“If I have my way,” Jack said, “he won’t get any until he can prove he’ll do good by my mum.”
“I’m Megan,” Megan said. “I spent years making sure my big brother Don-Don didn’t get any. Stick with me, kid, and I’ll teach you everything I know.”
Callum swallowed a groan and headed for the coffee. Once he had a mug, he leaned against the counter and considered his team. No, not his team. The Benson Security team. The longer he was around them, the harder it was to remember that he had walked away.
“Right,” he said. “Let’s get this briefing started.”
The rest of the team pulled out chairs at his dining table, where Rachel and Elle were already seated.
“Is this something we should talk about in front of the child?” Rachel pointed a talon at Jack.
The kid instantly pushed his shoulders back, ready to face off with Rachel. Ah, the recklessness of youth. “Don’t even think about taking Rachel on. You’re just a tasty snack for her. You can stay. But everything said in this room stays here. No texting your friends or posting information on Facebook.”
“Instagram.” Jack relaxed again. “Only old people use Facebook.”
Callum shook his head and sipped his coffee.
“I’ll ask again,” Rachel said. “Are you sure he should be here?”
No, Callum wasn’t sure. But he was certain that if they kept Jack out of the loop, he’d go off and protect his family any way he saw fit, which would be dangerous for all of them.
“The boy has a family to protect. He needs to be here.”
Rachel still wasn’t convinced.
“I’m vouching for him,” Callum said before she could object again. “He’s my responsibility.” He looked at Jack to see how he took that news. Jack was staring at him with a strange look in his eyes, as though he was trying to figure out what Callum’s angle was. Good luck to him. Callum didn’t even know the answer to that.
“How much do you know?” Callum asked the team.
Rachel leaned back in her seat and studied him. Callum kept his face expressionless and waited. Rachel wouldn’t poke her nose into his business. Mainly because she didn’t care.
“We know that Isobel has terrible taste in men,” Rachel said.
“No kidding,” Jack said.
Callum pointed at him. “You talk, you leave. Your choice.”
He made a zipping gesture over his mouth before jumping up to sit on the counter.
Callum looked back at Rachel. “Carry on.”
“We know she has a body in her freezer, one we’re really hoping she didn’t kill.”
Callum was aware of Jack bristling, desperate to defend his mother, but he didn’t say a word. “No, she found him on the beach and hauled him up to her house with the help of her sisters. He’s one of a crew of men who’ve been sneaking into the cove for months. And before you ask, I don’t know for sure what they’re up to. Isobel has been watching them.”
“Do they know she’s been watching them?” Ryan asked.
“They didn’t until she took the body,” Callum said. “Then they went looking for it. They found it last night.”
Isobel appeared in the doorway as Callum explained, and her cheeks flushed at the sight of the filled room. Sophie trailed beside her, her giraffe under her arm and paper and pens in her other hand. She walked straight over to Callum, plopped down at his feet and started to draw.
“Everybody”—Callum signalled to Isobel to come join the discussion—“this is Isobel Sinclair. Isobel, everybody. They can tell you their names later. Come on in. We’re going over the situation.”
She walked over to stand beside Jack, giving wary smiles to the team as she did so. “Jack, why don’t you take your sister back downstairs?”
“I think he needs to be here for this,” Callum said calmly.
“No, he really doesn’t,” Isobel said. “I’m his mother and I want to keep this side of life away from him for as long as possible.”
“You can’t.” Jack sounded far older than his years. “I’m in it up to my neck. It’s my mum who’s selling stuff she found on the beach to pay off a guy who’s threatening her. And my house that’s been blown up. I’m in this, Mum. There’s no sheltering me.”
Isobel looked like his words were a blow, and it took physical effort on Callum’s part not to reach out and pull her to his side. He reminded himself that Isobel didn’t belong to him, and he was more than happy with that, and then he sipped at his coffee. The taste was suddenly bitter and the drink too cold.
Elle’s head snapped up. “Your house blew up? That was your house? The police said it was a gas fault, that the family were away.”
Isobel looked to Callum instead of answering, clearly unsure as to what to tell the team.
“That’s what we want them to think,” Callum said. “They rigged the gas to blow. Isobel and the kids got out before that happened. I had a guy bagged and tagged in the kitchen and planned to go back and ask him some questions. I don’t know if he got out, but if he did, he knows Isobel had help. Professional help.”
“He saw your face,” Dimitri said.
It wasn’t a question, so Callum didn’t answer. “I managed to take one of them out before the place blew, but when I checked, he was gone too.” He looked at Dimitri and Ryan, knowing they would understand why that worried him. “They took him with them.”
“What the hell have you got yourself into?” Dimitri said.
“I don’t know.” Callum dug out his phone and tossed it on the table in front of Elle. “There are photos on there. The body. The beach where he was dumped. See what you can get from it. I also took his fingerprints and a hair sample. It’s downstairs. Do we know someone who can run those for us fast? I want to see if we can get a hit from the prints or his DNA.”
“I know a guy.” Elle reached for the phone. “I’ve been using him to run the DNA on that David guy we met in Peru. Still don’t have a hit on it, though. What I really need is a photo. I could run his photo through image-recognition software and find him that way. It might take years, but I’d get there.”
“Focus,” Callum snapped. “We’re talking about the dead body, not your weird obsession.”
Elle beamed at him. “I’ve missed you. Give me the samples and I’ll get them to my guy.”
“Clam!” Sophie shouted at him, reminding Callum that she was still drawing on the floor at his feet.
When he looked down, she stuck her arm in the air and thrust a scribbled drawing at him. A little bewildered, he took it from her. It was a green mess. He looked at Isobel, who smiled.
“It’s for you,” she said.
“Thanks?” Callum looked down at Sophie, but she was busy working on her next masterpiece, so he put the paper on the counter beside him.
“What else can you tell us about the attack on the house?” Dimitri said, thankfully bringing Callum back into his comfort zone.
“Not a whole lot.” Callum ran a hand over his face. “There was nothing about these guys that made them stand out. No unique facial features. No visible tattoos. Nothing. The two guys I got the best look at had olive skin tones, like they’d come from a Mediterranean country instead of further north. They definitely didn’t have that blue sheen Scottish folk get because the sun is a stranger up here.”
Jack laughed, and then pointed at his closed mouth when Callum glared at him.
“I don’t think they were ex-military,” Callum continued, “but I only went hand to hand with one of them. They were experienced though. They were fast, efficient and they didn’t communicate with anything but hand signals.”
“Middle Eastern, maybe?” Megan said.
Callum shook his head. “I don’t think so. My first thought was Italian, which doesn’t make any sense.”
“Maybe mob?” Megan said.
“No. There were tats on the dead guy. Standard English prison and Russian mob.”
A ripple of confused looks went through the room.
“Weapons?” Ryan asked.
“Knives, handguns. Nothing unusual. Nothing hard to get hold of.”
There was silence. Callum looked at Isobel and wondered if she was even aware she’d placed herself firmly between him and her son. He wondered whether it was so that she could defend either of them, if needed, or so that they could protect her? Without really planning to, he inched closer to her, just in case she needed him.
“There’s more,” Callum said. “During one of their night-time visits to the cove, the guys from the boat lost a bag on their way up the bluff.” He felt Isobel stiffen, but carried on as though he hadn’t noticed. “Isobel found it the following day and sold the contents to a pawnbroker in Campbeltown. It had been full of camera equipment. High-end stuff. Isobel said it looked like the type of gear the paparazzi would use.”
“Surveillance,” Ryan said.
“That’s what I thought too,” Callum said.
“I don’t know what you mean,” Isobel said.
Callum felt his face soften as he looked down at her. “They were watching someone, or something, at a distance, to gather information.”
“Oh.” Isobel clasped her hands in front of her.
“Clam!” Sophie shouted, and handed him another drawing. He took it and put it on the counter beside him without looking at it this time. Sophie didn’t seem to need his input on her work.
Callum looked back at the team. “I had a word with the pawnbroker. There wasn’t any camera equipment left, but he had this.” He reached into his pocket and tossed the small black box onto the dining table.
“Is that what I think it is?” Ryan looked at Callum.
“Aye,” Callum said.
“What?” Megan said. “What am I missing?”
Dimitri pointed at the box. “That’s part of a SAM guidance system.”
“Stop speaking army, speak civilian,” Rachel snapped. “What do you mean exactly?”
“He means,” Callum said, “in non-military speak, that you’re looking at the remote-control mechanism for a handheld surface-to-air missile.”
“Are you sure?” Elle said.
Dimitri caught Callum’s eyes and nodded. “We’re sure.”
“That isn’t good,” Elle said. “Right?”
“No,” Callum said. “It isn’t good.”
Isobel made a little whining sound and wrapped her arms around herself. Jack sat up straight, ready to protect his mother. From what, Callum didn’t know. He did know that he couldn’t stand watching her shoulders hunch, as though she was trying to curl in on herself.
“Come here,” he muttered, and wrapped an arm around her shoulders.
He was surprised when she didn’t put up any resistance, and even more surprised when Jack didn’t object. Instead, the boy studied Callum and his mum for a minute before turning his attention back to the group.
When Callum looked at his team, they were uniformly trying not to smile. Well, apart from Rachel. Rachel was studying her manicure and looking thoroughly bored.
“Clam!” Another piece of paper was thrust up at him, and he added it to his growing pile of scribble art.
“So,” Megan said, “we’ve got an unknown dead guy, who’s obviously a criminal, but we don’t know what kind. We also don’t know where he’s from or who he was working with. We have a whole bunch of surveillance equipment that was smuggled into the country a month ago. And we have part of a missile guidance system.” She looked at each of them. “You all thinking terrorist? Because I’m totally thinking terrorist.”
“Me too!” Jack grinned.
“Totally terrorist,” Elle said.
“Definitely,” Ryan added.
Callum held up the hand that wasn’t around Isobel’s shoulders. “No jumping to conclusions. We follow the evidence and see where it leads.”
“Now I’m thinking CSI,” Megan said with a grin.
“Ryan, see if you can get anything from that SAM tech,” Callum ordered.
“Yes, boss.” Ryan saluted.
Callum ran a hand over his face. “Rachel, set up a timeline.”
That made her sit up straight. “Why me? Why can’t one of the minions do it?”
“Because Julia isn’t here and you’re the only other one with project management experience,” Callum said. If he’d still been a partner at Benson Security, he would have told her to suck it up, rather than explaining himself.
“Okay,” she said begrudgingly, “but only this once, and I’m not doing it until I’ve arranged some decent accommodation. There are no hotels in town. Actually, there’s no town in this town. It’s only a few houses, a garage and a shop. How do people live like this?
“Yeah,” Ryan said. “How do people live without their servants running around after them? What do they eat when there’s no caviar? Oh, the agony of the underclass…”
“Clam!” Sophie thrust another piece of art at him. Callum took it without even registering; his focus was on Ryan and Rachel and their new weird dynamic.
“Why don’t you do what you do best and go eat something?” Rachel said. “Maybe you could hang out at McDonald’s for the rest of the day and let the adults get on with things here. I can even give you some pocket money to spend while you’re there.”
Ryan glared at her, and the two of them seemed locked in some sort of stare-down.
“Should we do something,” Jack whispered to Callum, “or are we waiting for their laser vision to kick in and for them to melt each other’s heads?”
To his surprise, Callum had to fight a smile. “Cut it out, you two.”
Ryan gave Rachel one last glare before turning to Callum. “I’m glad you’re back. I seriously can’t take any more of Cruella.”
“I’m not back.” Sure, he needed their help on this one thing, but that didn’t change anything else. “I sold my share of the business.”
“No, you didn’t.” Rachel flicked some imaginary lint from her black suit pants. “Your partners decided your decision wasn’t made when you were in your right mind, so we didn’t buy you out.”
Callum wasn’t sure he’d heard right. “You did what?”
“Okay, that’s my cue to leave.” Ryan scooped the small black box from the table and fled the room.
“Take me with you,” Megan called after him.
Callum ignored them both. “Explain,” he demanded of Rachel.
“There’s nothing to explain. You’re still a partner.” Rachel lifted her mug of coffee and toasted. “We saved you from yourself. You’re welcome.”
Callum felt his left eye begin to twitch, a reaction he’d developed the day he’d met Rachel. A soft hand curved around his forearm, and he looked down to find Isobel smiling at him.
“They were just doing what they thought was in your best interests,” she said softly.
He wasn’t so sure about that.
“Of course we were.” Rachel had the hearing of a hawk when she felt like it. “We need you back at the office. The children”—she waved a hand at the rest of the team—“are driving me insane.”
“We love you too, Rach,” Megan said. “Although, to be fair, Callum, things have degenerated since you left. There’s no one to monitor the bickering, and now we’re getting on each other’s nerves and everybody’s being really bitchy.” She wagged her finger at Rachel and Callum. “That’s what happens when the parent leaves the kids alone without proper supervision.”
Jack barked out a laugh and shrugged when Callum glared at him. For one heady second, Callum wondered if this was what it felt like to be the parent of a teen. The feeling passed just as fast as it had hit him, and Callum moved quickly along.
“I’ve missed this,” Elle said. “I’m really glad you’re back.”
“We’ll see about that,” Callum muttered.
“Clam!” Sophie shouted, and held up more art.
CHAPTER 18
“ARE YOU SURE YOU KNOW what you’re doing?” Agnes said as she reached for the chocolate chip cookie
s in the middle of the small dining table.
Isobel burst out laughing. It became a little hysterical. Of course she didn’t know what she was doing. Her whole life was one huge, out-of-control mess.
“I’ll take that as a no,” Agnes said before biting into her cookie.
They were sitting in the small apartment in Callum’s basement because the house above them had been turned into “operation command”. All day long, people had been rushing about, whispering into phones, tapping at keyboards, plotting world domination. Who knew what they were doing? All Isobel knew for sure was that she’d been the catalyst for all this drama, and now she was only in the way. Taking her kids, she’d retreated downstairs, and had been grateful when her sisters arrived.
They’d turned up armed with clothes for all of them and an activity set for Sophie. Sophie wasn’t interested in the set, even though it was packed with her beloved stickers. She was currently raiding all of the cupboards in the house to find treasure. Ten minutes earlier, she’d appeared in the basement wearing a motorcycle helmet and carrying a large sieve. She was in her happy zone.
Jack, meanwhile, had hit it off with Ryan. Even though there was at least twelve years between the two of them, they’d bonded over their bottomless stomachs and a love of video games. They were sitting on the couch in the living room area playing Mortal Kombat on the PlayStation under Callum’s TV. Everyone else was upstairs.
“So this is the famous bunker.” Donna was wide-eyed as she looked around the basement flat.
“He doesn’t like calling it a bunker.” Isobel shook her head at how ludicrous her life had become that those words should come out of her mouth. “He lives between here and the house upstairs.”
“I thought old man McKay never got around to finishing this place,” Donna said.
“Callum finished it. I think it was a sentimental thing because his granddad started it.”
Agnes stopped eating. “He finished off the bunker for sentimental reasons? Do you even realise how weird that is?”
Yep, she did. Isobel was also aware that, seeing as her house blew up, the only roof she had over her head at the moment was the floor of the house above her.
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