Time To Play by KA Richardson (best book club books of all time TXT) 📗

girls like those. All he could hope, though, was that the National Crime Agency would be able to piece together additional contacts and locations and use it all to locate and assist more of them. Funnily enough, he’d heard on the news earlier that a container filled with about forty people had been discovered. He’d once thought that human trafficking wouldn’t affect him in his role, but now it seemed suddenly to be coming to the forefront.

Before he took the files down to handover to the DI coming on duty, he hit send on the email to both his and Alex’s teams calling a joint strategy meeting the next day. He had no intention of being in that meeting. If he didn’t take a day off, he’d go insane. Besides, he had to visit immigration with Elvie. There was no getting out of it this time.

HDU, Sunderland Royal Hospital – 20 November

Connor had sensed Alex sitting by the bed ages ago. He’d come round a little more over the course of the afternoon, and the nurse had reduced his morphine dose. He no longer had the push button and had it administered intermittently instead. He’d been trying to pretend to be unconscious so Alex would just leave it all until the next day, but his tactic hadn’t worked. He knew Alex was there for the duration.

Slowly, he opened his eyes.

‘’Bout time you stopped pretending, mate,’ said Alex, looking up from his newspaper. ‘I get it, though, don’t worry. Trouble is, professional standards are coming tomorrow, and I wanted to see you first, get your version of events.’

‘You mean find out if I’m dirty,’ said Connor.

‘Aye, that too,’ replied Alex with a nod. ‘Are you?’

‘Depends on your definition, I guess. You need to understand something, though; I did what I did because Fred would’ve hurt my whole family. He held every single card, and he knew it. He would’ve put Mum and Dad out on the streets, forced Marie to leave uni. I didn’t have the money to pay for her uni and their house as well as mine. I know it sounds cowardly, I know I shouldn’t have done it. But I didn’t feel like I had a choice.’

‘What are we talking about here, Connor? What didn’t you have a choice about?’

‘I gave Fred intel. Nothing major, just dates of drugs busts and what not, and where I could I fabricated it. He told me he’d hurt us all if I didn’t.’

‘OK, and you’re gunna stick to that with standards. You tell them the whole truth, OK? No covering up, no lies, tell it like it was. Wanna tell me what happened in the shed now?’

‘Dunno where to start. I just thought Dad was pottering down there. My mum has Alzheimer’s, and she was sitting in the window, quiet as a mouse. I just thought she was having a good day. I’d never been in his shed before. I didn’t expect – I mean, I didn’t know he–’ Connor broke off, emotion clogging his throat.

‘I’m sorry, Connor, I need to know what happened.’

‘Dad had hung himself. I walked in the door and he was just swinging there. I knew he was dead, you know? But I still needed to try to help him, was going to give him CPR. But Fred wouldn’t let me. He threw Dad’s note at me. Laughed when I read it. He did it. He killed the girls we pulled out of the reservoir. My own dad. Though he’s not really my dad, and that makes it even worse. Fred’s my dad. I never had a chance. The man I thought was my dad is a killer, and the man I thought was my horrible criminal uncle is actually my dad. It’s fucked up.’

‘You just found this out? What happened then?’

‘I pulled out my phone to call the control room – I couldn’t do it anymore, couldn’t cover for any of them. I know my job’s over, there’s no way professional standards will let me stay now. I dialled, and Fred lost it.’ Connor closed his eyes for a minute then opened them again. ‘He came at me with a knife. I pushed him away, tried to get him to stop. But he kept coming. It was like he was possessed. He didn’t want me to tell, wanted me to help him cover it all up. I grabbed the only thing I could, didn’t even know what it was. I hit him, and I killed him. Told you it was fucked up.’

‘Killed him? Connor, Fred isn’t dead. He’s a few rooms along the corridor. And from the sounds of it, it was self-defence.’

The blood drained from Connor’s face. ‘Alive? But he can’t be. He dropped like a stone. I hit him so hard.’

‘Honestly, he’s alive. I wouldn’t lie, Connor.’

‘Jesus. I’m fucked. He’ll kill me. He ran it all. Gave the girls to Dad, knew everything that was going on. Marie can barely even look at me. She blames me. She’s right. I could’ve stopped it years ago. I thought moving back up here from the Midlands would stop it, sever the ties once and for all. But Fred followed. Blackmailed me for info. I didn’t know what to do.’

‘You should’ve told someone, Connor, let us help you. As it stands, it’ll be down to professional standards now. Everything will be taken into account though. Your mum’s safe, by the way. She’s in a council-run home over on the other side of the river. Marie’s been staying at the Premier Inn. Make sure you pass all the information you know on Fred over. it will help your case. I shouldn’t really be here, but I wanted you to know what was going on and I wanted your side of the story. That said, I’d better make tracks. You did the right thing in the end, Connor.