‘Junior was standing in for him.’
‘Junior?’
‘Your cousin’s boy?’ said Alberto.
‘And he was meant to be in there watching the monitors?’ Max stared at her face. ‘So where the fuck was he? It was Layla who saw what was happening, raised the alarm – not him.’
‘He went to the loo,’ said Annie irritably.
‘What, he couldn’t go before his watch, or wait fifteen minutes?’
‘Layla said he looked sick as a dog when he came back to the monitor room and realized what had happened,’ said Annie.
‘Oh yeah?’ Max said, fixing her with a hard stare.
‘Meaning?’ she snapped.
‘Meaning, come on. Junior works there. He knew Precious was friends with Layla, and we all know this was a warning to Layla, to us, a little demonstration how easy it was for him to break through our security, that next time it would be-’
‘Max…’Annie didn’t want to go down this route, to start doubting everyone.
‘Don’t “Max” me. Layla’s minders told me Junior showed up outside her office, the day of the fire. You know what I think?’
‘I don’t want to know what you think.’
‘I think that little fucker’s helping Rufus Malone. Remember when you went to Kath’s, to warn them there was trouble? His mum and sister took off, but he insisted on staying. Why d’you suppose that was? Because he had a job to do.’
‘No.’ Annie was shaking her head. She liked Junior, she trusted him. ‘He’s one of our own, he wouldn’t do this.’
‘Annie, Kath hates your guts, she always has. She’s probably been poisoning the kid against you since he was out of nappies.’
‘Is that true?’ Alberto asked her.
Annie took a breath. Looked at Max, at Alberto. Then she nodded. Her heart was heavy. She was praying this wasn’t true. That their suspicions were wrong. She’d nurtured that boy. Given him money, gifts, even found him the job at the Shalimar. No, there was no way he’d do a thing like this.
Max stood up. ‘I’m off to bed. Early start tomorrow. Going to pay Junior a visit.’
‘We’ve had an order from on high,’ said the super, putting aside his Sun newspaper.
DCI Hunter was wondering why he’d been summoned to Cyril Armitage’s office first thing. Had to be something big, to get the guvnor into work this early.
On high had him worried. But Hunter said nothing, just took a seat and waited.
The day before, he’d laid it out for Cyril. Told him about the gunshot vic in the hospital, a leftover from the old Delaney mob, who’d had a visit from someone claiming to be his brother. Though the victim was still refusing to cooperate with inquiries, Staff Nurse Susan Challis had given Hunter a description that closely resembled Max Carter. Whose ex-wife Annie had recently had her car blown up with Semtex – an explosive favoured by Irish extremists – planted in her car by a red-headed man.