by Dan Latus
‘Bob,’ Jake said. ‘I wanted to speak to him, but he’s not there.’
‘The policeman? Perhaps it would be better if he doesn’t know where you are.’
‘Mm. Perhaps.’
He wondered about that. Shrewd Magda had a point. On the other hand, there was something he really did need to know. He’d better ask someone else. A possibility came to mind.
‘There’s another call I want to make.’
‘If you must, Jake. But it is risky, I think.’
He was surprised by her comment, but knew she was right. Most of all, though, he was surprised that Magda thought like that.
He phoned a man in a village in Northumberland, back in England, a man who had been the police sergeant there until he retired.
‘Morning, Ken! This is Jake Ord. Remember me?’
‘Jake? I just about remember you. How are you doing, lad? Haven’t seen you for a long time.’
‘I’m fine, thanks, Ken. Retirement suiting you?’
‘Like a slipper! I can recommend the easy life.’
‘That’s good to know. Listen, I want to get in touch with DCI Bob Robson. You wouldn’t have a personal phone number for him, would you? I know you were friendly with him, and I don’t want to go through the switchboard and official channels.’
‘Bob Robson? Oh, yes. We’re old pals, and we see each other from time to time. He’s in the same situation as me now, you know. We’re both men of leisure.’
‘So Bob’s retired, as well, is he?’
‘He has been for a few months.’
‘Well, well. I didn’t know that.’
He waited patiently and thanked Ken when he gave him a phone number for Bob.
‘That’s his private number, by the way. Nothing to do with the police.’
‘I understand.’
‘When are you going to fix that cottage up, Jake? Still planning on doing it?’
‘Sometime, Ken. Yes, I’ll be back one day, when I’ve got some money together.’
‘Be sure to drop in. I’ll maybe give you a hand.’
‘Thanks, Ken. I’ll remember that.’
‘Cottage?’ Magda said.
‘You heard that, did you?’ He smiled ruefully. ‘Used to be a cottage. It got burned down.’
‘In England?’
‘In England, yes. Northumberland, actually. Know where that is?’
Magda shook her head.
‘Northern England, close to the Scottish border.’
‘I always wanted to visit England,’ she said with a wry smile.
‘No reason why you shouldn’t,’ he told her. ‘One day, perhaps.’
‘Yes.’ She nodded. ‘One day.’
The phone call had left him wondering. Retired, eh. So what was Bob’s game? There had been a lot to think about already. Now he had something more to think about.
Chapter 19
The phone rang for a while before it was answered.
‘Yes?’
‘Morning, Bob! So you made it back home all right?’
There was a pause. Then: ‘Jake?’
‘It is.’
‘I didn’t recognize the number, bonnie lad.’
‘No? Never mind. You got back all right. That’s the main thing.’
‘No problem. What’s up? What are you doing, calling me?’
‘You didn’t tell me you were retired, Bob.’
Another pause. Jake gave a wry smile. He’d struck a nerve.
‘Didn’t I?’ Bob said with a sigh. ‘Well, we hadn’t been in touch for a while. I was forgetting. But there it is. Doesn’t make any difference, does it?’
‘I’m not sure.’
He allowed a pause of his own to develop then. Bob needed to know he wasn’t impressed.
‘So you’re working on your own now? Working for yourself? Is that it?’
‘Trying to look after some good people, Jake, people I don’t want coming to harm. People like you.’
Jake let that comment fade before he responded. Maybe it was true; maybe it wasn’t.
‘So who knows you’re doing this, Bob? Anyone? Anyone at all?’
The other man chuckled. ‘Worried about leaks still? Let me tell you...’
‘No, Bob. Just curious. You said there’s a lot of money still missing from the heist.’
‘What about it?’
The tone almost aggrieved now. Resentful.
‘How much did you say again?’
‘Oh, I don’t know now!’
‘Twenty million, wasn’t it?’
‘Roughly.’
‘Sterling. Used banknotes.’
‘Yeah.’
‘Now we’re getting to it,’ Jake said. ‘So, Bob, is it really the former colleagues you’re interested in, or is it the cash?’
‘Find the one,’ Bob said equably, ‘and you’ll find the other.’ He gave a little laugh. ‘That what this call is about?’
‘What do you think? There’ll be a lot of people interested in money like that, Bob. Not just Fogarty, either. Have you been retained by someone to find the missing millions?’
‘Well... Not exactly.’
‘Not exactly, eh? But you do have an interest?’
‘All kinds of interest, Jake. What do you want me to say, for chrissake?’
Jake gave a grim chuckle. ‘Nothing, Bob. There’s no need for you to say anything more to me again – ever!’
‘Where are you calling from, Jake?’
Jake switched off the phone. He looked around, and saw Magda staring at him.
‘I’ve always thought he was a friend,’ he said bleakly. ‘Now I need to think again.’
He walked up and down. To say he was irritated, or annoyed – angry even – would have been a significant understatement. He was blazing mad.
Bloody Bob! Stringing him along like that. All that crap about looking after decent people in terrible danger. And look what it amounted to! A retired cop looking to feather his nest. That was about it.
Involving him in the process, too. Wanting him to do the heavy lifting. Well, fuck that – and fuck him!
He walked off, and trudged back up the track a little way. Then he left it and took to a faint path climbing diagonally across the hillside. It was hot now. The morning was heating up as the sun got into its daily climb. He could feel the heat and the dust rising from the ground with every step he took. His feet crunched on the gritty soil, and pebbles splayed behind him. He followed the suggestion of a path that had probably been made by animals of some sort, as it meandered between boulders that had crashed down from the craggy escarpment above.
Insect noise all around him. The clicking and rasping of wings, the hissing and whirring of flight. All around him, amongst the rocks and the papery pink flowers of the cistus that clung so stubbornly to the hillside.
The path swung round eventually and steered straight uphill, perhaps as the animals that had made it turned for their homes on the upper slopes and the plateau of Rocha da Pena at the end of a night’s hunting. They would return at night to their hunting ground, down here.
He became tired suddenly, breathless, soaking with sweat and exhausted. This was hard work, and it wasn’t what he had set out to do. He wasn’t in shape for hill climbing. Twenty minutes, and he’d had enough. He flopped down beside a big rock and wiped his face with the sleeve of his shirt. The sweat was pouring off him. And his legs ached, threatening to cramp. He knew he’d come too far. He wasn’t up to this.
Better get in shape, he told himself. If you’re going to take this any further, you need to rebuild. No more lazing around in the shade with a bottle of cheap wine. Got to take it seriously. Because Fogarty will. It won’t be just an ordinary game for him. He’s playing for high stakes, and he’ll go all out.
Then: Bloody Bob! he thought bitterly. What a letdown. The end of what had seemed a beautiful friendship – and for what? A few quid! That was all it had taken. No sooner thought than a reluctant smile emerged. Who would have thought
it? All it had taken was the lure of twenty million quid.
The smile became a grin. So Bob, the perfect cop, was human, after all? Mustn’t be too hard on the guy, though. Hell, plenty of folk would sell their own mothers for twenty million quid!
Bob wouldn’t be expecting that much, of course. Not the whole twenty million. He was probably working with an insurance company, on some sort of commission basis. He would be looking for a percentage of however much he managed to recover for them.
Now just hang on a minute! Bob? Bob wasn’t going to find anything for them. He was wanting someone else to do that for him, while he sits safely and comfortably at home.
That thought made him want to spit. So he did. It gave him the chance to get rid of some of the grit in his mouth, as well as the bile.
The rattle of pebbles sliding down the hillside brought his head swinging round, his pulse racing. He could see nothing. But the sound had come from behind him, along the path he had followed. He waited, tense, listening.
Another minute flew by. He heard nothing more. Nothing happened. Something was out there, but what?
A head appeared, shimmering in the heat waves lifting from the scree. He stared hard until the wavy lines stilled. Then he relaxed.
‘Worried about me?’ he called.
‘A little,’ Magda admitted. ‘You’ve been gone a long time.’
‘Sorry.’
‘You shouldn’t have gone without me.’
‘I needed to think.’
He waited and watched her draw close, moving easily at a steady pace. She seemed pretty fit, more so than he had realized. Just natural, he supposed. Natural fitness. Some people had it. Not like him. He had always had to work at it.
‘So did you do that?’ she asked as she reached him. ‘Think?’
‘Some. I’m getting my head straightened out a bit.’
‘About your friend Bob?’
He nodded.
‘Maybe he is your friend still – or could be again?’
He shook his head and sighed. Then he stared at her, wondering if she was thinking the same way he was.
‘It is a lot of money,’ she pointed out. ‘Too much for one person.’
He chuckled. ‘Too much for Bob, anyway, even if he only gets half of it.’
‘Does he want all of it?’
Jake shook his head. ‘I doubt it. He wouldn’t know what to do with that much money. I think he must be working for an insurance company. He’ll be looking to get a percentage of whatever he recovers.’
‘So anything he gets would be legal?’
‘That’s right. Not stolen money. Reward. Clean money.’
Magda nodded, and said nothing more for a while. She lowered herself onto a rock beside him. They sat together in silence, gazing unseeingly at the landscape spread out below them, working through the implications. It didn’t take long for them to get there.
‘With even some of the money...’ Magda began.
‘Yeah. You’re right. We could do things. Rebuild my cottage, for a start.’
‘In England? It is my dream to go to England,’ she said with a smile.
He wondered if it was a mistake to have spoken aloud, and included her in his thinking. Well, why not? They had been together for a while, and she was here still. Right now, when he needed someone, she was here. They were partners.
Partners? He realized that was the idea he had been unconsciously exploring. He needed to be pragmatic, realistic. Suddenly, the way ahead seemed clear and straightforward now.
‘I’ll offer Bob a deal, a partnership,’ he said briskly.
‘I think that would be wise,’ Magda said, as if she had been thinking the exact same thing.
Chapter 20
He called Bob again.
‘Yes, Jake?’ Bob said warily.
‘I take it you’re working with an insurance company?’
‘What’s wrong with that?’
‘Nothing. It’s not what I understood, that’s all. You didn’t tell me. So things are different now. You’re no longer a serving police officer, for one. That’s important – to me, at least.’
Magda was keeping out of the way, letting him get on with it, but even though he couldn’t see her, he knew she was hanging on his every word. She wanted him to get this right, bless her!
‘That’s how it is, Jake. What do you want me to say?’
Sorry, Jake thought between gritted teeth. That would do for a start. Well, at least he knew where he stood. Theirs could only be a business relationship from now on.
‘I want in, Bob. A partnership. Fifty-fifty – and no more bullshit about how your only interest is in trying to help former colleagues and save innocent lives.’
Bob chuckled. ‘The two of us working together, eh? That’s what you want?’
‘That’s my price for doing the dirty work and taking the risks, out in the field, Bob. You can stay right where you are. Use your contacts, gather the information, keep things in order. I don’t want you actually with me.’
‘I have no problem with that, bonnie lad. I’m a bit long in the tooth anyway for fieldwork.’
Bob more like his old self now, remembering who he was. Who he used to be, at least. The authority and quiet confidence back in his voice. Just remember not to trust him again, Jake thought. His true colours had been revealed.
‘In fact, Jake, I hoped it would come to this. You and me, working together again.’
Oh, aye? Really?
‘So what’s the arrangement with the insurance company?’
‘I – we, that is, now – get twenty per cent of whatever we recover. That’s what I negotiated. Now don’t you go thinking that’s four million quid in our pocket! It could be, theoretically, but we may not get anything at all, and we certainly won’t get the full whack. We haven’t a cat in hell’s chance of finding the whole twenty million, not after all this time.’
‘Fair enough. I hear what you say.’
‘So you’re in?’
‘Yeah.’
‘What’s your current location?’
‘I’m not far from where I was when I saw you last. When I arrived home from that meeting, they were waiting for me. I had to get out fast.’
‘Fogarty’s people?’
‘Who else? I didn’t actually make their acquaintance, but I’m sure it was them all right.’
‘But you gave them the slip?’
‘Somehow.’
‘Good for you.’ Bob paused, thinking it through. ‘Take your time, bonnie lad. And keep out of trouble – as much as you can. Make a start, and let me know how you get on.’
‘I’ll do that.’
‘One more thing, Jake. Be careful. Don’t trip over Fogarty by accident. He’s dangerous. He’ll bite.’
‘Point taken.’
Jake switched off and shook his head.
‘It was OK?’ Magda asked.
‘I think so. Our troubles may be only just starting, but I’ve got an agreement with Bob that ought to stick.’
‘Good.’
She didn’t seem to want to know more. Just as well, Jake thought. He had little more to tell her.
Sitting on the terrace outside the cottage that afternoon, they saw their elderly neighbour returning from her outing. Her shopping basket had things in it now. She switched it from one hand to the other, coping with the weight. Walking uphill now, she needed to pause to rest from time to time.
Jake went out and offered to help with her shopping, but she shook her head and mumbled a word of thanks. He raised his eyebrows in polite enquiry to see if she was sure. She smiled and started walking again.
‘She’s too old to be living up here,’ Jake remarked when he rejoined Magda. ‘And her husband looked even older.’
‘It’s what they do, old people,’ Magda said with a sigh. ‘Be independent and keep going as long as they can. I used to see it in my village. Here, there may be no alternative anyway. No possibility of help. So they live as best they can, and the
n they die.’
He nodded. ‘You’re probably right.’
‘It is best not to get old.’
He chuckled. ‘If Fogarty catches up with us, getting old won’t be an option we’ll have!’
Chapter 21
Jake woke with a start and glanced at his watch. Two a.m. Something must have disturbed him. Instantly wide awake, he lay still, listening, concentrating. Beside him, Magda was sleeping soundly, breathing steadily, her face turned towards him. But he knew something had woken him.
He slipped off the bed and across to the front window. The night was dark. No cloud, but no moon, either. Starlight only out there. He could see next to nothing. He turned to collect the Glock pistol. Then he eased the door open quietly and stepped outside.
Listening still. Hearing nothing, at first. Then he heard the unmistakable crunch of boots on gravel, and the rattle of stones inadvertently dislodged and knocked aside.
Someone was coming up the track. More than one person, he realized, as he heard a stumble followed by a whispered exchange. Time to go, he thought, heart beating fast.
‘What is it?’ Magda whispered as he stepped back inside.
‘People are coming,’ he said, reaching for his boots. ‘I’ll try to stall them. Grab our stuff, and get out the back way. But keep away from the car.’
There was no time for more. He heard Magda scrambling in the dark, and left her to it. They had agreed to be prepared to leave at a moment’s notice, and there was nothing to pack anyway. They just had to get out.
He went back outside, stepped down from the terrace and made his way to the entrance to the short drive.
‘What do you want?’ he called, in English, before moving quickly to a new position under the trees.
A powerful torch swept over the place where he’d been standing. He closed his eyes for a moment to avoid losing his night vision.
‘That you, Ord?’
There was even less doubt about who they were now. He didn’t bother wondering how they had found him so fast. They were here. That was all that mattered.
Three or four of them, he guessed, as he heard feet leave the track and bodies crash through the undergrowth. There was more calling and questioning, but he didn’t wait and he didn’t answer. He slipped away through the olive grove and moved fast to the nearest corner of the cottage.