me first,’ Ron replied. ‘I’m in this up to my neck. You’re playing with my freedom as well. You might think you’ve got her twisted around your little finger, but I’m not going to take the chance. Let’s call in Big Jockie.’

  ‘That’s even more of a risk, Ron. People have seen us together. If anything happened to her, I would be questioned and I don’t want our business put under the microscope. She’s rattled alright, but I can control her.’

  Michael had someone glance in the door at Avalon Gallery the next morning. Roberta was there, he was told, looking tense but otherwise okay. She’s seen sense, he thought.

  He called her that evening and was frustrated there was no reply. He tried again later and made a final call at eleven. Wherever she’d been, she should be home by now. Michael headed over to the flat, taking his own key just in case. He knocked at her door. Knocked again, then again. Then he let himself in.

  The flat was empty. All her possessions gone, just a few odds and sods left behind that she probably didn’t have the time or space to pack. Michael glanced at the mirror in the bedroom; it had a crack running across it. He went over to investigate. The crack spread out from one of the screws securing it to the wall. The mirror had been removed and then the screw over-tightened when it was put back. Roberta had found the spy room, panicked and fled.

  Michael called Ron from a phone box and headed back home. When they met, Michael was on the defensive. Ron proposed a wave of terror against everyone who knew her.

  ‘Someone must know where she is,’ he said, ‘and when we find her, no kid gloves this time.’

  ‘I’m not so sure,’ Michael said. ‘I don’t know whether to be worried or pleased by this. If she’s disappeared by herself, she’s done our work for us, as long as she stays invisible. If we start beating people up to find her it makes it doubly likely that we could tip her over into going to the cops. Oh, I’d like to find her, don’t get me wrong. But let’s see how good a job she’s done of disappearing. We’ll track her down carefully, not all guns blazing. Okay?’

  Ron was having none of it. ‘I think all the time you’ve spent in the sack with her has addled your brain,’ he replied. ‘You killed somebody, that somebody killed a cop, and the only person who can link us to that has disappeared and you want to be all softly softly about catching up with her? You’re losing your mind, Michael.’

  Michael told him to leave, but Ron refused.

  ‘This has gone too far for you to think you can talk her out of betraying us,’ he told Michael. ‘I’m going to track her down, with or without your help. Starting with that bloke she’s always hanging out with.’

  ‘If you do that, you’re finished,’ Michael replied. His voice was raised. He realised he was in danger of losing control and tried to calm himself down. ‘Okay, Ron, let me promise you this. I’ll track down everyone who could know where she’s gone, play the part of the worried boyfriend concerned for her whereabouts. If that doesn’t work, we’ll try things your way. Give me a few days.’

  ‘One day. We talk tomorrow, and if your sob story hasn’t turned up anything, then I go in hard. And be grateful I’m even giving you that.’

  Michael decided not to argue. Every hour Roberta was on her own, she could end up convincing herself to go to the police. He knew Ron was right; she’d made things worse by running away. And it wasn’t just Roberta he had to worry about. Every minute he kept Dick and Eddie in the dark would make it worse for him when they found out. They’d have even fewer scruples than Ron.

  He hired a private investigator to track her down as a matter of urgency. The detective made a breakthrough straight away.

  ‘Looks like she’s moving to Edinburgh,’ he told Michael the next day. ‘I called three property solicitors this morning, and a Bobbie Sinclair has asked them to send her particulars of one-bedroom flats to rent in the city. Couldn’t get the address she wanted them sent to, but I’m working on it. She might be at her parents; I’ll try there. But if she’s not, the minute she surfaces and starts looking at properties, I’ll have her tracked down. Should have results soon.’

  Then there was another development. The detective had told Michael to keep the gallery open, just in case it acted as a magnet for a lead, and that paid off too. Michael had asked his secretary, Mildred, to wait there, and she called early afternoon. ‘Mr Mitchell, there’s a young man called Duncan here, asking for you. Says he wants to track down someone he calls Bobbie. He must mean Roberta. What do you want me to do?’

  ‘I’ll come straight over. Tell him not to leave.’

  Duncan. Roberta’s friend, Michael thought. The detective was trying to track him down, and instead he’d turned up asking to see him. Something was not right.

  Michael arrived at the gallery and Mildred nodded to a denim-clad hippy sitting on a chair in the waiting room, casually flicking through a music magazine. Michael walked over to him.

  ‘You must be Duncan,’ he said, flashing a cheery smile. ‘Roberta’s told me all about you. Pleased to meet you. I’m Michael Mitchell.’

  Duncan stuffed his copy of Sounds into a denim knapsack and shook Michael’s hand. ‘And I’ve heard all about you. But you call Bobbie Roberta? She didn’t tell me that.’

  Michael smiled again. If this Duncan was in on Roberta’s escape, he was hiding it well. ‘She’s a lady of many parts,’ he said. ‘Anyway, Duncan, what can I do for you?’

  ‘Well, it’s all very odd. She phoned last night to say she was heading off to London and would be gone for a while.’ He looked sheepish. ‘I was a bit stoned, and she didn’t get much out of me. I think she said it would be a while before she was back in touch. When I woke this morning, I wasn’t sure if I’d remembered correctly. When I phoned her, there was no reply. I went around to her flat, and when I looked through the letter box, it looked like she’d moved out. I’m worried about her, it all seems very sudden. Then I thought of you. Do you know where she might be?’

  Michael scrutinised his face. Duncan’s concern seemed genuine enough.

  ‘No, I’d no idea she was gone. I only spoke to her yesterday and she didn’t say anything about leaving, certainly not for England. Are you sure she said London, not Edinburgh? She’s often said she thought that would be a good place to live as an actress, what with the Fringe and the Festival and everything.’

  Duncan shrugged. ‘No, I’m sure she said London. Something about an audition.’

  ‘She’s got her movie coming up. She wouldn’t just suddenly move to London on the off-chance of getting a part in a play.’

  He was getting suspicious now. Duncan telling him this all seemed too convenient, a smokescreen to cover her tracks.

  ‘I’m worried about her, Duncan,’ he confided. ‘She can be impetuous sometimes, as I’m sure you know. If you find out anything, get in touch. I’ll have someone go down to London to see if he can find her and check she’s all right. And let’s keep this between ourselves. If she needs help, it would be better if one of us turns up to see her without her knowing about it. If she’s run away once, she could do it again.’

  Dunc
an took Michael’s business card and gave him his phone number to get in touch. When he left, Michael stared after him. No way would she leave without telling her best friend what was going on. Duncan knew.

  The detective called again in the early evening. He had been busy, had managed to find an excuse to visit Roberta’s parents to enquire about her whereabouts. He was told the London story also. Off to star in a West-End play, her excited parents told him.

  ‘She’s gone to London,’ Michael told Ron that evening. ‘Laid a smokescreen for me that she was looking at flats in Edinburgh, but she’s invented some cock-and-bull story for her parents that she’s landed a West-End acting role at short notice. They seem to believe her. This guy Duncan, her best friend, has been in touch and he told me about London before I found out from the parents. I’m guessing he doesn’t yet know exactly where she is, or what the reason is, otherwise there would be no way he’d volunteer to get in touch. So, if she’s gone to London, she means to stay disappeared. The longer she stays disappeared, the deeper she’s in this with us, and the less a threat she becomes.’

  ‘I don’t like it. If you can’t track her down in London, we need to try a little rough stuff with this Duncan guy. Nothing too severe if he’s as much of a pussy as you say he is. Trust me: if I say boo to him, he’ll freak out and tell us everything he knows.’

  ‘I don’t want any more violence, Ron. If I can track her down without that, I’ve got a chance to persuade her that she’s not in any danger from us. And if I can’t track her down, she’s made the problem go away.’ He didn’t tell Ron his suspicions that Duncan’s story could be one big double-bluff. If he had to put pressure on Duncan eventually, he wanted it to be on his terms.

  He could see that Ron was not convinced, and that worried him. Michael would be moving to Surrey to become Mallards new managing director in a few weeks, and he wouldn’t be able to keep an eye on Ron from four hundred miles away. He decided to tell Eddie that they’d had a security breach, but that he had everything under control, and he needed Eddie to make sure that Ron didn’t step out of line and risk everything by using violence to track Roberta down. Eddie agreed that there was no point in using force if it wasn’t necessary, and that Ron needed to be kept an eye on. Michael was relieved. If a hardened criminal like Eddie thought it best not to resort to violence just yet, it told Michael his decision wasn’t just sentimental weakness.

  He doubled the fee he’d agreed with the private investigator and sent him to London to track Roberta down, told him to find someone else to keep an eye open in Edinburgh, just in case. If these early successes were anything to go by, this would be the way to find her, smart and discreet. Michael was leaving Glasgow to put his past behind him, and the last thing he wanted was more violence and recriminations.

  There were a few loose ends, but to get rid of them would create more problems than they would solve. Eddie was not hot-headed. He’d help Ron reach the same conclusion.

  chapter twenty-five

  It looked like Roberta had disappeared for good. There had been a brief sighting at a jeweller as she tried to sell the necklace Michael had given her, proving she was in London; but other than that, nothing. The trail had gone cold, and there was no sign of her appearing anywhere on the London stage. Michael promised himself he would make one final attempt to find her, and if that didn’t work, he’d forget about her.

  That’s why he was furious when he found out Ron had been back to see Duncan and had told Big Jockie that Michael had agreed to Duncan being roughed up to force him to disclose whatever he knew about her whereabouts. Big Jockie did not do subtle, and the reports were that Duncan was in hospital, nursing a broken jaw and two cracked ribs. That meant that the police could be involved and it increased the risk that if Duncan did know something, he would run scared and tell them. This time, Ron had not just been insubordinate – he had deliberately gone against Michael’s wishes, and had lied to Big Jockie about his approval.

  ‘You took an unnecessary risk with this attack,’ Michael told Ron. ‘It’s not your job to make judgements like that.’

  ‘I think you lack the bottle for the hard stuff and that’s been clouding your judgement. You should stick to the brains stuff, Michael. Leave the heavy stuff to the professionals.’

  He had gone too far. Amongst criminals, cleverness won respect. But only strength and ruthlessness garnered obedience. For that, Michael needed Eddie’s help.

  Eddie told Michael he was right to be concerned. He said he’d learnt over the years that when a subordinate started to act on their own initiative, it was usually a sign of worse to come. Disobedience led to disloyalty, disloyalty to treachery. Michael had to decide.

  ‘If it were up to me I’d get rid of him,’ Eddie told him. ‘I’ve got someone who can step in and run his operation and Ron’s on a much bigger pay packet than the other regional bosses. He thinks he’s special because the two of you set this up together. It’s time to tell him he’s not.’

  It didn’t take Michael long to agree. Eddie gave him the low-down on the guy who would be taking over, someone from Liverpool who had good connections with the Glasgow criminal fraternity. He could start straight away. It would be best to do the handover swiftly and efficiently, they agreed. Tell Ron he was fired face to face, sweeten the message with a goodbye payment if he cooperated. Michael arranged to meet Ron in a couple of days. Soon another part of his past would be behind him.

  Michael realised he should let Dick know of the change, so he called him in Spain. As usual, Dick behaved as if he couldn’t care less. But when he called Michael back the next day, Michael hardly recognised his voice. Gone was the boozy drawl, the oafish demeanour. His voice was crisp and clear, his words razor sharp. It was like an actor had come backstage and removed his robes. For the first time Michael heard the real Dick talking, not the façade he displayed to hide his keen criminal mind.

  ‘When do you catch the train to meet Ron?’

  Straight and to the point.

  ‘I’m taking the sleeper tonight. Seeing Ron in the evening. What’s going on?’

  ‘When you meet Ron, you’re to be whacked. The driver who’s picking you up is going to take a detour. Out to the Barrhead woods again. You’ll be keeping Ivan company.’

  Michael couldn’t believe what he was hearing. ‘How do you know this?’

  ‘I learnt over the years to always have an insurance policy. I’ve never trusted Eddie, and so I’ve had someone on the inside of his operation from day one, keeping an eye out for anything he might be trying to pull. And the word is that he and Ron have become pretty pally since they started working together. Ron started bad-mouthing you a couple of months ago, saying you were spineless and love-struck over some floozy. I decided I could tolerate a little hot-headed disloyalty to you and let it go. But then the slagging off stopped and the silence was ominous. I had my guy dig deeper. Eddie’s convinced Ron that you’re surplus to requirements. Now that you’ve set up an operation that’s fully automated and runs like clockwork, he thinks the business doesn’t need you anymore. All you do is play at being a businessman in Surrey, the people doing the real work are the people like him. You’re an unnecessary overhead, a relic from the past. Eddie’s convinced Ron that if he bumps you off and makes it look like retaliation for Ivan, he’ll put Ron in charge of the whole UK operation as a reward. Eddie would take over your role in the organisation and I’d go along with all of this for a quiet life.’

  ‘But he’s taking a risk that you’d agree to that. You’re not going to work with someone who bumps off his partners when he thinks he doesn’t need them anymore. Why would he think you’d agree?’

  ‘Because there’s a second part to the plan. The minute Ron disposes of you, Eddie has him done next. The story would be that Ron took you out because of all the bad blood between the two of you in recent months and Eddie moved swiftly to deal with him for his treachery. Then him a
nd me have to pick up the pieces of the organisation and find a way of keeping it going, no doubt with Eddie in charge and taking the lion’s share of the profits. Eddie’s a businessman, Michael. He always tries to eliminate unnecessary overheads. And that includes you.’

  Michael could hardly speak. ‘And you’re sure about this?’

  ‘Definitely. Got to say I’m impressed with Eddie’s chutzpah; it’s the sort of play I’ve not seen since the Soho gangland wars in the sixties. But I’m old school. It doesn’t matter to me that you might have brought this on your own head. It doesn’t even matter that I might stand to do well out of the changes. You never betray your partners. If Eddie does for you and I let him, I can’t complain if one day he does the same to me. I’m saving your skin, Michael. Not because you deserve it, but because it’s the way I do things.’

  Michael was shaken. But it made sense. Ron had been too easily cowed by the punishment over the Duncan beating. This was his revenge.

  ‘Is there any chance at all your man could have got it wrong?’

  ‘None. I like working with people like you – rational, smart, everything thought through. My partners feel the same way. You have to deal with some crazies in this business, that’s why I opted for a quiet life in Spain. I’m surprised by Eddie but as I say, I never trust anyone.’

  ‘I have to admit, it’s a smart move.’ Now it was Michael’s turn to coolly and calculatingly appraise the situation. ‘I was always a businessman to him; I could tell he felt I didn’t have the street savvy that you and Ron have got. Okay, so I shouldn’t go to Glasgow. Now what?’

  ‘Oh no, tell Ron you’re on that train. We need to act now, before they get suspicious. Los Zetas have a service they can offer to deal with issues like this. Say the word, I can have one of their button men in Glasgow by the time you’re due to meet Ron, and one of them in Eddie’s manor as well. We do the hit against the two of them simultaneously. There will be a fee, of course. Last time I checked, fifty grand was the going rate for two hits. You say you’ll pay it, problem solved.’