Page 56 of Savage Protector

“Will do.” I tip my non-existent hat and make my exit just as my phone trills in my pocket.

The screen shows Tony calling. I hit ‘receive’.

“Hi, mate.”

“I’m in the East car park. Meet me there in five.”

So much for social niceties. “On my way. What’s the hurry?” I assume we have a job on, something that has just come up.

“Just get down here.” The phone goes dead.

It sounds urgent, so I quicken my step and arrive in the East car park in less than three minutes. I scan the rows of vehicles for Tony’s usual Land Rover Discovery and locate it close to the outer gates. I jog over and hop in the passenger seat. Rome and Nico are in the back.

“So, what are we doing?” I ask, after greeting them all.

“House calls,” is Tony’s terse reply.

“Right?” I wait for him to elaborate.

“Do you know Gregory? He lives in the flat one floor below Leila.”

I frown, shaking my head. “She hasn’t mentioned him. Is he a friend?”

“I haven’t a clue, though he did her a big favour last night.”

“What the fuck are you talking about? Leila was with me last night.”

He ignores my reply. “Gregory’s a good lad. He used to go to one of Jenna’s support groups.”

I’ve heard of Tony’s partner’s strange little ‘hobby’. Jenna manages one of the pubs owned by the Savage corporation, and it tends to do fairly well, I gather. Decent food, if you have a fondness for pie and mash and a full English all-day breakfast. Ethan must think so, too, because he allows her to use one of the rooms there for a study support group. Local kids drop in after school to study and do homework. Jenna supplies a laptop if they need it, and somewhere quiet to work. There are even students from the uni on hand to help out and give one-to-one coaching, not to mention the snacks and drinks. Not alcohol, but that’s not what the kids seem to want anyway. Toast, soup, sandwiches. For some of those inner-city kids it’s the only decent food they get all day, and they appreciate it.

If this Gregory came from all that and managed to get into university, he must be a bright student. I say as much.

“He was,” Tony agrees. “Studying law. Jenna helped him with the application, and Ethan took a bit of an interest. He gave him a job in one of our restaurants, to help out with living costs, and threw in the accommodation for free. That’s how come he lives below Leila.”

“I see, so, what was this favour he did for Leila?” I’m not getting Gregory’s potted life history for no reason.

“He’s a party animal, our Gregory. Went clubbing last night, didn’t get a taxi back until after two in the morning.”

“Okay…”

“The cab dropped him and his mate off at the end of the road. As they were walking towards the house, they saw someone on the doorstep, letting themselves in the front door. Two men, both Asian. He didn’t recognise them but assumed they were new tenants.”

I remain quiet, waiting for the punchline.

“When Gregory and his mate got to the door, they saw it had been forced, and not very elegantly. The frame was splintered, and they spotted a crowbar slung in the shrubbery. They’d had a few, but they still had the sense to go in quietly and checked the ground floor first. Nothing apparently amiss there, so they went up the stairs. Second floor was okay, too, but on the third floor, where Gregory’s flat is, they heard footsteps above them.”

“In Leila’s flat.”

Tony nods, deftly manoeuvring the Discovery out of the gates and into the flow of traffic. “She doesn’t get many visitors, and definitely not two men arriving at that time in the morning. They went up there to see what was going on. Arrived in time to see these two jokers spraying petrol through the letterbox and following that up with bunch of lighted matches.”

“Holy fuck!” The words come out as a snarl. “Arson.”

“Yup, certainly seems that way.”

“Was it?—”

“The cousins? We think so. The CCTV on the front door caught clear enough images. Ethan has Casey checking the pictures against our home movie, but we expect them to match.”

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