by Conrad Jones
“Yes, I’ll be two minutes.” Leon ended the call. The pillion rider confirmed that the suppliers were in the cafe waiting for them. “We‘re on, Gar!” he laughed as he opened his door and struggled to lift his huge frame out of the vehicle. “Gareth, move it!” He locked the doors and looked at the boot. The lid was up, blocking his view. “Gareth?” Leon took three steps to the rear of the car and the colour drained from his face.
Chapter Seventy-One
MIT
Alec was sitting at his desk opposite Will and Chief Carlton. The coffee jug on the desk was half-full, or half-empty, depending on how you looked at things. Today it was definitely half-full. He rubbed his tired eyes and tried to digest everything they had uncovered in the last few days. “So you‘re convinced that this guy, Nate Bradley, is Howarth’s accomplice?” He asked, taking a sip of the strong black brew.
“Yes, it makes sense from what we know so far.” Will slurped coffee and nodded his head.
“And CTU gave you this information?” the chief raised his eyebrows.
“No, the Taskforce,” Will corrected him. “Look at Bradley’s profile and what happened to his family. It all adds up.”
“Maybe it does,” Alec mused, “but what evidence do we actually have that connects him to anything?”
“Nothing yet, but if we arrest him and search his property, we may be able to connect him to the missing college kids through his laptop.” Will was racing ahead with his theory. “If we can connect him to the missing lads, we may be able to connect him to the Benjamin murder?”
“Not a chance, Will.” Alec shook his head vehemently. “It’s all circumstantial evidence. I can see how it fits, but we have no hard evidence on him.”
“What about these two killings?” Will picked up an update that the chief had brought with him from the uniformed division. “David Lorimar, shot and set alight outside the hospital, and then Mickey Grieves shot three times in McDonalds?” He put the update in front of Alec. “Come on, Guv. Someone is systematically assassinating drug dealers. He’s moving up the chain.”
“I don’t agree.” Alec was adamant. “We have no information to connect Lorimar to drug dealing. We know he’s associated with Jinx Cotton, but he’s a moneylender, not a drug dealer. Uniform arrested him in a firearms case, but the judge threw it out of court. As for Grieves, I’ve never heard of him, do we know he’s a dealer?”
“The drugs squad say he’s linked loosely to Leon Tanner, but he was a small time dealer at best,” the chief added. “We’ll find him and bring him in. Don’t we need to concentrate on the case against Howarth for now?”
“We do, but until the doctors have assessed his mental state, we can’t go near him. I think he’ll be transferred straight to Ashworth Secure Unit or the Cat-A nit in Manchester tomorrow morning. When we get around to interviewing him, I think it will be at Ashworth.” Alec drank some more coffee and topped up his cup from the jug.
“He’ll be in good company there,” Will scoffed. “Is Brady still in there?”
“Ian Brady, one of the infamous Moor’s Murderers. Now that is a blast from the past. I had just joined the force when they caught them,” the chief reminisced. “He spent most of his life in there. He’s being force-fed through a tube now. It’s less than, what, six miles as the crow flies from here, Alec?”
“I think so,” Alec nodded. “Wherever Howarth ends up, he won’t be getting out until he’s in a box, that’s for sure.”
“Sooner the better for me,” Will added.
“We still have to focus on his accomplice. If Will is correct in his assumption, then Nate Bradley is out there, knocking over drug dealers and their associates until one of them kills him or we stop him,” Alec shrugged. “Either way, we need to make his arrest a priority. I think we should use the press coverage of the Howarth arrest to find Bradley.”
“I agree the tabloids will be all over the arrest of the ‘Child Taker.’ It will be front-page news for a week! If we tell them we’re hunting an accomplice, we may get lucky. In the meantime, his picture has been distributed to every officer in the city,” the chief said proudly. “If he is out there, we’ll find him.”
Alec’s desk phone rang, interrupting their debate. He took a drink of dark liquid before answering it. “Smithy?” Alec said. He listened for a while. The conversation from the other end was a mystery to the others in the room. “What time?” Alec squeezed the bridge of his nose between his finger and thumb and closed his eyes. “Okay, let everyone know, please.” He hung up the receiver and looked at Will. His face was ashen. “Kisha didn’t make it.” Alec stood up from the desk and walked to the window. The sun was fading fast, and the river looked like liquid metal in the dusk. “The doctors said she had massive internal injuries. She never regained consciousness.”
“I am so sorry, Alec.” The chief stood up and held out his hand. “That’s two damned good officers we have lost to that bastard. We can carry this on when you have told your people. I’ll speak to the press. Give me a call when you’re ready.” He patted Will on the shoulder and let himself out of the room without another word.
“I didn’t realise she was hurt that badly. Was she a mess?” Will asked his boss. “I mean did she look like she wouldn’t make it?” He couldn’t believe that she was dead. Will opened his collar and the button below it.
Alec kept his face to the window. “Yes, he made a mess of her. The bastard bit her face off.”
“The team will be rocked, Guv.” Will indicated to the officers they could see through the glass. “She was a good copper.”
“She was.” Alec turned around and his face was like thunder. “She should never have been there alone. Stevie Neil is out of this department as of now, and if I find out he was talking to the press, I want him locked up for reckless endangerment, understand?”
“Yes, Guv,” Will agreed. “Lara Bridge won’t take my calls at the moment, but when I get hold of her, she’ll tell me who the leak is.”
“Make sure she does.” Alec didn’t care how he did it. “Bang her up in the cells if you need to. I want to know how she got hold of that information.”
“I’ll call her again. If I offer her the full story, she may spill the beans on her source.” Will took another swig of coffee. “Now the chief has gone, what happened with Howarth, Guv?” he asked. “Smithy called in saying that the army were pulling everyone out of there, and the next thing we heard, you had Howarth in a van?”
“The bomb squad captain has a twenty-five-year-old daughter.” Alec sat down at the desk. “I told him what Howarth did to Louise Parker and the Oguzhan family. He was wavering when one of his men came over and told us he’d seen a manhole cover leaning against the cellar wall in the second house, but he couldn’t see the drain anywhere. He moved a couple of drums and found the open manhole. I knew Howarth was planning to use it as his escape route. I asked him to let me wait for one hour and we took the gamble. It paid off this time.”
“Phew, big gamble, Guv,” Will gasped. “What if it had gone up?”
“The technician was positive that the timer was a decoy. It just made me even more convinced that the bomb wasn’t built to go off, it was his way out of there. He wanted us to evacuate the area so he could slip away unhindered. He would be miles away by now if we hadn’t taken the chance.”
“I can’t believe he’s in the cells, can you?” Will laughed, but it was a nervous laugh. “Do you think they’ll section him?”
“Probably,” Alec nodded. “It's difficult to believe anything that animal has done,” Alec agreed. “He’s in the cells, and that is all that counts. Anyway, I believe we have a few more problems to deal with in the cells?” Alec pointed his finger at Will.
“Yes, Guv.” Will blushed red. “I took a gamble of my own, but it hasn’t worked quite as well as yours did. Oguzhan and his minder have been in the cells about four hours now. His lawyer is kicking off big time. He cooled off a little bit when I told him that we had Salim’s killer
in custody.”
“What have you said to him?” Alec asked. The creases around his eyes deepened.
“Just that we had made an arrest in connection with the murders, Guv, like you said, it will be all over the news tonight. I told his lawyer we’re briefing the drug squad and they will be dealing with him. I said it could take a while.” Will seemed unperturbed by the matter. “As soon as they heard about the arrest, they started jabbering in Turkish. The old man was frothing at the mouth.”
“Have you briefed anyone from the drug squad?”
“No, Guv.” Will smiled. “I can’t see them making anything stick, can you?”
“No,” Alec agreed. “He owns the property and that’s all we have. He’ll be out in an hour or so.”
“Well, it’s early days yet, I suppose,” Will smiled thinly. “We’ll see if he wants to play ball.”
The desk phone rang again. The two detectives looked at it with concerned expressions on their faces. The way things were panning out, it was probably bad news. Alec paused before answering it. “Smithy?” Alec sighed into the receiver, anticipating the worst. He listened for a minute and asked exactly the same question he had earlier. “What time?” He paused again. “Let everyone know, will you.” He hung up and looked at Will across the desk.
“It must be your lucky day,” Alec smiled. “Rose James walked into a police station in Shrewsbury half an hour ago.”
Chapter Seventy-Two
Leon
Leon stopped dead and put his hands on his head. “What the fuck?” He muttered as he looked at the dead body of Gareth Bates. There was a single bullet hole in the centre of his forehead, a trickle of blood running from it into his left eye. The skin around the wound was charred black. His eyes were wide open and his face was fixed in a sneer, showing his yellowed teeth. Gareth was lying on his back in a puddle of dirty rainwater. Leon looked around, but there wasn’t a soul in sight. It dawned on him that Gareth was recovering the holdall from the boot, but he couldn’t see it. He leaned over to find it, but the boot was empty. “Shit! Motherfucker!” He looked again, but it was nowhere in sight. Leon struggled to kneel down to check under the Lexus. He gasped for breath as he strained his fat neck, but the holdall was gone. Leon stood up and leaned against the back of the car. The nearest vehicle was fifty yards to his left. It was an unoccupied green Vauxhall Omega. Seventy yards to the right was a beaten-up Iveco Daily. It was post office red and had the Parcel Force logo printed along the panels. Leon reckoned it was too old to be in service. It was the only vehicle parked close enough to the Lexus for the thief to reach unseen. He had been distracted for just a few moments whilst Gareth had gone to the back of the car. The van was the only possible place that the killer could have gone. He jumped when his mobile buzzed in his pocket.
“Is there a problem?” Griff was sitting in the window of the cafe waiting for Leon. “Your coffee is going cold here, if you know what I mean.” Griff could see that the suppliers were getting tetchy. They were grumbling and checking their watches every few minutes. They were nervous, and the deal could go sour if Leon delayed it any further.
“I’ll be there in a few minutes.” Leon looked at the cafe. Sweat ran down his head onto his neck. “Are you in the window?”
“Yes, why?”
“Did you see anybody near my car?” Leon reached inside the boot and lifted the spare wheel with his free hand. He held the phone under his chin and lifted a 7.75mm Scorpion machinegun from the tyre well. The Scorpion was small enough to slip into his jacket pocket. Only the magazine protruded.
“What are you talking about?” Griff sounded irritated. He wanted the handover completed without complications. Babysitting Leon was easy money as long as nothing went wrong. “Is there a problem?”
“Answer the question; did you notice anyone near my car?” Leon repeated, with more urgency this time. He didn’t want to let the mercenary know that the money had gone.
“No.” Griff hissed. “I’m here to watch what is going on in here. You said you had outside covered.”
“Yes, it’s covered alright.” Leon took out his tobacco tin and fumbled with the lid. He spooned the white powder onto the lid with shaky hands and then cut it with his gold MasterCard. He snorted three lines in succession before slipping the tin back into his pocket. Closing the boot, he rushed back to the driver’s door and climbed into the car. The motorcycle rider watched as the Lexus engine roared into life, and the wheels sprayed a fountain of mud and grit into the air as they tried to find purchase. The vehicle lurched forward, and Leon snatched the wheel hard left. The vehicle swerved toward the red parcel van at speed. “The deal’s gone bad. They’re ripping me off!” Leon shouted into the phone as his car neared the van.
He lowered the passenger window and took out the Scorpion. As he pulled to a halt in front of the vehicle, he unleashed the entire magazine into the front windscreen. Glass and metal ricocheted into the air as the van disintegrated beneath the maelstrom of bullets. The gun clicked empty before he took his finger from the trigger. He removed the empty magazine and snapped in a full one. “Jinx!” He screamed at the van. “Is that you in there, you fucking prick?” He opened the door and struggled to climb out. Holding the Scorpion at arm’s length, he approached the ruined vehicle with trepidation. “Where is my money, Jinx, you arsehole!” The front seats were empty and the bulkhead prevented him from seeing into the back. He ran to the sliding door, which gave access to the rear and leaned against the van to gather his wits. The cocaine was coursing through his bloodstream, and anger replaced caution. The fact that his money was gone sent him into a blind panic. This was the deal of a lifetime. It would lift him into the premier league of international drug dealers, and he wanted that desperately.
The diners in the cafe heard the gunfire, and several of them ran outside to watch the action. Griff kept his eyes on the suppliers. The gunshots had startled them, and after looking out of the window, one of them grabbed their vehicle keys off the table and they looked around the old pub for a way out. They were searching for a rear exit. The old pub still had the same floor plan it had had when it was full of dockers drinking pints of mild and smoking Woodbines. A corridor led from the main seating area to the toilets at the rear of the pub. The suppliers headed down the corridor. Griff knew that there was a fire exit situated there which would lead them onto the road at the back of the building. He waited a few seconds and then followed them. They looked uncertain as to where they were going. Griff jogged down the corridor toward them. “There’s a fire exit here, mate,” he feigned concern. “Fuck knows what’s going on out there, but it’s best to go out the back here.”
“Thanks, we’ll follow you,” a Turkish-looking man answered warily. His English was broken. The two men weren’t carrying anything with them. Griff assumed that the drugs were in a vehicle outside, and he knew into which pocket the Turk had put the keys.
Leon took three deep breaths and then reached for the door handle. He yanked it with his left hand and aimed the Scorpion with his right. “Fucking bastard, Jinx,” he yelled as he pulled the door, but it didn’t budge. The owner had locked the door. He ran around to the back doors as fast as his huge frame would allow him, and he grabbed the handle and twisted it. “Bastard!” he roared, his cheeks wobbling. Spittle flew from his lips as he cursed the locked van. The doors held fast. “I know it’s you, Jinx, I know you’re in there.” Leon stepped back and pulled the trigger. The machine pistol bucked in his hand as the bullets drilled into the rear doors. The magazine emptied in seconds, and the gun clicked as the last bullet fired. Leon threw the gun at the van and it clanged off the bumper and clattered onto the dirt. He bent over and put his hands on his knees, breathless.
Griff pressed the push bar and the fire exit burst open. He let the Turks run past him, but as they did, he knocked into one of them. Several other diners had had the same idea and they barged past Griff in their hurry to escape. The suppliers ran to the left of the building and peered arou
nd the corner. They knew that their contact was a fat black man, and a man fitting that description was waving a machinegun around on the car park. They exchanged words, which Griff didn’t understand and then ran toward a white Transit compact. The other diners were scattering in all directions, and at least four engines started at the same time. He could hear wheels spinning in the dirt as frightened onlookers fled the scene. Griff ran to the front of the pub and waived to the man on the motorbike. His associate started the engine and drove the machine along the road to the front of the cafe. Sirens wailed in the distance. There wasn’t much time, and it seemed that Leon had lost the plot. Griff watched him hurl a machinegun at a red van, and then he picked it up and began hammering the vehicle with the weapon like a man demented. The Turks reached their compact and began searching their pockets for the missing keys. They exchanged angry words, but they were never going to find them because Griff had them in his hand.
Leon heard the police sirens, and his sense of self-preservation tried to take hold of his cocaine clouded brain. He threw the gun underneath the van and then immediately regretted it. His prints were all over it. “Fuck! Fuck!” He kicked the van, and tears of frustration ran down his face. “Jinx, you fucking bastard!” he sobbed as he kneeled down to recover the weapon. It was closer to the other side, out of his reach. The siren was coming closer; others had joined it. Leon scrambled up, using the van to support his massive bulk. He stumbled around to the opposite side. His chest heaved and perspiration drenched his skin, making his clothes stick to him uncomfortably. Vehicles whizzed past him, their engines at full throttle as innocent bystanders tried to escape the scene. A green Omega started at speed toward the exit. If Leon had paid attention, he would have noticed the driver climb out of the back seat. Leon didn’t notice them, it was all a blur. He had to retrieve the gun and get away from there before the police arrived. Jinx had his money. Leon was convinced that he was his Nemesis. There was a huge puddle at the other side of the parcel van, and Leon cursed at the top of his voice as he knelt in the icy water to reach the gun. Wheels screeched by and engines roared as he stretched his podgy fingers toward the Scorpion. His face was inches away from the puddle. “Fucking bastard!” he cried. Snot ran from his nose and dribble hung from his lips as he tried desperately to reach the gun. His fingers brushed it, and he felt the cold metal. He pinched it between his index finger and thumb and inched it backwards toward him. Strong hands grabbed the back of his head and a crushing weight pinned him to the floor. The water saturated his clothes; he struggled to get up, but the combination of his own weight and the weight on his back forced him further into it. He gasped as his attacker drove his face into the deep puddle. His body twitched and wriggled, and bubbles flowed to the surface of the dirty water. He desperately tried to hold his breath. He knew he would drown, but his lungs were burning from the exertion. The hands pushed him deeper still as his strength faded. Leon opened his mouth and sucked in rainwater, which rushed into his lungs. He felt darkness creeping into the corner of his mind as the oxygen ran out and his brain began to shut down. “Say hello to my wife and my son Nate, you fat fucker,” Gecko whispered into his ear as his body stopped moving.