Chapter 8: Paul Makes a Discovery

A couple of weeks later, Aiden had a spare hour, so he went round to see Mrs Bailey. To his surprise she opened the door fully dressed and looking quite smart. Inviting him in, she offered him a cup of tea, which he declined, remembering the state of the kitchen on his last visit. Settled in the lounge, which looked very much cleaner than previously, he asked her how she was coping.

‘I’ve not heard a thing from that sod,’ she told him, ‘But I no longer care. Because he left me with no money, I’m now getting some more benefits which I get to use without him dipping into them. Life is easier and so peaceful. If he turned up now, I wouldn’t let him back in.’

‘Have you reported him missing?’ Aiden asked her. ‘Why should I?’ was her response. Aiden didn’t answer that, just said, ‘I don’t know if you’ve heard, but we recovered over £800,000 worth of stolen goods from his lock up, so we presume wherever he has gone, he didn’t take much with him.’

‘The bastard!’ she said, ‘When I think how many times that he emptied my purse for his booze. If he ever shows his face here again, I’ll kill him so I will!’

Aiden got up to leave, saying as he did so, ‘If you do, I’ll put in a good word for you in court’.

As he drove back to the station, he was pleased that life had improved for her. He was also happy that since Wayne’s disappearance, break ins seemed to have come to a complete stop. It also looked good on the books to have recovered all the stolen property from the lock up. But not knowing what had happened to him or where he was, was decidedly infuriating.

At the station he found himself at a loose end so he texted Danny. ‘Just thought I’d update you on the missing burglar seeing as his van was discovered in your road,’ he said. He explained about visiting his wife and all the stolen goods they had recovered. Also, that the burglaries had come to a complete stop ever since.

‘We’re all delighted,’ he added, ‘It’s just infuriating not actually knowing where he is. Anyway, see you soon,’ Aiden.

Danny had put it out of his mind, but after reading the text he started thinking again. The first day of the school holiday he cycled over to look at the concrete base he had followed Paul to and seen him working on.

There was a brickie and labourer on site and a double garage was halfway up. They had just stopped for a coffee so Danny got chatting to them. He told them he had watched the base go in and was interested to see what was going to be built on it. He hinted without saying so that he was considering a career in building.

During the conversation he discovered that they were further ahead than they expected to be. ‘The guy who put the foundations in unexpectedly laid them two weeks ahead of schedule, so we were able to start last week.’ The young labourer told him.

‘We finished our previous job sooner than expected,’ he told him, ‘So it suited us fine.’ Danny asked about letting the foundations set. The brickie was pleased a youngster was showing interest and chatted happily.

‘Yes, a house foundation can be built on almost immediately,’ he told him. ‘But being a slab foundation, ideally it needs a fortnight to cure. It was dug out on the Tuesday, concreted on the Wednesday and yesterday, two weeks later, we were able to start building.’

‘You’ve got on really well,’ Danny told them, ‘I’ll come and have another look when it’s all done. Thanks for talking to me. It’s been very interesting.’ he cycled off.

Going back home he sat in the garden thinking. A burglar had definitely been in his road on the Monday night. Something had broken his neighbour Pauls landing window late in the evening. He had seen Paul apparently wrapping up a body and putting it in his van although he couldn’t really be certain about it being a body.

But the next day Paul must have contacted his customer and arranged to start on the garage base much earlier than expected. There could have been all sorts of reasons for that, but it would have been very convenient if you suddenly had a dead body on your hands to dispose of.

That would of course also explain why the burglaries had stopped and the van had remained in the road. What he had to decide now was, what should he do about it? Indeed, should he do anything. He had no proof as everything was circumstantial so far.

If it was true, the burglar who he was jumping to the conclusion was now buried under the garage base, was a really bad lot. Even his wife was happier without him. He had been very violent to a lot of his victims. Although he hadn’t actually killed anyone yet, it seemed quite likely that if he continued his break ins, he probably would. Aiden had told him that the elderly lady he had viciously attacked recently, would never ever fully recover or be the same again.

He thought it through, then decided he would do nothing, unless any fresh evidence turned up. Even then it would require careful consideration. On the face of it, Paul or whoever had disposed of him deserved a medal, not imprisonment.

Danny had a lazy afternoon in the garden, then as teatime approached, he heard Paul’s van pulling into his drive next door. He wandered out and said, ‘Hi,’ to Paul. ‘Hi Danny,’ he said, ‘I’ve just finished for the weekend.’

He opened the back doors of the van and the front doors of his garage. ‘Are you unloading it?’ Danny asked. ‘Yes,’ Paul said, ‘I’ve got to pick up materials for a job first thing Monday morning, so I need it empty. I really should get a trailer.’

‘Shall I give you a hand?’ Danny asked. ‘Yes, please,’ he said, ‘That would be good.’ They emptied all his tools, odds and ends and general builders junk into the garage.

Danny watched as Paul brushed the floor of the van. ‘Thanks,’ he said, ‘That made a boring job much quicker.’ As he closed everywhere up, he said, ‘Come on in and have a coffee.’

They went in through the back door into the kitchen. Danny sat at the table whilst Paul made two drinks. Then he put them on the table and sat opposite him. They chatted generally for a while then Danny said, ‘You look tired.’ as Paul gave his third yawn since they had come in.

‘I haven’t been sleeping too well recently,’ Paul admitted, ‘I think it’s catching up on me.’ ‘I’ve been doing some counselling during the past year,’ Danny told him. ‘Quite a lot of people suffer with insomnia when something’s really worrying them.’

‘I’m not aware that anything’s worrying me.’ Paul said, not sounding very convincing. ‘Most people know what’s bothering them,’ Danny said, ‘But it’s often something they find too awful or too embarrassing to tell anyone about.’

‘But I have had a couple of people who genuinely didn’t know what their problem was. Although in one case it was because the problem was so bad, his mind had chosen to shut it out completely. It was a sort of self-defence reaction. That meant that as he was in denial about there being a problem, he stood no chance of ever asking for help. Fortunately, he had a friend who I’d counselled previously, and he recognised the symptoms.’

‘So how did his friend get him to come and see you?’ Paul asked sounding interested. ‘He pointed out what everyone knows about problems,’ Danny said. ‘If you have one and do nothing it can only do one thing,’ ‘What’s that?’ Paul asked. ‘Keep getting worse.’ Danny told him. ‘They never ever solve themselves.’ he added.

‘Then he told him that I never ever revealed anything anyone told me in confidence and that he knew from experience that I could be trusted. Then he told him that if he at least came and met me, he could have a chat before he told me anything. He also told him that if he wanted to, he could just walk out if he changed his mind at any time.’

‘He eventually decided to try it. I was then able to get him to tell me all about it and I came up with a solution he was happy with.’

‘Surely there must be some things that bother people that are far too serious for you to deal with?’ Paul said. ‘I can only say I haven’t come across one yet.’ Danny said. ‘Even though I have had a couple of really serious ones.’

‘What would you call really serious?’ Paul asked, still sounding interested. ‘They’re all serious in a way, because they cause a problem for the person involved,’ Danny said. ‘Many of them have involved rape of one sort or another, but I have had a murder too.’

‘Wow,’ Paul said, ‘Are you telling me you counselled someone who admitted to murder?’ ‘Yes.’ Danny said. ‘What did you do about that?’ Paul asked. ‘I managed to get them to tell me all the details,’ Danny said, ‘It had really been getting them down worrying about it. I told them what I thought and how they should handle it. They were so relieved to get it off their chest and left happy. To the best of my knowledge, they are now leading a normal happy life.’