To Dream of the Dead

‘That was the actual word he used?’ Mumford said.

‘I didn’t know he meant it literally. It was fucking horrible, dad, in the back of that van…’

‘White van, right?’ Mumford said.

‘They said it wasn’t hot. False plates and that. We met in the Forest, he gives me the keys and half the money.’

‘What build? Short? Tall? Fat? Thin?’

‘I dunno — medium? You couldn’t tell how fat or thin under all this gear.’

‘Voice, how old?’

‘He din’t say much. I’d had the instructions on the phone. Where to put the… parts. He just hands over the keys and pisses off. He likely had a car somewhere, or a bike? Motorbike?’

‘So you looked in the back of the van?’

‘Well… yeah.’

‘What did you see.’

‘There was like a… two parcels? The big one, it was like this roll of black plastic. The… littler one, that was just a bin sack.’

‘So you did which one first?’

‘The big one. The river.’

‘They specify which river?’

‘The Wye. We left our wheels in the forest, went off in the van.’

‘No problems?’

‘Nah, not this time of year, at night. We found this track, rolled it down the bank, went round and dragged it to the water. Just unrolled it from the plastic, straight into the river.’

‘What happened to the plastic?’

‘Put it back in the van like I was told.’

‘All right,’ Bliss said. ‘Let’s talk about the small parcel.’

‘Can I have a fag?’ Mebus said.

‘No. I want to know about the head.’

‘I hadn’t to open it till we got there. There was a bag to carry it in, like a holdall?’

‘Carry it where?’

‘Rotherwas Chapel. This old church, back of the council tip? You know the place?’

Bliss nodded. As a matter of fact, he did. Private chapel of the Bodenham family, Catholics. Lovely building. Too lovely to be stuck on the edge of an industrial estate.

‘So what went wrong, Jason?’

‘Two cop cars is what. Two cop cars parked up near the tip. Nearly shit myself. Like they was waiting for us.’

‘Sort of cop cars?’

‘Usual sort. Blue and yellow?’

‘So what did you do?’

‘Turned off, soon’s we could without it looking obvious. Drove straight back into town.’

‘Didn’t you think to try again?’ Mumford asked.

‘Oh yeah. Like if they was still there they wouldn’t notice the same white van? No way, dad. Justin, he wanted to dump the van somewhere, but we had to get back to our own wheels, din’ we?’

‘You had specific instructions where at Rotherwas Chapel to put the head?’

‘In the porch. Somewhere no foxes could get at it, you know? So anyway, we drove around town a bit. I didn’t know what to do. I’m thinking it better be a church, right? I was thinking the porch at the Cathedral, but we got there and there was some service going on or summat, so we was fucked there, too.’

‘Nobody you could call and ask for advice?’

‘I told you, no.’

‘What time was it now?’

‘Dunno, seven-ish? Mabbe a bit later. All the churches round town, there was like nowhere to park or people about. And then I remembered this place, the ole monastery down Widemarsh Street. Had, like… reason to go there before and I knew how quiet it was. We was getting a bit desperate by then, look.’

‘So you parked up…?’

‘Some street round the corner. Takes the bag in there, thinking we could leave him on a wall in the ole monastery?’

‘And that’s where you left the bag, is it?’

‘Nah, we took the bag away with us. Anyhow, we seen this cross thing with the steps. Seemed better than a wall.’

‘Whereabouts did you put the head?’

‘You telling me you don’t know?’

‘No, Jason, I know. I’m just making sure you know. Where exactly did you leave the head?’

‘In one of them spaces. There’s like these openings, like church windows? Justin found this brick to prop it up.’

‘You had to touch it?’

‘We had these rubber gloves. They all went back in the van before we poured the petrol all over it and set it alight.’

‘And you’d been left petrol for that, had you?’

‘Four cans. Had to be a serious fire. We had to hang around, make sure it was well burned out.’

Bliss wondered if Gloucester had found it yet. Wouldn’t be much use DNA-wise, anyway.

‘You said you didn’t look at it much. The head.’

‘It was dark, wannit? We took the bin sack out the bag, lifted it up the cross in the bin sack. Then I gets it in position and like… eased the bag away, real slow and careful.’

‘So you didn’t notice anything odd about it.’

‘Only what we’d been… They said to be real careful and not dislodge these bits of stone? In the eyes?’

Clincher.

‘Kind of stone?’ Bliss said.

‘This, like… like you get on graves and stuff? Bit like that.’

‘So you left the head in the wrong place, eh?’

‘Just done what we thought was best.’

‘You had a reaction to that? From Birmingham?’

‘Nah. But I en’t had the rest of the money neither.’

‘How do you normally receive it?’

‘Sometimes a bloke on a Harley. Varies.’

Bliss glanced at Mumford, who nodded. Would explain why Jason was jittery. Were Birmingham cross with him? And when people like that were unhappy with your performance, how would they convey their displeasure?

‘All right, Jason,’ Bliss said. ‘Let’s go through the highlights again. That first call. Birmingham. They say why they wanted you for this job?’

‘Well, we… handled goods for them for a good while, ennit? They knew us.’

‘Nothing this big, though, I’m guessing, Jason.’

Jason said nothing.

‘Worthwhile, was it?’

‘Not bad.’

‘So when they called you first, they just said this feller was gonna be topped. They give any indication why?’

‘I just thought mabbe somebody they been supplying hadn’t paid his bills. Din’ reckon on no council big shot, no way.’

‘You mean you didn’t ask.’