Terry glanced across at me for a second. Flashed a grin behind a ragged beard now more salt than pepper since the last time I had seen him. He was a big man, appearing taller than his six-one height, with a build of hard, disciplined muscle. As ever his hair was buzzed tight to the scalp. Scars from both shrapnel and fist fight wounds littered his face. He had a blue vertical arrow tattooed on his neck, pointing at his left ear, beneath which were the words This Way Up.
“I always liked that about you, Mike. You find something to joke about no matter what the situation. Often at your own expense.”
For a moment, I thought he had me confused with someone else. Then I realised Terry’s memory of me was correct. In recent years, I had found a different method of coping with stress and difficulty, and the bottle had been unkind to me in so many ways. It hadn’t always been like that. I hadn’t always been this man.
“That was me,” I admitted. “The Jokerman. And you were always Mister Stoic. Some things don’t change, do they Terry?”
“As I recall, you were hardly bursting with emotion yourself. In a battle of the stoics, I’m not sure which of us would win.”
“Ah, well then maybe things do change, after all.”
Terry was concentrating hard again as we pulled off the motorway and headed in the direction of Swindon. Minutes later we took the Oxford turn-off. After settling in to the new route, he spoke up once more. “We change according to our experiences, Mike. We’re the sum of them, after all. You were out of the game before it got a real grip on you. You became a citizen again before the military had time to turn you into the kind of machine it likes to work with. The kind of person it can mould into shape. Me, I went deeper and darker, and for so long I hardly remember who or what I was before.”
I turned my head, astonished. That was easily the most words I had ever heard Terry say in a single go. “You regret it?” I asked.
“No.”
“You sure? Only you sounded as if you might.”
“No. No regrets. Why waste time on things you can’t change?”
“That’s a good philosophy. I wish I could follow it myself.”
“There was a time when you did. You can find that person again. Maybe you already have.”
I gave a snort of mild derision. “How do you figure that?”
He nodded back over his shoulder. “When confronted with a man who had just shot someone dead, you first managed to get away and then evade capture. When saddled with baggage in the form of two extra people, you didn’t abandon them, despite having had several opportunities to do so. You kept your wits about you, you made a plan, and you held firm. After witnessing a friend being killed you didn’t panic, didn’t head for the hills and as far away as you could possibly be, and you didn’t dive into the first open bottle you could lay your hands on. Instead you lost your hunters and made your way back to keep your baggage secure. I’d say you coped far better than you want to let on.”
I looked away, staring out of the side window into the night. The landscape rushed by in a darkening blur. If I was being honest with myself, there was nothing my friend had said that I could argue with. There had been moments over the past day when all I wanted to do was dump Mel and the kid and find the nearest bar. But I hadn’t. Wanting had not been the same as doing. Instead I had kept them close and kept them safe. Maybe Terry had a point.
Perhaps the real Mike Lynch had finally stood up.
Not quite old Mike, perhaps. But not the new Mike, either.
Someone in between.
24
“So we’re baggage now?” came a voice from the back seat. It was the first time Melissa had spoken since the brief introductions were made back in Chippenham, and she had found her fire again.
“It’s just a term,” Terry replied, sneaking a glimpse in the rear-view. “It doesn’t mean anything.”
“Well, it sounded like it meant something.”
“Then we see and hear things differently. Charlie is your baggage. You two are Mike’s baggage. You three are now my baggage. I don’t know about you, but I take care of my baggage.”
Melissa took a while to respond. Her tone was less harsh when she did. “I hear you. I understand what you’re saying. I’m still not liking that term, though.”
Terry smiled and gave a shrug. The conversation was over as far as he was concerned.
I turned in my seat, saw the kid had dozed off. She’d had one hell of a day. “So, in the time since I gave you the outline of what we’re facing, what kind of plan have you come up with?” I asked Terry.
“Beyond getting you three squared away inside a safe house, not a lot. Once you are rested, when the initial shock of the past day has worn off, we need to assess your options all over again. We need to figure out what they want. And we also need to try and work out who the hell they are.”
“Well, we know the first shooter was a cop. I think we can also safely assume that the sniper was also law enforcement, or at least working on behalf of Hendricks.”
Terry shook his head. “I’m not so sure you can assume anything. Not from what you told me. To work this out, you need to go back to before the first murder. And the question you need to answer is, who Hendricks is working for? In my view there is no chance that he shot Dawson dead on NCA or any other official business.”
“Maybe it was personal.”
“It’s a consideration. Certainly, we can’t rule it out. If that’s the case, then the logic of your assumption is sound. But let’s put that to one side for a moment and look at alternatives. Say you’re wrong. If not personal, and not a NCA sanctioned hit, then why?”
“A contract.” I had considered the possibility before, but now it felt right.
“That’s the way I’m leaning. So, that leaves the paymaster. Who would want Dawson dead and has a way into someone like Hendricks?”
“Hey!” Melissa snapped. “Could you please not use that name. Charlie may be dozing right now, but I don’t want her overhearing something like that if she wakes up.”
“Fair enough,” Terry replied. “You’re right.”
The interruption had given me a moment to give my friend’s words a stir. “Mr D’s rivals are unlikely,” I said. “They would have hit the brother as well, and at the same time. Unless of course it was personal after all, but just not personal to Officer Hendricks himself. Someone Mr D crossed, perhaps, someone who also happened to know Hendricks could be bought.”
“Or persuaded in other ways,” Terry mused. He nodded. “But yes, it’s another line we have to consider. Either way, that leaves what happened afterwards open to doubt. We’re missing something here, Mike. See, if I am the person who contracts Hendricks to take out Mr D, and Hendricks screws up, then I am going to punish Hendricks, not look to take out four more people, including a child. By removing Hendricks, you remove the problem. By hunting innocent people down, you exacerbate it.”
His alternative theory made sense. Most of the way. “You could be right. But whoever is behind this, they probably have no idea what either Mel or I witnessed or did not witness, what we really know for certain. It kind of makes sense to me that they would feel a strong need to wipe the slate completely clean.”
Terry allowed that to percolate, before he nodded his agreement. “True. I can buy that. Still, is it likely they would then allow Officer Hendricks to continue?”
“No. That doesn’t make a lot of sense. But only if you see it from the paymaster’s viewpoint, I suppose. If you are Hendricks, maybe you know that by screwing things up you have made yourself a target.”
“So, if I’m now Hendricks, I will do anything to make sure the witnesses are silenced in order to buy my own life back.” Terry pursed his lips. “Yeah, that sounds feasible, too. Hendricks busy cleaning up his own mess. As for the paymaster, the way things have worked out, I’m probably going to cover all bases. Remove all obstacles.”
“But still we come back to who wanted this at all. Hendricks’s motive is money, pl
us he gets to nail Daw… Mr D, who has been a thorn in his side for years. A win win scenario for one lucky cop. Why does Mr D have to die in the first place, though?”
“We answer that and we move a step closer to understanding who set this whole thing in motion.”
I regarded my friend carefully. I felt we were discussing things as if we needed to fill in all the blanks before we could move on. To my mind, what we needed at that moment was to focus on us. To determine what would happen once we were secure, rested up, to understand what Mel and I did then to claw our way out of this mess. I explained all this to Terry as best I could.
He shrugged. “What I’m saying, Mike, is that perhaps the only way through to the other side of this is to take the fight to them. Those responsible. I don’t see an easy out for you. The one thing you don’t do at a time like this is put yourself in an unpredictable situation. You take charge of it instead.”
There was plenty of sense in that. I nodded. “But how do we get close to them if we don’t even know who they are?” I asked.
“That I don’t know, my friend. But we have time to work it out.”
“Anyone interested in my opinion?” Melissa asked.
I turned my head to look at her. “Of course. We’re in this together. If you have something to say, now’s the time.”
She gave a faint smile. “Then for what it’s worth, I think this NCA officer is responsible for it all. I don’t believe there is any conspiracy, just him. I think he messed up and is doing everything he can to save his career and himself. He wants to leave no witnesses. No trace. No comeback.”
Melissa glanced down at the kid, who was sprawled across her lap as much as her seatbelt would allow. Then she put back her head and shook it once. “But what do I know? This isn’t my world at all.”
“That’s where you’re wrong,” Terry said. He kept his attention on the road ahead. “You are very much a part of this world now, I’m afraid. But don’t worry, it’s my job to help you and Mike here to figure a way back out of it again.”
“So exactly where are we going, mate?” I asked for the first time. “Not to your own farmhouse, I take it.”
“No. I have a place in mind. We’ll be okay there.”
“Is it a secret?”
He glanced across. “Actually, it is.”
I laughed. “But you’re taking us there. What, you going to blindfold us?”
“That might be taking it too far. But there is a good reason for my keeping it from you. If something… unpredictable happens between here and there, I can’t have you knowing the destination.”
“You’re serious, aren’t you?”
“Deadly. What if we were to get separated? What do you imagine they might do to you in order to extract that information from you, Mike? You’ve been there. You know.”
I looked back over at Melissa. “Terry here is paranoid. Even more so than me.”
He gave a low chuckle. “Yeah, and with good reason. Paranoia is the only thing that has kept me and an early grave from coming together.”
Hearing that, I wondered, not for the first time, just who my friend had crossed over the years. “Are you exposing yourself here, Terry?” I asked. “Making yourself vulnerable. I mean, to more than the immediate threat our predicament poses.”
“I wouldn’t think so. In fact, I would say it’s highly unlikely. I suppose it depends on where this little adventure takes us.”
“You chewed me out for not calling you first, but I’m beginning to wonder if I ever should have called you at all. Two people are already dead, one of them at least completely innocent. This is not your battle.”
“It is now.”
“But it shouldn’t be. That’s my point. It needn’t be.”
“And I say again, it is now. Exactly as it should be. Like I told you earlier, the only thing you did wrong in calling me was leaving it too damned late.” Terry raised a hand off the steering wheel. “Don’t say another word about it, Mike. I’m already pissed at you for not contacting me sooner. Don’t make matters worse.”
I smiled and shook my head. “Are you ever going to let that go?”
“We’ll see. Let’s find a way out of this shit first, then I’ll have time to decide whether or not to forgive you.”
Terry winked and then set his eyes on the road ahead.
25
We took a cross-country route which skirted Oxford and Northampton and eventually came upon the A1(M). Terry headed straight over towards Peterborough, hit the Fletton and Frank Perkins Parkways, before taking the Boongate turn-off and negotiating his way through to a poorly maintained road that ran alongside a narrow section of the Nene river. We were less than two miles from the city centre, and now the land was flat and just about deserted.
Terry slowed as he approached a small copse of trees to our left, and only yards before reaching it he swung off the road onto a gravel drive, swept past a collection of forlorn-looking outbuildings, before pulling up in front of a two-storey house. It had evidently been extended. It consisted of a modern frontage that looked oddly disjointed and ill at ease with its past sheltering behind. He killed the vehicle’s engine and silence enveloped our small group of weary travellers.
I stepped down out of the SUV, stretched out my aching back muscles, glancing all around. The air was cooler now, the night sky a black backdrop glittering with stars. It was a little after midnight, and only silence greeted us at the end of our long journey.
The kid came awake with a start as Melissa carried her across to the dwelling. For a moment, I thought Charlie might kick off a sound that would carry across the flatlands on the faint breeze that was blowing in from the south but she quickly snuggled back down into Melissa’s neck and fell right back to sleep.
The front door of the house opened into a slight porchway, which in turn led directly into the lounge through another door. It was a large room, with just a single sofa arranged along the far wall, a TV in one corner. Bare essentials.
Once we were all inside, Terry swiftly took charge. “There are two bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs,” he explained to Melissa. “You and Charlie take the room on the left as you hit the landing. The bathroom is at the far end. Don’t stray into the other bedroom. I want to know where I can find you if I need to.”
He turned to face me. “You take the other bedroom. I’ll be down here on the sofa. I have no provisions, but there’s an all-night Tesco not far away, so if any of you need anything let me know. If not, I’ll just pick up a few essentials. You’ll be fine here, by the way. Nobody followed us, no one knows you’re here. Mike, I’ll show you a few things before I leave, but it’s safe. Trust me.”
Melissa thanked him and managed to squeeze out a weary smile. Charlie was now virtually draped over her shoulder, a thumb wedged inside her mouth. She said they could each do with a toothbrush, some toothpaste, bath or shower gel, and an anti-perspirant deodorant.
“No problem. We can go out tomorrow morning, get a change of clothes, anything else you may need. More supplies. For now, I suggest you get Charlie settled, maybe have yourself a relaxing bath there should be some bath soap up there, clean towels in the airing cupboard on the landing. Try to unwind a little. When you’re done, if you have the energy, join us for a drink and some food. If not, use your bed and use it well.”
A single finger beckoned me. Terry led me behind the stairs, beneath which was a small cupboard that looked as if it functioned as an office as well as a storage area. Sitting on top of a built-in shelf sat an array of electronic equipment and two flat screen monitors. I wondered how many times my friend had used this safehouse before. Terry unlocked the top drawer of a filing cabinet, took out a locked box and used a different key to open it up. Inside was a Glock 19 pistol and a suppressor. He handed me both.
“I know you remember how to use this,” he said.
I nodded and hefted the piece, feeling the weight of it in my hands. It had been a while, but yes, this was my sort of weapon.
“If anyone gets past you, I’ll do the right thing,” I assured him.
“They’re not getting past me, but I know you have my back.”
I wondered how it was that this man had more faith in me than I had in myself. Perhaps because the man Terry had known so well all those years ago was a very different person from the one I had become. Still, it felt good to be trusted again. It had been fun experiencing Terry taking charge. More than that, it had been an immense relief. A weight had been lifted off my back.
Terry switched on both monitors. Seconds later they revealed images split-screened into two views, front and back of the house. “The one on the right is thermal,” he said. The green screen on the left was obviously using night-vision optics. “If you hear a series of low double-beeps coming from any room, check these screens first. We’ll go over it a bit more when I get back. You won’t need it right now.”
“If you’re sure.”
“I’m sure. Now, get the kettle on and some mugs out. I’ll be back before you know it.”
After Terry had left to make the drive to the supermarket, I sat in the lounge for a few minutes, allowing my thoughts to catch up. Try as I might, I could not escape the haunting imagery of Susan’s death. Only a few hours had passed since she was killed, but I doubted the effect it had on me would change with the passing of days, weeks, months or even years. Alone with my imagination I conjured up all manner of scenarios by which Sue’s murder could have been prevented. It was a foolish waste of time. Nothing changed. She was still dead, and I remained responsible.
There was no inner peace to be found, yet a sense of calmness descended upon me. We were in good hands at long last, far away from prying eyes, and I had complete confidence in Terry’s ability to find the best path, no matter how labyrinthine. Without emotional attachment, he would be able to see what neither Mel nor I could: a way out.
Scream Blue Murder: an action-packed thriller Page 17