by David Carter
“Almost ten.”
“Fuck, I need coffee.”
“I’m one step ahead of you,” he replied, and handed over one of four takeaway coffees he’d brought over from The Greasy Axle. “What the hell happened last night?” he asked, “and don’t try feeding me any bullshit, either.”
“Haven’t you been to Archer’s place yet?”
“Yes, but that was an hour or two after I got a phone call in the early hours of the morning telling me that you, Danny, and Frankie had been in an accident.”
Blaze was confused. “What did you find there?”
“Well, that’s where the story gets interesting...”
“Go on...”
“I called ahead to the Woodridge Police Department to send a few guys over to Archer’s place and arrest him and anyone else on the premises. When I arrived, the gates were open and the place was deserted. Neither I nor the police could find anyone or anything incriminating.”
“You mean, you didn’t find anyone at all? Dead or alive?”
“Should I have?”
“Take a seat, man. This could take a while...”
They sipped at their coffees as Blaze recounted every detail of the night’s happenings.
“Jesus Christ!” exclaimed Ryan after Blaze had told him everything, waking Danny and Franks in the process. “They must have cleaned the place out quickly; there wasn’t a single noteworthy item left in the house.”
“What about blood?”
“None of that either...”
“Like I said: we aren’t dealing with some small-time drug operation here. This is a highly-organised crew. It’s as if running Winterhill was Archer’s hobby in his spare time.”
“It ain’t no hobby of his,” interjected Franks, now fully aware of what they were talking about, “it’s where he weeds out the bad apples and hires them for his crew,” he explained. “Plenty of thugs out there without a conscience looking to make an extra buck or two. Hell, I was one of them.”
Ryan walked around the side of Franks’ bed and gently placed a hand on his arm. “I’m sorry about your cousin,” he said sincerely.
Franks looked away. “I appreciate that...”
Ryan wasn’t sure what to say next. “Lukewarm coffee?” He offered Franks a cup.
“Sure, thanks.”
“I want you to know the authorities are searching for Archer and his goons as we speak. But so far they’ve turned up nothing.”
“Call them off. You won’t find them. Archer’s got friends in high places. I’ll tell you everything I know about his operation, if that helps?”
“I would definitely appreciate that.”
Danny groaned as he tried to sit himself up.
“I presume you’re Danny?” Ryan asked him as he handed him the last cup of coffee.
“Yeah.” He winced.
“You okay?”
“Got three cracked ribs and a king size fucking headache,” he replied.
Ryan couldn’t help grinning.
“What’s so funny?” Danny asked him.
“The way you talk; you sound just like Blaze. I can see why you two hit it off.”
Danny grinned. “He’s like the brother I never had...”
Ryan changed the subject. “I’m glad to hear you got what you wanted from Archer. I’m pretty sure no one is looking for you now. Although I did have to sweet talk Anna Davies into letting you stay here.”
“Who? What do you mean?”
“She works on reception, among other things, and, well, your name came up in the system as an escaped convict when you were admitted during the night.”
“Oh, shit. Is she gonna rat me out?”
“No, I don’t think so. I convinced her that you are a part of my team, and that Frankie and Blaze were on your way back from picking you up from Winterhill. She’s none the wiser.”
“Shit, thanks, man.”
“Don’t make me regret lying to a good and decent person,” he said firmly.
There was an awkward silence between them until Danny asked, “So you’re the hot shot detective Blaze has been raving on about, right?”
“I guess you could say that.”
“Then I owe you my life. I’d be pig food by now if you hadn’t listened to him and Frankie and allowed them to come nab me.”
“Well it’s fortunate for you that I believed Blaze’s story about your wife and daughter.”
Danny hesitated before he said, “If I may ask: what made you believe him?”
Ryan answered his question with a question. “Do you really think Blaze is the bullshitting type?”
Danny coughed and winced as Ryan made him laugh. “You’ve got some massive nuts for a man in a suit; I’ll give you that,” he said.
“Just trying to make a difference.”
“Well in that case, you can help me peel off my goddamn shirt. It’s bloody stifling in here.”
Ryan helped Danny take it off, being careful not to bump his tender ribcage. As he did so, he noticed a name tattooed to his chest inside of a love heart. “Emma Rose?”
“My daughter’s name,” he replied. “She will always be close to my heart even if it is just her name tattooed to my chest.”
Before Ryan could offer any sympathy, Blaze, who had been quietly listening to their conversation, suddenly cried out, “A tattoo to the chest! How the fuck did we miss that!”
Ryan turned to face him. “Miss what?”
“Arnold-fucking-Spencer!”
“What about him?”
“If you want to know if he’s the Watcher or not: all you have to do is lift up his shirt and see if he has that fucking Bible verse tattooed to his chest! And if by some unlikely chance he’s had it removed, there should be a scar on his chest where I stabbed him with my pencil!”
Ryan was ropeable. “You only just thought of that now!” he shouted.
“I’d already told you about the tattoo when we first met! With everything that’s been going on lately, it completely slipped my mind!”
“Well maybe it wouldn’t have if you didn’t smash his face in when I tried to arrest him!”
“You didn’t think of it either!” snapped Blaze.
“I know! Because I’ve been too busy cleaning up the trail of shit that seems to follow you wherever you go!”
Blaze tried to get in the last word, but Ryan had him neatly cornered. “I’m sorry,” he choked out. “It’s just that I thought he was guilty when he tried to do a runner. But even if he isn’t the Watcher, I still think he’s hiding something. The only question is, what?”
Ryan harshly answered, “Why don’t you have a think about it while I go make a phone call and get my ass reamed by my superiors for missing such a bloody obvious detail!”
Ryan stormed off out of the room. He returned almost a full hour later with bad news. “No tattoo,” he said. “Arnold Spencer is not the Watcher.”
“Then why did he run?” asked Blaze.
“I’ve been busy getting to the bottom of that. I made some inquiries and discovered he’s been falsifying his tax records for nearly fifteen years, and owes the Inland Revenue Department thousands of dollars from his lawnmowing business. He thought we were bringing him in for tax evasion.”
“Shit,” said Blaze. “So what happens now? Is he pressing charges against me?”
“We won’t know for certain until he recovers sufficiently. But we aren’t gonna let it get that far.”
Blaze’s eyes widened with shock and confusion. “How do you mean?”
“My department will make a deal with him. The state will drop the tax evasion charges if he lays no charges against you—and me. We all walk free.”
“What do you mean, and you? You didn’t lay a finger on him.”
“I know,” he said crossly. “But I’m liable for any screw-ups you make. So whatever you do wrong, I do wrong. My boss had to pull some bloody long strings to make it happen, too, so you’re bloody welcome.”
“Thank you
, Ryan; I don’t know what else to say...”
“For once, why don’t you just shut your trap and say nothing! You’ve caused me enough headaches for one bloody day!”
Anna Davies interrupted as she tapped on the door and entered. “I have a package here for Bobby. A man just dropped it off at reception for him,” she announced.
“Thanks,” said Blaze as Anna handed him the small, brown paper bag, then left the room.
Blaze opened the bag and pulled out a cell phone, along with a note that read, ring the number on the contacts list.
Blaze did as the note instructed. He hit the dial button and heard the phone ringing in his ear. A man answered on the first ring, and asked, “How’s your head, Bobby?”
The condescending tone of Archer’s voice made Blaze’s blood boil. “What the fuck do you want?” he said fiercely.
“I need something from you.”
“How does a punch in the face sound?”
Archer chuckled, then said, “No thanks. I’ve come for the memory stick.”
“What memory stick?”
Archer’s voice hardened. “Don’t play stupid with me, Bobby. We’re well beyond playing childish games now.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Well let me refresh your memory then. This morning, when I collected all my personal belongings from my office at Winterhill, I went to copy my movies onto to my own memory stick only to find them deleted from the hard drive. Now, I know I didn’t delete them, and that Frankie is the only other person who had access to those files. So I checked the footage from the camera in my office, and guess what I saw?”
“That you aren’t the fairest wanker of them all?”
“This is no fairy-tale, Bobby, I can assure you of that.”
“Well, what then?”
“You already know: I saw Frankie downloading the files onto a memory stick and deleting them from the hard drive, presumably by mistake, as I’m sure he would have wanted to cover his tracks far better than he actually did.”
Goddammit, Frankie, you screwed up, thought Blaze.
“I commend you on your daring plan,” said Archer. “I assume you were going to blackmail me into signing Danny’s life away?”
“And Frankie’s resignation.”
“But of course.”
“Tell me something interesting before I hang up, asshole.”
“As I said, I want you to hand over the memory stick.”
“That’s not going to happen.”
“Bobby, you forget that I’m always one step ahead of you...”
“Oh yeah? And how have you come to that conclusion this time?”
Archer asked, “Have you had the pleasure of meeting Frankie’s wife and daughter?”
“Can’t say I have.”
“Well I can tell you that they are both quite beautiful. It would be such a shame if anything distasteful were to happen to them...”
“You wouldn’t!”
Archer laughed cruelly into the phone. “Oh, Bobby, you have no idea the lengths I would go to, just to get that stick back in my possession.”
“Shit,” muttered Blaze under his breath. “Where are they now?”
“First, you need to tell me where the stick is.”
“I can lay my hands on it within five minutes if necessary.”
“I’m pleased to hear that—”
“Where are they?” Blaze demanded again, cutting Archer off.
“They’re right outside the hospital in the back of a black SUV – with a gun pointed at their heads.”
“Okay, okay. Just give me a second to work this out.”
“You had better think fast, Bobby, because I’m losing my patience with you...”
Blaze thought quickly, then said, “Let Frankie speak with his wife. I need to know you’re not talking out your ass before I make any deals with you.”
“Very well,” said Archer.
“What the hell’s going on?” said Frankie as Blaze limped over to his side of the room and handed him the phone.
“Let me know if it’s your wife on the other end of this call, then give the phone back to me,” he replied.
“What’s going on?” he demanded a second time.
“No time for that; just do it.”
He put the phone to his ear. “Rita? Is that you?” he asked nervously.
“Please do whatever the man says!” she cried into the phone. “I’m scared, Frankie!”
Franks’ heart broke in two as he realised what was happening. “Just stay calm, baby, we’ll get you out of this, I swear,” he replied.
“Why is this happening to us?” she pleaded.
“I’ll explain everything, I promise.”
“I love you, Ramone...”
“I love you, too, baby.”
Franks heard his wife and daughter’s terrified screams as the phone was wrenched from Rita’s hand. Archer’s voice was the next thing he heard. “Put Bobby back on,” he ordered.
“If you touch them, I’ll kill you,” Franks threatened him.
“Put Bobby back on before I give your daughter an extra hole to breathe through,” he demanded. “I’ll count to three. One– two—”
Franks handed over the phone, then burst into tears.
“I’m listening, you fucking asshole,” said Blaze. “What’s the deal?”
“This is how it’s going to work: you bring the stick down to the reception desk, and one of my men will meet you in the waiting area with the girls; a straight swap. It couldn’t be any simpler. You say nothing, you do nothing, and we all live to see another day.”
“You’ll forgive me if I don’t take your word for that.”
“Last chance, Bobby, before I do something you’ll regret for the rest of your life.”
Blaze looked at Franks. I owe him big time, he thought. “All right, I’ll do it—but you have to agree to leave Frankie and his family to get on with their lives. You hear me? Your brute squad doesn’t go near them ever again. Same goes for Danny. Just disappear and leave them be. Do we have a deal?”
“We have a deal. Is there anything else?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, what about you? I don’t hear you demanding anything regarding your safety and well-being.”
“Why would I?”
“Well, since you landed on my doorstep, you’ve killed Nugget, Bulldog, and Poochie, and turned my most trusted employee against me, who also aided in Danny’s escape. I’ve had to pack up and leave Woodridge at a moment’s notice, and you killed three of my trusted security guards. You burned down one of my warehouses; you gave away a vanload of my product, ready for market, and you left Francois with a busted shoulder—rendering him useless for the foreseeable future. Did I leave anything out?”
“Yep, I busted your fucking nose the day we met.”
“So you did, meaning I have every right to hunt you down and burn you alive.”
“So why haven’t you already?”
Archer paused. “Because people like you don’t come along every day.”
“Meaning...?”
“I have much respect for you, Bobby and I’m willing to let you live. I think it’s quite incredible what you’ve achieved against such long odds.”
“But where does that leave us if we should happen to bump into each other again?”
“Well, that all depends on you.”
“How?”
Archer took a moment to sum up his thoughts. “I’ll let you decide your own fate. If you’re ready to end this game of chess, throw in the towel and concede defeat. But I want to hear it from your mouth that you’re done. Humble yourself and admit you can’t beat me and I’ll never bother you again.”
“Just like that?”
“Yes, just like that.”
Blaze considered his answer carefully. “Whatever decision I make, do you promise that Frankie’s family will be safe?”
“You have my word.”
“And Danny?”
“Him, too.”
“Good. Then in answer to your proposition...”
“Yes?” replied Archer with anticipation.
“Go fuck yourself.”
There was a long pause, until Archer replied, “You better get moving, Bobby. You have exactly ten minutes to get that memory stick down to the reception desk or the girl dies first.”
Chapter 58
Blaze limped his way along the corridor to Trinity’s room, with Franks and Ryan in tow, and approached the police officer standing guard outside her door. Upon recognising the limping man, the officer moved aside without question; Franks and Ryan waited outside in the corridor.
Blaze pushed through the door and entered the room. He suddenly stopped in his tracks; Trinity was nowhere to be seen. Instead, Elizabeth sat hunched over on the edge of Trinity’s bed with tears streaming down her cheeks, her face as pale as a geisha. Startled, she quickly wiped her face dry with her cardigan sleeve. “Sorry,” she said nervously, “I—I didn’t know you were coming today,” she stammered, “I was here keeping Trinity entertained. I’ll just be on my way.”
She rose from the bed.
“Don’t leave on my account,” he replied, “I just need a minute with Trinity.”
“She’s nipped out with the nurse for a wash, but she’ll be back soon.”
Blaze groaned with frustration. “How soon? I need something from her urgently...”
She hesitated, then said, “It wouldn’t be this, would it?” She slowly held up the memory stick.
“What are you doing with that?” he demanded, and snatched it from her grasp.
“Please don’t be angry with me,” she pleaded. “Trinity asked me to look after it while she was gone. She said not to let it out of my sight.”
Blaze saw Elizabeth’s laptop computer sitting next to her on the bed with the screen still active. “You didn’t look at anything on it, did you?” he asked anxiously.
Tears welled up in her eyes. “I’m sorry…” She burst out crying.
Blaze panicked. “What exactly did you see?”
She looked away. “I saw what you did to those men,” she said between bouts of tears.
“Holy shit,” he muttered under his breath. “You weren’t supposed to look at any of that!” he snapped at her.