North’s Nikki

by Dale Mayer

  Dan joined him.

  North pointed at the empty section and said, “All the crates were moved from here.”

  “And the crates aren’t small,” Dan said. “I saw them in the other warehouse. Any cameras in here?”

  “No. Who else is involved in this mess? Maybe the sniper.” North frowned. “Did we ever get confirmation that it was drugs?”

  “It’s an element they use for creating new recreational drugs. It’s to double the punch, so to speak. Highly dangerous and illegal in England.”

  “Nice,” North said. But in his head he was saying, Not nice. That really sucked. “At least we caught it.”

  “This much, yes, and it’s a lot. We’ve often thought there was a new supplier in town. But we couldn’t figure out how they were getting the drug across into England. But, of course now, what we’re realizing is, they are making it here. So they’re importing the raw materials and manufacturing it in England, where the supply chain is already established. We have to go higher than what we found here to get to the men behind this. And that’ll be in Europe. This is just one of the steps in this ladder.”

  North turned back toward the forklifts. “My understanding is one of these belongs to Nikki’s company, and one belongs to the other one.”

  “In which case, Nikki’s company’s forklift is likely to sit here unused, until somebody else leases the warehouse and takes it over as being his.”

  “I’m afraid you’re right there. Nobody really cares.”

  “Sad. That company has been in the family for over a hundred years.”

  “What do you do when you don’t have any family to take it over, and you can’t sell it because you’re too sick and too close to dying to care?”

  “You do exactly what he did. You let it fade away into nothing.”

  It was sad when North could see what had once been a thriving, enterprising company.

  They did a quick search on the forklifts and then walked toward Nikki.

  “Did you find any information on this subleasing company, Booker & Sons?” Dan asked North.

  “Nikki gave us some of the basics from the sublease. Name and phone number, contact information. Nothing unusual pops online. Our tech guys are investigating the head office out of the Ukraine. But I believe it was all handed over to you MI6 guys.”

  “Yes, the IT guys at the office are working on it,” Dan said. “It’s a holding company, which is to be expected, I guess.”

  North could see Nikki just sitting at the desk, pecking on the laptop. He poked his head in. “Anything?”

  “Nothing much,” she said. “Stan has been playing games here too. I don’t think he’s been around much. There’s no paperwork. I checked the company email. There’s nothing coming or going. Essentially it’s been dead for weeks. They’re just finishing up the last few orders. Hannah contacted all the clients, letting them know we were potentially shutting down and asking if they needed anything completed before then. I think, at that point, a lot of them jumped ship to other suppliers.”

  “Why would she do that? That’s like a death knell for the company.”

  Nikki raised her head and smiled at him. “Hannah is one of those painfully honest people. She felt it would have been a huge disservice to all our customers if they couldn’t continue to receive the products they normally do. She would at least give them as much notice as she could. At the same time, she was hoping they would sell the company, but, when there weren’t any bites, and everyone went to other suppliers, there was really nothing left but to shut the doors.”

  “And it’s just a couple desks anyway.”

  Nikki nodded. “And those are rented. The rental company will pick up the desks. The corporate office lease is over in all respects, so lock the doors as you walk out, and the same thing for the warehouse. It’s done.”

  “Hannah needs to remember a forklift is here,” North reminded her. “That’s worth a few thousand pounds.”

  “True,” Nikki said. “And it might be needed. I don’t know.”

  “Just send her an email and ask. She might be able to sell it.” He walked over to the other office to see Dan had it open already. “As long as it’s you doing this,” he said, “and not me.”

  Dan chuckled. “I’m acting under orders. It’s all good.”

  The office was similar to the one he’d left Nikki in, with a single desk and chair, but this one had a file cabinet. He walked over and, using his handkerchief, pulled open one of the drawers. Inside were several files. “Don’t know if this is of any interest.” He riffled through them. There were various company names. He opened one folder that was particularly fat. “This is a chemical lab.”

  “Now that we need to know the name of.”

  “Why don’t you just seize all this stuff? The men you saw who worked here are dead. We know the product was picked up here, and it was delivered to the other warehouse. You’ve seized that one. Why not this one?”

  “We need to capture whoever killed those men, and the best place to find the next link is with this place. So we’ll go through it, but we’ll leave it open, and hopefully somebody will come along who we can pick up for questioning.”

  “Are you monitoring this warehouse then? Installing cameras?”

  “Techs will be in today,” Dan said. “The desk isn’t holding anything of any interest.” He stood and walked over to the file cabinet. They checked the other drawers, which were empty. “Let me take a look at these. I’ll photograph all the documents so we can do some research on any names we find.” He checked his watch. “We should probably leave soon.”

  “Don’t you want to wait until your techs arrive?”

  “Yes, but not sure we need to be here. We could be under surveillance as it is.”

  They laid out the folders and snapped images, North working on one side and Dan on the other. North did all the small files with only one or two things in them and quickly replaced them as he went.

  Dan was stuck on the big file, taking as many photographs as he could. Finally he closed it and said, “Did you get all the others?”

  “Yeah, I did.”

  They stored away the big folder once more and closed the file drawer and stepped out of the office.

  Nikki was waiting for them. “Are you done?” she asked. “I don’t know why, but I’m starting to feel nervous.”

  North tucked her to him, dropped a kiss on her forehead before releasing her and said, “It should be all good.”

  With the second office door shut and locked behind them, she locked the other office door, and they stepped toward the front door. There, Dan hesitated.

  North looked at him and said, “I know, right? We could always go out the back.”

  They made a sudden decision to lock the front door and slipped out the back.

  Having already been in this location, North recognized where they were. The gloom was just settling in. “We’ll slip around to the vehicle, but we’ll take the long way.”

  She nodded. “I gather you were feeling the same nervousness I was.”

  “Oh, yeah,” he said.

  Dan stopped. “I’ll wait here for you to get in the vehicle. If you see anybody out in front, let me know.”

  “Are we waiting for you?” Nikki asked.

  Dan just smiled at her. “No, my team is on the way. We’ll install some cameras, and, if we have somebody else coming in here right now, we’ll pick him up for questioning.”

  She hesitated.

  North looked at her and smiled. “We don’t have any jurisdiction here, sweetie. He gets to say what we can and cannot do.”

  She glared at Dan. “You know it’s not fair.”

  “All that product in there doesn’t belong to your company,” North explained to her. “We didn’t even take a look to see what was in any of it.”

  Dan said, “I gave it a cursory look. Most of it was just crates and crates and crates. With codes and packing slips affixed, but it wasn’t very obvious what was in it. I
’m not leaving this place until it’s been thoroughly checked over, and we have the cameras installed. Now you guys go home.”

  North nodded, wrapped his arm around Nikki’s shoulders and tucked her up close. “Let’s go.” He turned back to Dan. “You got my number if you run into trouble in the next ten to fifteen minutes, before your team gets here. Call me.”

  Dan tilted his head in agreement. “I will.”

  Just as they headed around the next corner of the building, North heard the sound that made his stomach clench. There was a soft spit, followed by a second one. He didn’t even bother turning to check on Dan. It was already too late.

  He grabbed Nikki’s hand and raced her across the street and up to the car. Without stopping, he tossed her inside, bolted into the driver’s seat, turned on the engine, backed out of the parking lot and ripped around the block.

  She stared at him in horror. “Please tell me that’s not what I thought it was.”

  He gave her a grim look. “Unfortunately it was.”

  Chapter 11

  She thought North would drive her to her granddad’s home, but he pulled over several blocks up ahead and called Jonas. “Dan has been hit. I’m pretty sure he’s down and gone. We had already left the building. He was standing guard, waiting for the team to come. I was getting Nikki back to the vehicle. That’s when we heard the spits.”

  “I’m on the way,” Jonas said. “Where are you?”

  “About six blocks away. I had to get her somewhere safe.”

  “Stay there. How did anybody know you were in there?”

  “Same thing again. I’m sure they were watching the place. We were about to go out the front door, but I had a horrible feeling, as did Dan and Nikki, that maybe a welcome party was on the other side, so we locked the front and raced out the back. And honestly we were fine for at least five minutes while we reconvened, and then we took off. When we came around the second corner, we heard Dan go down.”

  “I hope you’re wrong. But you did the right thing. I don’t want Nikki involved any more than needed. Charles will never forgive me if something happens to her.”

  “I know, but you need a team here fast. That warehouse is full. All of the product in there supposedly belongs to that Booker & Son company, the subleasee. We took a lot of photographs from a chemical company folder we found, but honestly Dan had the bulk of those on his phone. I have a few, but that’s it.”

  “When we hang up, start sending them my way. These men could easily have taken Dan’s phone, and we’ll have lost that information.”

  “Surrey Chemical Labs,” North said suddenly. “The big fat folder Dan was taking pictures of was from a company called Surrey Chemical Labs.”

  “Okay. Let’s hope his phone is still there when we arrive.”

  “What’s your ETA?”

  “Still about twelve minutes. But I’ve got two men approaching the scene in the next five minutes.”

  “Okay, call me back with an update.” He sank back against the seat and rolled his head to look at Nikki.

  She was staring at him, her eyes huge. She reached out a shaky hand.

  He grasped it, half tugging her into his lap. “Easy,” he whispered. “Just take it easy.”

  “But if they killed Dan …” Her voice trembled. “He was a really nice man. He was just trying to help.”

  “In this business, really nice men die all the time.” He brushed the strands of hair off her face. “And again we were in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

  “How did they know we’d be there?”

  “I think they were waiting until somebody showed up. What we don’t know is if they thought we worked for the company who imported those drugs or for the company that was leasing the warehouse. Remember how there’s London Emporium, your company, and there’s Booker & Sons, who leases warehouse space, but there is also Only the Best who ordered the wine. We don’t know who or what is behind this. For all we know, we have a fourth party trying to exact revenge or to tie off loose ends. Your company is already done. Emporium will hardly be an issue.”

  “Maybe. But I really feel like we need to track down the other employees to make sure they are all okay. Especially Stan.”

  “We can do that. Maybe have Hannah call all the men to confirm, including the man who supposedly got a new job last week.”

  She nodded. “I can do that.” As she went to sit back in the passenger seat again, she stopped, flung her arms around his neck and just hugged him tight. “I’m really scared right now.”

  He wrapped his arms around her, holding her close. “And with good reason. I won’t sugarcoat the truth. We’re in a very dangerous game at the moment. But remember. My priority is keeping you safe.”

  Nikki curled up in his arms. There was no space in the front seat to do this comfortably, but she didn’t care one bit. He was holding her close, and, for the moment, that was enough. She hated to think Dan had been gunned down because of her. And she knew logically it wasn’t because of her, but she still felt responsible. And it was terrible.

  He leaned forward, kissed her on the forehead and whispered, “Sorry, sweetie. But I need you to sit back in your seat. I think we have company.”

  Instantly panic hit. She scrambled to her seat.

  He tried to reassure her. “Sorry, that was the wrong thing to say. It’s okay. I think it’s Jonas arriving.”

  She sagged into her seat and peered between the two headrests behind them. When there was a rap on the window, she shrieked.

  North reached over and grabbed her hand. “It’s all right. It’s okay.”

  She nodded mutely and sat in the corner, staring at Jonas, who peered through the window at her.

  North lowered the window. “You surprised her,” he said quietly.

  The look on Jonas’s face was filled with regret and sadness. “I’m sorry. It’s been a tough day and a tough evening.”

  She nodded. “He is dead, isn’t he?”

  With a heavy sigh Jonas said, “Yes. I’m sorry.”

  “Me too.” Tears collected in the corner of her eyes. “He didn’t deserve that.”

  “None of us do,” Jonas said. He looked over at North. “You didn’t see anything?”

  North shook his head. “No. Not only did we not see anything but we only heard the spits as we came around the second corner. Did you find his phone?”

  “We did,” Jonas said. “It was underneath him.”

  “Well, that’s something. He got all the photos on the big file.”

  “We’ll escort you back to Charles’s place.”

  She leaned forward. “I can’t have my grandfather in danger again.”

  At that Jonas chuckled. “His place is more like Fort Knox. The fact that Carl got the drop on him is already pissing your granddad off something awful.”

  She thought about it, remembering the office and the way he had such a high level of security to lock down the place, and she nodded. “Maybe that’s for the best after all.”

  “It’s definitely the best place to hole up in.” He looked at North. “I’ve got two guys with me. One’s going in the lead vehicle out front and one behind.” He pointed to the one in front. “When he pulls out, you follow.”

  North nodded, closed the window and waited. When the lead car headed out, North pulled in behind it, and, sure enough, the one behind them tucked into place too.

  She sighed. “Our government money at work again, I suppose.”

  “At least it’s at work helping you this time,” he said. “I’ve known governments to spend unbelievable amounts of money on the most foolish of things.”

  It was a slow but steady trip back to the townhome. When she got there, she waited until North exited the car, walked around and opened the door for her to get out. In every movement he made sure his body was between her and the rest of the world.

  “I appreciate that you’re trying to protect me,” she whispered, “but I won’t feel any better if you get hurt.”


  “If I get hurt, it’s part of my job.”

  She almost missed her step at those words. They caused so much pain on the inside, and it was hard for her to even breathe. Is that what she was to him—a job?

  Of course that’s what she had started out being, but she’d hoped that, somewhere along the line, she’d become so much more. What a fool she was.

  “What’s the matter?” he asked, wrapping an arm around her, nudging her forward.

  “Just your line about it’s the job.”

  “It is,” he stated matter-of-factly. “For a long time, over a decade, I’ve been putting my life at risk to help others.”

  “When is it time to stop doing that?”

  “Maybe never,” he said with a half smile. “Some of us are just natural-born guardians.”

  She thought about that and realized it was true. She had no right to be upset. He was doing what he was doing because he’d been asked to do it. “I guess I was hoping this was more than a job.”

  “It isn’t just a job. Because I’m doing my job doesn’t make it just a job.” His voice was calm and low, but there was a powerful undercurrent to it.

  She glanced up at him and gave him half a smile. “I’m glad.”

  He rested his hand on her lower back and nudged her forward again. “The sooner we’re inside, the less chance we have of getting hit ourselves.”

  She gasped and almost raced to the door.

  He chuckled, opened it and let her in. “I didn’t mean to make you panic.”

  “No, but I was definitely dawdling.” She turned to see her granddad walking toward her. She burst into tears and threw her arms around him. “Dan is dead.”

  He patted her on the shoulder and let her cry. She hated to be the weeping female, but it wasn’t every day a good man was killed right behind you. When she calmed down, he motioned her into the sitting room. “You know what to do. Let’s sit and have a cup of tea.”

  The mundaneness of it all made her give a hiccupping laugh. But, instead of sitting, she threw herself on the couch and stretched out. She was physically tired, but her emotional exhaustion wouldn’t let her sleep to help her body recover.