END GAME a gripping crime thriller full of breathtaking twists

by Charlie Gallagher

  George pulled a stiff piece of card from his inside pocket and worked at the lock. The door opened, and he heard noises inside, made by a man and a woman. The noises sounded like sex.

  George had been pretty close with the layout. He made his way down a long corridor. The threadbare carpet was just enough to mask his footfalls, though he could have marched along in pit boots — the two occupants’ attention was elsewhere.

  The bedroom was off to the right at the end of the corridor. Light was coming from a room to the left and the door was ajar. George peered inside and caught sight of a woman’s foot, moving in time to the thrusting of an older man with jeans and underwear around his ankles. George reckoned he was witnessing a business transaction, but whatever it was, it didn’t involve Carl Matten.

  George padded into the bedroom opposite. The room was sparsely furnished, its only features a canvas-sided wardrobe with two empty hangers, and a bed. George stepped further in, and noticed a sports hold-all stuffed with clothing. A T-shirt spilled out of the top, and a tracksuit lay next to it — men’s clothing. George listened. The business transaction was clearly still in progress. He went over to the bag and held it upside down. It was heavier than it should be. A black handgun fell with a thud onto the carpet, and George stiffened. The noises from the other room continued.

  George rifled through the bag, knowing that he might be pushing his luck. It contained clothes, and an Oyster card. George typed the reference number into his phone, to be used for tracing the owner if needed. He found two train tickets in the side pocket, both dated recently, one to London St Pancras and one for Liverpool Lime Street Station. George picked up the weapon. It fitted snugly in his grip. The noises next door reached a crescendo. George needed to leave. He looked at the weapon in his hand and made a decision. He checked the safety and stuffed it into his waistband.

  George left the property the same way he came in, only this time he slammed the door, enjoying the thought of the panicked dismount. He’d left the contents of the bag tipped out, so the occupant could tell Matten they’d been burgled. Maybe that way she wouldn’t get the blame for stealing his weapon.

  He made it back to the boundary wall and returned to the Skoda, yawning. He wasn’t used to working and he was dead tired and hungry. The smell of pizza wafted up his nostrils and he thought of Emily. Maybe she hadn’t eaten yet, and turning up with hot food might just serve as an apology.

  He hated saying sorry.

  Chapter 18

  ‘You’re the copper?’

  ‘Ex.’ Helen accepted a second glass of water and drank it more slowly.

  ‘I hear they’re looking for you.’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘I got involved with a criminal. They don’t like that.’

  The woman smiled. ‘So you didn’t learn your lesson?’

  ‘It would appear not.’

  ‘I grew up with strict parents, who tried to teach me right from wrong. Then I met Nial, and married into all this.’ The woman swept an arm around the vast farmhouse kitchen. Helen had seen the inside of the house before, but only in pictures taken on the day of the raid. It was the only original building left on the Alcani site. ‘And you know what, I’m not so sure about right and wrong anymore. Know what I mean?’

  Helen nodded. ‘I think I do.’

  ‘I mean, you police have all the power. They came here — twenty of them there was — bashed the door in, searched the house from top to bottom. They took all our mobile phones, laptops, my iPad, the lot. I still haven’t got most of it back. If I did that, you’d call it burglary.’

  Helen found that she could still laugh. ‘I’ve never thought of it like that.’

  ‘Well, you don’t, do you? You get brainwashed, not by right and wrong, but by your power. And then you stop caring about what actually is right and wrong, just about what you can put people in prison for. I see it all the time. You’re looking for the bad in people so much that you can’t see any of the good.’

  Helen sighed. She was too exhausted to argue. ‘What’s your name?’ she asked.

  ‘You mean you don’t know?’ I thought I was famous where you come from.’

  ‘I hear a lot of names,’ Helen said.

  ‘Rosalina. I get called Rosie.’

  ‘Well, Rosie, thank you. That is a name I know. That makes Sol your son, right? Won’t he be angry with you?’

  ‘He should be more worried about me being angry with him. We’re better than what you went through today, really. But since your people took his father away, he’s just angry.’

  ‘I came here to offer him some answers. So he could channel that anger towards the right people.’

  Rosie got up and pulled open the oven door. ‘Should be about done. You must be starving.’

  ‘Yeah, I didn’t get the chance to eat much today.’ The women shared a wry smile.

  ‘He’s not a bad boy. Typical man is all. They only have one way of doing anything, and that’s heavy-handed. He wants information, he asks the only way he knows how. He doesn’t think about who he’s asking. Some people will talk to you, but you have to treat them with respect. Some people deserve a little explanation.’

  Rosie dropped a large helping of cheesy pasta into a bowl and pushed it towards Helen. She began to slice a loaf of bread.

  ‘So you have different ways of doing things, Rosie. Is this what this is?’

  Rosie stood with the knife poised. ‘You are going to have to tell them boys what you know. I can make sure they look after you when you do, but I can’t keep them away if you don’t.’

  ‘Well, thank you, Rosie, for your support. But as soon as I give up all I have, your boys won’t need me anymore. I’ve had a little taste of how that might end.’

  ‘Then tell me.’ Rosie’s gaze became intense. ‘Talk to me about what you know, and let me deal with the boys. They’ll listen to me.’

  ‘So this is your way of asking differently? Helen indicated the meal.

  ‘You are going to have to tell them boys out there,’ Rosie repeated. ‘Lord help you if you don’t.’

  ‘Lord help me if I do.’

  Rosie bit her bottom lip. Very deliberately, she laid the knife on the table.

  Helen picked up her fork. ‘This looks delicious.’

  Rosie reached forward and pulled back the bowl.

  ‘It’s no good, Sol.’ Her voice was suddenly louder. She was still facing Helen, and staring intently at her.

  Helen’s eyes widened. Sol Alcani appeared from behind his mother.

  He chuckled. ‘I told you, ma. I said she was too stubborn.’

  ‘Too stupid more like.’ Rosie’s expression had lost its warmth.

  Helen stood up, looking for something she could use. But there was nothing within reach.

  ‘I gave you a chance, you stupid bitch!’ Rosie was shaking her head.

  Someone grabbed Helen by her hair, pulling her head backwards. She tried to scratch at his hand to free herself. The man swore and pulled harder. Some of her hair came away in his grasp. He yanked her backwards towards the door.

  Helen tried not to scream as he dragged her towards the warehouse.

  Chapter 19

  ‘We need to talk.’

  She gasped. It was her flat, she lived alone and no one had keys. But that voice was only too familiar. Jana swung her shopping bags onto the kitchen table and switched on the light. Kane Forley sat with his hands steepled, speaking from his seat under the window. An empty cup rested by his feet.

  ‘My phone, it is dead.’ Jana held it out.

  ‘A bit of simple pre-planning.’

  ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t know.’

  ‘What can you tell me?’

  Jana shrugged and held her palms out. ‘Nothing more. I tell you when I see you yesterday.’

  ‘Nothing more?’

  ‘Nothing more. It’s normal, nothing.’

  Kane stamped on the floor and Jana jumped again.

  ‘
The accent, Jana. It can really grate sometimes, especially when you’re whining. Now, I gave you a specific task.’

  ‘I told you I am not able to do what you ask all the time. I clean. I go places where I clean and sometimes there is no one.’

  ‘It doesn’t take a massive amount of imagination to get to places where there are people, does it? You don’t even need to be in the same room. The police write everything down. They have to, for fuck’s sake.’

  ‘I told you information. I tell you everything. I tell you the old man looking for you, and you kill him. I tell you Mr Lance is in charge and I put phone on his roof. I tell you George is back but he only works with the woman.’

  ‘You need to be useful, Jana. You remember what happens when you’re not useful?

  ‘I tell you everything.’

  ‘I told you, I want to know what they know. The whole thing rests on you, Jana.’ Kane got to his feet and moved close to her. Jana stepped back until she was pressed against the kitchen work surface. Kane ran the back of his index finger across her face and between her lips. She recoiled, and he smiled.

  ‘I’m going to ask you to do something different for me. Seeing as how you’ve found it so difficult, I’ll ask for something easier.’

  ‘You said I needed to find out the names of the people. Who was looking for you again. I did. This was the deal, no?’

  ‘No!’ Kane suddenly grabbed her by the neck and forced her head backwards. He held her for a few seconds, then suddenly let go and stepped back. He sat down again.

  ‘I need some very specific information, Jana. Does that sound easy enough for you?’

  ‘I can’t, I can’t always get. If I get caught, I—’

  ‘What!’ Kane leapt up and kicked her in the ribs. It knocked her off her feet. He stood looking down at her.

  ‘You will do what I ask or I will go and get your fourteen-year-old bitch sister and I will give her back to those men who were selling her on the street for a tenner a go. Do you understand me?’

  Jana curled into a ball and sobbed into the carpet. Kane bent down and put his mouth close to her ear. ‘Do you?’

  Jana jerked her head. He stepped over her and opened the front door.

  ‘I will be back soon, Jana, and you need to have done better. You told me you would help, remember? Remember how you felt when the police did nothing to help you or your family? How angry you were? You and me, we’re going to make them pay, Jana. Wait for my instructions. Don’t fuck this up now!’

  He slammed the front door behind him.

  It was some time before she dared look up.

  Chapter 20

  The evening was noticeably cooler and Emily had put on a warm jumper. It was more than up to the job of keeping her outside on the patio listening to the sea shuffle the pebbles around on the beach below. No gin tonight. Instead she settled for a cup of tea. That morning she had woken up tired, with a slightly muzzy head. It was only eight o’clock and she was already fighting off a yawn.

  She noticed a figure on the promenade. All the walls had been built low to give a sea view, but this meant that people often walked across the bottom of her garden. On a sunny day there could be hundreds of them. It never really bothered Emily. She didn’t like sunbathing and only really used the patio in the evening. This figure, however, walked past and then came back and stopped at her wall. She couldn’t be sure if it was looking directly at her or not. Then it stepped over her wall and made its way up to her patio.

  Emily snatched up her phone, but the figure was on her before she could even unlock it.

  ‘You won’t need that, Ryker!’ George chuckled.

  ‘Fuck!’ Emily exclaimed. ‘I thought it was some weirdo.’ She paused. ‘Turns out I was right.’

  ‘Very good.’ George sat down and placed a carrier bag on the table. It smelt like hot food.

  ‘Please have a seat,’ Emily quipped. ‘What’s that?’

  ‘Chinese food. I didn’t want to eat on my own tonight, so that means you eat with me or you watch me eat.’

  ‘I had my induction at the gym tonight.’

  ‘Oh.’ George had a plastic tub in his hand. ‘Does that mean you’re on some kind of diet or something?’

  ‘Does it fuck! It means I can justify it.’

  George grinned and went back to pulling the tops off tubs and laying them out on the table.

  Emily got to her feet. ‘I’ll get some cutlery then.’ She reappeared almost immediately. ‘Hang on. I never told you my address!’

  George snatched a spoon from her hand. ‘I’m a detective, Ryker.’

  ‘You mean you abused your power as a supervisor and looked at the personnel records?’

  ‘I didn’t, actually. They have only given me limited access. I got another skipper to do it.’ George crunched a prawn cracker.

  ‘You wanna be careful, George. You could get in a lot of trouble.’

  ‘I wouldn’t worry. Lennockshire Police are pretty lax. They let anyone off.’

  ‘So this is your apology then, is it? It’s actually not a bad one.’

  ‘I guess so. Though it did kill two birds with one stone. I really didn’t fancy eating on my own again.’

  ‘Are you feeling lonely, George Elms?’

  George shrugged.

  ‘Did you get what you wanted from the intel I left?’

  George nodded. ‘Yeah, that was the sort of stuff. I just feel like we’re not getting anywhere near this bloke, you know? I know I can do it, but it will take a bit of time. Trouble is, we don’t have time.’

  Emily looked at him. ‘You’re convinced he’s got something planned for us, aren’t you?’

  ‘Why wouldn’t he? And he’s going to want to top what he’s already put us through. I was lying awake last night, thinking about the whole thing. He’s never been more dangerous.’

  ‘How so?’ Emily put down her spoon.

  ‘We know who he is, and he knows that we do. He knew it the second I got released.’

  ‘How does that make him more dangerous? Surely, now he has to run?’

  ‘I don’t think so. If he does, he risks getting caught — by me. He couldn’t accept that. I think he’s coming straight at us. Shit or bust.’

  Emily shook her head. ‘I don’t fancy either of those options.’

  ‘He gave the police a trail to follow, knowing it would end with me getting out.’

  ‘So, what? He has some sort of grand plan, and you’re part of it?’

  ‘I think so, yeah. He certainly knows how to carry through a plan.’

  ‘Maybe it’s some sort of blaze of glory thing. Like Billy the Kid.’

  George nodded. ‘That would fit.’

  ‘The press release goes out tonight,’ said Emily. ‘He’ll be everywhere by the morning. I got his mug shot from the driving license people. He looks like a psycho.’

  George paused, his laden fork in the air. ‘I said it was a mistake, but Lewis wouldn’t listen to me. We should play for time. Kane likes to wait to be provoked, so he has someone to blame.’

  ‘So what now? I guess you’ve given up rattling the people lower down?’

  ‘I’ve not given it up completely. Tonight just showed that it needs time.’

  Emily raised her eyebrows. ‘Tonight? What happened tonight?’

  ‘I went looking for one of your tip-offs, Carl Matten. I fancy he’s my way in.’

  Emily finished her mouthful. ‘What the fuck did you do that for? What do you mean you went looking for him?’

  The sudden anger in her voice seemed to catch George off guard. ‘Just that. I went looking for him. You said he’s got recent form for robbing drug dealers with a gun. So where did he get it from? It might just be the same bloke that is supplying our man. Or at least I can find out who the competition is.’

  ‘Jesus, George! That intel was clearly marked sensitive. Matten has only been in the area a couple of weeks, and that was source information. The source is close to him, sharing his bed in f
act, and she’s the only one that could know. You go storming in there demanding to know where he gets his guns from and you will get her killed.’

  ‘I know how to handle sensitive information, Ryker.’

  ‘Well, clearly you don’t.’

  ‘I didn’t think—’

  ‘That’s right,’ Emily cut in. She hit the table with her fork. ‘You don’t think, do you? You just storm in there like nothing else matters. These people might be shits, George, they might not matter to you, but when they come to me I have to promise to keep them safe, and I look into their eyes when I say it!’

  ‘Okay, Emily, okay. I didn’t find him. Someone else was there, and they had no idea.’

  ‘What do you mean they had no idea? You peeked through their window?’

  ‘No, I slipped in the door. I was very quiet. I saw who was in there and it wasn’t Matten, so I left. No harm done.’

  ‘No harm done? That sums you up, that does. No harm done! Carl Matten wouldn’t think twice about putting a gun to my source’s head if he had an inkling she was talking to me. What if you’d found him there? What were you planning to do then?’

  ‘I don’t know, Emily. I didn’t really think it through. I know it was stupid—’

  ‘Too fucking right it was stupid, George. I’m telling you now, this isn’t working. Not for me, not for us. You think you can do what you like as far as I’m concerned and I’ll just tag along. Well, I won’t. You should go.’

  ‘Ryker — Emily — don’t be silly.’

  ‘Don’t call me silly, George. Don’t talk to me like I’m some fucking newbie! If I fuck up, these people die. Well, I clearly fucked up giving you this intel in the first place. And you know what? I only did it because it’s you. Because you have this sort of spell over me, and it makes me angry. I mean, what was I doing?’ Emily’s voice had risen.

  ‘Emily, look, no harm done. I fucked up, not you.’

  ‘This can’t work George. Me and you, I mean. With you like this. This work is important. I’m going back up north. I’ll sort it out tomorrow and then I’ll be gone. Things won’t end well if I stay here. I can just see that something bad is going to happen around you.’