Where There's Smoke

by Penny Grubb

  ‘It rings a vague bell,’ said Annie. ‘And did you get the evidence?’

  ‘No. Well, yes, we did the job. Well, Babs did. She got the evidence that the guy was legit. He wasn’t an illegal; had nothing to do with that other business.’

  It sounded like nothing but Annie wanted to be sure. ‘Can I see the file?’ she said, adding, ‘There’s something else, but first I want to get face to face with the little toerag. How can we be sure he’s not going to pull something stupid?’

  ‘Make it somewhere public,’ Pat said.

  ‘OK, but will he turn up?’

  Pat shrugged. ‘We can try. What’s the other thing?’

  ‘I want to go back out to Vince’s place.’

  Immediately, Pat held up both her hands. ‘No way. And no point. Nothing goes on out there that’s anything to do with any of this.’

  Annie fought back a wave of impatience. Pat had always had a blind spot where Vince was concerned. ‘I wouldn’t be so sure.’ She told her about the huge trailer.

  ‘A mobile morgue? What on earth would anyone want with a mobile morgue?’

  ‘I don’t like to think, but that’s what it looked like. And I’m certain I’ve seen it before on some CCTV footage.’ She told Pat about the lorry that had backed into Carl’s drive in Hull, the lorry that had been too heavy even for the properly laid kerb-stones. Before Pat could think to ask about where and how she’d seen the images, she added, ‘And if you remember, he told Jean that I should look out for a horse box that wasn’t. That trailer had horse logos on the sides. We need to get back out there, but we need to be careful.’

  ‘Huh, careful! I’ll say. This is one suicide mission you’re not going to talk me into.’

  Annie sat back and reached for the keyboard where she played the cursor over the satellite view of the farmhouse. She wouldn’t entrench Pat’s opposition by arguing. She’d sown the seed and would wait, but not too long because a knot in her gut told her they were on a deadline. Barbara lay in a hospital bed and someone had wanted Annie there, too. She felt the dull ache in her arm. It would be a multicoloured reminder for weeks. From the corner of her eye she watched Pat, deep in thought, lever herself upright and go to the filing cabinets. As Pat flicked through files, Annie listened to the sounds of the building, the footsteps back and forth between the downstairs offices, the occasional slam of the front door as a smoker went out into the street or came back in. When the buzzer sounded, she said, ‘Expecting anyone? I’ll disappear to the back office.’ She was still no closer to Carl Sleeman’s real agenda, but his advice about keeping below the radar was good.

  Pat shook her head and turned to Annie, her face troubled. ‘It’s gone. ‘The file for that guy Vince wanted deported. I can’t remember his name, but I’ve looked all through.’

  ‘Computer file?’

  ‘No, Vince wanted it kept offline.’

  As their eyes met, they both registered the sound of someone running lightly up the stairs. With no time to get out of the way, Annie leapt from her chair so she would be behind the door as it opened. Pat could take the visitor to the back office and she could slip out.

  After a cursory knock, the door swung open and from behind it, Annie heard Pat say, ‘Yes? Can I help you?’

  ‘No, but I can help you,’ said a voice that made Annie’s heart thud hard in her chest. ‘I’m here to track down a morgue or something. Where’s Annie?’

  Annie stepped out from behind the door. ‘Christa? What the hell are you doing here?’

  CHAPTER 14

  Annie watched aghast. Christa, undaunted by her reception, leant forward to peer at the computer screen, ran her gaze across the papers on the desk and darted across to the filing cabinet, ostensibly to shake Pat’s hand - ‘Pat Thompson, yeah? I’m Christa’ - whilst taking a good look into the open drawer.

  Without a pause, Christa pointed back towards the image of the farmhouse. ‘That the place we’re targeting? D’you want me off out there now?’

  Too late, Annie clicked off the monitor, knowing Christa had already hoovered up far too much information, including enough to get that image back on to the screen or even to find her way out there. How could this have happened? Quite apart from what she’d picked up in her first ten seconds in the office, Christa had walked through the door with information in her head that shouldn’t have been there. What was Pieternel playing at?

  Nothing she’d said could have been misunderstood to this extent.

  It was Pat who asked the question. ‘Who are you and what are you doing here?’

  ‘Hasn’t Annie told you? Pieternel sent me down to help her out on this job? And I know how to hit the ground running, it’s why people employ me, so you need to get me something to do. I’m costing you money while I’m standing here.’

  Annie pulled in a deep breath, preparatory to telling Christa to turn right round and go back to where she’d come from, but she stopped herself. She daren’t do that. Christa was already a ticking bomb. The first thing to do was to call Pieternel, but not in Christa’s hearing.

  ‘Yes, you’re right,’ she rapped out, ignoring the outraged stare Pat turned on her. ‘OK, first thing: we’ve mislaid a file, and it’s important to the case.’ Annie nodded her head towards the open filing cabinet and, as Christa turned to look, gave Pat the ghost of a wink.

  ‘No, it’s not in there. It should be, but it’s been misfiled and we need to find it. It’ll be in one of the cabinets in there.’ She pointed to the door of the back office. ‘I want you to get looking for it.’

  Christa shrugged and gave a resigned, ‘OK,’ looking at Pat to ask, ‘Name, date …?’

  Pat thinned her lips and stared at Annie. ‘I can’t have her in there messing everything up.’

  ‘Don’t worry,’ Annie said. ‘She’s good. She can go through an office with a fine tooth comb and not leave a trace.’

  ‘But it won’t be—’

  Annie made a fierce gesture at Pat to shut her up, as Christa gave a self-satisfied smile and said, ‘Well, yes I could, but I don’t need to be careful, do I? This is your office, right?’

  ‘Oh yes, you do.’ Annie dropped her voice, throwing Christa a glance that crackled with insinuations. ‘No one must know we had to search for it. It’s … well, it’s complicated … details don’t matter now. I’ll fill you in later. The important thing is to get our hands on it.’

  Christa perked up, now that the routine task had an interesting undertone. Annie heaved an inward sigh of relief. She’d given Christa a goal and it would keep her searching all the longer. ‘We can’t give you a name. You see, it wasn’t one of Pat’s cases. An Egyptian guy, wasn’t it, Pat? What else can we give Christa to help her track him down?’

  ‘He’s the surveillance, is he?’ Christa broke in.

  ‘That’s right,’ Annie said, as Pat’s gaze bored into her in a way that said she would play along but only so far. ‘We’re to find evidence to get him deported. What else do we know?’

  Again, Annie stared hard at Pat to stop her saying they’d found the guy to be legit. Christa needed to think it was a live case. It might keep her from meddling elsewhere.

  Pat cleared her throat. ‘He’s a doctor. He worked at one of the private hospitals. I last saw the file about two or three weeks ago.’

  Annie stood up and ushered Christa through to the small back office. ‘Be thorough,’ she told her. ‘We have to have that file, but Pat’s not the only partner in this firm so make sure no one can tell you’ve been looking.’

  If Christa felt dismayed at the junk room that was the back office, she didn’t show it, just gave Annie a cheerful, ‘Sure thing. And then we’ll get out on the road, yeah?’

  ‘Depends what you find.’

  Annie closed the door on Christa and beckoned Pat to the far side of the room.

  ‘Who is she?’ Pat hissed.

  ‘She’s someone we’ve used on a freelance basis. She’s good, and me and Pieternel sort of mentioned maybe usin
g her here, but we agreed not to. Honestly Pat, I have no idea how this happened but we really don’t want her around just now. She’ll be straight in feet first unless we can get rid of her or keep her occupied on something else.’

  ‘Well, just tell her to piss off.’

  ‘I would, but I don’t think she’d be here unless she’s been paid something up front. She’s rash enough to stay and do a bit of freelance work on the job.’

  ‘What harm can that do?’

  ‘She saw Vince’s house on the screen, complete with postcode and map reference.’

  ‘What? And you think she’ll remember that sort of detail?’

  ‘I know she will. I know how she works. I told you she’s good, but she’s also a five-star liability when she goes off on her own. I don’t want to antagonize her unless we have to. She has a temper on her if she thinks she’s being messed about. I’ll spin her a line about money, but let me get on to Pieternel first.’

  The call went through to voice mail. ‘Pieternel,’ Annie hissed into the handset, whilst keeping a wary eye on the door at the other side of the room. ‘What the hell are you doing sending Christa? I’m sending her back. She’ll be lethal on a job like this. Ring me, first chance you get.’ She turned to Pat. ‘Pieternel said she’d be off line most of the day. I’ll email. She might get that faster. In the meantime, let’s get shot of Christa before she absorbs too much from your file archive.’

  She called Christa out from the small room. ‘I’m really sorry, Christa, there’s been a cock-up over money. We can’t pay you beyond this morning. I can’t get Pieternel at the moment but we’ll give you out of pocket expenses and enough to get back, and I’ll make sure Pieternel—’

  ‘Oh, don’t worry about that. I’ve had a stash up front and I’m being paid direct from London. I’ll have that file for you soon.’

  Pat and Annie exchanged a glance as Christa disappeared again. After a short silence, Annie said, ‘That complicates things a bit. Looks like we’ll need Pieternel to tell her. Heaven knows what she’s playing at. She can’t have thought I really wanted her here.’

  Annie’s mind ran through the things she’d told Pieternel in her last few calls. An attempted hit and run, a gun in her neck, kidnap, incarceration. Maybe Pieternel genuinely thought she needed help.

  ‘If, for any reason, we can’t get her to go straight back, we’ll have to find something to keep her out of mischief.’

  ‘Well, I need someone to get to grips with Babs’s cases, but could she do that?’

  Annie let out a sigh. There’d been a few occasions on which she’d worked with Christa when Christa was free of chemical cocktails diluting her blood. ‘She can be inspired, work miracles even. But she’s volatile; goes off on her own.’

  ‘There’s one thing. Unless that boss of yours has changed, she won’t have shelled out a cent more than she had to.’

  ‘That’s true, probably a day or two at worst,’ Annie agreed, then burst out, ‘Hell, we can do without this. We need to be getting at Carl, not dealing with bloody personnel cock-ups. Let’s hear the worst. Let’s see how long we’re stuck with her.’ Raising her voice, she shouted, ‘Christa!’

  ‘Gimme a chance,’ came the muffled reply. ‘Who am I, sodding Wonder Woman?’

  ‘No, not that. Just come out here a moment. How long are you expecting to be here?’

  ‘Five weeks max, I was told.’

  ‘What exactly did Pieternel tell you when she sent you here?’

  ‘Nothing much. She mentioned the morgue thing.’ Christa shrugged as though to say, does it matter?

  ‘What do you mean, nothing much? She must have told you something or you wouldn’t have known anything about it.’

  ‘She rang me, told me you needed a hand and to get my ass over to this little place near King’s Cross. The guy there gave me the gen. And here I am. Now can I get back and get this file found so I can get on with something useful? I hate wasting time.’

  Annie held her expression neutral as she felt the shock prickle the hairs on her neck. Barely registering the answers, she shot a couple more questions at Christa; how much of her time had been bought in advance and how much had Pieternel given her in hard cash. Christa gabbled out impatient replies and Annie watched Pat’s face. Had she cottoned on yet?

  ‘OK, get back to it. Let’s have that file found.’

  As the door closed again behind Christa, Annie murmured, half to herself, ‘I wonder if that cuts Barbara out of the loop.’

  ‘What are you on about?’

  Annie thought about an agency near Kings Cross and about someone paying for six weeks of her time. She’d been here a week now. Christa’s time had been paid for five weeks. She could feel bewilderment etch itself on to her face; she and Christa were both here to do the same job.

  But why? Had she not been working fast enough?

  Pieternel’s text made sense now. The request for Christa had come from someone else, the same someone else who had originally called in Annie. No doubt Pieternel had been told that Annie knew all about it. Her text had been to make sure. She became aware of Pat, who crossed the room and slumped down in one of the chairs. She must be impatient for answers. Annie hardly knew where to begin.

  ‘The agency she mentioned, it’s …’ Annie stopped. Pat wasn’t looking at her. She had her head in her hands; her breathing was exaggerated, as though she were about to cry. Pat? Cry?

  Annie sprang forward and reached out, but then drew her hand back, not knowing what to do or say.

  It was Pat who spoke, without raising her head. ‘What the hell’s happening, Annie? What are we playing at? The business is done. I can’t pick up Babs’s cases. I don’t even know what they are … don’t know if she’ll be back. And if we’ve the Sleemans against us now as well …’

  Awkwardly, Annie placed her hand on Pat’s shoulder. ‘Barbara’s going to be OK,’ she said. ‘She’ll be back before you know it, and she won’t thank you for letting things slide. And I’ve been paid upfront remember? I’m going to stick around and help to get through this. As to—’

  She stopped as the door to the back office swung open. Pat’s head shot up and she heaved herself to her feet, brushing Annie aside, as Christa marched over and waved a sheaf of papers under her nose. ‘Is this the one, Aker Hassan?’

  Annie watched Pat form a contemptuous ‘No’ and watched it deflate like a pricked balloon. Their eyes met. Annie knew her own bewilderment was reflected in Pat’s face. Only Christa, between them, retained her bounce.

  ‘Yes,’ Pat murmured. ‘That’s the one.’

  The anomalies crowded in, making Annie’s brain spin.

  ‘Good work,’ she barked at Christa, a little more harshly than she intended. ‘Now we have it, we can find what we need to get this job rolling.’

  ‘I can get straight out after him now. Every second we stand about, he gets that much start on us.’

  ‘No, no.’ Annie held up her hand. ‘It’s not that kind of job. The guy’s not going anywhere.’ She pulled in a deep breath. For the time being she had to take charge, shield Pat until she was ready to pick up the reins again. The first thing was to get Christa defused and walled off somewhere where she could do no harm. ‘Now listen carefully, Christa. This office has been bugged. It’s OK at the moment but any time you come back in, do a new sweep. It isn’t quite clear who’s getting access.’

  She told Christa about the phones. ‘If you need to make a call about the case or any call that mentions me, remove the thing, then put it back afterwards. It’s very basic.’

  ‘I’ll say,’ said Christa, taking the device from Annie and turning it into the light. ‘This isn’t for real, right? This is someone taking the piss.’

  Annie shrugged. ‘Maybe, maybe not. But leave them both in place for ordinary calls. OK, first things first, did you drive straight down here? Have you had anything to eat this morning?’

  ‘I grabbed some crisps on the train.’ Christa gave another amazed stare
at the device as she handed it back to Annie, then shook her head. ‘Oh, and I got up here by cab. I don’t know the buses yet. Can I get the fare on expenses and when can I get a car?’

  ‘Yeah, note it down.’ Annie felt a surge of relief. Christa wasn’t dangerously mobile. And whatever she’d been paid up front, she wouldn’t shell out to hire a vehicle from her own money.

  ‘Like I said,’ Annie told her. ‘Glitch with the finance. We can’t run to a car for you, but don’t worry, the business end of this job’s right here in town. Did you see that coffee bar at the far end of the street, the one with all the posters in the windows?’ When Christa nodded, Annie pulled a note from her pocket and handed it across. ‘Go and get us a decent coffee each and some sort of snack. By the time you get back, me and Pat’ll have dug out all we need.’

  Annie watched Christa clatter down the stairs and let herself out of the building before she returned to the office. Pat squared her shoulders as Annie swung open the door.

  ‘What now?’ she said.

  ‘First thing, we need to set her on to something that’ll keep her quiet while we get on with things. And what’s with that file?’ She pointed to the folder still clutched in Pat’s hand. ‘Why was it in there and not in the filing cabinet?’

  Pat’s expression was troubled. ‘This isn’t the original. It looks to me like Babs made a copy. I don’t know why. We wouldn’t normally, but maybe with Vince saying not to enter it on the system … I don’t know.’

  Annie held out her hand. ‘Can I see?’

  She flicked through the few pages and read through the notes.

  ‘Is he a Dr or a Mr?’ she asked.

  Pat shrugged a don’t know.

  An e-mail from Barbara, subject line ‘Latest case’, sent to a generic address at Sleeman’s firm, said simply,

  The guy’s 100% legit.