Looking for Walter Newhouse Chapter Five

We spent half the night parcelling up bloody body parts and throwing them in the back of the van. Once we got that finished, we took the sheets of tarpaulin off the walls and rolled them up with the one on the carpet. By the time we had done, Ron Wingate’s place looked spotless. Only the stench of death and blood still hung stubbornly on, despite the open windows, to give any clue what had happened here.

Danny took the van with me and Derek as passengers and he drove us down to South Birmingham. We arrived at a metal fence, behind which was one of the biggest building sites I’d ever seen. Mounds of gravel and diggers receded into the distance. Tall, thin structures climbed to the sky, like something out of a science fiction film.

‘It’s the overpass for the M6,’ Danny said, as he unlocked the gate.

I didn’t ask where he’d got the key from.

We drove through the gate and Danny weaved the lorry between mountains of gravel and rubble. He parked up beside a massive hole in the ground. We all climbed out of the cab and stood by that hole, looking down into the darkness.

‘Let me guess?’ I said. ‘Ron Wingate’s final resting place?’

‘And may he rest in pieces,’ Derek said.

We lobbed Ron Wingate in the deep hole, body part by body part, and then Danny found a shovel and chucked some gravel down there for good measure.

‘Another day or two and they’ll be filling that in with concrete,’ Derek said.

I could just make out the horizon line in the distance. The sky was growing lighter.

‘What time is it?’

Derek checked his watch. ‘Half-five.’

I rubbed at my face. ‘God, I need to catch some sleep.’

‘Danny’ll take us back to the car, and then I’ll drop you off,’ Derek said.

We climbed back in the cab and Danny drove us back. Derek took some time persuading his car to start up and by the time I got back to the wicked witch’s house, the sky was light and the streets were stirring with life. I let myself in the front door as quietly as I could and tiptoed up the stairs. The last thing I wanted right now was a confrontation with the old hag. On the landing, I paused outside my door. I could smell cigarette smoke.

What now?

More gorillas come to give me a working over?

All I wanted was my bed. Was that too much to ask?

I opened the door.

Cora was lounging on my bed like she had every right in the world to be there, casually smoking a cigarette.

What was it about other people thinking they could break into my room and smoke in my bed?

She sat up straighter. ‘Oh Ray, you gave me a start!’

‘You’re not the only one,’ I said. ‘Don’t get me wrong, it’s nice to see you and all, but what are you doing here?’

‘Shut the door,’ Cora said.

I pushed the door shut behind me.

Cora wrinkled her nose. ‘Ugh, what’s that smell?’

‘You don’t want to know,’ I said.

Cora patted a space on the bed beside her. ‘Come and sit down next to me.’

‘I’d better not,’ I said. ‘That smell’s only going to get worse. Let me freshen up and then you can tell me what you’re doing here.’

The old hag’s bathroom was free. I locked myself inside and peeled my stinking clothes off. I thought about taking them to the washeteria later, then decided it wasn’t worth it. After rolling around on the ground and getting kicked to hell and back, my clothes looked a little worse for wear. I decided to bin them instead.

A shame. I liked that suit.

I had a quick wash, wet my hair down and then ran a comb through it. Examined myself in the mirror. I was starting to look and feel a little more human again. I could have done with a shave, but that would have to wait. At least I didn’t smell of roadkill anymore.

I got into some fresh clothes. I would have preferred not to, I would have preferred to just climb straight into bed. Somehow, I didn’t think that was going to happen.

Cora had lit up another cigarette by the time I returned to my room. But she wasn’t lounging on the bed anymore. Instead, she was standing by the window, looking through a gap in the curtains at the street.

‘Not much of a view, I know,’ I said.

She turned to face me. ‘I had some visitors earlier, some men. They threatened me.’

‘Did they introduce you to a friend named Mr Thumpy?’

‘Who?’

‘Never mind. Did they hurt you?’

‘No, but they said they were after Walter’s money. I told them he had disappeared, that I didn’t know where he was, but they said that doesn’t matter. They said they’re coming back for his money in a day or two, and they said I’d better have it.’

‘How many of them were there?’

‘Two,’ Cora said. ‘They were big, frightening.’

Didn’t sound like the gang who had threatened me earlier. Which left me wondering who they were and what they were after. Whatever it was, I didn’t have it.

‘What are we going to do, Ray?’

I sat down on the edge of the bed. Seemed like I hadn’t sat down in several hours. I closed my eyes, but all I could see was Ron Wingate spread all over his living room, so I opened them again.

‘Maybe you should stay here for a day or two, until we get this sorted,’ I said.

Cora sat down next to me and placed a hand on my thigh. ‘We need to find Walter. Did you find out anything last night?’

‘No, not a thing.’

‘Where have you been all night?’

‘Mortimer Craggs asked me to help him out with something.’

Her hand crept up my thigh. ‘I missed you.’

‘Believe me, I’d have rather been at yours.’

That hand kept on creeping up. ‘Wouldn’t it be nice if we could be together all the time?’

‘Last time I suggested that you called me stupid.’

Cora pouted. ‘Did I? I’m sorry, Ray, I was upset, I didn’t know what I was saying.’

She hadn’t looked upset to me, but I let that one pass. ‘You ever heard of a Catch Twenty-two situation? Because believe me, this is one of them.’ Cora’s hand had arrived at its destination, and I was starting to find concentrating a little difficult. ‘We have to find Walter so he can take back responsibility from you for paying off his debts. But when Walter is back, that means we can’t be together anymore? See what I, uh, mean?’

I gasped a little. Yeah, concentrating was definitely getting harder to do.

Cora pushed me down onto the bed and climbed on top of me. I was starting to wonder why I had bothered getting dressed again.

‘Catch-Twenty-two? I never heard of that one before.’ Her hair hung over my face. I felt her breath on my cheek, her lips against my neck. ‘Is there no way out of it at all?’

‘No. We’re damned if we do and damned if we don’t.’

‘But what about the life insurance?’

‘The what?’

I took Cora’s hand and removed it from where it was proving to be so distracting.