The Long Shot (Stephen Leather Thrillers)

by Stephen Leather

  “Yeah,” said Joker, not wanting to argue. “Can you drop me here?”

  “I thought you said Thirty-seventh Street?”

  “Yeah, I did, but I’m feeling ill. I’d rather walk.”

  “Okay, okay. Whatever you want. Just don’t throw up in the fucking cab, that’s all.” The cab slammed to a halt and Joker thrust the fare through a small hole in a Perspex barrier that kept the driver insulated from his passengers. He opened the door and pulled his cheap suitcase after him. The outside air felt cold after the overheated cab interior so he walked briskly to keep warm. In the distance he could hear the wail of bagpipes and he headed towards them.

  He found the parade heading down Fifth Avenue and stood among the watching crowds, the suitcase at his feet and his hands thrust deep into the pockets of his pea jacket. A group of kilted pipers were playing Mull of Kintyre. The pipers moved on, followed by a huge float in the shape of the Loch Ness Monster on either side of which had been stencilled the name of a Japanese computer company. Across the thoroughfare was an imposing white marble and stone Gothic cathedral and as the float moved by Joker saw it was called St Patrick’s.

  Joker wondered how many of the spectators who were cheering and waving flags realised that the pipers and the monster were Scottish and not Irish. It didn’t seem to make any difference, everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. A gleaming fire engine rolled by, decorated with huge cardboard shamrocks and with the firemen all dressed in green. It was followed by a large float decorated like an Irish hill with large inflatable cows surrounding a huge yellow block with the word BUTTER etched into it.

  Behind the float was a line of old American cars, all convertibles with big, sweeping fins and lots of chrome. In the back of each car were youngsters waving to the crowds and on the doors were printed cards with the names of what Joker supposed were television shows: In Living Colour, Herman’s Head, Roc. They were getting the most response from the crowds, lots of shouts and screams and whooping noises and the occasional small child running over to get an autograph. What they had to do with St Patrick’s Day, Joker couldn’t imagine. There were lines of blue-uniformed policemen marching at attention, all with shamrocks pinned to the breasts of their tunics, and Joker recalled the Colonel’s warning about the number of Irish-Americans who were involved in law enforcement. A clown in a bright yellow costume and a blue wig appeared in front of Joker, waving a bucket. A sign in the bucket detailed the charities the money was for but Joker just shrugged and said he didn’t have any change.

  “Yeah, right,” said the clown dismissively and flopped over in his yard-long shoes to a group of children. Paper streamers were raining down from the skyscrapers overlooking the parade and one wrapped itself around Joker’s neck. He pulled it off and dropped it into the street.

  A float sponsored by an insurance company rolled by, decked out in green with a trio of fiddlers playing an Irish folk tune while half a dozen girls danced a jig. Joker picked up his suitcase and began walking through the crowds.

  He’d been in New York a number of times before and knew that there were several small hotels off 37th Street, close to the East River. He made slow progress along Fifth Avenue because of all the sightseers. A marching band of young black girls in silver spandex outfits and tall braided helmets overtook him in a flurry of whirling sticks, followed by young boys in similar outfits blowing brass instruments and beating drums. He decided to get off Fifth Avenue and waited until there was a gap in the parade before dashing across. Once he’d left the route of the parade the streets were relatively quiet and after a twenty-minute walk he was outside the hotel he’d chosen: The White Horse. It had been formed by knocking together two brownstone houses and refurbished on the cheap with plasterboard partitions, plastic light fittings and thin carpets. There was a small reception desk beyond the main door where a Hispanic woman was talking on the phone. She raised her eyebrows when Joker walked in but carried on her conversation. Joker put his suitcase down and waited. Eventually she pushed over a registration card for him to fill in. The ballpoint pen she gave him leaked and there were blobs of ink all over the card by the time he’d finished. She picked up the card, read it, took an imprint from his credit card and handed him a key, all the time talking into the phone. She gestured at a staircase to her right as she cackled away in Spanish.

  Joker’s room was on the third floor, at the back of the hotel, where it overlooked an alley which was dark and forbidding even in the afternoon. A rusting fire escape wound its way down the building and Joker pulled open the window to take a closer look. It provided a back way out in an emergency but he was also well aware that it offered a way in for any intruder. He checked the lock on the window but he knew that it wouldn’t deter an enthusiastic amateur, never mind a professional. An air-conditioner was set into the wall underneath the window but nothing happened when he switched it on. He kicked it halfheartedly.

  A small bathroom led off the bedroom, containing a shower stall, a cracked yellow washbasin and a toilet. A piece of paper was wrapped across the seat along with a note telling him that it had been sanitised for his protection. He picked up a glass tumbler from the shelf under the bathroom mirror and went back into the bedroom where he sat on the single bed and opened his suitcase. He took out a bottle of Famous Grouse and poured himself a decent measure. He toasted his reflection in the window. “‘If I can make it here, I can make it anywhere’,” he said, his voice loaded with sarcasm.

  Howard sat in Theodore Clayton’s outer office, his leather briefcase at his feet. His father-in-law’s secretary kept flashing him sympathetic looks but Howard didn’t show his annoyance. If Clayton wanted to play infantile power games, it was a small price to pay for the help the FBI was getting.

  Clayton kept him waiting just ten minutes so Howard figured he’d got off lightly. Clayton also opened the office door himself and personally ushered Howard in.

  “Sorry, Cole, I was on the phone to Tokyo.”

  “Tokyo?” said Howard, puzzled. “I thought you were competing with the Japanese.”

  “Product-wise, we are, but all the technology is the same and there are several firms over there who are interested in taking stakes in us. It’s the latest way of doing business with the Japs – they call it co-opetition – a combination of co-operation and competition.”

  “Would the Government allow that?”

  “What do you mean?” said Clayton, sitting behind his uncluttered desk. A photograph of Lisa beamed from a brass frame, next to a picture of Clayton’s second wife, Jennifer. The two women were surprisingly alike – blonde hair, fair skin, blue eyes – though Jennifer was the younger of the two by more than five years.

  “Your defence work? Surely they wouldn’t want overseas investors to be involved.”

  Clayton snorted and shook his head. “You think the Government gives a damn? There are no boundaries where business is concerned, Cole. Money is the universal language, the common philosophy. I tell you, the best thing that could happen to this country’s armed forces would be if we had Japanese-built jets flying off Japanese-built aircraft carriers, and we had our soldiers driving Japanese tanks and flying Japanese helicopters.”

  “And using Japanese atomic weapons?” asked Howard, his voice loaded with irony.

  “You mock, my boy, but it’ll come. I remember when the first Japanese motorcycles arrived in this country, and how we laughed at them. Sewing machines on wheels. You know what car I drive now? A Nissan, and there isn’t an American car can match it.”

  Howard knew that Clayton was being economical with the truth – more often than not the industrialist was to be found behind the wheel of a Rolls-Royce.

  Clayton opened one of his desk drawers and took out a cardboard folder. “Anyway, at the moment we’re just talking about a share stake. That’s confidential by the way. I’d hate to see you hauled in for insider trading.” He smiled to show Howard that he was joking and passed him the file. “This is what we’ve managed to do with
your video.”

  “I didn’t expect you to move so quickly,” said Howard, opening the file.

  “I had a couple of PhDs who were dying to show me what they can do with the new $10 million computer I bought for them. I think you’ll be impressed.”

  The top two photographs were of the cars, and Howard’s heart sank when he saw them because there wasn’t much more detail than in the ones Bonnie Kim had done for him. Clayton walked around behind him and put a hand on his shoulder. “Yeah, those were a disappointment, the angle was just too acute to be able to do anything with the tags. You’ll be more impressed with the faces.”

  Howard put the car pictures on the desk. The next photograph was of the man who’d been holding the walkie-talkie. It was a close-up of his face, and it was a big improvement on the pictures Bonnie Kim had produced, though he doubted it was clear enough to make a positive identification.

  “Pretty good, huh?” said Clayton.

  The picture in Howard’s hands had little of the blurring that had made Bonnie’s prints so difficult to decipher. The man was middle-aged and balding, with a round, plump face and dark sunglasses, though his features were hard to define. “Much better,” admitted Howard. “But still not quite good enough, I’m afraid.” He handed the picture to Clayton. “It’s sharper than our versions, but there isn’t enough detail for us to get a match from file pictures. Is there anything else you can do?”

  “Oh sure,” said Clayton confidently. “That’s just for starters. They did what your lab had already done, the median filtering thing, but they coupled that with a technique we use to remove the blur caused by motion. A large part of the blurring was caused by the movement of the camcorder, and isn’t a result of the distances involved. My boys ran the images through a program which compensates for the speed of the plane.”

  “Did they try pixel aggregation?” Howard asked, remembering the term Bonnie Kim had used.

  Clayton frowned. “I think so,” he said. His fingers began to tap nervously on his blotter and Howard suppressed a smile. “I know they’ve a few more ideas up their sleeves, it’s just that some of the techniques take longer to run. There are some quite complicated transformations involved.”

  Howard nodded but he felt that his father-in-law’s explanation was somewhat disjointed and he wondered exactly how much of the technology the older man actually understood. He had the feeling that Clayton was trying to articulate ideas which he didn’t fully comprehend. He studied the face in the photograph. The features were flabby as if the man was used to living well and disdained physical exercise. The skin was olive coloured and Howard wondered if the man might be from the Mediterranean or the Middle East. The dark glasses hid the eyes and the nose was still pretty much a blur. The man could have had a moustache or it could just have been a shadow. Some of the photographs were full-length shots of the man. It was difficult to get an idea of how tall he was, but he was certainly broad in proportion to his height, with wide shoulders and an expansive girth.

  The pictures of the younger man were slightly clearer. He had short, reddish hair and was wearing spectacles with small, round lenses. There was a picture of the three figures together and he was the shortest of the three, smaller even than the woman. The images of the woman were the least helpful – she was shading her eyes with her hand in most of the shots and in all but one of the pictures all that was visible was her blonde hair and the bottom of her face. Howard doubted that even the FBI’s photographic experts would be able to produce a match from their files for any of the pictures but he felt that Clayton was hoping for a more positive reaction. And gratitude. “These are good, Ted. Really good. Let’s hope that your men can improve them even more.” He passed quickly through the pictures of the dummies and on to the photographs of the snipers. They all had their faces close to the telescopic sights on their weapons and Howard’s heart fell.

  “What’s wrong?” asked Clayton, leaning forward.

  “The snipers,” said Howard. “I guess I was expecting more.”

  “I know what you mean, but the computer can’t picture what isn’t there; it has to have something to work with. They’re still much better than the originals.”

  “Oh sure, they’re a big improvement. But I doubt if we’ll be able to get an identification from them. There just isn’t enough detail.”

  Clayton walked around Howard’s chair and stood behind him. Howard flipped through the photographs on his lap. He showed Clayton one of a sniper in the kneeling position. “Can you get a close-up on the rifle this guy’s holding?”

  “That’s the sniper who was furthest away from the targets, isn’t it? We’re working on close-ups now. Incidentally, that’s one hell of a shot he’s trying to make. It must be two thousand yards.”

  “I know,” said Howard.

  “You’re right, though, it’s like no other rifle I’ve ever seen.” Clayton pointed at another photograph, also of a sniper with a rifle. “I think this is a Horstkamp, a German model. I actually have one in my collection. It’s a big gun, you could bring down an elephant with it. But this other one, it’s got a completely different profile. You should get your weapons experts to have a look at it. It might be easier to identify the weapon than the man.”

  Howard nodded as he looked at the rifle. His father-in-law was right, the rifle was unusual.

  “By the way, don’t forget about Sunday,” said Clayton.

  “We’ll be there,” said Howard. “We’re looking forward to it.”

  He left the office with his briefcase under his arm and a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach.

  Joker flicked through the cable channels of the television in his room as he drank his way through the bottle of Famous Grouse. There seemed to be an unending stream of glitzy game shows, old situation comedies and Seventies police shows, punctuated with advertisements that insulted his intelligence. He waited until eight o’clock before leaving his room. Lights were going on around the city and the brightest of the stars were managing to make their presence felt in the darkening sky. He put up the collar of his pea jacket and hunched his shoulders against a biting wind that had begun to blow from the East River.

  The file which the Colonel had given him to read in Hereford had included Pete Many on’s last report. Many on had been hanging around an Irish pub on the Upper East Side called Filbin’s while he was tracking Matthew Bailey, and Joker figured it was as good a place as any to start.

  Filbin’s wouldn’t have looked out of place in a Dublin back street. It had small, leaded windows, a dark oak door and inside were wooden beams which ran the length of a narrow, smoke-filled room with a group of Formica tables and rickety wooden chairs at the far end. There was draught Guinness and Tennents lager and as impressive a range of malt and blended whiskies as Joker had ever seen. The bar itself ran for a good thirty feet, an edifice of polished wood and brass with no stools to get in the way, just a thick brass rod running along the bottom so that the hardened drinker’s position could be assumed with the minimum of effort. Joker stood with one foot on the rod and leant on the bar. He took off his wool hat and thrust it into his coat pocket. A small, pixie-like barman walked over, polishing a glass, and asked Joker what he was having.

  “Do you have a Grouse?” Joker asked in his soft Irish accent.

  “Aye, I have to work on St Patrick’s Day, but other than that I’m okay.” The barman said it deadpan, with no trace of a smile. He finished polishing the glass, put it in the gantry behind the bar and grinned impishly at Joker. “Seriously, it’s a Famous Grouse you want?”

  “If it’s not too much trouble,” said Joker. The barman poured a measure of whisky into a glass. “Make it a double,” said Joker.

  The barman didn’t ask if he wanted ice but placed the glass and a jug of water in front of him, recognising a serious drinker. Joker thanked him and paid for the drink.

  “The name’s Shorty,” said the barman.

  “Aye, it would be,” said Joker. He carried his whi
sky over to a table and sat down. On the wood-panelled wall behind him were several framed black and white photographs of unnamed boxers. There were a dozen men in the bar and most of them appeared to be construction workers in jeans and heavy jackets, drinking pints of Guinness and speaking in Irish accents. Joker eavesdropped as he sipped his whisky, letting their accents and the rhythm of their speech wash over him. It had been almost four years since Joker had been in Ireland and he knew his accent would be a little rusty, though his cover story would allow for that. He tried to work out where the men were from by their accents: he was certain one was from Londonderry, and two were from the South, but his ear wasn’t as acute as it used to be. He knew that an Irishman could often tell to within twenty miles where a countryman came from just from the sound of his voice.

  Two teenagers appeared in front of Joker. They were both wearing green T-shirts and had green scarves tied around their heads and one of them was carrying a green bucket. The taller of the two held his bucket out and Joker saw that it contained coins and banknotes.