by Simon Leigh
Turning back to Preston, the man smiled. ‘Shall we continue?’
CHAPTER SEVENTY FOUR
With Lucy’s help, Bill carried a barely conscious Valerie downstairs with great care, laying her on the sofa. More bruises were forming on her face and body.
Lucy sat beside her, dabbing each injury with a damp warm cloth like a mother would for an injured child. They’d helped change her clothes with a mixture of garments found from the upstairs rooms: slacks and a sweater a couple of sizes too big. Chloe was sleeping quietly curled up on a chair while Bill stared into space waiting.
They sat in silence with the only noise coming from Lucy rinsing the cloth in the bowl of water.
Valerie broke the silence, ‘All I can think about is what my mother went through with my father.’
‘Just rest for a while,’ Lucy said.
She couldn’t rest and didn’t really want to. Every time she closed her eyes Cyrus was there, on top of her, forcing his way into her. ‘You never truly understand it until it happens to you.’
‘We should call the police,’ said Lucy.
Bill shook his head.
Valerie said, ‘I want Preston dead.’
‘Me too,’ Bill agreed.
Carefully standing up, she swayed over to him. ‘This is all your fault. Everything.’
‘I know.’
‘You’re a piece of shit,’ she snapped, falling back.
Lucy helped her back onto the sofa.
She looked down at her new clothes. ‘Whose are these?’
‘We had to change you,’ said Lucy. ‘They were upstairs.’
Valerie started crying.
‘I can get you out of the city,’ Bill said.
‘You’ve done enough.’
Taking Cyrus’s Python revolver from his pocket, he held it in his hands for a few seconds before handing it to her. ‘I deserve to die for what I’ve done.’
She took it. ‘You don’t get out that easy. You’re going to help me get to Preston and finish him. Then I want you out of my life forever.’
‘We don’t know where he is.’
‘Southbrook docks. Cyrus told me.’
‘We need weapons.’
‘There’s a container, Rodriguez’s man told me.’
‘Who the hell is Rodriguez?’
‘Never mind who. Just get a car.’
Bill glanced through the window. ‘Someone’s coming.’
‘Who is it?’ Lucy asked.
‘I don’t know, but he’s armed. Hide.’
Lucy carried Chloe into the next room. Valerie passed Bill the revolver and followed.
Bill took a position behind the door and waited.
After a knock, the stranger walked in. ‘Cyrus?’ he shouted. ‘Hey, Preston needs you.’
Silence.
Bill slammed the door and stood behind him. ‘Drop the gun.’
The guy dropped it and turned to face him.
‘Who are you?’ Bill asked.
‘Preston sent me. My name is Travis.’
‘I’ve never seen you before.’
‘True, but I know who you are. Where’s Cyrus?’
Bill pulled the trigger. There was no reason to keep him alive as they all knew the location of the deal. He was dead before he hit the ground.
Lucy screamed and Chloe started crying again. They emerged from the room.
‘We need to get to that meet,’ said Valerie.
Bill said, ‘I’ll get a car.’
She waited until he was out of sight before saying to Lucy, ‘Get out of here when we’re gone. Preston will no doubt be wondering where Cyrus is. Then call the cops and explain everything OK? Good luck.’
‘Valerie, thank you.’
CHAPTER SEVENTY FIVE
Baker paced back and forth in the corridor outside the conference room considering his options when his cell vibrated. Caller unknown. ‘Hello?’
‘Detective Baker? This is Lucy Decker, Freddie Mason’s ex-girlfriend.’
‘This really isn’t the time.’
‘Just listen to me, please,’ she begged, her voice shaking, clearly audible through the phone. ‘There’s a drug deal happening tonight at Southbrook docks. I’m not sure where about, but it’s going down now.’
‘How do you know this?’
She paused.
He listened to her sobbing. Feeling impatient, but also sympathetic towards her, he asked with a sincere tone, ‘Lucy?’
‘We were kidnapped,’ she cried. ‘Taken from my parents’ home before they were shot like rabid dogs. Chloe and I...we’re alright.’
‘Who kidnapped you?’
‘His name is Preston. Bill and Valerie helped me escape. Look, Valerie didn’t do what the news is saying. Can you send someone to pick us up?’
‘Where are Bill and Valerie going?’
She hesitated. ‘They didn’t say.’
‘How sure are you?’
‘Just trust me. That bastard made us play Russian roulette. I almost shot my little girl.’
‘Anything else you can tell me will be a great help.’
Lucy told him of everything that had happened: the kidnapping, Valerie being raped, Cyrus dying, and Lenka leaving with Preston. ‘Please hurry. We’re at the gas station on Central Drive.’
‘All right, someone will be there soon. Sit tight,’ he said and ended the call before calling McGowan.
CHAPTER SEVENTY SIX
They arrived at the container yard from the south end, a good half mile away from the meet. The air from the sea was cold and the mood was sombre and intense. The snow had stopped for now giving them a small, badly needed, break.
They broke the chains to the gate and drove through until they reached the first container.
Valerie spoke first, ‘We’re looking for container SBD six eight one nine four five.’
They stopped the car and walked carefully together on the ice with bolt cutters in hand, checking each container off as they went. Some were blue, some were red, and some were grey, well over three hundred of them in this area alone and without a colour to narrow it down, the job soon became tedious.
‘This could take forever,’ said Bill.
‘It’s here somewhere.’
They walked on passing several more.
‘Are you sure this guy didn’t bullshit you?’
‘You’d know a lot about bullshit, wouldn’t you? I’m telling you its here.’
‘Well it must be somewhere easily accessible.’
‘I was thinking the same.’
More containers passed by with no luck. She lost her footing a few times almost falling, using up most of what energy she had left to steady herself. Each time it happened, Bill reached to help her.
‘Don’t you dare touch me,’ she snapped.
He backed off and watched her struggle to her feet.
Walking flat footed, they slowly pressed on passing rows upon rows of nothing but containers.
And then they found it.
‘There it is,’ she said.
It was sandwiched with one on either side and another one above it, just waiting to be used. Their only hurdle now was a padlock and chain. She used the bolt cutters to snap the chain and Bill pulled the door, which stood frozen solid.
‘Give me a fucking break,’ he said.
With the bolt cutters, Valerie started smashing away little shards of ice as high as she could reach at the point where the doors met. It wasn’t easy on the slippery surface with the cold breeze from the sea at her back, but she managed it. Bill yanked the large metal doors until they freed and he fell back onto the ice.
‘I hope that hurt,’ she said, taking out a flashlight and scanning inside.
Crates, cases, and boxes were piled to the ceiling. Prying open a box, they found some grenades neatly lined in a bed of foam. Another case held flash bangs with variations of pistols and another held shotguns. She took a Mossberg from the crate and passed Bill another. They grabbed a flak vest an
d a knife each and left for the meet.
‘Let’s go,’ she said.
CHAPTER SEVENTY SEVEN
It was just after midnight when Valerie and Bill found the exchange, hiding behind a container four hundred yards away. They counted at least twenty five people from here with Preston in the centre talking to the man with the laptop under heavy guard.
‘How are we going to take all them on?’ Bill asked.
‘I just want Preston. We’ll bide our time.’
In the distance, a helicopter shone its beam along the ground with some red and blues glowing below.
Bill watched them. ‘Looks like it’ll get nasty here pretty soon. You sure we can do this?’
‘I can,’ she said. ‘If you’re too pussy to be here, then go.’
‘I want to help.’
‘Then shut up and help.’
She left him and moved closer to another container.
Bill joined her and they watched Preston order one of his men to open a crate sitting idle beside the yacht. He lifted out a bag of white powder that she assumed was Cocaine before popping open another container and pulling out a weapon. She couldn’t tell what type it was exactly, just some sort of assault rifle. The guy aimed it to the sky and shot off a few rounds.
The sound of footsteps came from the other side of a container to their right.
Shit.
They froze.
Valerie whispered, ‘A sentry guard. We can’t shoot him it’ll make too much noise. I’ll distract him while you take him down.’
Bill nodded and moved forward, making his way around to the other side. Valerie waited ten seconds and knocked on the hard metal.
The first thing she saw was the barrel of the gun peer around the corner followed by the man. ‘What are you doing here?’ he asked, when Bill buried a knife into the guy’s back and he fell head first.
‘Come on,’ she said.
CHAPTER SEVENTY EIGHT
From the north side of the docks, Baker and McGowan approached with officers following. Sirens boomed, lights flickered and a helicopter zoomed overhead with its light gently stroking the area.
‘We need to search this entire dockyard,’ said Baker.
McGowan said with a hint of unsubtle sarcasm, ‘So much for reliable intel.’
‘Now’s not the time.’
Cranes were in sight over the horizon.
Through the radio, the chopper pilot said, ‘Can’t see much from up here.’
‘Search everywhere you can,’ Baker ordered.
At the entrance they came to a halt and Baker and McGowan met the other team leaders at the gates.
‘We need to split up,’ Baker started. ‘When we get in there, team one, you go east and we’ll go west towards the sea.’
A voice came through Baker’s radio, ‘This is the FBI. We’re assisting with this operation. I need you and your men to stand down.’
McGowan said, ‘Who the hell called the FBI? Fuck them. This is our bust.’
‘Do you copy?’
McGowan grabbed the radio and turned it off. ‘Fuck them.’
Baker nodded to the team leaders and they made a move, sirens blazing.
At the first warehouse they came to, the team burst through the door with flashlights beaming. The place was empty of life with storage crates ready to be shipped.
Leaving that one, they moved to the next building, which was for the staff with an office and a canteen. The inside was dirty, obviously used frequently. They split up, searching every room and eventually meeting in an empty locker room and showers.
‘They must be here somewhere,’ Baker said, walking out into the cold. He peered around at the large metal yard knowing this would take too long.
Gunshots echoed from further south.
‘All units. Shots fired due south. I want eyes on A.S.A.P.,’ he ordered, running back to his car.
Ten minutes later they were in position. The chopper had been ordered to hold back and their cars were out of sight, for now. Baker met a sniper three buildings away from the meet overlooking from a westerly direction. McGowan took the lead on the ground.
‘Pass me the binoculars,’ Baker said.
Panning across from the yacht to Preston, he saw Lenka, recognizing her right away.
Preston must have bought her, too.
She was standing to attention beside him with rifle in hand.
He watched the exchange of crates and the cocaine piled up inside.
He grabbed his radio. ‘Heavily armed men on the boat and on the ground. Over thirty of them, possibly others in unknown locations. Go in quickly at my order.’
McGowan said, ‘We’re freezing our asses off down here. Let’s get to it.’
The Fed came back on the radio, ‘Baker, stand down. We’ll have teams in place very soon.’
He ignored it and said, ‘Check in.’
They all came back with: ‘Ready sir’.
CHAPTER SEVENTY NINE
Annoyed and exposed with the winds having nothing to keep them at bay, Preston sat shivering while waiting for the money to be transferred. It was taking too long for his liking.
He turned to Lenka and said, ‘Where the fuck is Cyrus? Call him again.’
She tried the cell. Thirty seconds later she said, ‘No answer.’
‘Try Travis.’
She called with the same result.
He looked at the guy on the laptop. ‘How long?’
‘Not long now.’
The Asian leader said, ‘These things take time.’
Preston’s anxiousness was growing. He wanted it to be over so he could get back to Cyrus and find out what the hell he was playing at.
The unmistakable hovering sound from a chopper whirred from over the buildings, circling above them and blasting them with a smothering icy wind. He looked up at the underside of a blue and white chopper, at the letter S.P.D. A bright beam descended on him along with the message, ‘Southbrook P.D. Stop what you are doing and lay down on the ground.’
The Asian guy yelled, ‘I thought you said you weren’t a cop!’
‘Make the transfer, now!’ Preston ordered.
The guy turned and ran to the weapons crate.
Preston waved up to the chopper and shouted, ‘Take it out!’
A tirade of bullets hailed into the sky, bouncing from the underside until it span away over the containers.
From every direction possible, police opened fire. Muzzle flashes and shots whizzed by as people went down on the ice with blood churning screams. Lights shone from every direction, blinding everybody in its path.
Lenka grabbed Preston’s chair, pushing him as fast as she could to the limo, shots missing them by inches. She scrambled to open the door and lifted him inside. Leaving the chair where it was, she ran to the driver’s seat for a fast escape as more rounds dotted the vehicle.
Valerie and Bill were taking cover to let them all take each other out. She just wanted Preston and didn’t care about anyone else. She was so close to avenging the bodies left in her wake over the last few days that she couldn’t let him get free.
Looking to the ocean, she watched police boats joining the shootout and seizing the yacht. Ten more officers scrambled ashore with shields and smoke.
Bodies fell one by one like dummies and she noticed Preston’s limousine making a break for it. To her right, she saw the silhouette of a sniper in the building take aim and shoot the driver sending the car veering through a barrier before eventually coming to a rest.
‘Preston’s in that limo,’ she said. ‘Come on.’
They fed around behind the container block and towards the car with heavy gunfire pounding out.
Inside the limo, Preston opened the partition between him and the driver to see Lenka dead at the wheel with her blood stained blonde hair flopping against her bullet torn skull. He knew it was over, but he didn’t give up. If he could survive a drop from a second story window, he figured he could survive this and build up an empi
re once again.
But how? His chair was back at the bloodbath. Taking a risk while everyone else was too busy to notice him, he opened the door only to be met by a fist knocking him back inside. Valerie climbed in beside him and Bill yanked Lenka out of the front before climbing in and driving away.
‘Nice being left helpless isn’t it?’ she said to Preston.
McGowan watched the limo speed off and got on the radio to Baker. ‘Bill’s in that limo with Valerie and that guy Preston.’
‘Say again?’
‘Those two are in on it and they’re running. Bring the chopper down, we’re going after them.’
‘McGowan, wait for me.’
He ignored him and moments later, the chopper descended and he climbed aboard.
From the air, he saw more cars joining them: the FBI.
He said over the radio, ‘Feds on route.’
Flooring the accelerator northbound and heading along an empty street, Bill saw the gaining chopper through the rear view mirror. The spotlight overhead came thick and fast, blinding him at every turn. It was hopeless and he knew it. Sooner or later they’d open fire and he’d likely be lying dead with Valerie at the side of the road or sent into the heavens in a fireball.
He headed for a tunnel that fed beneath the freeway.
In the back of the limo, Valerie had Preston pinned to the floor. He was powerless, trying hard to push her away but she kept on coming with blow after blow. His face was bloody and beaten, which wasn’t enough; she wanted more. After the hurt he’d put her through, he was going to get what he deserved. She took out her knife and stabbed him through the chest. It wasn’t a long knife, but it caused a hell of a lot of pain nonetheless and she felt elated with each gut wrenching thrust.
‘Please stop,’ he pleaded, coughing up blood. ‘I’ll give you anything you want.’
‘You son of a bitch,’ she shouted. ‘How could you do what you did? You murdered people and set Cyrus on me like I was a dog’s toy.’
McGowan soared ahead, shining the beam into Bill’s face. Through the loudspeaker he said, ‘William Yates, stop the car now!’