by Jack Probyn
He killed the engine, grabbed his bag and then wandered up to the front door. He was welcomed by silence as he stepped inside. He felt like a stranger in his own home, breaking in to ransack the place.
‘Hello?’ he called, the walls absorbing his voice. ‘Liz? Maisie? Ellie?’
Nothing.
‘Anyone?’
He idled down the hallway, peered into the living room on his left, saw nobody was there, then continued through to the kitchen at the end of the hall. The kitchen had been cleaned, but there was no sign of a note or anything.
At that moment, Jake feared the worst.
Liam. The man had set foot in his house. He’d shown Elizabeth all those photos. But what if he’d sent in Georgiy shortly after? What if they’d abducted Elizabeth and the girls? Or worse, what if they’d killed them and left them somewhere?
Panicked by his imagination, he tried calling his wife’s mobile. It rang and rang. Rang and rang.
He disconnected the call before it went through to voicemail and tried again.
Still no answer.
Jake paced clockwise around the centre island, clenching his fist in anger and fear. It was possible she just hadn’t heard her phone, but he didn’t believe that. And if she hadn’t been taken, there was only one other option.
He moved to the fridge, grabbed Elizabeth’s address book from the pile of papers beside it and found his mother-in-law’s landline number. Martha and Alan Clarke were adamant at keeping their details private and making sure there was no digital copy of their phone number or address. Something about them being paranoid. A symptom of working for the government, Jake had always thought.
Either way, it was less than helpful in any situation.
Eventually, he found their number, punched it into his phone and dialled.
‘Hello?’ Martha answered.
‘Martha – it’s Jake. Is Liz there… please?’
There was a long pause, and in the background, he heard distant voices and whispers, answering the question for him.
He hung up the phone, rushed out of the door and jumped back into the car. Elizabeth’s parents lived less than three miles away, in a stately Victorian home in Crystal Palace. The house was detached and was the only property in the street that had a swimming pool in the back garden, which looked onto the nearby golf course.
Jake arrived at their house ten minutes later and raced to the door.
Elizabeth opened it shortly after he knocked. Her hair was tied in a ponytail and her eyes and cheeks were circled red. She was wrapped inside a sky-blue cardigan and wore a pair of jeans. Despite looking distraught, she still managed to look beautiful.
‘Liz…’ he said, his voice weak.
‘What do you want?’
‘I want… I want to talk. Can we talk?’
‘You can’t come in.’
‘That’s fine. I don’t want to.’ He turned and pointed behind him. ‘How about we sit in the car?’
‘Give me your keys.’
‘What?’
‘Give me your keys.’
Jake looked down at his hand and rolled his car keys in his fingers.
‘Of course. Anything.’
He unlocked the car over his shoulder then passed the keys to Elizabeth, who threw them into the house. She stepped outside and closed the door behind her. Jake had never seen her look so angry. He’d originally mistaken the red for upset. They walked to the car in silence, Jake mentally trying to prepare what he was going to say, how he was going to say it. But his mind was blank.
‘I’m sorry,’ he started after they’d got themselves comfortable. He turned to Elizabeth, but she gave him nothing back; she twisted and looked out of the window to avoid acknowledging him. ‘I’m sorry for the past couple of days. The past couple of weeks. The past couple of months. I’m sorry for being a shitty husband. For never being there. I’m sorry for being at work so much and putting that in front of you and the girls, and I’m sorry for not solving this issue any sooner. In fact, I’m sorry for not solving it at all.’ He took a deep breath. ‘But whatever Liam showed you was a lie. All of it. The money in my drawer. The photos of Charlotte and me in the pub.’
‘Oh, so that didn’t happen then?’ Elizabeth snapped her head round to face him. ‘Liam’s a master at Photoshop now, is he?’
‘No,’ Jake said, sighing. ‘Yes, we did go for a drink. That was the reason I came home late. But it was nothing like that – nothing like that at all. We were talking about the case. She was new to the team – she’d just joined us and I wanted to welcome her in, keep up appearances.’
‘What appearances? Make it look like you were being a good friend so nobody would realise you were fucking her?’
Liam had planted a deeply rooted seed in Elizabeth’s head that would take some convincing to weed out.
‘I promise you, Elizabeth Tanner, that it wasn’t like that at all. Far from it. What did Liam tell you?’
‘I’m not telling you that. Just so you can work out how to wriggle your way out of it. And I don’t wanna hear excuses either.’
‘They’re not excuses. I fucked up; I understand that. Honestly, I do. But it’s a lot more complicated than it seems.’
‘Oh, I’m sure it is.’ Elizabeth folded her arms and looked away.
This was useless. He was getting nowhere.
‘You want me to tell you exactly what’s been going on these past few days?’
‘Aren’t you worried Liam might tell you off for sharing that sort of information with me?’ She said it with such disdain in her voice that it made him even angrier. He knew she was lashing out at him because she was mad, but that didn’t make it hurt any less.
‘Liam’s been arrested.’
Elizabeth’s gaze darted towards him again. ‘What for?’ There was a new emotion in her voice.
‘Lots of things. Most notably, though, for killing Drew. Shot him in the head.’
Elizabeth gasped and threw her hand to her mouth. ‘When?’
‘Last night.’
‘Last night? Oh my God. That man… he came… came into my house… our house!’
Jake placed his hand on her leg. She let it stay there.
‘I know,’ he said. ‘It’s OK. He’s gone now. He won’t be coming anywhere near you or the girls ever again. Did he do anything while he was in the house?’
Elizabeth shook her head. ‘Just came in… said hello to the girls and… showed me the photos.’
‘Do you still have them?’
Elizabeth nodded. ‘He left the camera at ours.’
‘OK. Did he do anything else? At any point was he in a room on his own?’
‘No. I was with him at all times. I watched him leave as well. He didn’t do anything he shouldn’t have.’
Jake absorbed what she’d said, nodding and scratching the scar on the side of his face.
‘What’s going on, Jake? What’s going to happen?’
She placed her hand in his. He squeezed it.
‘Listen, it’s complicated. The short of it is, for the last fifteen years between them, Liam, Drew and Garrison have all been corrupted by an external force somehow. Liam was responsible for recruiting The Crimsons all those years ago. Drew was in on it all, and he raped an innocent girl when he was younger. And they even hired contract killers to kill the Cipriano brothers. It’s all been a bit hectic. Drew… dead. Liam… arrested. And Garrison… he’s in a coma. Liam and Drew tried to get rid of him by staging a car accident. There’s no knowing if he’ll ever wake up. And, to top it all off, they were trying to make me look bent too.’
‘How?’
‘Those photos. The money they planted in my drawer. They even took photos of you and the girls in the park the other day. I’m sure there’re other things they’ve done to try and make me look like one of them. Now I’ve got to find out what.’
Jake paused a beat to catch his breath. ‘None of what Liam showed you is true. The photo of me and Charlotte – that happene
d, yes, I admit that. But not in the way you think it did. I went to the DPS about Liam and Drew and Garrison. Charlotte is an undercover officer; her real name’s Stephanie. We were working together to try to expose the three of them. But we were too late to save Drew and Garrison. That’s all it was, Liz. There was nothing else to it. Nothing. You have to believe me.’
Elizabeth stared at him for a while longer. Her eyes shimmered with tears, but somehow she looked even more beautiful.
‘I do. I believe you. I just… I don’t know what to say,’ she replied. ‘Why didn’t you tell me all of this was going on?’
‘I didn’t want to worry you. I didn’t want you to think I was in any danger. I wanted to make sure that you knew nothing, just in case someone used you and the girls as leverage.’
‘Were you in any danger?’ Elizabeth asked, her eyebrow raised.
Jake thought of sitting on the other side of a hedge while Michael Cipriano was being beaten to death. Of his altercation with Liam. How he’d been staring down the other end of a gun in both instances.
‘No,’ he lied. ‘I wasn’t in any danger. I just wanted to make sure you and the kids were safe.’
‘We are. We can leave them with my mum and dad for a while if you want…’
‘That might be for the best. I suppose the silver lining in all of this is that I’m going to get paid a lot of overtime for the month.’
‘I didn’t tell you!’ she said, slapping his arm excitably.
‘What?’
‘The money. The debt. My mum and dad. They’ve given it to us.’
Jake opened his mouth to protest but was instantly shut down by Elizabeth.
‘I know you didn’t want them to, but they offered. They don’t think we’re charity cases. They’re just helping out. Just like they did last time.’
Jake breathed a deep sigh of exultation. He couldn’t deny that he was upset about having to take the money from his in-laws. Again. Nor could he deny that he was upset about his family being in this position when he was only twenty-five. If they were struggling already, what was it going to be like in five years, ten, fifteen? It didn’t seem fair on the girls. But taking the money from Martha and Alan – who had plenty of it – was the most ethical means of paying their debts in comparison to the other methods he’d considered – especially as it kept him far away from the money in his drawer. A part of him had been tempted to take it. But he’d known that would be a foolish decision. It was dirty, tainted. Blood money. It would be confiscated and he would face either imprisonment or dismissal, neither of which would be good for his family.
Because at the end of the day, they were all that mattered to him.
CHAPTER 102
CONTACT
A week later they were still in the thick of it, even with all the added help from Charlotte’s DPS team. The number of tasks on Jake’s to-do list was growing by the hour. He hadn’t spoken to anyone – whether they were his friends, family or colleagues – properly in the past few days. He hadn’t been able to discuss recent events with anyone to help him process them; he’d just been instructed to focus, focus, focus.
So when his phone rang, it was a welcome distraction.
‘Hello?’ he answered.
‘Hello, pal.’ It was DS Elliot Bridger, sounding more excitable than usual. ‘You good?’
‘As good as I can be…’
‘You heard about Danika then?’
He had. And he wished he hadn’t.
A few days after Liam and Georgiy had been arrested and processed and interviewed, Jake had received a call from DCI Pemberton saying that, after a patrol vehicle had been sent to Danika’s house to check up on her, they’d found her dead on the sofa. Bottle of vodka and joint beside her. Shot in the head. Suicide.
Jake didn’t believe a word of it.
‘It’s fucked,’ he replied.
‘This is why I told you to watch out for yourself, kid.’
‘You too,’ Jake replied. ‘Get out of the country. Move on. Away from everything. Start a new life away from all this shit. You know more than Danika did.’
There was a pause.
‘I can’t, Jake. I appreciate your efforts and your advice, but I can’t. It’s not that simple. There are a lot more things going on than you realise—’
‘So you lied to me?’ Jake interrupted. ‘It is true.’
‘What is?’
‘Liam told me you were immune in all this. He said you would always be safe for reasons I would never understand. What are they?’
‘Jake, I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
‘Why are you still lying to me, Bridger. After all this time, after all I’ve proven to you. What’s going on?’
Bridger paused. ‘Nothing. Honestly.’
Jake shrugged. He’d gone past the point of caring now. He had no fight left in him to try to convince Bridger to flee, to put himself first, to make sure he didn’t suffer the same fate as Danika. He was done with it all.
‘If you won’t tell me, and if you won’t help me, then I can’t do this anymore. Now that this is over with Liam, we’re going to have to sever our ties. This has brought too much angst and destruction to my career and my family.’
‘You’re the one who needs to get out, Jake,’ Bridger said.
‘Not when I have to fix everything here. Not when The Cabal is still out there and there’s a ring of corrupt officers I need to catch.’
‘If you’re not careful, they’ll come for you like they did Danika. Don’t do that to yourself. Don’t do that to your family.’
‘Not if I get them first.’
Jake hung up and immediately blocked Bridger’s number. If he was going to go through with what he’d just said, he needed to make sure he kept to his word.
And the first step was to cut off contact.
CHAPTER 103
BRIGHT
Thirty minutes later, it was home time. At least for Jake. Dremel had allowed him to get home to the wife and kids while the rest of the detectives continued working on Operation Jackknife. After what had been a surprisingly productive and happy day, all things considered, Elliot Bridger had put a noticeable downer on it.
But Jake was determined to make sure the rest of it went smoothly, and so he forced all thoughts of Bridger from his mind.
Outside the sky was covered with a blanket of black, stars beginning to break through the material like headlights bursting through the fog. Astronomy had never been an interest for Jake, but now and then he enjoyed gazing up, contemplating life beyond earth, beyond the universe, beyond anything – what lay out there; what it would be like to spend time in space.
Sometimes the thought scared him; sometimes it put things into perspective. That no matter how bad he had it – with Elizabeth, the girls, the job – it wasn’t as bad as hurtling through space. His whole world felt like it was beginning to get back on track. And he couldn’t wait to see what the future held.
Coming up was a short break. A two-day holiday from everything. Just him, Elizabeth and the girls, cutting themselves off from the rest of society in the middle of the Cotswolds. Sponsored by Martha and Alan, of course. Except this time Jake had been the first to accept the money to pay for it. He’d even put his differences aside and asked whether they’d like to join them, but Martha was unable to get time off work. They’d lucked out on that one, Jake thought. He hoped that, in the countryside, he’d be able to spend more time staring up at the sky, creating scenarios in his head, manufacturing lives and stories. Maybe even tell a few of them to the girls.
Something to look forward to.
And as he skipped his way across the car park, he realised there was something else to look forward to too. A takeaway. Chinese, his favourite. This time picked up by Elizabeth, given his previous history.
A smile grew on his face as he opened the car door and climbed into the seat. But as he got himself comfortable, he noticed something wasn’t right. Something was off. It was only minor,
minuscule, but something seemed out of place.
He sniffed the air and relaxed as he noted there was no overwhelming smell of perfume or body odour. And then he cast his eyes around the front and back. Everything was as it should be.
For a second he considered whether he’d imagined it. But that thought disappeared as soon as his eyes fell on the glove compartment. With his body tensing, his mind conjuring images of what he might find – a severed hand, a bomb, a gun – he reached across and opened it.
The reality of it was much, much worse.
Wrapped tightly in cling film was a large wad of money and another package of white powder. Drugs.
On the money was a note. Jake leant over and read it.
WE THANK YOU FOR YOUR SILENCE.
For some reason, the stars in the night sky didn’t seem so bright anymore.
EPILOGUE
DCI Liam Greene was charged with corruption, money laundering, perverting the course of justice, malfeasance in public office and murder. He was sentenced to fifty-three years in prison. He continues his cancer treatment.
The Farmer’s assets were seized and he was sentenced to life imprisonment with no chance of parole. He’s staying in HMP Belmarsh.
DC Pete Garrison remains in a coma. It is not known if he will wake up and what condition he will be in if he does.
A total of ten thousand hours were spent on Operation Jackknife. The investigation lasted three months, and there were no further arrests.
Elliot Bridger is alive and well. He is retired and lives in Surrey. He enjoys playing golf.
Vitaly was killed by the armed officers. Life was pronounced extinct at the crime scene.
Tatiana’s real name was Theresa Appleton. It was later revealed that she was working undercover for MI5. She has since been deployed to a new operation.