‘In here –’ I started to take the backpack off –
‘Slowly!’
I took it off and held it out in slow motion.
‘Throw it to me.’
I threw it to his feet. He picked it up, pulled it open, drew out the container… got the lid off and shone a pencil torch inside.
‘Good.’ He put the container into another pack and then looked up at me. I couldn’t make out his face but I knew somehow that they were the same two who’d attacked me in the hospital. He took a few paces back.
‘Come over here.’
‘Why?’ My voice quavered.
‘So that we can tie you up.’ He spoke like a schoolteacher to a dim child. ‘Jase?’
The other prodded his gun into my back. I walked, my legs trembling. A rowing boat was half pulled up onto the bank. The river chuckled and rippled in the moonlight.
‘Here.’ He beckoned to me and pointed. ‘Jase?’
The other came into my view. I could see him grinning at me.
‘Sucker,’ he said, raising the gun and pointing it at my head –
‘Ah – !’ My hands went up to my face –
The gun flared – both guns – went phut! over and over –
Jase jerked –
My head seared, Jase crumpled, then I was falling –
A splash, a burning shock of cold, water in my lungs… I coughed, feebly splashed, felt myself sinking… my hands closed round something… then nothing.
Chapter 37
Rebecca kept Herry in sight until they’d crossed the river, then let the distance between them increase. Josh was driving and Dan and Stella were two minutes behind. Rebecca saw Herry’s indicator light winking as he turned left into Collett Way. A few moments later, they followed, and then stopped. Rebecca glanced at the map, then turned to Josh –
‘Take the second right, Dean Way, then stop and let me out.’
He did so. She opened the door. ‘Turn round and wait for me here.’
She got out and turned right, back into Collett Way. Ran lightly to the junction with Hawksworth Way, looked behind, then went down on her knees and peered cautiously round the corner…
There was Herry’s car, about a hundred yards away. She watched as he got out, looked around, walked a little way along the road away from her, came back and looked around again.
Then, in her earpiece, she heard a phone ring and saw Herry stoop and pick something up from beside the fence and put it to his ear… She heard him say, ‘Yes.’ He listened for a few moments, then put the phone in his pocket, crossed the road and walked away from her about fifty yards before turning left. She took out her transmitter and switched over to Brigg.
‘Can you see where he is?’ she asked him.
Brigg’s voice came clearly into the earpiece: ‘He’s turned into Gooch Way and seems to be walking to the end of it.’
‘Where does it go?’
‘Uhh… seems to become a track, then go over a canal bridge. After that, there’s just wasteland between the canal and the river.’
‘They’ll be somewhere in there, then. I’m going to have to follow him.’
‘Careful not to be seen.’
She switched back to Herry, ran back to the car and studied the map again… ‘Josh – go right into Collett way, then right again into Hawksworth. Slowly…’
As they approached Herry’s car, she said, ‘Now, left here, Armstrong Way, then take the second right into Hackworth Way – that should bring us to where he went…’
He stopped just before they got to Gooch Way. She got out, ran swiftly up to the junction, went onto her knees again and peered round…
The streetlights interfered with her vision, but after a moment, she could make out Herry standing on the bridge - then she heard his phone ring again, and again heard him say, ‘Yes.’ Then, ‘You mean the one of top of the building?’
On top of the building? What building? The only light she could see was on the skyline… then Herry started walking again, towards it… must be a marker…
She switched to Brigg and he told her that he seemed to be walking in a straight line across the wasteland.
She switched back in time to hear Herry fall and swear, then ran to the car.
‘I’m going to follow him,’ she told Josh. ‘Keep listening and be ready to come if I call you.’ She told him as much as she could about the terrain, then went back to the junction. Peered round again. Nothing.
Keeping as close as she could to the chain link fence, she followed the road until it became a track. Once out of the light, she could see the bridge clearly in the moonlight. She realised that with the streetlamps behind her, she’d be seen when she got to the top of the bridge, so as she approached it, she went down on her belly and crawled across.
As she reached the shadows on the other side, she faintly heard in the earpiece the words: ‘Over here.’ A moment later, another voice said: ‘Keep going.’
They’d made contact, their attention would be on Herry now… she slowly got to her feet and started walking across the wasteland... heard the conversation as Herry handed over the diamonds…
‘Ahh – ‘ Herry’s cry was followed by the phuts of the silenced handgun… Oh no…
She started running, ran till she reached the band of trees, stopped, called Brigg –
‘Did you hear that?’
‘Yes. Not good.’
‘Can you see where he is?’
‘Let me enlarge it… he’s moving very slowly… seems to be in the river…’
‘What about the diamonds?’
‘They’ve… crossed to the other bank…’
She ran along the side of the copse until she reached the river, stopped…
The moon lit the surface quite clearly, but she couldn’t see anything – wait – a darker shadow, about fifty yards downriver –
She started running again, pulled up as she came abreast of it and peered… a log…? Then she saw a feeble splash and made out the shape of a head – she snatched at her transmitter –
‘Josh – get over here as quickly as you can – he’s in the river and I’m going in to get him.’
She put it down on the bank, pulled off her coat and pullover and kicked off her shoes… Took a deep breath and stepped into the water –
Oh my God… the shock of the cold was worse than anything she’d imagined – I can’t do it… but she forced her arms and legs into a clumsy breast stroke towards the shadow… reached it –
Herry, unconscious, clinging to a piece of wood…
He wouldn’t let go and she had to prise his hands away before turning and kicking for the bank on her back holding him in front of her…
He made no sound. She looked behind… still fifteen yards to go – fuck - keep going…
Please soon… oh please soon… oh please soon…
At last, she felt her head nudging into the reeds by the bank – she grabbed his collar, turned, felt her feet touch bottom – mud, but fairly firm, thank God – clutched at the sodden reeds and began hauling herself out while still keeping hold of him…
Made it… turned, got her hands under his armpits and heaved…
Understood the term deadweight – Oh, please don’t let him be dead…
His shoulders came slowly over the bank, then his body, bum, legs… feet. She dropped him and stood up – Where’s Josh ?
The roar of the engine and lights weaving crazily over the wasteland maybe a hundred yards off... thank God they’d taken a four-by-four...
She jumped up and down, shouting and waving; then, shivering violently, knelt beside Herry...
Blood running down his face – good or bad?
Couldn’t see any on his body… Was he breathing? Couldn’t tell…
Ring an ambulance? No, quicker to take him themselves.
She jumped up and down again until the headlights blinded her and it stopped beside her…
‘Christ, Bex – you OK?’
‘Just g-get him into th
e b-back…’
She opened the door and helped Josh pick him up and roughly thrust him on the back seat, slammed the door –
‘T-turn round, g-gotta get transmitter –’ And my dry coat…
She ran back up the bank, thought she must have missed it... No, there... fuck, she must have gone a long way down…
She grabbed them as Josh pulled up beside her, she opened the back door, pushed them in, crawled in on top of them and slammed the door.
‘Hospital, fast as you can – and turn that f-fuckin’ heater onto full…’ She took a breath, clamped her mouth over Herry’s and blew…
Nasty bubbling sound…
Keep going… breathe in… blow out… in… out…
He didn’t move.
She looked up… they were bumping around and hadn’t got far... she had an idea… Another breath and blow, then she found the transmitter and called Brigg…
‘T-Tell an ambulance to meet us in C-collett W-way…’
‘Have you got him?’
‘Yeah – d-dunno if he’s alive, though – jus’ do it!’
She went back to her blowing as the four-by-four bucked and reared and swerved across the wasteland…
Breathe, blow… their teeth knocked together – how obscene if he was dead…
She pushed the thought away and blew…
Then Josh found a track and they went a bit faster... still had to swerve about –
‘Fuckin’ ditch… where did I cross it… Ah!’
He roared across, then onto the track and they nearly took off over the canal bridge… roared up Gooch Way, onto Hawksworth as she heard the ambulance siren… breathe, blow…
Then Josh screeched round the corner and they saw it ahead… drew up to it and Rebecca jumped out –
‘He’s in here, he’s been shot and then been in the river five, ten minutes,’ she gabbled…
‘It’s all right, we’ll take him now…’
They eased him out, got him into the ambulance –
‘Are you all right, Miss?’
‘I’m fine – just go!’
They went. She climbed into the front of the four-by-four.
‘Go to Brigg.’
‘Sure you shouldn’t have gone with them?’
‘Bit fuckin’ late now, isn’t it?’ Then, ‘I’m fine.’
She called Brigg, told him they were coming in, then pulled off her wet clothes and struggled into her jumper and coat. Saw Josh trying not to look.
‘Just keep driving, pervo.’
*
Brigg had sent Greg and Naomi to shadow the diamonds, which were still moving, then told Stella and Dan to check the riverbank where the backpack bug was still bleeping.
Greg and Naomi were cautiously closing in on the diamonds when, without warning, the signal from the bleepers faded and died. Brigg told them to carefully approach the spot where they had last been detected.
They found it on a straight stretch of country road. There was absolutely nothing there...
Dan and Stella negotiated their way over the wasteland and stopped by the trees. They got out with their torches and found the path.
In the clearing were the backpack, a dead body, and a lot of blood. The body, a man, had been shot several times. They shone their torches across the river and saw a rowing boat half pulled up the opposite bank.
*
The next day at midday, the whole team assembled to take stock.
Herry Smith was still in a coma – whether from the bullet that had creased his skull or hypothermic shock, the ward staff didn’t know.
Fingerprints from the body in the clearing had showed that he had been Darryl Lane, a bouncer cum thug-for-hire. He still had a gun in his hand, from which one shot had been fired, leading to the conclusion that it had been he who’d shot Herry, just before the other man had shot him.
‘The question is – why?’ Brigg asked, looking round. ‘Is the other man the one behind all this, the one who killed the four we found in the flat? Or was he taking orders from that person?’
‘Or not as the case may be,’ Josh put in.
‘Or not…’ Brigg repeated…
‘What about the two you picked up on Thursday?’ Stella said, referring to Marc and Sophie, who’d been re-arrested the evening of the outbreak. ‘D’you think it’s one of them, or both?’
‘I don’t know,’ Brigg said softly. ‘If it’s is, they’re a brilliant actor, or actors. And they obviously weren’t at the river.’
Rebecca, who’d been deep in thought, looked up. ‘D’you remember when Herry was attacked a couple of weeks ago at the hospital? Could it be the same two?’
‘Very likely.’
‘We never did work out any reason for that, did we?’
‘Do you have one now?’
‘What if they were trying to kill him then, before they were interrupted?’
‘Then why not just shoot him outside?’
After a short silence, Greg said, ‘Still nothing useful from the van?’
Brigg shook his head. ‘Too thoroughly burnt out.’
A van had been found abandoned and fired in a lay-by on the same road a mile and a half from where they’d heard the last signal from the fake diamond. The remains of a microwave oven had been found in the back.
Brigg went on, ‘London have confirmed that microwaves will very effectively screw up the bugs. He obviously stopped, put the container in the oven, turned it on, then drove away while it was cooking.’
A burned adaptor and lead had also been found in the van.
‘He must’ve had a car waiting for him in the lay-by, probably driven by the poor sap he shot,’ Josh mused.
Rebecca said, ‘D’you think he deliberately stopped Lane from killing Herry?’
‘I can’t see why he should’ve cared one way or the other.’
Josh said, ‘Boss – what about checking Lane’s known associates?’
‘In hand. But I can’t help thinking that this bloke’s a bit cleverer than Lane’s usual hang-abouts.’
‘Certainly more ruthless,’ Greg put in. Then, ‘Boss – what about telling the two you arrested about the shooting? About Lane, I mean – if it wasn’t on the script, you might get a reaction from one of them.’
‘That might be worth thinking about,’ Brigg said…
Forensic were still combing the clearing, the boat and the remains of the van, but no one was tingling with anticipation. The only good news was that the smallpox outbreak seemed to be under control, although Gibb would be maintaining the quarantine for a while yet.
Chapter 38
Otherworld again, only more so.
I was feeling quite well established there this time, so that when the call came to go back, I was able to ignore it for a while. Or at least, that’s my impression.
But then I began to realise that the noises I was hearing belonged to back there, and slowly but steadily, like a fisherman who knows his line won’t break, back there reeled me back in.
‘Herry, can you hear me? Can you hear me? It’s Redd…’
Redd, my brother. Ethelred, who, unsurprisingly, had shortened his name using the latter part of it. I opened my eyes and he slowly materialised.
‘Where am I?’ As I said it, I knew – there’s only one place where your bed is surrounded by bleeping machinery and you’ve got an IV drip in your arm. ‘How did I get here?’
‘Don’t you remember?’
I shook my head – ‘Ah! That hurt…’ Redd looked round at the person beside him – Roland – then back at me... ‘What’s the last thing you can remember?’
…Couldn’t remember anything… then something came through – finding a baby, and a load of dead bodies… a hidden lab – smallpox – Oh Christ…
‘Is Sarah all right?’
He looked at Roland again, then back at me. ‘No Herry, I’m afraid she isn’t.’
‘She’s not dead.’ I said it as a statement.
‘I’m so sorry Herry, but s
he is.’
I slapped my hands over my eyes and howled – ‘Oh no no no…’ After a time, Redd touched my arm… I got myself under control and slowly turned my head to him.
He said, ‘Your daughter’s all right, though.’
‘ … My daughter… Grace?’
Another nod. ‘She’s fine.’
I looked at Roland and said in an almost normal voice, ‘What happened?’
‘It was fulminant, Herry. Like that poor girl from the shop.’
‘When?’
‘Yesterday. You’ve been out for three days.’
‘Was she asking for me?’
He shook his head. ‘It was very quick. Soaring temperature, rash, coma, gone. She didn’t suffer.’
There was a silence while I tried to absorb it. Then, very calmly, I said, ‘I’d like you both to leave me alone for a little while, please. Jus’ so that I can get used to it.’
Again, they looked at each other, then Redd said, ‘We’ll do that Herry – but I’m going to look in on you in… five, ten minutes.’
‘I’m not going to top myself if that’s what you’re worried about.’
They got up, left. The door clicked behind them. Thank God I had a room to myself. Insiders’ perks.
I thought: I’m a widower. How very, very strange. I thought I was going to be a divorcee, but instead, I’m a widower. ‘ Course, divorcees- they’re two a penny… but a widower, now that’s class…
And with that, I started crying. Not loudly. In fact, silently at first. I felt the water running down my face, heard a rather pathetic whimpering noise – knew it was me, of course – no one else around…
Then I was weeping openly, hoping Redd wouldn’t come back in, glad when he did. He didn’t say anything at first, just pulled out some tissues and stuffed them into my hands, then sat beside me and said quietly,
‘Let it come, Herry, just let it come.’ We’re not a particularly tactile family.
At last, it meandered to a stop.
‘Better?’ he said, and I nodded.
After a silence, he said, ‘I’d no idea that you two had got together again.’
‘Ironic, isn’t it?’
‘Ironic, but good.’
‘Good?’
‘Means your marriage was a success, not a failure. That’s something worth having, especially with your daughter.’
Bad Medicine- A Life for a Life; Bed of Nails; Going Viral Page 61