SHADOW CRIMES a gripping crime thriller full of twists

by MICHAEL HAMBLING

  The three detectives ran down the stairs and out to the cars, Sophie frantically punching in numbers on her phone. She tossed her keys at Barry. ‘You drive. I’ll call for a support unit to meet us there. Shit, why isn’t Lydia answering her phone?’

  Chapter 38: The Chase

  Thursday Morning

  The cars slewed to a halt behind Lydia’s abandoned vehicle. They looked around them, at the walls of rock rising sheer above the slimy surface of the quarry floor. The place seemed deserted. Each of the three detectives ran to one of the three portakabins. It was Barry who found Jimmy Melsom, slumped on the floor in the toilet block with blood oozing from a head wound. He checked for a pulse, finding it steady, although Jimmy’s breathing was shallow. Barry called for an ambulance and went outside to tell the other two. Rae was sent back in to stay with Jimmy, to await the arrival of the medical team and ask for a second backup unit to be despatched. Meanwhile, Sophie and Barry and the two uniformed officers from the squad car descended into the quarry to search for Lydia. They carried no weapons, except for their Tasers.

  The rain had stopped, though the sky was still overcast. Once they rounded the first corner of the quarry complex the wind dropped, although they could see a few sparse bushes at the top of the rock faces moving in the breeze. Where would Lydia have gone? Sophie had to assume that she was being pursued, she would not have abandoned Jimmy otherwise. They followed a meandering track which seemed to head east, in the direction of the coast, probably made by generations of quarriers bringing the stone to the surface. Rounding a corner, Sophie noticed a narrow path heading up a slope to their left, probably a route up to the top of the cliff face. It snaked around numerous large boulders on its way up the slope, and in several spots it was hidden from view. Had Lydia followed it? After all, if she’d remained on the quarry floor she’d have been trapped. Sophie pointed to the path, and Barry nodded. They sent two uniformed constables to scout the rest of the quarry floor, and then follow her and Barry. Then they sprinted across to the bottom of the slope and started up the steep track, finally emerging onto rough moorland at the top of the quarry, with Weymouth Bay about half a mile in front of them. They stopped to listen, breathing hard. The track ran straight on, away from the quarry complex and towards the coastline. Further on, it disappeared beneath a large tangled clump of gorse bushes. Was that a noise? What was it? She jabbed Barry’s arm and pointed. He nodded.

  ‘I can hear something too,’ he gasped. ‘I can’t make it out. The wind’s too strong.’

  They started running again, following the track, and both began to shout Lydia’s name. They heard the sound of breaking foliage as they grew nearer, and a thickset man emerged from the far side of the shrubs, glanced back and then ran towards the clifftop. Sophie and Barry made for the spot, and began pushing through the spiny branches. They heard the whimpering before they spotted Lydia. She was in the middle of a dense pocket of bushes that had been partly flattened by something heavy. The broken and torn branches were evidence of the attack’s ferocity. Lydia lay curled into a ball, her arms hugging her body and her legs drawn up into her chest. Her clothes were soaked in blood, and blood oozed from several deep cuts on her head.

  Sophie bent down and touched her gently.

  ‘Lydia? Can you hear me? Can you say anything?’

  But Lydia just whimpered. What damage had that thug done? Sophie felt for her pulse. Thank God. It was still strong, and her breathing was regular, though it rasped.

  ‘Call back. Tell them we’ll need the air ambulance up here, right now. Get another squad here, along that lane across there. You stay here until the other two catch up. I’m going after him.’

  ‘Leave it, Sophie,’ Barry said. ‘He’s trapped. We can wait till they get here. He’s done enough damage already. You’ll be in danger of getting the same treatment. I’ll go after him if one of us really needs to.’

  Sophie shook her head. ‘One of us has to stay here, and I’m ordering you to do that. I’m not going to put myself at risk, don’t worry, but I need to spot where’s he’s heading. This place is like a rabbit warren, and he’ll know it like the back of his hand. We could lose him. I’ve had a few walks here, and I know the terrain.’

  Without waiting for a reply, she switched her phone to silent and set off at a fast trot across the open heathland after the rapidly disappearing figure. She pulled her Taser from its holster and looked around. The man had vanished. Here, the rough, rocky land fell away towards the coastal clifftop area. Where had he gone? Sophie suspected that he’d dodged behind one of the large boulders. She decided not to follow him but to circle around to the south, taking her time and keeping low to the ground. This might prove to be a waiting game if he’d found somewhere to hide. She moved slowly and carefully around the outside edge of the rock formation, constantly scanning in all directions. She didn’t think he’d had time to get across the open ground and reach the coast path that lay ahead on the clifftop. He was holed up somewhere in this outcrop, she was sure of it. And had he been limping? If so, he wouldn’t be able to get much further.

  Sophie worked her way up a low mound on the coastal side of the rough ground, keeping below the line of boulders that lay scattered on its surface. She spotted the arrival of the two squad car officers at the gorse thicket, and Barry emerging, setting out to follow the track she’d taken across the heath. There was a dense area of rocks in front of her, in the shadow of a small clump of spindly gorse bushes — the ideal place for the assailant to hide. Was that a low gully running towards it from the coast path? That might be the direction he’d take if he were disturbed. She picked up a stone and threw it hard across the rocks, to where she’d have been if she’d kept to the path and not circled around. Nothing happened. Maybe he’d be expecting a stunt like that. He was an ex-army man, after all, and it might be difficult to trick him. She pulled out her phone, logged her position and sent a text to Barry. She could see him in the distance, checking his own phone. As she put her phone away she heard the faint sound of sirens and spotted two police vehicles in the distance, approaching along the narrow lane. What would happen now? She didn’t have long to wait. Her target suddenly appeared from the shadows beneath the rock outcrop and, stooping low, ran along the gully. He had a crowbar in his hand. Sophie stood and looked down at the path he was following. He would surely see her.

  ‘Taser!’ she shouted. ‘Primed Taser. Stop now.’

  He looked up and shouted something but kept running, now heading straight for her. She fired the Taser, but he veered to the side just as she pulled the trigger. Only one of the darts hit home and Sophie wasn’t sure how deeply it had penetrated his clothes. He stared at her, sneering. He lifted the iron bar.

  ‘You’re fucked now.’

  Sophie fired the second chamber and this time both lines lodged in his chest, dead centre. He crashed to the ground like a felled log.

  ‘No. You are,’ she said. ‘We changed to two-chamber Tasers last year. Unlucky for you.’

  She doubted whether he’d heard. His body was in spasm. She walked forward and stood over him a moment, and then rolled him roughly onto his front, scraping his face against some protruding rocks. Wrenching his arms behind his back, she put cuffs on his wrists. Sick with fury, she had an overwhelming urge to kick him in the face, on and on, until his features were mashed to a pulp. Then Barry arrived, closely followed by a group of officers from the second backup team.

  ‘Get this animal out of my sight,’ she snarled, panting, ‘before I try to kill him with my bare hands. Jesus Christ, why does it have to be like this?’

  She turned and ran back along the track to where they’d left Lydia, now in the care of the other two officers. She bent down and cradled Lydia’s head in her arms, resting it against her chest. She patted her brow with a tissue and whispered in her ear.

  ‘Lydia, sweetheart, it’s me, Sophie. Hold on. There’s an ambulance on its way. You’ll make it. Just hang on, please.’

  Barry a
rrived, having supervised the transfer of Leary to a police secure van. ‘Any news of Jimmy?’ she asked him anxiously.

  ‘He’s come round, but he’s probably got concussion from that head wound. An ambulance has just arrived.’

  They heard the chatter of a helicopter just above them. Would they be in time to save Lydia?

  Chapter 39: A Great Little Earner

  Late Thursday Afternoon

  Sophie escorted the chief constable out of the hospital building and returned to the intensive care room, where she rejoined Kevin McGreedie at the observation window.

  ‘I’ll be heading off myself in a few minutes,’ he said. ‘Is there anything I ought to know that you didn’t mention in front of the boss? You were a bit tight-lipped. I got the feeling you were holding something back, but maybe I was reading too much into it.’

  Sophie chewed her lip. ‘I think there’s more,’ she said at last. ‘We’ve got them all in custody now, but it still doesn’t seem right somehow. I keep thinking how apt our name is for this whole tangled mess — Operation Shadow. I think something, or someone, is missing, still out there lurking in the shadows. I just need time to think things through.’ She looked through the glass panel. Lydia was unrecognisable beneath the swathe of dressings that covered her. She was surrounded by monitoring machines, with sensors and drips looping across to various points on her body.

  ‘I still can’t believe this has happened. I feel so bloody useless,’ Sophie said. ‘Just look at her. I keep asking myself, how did it get so violent so quickly? What could we have done differently? As well as my guilt over what’s happened to Lydia, I feel I’ve let you down, Kevin. You loan me two detectives, and look what’s happened to them. I feel sick about it.’

  ‘We can’t blame ourselves,’ he said, ‘either of us. You heard what the chief said. They’ve checked the logs, and everything was done by the book. No one could have expected this to happen during a routine investigation. Look, they were members of my team, but you seem to be taking it harder than me.’

  Sophie bit her lip. She couldn’t tell Kevin how deeply she felt about Lydia. The young woman had been like another daughter to her. And look at her now — bloody, bruised and in an induced coma, her life hanging by a thread. She nodded slowly. ‘She’s one of the best I’ve ever come across, and it wasn’t easy for her. When she started she was a shy young woman from the Asian community who wouldn’t say boo to a goose, but I could see her potential. I met her parents once, and they made me promise to look after her. They’ll be here shortly. God knows what I can say to them.’

  ‘In that case, I’ll stay a bit longer and help you out. Good to see Jimmy on the mend so quickly. Does he know about Lydia?’

  Sophie shook her head. ‘The doctors suggested we hold back on telling him until they’re assured of his recovery. He’ll be devastated.’

  The two of them fell silent. What else was there to say?

  * * *

  As Sophie had explained to the chief constable, all the obvious culprits were now in custody. Tonto Leary, or Eton Taylor as he was better known, remained silent. He exuded an intense, contemptuous hatred towards anyone who interviewed him. Neither Sophie nor Barry had made any attempt to do so — their feelings were too raw. Instead, they watched on a screen in Sophie’s office. Sophie was hopeful that his attitude would change once he realised the mess he was in. Anyway, did it really matter whether he talked or not? The evidence against him was overwhelming.

  The other two, Luke Boulden and Bill Mapps, were beginning to cooperate, both had obviously realised the strength of the case against them. They’d been told of Leary’s attempted murder of a police officer and his serious assault of a second. So, they were asked, did they want to be associated with those crimes in addition to the ones already filed against them? Both were adamant that they hadn’t been involved in the murder of Andrea Ford.

  Luke Boulden showed the most unease, despite his taciturn manner. Sophie and Barry both noticed the anxiety in his eyes when they interviewed him. They had no direct evidence of his involvement in any of the deaths, and no traces of his DNA had, as yet, been identified at any of the crime scenes, but he was clearly guilty of conspiracy. He denied any involvement in the abduction of Andrea Ford, but his body language said otherwise. The detectives explained the seriousness of his predicament and left him to stew.

  Mapps looked the more likely to have been involved, particularly in Andrea’s abduction and murder. The problem with the prison smuggling operation, in which Mapps was clearly implicated, was that the two detectives with the most knowledge were both lying in hospital beds, with Lydia, the head of that investigation, in intensive care. Although the Violent Crime Unit team had been working closely with Lydia and Jimmy, they didn’t know all the finer details. Wading through the volume of material that Lydia had amassed, Sophie again began to have doubts about the brains behind the whole thing. Was Mapps capable of leading the operation? But if not him, then who? Certainly not Fenners or Boulden. They were the foot-soldiers, along with Leary, who also supplied the violence, something he clearly relished. The smuggling operation had been running like a well-oiled machine, and she was sure that those three lacked the brains to orchestrate it. So was it Mapps?

  She decided to interview Luke Boulden again. He’d had time to think his position through, maybe he’d decide to spill at least a few of the beans.

  * * *

  ‘I wasn’t there,’ he said. ‘and that’s the truth. My sister was taken ill in Bristol that day and I went across to visit her in the evening. You can check. I spent the night with them and drove back here early the next morning.’

  ‘What about the others?’ Sophie said. ‘You can’t all have been visiting sick relatives.’

  ‘Liam told me he didn’t know they were gonna kill your woman, Andrea. They asked him to drive the van instead of me but didn’t say nothin’ else about what they planned to do with her — that’s what he said anyway. I knew they were going for her, they’d been on for days about how much she knew, but that’s all. I thought they were just gonna put the frighteners on her.’

  ‘When did you find out she was dead?’ Barry asked.

  ‘When it was on the news, and some of the guys at work talked about it.’ He rested his hands on the table, palms up.

  ‘Take us through what Liam told you about that night’s events,’ Sophie said.

  ‘Tonto arrived at his place and said they had a job on and he had a van ready. It was about the middle of the evening. He told Liam he was gonna be the driver. They parked up and went to a pub and Bill met them there. They waited until Bill got a message on his phone. Liam said he drove to where Tonto told him, in a side street. They got out but left the side door open. They stood chatting and when she came along with some bloke they grabbed her and pushed her into the van and drove off.’

  ‘Who was the man she was with?’

  ‘I dunno. Liam didn’t say.’

  ‘What happened then?’

  ‘Bill told Liam to drive down to the quayside at Portland. He wouldn’t tell me anything else. He was a bit sick about it, I could tell.’

  ‘Did he say anything about the van?’ Barry asked.

  Boulden shook his head. ‘Nah. And I never asked. Tonto always got them for us when we needed one.’

  Sophie looked at Barry. Could it have belonged to the quarry? They’d need to follow it up.

  ‘So, you don’t know the details of what happened to DC Ford?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Didn’t you ask? I’d have thought you’d have wanted to know, out of simple curiosity.’

  ‘You don’t know Tonto. You don’t ask that bloke questions. And Liam went quiet on me. He was worried about something.’

  Sophie decided to change tack. ‘Did you know the man who was found dead a few days before? Tony Quigley? He lived in Dorchester.’

  Boulden nodded, wary.

  ‘We need an explanation, Mr Boulden. How did you know him?’

&nb
sp; ‘He was with Bill a couple of times when we met for a few pints. He used to be a screw at Portland, but that was before I met him.’

  ‘What do you know about his death?’

  Boulden shrugged.

  ‘I’ll repeat what we said earlier. It’s in your interest to tell us what you know. We’re in the process of putting the charges together for these crimes, and let me stress that they are serious ones. Murder, attempted murder, conspiracy, the lot. We’ll be charging you very soon, but what we charge you with depends largely on what you tell us now. So it’s decision time for you, Luke Boulden.’

  For almost a minute, Boulden was silent, his thin face twisted with anxiety and unease.

  He sighed. ‘Quigley was useful. He supplied the gen about the prison layout and other stuff. I reckon he helped a lot more than that, but they never told me. I was just the driver whenever they did a run. Quigley was taking money for helping the operation. That’s all I know. Then Tonto reckoned he was starting to talk to the cops, especially that Ford woman. That was weird, ’cause I’m pretty sure she was in on some of it. She was cosy with Bill for a long time, but then they fell out. I dunno anything else about what was going on. It was all beyond me and Liam. We just did what we was told.’

  ‘So you were taking material to the prisons and finding ways of getting it smuggled inside? What methods did you use?’

  ‘Anything. Visitors, drones, the lot. Some of the staff are open to a bit of extra dosh, like Quigley used to be, I s’pose. We used drones a lot until the screws got wind of it. They’ve started fixing up wires and netting, so we’ve stopped using them as much unless it’s an open bit of ground like a recreation field. We’ve even just chucked stuff over a fence or wall if it’s been arranged in advance. We got paid by their families. Bill sorted out the money, and it was always up front. If there was any trouble with anyone not paying, Tonto sorted it. Liam and me, we were the experts at finding ways to get the stuff inside.’