by Dan Latus
‘And you call me cynical?’
Senga had to be told what lay ahead, of course. It wasn’t very far ahead either. I glanced at my watch when I got away from Josh. Eight now. Whether it proved to be a waste of time or not, we had to be at the farmhouse in the Greatham marshes at ten. Just the two of us. No one else.
Chapter Forty-Six
The old farmhouse was set on a small hillock that put it just above the traditional flood level in the marshes. A few stunted trees, hawthorn, Scots pine and sycamore, did little to provide shelter in such a bleak place. The house looked cold and damp as we approached it along the deeply rutted track that once had been a tarmac drive but now had turned to gravel and pools of water. It was a house fit for someone who didn’t care much for neighbours, someone who valued privacy or had things to hide. An excellent hideout.
‘It looks utterly miserable,’ Senga said with a shiver.
I nodded and concentrated on avoiding the bigger potholes. That in itself was a challenge. The track was worse than the one to my house.
‘There seems to be nobody about,’ Senga added.
She was right. So far, there wasn’t a soul in sight. What did that mean? Logan and crew had scarpered? Or were they lying in wait? We’d soon find out.
If it all went pear-shaped, as I thought likely, and if we didn’t emerge alive, a sealed letter giving an account of things would find its way from my solicitor to Bill Peart.
I had wondered whether to involve Senga but in the end I felt I had no choice. Given Blue’s instructions, I had to proceed as directed for there to be any chance at all of getting anything out of the deal we had agreed.
‘Do you think Anne is here?’ Senga asked, sounding every bit as worried as she had every right to be.
‘We’ll soon find out.’
As soon as I had told her about the deal with Blue there had no longer been any question of whether Senga would come with me. I couldn’t have stopped her, once she knew what I had agreed. I was still worried about her, but I was much more worried about Anne. Would she be here – and alive?
I was working very hard to suppress a growing suspicion that we were on a pretty forlorn trip.
‘I wonder if there’ll be anyone at all here,’ Senga murmured.
I shrugged. We were past the point where I had any interest in idle speculation.
‘What if there isn’t? What will we do then, Frank?’
‘Turn loose the dogs of war!’ I told her gruffly.
She laughed nervously. ‘Next stop Marseilles, then?’
There were two cars parked on the far side of the farmhouse. So somebody was here. I drew up alongside the black Audi I had seen before. Senga and I looked at each other. I looked at my watch. We were in good time. Three minutes to go.
‘Ready?’ I asked.
She nodded.
‘You can stay here, if you prefer?’
‘Both of us have to be here. That was the agreement. Remember?’
‘Come on, then!’ I said with a forced smile. ‘Let’s see who’s here.’
We got out of the car and turned to head for the front door, which was already open. Perhaps somebody expected us. I hoped so. But who?
As we passed by, I touched the bonnet of each car in turn. The Audi was cold. The BMW was not. Whose was that? I wondered. Who was the recent arrival?
I must have frowned then, pondering the question.
‘What?’ Senga whispered, staring at me intently.
I just shrugged. It was impossible to know what to expect. I should have pressed Blue harder about that when I’d had the chance.
We paused in the hall, Senga taking her cue from me. The house was still. Yet it was full of noise, myriad separate strands of sound that needed disentangling before sense could be made of them. I looked at Senga and laid a finger across my lips. She nodded.
She looked nervous, I thought, which made me wonder how I looked myself. Probably no different. No better, anyway. That was for sure.
I stood for a few moments, head down, listening hard. Somewhere nearby a fridge hummed. A wall clock in the hall measured out the passage of the seconds in funereal style. A tap dripped somewhere. A water pipe clanked. The air felt dank and chilly, but a boiler suddenly burst into life and started pulsing heat around the building.
I frowned. I could hear everything – and nothing. The house could have been empty of human occupants. And probably was. I glanced questioningly at Senga. She pulled a face and shrugged. Nothing had reached her ears either.
I moved silently across the stone floor and glanced through the open doors leading off the hall. One led to the kitchen, another to a dining room, and a third to a sitting room. They were all empty.
‘I wonder where everybody is?’ Senga said, breaking the silence.
I almost rebuked her for that. Just in time, I stifled my irritation¸ telling myself there was no need at all to maintain our silence now. There was no one here.
‘Maybe they’ve gone for a walk?’ she suggested.
‘That you, Doy?’ a voice called then from behind yet another door.
I started and looked at Senga, who was frozen.
‘Logan?’
‘In here!’
I motioned to Senga to get behind me. Then, wondering what was to come, I pushed wider the half-open door that led into a room I had not yet seen. It was an office, a sort of office at least.
The room housed a meeting table, bookshelves and an old-style partner desk, like you might see in an old-fashioned solicitor’s workspace. Behind the desk was a great heavy wooden chair, oak probably, and Logan.
‘Thank God!’ he said.
I stared. Behind me, Senga gasped.
‘How long have you been like this?’ I asked.
‘A long time.’
‘Nobody else here?’
He didn’t reply. I didn’t bother asking who had tied him to the chair like this. It didn’t matter. I didn’t have any doubts about who was ultimately responsible.
How was this supposed to help, though? I did wonder that as I stepped forward, thinking to release him.
He shook his head. ‘Sit down!’
‘Frank!’ Senga hissed. ‘He’s got a gun.’
I spun round, realizing then that there was someone else in the room. A figure moved in the extremity of my vision. It waved a gun at me.
‘Just sit down,’ Logan said wearily.
There was a gun in my belt but I wasn’t about to go for it. By now, it was too late for that. I sat next to Senga on chairs at the far side of the room. The figure stepped out of the shadows, but the bright light from the window behind it made all but the gun outstretched in one hand hard to see.
Things happened too fast then for me to make much sense of them. There was no time for that at all. There were sudden flashes and a couple of dull thuds. Logan slumped in his chair. Senga gave a subdued yelp. I sat still.
The figure, a man, I could see now, stooped to shoot Logan in the head again, at point-blank range. Then he straightened up and without looking at us walked out of the room.
It was only after he had gone that I realized I had no idea at all what he looked like. All I knew was that it had been a man.
Senga got to her feet, ready to follow him. I caught tight hold of her arm and shook my head. ‘No!’ I said urgently. ‘Stay here.’
She stared at me for a moment, and then nodded. She knew. She understood. One dead was better than three.
I got up and crouched to check on Logan. But there was no need to check for a pulse, none at all.
It had been done well, I had to admit. The hit had been made with clinical speed and accuracy. Whoever the guy was, he was out of the top drawer. Minimum fuss; maximum effectiveness.
I straightened up again and turned to Senga, who was wide-eyed and shaking with delayed shock now.
‘What happened?’ she whispered.
I shrugged. ‘What can I say? He’s dead, that’s all. I’d better call the police.’
‘But what…? Who…?’
I took her by the hand and led her out of the room, out into the fresh marsh air. A squall was in the making. There was drizzle in the air already, and it felt good to be in it.
The BMW was gone. I hadn’t even heard it.
‘Let’s just rest a moment,’ I suggested. ‘And for crissake don’t ask me again what happened! I don’t know.’
But I did. That had been a bit more Blue theatre, a vivid demonstration of how he had kept his side of the bargain and given me the guarantee I wanted. The Steeles would be all right now.
The demonstration, the proof, had not been without cost, though. I felt physically and psychologically drained. I had to force myself to pull out my phone and make the call that would bring Bill Peart running.
‘Who was he?’ Senga asked as we stood waiting.
I just shrugged. ‘Don’t ask me. I don’t know. Anyway, it’s better not to know.’
‘But you do know?’
I shook my head. ‘I didn’t even see him, not properly.’
‘But you know what happened, don’t you?’
‘Yes,’ I admitted.
Senga, beginning to recover now, said, ‘It was Blue, wasn’t it? Not him personally, but …’
I shrugged again, but I wasn’t in any doubt at all. He had kept his word, mafia style. I just hadn’t anticipated that.
Proof that the experience had been draining came with the realisation that I hadn’t even thought of Anne for the past few minutes. Nor had Senga.
We found her, unharmed but furious, in a locked cellar. I left it to Senga to bring her up to date once I had assured her that Tom was safe too.
Chapter Forty-Seven
Bill Peart came to see me a day or two later, when the multi-pronged investigation was well under way. It was a big one. Apart from Logan’s murder, there were other deaths and ‘missing persons’ to pursue. A number of Logan’s men had been picked up here and there, and the forensic and pathology people were having a field day.
‘It will keep us going a long time,’ Bill announced with satisfaction. ‘I can’t even begin to estimate how much crime this investigation will solve.
‘It’s a great pity Logan himself died, though,’ he added, giving me one of his long, thoughtful glances. ‘It would have been very useful to have been able to interrogate him.’
‘I’m sure it would,’ I could only agree.
‘A great pity Steele’s ship sank, as well,’ he added.
I nodded.
‘And all that cargo.’
‘Yes.’ I shrugged. ‘Josh lost his ship and its cargo. I hope the insurance helps him to recover financially.’
Bill pursed his lips but didn’t disagree in actual words. ‘What do you think happened?’
‘To the ship? It was just one of those freak waves, apparently. I’m no deep-sea mariner myself, but I know you do get them from time to time. And that kind of ship isn’t too stable at the best of times. They always look top-heavy to me.’
‘Especially with a main battle tank on top of everything else?’ Bill suggested.
I gritted my teeth for a moment, and then gave a judicious nod. ‘There is that,’ I admitted. ‘Josh told you about the tank, did he?’
‘He did. Wanted us to understand it was nothing to do with him. That guy called Blue had forced him to take it on board, apparently.’
‘Oh?’
I was running out of things to say to Bill without exhausting my credibility with him.
‘Where did the tank come from?’ I asked him. ‘Do you know?’
‘From the tank factory on Tyneside, I’m given to understand. The old Armstrong works at Scotswood. It was a Challenger Mark II, apparently.’
‘And what? They bought it? Stole it?’
‘The works closed some time ago. But there were still one or two tanks being finished off or repaired there. Blue – or Monsieur Bleu, perhaps I should call him – paid someone to look the other way while one was slipped out on a low-loader.’
‘Do you know where it was going?’
‘It’s only a guess, but it’s an educated one, given the Marseilles connection. I’d say it was headed for North Africa. Libya maybe, or one of them countries in the middle of the Sahara. Imagine what folk there would have thought when a dirty great Challenger came over the dunes at them!’
‘They’d probably think General Patton had returned,’ I said with a grin.
I wasn’t sure at that stage if Josh was going to be able to avoid all charges. It depended on what the investigation drew out. However, I thought there was a good chance that he could claim that any offences he had committed were made under duress. In fact, without the ship and without either Logan or Blue, I couldn’t see how Josh could be found guilty of anything at all.
That was how it turned out. Once the abduction of both Tom and his mother had been confirmed from various sources, the police were satisfied that Josh had been under intolerable pressure and came to regard him as no more than a helpful witness against Logan and his gang. Josh could return to being a businessman and upright citizen, a pillar of the community. Why not? That seemed entirely reasonable to me.
That line of thought induced me to give Jac Picknett another phone call.
‘Yes, thanks,’ she said. ‘Quite well. You? Good.’
How formal we were!
‘Listen, Jac. Do you recall telling me about Senga giving away her baby because she couldn’t look after it at the time?’
‘Vaguely. Did I really tell you that?’
‘You did. I was wondering what happened to the child. Do you know?’
After a bit of hesitation, Jac said, ‘Well, yes. I do actually. Are you sure you want to know?’
‘I am, yes. It might affect something I’m in the middle of right now.’
‘Oh? How mysterious! Work or … pleasure? No, don’t tell me. I don’t want to know.’
Once she had told me, it all made sense. Well, a lot of things did. I just wished I had thought to ask her earlier.
Later, much later, when Bill Peart and I took Jimmy Mack’s boat out for a day’s fruitless winter fishing, Bill said to me, ‘I don’t suppose you can cast any light on what happened to that guy Blue? Steele said the last he heard, Blue was going aboard the ss Anne.’
‘He went down with the ship, I believe.’
Bill nodded thoughtfully. ‘I thought as much.’
I wrestled with rod and line for a few moments as a distraction, but if ever there had been anything on my hook it must have got clean away.
‘Lost it, eh?’ Bill said sympathetically.
I nodded.
‘Can I assume,’ he said heavily, after a bit of a hiatus in the conversation, ‘that sometimes – just occasionally, I mean – you do tell me the truth? All of it, I mean?’
I looked at him and raised my eyebrows in surprise. ‘All of it?’
He shook his head. ‘No, on second thoughts, don’t bother answering. I don’t want to know any more.’
‘Oh, look!’ he added, with no suggestion of even the slightest bend in his rod, ‘I’ve got one now.’
Later still, he added, ‘The coastguard recovered a lifeboat from the ss Anne.’
‘Really? Anybody in it?’
‘Not when they found it. Makes you wonder, though, doesn’t it?’
It certainly did.
I was thinking: one phone call to arrange the hit on Logan. What was the other one for – to arrange to be picked up? Probably. I didn’t suppose for one moment that Blue had decided to swim ashore.
It was a pity in one way. Still, the deal had been good for both sides. The Steele family had done well out of it, and so far as I was concerned that was a worthwhile result. I would leave Bill to consider the legal ramifications, if any, and somebody else again to contemplate the moral equation.
Anne said, ‘Thank you for everything you’ve done for us, Frank.’
‘It wasn’t much. All in all, it was a bit of a shambles
really.’
‘That’s not how Josh and I see it.’ She shook her head firmly. ‘We couldn’t have managed without you. I don’t know what would have happened to Tom if you hadn’t been around.’
‘Tom would have coped fine, Anne. He’s put up with everything thrown at him this past year and more.’
‘We haven’t helped much, have we?’ she asked, biting her lip, tears not far away.
‘You’ve stuck together, Anne, through the difficulties. That’s the main thing. Tom wouldn’t have managed without that.’
She gave a brave little smile then. ‘You say the nicest things, Frank.’
‘Only when they’re true.’
She reached up to give me a peck on the cheek. ‘Look after my sister, Frank.’
‘That’s all very well,’ I said, ‘but who’s going to look after me?’
She laughed and went to join Josh, Tom and Julie in their car. Josh tooted the horn as they left. I raised a hand and waved.
Senga had come out of the house when she realized the others were leaving. ‘There’s just us now,’ she said when she had stopped waving.
‘Just us,’ I agreed. ‘But now you know Tom is safe. That should make a difference.’
She nodded. ‘That’s very important to me,’ she admitted. ‘More than I can say.’
‘I know that now,’ I told her. ‘I wasn’t sure for a long time, but I am now.’
‘Did somebody tell you?’
‘It doesn’t matter, does it?’ I said with a smile.
‘Not really, no.’
Nothing more on the subject was said. There was no point. But Senga knew that I understood why she would have followed Tom to the ends of the earth if he needed help. And I knew she was right to leave her son undisturbed with Anne and Josh. It was too late now to do anything else. Besides, he was in good hands.
We were quiet for a few moments. Then I took her in my arms and asked, ‘Will you still stay, now things have quietened down?’
‘For a little while,’ she said, holding on to me tightly.
‘Good.’
‘Is anything else going to happen, do you think?’
‘Not immediately, but something dangerous always turns up eventually.’
‘Oh, good!’ she said.
We looked at each other and began to laugh.