Street Smart (Matt Reeves Thriller)

by Ben Onslow

  Now, here he was, so bored he was willing to wait for some guy to haul himself off the floor and then follow him just in case he was going to do something interesting.

  It was a good twenty minutes before Fraser came out of the restroom. Matt watched him as he wove his way through the tables inside the café. Fraser kept giving his chin a rub and looked like he wanted to kill someone.

  He walked along the street, then hopped into the car he’d been trying to talk the girl into.

  The big black Mercedes looked expensive. Fraser was doing well.

  Matt gave him enough time to head down Willis Street, so he wouldn’t think he was being followed. The thing about innercity driving is that even at night, with streetlights and pedestrian crossings, it wasn’t hard to figure out where someone was heading without being right up their taillights.

  When the Mercedes was an intersection away, Matt pulled out and followed it.

  Fraser made a left turn, headed along that street a bit and then parked outside a club. The sign said ‘Amnesia’.

  Matt checked the time. It was getting close to midnight. Maybe Barnes would be there. Maybe something was about to happen.

  He cruised past and could see the club was in full swing. A few couples tumbled out. The lights inside were sparse. The music pumped, and there were dancing heads and filled tables.

  He pulled up a few parking spaces down the road on the opposite side of the street. Should he follow Fraser into the club? He probably wouldn’t be recognised. He was just in guy clothes, jeans, boots, and a jacket now.

  Yeah, he’d follow Fraser and see what he did. It wasn’t like he had a lot else planned for tonight.

  Inside the club, it was like every club anywhere in the world. A bar, a band, the lights down to a minimum and most people settled and drinking.

  He spotted Fraser at a table with a couple of other guys and Barnes. The picture Draper had shown him was a good likeness. A stocky body and the ruined face of someone who lived hard and had drunk plenty. They were talking, and it was pretty clear Barnes was in charge. Giving orders, laying down the law. Fraser and the other two guys were busy nodding and agreeing.

  Matt sat at the bar and ordered a beer to give him a reason for being there. In the reflection of the mirror, he casually watched the four men talking. He couldn’t figure out what they were saying. He couldn’t really go over to them and ask, what’s up? But they looked pretty settled.

  He kept watching them while he finished his beer. When he was driving down here a month ago, he’d stopped in at Taupo to visit his grandfather.

  He knew the old man would have an opinion about this offer of Drapers and might be able to give a bit of advice. He was always good to talk to. In his day, he’d ridden moto trials like Josh did. Said it was like playing chess on a motorbike. He lived on the farm with them but had met a woman about a year ago and moved to Taupo to be with her. Pretty amazing someone would do that at his grandfather’s age, but he seemed happy. Anyway, he’d always taken risks, flown helicopters and got involved in live deer capture when he was young.

  Pop had sipped at his coffee. “How’s life in the police force?” he’d asked.

  “It’s okay. But there’s something I wanted to talk to you about.”

  “Shoot,” said Pop.

  “I’ve been offered the chance to do a bit of undercover work.”

  “Where?” asked his grandfather.

  “Wellington. That’s where I’m heading now. It turns out a lot of meth has flooded the streets over the last couple of months, and this guy Draper wants me to find out where it’s being manufactured and who’s supplying the cooks with the raw ingredients and running the operation.”

  “Sounds interesting. But I thought you had to do two years basic police work before you could specialise.”

  “Yeah, usually I would have, but with my history, I fit the bill. My backstory will look right if they need me to pass as a dealer.” So much for grownup and responsible.

  Pop had laughed when he heard that. “Have you told that son of mine what you’re doing?”

  Matt shook his head. “Not yet.” He hadn’t been too sure about telling his parents. But it was pretty hard to come up with a good reason for a sudden shift to Wellington that wasn’t the truth.

  He couldn’t see them thinking this was a good move. They were risk averse. His father had taken over the farm from Pop twenty years ago and hadn’t shown any signs of wanting to do anything else. He guessed this restless streak in him, and his grandfather had skipped a generation.

  “I can’t see my son being happy when he hears that story,” said Pop. “Exactly what he raised you for. Drug dealer.”

  He’d grinned at his grandfather. Yeah, that would appeal to his sense of humour. “Draper doesn’t think it will come to that. He’s just talking surveillance. They’ve narrowed the problem down to the CBD. Draper said to begin with I’d just be staking the area out for a few weeks.”

  “When does this assignment start?”

  “I’m on leave this week, then I head for Wellington.”

  “So why aren’t you jumping at the chance?” Pop asked.

  “I’m not sure it’s where I want to head.”

  “Sounds like you’re committed for the next month or so anyway. See if you like it.”

  Matt leaned his elbows on the table and cradled his cup of coffee. “Yeah. And I guess I’m not making the commitment for life. Might be a chance to see how that side of policing works.”

  His grandfather had nodded. “If you’re planning on working your way up the ranks, you’ll know more about what’s going on behind the scenes.” Then he’d grinned at Matt. “Besides, it could be bloody exciting.”

  Yep, if Pop had the chance to do undercover work, he wouldn’t hesitate.

  Matt mightn’t have jumped at the chance, but it was the idea it might be exciting that had finally won him over. That restless, thrill-seeking streak had only skipped one generation.

  But Pop had been wrong. It turned out undercover work was bloody boring. He needed to be a bit more proactive. Plus, he’d just stopped Fraser attacking a young kid so he wouldn’t mind finding a reason to get him off the street.

  Chapter 3

  UNDERCOVER WORK MIGHT be exciting if he actually did things. He needed to find out if Draper was right and Barnes and Fraser were bringing drugs in or running a bakehouse. Or using the Amnesia Club as a cover in some way. He might have a look around.

  He left his beer on the bar and headed for the restroom. The door to the restroom led to the kitchen too. He’d seen a few staff going in and out.

  It wasn’t like he expected to find drugs bundled into convenient packages with addresses on anywhere. Still, he might find something that would lead to something. If anyone questioned him, he’d be looking for the restroom and got lost.

  He headed through the door and found himself in a brightly lit corridor. He could hear the kitchen staff on the left. The door opened, and a couple of waitresses came out carrying plates filled with nachos and chicken wings.

  The restroom signs were on the doors to the right. He pushed on a door. But as soon as he was alone in the corridor again, he went further along until he found a couple of storerooms and an office.

  He slipped inside the first one and looked around. The room looked tidy and drug free. He heard the kitchen door open again and waited in the storeroom. It had pantry supplies in it as far as he could tell. Pity. He heard someone walking, then another set of footsteps.

  He waited until the door to the main bar swung closed again.

  Too many people going in and out. This was a waste of time. He wasn’t going to find anything, and the layout was so simple no one was going to believe he was lost.

  He headed back to the bar, ordered another beer and took it to a table near the window where he could watch Barnes and Fraser with the two other men for a bit longer. They glanced at him when he moved and then went back to their conversation.

  He sippe
d his beer. When he was at Manakau, policing seemed to be long periods of nothing much happening interspersed with a bit of excitement, then moments of unbelievable horror. The things people do to each other or to themselves had shocked him. He wasn’t sure how other cops got used to it.

  He looked over at Barnes and the others. They were still talking. Still nothing happening.

  What had he expected when he joined the police force? He’d be some sort of social worker? Instead, it turned out it was more, them and us. Maybe it was the uniform that made things that way?

  “Hang around the CBD and see what you pick up,” Draper had said. “If anyone asks, you just got back from overseas, and you’re working out what you’re going to do.” That was the line Draper had suggested. And this was buying him time before he needed to decide whether he would stick with being a cop or not. Whether the bit of good he saw happening made up for the long periods of boredom and the moments of horror.

  He saw Barnes fish in his pocket and pull out a phone. Barnes grunted at the phone a couple of times, put it back and nodded at the other guys at the table.

  Something had changed. The way those four were starting to move, they were about to leave.

  They pushed their chairs back, buttoned up their coats, and headed out through the front door straight to Fraser’s car. They all piled in. Lucky the car was a big model because the guys weren’t lightweights.

  Matt finished his beer and took note of the direction they were heading. He might be able to pick them up and follow them. What with stoplights and so on. And most of the streets around here were one way, so it cut down on the options they’d have.

  He got to his car just in time to see Fraser take a left. He found his keys, got in, started it up, pulled out onto the road, then headed down the street and turned too. Just ahead, the Mercedes was waiting for the lights to change.

  Now following them would be easy.

  Fraser’s car wove through the city and finally ended up at the rail yards just beyond the railway station. The car pulled into the curb, stopped, and the four guys got out.

  Matt had to keep on driving. Not enough traffic around to blend in. He drove to the next turn, took a left and parked in the alley. Then, on foot, he made his way back to where the Mercedes was parked. But the men had disappeared.

  It shouldn’t be too hard to figure out where four big men dressed for clubbing, not hiking over railway lines, had ended up.

  He kept his back to the warehouse and finally saw them crossing the rails. He watched the men head over to a small shed close to the shunting yards. Lines of carriages crowded the yards, some long as if they are ready to go. Some just a couple of wagons linked together, silhouetted against the city skyline. The odd lonely one sat on its own line waiting.

  Outside the shed, the men hesitated. One checked his phone, then nodded at the others. The area around the shed was lit a bit more than the rest of the yards. The door opened, and the four men went inside.

  Matt could see a glow on the other side of the shed. There might be a window. He checked around for any sign of life, but everything in the yards was still. So, he left the alley between the warehouses and dropped down to the gravel where the lines were.

  This beat sitting in the café waiting for stuff to happen. For the first time in a month, Matt felt like he was doing something.

  Moving carefully to keep the crunch of his boots to a minimum, he took a wide circular route away from the shed until he was in amongst the carriages.

  Then he moved faster until he figured he was parallel with where the window should be. He checked around again for any sign of life. Saw nothing except the stationary carriages and the shapes of the warehouses lining the yards, so made for the square of light.

  A couple of meters from the shed, a heap of pallets was stacked, and he used those for cover. He could see most of the interior of the shed. Barnes and Fraser and the two other men from the club talked to two men in security guard uniforms. There didn’t look to be a lot in the shed, just a few television monitors, a bench and two chairs.

  Barnes talked, and the other five men were listening. Then they gathered around something on the bench.

  Matt couldn’t see what it was. It must be lying flat. He watched a bit of nodding and pointing at whatever was on the table. It all looked amicable.

  Then one of the security guards picked up a package off the floor and handed it to Fraser. The other guys loaded up with packages too. All plain cardboard boxes, but they looked heavy. Some more talking, but he still couldn’t hear what they were saying.

  All he could see on the monitors was the stillness of the railyards, the carriages in their chains and the city skyline. Then he noticed a white flicker. It dissolved into four figures in dark clothing. What he saw must have been the light catching their faces.

  Just as Barnes headed for the door, one of the security guards turned to the monitor and caught the movement too. He let out a roar that Matt could hear from the pile of pallets. The guard took off out the door, followed by the other one.

  Barnes and his lot must have got what they came for because they headed back to their car carrying the boxes, leaving the security guards to it.

  One guard talked on his handset. They both had their torches out and were making for where the flicker had been. Then Matt saw four figures running like hell across the railway lines to the end of the warehouses.

  The security guards had left the door of the shed open. He’d have a bit of a look before he took off to his car but wouldn’t waste too much time there. The guy with the handset had probably been calling for backup.

  Inside the shed, it looked pretty much the way it had from outside. A place for the guards to monitor the railyards through the CCTV cameras. A desk, a cupboard, a table and a couple of chairs. Five monitors sat on the desk beside empty fish and chip papers.

  The cupboard sat open. That would have been where the packages Fraser and the others had been given came from. Nothing else. No ingredients for cooking up meth anyway. That could have been what they took away, though. If Draper was right and it was them running the operation.

  But then, if they were running the whole thing, would they get involved in something as mundane as picking up the ingredients for the cook? That didn’t seem likely.

  He watched the screens. Now there seemed to be movement everywhere. He could see the four figures running and dodging between the carriages, heading to the far end of the line of warehouses, about where he’d parked his car.

  He could make out the shapes of the two security guards and the light from their torches. They’d separated to cover more ground, and every now and then, they’d stop and talk on their handsets. He could hear what they were saying now through the radio on the bench.

  “Found anything yet,” came the staticky voice on the radio.

  “Taggers,” said a different voice. One of the guards on the monitor, he guessed. “A fresh tag on the one of the carriages.” He didn’t sound too pleased about it.

  “Backup should arrive in the next few minutes.” The staticky voice came through the monitor again.

  “Get them to meet us at the far end of the warehouses,” came from one of the guards. On the monitor he saw the two guards take off again.

  It was time for him to get away too. If back up was about to arrive, Draper wouldn’t be pleased if he got himself tangled up in the arrest of taggers.

  So much for a big drug bust and making a name for himself the first month on the job.

  Matt slipped back out into the half-lit yard and keeping to the shadows worked his way down the tracks.

  He’d seen the way the guards were covering the area. Slowly and not particularly methodically. He had no trouble getting past them and headed back to where he’d parked his car.

  Matt nearly made it to the end of the yards when he saw a movement to his left. He glanced over. The taggers should be well gone. They’d had a huge head start and had been moving fast. And the guards were still lu
mbering along behind him checking around the cars on the line.

  Then he saw a hunched figure leaning against a carriage. It limped a few steps, then stopped and supported itself against the carriage again.

  He watched the kid try to move, and there was something familiar about the slightness. Then one of the security lights gave him a better view and he recognised the girl from the café, and she was hurt.

  She was having a really bad night.

  He looked back. The light from the guard’s torches moved relentlessly closer.

  Matt headed towards her. She knew Fraser. Maybe she knew something. It might be worth helping her then having a word with her.

  He saw the alarm on her face when she noticed him. She turned abruptly and tried to take off in the other direction.

  “Stop, I’ll help you get away,” he called softly to her. They were probably only fifty metres from his vehicle.

  She hesitated. Then must have decided he was her only chance and nodded.

  He grabbed her arm and wrapped it over his shoulder, checked where the guards were, and then with a limping run, sticking to the shadows, they headed for his car.

  Chapter 4

  ONCE HE HAD her in the passenger seat, he slammed the door shut, jogged to the driver’s side and got in. He couldn’t see any of her mates, but the torches of the guards were getting closer. He started the car and took off towards the city. He didn’t want anyone to identify his vehicle.

  The girl looked at him suspiciously. “Are you following me?” she asked.

  Matt shook his head. “Nope. Just a coincidence.” She really was pretty. Maybe a bit older than he’d thought, closer to seventeen. Much the same age as his brother Josh.

  “What the hell were you doing there?” he asked.

  She looked out the window and didn’t answer.

  He stopped at the lights and studied her. “The guys in the shed said you were tagging the carriages?”