No Going Back by Casey Kelleher (black male authors TXT) 📗

But he knew that the second he owned up that it was his fault Shelby had been attacked, he’d be a dead man anyway. The fact that he’d gone back with Kate when he’d known that someone was paying Shelby a visit, spoke volumes about his priorities. Pete wouldn’t believe that Ashley really didn’t think it would be anything more than a threat that was being dished out. Not going by the state he’d been left in. Ashley knew the Boland brothers meant business, and that they were capable of causing real harm.

‘Did you actually even look at him properly?’ Pete said with disdain. Janey stood beside him, her hand on his arm, as if to calm him down and remind him there were police officers present.

But Pete didn’t care. ‘Do you actually give two shits, Ashley? Your wife and child could have been killed last night. You do realise that, don’t you?’

‘Course I do,’ Ashley said. ‘But you think it might be linked to this other attack? The murder over in Richmond? Because that means that it wasn’t personal? It wasn’t someone with a grudge?’ Ashley asked the officers, needing the clarification. ‘Did he say anything to you, Shelby? Anything at all?’ Ashley willed his wife to remember.

‘No, nothing. It all happened so quickly,’ Shelby said, picking up on the desperation in her husband’s tone for answers now. Finally, he was showing some kind of reaction.

‘I need some air,’ Ashley said, feeling the walls closing in on him. ‘I’m going to go and make a few calls and let my parents know that you’ve had Riley.’ He looked for permission from Shelby, relieved when she nodded.

Remembering that his phone was dead, he grabbed Shelby’s phone from the bedside cabinet and left the room quickly, before he said something to Pete that he’d regret. Because the man was purposely pushing his buttons now, and it was taking everything Ashley had in him not to crack. ‘I won’t be long.’

Shelby turned her attention back to Lucy and Holder.

‘You will catch him, won’t you?’

‘As I said, we’ll hopefully know more very soon now we have this E-fit,’ Lucy said, getting up and indicating to Holder and the Facial Imaging Officer that this was their cue to leave. ‘Right, well I think we’re all done here for now; you look as if you could use some rest, Shelby.’ Lucy hoped the girl’s family would take the hint and leave her to get some sleep, instead of spending the afternoon all cramped inside this little room, arguing with each other.

‘Thank you so much for your time, Shelby. And honestly, you’ve been really helpful. I’ll of course keep you up-to-date with any updates going forward.’

‘I want every officer on this,’ Pete Baker chimed in again. ‘I want this bastard found.’

‘We will be doing everything in our power, Mr Baker,’ Lucy assured the man, before leaving the room with the E-fit artist and Holder close behind her.

‘Well, what did you make of that?’ Lucy said to Holder as they made their way towards the lift, guessing that Holder was in the same mind as her.

‘I’d say that Ashley Cooke was acting shifty as fuck. He was definitely hiding something. The bloke couldn’t get out of the room fast enough once all eyes were on him,’ Holder said, confirming what Lucy had been hinting at.

‘Yeah, I got that too. Do you think it would be worth checking out the CCTV of that club on the way back to the station? Just to see if his story matches up?’

‘Oh, a hundred per cent. That’s what I like the most about you, Lucy.’ Holder nodded his head and grinned. ‘You’re on the same page as me. We don’t suffer fools gladly.’

14

‘Pick up. Pick up!’ Gritting his teeth, Ashley impatiently paced up and down the hospital corridor, pressing Shelby’s mobile phone to his ear with one hand, running his fingers frantically through his hair with the other. All the while praying that Sam Boland would answer his phone. Because Ashley needed to put a stop to this madness once and for all, and the only way that he could do that was to make sure that they knew he’d meant it when he said he’d get them their money. No matter what. But only if they promised to leave Shelby and Riley out of it.

‘Hello?’

Finally, a voice.

‘Sam? It’s Ashley. Ashley Cooke,’ Ashley said, his words tumbling from his mouth.

‘Fucking hell, mate! Don’t tell me that you managed to get your hands on the cash already. It must have finally sunk in that we ain’t fucking messing about, eh?!’ Sam said, sounding mildly amused.

‘You gave me your word,’ Ashley said, feeling a wave of humiliation wash over him as he tried to stop the tears that threatened now. He could almost hear the smirk on Sam’s face. Wiping a stray tear then, ashamed that this was what the Boland brothers were capable of lowering him to. Nothing more than a quivering wreck of a man who was forced to beg and plead with his wife’s attackers to leave them alone.

‘You said I had forty-eight hours. You said that Shelby wouldn’t get hurt. That it was just going to be a warning,’ Ashley said, fighting to keep the panic and fear from his voice.

‘Ashley, what the fuck are you talking about? If you ain’t calling to tell me that you’ve got my money, why are you calling me?’ Sam said, the boredom in his tone evident to them both.

‘Shelby’s in hospital, Sam.’ Ashley lowered his voice. ‘The bloke you said you were sending around to my flat attacked her. He had a fucking knife, Sam!’ Ashley was unable to control the tremor in his voice now as he spoke; fear mixed with anger taking over. He knew from bitter experience that there was no reasoning with the likes of the Boland brothers. Their