‘Let me help him, Nick.’
‘No, he stays there. Where the hell is Lee? He should have been here by now.’
It was Drayle’s first sign of agitation and therefore weakness and Marvik seized on it. ‘Perhaps he’s run out on you, Nick,’ he sneered. ‘Perhaps he’s going to double cross you with whatever you and he got from Harry Salcombe because I take it that was staged and that Addington made sure Salcombe was shot and that I was injured, before he took whatever Salcombe was carrying on that trip.’
‘Then I’d better shoot you now.’ The gun came up.
‘No. Kill me instead,’ Strathen quickly interjected. ‘You’d be doing me a favour.’ The gun came down a fraction. Drayle smiled. It broadened as the sound of another boat drew closer. This time it was fast and heading for them.
‘At last,’ Drayle breathed.
Marvik hastily continued. ‘Blackerman has been protecting his family all these years by saying nothing of what he knew. The price he paid was prison for a crime he didn’t commit, and Paul went to his grave believing his father to be a killer.’ Marvik felt the anger knot his stomach. ‘After Charlotte’s visit, Blackerman thought he no longer had anyone to protect, that he could speak out, so he asked to see the prison governor, only by the time he’d been granted an interview the word had got to him that if he so much as breathed a syllable about you Helen Shannon would meet the same fate as her sister. Only this time you didn’t personally have to get your hands dirty. You had Lee Addington to do it for you.’
Drayle looked on calmly, his face immobile, his head still.
‘Grainger was suspicious about Esther’s death but said and did nothing because he was due for promotion and a quick result meant he’d get it. When he retired though, and no longer had a position to protect, he went to Ross and began to hint that he knew there had been something funny about the Blackerman case. He dug deeper into Blackerman’s background and made the connection between his visit to Patrick Rydall in the Brighton nursing home and Rebury. He came to the same conclusion as we did, that Rebury was involved. He told Ross what he suspected. Ross told you. Grainger might start making a noise to get the case reopened and you couldn’t have that. Within a week Grainger was killed in a hit and run.’
The boat had slowed on the approach to the pontoon. Marvik couldn’t see it. He had his back to the water but it would be here soon. There was little time left.
‘Ross knew it must be you but he was already right in it up to his scrawny neck. He wasn’t going to jeopardize his pension and he didn’t have the balls to blackmail you. The price for his cooperation was for him to see his days out and take his pension. And perhaps there’s a nice villa in Spain or Italy waiting for him when he sails his boat into the sunset. Only now he won’t because you killed him, in the same manner as you killed Esther, strangulation. Ross could prove nothing against you and he was basically lazy, as well as corrupt. When I came sniffing around, he again ran to you. You killed him at a time when you knew I was meeting him and you thought you could frame me for his death.
‘You could have just killed Blackerman but that was too simple for you. You wanted a hold over people, so you could use them if possible again. Esther was expendable, just someone to kill for the greater good, your reputation and greed. All Blackerman could do was to keep protesting his innocence. But no one was listening. Charlotte knew nothing but you couldn’t take that risk. In prison Blackerman could have told Charlotte the truth and you weren’t sure if she had told me. Where is she, Nick?’
‘I’ve no idea.’
But Marvik couldn’t believe him. He couldn’t see the boat but he heard it draw up and halt at the pontoon.
‘Move,’ Drayle ordered. Strathen was still on the ground but he rose to a kneeling position on his good leg. Marvik went to assist him. Their eyes connected for a split second. Drayle barked, ‘Leave him. Get moving.’
Marvik did but not towards the boat. He jumped to the side as Strathen lunged forward, arms outstretched, grabbing Drayle tightly by the legs with both his hands, his prosthetic leg stretched out to the side and slightly behind him, his other knee bent and, using his powerful shoulders, in one swift movement he swept Drayle off the ground and pressed his powerful upper body into Drayle’s chest, pinning him to the pontoon. Marvik rammed his foot on Drayle’s hand. He gave a cry of pain and Marvik bent down and retrieved the weapon just as four uniformed police officers leapt off Marvik’s boat and ran towards them.
Strathen said, ‘I always knew those martial arts techniques and all that upper body building would come in handy in civilian life one day.’
Marvik reached out a hand. Strathen took it and pulled himself up as an officer put the cuffs on Drayle.
Eyeing Drayle with contempt, Strathen said, ‘Never underestimate a cripple. Not everyone with a false leg walks with a lopsided gait.’
Strathen had just exaggerated it, as Marvik had noticed. And Drayle would never have expected someone with a disability to get the better of him. Marvik looked up to see Crowder alighting from the boat. He could hear other boats approaching fast and see the lights on them. ‘Did you get Addington?’
‘Yes. And we also interrupted Sir Edgar Rebury’s dancing, although he didn’t appear to be enjoying himself very much.’
‘Will you have enough to charge and convict them?’
‘Yes.’
Drayle said, ‘Don’t be so sure.’
‘Oh, but I am. Addington seemed very keen to tell us when we picked him up boarding Marvik’s boat. And Sir Edgar Rebury seemed almost relieved to get out of your clutches. There’ll be others too, including Terence Blackerman, who can now speak out.’ Crowder nodded at the uniformed officers to take him away, as a police launch drew up and behind it a RIB. Drayle still looked confident but Marvik didn’t think he would wriggle out of this one, not even with the best lawyers.
‘Is Helen safe?’ he asked.
‘Yes. We intercepted her and Colin Chester as they left Amelia Snow’s. She didn’t seem very happy about it but she did pick up a box of CDs from Mrs Snow and one of them is not a jazz CD as it purports to be.’
Strathen excitedly interjected. ‘It’s Grainger’s back-up.’
‘Yes.’
Marvik said, ‘And Charlotte? Will he tell us where she is?’ He looked over to Drayle climbing on to the police launch. Four uniformed officers jumped off the RIB.
‘He doesn’t need to. She’s safe and well.’
Marvik was momentarily stunned before it dawned on him what had happened. ‘You abducted her?’
‘Abduction is too strong a word. I persuaded her, with her commanding officer’s full approval and knowledge, to come with us. She boarded our boat at Town Quay after you had dropped her there. I told her we needed her help in relation to Terence Blackerman. She was concerned about you, Marvik, and what she’d told you, but I said that you were working for us to help get to the truth about Esther Shannon’s murder. She’s in a safe house in Bembridge on the Isle of Wight and will be able to return to her unit shortly.’ He broke off to give instructions to the police officers to seal off the premises. Turning back to Marvik and Strathen he said, ‘We’ll have a team in here tomorrow taking the place to pieces.’
They made towards Marvik’s boat. Crowder continued. ‘Addington told us where Drayle was taking you but we already knew you were here because of the tracking device. Where is the one that was at the helm?’
‘Inside my shoe.’
Crowder nodded and gave a brief smile.
Strathen said, ‘How long have you suspected Drayle?’
‘Of fraud for three months. The National Intelligence Fraud Bureau alerted us.’
‘Who is “us”?’ enquired Marvik, climbing on board. They descended into the cabin. Marvik nodded Crowder into a seat and he took up position opposite with Strathen beside him.
Crowder continued. ‘The National Intelligence Marine Squad. It’s a new unit. It’s my job to use whatever resources I see fit to h
elp tackle marine-related crime across the UK and the Channel Islands, both recent and cold cases.’
‘But this isn’t …’
‘Marine related? Isn’t it?’
‘You knew about the munitions being dumped.’
‘Or rather not being dumped. No. The connection came through an investigation into DRTI.’
Strathen interjected, ‘Because DRTI is responsible for maritime safety and security.’
‘Yes. Six months ago the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau first began to uncover irregularities in the funding process at DRTI and it pointed to Rebury going back years. Funding from the UK Government, the European Commission and other private sources had been going to DRTI but not all of it was ending up where it should have done. It was a complex paper trail but Drayle’s maritime security business, established in 1976, seemed to grow very quickly and even quicker after 2000 when DRTI came into being and its chairman was Rebury.
‘The National Intelligence Fraud Bureau found that although other companies tendered for marine security contracts, Drayle won them. They suspected that Rebury was making sure that Drayle got the contracts from UK and overseas governments and private companies in exchange for a commission and between them they’d created a complex system of false accounting. The NIFB alerted us at the National Intelligence Marine Squad or NIMS for short. We began digging into Rebury’s past and current activities, which included looking at Drayle and others Rebury seemed to be closely connected with – Chiron, Danavere and the service charity ALPS. At that stage the investigation had no connection with Terence Blackerman or the Esther Shannon murder.’ Crowder addressed Strathen. ‘We knew you were a former special forces communicator with an exemplary record and that you’d decided to go it alone after your injury. You were working for Chiron. We weren’t sure if the Shelleys were involved, they’re probably not, but we’ll look a little closer at them.’
Marvik said, ‘And when you began to look more in depth at Danavere you found that Esther Shannon had worked for them and Blackerman had been convicted of her murder.’
‘Yes, and that subsequently Bryan Grainger had been killed in a hit and run in Brighton. We learned that Blackerman had always strenuously denied killing Esther but wouldn’t say who he believed had killed her. Perhaps he didn’t know. Perhaps he was just spinning a line. Then Blackerman’s son was injured and sadly died. Prison intelligence alerted us that Charlotte Churley had made an application to find Blackerman. When she requested to see him, and he accepted, it was the chance we had been waiting for. If Blackerman was innocent and had been threatened then Charlotte visiting him could force our killer out into the open.’
‘You sent that text message to Charlotte telling her where I lived, hoping that she’d come and see me.’
‘Yes. We knew that you and she had been close and that you were living on the Isle of Wight, and that you also worked for Drayle. We also knew about the Salcombe incident.’
‘Which was staged.’
‘Yes. Although we didn’t know that then and we don’t know what Harry Salcombe was carrying but we’re hoping Addington will tell us. You were the perfect choice to help us.’
‘It would have been nice to have been briefed.’
‘But that would have influenced your actions and we didn’t know how far the deception went or who had killed Esther Shannon.’
‘It might have saved Duncan Ross’s life.’
Crowder nodded. A small silence fell between them. Marvik broke it. ‘And there was no email sent from me to Charlotte?’
‘No. I just thought that might increase the pressure to find the truth.’
‘It bloody worked,’ muttered Marvik. ‘Was it your officers following Charlotte and who broke into my house or was that Addington?’
‘We had no need to follow her; we knew where she was. We were tracking her on her mobile phone, remember.’
So it had been Addington who had broken in. And after having done so and planting a tracking device on Marvik’s car, he had arrived here on Drayle’s boat while Marvik had also been here to discuss his future with Drayle.
‘How did Drayle know about Charlotte visiting the prison?’
‘He’d been keeping tabs on Paul Williamson’s movements over the years. It was in his interest to do so, otherwise the threat wouldn’t hold. When Paul died, Drayle knew Blackerman was free to speak out, and that was the last thing he wanted. Perhaps he planned for Blackerman to have an accident in prison, or to be found dead, having taken his own life after hearing the news of his son’s death. Drayle has his own form of prison intelligence, and word got to him that Charlotte was to visit.’
‘And Addington was sent over to follow her,’ Marvik continued. ‘He must have come by boat, moored up at Newport, and followed her from the prison to my cottage. He kept watch on us all night, then after we’d left he broke in, saw that I’d been looking into the Esther Shannon murder and relayed this information to Drayle.’
Crowder nodded.
Marvik said, ‘The CCTV images from Town Quay that you showed me were doctored.’
‘Yes.’
‘Who was watching Helen’s house?’
‘We were but we didn’t break in either the first time or the second, when you returned alone. That was Addington. But he didn’t know we were there.’
Strathen said, ‘So Drayle bugged my apartment, probably sending Addington in there to plant it, and then Addington was sent to run Art and Helen off the road.’
‘Yes.’
Strathen continued, ‘And Ashley Palmer confided what he’d discovered at Hurd Deep – or rather what he hadn’t discovered – to Rebury, who promptly told Drayle. Drayle approached Palmer who was unaware that Drayle was the man on that dive in 1997 and involved in what happened there in 1974. Drayle told Ashley to keep quiet about it until they could present it to the right authorities.’
‘Is Witley clean?’ asked Marvik.
Crowder answered. ‘As far as medical applications go he probably is. I don’t think he was selling that type of information to Danavere’s competitors.’
Strathen again interjected. ‘But Ashley liaised closely with Witley on the progress of his work and when Witley discovered that Ashley’s research could also have applications in surveillance, he went to Drayle with the information.’
‘Yes. It’s likely that Witley’s in league with Drayle, creaming off software applications connected with defence and security and has been selling them on to terrorists on behalf of Drayle and taking a percentage. When Ashley went missing and his medical research applications showed up in Germany, along with the fact that Vera Pedlowe told Witley you were sniffing around asking about Esther Shannon’s murder, Witley got scared. Perhaps he didn’t know the full extent of Drayle’s involvement in Esther’s murder, but Witley was connected with Drayle. The French police have picked him up. He claims to have had a breakdown, stress, too much work. But he’ll talk.’
Marvik shook his head sadly, his mind churning over all that had happened.
Strathen said, ‘Ashley was told by Drayle to write down that Isle of Wight coastguard cottage address and press hard on the Post-it note so as to draw suspicion away from where he was really heading. Drayle told him that others were suspected of leaking information, me probably, and that it was a trap to catch me.’
Crowder answered. ‘It was probably Addington who picked him up by boat at Cowes and took him out into the Solent. Perhaps he or Drayle will tell us where his body is.’
‘Poor sod,’ Marvik said. And to think he had worked and had been about to resume working for a bastard like Drayle. He felt sorry for his staff and his family. But perhaps his staff wouldn’t be that shocked to learn the truth or sorry to hear of his fate. He’d never met Drayle’s wife. Had she ever seen signs of her husband’s Machiavellian personality? Maybe it had exhibited itself at some stage. But he’d never seen it. Maybe the signs had been there but he’d chosen to ignore them. Drayle had seen his weakness, his uncertaint
y and unease at leaving the Marines. He’d smelled his fear and he’d used him for his own corrupt ends. Crowder on the other hand had sensed something else about him and used that to catch the bastard. That felt good.
Crowder said, ‘I mentioned that I can use whatever resources I need on the National Intelligence Marine Squad. I need people who are unafraid of asking questions, who know about surveillance and covert work, who know the marine environment and who can take risks. I’m not promising that the assignments won’t be dangerous because they will and I won’t be able to acknowledge your role publicly. But I’d like you both on board.’ He rose. ‘Call me. You have my number.’
Crowder stretched out his hand. Marvik took the firm grip in his. Strathen did the same. They watched him leave. Neither of them spoke as the engine on the RIB fired up and they heard it speed out into the Solent.
Finally Strathen said, ‘Crowder’s given me another chance. I’m going to take it. Are you?’
Was he? Did he want the kind of job Crowder had offered? He could handle it. He knew that now. Crowder had given him back his confidence and he was grateful for that. But accepting it meant resuming the nomadic life he’d lived for so long.
He studied the man across the table, eyeing him keenly. They both deserved another chance and they’d given Helen one. Maybe now she’d be able to stop running and face up to the truth of her sister’s death. And Blackerman’s torment was also over; he’d be free to resume his life, albeit one that had been broken and destroyed by Drayle. And Marvik recalled the exhilaration he’d felt and the adrenalin surge during the investigation, the feeling that he was once again alive and accomplishing something of value.
There was only one answer. ‘Looks as though we’ve got a call to make.’
Silent Running Page 27