North’s Nikki

by Dale Mayer

  North walked in, sat down and patted her on the knee. “With any luck it’s all over.”

  “It won’t be over until the sniper is killed or in prison.”

  “It would help to know who he is,” Anders said as he walked in the room, crouching down beside her. “How are you?”

  At his caring tone, hot tears filled the corners of her eyes again. “I’m fine.” She sniffled. “I don’t want to cry anymore. But it’s just so hard. Dan was killed right behind us.”

  Anders nodded. “I heard the story. I’m so sorry.” He straightened and looked at North. “Did you at least see anything inside the warehouse?”

  “Except for the fact that it’s completely full, no. We did take photos of most of the file cabinet contents, though there wasn’t a lot. And, as long as Jonas has Dan’s phone, then that’s good, because he’s the one who took all the photos of the large file we found on Surrey Chemical Labs.”

  “They could very well be the ones affiliated with this product, but we still need to find out who the sniper was and whether he’s the only person we’re looking for, or if he’s just another hired hand. Also,” Anders said, taking the seat on the opposite side of the coffee table, “we did full workups on Carl and Phillip. They’ve been in and out of jail for petty crimes, both of them, since high school.”

  “Well, that figures,” North said. “Stunning examples of criminal types.”

  “At least from the slum side,” Anders agreed. “We have a list of their known associates. Several have been questioned already, but so far nothing has shaken loose. Nobody ever wants to talk to the cops, and supposedly most people don’t know what Carl has been up to for the last five years anyway. They said he’s been pretty cheeky and downright mum about this job. They figured he got hooked into something really good, but he was staying quiet about it.”

  “Which is probably what kept him alive all this time,” Nikki said. “Once you start talking, your life expectancy shortens.”

  “Exactly,” Anders said. “We have a couple more names to contact. Two of his known associates were dead, four in prison.”

  “Wow. He keeps in good company, doesn’t he?”

  “Not so much. We’re not expecting much more from the last two. But we have to run them down first, and that’s not so easy. One might have left the country and gone to mainland Europe.”

  “I’m sure that’s a problem, with people traveling back and forth all the time,” North said. “And the last one?”

  “There is some talk he might have been working at the same place. But then had a falling out. He disappeared about six months ago. His name is Scott.”

  “Nobody has heard from him since?”

  Slowly Anders shook his head.

  North sat back as if contemplating that news.

  Nikki wondered what it meant, and then she realized. “So the smuggling boss killed him, right? Something went wrong, a falling out of thieves, whatever you want to call it, and that guy was taken out? That means they’ve taken out five people, that we know of, who worked with them—Scott, Carl, Phillip, plus Willy, the truck driver, and the receiving clerk at the second warehouse.” She thought about that. “If it’s a simple-enough operation, then the boss man doesn’t need anybody else. He could have just been cleaning up.”

  “That’s exactly what he’s been doing,” North said. “The question is whether he is done, and, if he is, what’s he planning on doing next?”

  “Running?” she hazarded a guess.

  “Not likely,” Anders said. “An awful lot of product remains here, and he has a full supply chain already established. All he needs is to stay underground, either steal back or order more of these vials and get the distribution going. There’ll be some in that warehouse still, not to mention whoever it is who’s getting it will want more.”

  “And that puts us back to the company that these men supposedly worked for.”

  “And funny enough, we can’t find the person in charge. Wilson Massey is the manager for the English division of Booker & Sons. Making him a person of interest.”

  North studied her face. “Does the name mean anything to you?”

  She shook her head. “No, it doesn’t. I’ve never heard it before.”

  “Maybe call Hannah and ask her?”

  Nikki sat up, pulled her phone from her pocket and dialed. “Hannah, do you know the manager for Booker & Sons?”

  “Not off the top of my head.” Her voice sounded extraordinarily tired. “And you should know Nathan took a turn for the worse this afternoon. Looks like the end is much sooner than we expected.”

  It was a blow after everything else she’d been through today. “I’m so sorry. It’s a terrible time for everyone right now. I’m so sorry for you, Hannah. Obviously you have a very close relationship with him.”

  “I do, and he will be sorely missed.”

  “Before I let you go, do you know the name Wilson Massey?”

  “Oh, that’s who it is. That’s the man we leased the warehouse to.”

  “Did you do any reference checks or anything on him?”

  “No, I doubt it. I think Nathan knew him from school. So, when he needed some space, Nathan didn’t have a problem giving it to him. Is there a problem at the warehouse?”

  “Yes, but the police are on it. They may contact you. I don’t know.” She didn’t want to get into too many details. Hannah had enough going on with Nathan right now. And Nathan really didn’t need to know on his deathbed how his friend might be smuggling in chemicals to distribute drugs in London and has been using his family’s business to do this for years.

  “As long as we no longer have product at the warehouse, it’s not a big deal, is it?”

  “I don’t think it is. Stay strong, Hannah.” As Nikki hung up, she looked at North and Anders. “Nathan took a turn for the worse this afternoon. Looks like the end is coming much faster. She recognized the name as the person who leased the warehouse space. Apparently he was an old friend of Nathan’s from school.”

  “Right. So he just leased him the space and didn’t realize it was being used for transporting illegal goods.”

  She shrugged. “We have no way to know. Product comes in. Product goes out. That’s all we do. We bring it in, check it off the list, and we ship it back out again. According to Hannah, nothing left in the warehouse is ours anymore, but we should contact Stan and find out for sure. And you heard me ask her to check up on all four men. Stan isn’t answering his phone.”

  “Right. But, if you give me his name, we’ll get Jonas to check up on him.”

  She pulled up his name on her cell phone and handed it to Anders.

  He entered it into his cell phone, then sent it off to Jonas. “Just to keep the chain of communication wide open,” he explained. He looked at her intently. “You look like you could do with a nap.”

  “After she has some tea.” Charles came in the doorway, pushing the cart in ahead of him.

  She tried to sit up, but North gently pushed her back down again. Gratefully she collapsed. “I feel like bread that’s been left on the counter too long,” she said. “If you pick me up and put me down again too hard, I’ll shatter.”

  “No shattering allowed,” he said. “What you need is a bite to eat, a cup of tea, and then go to bed to grab a few hours.”

  “Considering I hardly got any sleep last night, that’s probably not a bad idea,” she said with half a smile. She shifted until she was reclining in the corner and accepted the cup of tea North held out for her. She took a sip and smiled at her grandfather. “As always, it’s perfect.”

  “Like I’ve told you many a time,” Charles said, “there is only one way to make perfect tea.”

  She chuckled. “It always turns out perfect for you but not so much for me.”

  He smiled. “You must learn to do it properly.”

  Privately she figured the problem was how she didn’t have a whole lot that was proper about her. But her granddad exemplified the term. She sm
iled at him as he sat at the edge of his large Victorian chair and sipped his own tea. “Anything happen while we were gone?”

  He shook his head. “It’s all been quiet. Anders has been helping me fix the security. Once the power was cut, we had to do a bit of rerouting.”

  “So it wasn’t all set to run off the other townhome?”

  “Most of it was, not all of it. But it’s all working again now.”

  She smiled. “Perfect.” When her tea was done, she found herself falling asleep. She couldn’t stop yawning. She stood up, wavered on her feet and said, “I think it’s time for me to crash.”

  “Come on,” North said. “I’ll help you upstairs. You look like you won’t make it as it is.”

  She let North wrap an arm around her shoulders, and together they walked to the bottom of the stairs. “Granddad, don’t let me sleep too long. Just a couple hours.”

  “No problem,” he said. “I’ll wake you up soon.”

  She marched up the stairs with as much energy as she could find. At the top, she let out a heavy sigh. “It takes an effort to appear to be okay to everybody,” she said with a half smile.

  “It does, indeed.” He motioned her down the hall to her bedroom.

  She walked inside, sat down on the edge of her bed and crashed on top of the covers.

  He reached for the blanket she kept folded at her feet, picked it up and tossed it over her. He leaned over and gave her a quick kiss on her cheek. “Now have a nap.” And he walked out.

  “Leave the door open,” she cried out.

  He froze at the doorway, turned to look back at her. “Of course I can do that.”

  He walked down the hall. She could hear his footsteps as he turned and headed to his room. It’d be good if he slept too. Neither of them had gotten much sleep last night. She could feel sleep tugging at her, and gratefully she slid into its welcoming embrace.

  *

  North opened the bedroom door, checked that everything was okay in his room, walked across to Anders’s room and checked it out as well. Inside, his instincts said something was off, but he couldn’t place it. He hadn’t done a quick search of Nikki’s room while he was in there, beyond a cursory glance. But now he found himself wishing he had done a full-on search. He pulled out his phone and texted Anders. Something is off.

  Unable to help himself, North went door to door, ensuring nobody was upstairs and that nothing appeared out of order. Finally he was back at her room. With the big double doors still open, he could see her sleeping on the bed. She appeared to be fine, and everything in her room seemed normal. But something was not normal. He just couldn’t figure out what it was.

  He slid to stand against the wall and listened in on her room. But he couldn’t hear anything. Just then Anders started up the stairs. He stopped when he saw North leaning against the wall. North held a finger to his lips.

  With a frown, Anders slipped off his shoes, climbed up the railing and landed beside him gently.

  North whispered, “Something is wrong. I want to search her room.”

  Anders nodded. They both swept through the room at the same time, silent and deadly, one going down and to the left, the other one going upright and to the right. North was on the left. He headed for the bathroom, gave it a full check but found nothing in there. Already Anders was checking under the bed and found nothing there.

  Nikki slept on.

  That left the big double-doored closet, which he suspected had a huge walk-in section. Definitely big enough for someone to hide in. But the doors were closed, and he wasn’t sure he could open them without waking her up.

  Anders scooted under the bed and came up on the other side. With one guy on either side of the closet doors, they each reached for one of the doors, pulled them open.

  The intruder burst forth.

  He reached for North, who tumbled back slightly at the sudden impact, and Anders jumped on the intruder’s back from behind. The guy struggled to get his weapon lined up to hit North. Anders grabbed his gun arm and tried to knock it away from him. Suddenly free, North crouched, spun and gave a dropkick, then clocked the man in the jaw, sending him flying backward.

  Lopsided, with Anders still on the guy’s back, he tumbled backward, hitting the floor, rolling. North was on him in an instant. The fight was hard and heavy, and nowhere near as fast as he would have liked it. The intruder fought back with deadly military precision. Finally, with a hard right uppercut to the same spot that he’d kicked, North took him out with one last blow. The intruder flopped to the ground, unconscious. Straddling him, North sat on top of the man’s legs to catch his breath.

  Anders dropped down beside him. “Who do you think it is?”

  “Pull the balaclava off his head, and let’s find out,” he said.

  “Are you done yet?” came Nikki’s exasperated voice from the bed.

  He turned in surprise to see Nikki sitting up, the blanket he’d tossed over her clutched to her chest as she stared at them.

  “I couldn’t believe it. Once Anders went under my bed, I almost had a heart attack. And then I realized you thought somebody was in the closet.” She hopped off the bed, wrapped the blanket around her shoulders and walked over to look at the man on the floor. “Take that mask off him. I’d like to see who this is.”

  They pulled it off to see a middle-aged man, maybe in his late forties.

  She stared at him in shock. “That’s Stan, our warehouse manager.”

  “I think he’s also our smuggler … maybe even the sniper.” Anders held up the handgun with a silencer at the end of it. “I’d bet all odds this is the gun used to kill Dan too.”

  Her gaze went from Anders to North and then back down to Stan. “I don’t understand,” she said. “Why would he do that?”

  “It’ll take a little bit to bring him around,” North said. “But I suggest we ask him ourselves. Once we’ve got all the answers, then we’ll call Jonas.”

  She laughed. “Well, you might want to do it that way. I’m not so sure my granddad will agree.”

  “Oh, I don’t know,” North said. “I think he bends the rules just fine whenever he wants to.”

  She reached down and kissed him impulsively. “How did you possibly know Stan was in here?”

  North stood so he was beside her, holding her in his arms. “I was heading down the hallway, when something told me not to leave. That something was off. I checked my room and Anders’s room, and then I sent him a text warning. I went through every bedroom and realized that really the only place that was an issue was your room.”

  She glanced at Anders. “So you came to join him?”

  “Of course. We’re a team,” he said.

  She smiled and then looked at Stan. The smile fell off her face. “I can’t believe it. I wonder if Scottie, Stan’s assistant, knows about this?”

  “Well, there’s a Scott who used to hang around Carl all the time. He hasn’t been seen in months.”

  She frowned. “Surely it’s not the same Scottie,” she said slowly, “but I can’t remember when I saw him last.”

  “How long ago were you at the warehouse before last week?”

  She shook her head. “I can’t be sure without my calendar, but I don’t think I’ve been at the warehouse for a good six maybe seven weeks, and, even if I was there, it doesn’t mean Scottie was too. There’s a good chance I haven’t seen Scottie in two or three months or more,” she admitted. “For all I know, he quit his job too.”

  The two men looked at each other and down at Stan. “He could have been running a side racket for a long time. Using the facility, keeping track of your business and working together with Booker & Sons. It makes a whole lot of sense if nobody else but him handles the physical shipments. He was here on the spot and worked alone. He could have brought in anything he wanted and shipped it out all on his own. You guys wouldn’t even have seen the paperwork unless he wanted you to. Somehow this last shipment was screwed up, and he let the paperwork slip.”


  She stared at them aghast. “So you think Stan’s been using Emporium to run illegal goods through? I sure hope none of this comes back on us.”

  “Maybe it’s a good thing Nathan might pass away before he finds out what’s happened to the family company he cherished,” North said. “Because something like this, well, it’d be enough of a shock that it could kill him outright.”

  North stayed close to Nikki. As the day wore on, she looked more and more exhausted, more upset. She had called Hannah, given her a quick explanation of what had been going on. Hannah’s upset had been only compounded by Nathan’s continued poor condition. At this point, they doubted Nathan would regain consciousness. And somehow his company had to be shut down and cleared of all wrongdoing. And that would be a little harder to do now that they had learned of Stan’s involvement.

  “Do you remember what happened to Scottie?”

  “No,” Hannah said between her sobs. “Stan said he fired him. We stopped his paychecks, and I never heard any more.”

  “Did he give a reason why he fired him?”

  “Said he was incompetent. That’s all I know,” she said, sniffling heavily. “I can’t believe all this is going on. We were almost done. In another week, the company would be closed.”

  “Essentially it is closed. It could have been closed several weeks ago.”

  “Sure, but Nathan wanted to keep it open so any customers could reach us for as long as they needed to. Whether for information like referrals, files, records, things like that. We haven’t taken any new orders in a while.”

  “Well, the warehouse is quite full,” Nikki said. “We’ll have to sort through what Stan might have had a hand in. But you need to understand MI6 is involved.”

  “Why are they involved?” Hannah’s voice was so full of surprise that she shrieked out the words. “This isn’t about terrorism.”

  “It depends what they find is in those vials,” Nikki said. “I understand it’s a component of a drug used in street drugs.”

  “This is just awful, just awful,” Hannah cried out.

  “I’m so sorry to tell you all this. I just found out myself when I was there on Thursday. A couple men threatened me in the warehouse. Stan wasn’t there, and I didn’t know what to do. I came to my grandfather’s place to calm down, but the two warehouse guys came here and attacked him, and then they came back in and tried to attack me.”