Dead Wrong - [30]

She opened her Tupperware lunchbox. Inside were two crisp-breads, a tiny pot of cottage cheese, a spoon and an apple. She took out the cottage cheese and, spooning it onto the crispbread, took a bite. ‘You seen Luke?’

‘Yes, I went to Golborne.’

‘Is he all right?’

‘Not really,’ I admitted, ‘it’s not easy for him.’

She nodded, took another bite. I was starving. Should I leave my lunch till later – show solidarity with her diet? Sod it. I unwrapped my sandwich. Was it my fault half the population counted calories?

‘Ahktar was stabbed,’ I said through my first mouthful, ‘but Luke never carried a knife.’

‘That’s right. And they check for people carrying on the door, run the wand over you.’

‘So it would be hard to get in with a knife but not impossible?’ I took a second huge bite.

‘Nah. I’ve seen people in there with all sorts. There’s ways, I suppose, and say if you know the bouncers they’re not going to give you any grief.’

‘You said Zeb sometimes got into fights. Would you say he was violent, then?’

She grimaced. ‘Short fuse, really, dead moody.’

I recalled his barely suppressed rage.

She glanced at me, frowned. ‘He never carried a knife. No,’ she shook her head several times, ‘it wasn’t him. He has his faults, plenty of them, but not that, he’d not do that. He might thump someone but he’d never use anything like a weapon.’

But if he was infuriated and a knife was at hand? Losing his temper, losing control. At that moment was it any different from thumping someone?

‘Besides,’ she added, ‘Ahktar was his cousin and there was no bad feeling between them.’

‘OK. Have you any idea who it might have been?’

‘I wish I had. It doesn’t make sense. Ahktar, he wasn’t the sort to get into trouble.’ She finished her crispbreads and cheese and took out the apple. ‘Someone said there were witnesses, though, someone who saw what happened?’

I nodded. ‘Mr and Mrs Siddiq.’

‘Siddiq – Rashid Siddiq?’ Her eyes widened. She held the apple in mid-air.

‘You know him?’

‘Yeah, he works for Jay, with Zeb and that.’

My stomach tightened as she talked, alert to the implications of what she was saying. Zeb Khan did know Rashid Siddiq. ‘At the Cash and Carry?’

‘They’ve a few places – a warehouse up Cheetham Hill, and they had a shop in the underground market as well. Expect it’s shut now.’

‘With the bomb,’ I bit off another chunk of sandwich, rescued some of the tomato as it slithered out of the side.

‘What was he doing at Nirvana?’ Emma wondered. ‘Shouldn’t have thought it was his scene.’

‘Too old?’

She blew out, raised her eyebrows. ‘Never seen him there before. Not the dancing type.’

And his wife had been very defensive about their decision to go there that night. ‘You didn’t see him New Year’s Eve?’

‘No.’

There was a burst of laughter and jeering from across the park as one of the boys fell and slithered along the ground, his bike on top of him.

‘What does Rashid Siddiq do for Jay?’

‘Dunno. Bit of a hard man, I reckon, security and that, sort out trouble. He used to come and pick Zeb up now and then. Gave me the creeps.’

I waited for her to elaborate.

‘He never had much to say for himself and if you tried small talk he’d just ignore you. Dead rude.’

‘Did he know Ahktar?’

She thought about it. ‘I expect they’d have bumped into each other at the shop or the warehouse. I know Ahktar went up there now and again. I suppose they’d know each other by sight, but not well, like.’

Not at all, according to the Siddiqs.

‘And what does Zeb do at work?’

‘As little as possible,’ she laughed. ‘He and Jay hate each other’s guts. Zeb reckons Jay got all the breaks, big brother and that, gets his own business going but Zeb never gets a share in it. He’s just an employee, thinks he should be a partner.’

‘So Jay’s in charge, and Zeb works for him?’

‘Yeah, and if it hadn’t been for the family, Jay would have slung Zeb out years ago. He’s well pissed off with him.’

‘Because he doesn’t work hard?’

‘And he’s unreliable and he throws it all away. All the money he makes goes on blackjack or on…’ She hesitated.

‘Cocaine? I know he uses it quite heavily.’ Something occurred to me. ‘Is he dealing as well?’

‘I never asked. He never said.’ The way she chose to phrase it made it clear she was ninety-nine per cent certain he was.

‘Does Jay know?’

She didn’t speak. When I looked at her there was a guarded look in her eyes which had not been there before.

‘It might be irrelevant,’ I said. ‘All of this might be, or it might fit in with something else that helps get Luke off.’

She started as there was a sudden crash of branches and a shriek from the magpie in the trees.

‘If anyone knew that I’d told you…’ she explained with reluctance.

‘The only way that could ever happen is if it becomes a vital part of the evidence in Luke’s defence. Then you’d be called as a defence witness and you’d have full protection. I’m not interested in drugs, or busting people, that’s not why I’m here. It’s my job to find out anything I can that casts doubt on Luke murdering Ahktar.’

‘What’s the connection?’ she asked.

‘There may not be one, like I said. It could all be irrelevant to the defence but I’d still like to know.’