Page 116 of The Dead Come to Stay
Lina heaved a sigh, dropped the knife and sank to her knees. MacAdams went for Jo, but Green was already there.
“I got it,” she said, taking over providing pressure on the wound. “And I’ve radioed for an ambulance, too.”
Jo leaned backward, tried to get up, and fell in a heap against the leather sofa. She was shakingeverywherenow, teeth chattering in her head.
“It’s okay, it’s okay,” MacAdams said, scooping her up. He didn’t know what else to do except get his arms around her and hold on tight. Jo was a ball of clenched muscle.
“Tighter. P-please,” Jo said. “P-pro-pr-ia-ception. D-deep p-pres-ssure c-can—”
“Shhh,” he said, resting his chin on her head and squeezing her close. He could do this. Because it’s all he’d wanted to do, almost since meeting her. Hold on. Hold on, and not let go.
Outside, he could hear the blessed sound of sirens.
Chapter 33
Saturday, midafternoon
The Geordie had a name. And he was very forthcoming, even if it required a translator for all the Geordie dialect.
Billie Bowes met Foley some years ago. At the time, he’d been selling sandwiches out of a cart, trying to make a living after being in lockup for dealing cannabis. Foley came regular, a businessman who didn’t mind buying bacon butties from a former criminal. They got to be friendly enough for a pint, and Bowes felt honored that a city-boy type in nice suits would bother. That’s before he knew Foley had been in some trouble himself. It’s just that Foley hadn’t done time; he’d skipped town and changed his name. Then one day, he asked Billie if he’d like to make a little side money.Yar.All he needed to do was to take a package and hang on to it. Someone would come for a butty, and he’d give him the package as well.
It wasn’tdrugs, Bowes was keen to tell them. It echoed Dmytro’s earnest admission, too, as if the fact made the trade not truly illegal. It reminded MacAdams of the old days of car stereo theft.Someone turned up with a radio, someone else bought it, no questions asked. It was, as Bowes said for the record, acanny job.He’d have been happy with that, or so he told them. But Foley had bigger plans.
“And that’s where we begin the last six months,” Green said. She and Gridley were sharing a basket of chips outside in warm sunshine. They had traded the beloved Red Lion for the pub near the airfield—principally for its view of the river. Possibly it was all the time spent near the Tyne in Newcastle, but a riverside beer garden just felt right.
“Well, as far as Billie goes, yes,” MacAdams agreed. “But Burnhope and Foley go back a lot further than that.”
“I can see how Foley and Bowes get on. But I’m still surprised a rich boy like Burnhope got mixed up with Foley. He’s not the criminal type.”
The golden boy wasn’t as spotless as he pretended, though nothing was everquitea crime. The Eton rumor was probably well-founded and there was further suspicion of cheating at Oxford, as well as a bust-up over illegal betting on sports. But that was practically clean-nosed by comparison.
“That, I think, was the point.” MacAdams flagged the waiter for the bill. “He as much as told us: he hired Foley to be the heavy at Hammersmith. Someone who could bully and push people around when necessary.” He nodded to Andrews, who’d just arrived with brown ale, more chips and a bacon butty. A dish MacAdams was certain he’d never eat again.
“Did I miss anything?” he asked.
“Nah, it’s just getting good,” Green told him, plucking a plastic cup of extra curry from his tray. MacAdams moved over on the bench.
“We have to make a few guesses on this side of the story,” MacAdams said. They couldn’t ask Burnhope, who was still in hospital and presently in an induced coma. They expected himto pull through, but in the meantime, MacAdams had pieced it together pretty well. “We have to start with Ava.”
Burnhope had everything: A beautiful home, a beautiful wife and, as of five years ago, two kids. MacAdams assumed Ava had given up her musical career for motherhood; he was right—and wrong. Unable to have children of her own, she determined to adopt. And that’s when Ava went to Syria, a trip both profound and life altering. She’d found her purpose, and she bent her will and her efforts—and Stanley’s, too—on bringing over as many refugees to the UK as possible. It was Ava who sought out Sophie and Fresh Start. But the trip to Syria impacted Stanley, too.
“Burnhope is an art collector. Maybe he brings something back—maybe he doesn’t declare it at customs. Guess what? It’s easy.” In fact, he and Green were learning justhoweasy; the UK had surprisingly lax laws by comparison to the EU. “Business had just hit a downturn, so he decides to use his various connections to bring artifacts in for distribution.”
“Entrepreneurial spirit,” muttered Green.
“Charity, practically,” MacAdams said. “That’s what Gerald Standish told me. Thinks of himself as a mini–British Museum. The people who buy it—even Burnhope, who trafficked it in—don’t see it as a crime.”
“Oh yes, they do,” Green said, dusting salt from her fingers. “Otherwise, you don’t need theheavy.”
MacAdams pointed abingofinger in her direction. Foley had told Billie Bowes about his past life; chances were good he’d told Burnhope, too. A semireformed criminal made the perfect partner.
“Exactly that. And I am guessing the two of them ran the business for at least four years. Burnhope made connections with the art world and cleaned the books; Foley handled the shipping. They weren’t rivals, as we’d suspected, but true partners.” It putFoley’s last email to Stanley Burnhope in a whole new light. It reallywasa partners’ meeting. It just wasn’t about Hammersmith or architecture.
“So Foley’s got the East London connection,” Green said, meaning the Cockney presently in lockup. “The shipments came through there.”
“Okay. It’s coming in through the London ports. But what’s the loot doinghere? The van was in Abington,” Andrews pointed out. MacAdams understood the confusion all too well; the case had sent them in circles.
“Golf,” MacAdams said. “Foley played golf with Standish, but not in Newcastle, where he was under Burnhope’s thumb. They played at the course near Abington Arms.”
