‘Samuel, he’s been with this gang,’ Billy said. His sister was telling him to be quiet.
‘Charisa, we’re investigating the murder of two women, one of them your mother,’ Isaac said.
‘If your brother’s in trouble, we may be able to help him. It’s best if you both tell the truth. Is his disappearance related to your mother?’ Wendy asked.
‘Not that we know of,’ Billy said.
‘Did your mother know what Samuel was up to?’
‘Some of it. We tried to shield her from it.’
‘Such as?’
‘The drug dealing, the fights, one of them fatal.’
‘Who died?’
‘Someone from another gang.’
‘Which means reprisals. You know that, don’t you?’ Isaac said.
‘We know it, but Samuel, he’s full of himself, sees himself as invincible.’
‘And you suspect the other gang has him?’
‘Yes.’
‘Are you sure his disappearance has nothing to do with your mother?’
‘We don’t know, but we don’t think so.’
Isaac phoned Larry, who had met up with some of his contacts. ‘What are they telling you?’ Isaac said.
‘Not a lot. If they know anything, they’ll keep quiet.’
‘Remember, Samuel Devon is a disappearance; his mother is murder. They may not be related.’
‘And how does this tie in with Amelia Brice?’
Bridget knocked on the door of the conference room and came in. ‘Christine Devon worked for a home-cleaning company. One of their clients was Jeremy Brice.’
‘Is it confirmed that Christine Devon worked at the house?’
‘On several occasions. If the regular cleaner was off sick, the dead woman substituted for her.’
‘Dates?’
‘The last time was one week ago, a Thursday.’
‘Can we find out if Amelia Brice was at home?’
‘It may be best if you do that,’ Bridget said.
Another phone call from Larry. Isaac left the room where Christine Devon’s other children were. ‘What is it?’ Isaac said.
‘It appears that our Samuel Devon has been associating with the wrong kind of people.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘My contact, we helped him out once before…’
‘My former classmate at school.’
‘That’s him, Rasta Joe. He’s not willing to talk too much. The gang that Samuel is with are known for their violence. They were using Samuel to transport drugs around the area and throughout London. Apparently, a young man in school uniform is less likely to be picked up by the police.’
‘At least his education came in useful,’ Isaac said.
‘There appears to have been a dispute between his gang and another that he was delivering to. There was a confrontation.’
‘According to his brother and sister, one of the other gang was killed.’
‘Rasta Joe wasn’t going to tell me that.’
‘Was it his gang?’
‘No. He’s a mean individual, but he’s small time compared to the others. Anyway, Samuel is being blamed by both sides for lightening the load that he was carrying.’
‘Was he?’
‘According to Rasta, it’s unlikely. The packaging is tight, and a schoolboy wouldn’t have the knowledge of how to fiddle the amounts.’
‘So why blame him?’
‘You know the deal, guv. They need a scapegoat, a sacrificial lamb.’
‘And Samuel may have been offered up?’
‘It’s possible.’
‘Any chance of finding him?’
‘Not alive. Rasta Joe’s given me as much as he’s got, and he’s not going to stick his neck out. I can’t blame him.’
‘Too many questions and he’s dead as well.’
‘Something like that.’
‘Is this related to the murders of Christine Devon and Amelia Brice?’
‘It’s unlikely.’
‘And Samuel Devon?’
‘If he’s been taken, then he’s probably dead.’
‘And when will we know?’
‘When we find his body.’
‘You’d better come back to the station. We need to maintain our focus on the two women,’ Isaac said.
‘According to Rasta Joe, Amelia Brice was using cocaine.’
‘Did he know her?’
‘Sometimes she’d take off her fancy clothes, put on a pair of jeans and a tee-shirt and mix it up with the locals. It seems she liked the occasional Rastaman.’
‘Rasta Joe?’
‘Not him. She liked them young and virile.’
‘Not the image she portrayed in the social pages.’
‘They’ve all got skeletons, the rich and famous.’
‘How about her father?’
‘We’ll need to check him out.’
***
Two days passed, and there was no sign of Samuel Devon. It was not the prime interest for Homicide, and while Isaac could be sympathetic to Charisa and Billy Devon, there was not a lot more that he could do. It seemed that virtually every hour Charisa was on the phone, and even though he referred her to another department, she kept coming back to him. And it still wasn’t clear whether her brother’s disappearance was related, although probably not if the information coming back to Larry Hill was correct. The man had his ear to the ground in places where it wasn’t safe to do so, and the begrudging relationship between a detective inspector and a gang leader was unusual. Typically, two such men would keep their distance, but DI Hill had helped Rasta Joe out on a couple of occasions, and the English-born Jamaican had helped him out in return. Isaac knew Rasta from their schooldays; he did not like what he represented and was not good at disguising the fact, whereas Larry could take the man at face value and not attempt to delve into his dubious background.
The word on the street was that the two rival gangs had resolved their differences, which meant that retribution had been made. Rasta Joe had assumed that meant that Samuel Devon was dead, but as yet there was no proof.
Meanwhile, an interview with Jeremy Brice, the father of one of the dead women, had revealed a man full of invective and not much else. It was his house where his daughter had been found, but he did not see her too often. She went her way, he went his.
