by Jack Probyn
He chased Danny down another corridor and, as he came to the end, saw him climbing a flight of steps.
‘Danny!’ Jake called. ‘Stop where you are!’
Danny ignored him.
The chase continued to the top deck. Jake breached into natural light, the harsh and abrupt adjustment blinding him momentarily. The top deck was covered in wooden panels that stretched the length of the boat. Sun loungers, parasols and suitcases lay against the side of the boat, with some of the passengers already roasting their pale skin as they were forced to wait for their rooms to open. To Jake’s left was a swimming pool with two slides at either end. Children were playing in it, using their underwear as swimming costumes. Ahead of him, Danny charged into an elderly couple, knocking the wife to the floor and the husband into the swimming pool.
Jake tore through the crowd once again, screaming, ‘Police! Get out of the way!’
Bystanders panicked and dived to the side, affording Jake a clear path through. Danny made a sudden right turn and climbed another flight of stairs. He was on the outer top deck, and as Jake ascended the final step, Danny came to a stop. He’d reached a dead end.
There was a group of people clustered around one another. At the sight of them both, the group huddled closer in an attempt to protect themselves.
‘Danny!’ Jake shouted, almost bent double to catch his breath. ‘It’s over.’
Danny’s head darted to the group of people and grabbed the nearest one. A young woman; mid-twenties, Jake assumed. Fair-haired, with a ponytail. Wearing denim shorts and a Harry Potter t-shirt.
She screamed as Danny’s hands clasped around her neck. Her arms flailed at his face, but it was no use; he tightened his grip and began to suffocate her.
‘Let her go, Danny,’ Jake yelled, raising his arms in the air in surrender.
The young woman’s screams faded and the air around them switched off, silent. Jake breathed heavily and regained his composure. Beside him, the family whimpered, still huddling together, still protecting each other.
As Jake composed himself, he became gradually aware that the boat was moving. Swaying from side to side. Forward and back. A wave of nausea and vertigo rolled over him until his head swam. ‘Danny,’ he said, blinking the dizziness away. ‘Let her go.’
Danny said nothing.
‘She hasn’t done anything wrong, Danny,’ Jake said. ‘She’s played no part in any of this.’
He remained silent.
‘It’s over. You got what you wanted. Now let her go.’
Danny tightened his grip on the girl’s throat and pointed at him with the other. ‘How do you know what I want?’
Jake considered a moment before responding. He had to be careful how much to share, and how much to keep to himself.
‘Candice is dead, Danny. The device detonated. It killed her. That was what you wanted, wasn’t it?’
Danny’s hand flinched towards his right pocket, feeling for something. When he couldn’t find it, his eyes widened.
‘That bitch deserved to die! She deserved everything she got!’ Balls of phlegm expelled from his mouth and landed on the wooden deck and the neck of his shirt.
Jake took a step closer, keeping his hands raised. ‘You know, I spoke with Freddy earlier—’
‘What?’ Danny asked.
‘Have you forgotten him already?’
Danny shook his head frantically. ‘No. No, no, no. What were you doing talking to Freddy?’
‘I was doing my job. I was hoping he’d be able to tell me where you guys were heading.’
‘That stupid fucking bitch,’ Danny whispered. ‘She couldn’t even get that right.’
Jake’s eyebrow rose. ‘What are you talking about, Dan?’
‘That bitch, Candice. She told you to speak with him, didn’t she? Didn’t you think that was a bit odd, a bit out of the blue? Jesus Christ.’ Danny shook his head again. ‘She thought you were someone else. And I can’t believe she fell for it. I can’t believe she actually thought you were going to be able to get him out of prison and get him on the boat. She was even dumber than I thought.’
Jake paused, his mind racing. It would take him a moment to process what Danny had told him, but that was time he didn’t have. He needed to put an end to this now.
Clearing his mind of thought, Jake continued. ‘Freddy misses you. Apparently, he’s been trying to get in touch. Quite a lot, in fact. But you never replied. He was like a father to you guys, and you couldn’t just forget about him like that, could you? After everything he’d done for the three of you.’
Jake paused a beat and waited to gauge Danny’s expression; the man’s eyes closed briefly, and he avoided Jake’s gaze. Jake wasn’t sure of it, but he was nearly certain he’d seen Danny’s grip loosen on the woman’s throat.
He continued. ‘Do you know what else he told me? He said you were different. All of you. This whole operation. It was unlike anything you’d ever done. He said there was something else going on. A driving force telling you to do it like this. Forcing you into it. “He’s behaving differently. This isn’t the Danny I know” – that’s what he said to me…’ Jake curled his fingers in quotation marks. It wasn’t quite what Freddy had said but Danny wasn’t to know that. ‘And do you know what? I think he was right. You were forced into doing something you didn’t want to do, and then you panicked. You were led to believe that causing as much death and destruction was the way forward, that it was the way to cement yourself in the history books. And do you know who’ll get the credit for it? Louise. Not you—’
At the mention of Louise’s name, Danny’s face morphed into a scowl and he pointed at Jake again. As he did so, his sleeve pulled back and revealed a series of cuts and burn marks on his forearm and the back of his hand. Jake observed them. ‘It’s OK, mate. She’s gone. She’s not going to hurt you anymore. You won’t ever have to see her again.’
‘Where is she?’ Danny said, his voice hoarse and weak. It sounded as though he had a catch in it, as though there was a flood of tears hiding behind a dam, waiting for a crack to form.
‘She’s been arrested, Dan. She’s with my colleagues now.’
‘I want to see her.’
‘No.’
Danny’s expression turned into a growl and he repositioned the girl closer against his body.
‘I want to see her!’
‘OK, OK,’ Jake said, lifting his hands higher in the air. ‘I can arrange that. I can arrange something. Don’t worry. I’ll let you see her. But only if you let the girl go. She wants to get back to her family… and then we can discuss.’
‘What about Luke? Micky?’
This was the part Jake was dreading the most. He didn’t know how volatile the man’s response would be. Only one way to find out.
‘Micky’s fine, Dan. He’s with us. He’s safe.’ Jake hesitated, feeling a lump grow in his own throat.
‘And Luke? Please. Luke. Please tell me Luke is OK.’ Danny took a step backward. Jake matched the step, maintaining the distance between them.
Jake fell silent and pursed his lips. He shook his head slowly. ‘I’m sorry, Dan. They died together. The device killed Candice. And… Luke was shot by armed officers. He tried to protect her.’
Danny choked as he absorbed what Jake had told him. Then he moaned, his voice filled with pain and hurt and raw emotion. Jake felt sympathetic towards the older brother, despite everything he’d done.
‘No,’ Danny babbled, his mouth filling with saliva. He sniffed hard, fighting to keep the tears at bay. ‘No… No. No, it can’t— I don’t believe— You’re lying!’ Danny spat as he enunciated the words.
‘I wish I was,’ Jake replied, reaching for his pocket slowly. ‘But I’m not. I really wish I was.’
‘How do I know I can believe you?’
‘Because you can.’
‘Prove it to me!’
‘Are you sure?’
‘I said prove it! Prove it to me now!’
Jake’s hand lowered into h
is pocket and grabbed his phone.
‘What are you doing?’ Danny shouted as Jake began to remove the device.
‘Just doing as you asked,’ Jake replied. He pulled out his phone and loaded the graphic photo he had taken of Luke and Candice’s mangled remains sprawled together. He waved the phone in the air. ‘This is your proof, Danny.’
‘Give it to me,’ Danny called out. Around them, the air seemed to fall still, as if everyone’s attention was focused solely on them. As if, in that moment, nothing else in the world mattered.
Reluctantly, Jake prepared himself to launch the phone across the deck. He swung his arm and released. The device soared through the air, and Danny tried to catch it with his free hand, but it bounced off his hand and fell to the floor.
Danny bent down to pick it up, pulling the girl down with him, his eyes widening as he stared at the image. His grip loosened on the girl and moved to his mouth; the young woman wasted no time and rushed towards her family. Once she was with them, the group sprinted away from the deck to safety. Now it was just the two of them. Jake and Danny. Jake and The Crimsons leader, just like it had been all those years ago.
‘Luke…’ Danny trailed off.
‘Danny, listen to me,’ Jake began, taking another step forward.
But it was too late. Danny had already made his decision: he dropped the phone, smashing it on the deck, and then sprinted to the side of the boat and vaulted into the English Channel.
Jake reacted instinctively. He tore after Danny. As he reached the barrier, he climbed over the top, ignored the petrifying chasm of blue beneath him and dived two hundred feet into the water.
| EPISODE 6 |
CHAPTER SIX
CLAUSTROPHOBIA
Jake’s eyes ripped open as the rush of water assaulted his face. The force of the dive had sent him deep into the cold, the pressure squashing his head. He exhaled through his nose and swallowed to equalise, surrounded by a wall of black.
He searched the murky water for Danny, fearing the worst: that the man had been swept underneath the boat. That he had been knocked unconscious upon impact. That he had vanished completely.
Jake allowed the current to carry him, hoping that it would somehow lead him to Danny. As his natural buoyancy lifted him to the surface, he flailed his arms and legs about, trying to remain submerged. The body vest and clothes on his back weighed him down, but not enough.
And then it struck him. At first it was the intense claustrophobia. Then the fear of imminent death, followed by the crushing pain in his chest. The same sensations he’d felt when he’d been swallowed by that avalanche during the snowboarding trip. Jake thrashed his arms violently, kicking out, now clawing for the surface, then opened his mouth in an attempt to scream for help. Water flooded in and he swallowed. He coughed, ingesting more salty water. He gasped for breath, choking, gagging, running out of oxygen. But there was none. There was only water, surrounding him from every angle.
Yet the surface was still so far away, just out of his reach.
Jake stared vacantly at the sunlight burning through the Channel, as the tide overhead rippled and distorted the light. Jake lowered his arms to his side, ready to let the water take him. And then he felt something behind him. At first he thought it was the boat running him over, trampling him, crushing him. But then he felt a pair of hands wrap around his chest. The hands removed the velcro from the body vest, threw it off him and then heaved him upwards. The pressure in his head released and a barrage of bubbles distorted his vision.
A few seconds later, he breached into the open. He gasped for air and spluttered and coughed water out of his lungs and mouth. Then he scrambled his legs and arms to keep him afloat. Breathing rapidly, he turned to face his rescuer.
There, with a piece of seaweed adorning his brow, was Danny. The man’s head bobbled just above the surface and dipped below every now and then as the current pulled him this way and that. By now, the ferry had already passed them and was several hundred yards ahead. How long had he been under there? It had only been a few seconds, but it had felt like minutes, hours.
‘Th-Th-Thank y-you,’ Jake said, his body going into shock. He began to shiver as the freezing temperatures of the Channel numbed his skin. His teeth clattered. ‘Why—Why did you s-s-save me? Why didn’t y-you let me d-d-drown?’
It was then Jake realised how close he’d come to dying, and for that he would be grateful to Danny. Forever.
‘Too many people have died today. I’m not adding another to the list,’ Danny replied, spitting goblets of water back into the sea.
Jake thanked his saviour again and together they waited, both struggling to stay afloat, until less than a minute later a RIB made its way towards them. Their rescuers – consisting of the firearms unit that Riggs had deployed earlier – launched life rings into the water as they approached. Jake was the first to be saved. One of armed officers threw his weapon over his back, leant over the side of the RIB and hefted Jake onto the solid flooring of the boat. For a moment, Jake lay on his back, catching his breath, allowing the dark and depressing thoughts of suffocating under mountains of snow to pass from his mind.
He opened his eyes. Light flooded into them and he stared into the sky. In the top-right corner of his vision was a small cloud, thin, delicate, floating through the air.
The man who lifted him to safety suddenly came into view, a wide grin on his face.
‘You took your time,’ Jake said as the officer helped him to a seating position on the side of the boat. The officer placed a space blanket over Jake’s body and handed him a bottle of water.
‘We can drop you back in if you’re going to be ungrateful about it,’ the officer replied, sitting beside him.
‘You couldn’t pay me enough to get back in there,’ Jake said.
‘There’s a price for everything, lad.’
The remaining officers loaded Danny Cipriano onto the boat and wrapped him in a space blanket of his own. The sun reflected off the aluminium sheet and dozens of shards of foiling danced in Jake’s eyes as he stared at Danny being arrested and told his rights. There was no more fight in the man’s eyes anymore.
He had lost, admitted defeat.
It was over.
And Jake had won.
| EPISODE 6 |
CHAPTER SEVEN
TRAFFIC
A few hours later, after they’d completed the post-incident procedures following the police shooting, Jake returned to the office. He had been given the once-over by the paramedics, fed some glucose in plastic sachets, warmed with a change of clothes and then sent on his way. For most of the hour-long journey back to Guildford, he, Bridger and Pemberton travelled in silence, the morbidity and suffering of the past few hours’ events hanging over them like a heavy cloud. Jake’s thoughts wandered as he stared out of the window. He had seen things he’d hoped he’d never have to. He had seen things nobody should have to. But he’d been responsible for putting an end to it. Louise and Danny had been caught and were on their way to the station, a few minutes behind them in another police car.
At 7:15 p.m., Bridger pulled into Surrey Police Headquarters and killed the engine. The three of them exited the vehicle and entered the building, signing in at the reception desk. As Jake passed the civilian receptionist, he avoided the man’s scowl. It was the same man from the morning, and judging by the disparaging look he shot Jake, he wanted to reprimand him for leaving the polystyrene cup on the table earlier.
Jake followed Pemberton and Bridger through the double doors to the side of the registration desk and into the lift. The doors closed and they waited; they didn’t even have monotonous lift music to disrupt the silence. Jake felt relief as the doors slid open and the three of them stepped into Major Crime.
As soon as the team noticed their presence, they stopped what they were doing and rose to their feet, clapping. Someone in the background whistled. Jake slowed as Bridger and Pemberton entered the room, separating himself from them. It wasn’t his p
lace to accept the praise. He was just training to become a detective. The DCI and DS were the senior rank – they were the ones responsible for the success of the operation, they were the figureheads, they were the ones who should take the credit. Instead he was just going to act as the embodiment of being humble in victory.
As Pemberton and Bridger moved deeper into the room, members of Major Crime Team rose out of their seats and continued to congratulate them, patting them on the back and shaking their hands. Meanwhile, Jake stepped to the side and searched for Danika. His friend. His colleague. His closest ally.
He found her at the back of the room where he’d left her. She was on her feet, applauding.
‘You all right?’ he asked, wandering up to her.
Danika’s eyes widened.
‘You’re alive!’ She threw her arms around him and embraced him.
Chuckling awkwardly, Jake said, ‘It wasn’t that bad.’
He let go of her and moved beside her, so they were both facing the small crowd that had formed at the middle of the room. ‘I mean, I couldn’t have done it without you, mate. You really helped me out there. For a while it felt like everyone was ganging up on me. Bridger. Pemberton. They actually thought I might be working with The Crimsons.’
Danika said nothing. A moment of silence fell on both of them. Jake welcomed it. With her, it felt easy, natural.
‘Yeah… I… Er…’
Jake turned to her. ‘You didn’t believe it as well, did you?’
She touched him on the shoulder. ‘No, of course not. I was just…’
‘What?’
‘I’m sorry if it sounded like I didn’t want to help at times. I did. Trust me. But DI Murphy wanted all the information for everything I was working on. I didn’t want to upset him, considering we’re both here for the long haul. I was just a bit jealous that you got to do it all. I wanted to get in on some of the action, no?’
‘It’s fine. You had to do what you had to do.’ Jake nodded to Bridger and Pemberton, who were talking to the rest of the team, their conversations inaudible from where Jake and Danika were standing. ‘You don’t hear them complaining.’