Takedown

by Heather Atkinson

  The church was abandoned, the doors and windows boarded up, the stonework charred and streaked by smoke.

  They left the vehicle down the road and decided to skirt around the back of the church so no one would see them enter the grounds from the main road. The gate was padlocked shut, so they vaulted it. Because of their height, Vance, Jason and Caleb had to boost Faith and Kevin over, the latter red-faced about needing a hand from his brothers.

  “Not a word,” he told a grinning Jason once he was on the other side.

  They split into two groups – Faith and Vance heading one way, Caleb, Jason and Kevin the other, skirting around the building until they met up at the other side.

  “All the doors have been barricaded shut with wood hammered across them,” said Vance. “They haven’t been opened in a long time.”

  “But they definitely came here last night,” said Jason. “We saw them.”

  “Where did they go exactly?” said Caleb.

  “They looked to go to the rear of the building.”

  “Wherever they went,” said Vance. “It wasn’t through the back door.”

  While they talked, Faith tramped back the way they’d come, avoiding large puddles and weeds, which were slowly reclaiming the church grounds. She came to a halt in the cemetery behind the church. Why did she keep finding herself in cemeteries lately? Was it an omen? The thought made her shiver.

  Her brothers rushed after her.

  “Don’t go wandering off alone,” Vance told her.

  “What about there?” she said, pointing to a low, squat brick building in the corner of the cemetery.

  “What is it?” said Jason.

  “A crypt,” she replied.

  “I wish I hadn’t asked,” he muttered.

  Together they made their way through the graves, boots disappearing into the grass that was almost as high as the tombstones.

  “It looks like this graveyard hasn’t been used since the late nineteen hundreds,” said Faith, glancing at the dates on the weathered stones.

  “Meaning there won’t be any mourners coming here,” said Vance.

  “Exactly.”

  They stopped by the iron gate leading into the crypt. Through the bars they could see nothing but darkness.

  “That looks like a shiny new padlock to me,” said Caleb.

  “This could be where they stashed the product,” said Faith, excitement rising in her gut.

  “If it is they can bloody well keep it,” commented Kevin. “Who wants drugs that’s been in a tomb?”

  “Caleb, pick the lock,” said Faith.

  He nodded, everyone taking a step back to allow him to bend down and examine it.

  “Wait,” said Vance. “What if they’ve got security around here? They could have motion detectors or cameras.”

  “I can’t see anything,” said Faith.

  “It doesn’t mean they’re not there.”

  “We’ve no choice but to go in. If they have any of that stuff then they probably already know we’re here.”

  “I’d better get on with picking this lock then,” said Caleb, producing a pick from his pocket, which he’d made out of one of Abi’s bobby pins. Ten seconds later the padlock clicked open.

  “We have to be fast,” Vance told them. “They could know we’re here and are on their way and we do not want to get trapped in there.”

  “You mean, we’re going inside?” exclaimed Kevin.

  “We’ve no choice.”

  “But…what if there’s dead bodies in there?”

  “As it’s a crypt I’d say that’s pretty likely.”

  “But…oh Jesus.”

  “You can wait out here Kev,” Faith told him. “It doesn’t take all five of us.”

  “I’m not a coward,” he announced.

  “I know but if Ben and his friends are on their way we don’t all want to get trapped inside. You and Jason can wait out here and let us know if anyone comes along.”

  “Oh yeah, great plan,” he breathed with relief.

  “Jason, you can fetch the car,” she said, tossing him the keys. “If the product is down there we don’t want to be carrying it through the streets. Park it behind the wall. We can form a chain and throw it to you over the wall.”

  “Will do,” he said.

  Faith took out her phone, switched on the torch and followed Vance and Caleb, who were similarly lighting the way with the torches on their phones.

  “You wuss,” Jason grinned at Kevin, who was leaning against the crypt wall, arms folded across his chest.

  “I bet you’re relieved that you don’t have to go in there,” retorted Kevin.

  “Well, maybe. It stinks from out here and these trainers are new and very expensive.”

  “Yeah, that’s the real reason,” he said knowingly as Jason vaulted the wall to fetch the car.

  “Christ, it stinks in here,” grimaced Caleb, who was starting to think that Kevin had been the smart one. He glanced over his shoulder past Faith, who was walking behind him. The entrance was just a speck of light in the darkness. Judging by how it appeared to be above them, the floor of the crypt was sloping downwards. Ledges had been cut into the walls either side of them and he shuddered when he saw they held coffins that were damp and splintered with age. Caleb forced himself to keep his gaze on Vance’s back, so he wouldn’t be tempted to peer into them. “When I woke up this morning I didn’t think I’d be doing this,” he muttered to himself.

  “We’ve reached the end,” said Vance when the light from his torch revealed a brick wall.

  “Thank God,” breathed Caleb.

  They looked around the small chamber, which measured about thirty feet square.

  “I don’t see the product,” said Faith.

  “Maybe they stashed it in the coffins?” said Vance.

  “Please don’t say that,” replied Caleb.

  “Or maybe one of the coffins is newer than the rest,” said Faith, shining her light on one particular coffin on a ledge, its wood dry and intact.

  Vance shone his torch from the newest coffin down to the floor. “Look, here’s the one that was originally there. They moved it to put the new one in its place. The ground is wet, so they wouldn’t want to risk getting the drugs damp.”

  Caleb glimpsed wisps of hair and bones with bits of leathery skin attached to the form in the broken coffin and shuddered.

  “Let’s check it then,” said Vance, lifting the lid of the newer coffin, smiling at the neatly wrapped packages inside. “It’s the product.”

  “Thank God,” said Faith. “Let’s get it out of here.”

  Vance and Caleb handed Faith their phones and between them manoeuvred the coffin off the ledge and started to carry it back to the exit. Faith went before them, lighting the way with the phones. Caleb’s heart swelled with relief as each step brought them closer to daylight.

  Jason parked the people carrier outside the wall that ran behind the crypt and just as he applied the handbrake his phone beeped. He took it out and his stomach dropped.

  “Oh shit,” he said, leaping out of the car, running at the wall and scaling it in one leap.

  Kevin watched him drop down on the other side with an envious scowl.

  “I know you’re jealous,” Jason grinned at him. “But I don’t have time to enjoy it because I think Amanda’s on her way here.”

  “What?”

  “I set my phone to alert me when she moved again and judging by the direction she’s going in she’s coming here.”

  “She might not be. She could be going anywhere.”

  “She’s eight minutes away and you’re right, she might not but I just know that she is.”

  He showed Kevin his phone, who frowned at the red dot flashing on the map on the screen. “Shit.”

  “Are they not out yet?”

  “No.”

  “We have to tell them,” said Jason, dashing into the mouth of the crypt. He’d only gone a few paces when he saw Faith. “Amanda’s coming,”
he hollered. “She’s eight minutes away.” He glanced at his phone again. “Make that seven.”

  “It’s all right,” replied Faith. “We’ve got it. Have you brought the car around?”

  “I have. It’s waiting at the back.”

  She emerged from the crypt with Jason, followed by Vance and Caleb, who were panting and sweating beneath the weight of the coffin. They put it down outside the crypt to catch their breath.

  “Christ this thing’s heavy,” breathed the latter.

  “How are we going to get it over the wall?” said Jason. “No way can we carry it out onto the main road.”

  “We’ll have to lift it over,” said Vance.

  “How are we going to manage that?” said Caleb. “It weighs a bloody ton.”

  Vance smiled at the metal bench sat in the cemetery. “We slide it over.”

  “Wouldn’t it be easier to empty it and just chuck the parcels into the car?”

  “We don’t have time. It’ll be quicker this way and what if someone sees us throwing parcels of drugs into the car?”

  “Better they see us with parcels than stealing a coffin from a cemetery.”

  “There’s no one out there,” said Jason. “There’s only waste ground on the other side of the wall.” He glanced at his phone. “And we only have five and a half minutes. She’s definitely coming here and we have no idea with how many people.”

  “Looks like we’ve no choice,” said Caleb.

  “Faith, Jason, Kev, get on the other side of the wall,” Vance told them. “Me and Caleb will slide the coffin over it to you. Caleb, help me with this bench.”

  Together the brothers manoeuvred the wrought iron bench towards the wall and stood it on end. It was just long enough to reach the top of the wall from the ground. While they did that, Jason boosted Faith and Kevin over the fence. He jumped down too and glanced at his phone. “Four minutes.”

  “No pressure then,” muttered Kevin.

  Vance and Caleb put all their strength into heaving the coffin onto the upturned bench. Putting their backs against it, they shoved it upwards. Once it was halfway, they turned and pushed, stretching their arms to the limit.

  “Jason, you’ll be taking most of the coffin’s weight,” Faith told him as they readied themselves. “Out of the three of us you’re by far the strongest, so brace yourself.”

  He nodded. “And by the way, we have three and a half minutes.”

  “Plenty of time.”

  The coffin balanced precariously on top of the wall, see-sawing in the breeze and for one awful moment Faith thought it was going to slide backwards, until it started to tilt. The three of them caught it as it slid towards the pavement, the weight of it knocking Faith and Kevin off their feet and sending them tumbling to the pavement.

  “Bastard,” groaned Kevin as his back was jarred.

  For a few seconds Jason was left with the entire weight of the heavy coffin bearing down on him, his eyes and muscles bulging, until his older brothers vaulted the wall and took some of the strain from him.

  “You okay?” panted Vance.

  “Fine,” groaned Jason. “I’m lucky I didn’t get a hernia then.”

  Faith dragged herself upright, flung open the boot and leapt inside to flatten the seats while her brothers picked up the coffin and slid it inside. She climbed into the driver’s seat and started the engine. Vance got in the passenger seat while the other three squeezed themselves in around the coffin, Kevin pulling the back door closed.

  Jason looked at his phone. “They should be here any second.”

  “Which direction are they coming from?” said Faith.

  “In front of us. Amanda drives a burnt orange Dacia Duster.”

  “I think I see her,” said Faith, putting the car into gear as a car turned the corner at the far end of the street.

  She reversed down the street and around the corner of the church before executing a tight u-turn and heading back towards the main road.

  “We did it,” grinned Kevin. “We got the product back.”

  “What a bunch of wankers,” said Jason, giving the v-sign out of the back window.

  “They can’t see you,” Kevin told him.

  “I don’t care. It feels good.”

  Faith glanced at Vance, who was sprawled in the passenger seat beside her, panting and limp. “You okay?” she asked him.

  “Yeah. That thing was bloody heavy. I think it’s lead-lined. Thank God the windows are tinted so no one can see us driving around with a coffin.”

  Faith wanted to say that she’d found his display of strength extremely hot but couldn’t.

  “Amanda’s stopped at the church,” said Jason, studying his phone. “I’ll bet the cow’s raging right now.”

  “She’ll have a good idea of how we felt when they did over the vault,” said Caleb, who was still catching his breath. “Is there any water in here? I’m gagging. Cheers,” he told Jason when he produced a bottle from under the back seat and drank half before passing it to Vance.

  “Kev,” Faith called from the front. “Is the porn shop ready for its first delivery?”

  “Ready and willing,” he grinned.

  “Nice one,” she said as she drove them through the mid-morning traffic, which was pretty quiet. “Keep an eye out for white transit vans. We do not want another chase, not with a coffin full of drugs on board.”

  “I’ve just had a thought,” said Caleb. “You remember how they got Patrick to put a tracking device in the delivery? What if they put a tracking device in the coffin too?”

  “Shit,” yelled Faith, banging her palm off the steering wheel. “I should have thought of that.”

  “So should I,” said Vance. “Open it and check.”

  Caleb pulled open the lid and the three of them started frantically hunting through the packages.

  “Be careful not to tear any of them,” Vance told them. “Jason, where’s Amanda?”

  He looked at his phone. “On the move again. She’s on this road about a minute behind us. I have a scanner at home for checking for tracking devices. I bought it after we found out what Patrick did. Why didn’t I bring it with me?”

  “It’s okay,” said Faith. “You’re doing your best.”

  “It’s here, at the bottom,” said Caleb, digging his hand under a pile of packages and retrieving a small black box. “Shall I smash it?”

  “No,” said Faith with a wicked smile. “Let’s have some fun with them.”

  She pulled the car up at the kerb behind a bus that was stopped to allow on some passengers. Caleb handed her the tracking device and she got out of the car, crept up behind the bus and stuffed the device under its bumper. She returned to the car and started the engine.

  “That’ll keep them busy for a while,” she grinned, making them all laugh. “And keep checking the coffin. Make sure there aren’t any more in there.”

  “That looks to be it,” said Kevin.

  “And there don’t seem to be any on the outside,” said Caleb, studying the exterior of the coffin.

  Carefully Caleb, Jason and Kevin neatly replaced the packages back into the coffin and closed the lid.

  “Drive around for a bit first to make sure we’re not being followed,” Vance told Faith.

  She nodded and pulled back into the flow of traffic, sitting two cars behind the bus she’d stuck the tracking device on.

  “According to my phone,” said Jason. “Amanda’s right behind us.”

  They all turned to look out of the back window, except for Faith, who glanced in the rear-view mirror instead.

  “I see her,” said Caleb. “She’s three cars back.”

  Faith indicated and pulled onto the car park of a small supermarket so they could watch Amanda’s car pass by. The traffic lights turned red, stopping Amanda’s car, allowing them to get a good look at their opponents.

  “There’s a big bastard in the passenger seat,” said Kevin. “Looks like Ben Cooper.”

  “And two more me
n in the back,” said Caleb.

  “Ben’s scowling at a screen in his hand,” continued Kevin. “And pointing at the traffic ahead. He looks to be going demented,” he chuckled.

  The lights turned green and Amanda’s car continued to wend its way down the road behind the bus.

  “They’ve gone,” said Jason, breathing a sigh of relief.

  Faith started the car. “Let’s get to the porn shop and stash the coffin.” She smiled and looked at Vance. “There’s a sentence I never thought I’d say.”

  At the rear of the porn shop was a backyard with a wide gate. Faith backed the people carrier right up to the gate and the brothers unloaded the coffin and carried it inside without the risk of anyone overseeing.

  Once it had been unloaded, Faith straightened up the car so it wasn’t blocking the back street and followed them inside.

  “Well,” she said, standing amid the room stuffed full of whips, dildos, bizarre costumes, magazines, DVDs and other items she had no wish to examine too closely. “I wonder what mum would say if she saw her children’s newest acquisition?”

  “I think it would put her in hospital,” grinned Jason.

  “Where’s the vault?” said Faith.

  “Down here,” replied Kevin, opening a door in the small room at the back of the shop to reveal a set of steps. They headed down to the cellar and Kevin pulled open a hatch that had been cut into the floorboards with such skill it was invisible if you didn’t know it was there. Inside was a solid metal door set into the floor. Kevin put in the combination and the door popped open to reveal a space twelve feet by ten feet and eight feet deep, a stepladder leading down into it.

  “Fucking beautiful,” smiled Vance.

  “It’s like a cellar in a cellar,” said Jason.

  “I know,” grinned a pleased Kevin. “Anyone we employ to run this place won’t have a clue it’s even here. The walls and base of the vault have been reinforced, so no water can get in. It’s completely damp-proof.”