A Tiding of Magpies

by Steve Burrows

  “Let’s leave it here, Sergeant,” said Jejeune sadly. “All of it. This is where it belongs.”

  Maik took one last look around, at the house, the rubbish-strewn courtyard, at the ragged grassy bank leading down to the beach. And out to the Broomway, invisible now, as perhaps it had been then. “In that case, sir, I’m ready when you are.”

  Jejeune nodded sadly. “Yes, Sergeant. We can go now.” And something in Jejeune’s voice told Maik his DCI wouldn’t be coming back.

  They were still twenty minutes outside Saltmarsh when Maik’s phone pinged. He stiffened as he read the message, then stared at the screen for a long moment, as if hoping the text might change, or simply vanish.

  “The station has just received a call from the garage. Miss Hey’s car was stolen earlier today. CCTV footage shows a man in a hoodie hanging around just before it went missing.”

  “Call her now, Sergeant. Tell her to stay away from that car if it shows up, and to make sure everyone else stays away from it, too. Let’s get a unit out to Wawel as soon as possible to secure the area.”

  “I’ll call it in,” said Maik as he dialled Lindy’s number, “but we’re probably as close as anyone else. I doubt the others will be there before us.” He switched the phone off with irritation. “It’s going to voice mail.”

  “There’s no landline or internet out there either. They lost both of those in the water damage after the fire.” Jejeune edged the Range Rover’s engine up until the needles were nudging the red lines on the dials and the countryside began to flash by them in a blur. “It could still be something else.”

  The men had just dismissed coincidence in one case, and discounted it in every other one Maik could think of. That Jejeune was willing to cling to it now as a possibility was a measure of his desperation. The cold, emotionless voice of Curtis Angeren came to Maik. I’d have thought any plans Ray Hayes might have, imminent or otherwise, would have been of interest to him.

  “It’s Hayes,” said Maik. “We need to get there now.”

  51

  The hedges were a green-brown smear as the Range Rover sped past them, overhanging branches snapping at the car’s bodywork like whips as they passed. They were on the coast road, which ran parallel to the berm on which Wawel sat, and Jejeune could see tantalizing flickers of the building through the gaps in the screen of the hedgerows. It was so close, but the turnoff to the approach road was at least a mile further along this lane. Jejeune saw the open gateway at the exact time Maik motioned to it, and he hauled the steering wheel into the right-hand turn at high speed, the Range Rover rocking as its offside wheels fought to hold on to the road surface.

  Now the building was directly ahead of them across this dark brown sea of newly ploughed soil. The men could see cars parked along the berm. Two were near the building, the third a short distance away. It was Lindy’s Nissan Leaf. Jejeune asked The Beast for all it could give and the big machine responded. Its wheels left the ground as the Range Rover bucked and dipped over the uneven surface, plowing on so fast it gave the soft brown earth no time to wrap its cloying grip around the tyres. A steady spray of brown rain spattered the windscreen as the car hurtled across the field, and Jejeune was forced to use the wipers, even though he knew his destination lay straight ahead of him. As the Range Rover jolted back down to earth from a sickening upward lurch, he saw a figure leaving the building. He leaned forward and peered hard through the brown streaks dragged across the screen by the wiper blades. The figure began walking along the berm towards the two parked cars. The front end of The Beast dipped violently, and as it reared up again he saw the figure had passed the cars and was heading for the third one. It was Lindy! The car would be unlocked, the fob above the visor. How many seconds for her to cover the distance to the car, open the door, find the fob, and start the engine? Too few. He smashed the accelerator to the floor, but The Beast had no more to give. He began blasting his horn, even as Maik lowered his window and leaned halfway out, shouting at Lindy to stop, back away, not start the car.

  She was at the car now and turned for a second, shielding her eyes against the dazzling glare of the setting sun to look at the vehicle racing across the fields. Surely she could tell it was him. But the dying sun’s blinding rays were directly behind him, and he realized she would only be able to make out a vague shape hurtling towards her. Abandoning her stare, she opened the car door and slid inside quickly.

  Jejeune had almost completed the crossing now, only the final few metres of the field remained. He lay the heel of his hand on the horn without letting up, his other hand keeping his death-like grip on the steering wheel as the uneven, rutted surface did all it could to wrench it from his grasp. Lindy’s car sat directly above him on top of the berm and he saw her arm reach up hurriedly. The fob. She was going to start the car and accelerate away from this careering, out-of-control maniac barrelling down on her. The car disappeared from view as the Range Rover hit the base of the berm hard. It bounced upward into its climb, slewing sideways as it rose. When it crested the rise, Lindy’s car was less than three metres away. She was panicking now, scrabbling for the fob and reaching forward to press the starter. She was still hunched forward when the car left the ground.

  52

  The Leaf was sent airborne by the explosive impact as the Range Rover caught it flush on the passenger door. Jejeune saw Lindy’s head shake violently and the airbags blast open as the car crumpled and flew sideways off the berm, disappearing down the far side in a half tumble. The Beast skidded to a halt and Jejeune was out before it stopped rocking. The Leaf was lying in the water, the passenger side wheels barely above the surface, the entire driver’s side submerged.

  Jejeune plunged down the slope and sprinted into the marsh, splashing wildly and falling forward as the deep water dragged his momentum away. He fought his way towards the car and scrabbled up the passenger side, hauling himself onto the small section of the front fender not yet underwater. He bent forward and peered through the passenger window, into the swirl of foamy grey water that was filling the car. He could see the white of the air bag and a dark shape slumped against it. He tried to open the passenger door but the frame was twisted and it would not move. The passenger window was open a crack at the top and he squeezed his fingertips in to try to yank the window down, but he could get no purchase. The water inside the car was swirling around, and it was clear the level was rising. He had to get Lindy out.

  He looked around, barely able to make out the shadowy figure on the bank. “Sergeant, a rock, a stick, anything to break the window.”

  “I’ll come across, sir,” shouted Maik. “We’ll shift it together.”

  “No time. The car’s filling with water. Lindy’s unconscious. I need to get to her now!”

  The first rock hit the fender at Jejeune’s feet before he knew what was happening. It stuck for a second, but slithered off into the water just as he reached down to grab for it. “Another one, Sergeant, quickly.”

  Jejeune caught the second one but had to pitch so far forward he lost his balance and slid into the water. He clutched the rock to his chest desperately, hauling himself back up onto the car, using only his free hand until he could scrabble his feet into the wheel wells for purchase. Kneeling on the rear door, he raised the rock above his head and smashed it down onto the front passenger window. It bounced so violently he almost lost his grip on it. He tried again, but it only glanced off the tempered glass.

  “Closer to the side, sir, where there’s less give.”

  Jejeune obeyed his sergeant’s advice and, aiming for the inner edge, brought the rock down with all the force he had left. A milky spider’s web flashed outward from the point of impact. Jejeune punched the rock through and leaned into the opening, scattering the glass fragments inside the car. Lindy was resting limply against the driver’s door, her head cushioned by the air bag. Jejeune reached in and tried to raise her head into the tiny pocket of air above her head, but she was pinned by something. He gulped a mouthfu
l of air and submerged his head, reaching past her to the seat belt. She hadn’t fastened it, but he found the wrap of the air bag was tightly tangled around her chest. He withdrew to take more air and then plunged back under the water that was now almost entirely filling the car. He tugged furiously until the material peeled away and he was able to move Lindy. He reached his arms under her shoulders and tried to lift her out, feeling himself slipping towards her as his centre of gravity slid forward into the broken window. He hitched backwards, still holding Lindy, but she slipped from his grasp and slumped back under the water. He knew if he tried to reposition, it would be too late. He had to save her now. As he squeezed back in through the window opening, the space seemed smaller, almost too small, and he became aware of something beside him, reaching in over his shoulder, grasping Lindy’s collar. Even in the grey murk of the swirling water, the muscle in Danny Maik’s arm looked like a bundle of steel cable. Every sinew was taut and twisted as he held on and hauled Lindy back up towards the broken window. Jejeune hitched his arms around her chest and eased her out. She began to stir as soon as her face cleared the water, gasping and gagging for air. There was no room for three on the small, shiny island of the passenger side fender that remained above the water’s surface, so Danny slid off into the water and splashed back to the bank. Lindy leaned into Jejeune as they sat together, breathing, heaving, hauling air into their lungs. She opened her eyes and saw him looking into her face, smoothing the wet hair from her brow. She began to shiver.

  “Take my hand,” he said. “It’s over now.”

  She reached to take the outstretched hand.

  53

  Jejeune stood uneasily before the seated DCS Shepherd. The midday sunlight flooded into the room through the big picture window behind the desk. Danny Maik, who’d also chosen to stand, was off to one side, in the only spot in the room the sunlight had failed to find.

  Shepherd looked at the hand Jejeune was nursing, knowing that beneath the gauze and white bandages, the fingernails were torn and broken, the knuckles still bruised and bloody from his efforts to pry the car window open to free his girlfriend. The DCS saw a small discolouration at the edge of the bandages; leakage from the stitches, perhaps, or just the unguent used to treat the wound, after the shards of glass had been removed.

  “How is she?”

  “Recovering. The hospital says one more night of observation and then she can come home.” Jejeune looked at his DCS to confirm that was not all she was asking. He took Shepherd’s stare, along with his own, over towards Maik.

  “I found an old friend who had some reading he wanted to catch up on.”

  Shepherd nodded. “From a chair in a hospital corridor. Yes, I heard. You understand I can’t have civilians involved in Lindy’s protection.”

  “Just until she’s released,” said Jejeune, looking at Maik as if to confirm the terms of the arrangement. “I didn’t want her wondering why there was a uniformed officer stationed outside her room.”

  Shepherd’s look suggested the conversation had finally come around to the topic she wanted to discuss. But she veered into the safer waters of the case instead. The DCS was still coming to terms with the knowledge that Jejeune had uncovered Curtis Angeren’s human smuggling plot. It didn’t help to know they wouldn’t be doing anything about it. At the personal behest of the Home Secretary, no less.

  “I still find it hard to believe Curtis Angeren, of all people, is involved in an operation to actually bring immigrants in to this country.”

  “I think you’ll find Angeren’s is a particularly convenient form of prejudice, ma’am,” said Danny Maik with what sounded very much like the voice of experience.

  She looked at Jejeune. “You have no proof, I suppose?”

  He shook his head. “No, but it answered a lot of questions for Simon Giles. They’ve been putting the squeeze on Angeren financially for some time now, but he always seems to have a ready source of funds. These criminals he’s been bringing in would have been willing to pay a high price for the chance to get away from the Polish authorities.”

  Shepherd considered the information carefully. “Kowalski must have seen something when he was up at Tidewater Marsh and demanded money for his silence.”

  “Giles confirmed the date Angeren told his people he wanted Kowalski taken care of. It was the day after the new moon. I think Kowalski went to see him that day and told him he had photographic evidence, taken using a digiscope attached to his telescope. It was a bluff. Even with a digiscope fitted, no telescope could have handled the low light of the early dawn after a moonless night. But Angeren couldn’t take that risk.”

  “Once he’d issued his orders, Paulina Kowalski knew it was only a matter of time before somebody in Angeren’s network found her son,” said Maik. “She sent him into hiding and killed the other person to give Angeren his corpse named Jakub Kowalski.”

  Shepherd nodded slowly in confirmation. “And Angeren was desperate to find out who had really killed him because he thought they might now have Kowalski’s incriminating photos. But just in case, he thought he’d try to find them himself, at Paulina Kowalski’s house, and later in the locker at Wawel.”

  “He was looking for anything Kowalski might have had that could have stored electronic data, like digital images,” said Maik.

  “He’d have been especially keen to get his hands on this digiscope thing, I imagine,” said the DCS.

  “It doesn’t actually hold photos,” Jejeune told her. “They are still stored on the phone or camera that was attached to it. But Angeren didn’t know that either.” He shook his head. “I should have realized this was about photographs as soon as Paulina Kowalski mentioned the digiscope. It was the one non-electronic item on the list the men asked her about. I missed it,” he said simply.

  Shepherd breathed in deeply and both men knew the time had come to talk about the real reason they were all in this office together.

  “I’ve given you some leeway to get your breath back, Domenic, but keeping Lindy in the dark about Ray Hayes is utterly untenable in the long term. Apart from anything else, as a serving police officer, I have a duty of care towards her as a member of the public. She’s entitled to be informed of the threat against her, and to be offered police protection, regardless of her relationship to you.” She paused and looked at the sergeant, still standing in the shadows. “Sergeant Maik suggested you might have some sort of plan,” she said. “He seems a little light on the details, however.” She gave Maik the sort of dubious look he’d come to expect as par for the course whenever he was in this office. Shepherd swivelled in her chair and raised an eyebrow in the DCI’s direction. It was an attempt to encourage Jejeune to elaborate. And, for once, it worked.

  There was a long silence after Jejeune finished speaking. Finally, Shepherd drew in a deep breath and exhaled slowly, as she sometimes did when she needed to deliver bad news. “They’d never stand for it, Domenic.”

  Even Maik seemed to agree, if not in his silence, then in the curiously uneasy at-ease stance he’d adopted, with his legs slightly splayed and his hands folded awkwardly in front of him, resting just above his belt.

  “Even if I were to support this idea, which I’m not at all sure I do, I can hardly see it getting official approval. For a start, it seems to compromise what looks like an extremely promising case against Curtis Angeren. I doubt Simon Giles and his mob are going to be eager to enter into an arrangement like this, knowing they’ll have to make major concessions to the man.”

  “They’ll accept it,” said Jejeune determinedly. “They’ll have to. It’s the only viable solution.”

  “But it’s not, is it, Domenic? Viable, I mean. It puts Lindy at tremendous risk. It’s tantamount to using her as bait.”

  “No,” he said quickly. “As a person, Lindy is nothing to Hayes. His only interest in Lindy is as a means to harm me. If I can make it so he can no longer get to me through her, she won’t be in danger anymore.”

  “We only have yo
ur word for that. Hayes is an extremely intelligent individual. Of all those released under the unsafe prosecution probe, the general consensus is that he’s likely to be the only one with enough brains to stay out of prison, as he has so successfully managed to do to this point. You’ve been noticeably quiet, Sergeant. What’s your view?”

  “I’d have to agree Hayes probably doesn’t care about Lindy’s fate one way or the other, ma’am.”

  Shepherd left her eyes on Maik for a long moment after he’d finished speaking. If he’d sensed she was asking his opinion about the wider plan, he’d done a good job of hiding it.

  “And I suppose you would be making an application for some lieu days while you took this on?” Her tone suggested the situation would provide still more headaches, but Maik surprised her by shaking his head.

  “Probably best if I go about things the normal way, ma’am. At least to outside eyes. Regular hours here, a bit of paperwork at my desk, an inquiry or two if needs be. I can do what needs to be done for this on my own time.”