“And you planned this?” Holden asked, looking at me. Fury laced his words as control of the situation slipped from his hands.
“She asked me to trust her, and I decided to do so,” I said. “I guess it paid off.”
“One of Callum’s people made it up here after you called a cease-fire,” Lena continued. “I gave Finn to her while you were all fighting, and she’s got him on a boat to Tain where his mother and the rest of the Inverness Police will be waiting.”
“It’s over, Holden,” I said. “With Lena’s confession and Finn’s statement, we’ve got enough to put you and all your people here away for a long time. All that’s left for you to do is release Haruto as well.”
“You can try,” Holden sneered. Even beaten and bleeding, he managed to come across as condescending.
“I certainly will,” I promised. “Now where’s Haruto?”
“On his way to London by now,” Holden sneered.
I took a threatening step forward. “He better not be.”
“He’s downstairs,” Harris interrupted as Holden prepared to insult me once again. “In a study off the library.”
Holden’s eyes practically bulged out of his head, his face turning a bright red. “How dare you!” He tried to rise out of his chair, but the pain from his wound was too much, and he fell back again. “I pay you!”
“I’m not going to jail for you!” Harris shot back as fury crawled over Holden and Elias’s faces.
“And the cache you took from the Castle of Old Wick?” I asked Harris.
“In the safe under his desk. The combination should be 36-22-90.”
What a helpful criminal.
“Thomas Holden, you are under arrest for kidnapping and theft. You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence if you do not mention something when questioned which you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence.”
I pushed Harris aside and approached the desk, unhooking the handcuffs from my belt. The room broke. Holden’s once-loyal employees bolted for the door, Elias at the head of the pack. Fletcher tripped up Harris, and MacGowan tackled the woman with the curly hair, but the others managed to leap out the door and disappear down the hall. Hopefully, my team was outside and ready to round them up.
Holden didn’t resist when I clapped the restraints on him, but he did give me a look that promised a painful and lingering revenge. I just smiled at him.
“This is MacBain,” I said into my radio once he and the others were secure. “We’ve got Holden, and Finn is safe. Nab any stragglers you can and call for cleanup. Over.”
“We’ve got a team waiting in Tain,” Reid replied. “They’ve got Finn, and they’re sending boats over now to help transport everyone. Over.”
“Good work, you guys. When--”
“Got to go, sir!” Reid interrupted. “Some bogeys just came out of the building! Don’t worry. We’ll get them.”
I had no doubt my team could handle them, so I dropped the radio to the chair behind me and let out a deep breath. Exhaustion flooded my body, making my vision swim for a moment. Lena approached me cautiously and reached out to touch my elbow, her fingers hesitating just before they made contact.
“Are we… okay?”
“Surprisingly, yes,” I said and smiled to reassure her. I pushed Holden’s chair aside and crouched painfully in front of the metal safe that was tucked under the desk.
“Well, I’m not okay!” Fletcher cut in, folding her arms over her chest. “Why the hell didn’t you tell me?”
“I honestly wasn’t sure if I would be able to keep the act up,” I said. “I didn’t want to add another factor to the deceit. I’m sorry.”
Fletcher shrugged and punched me in the shoulder. “I forgive you.” She narrowed her eyes in Lena’s direction and jabbed a finger at the other woman. “I’ll be keeping a close eye on you, though.”
Lena laughed, but the sound quickly died away when she realized Fletcher was deadly serious. “What about Finn’s father?” she asked, looking over my shoulder.
We all turned to look at MacGowan, who was in the process of trying to sneak out the door. He froze with one foot in the air and gave us a sheepish grin.
“As far as I’m concerned, MacGowan escaped in the chaos,” I said and winked at him.
MacGowan nodded to me and ran off, his black-clad form disappearing down the stairs. He would have to get himself off an island full of police officers scouring every rock and bush for people to arrest, but I wanted to repay him for coming to our aid, even if he had made everything worse for a hot second. And I wanted to give him a chance to reconnect with his son, and he couldn’t do that if he was in prison.
I spun the knob a couple of times, and the safe’s lock clicked, allowing me to swing the door open. A leather sack lay inside, looking remarkably drab. I was a little disappointed. I’d expected it to be golden and shining or something. I plucked the bag out of the safe and loosened the drawstrings to peer inside, Fletcher crowding in close to get a peek as well.
It was mostly coins, mottled green with age, the etchings on either side barely visible. There was a corroded metal blade, several banded bracelets pounded into shape by a long-ago hammer, and an axe head carved with swirls and knotwork.
“Cool,” Fletcher said.
I tightened the strings again and gathered the last dregs of my energy, breathing deeply to wipe the exhaustion from my face as I slipped Lena’s note back into my pocket and passed Fletcher her phone.
“Up,” I said to Holden, and when he didn’t move, I grabbed his uninjured arm and hauled him upright. “All of you, outside.”
Fletcher corralled our other two prisoners out the office and all the way down through the building to the door to the outside. A forensics team would sweep this entire place for evidence, but that wasn’t my problem. Maybe they would even find some other artefacts we could return to their proper owners.
I peeled off from the group in the library to finish the search for Haruto. I tried every door until I came across one that was locked. I knocked lightly. “Mr Sato? Are you in there? This is Callum MacBain.”
A pause, then Haruto’s frightened voice filtered through the door. “DCI MacBain?”
“Stand back, okay? I’m going to shoot the lock.”
I heard his feet scuff across the floor, and when I judged he’d had enough time to move away, I raised my gun and fired just under the doorknob, the shot extra loud in the silent building.
The door swung open at my touch, revealing a brightly lit room. It was sparsely decorated, a table and couch the only pieces of furniture, and it looked like Holden had already started stockpiling everything Haruto would need to continue his project. Haruto himself crouched behind the sofa, hiding from my gunshot. He had a black eye and a scrape on his chin, but he otherwise looked unharmed. He stood slowly, clutching that leather satchel to his chest, and stepped towards me.
“Is it… Did you get them?”
“I did,” I said and waved him towards the door. “It’s over. Let’s get you out of here.”
“DC Fawkes had just gotten back with dinner,” Haruto explained as he made his way over to me, walking as if he thought the floor might collapse beneath him at any moment. “A bunch of people jumped her and forced their way into my apartment. Collins tried to stop them, but they overwhelmed him. I tried to run. I didn’t get very far.” Haruto shuddered as we crossed the library floor, weaving in between the bookshelves. “They made me retrieve my manuscript, and then they brought you here.”
“Do you still have it?” I asked. We descended to the ground floor, passing through the den.
Haruto slipped the manuscript from his satchel, secure in its sealed plastic. “I still don’t understand what they wanted with me.”
“They wanted that manuscript,” I said. He put it away before we stepped outside, squeezing past the tumbled chest Fletcher and I had used as a barricade. “Either one of their clientele found it, or they heard ab
out its discovery. Either way, they wanted you to restore it so they could sell it for a higher price. They were watching you to make sure that happened. When they realized we were onto them, they decided to nab you and force you to complete the job under their watchful eye.” I gave him what I hoped was a reassuring smile. “But you don’t have to worry about them any more.”
The rain had finally stopped, and the clouds had pushed off, leaving the night sky full of stars. My team had rounded up nine of Holden’s employees. They knelt on the ground, hands bound behind their backs, while the officers watched over them. Fletcher had just finished adding Holden, Harris, and the curly-haired woman to the line, pushing them down beside Sarah who had a makeshift bandage around her shoulder. Elias was not among them. There was a vaguely sick expression on Lena’s face as her eyes roved the dark, searching for him.
I led Haruto over to the group. Reid was busy binding a strip of cloth around Holden’s arm to staunch the flow of blood until we could hand him over to the paramedics.
“Are you hurt?” I asked Haruto, but he shook his head, eyes wide as he looked over the assortment of criminals arrayed before us.
“Does anyone have any food?” Fletcher asked, and I laughed. I was starving, too, my stomach like a vast black hole clamouring for attention.
“I could eat five burgers right now,” I said, “and a pound of chips.”
“I want ice cream,” Fletcher said, “along with half a dozen scones.”
“I could go for an entire boatload of pasta,” Lena added, though she sounded hesitant as if she wasn’t sure if we would allow her to join in on the conversation.
“We’ll have to get Italian when we go out,” I decided.
She gave me a shocked look. “You still want to do that?”
“Yeah, I mean, maybe we can start over?” I scratched at the back of my head, and Lena beamed.
“I’d like that.”
Fletcher sidled up to her and leaned in so close her nose was practically touching Lena’s cheek. “Watching you,” she whispered.
Lena turned white.
A boat honked, and I spotted several bright lights approaching across the water. Four large speed boats docked at the small marina by the front of the estate, and Fletcher and I went to help secure lines before the extra officers jumped down and began to access the scene, Dunnel among them.
“Sir,” I said when I spotted him. The three of us stood on the narrow wooden dock while the others tramped across the island and began to secure the prisoners properly. “Is Finn safe?”
“Yes. Holmes brought him across. Ms Wair insisted on coming along when we told her what was happening tonight, so they’ve been reunited. She was overjoyed.” Dunnel smiled at the memory, and the expression took years off his usually severe face. He glanced at Haruto. “I’m glad to see Mr Sato is safe as well.”
Haruto gave him a little wave.
“I’d like to see them if I could,” I said.
Dunnel clapped me on the shoulder. “I’m sure she’ll want to thank you both. But that and your debrief can wait until tomorrow. You two look like you’re ready to drop. Good work. You’ve done the department proud.”
Part of me wanted to stick around and see everything wrapped up, but I trusted Dunnel to process Holden and the others, and he was right: I was ready to drop. I relinquished the bag full of Viking treasures to him, and then Lena, Fletcher, Haruto, and I found a constable to ferry us over to Tain, using one of the small boats we’d chartered earlier since the others would need the larger boats to transport the prisoners and we needed to returned them anyway.
The town of Tain was basically a straight shot south from the island, and in no time, we were climbing stiffly out of the boat and walking towards the fleet of flashing police vehicles waiting for us. It looked like they had already whisked Finn away in an ambulance along with his mother. DC Reed led us towards one of the empty cars, having offered to drive us all home.
Lena tugged my sleeve, and we fell a step or two behind. “Callum, we should talk about all this.”
“I know.” I patted her hand. “Later, though, okay?” If I didn’t sleep soon, I was going to shut down quite literally.
“Later,” Lena agreed.
I slept through most of the ride home. Fletcher sat in the front while Lena, Haruto and I rode in the back, and when the car rolled to a stop outside my apartment, I found that Lena had curled into my side, head tucked on my shoulder. I extracted myself carefully so as not to wake her, clapped Reed on the shoulder to thank him, then climbed out of the car on aching legs. Haruto was still awake, and he watched me go, eyes rimmed red. I doubted he would sleep well for quite a while.
It took me three tries to get the key properly fitted in the lock, but when I finally managed it, I staggered inside and changed out of my dirty clothes. As soon as my head hit the pillow, I was dead to the world.
Twenty-Seven
The next morning, I awoke to the incessant buzzing of my phone, bright shafts of sunlight slicing through the blinds and into my eyes. I groaned, disoriented, and slapped my hand around on the bedside table until it landed on my phone, and I squinted at the screen, struggling to read it with my sleep-blurred eyes.
Dunnel was calling me, and I wondered what the hell he wanted this early in the morning until I realized that it was almost noon. My battery was at two percent, so I put Dunnel on speaker as I hunted around for the cord.
“Hello?” I said as I fumbled the charger into its port.
“I’d love to let you sleep the day away, but we’ve got things to do,” Dunnel said. “Finn and his mother are waiting for you to get here before they make their statement.”
“How long have they been there?” I asked and began to hunt around for trousers.
“A half-hour.”
I felt guilty making them wait for me when they’d already been through so much. “My car’s still in the shop.”
“It’s all fixed up for you,” Dunnel said, and a flash of excitement curled down my spine at the thought of having my own wheels again. “But it’s in the station lot which doesn’t help you much now. I woke Fletcher up first and sent her to pick you up.”
I had a shirt and trousers under my arm and was searching for a pair of socks and my belt. “Great. Apologize to the Wairs for me, will you? And tell them I’ll be there soon.”
“Will do.”
I hung up the phone and finally found the rest of my clothes, tossing them unceremoniously into the bathroom across the hall. I could definitely tell I hadn’t showered the night before, so I let the water warm-up and then took the world’s shortest rinse. It wasn’t nearly enough to get rid of the pervasive chill in my bones, but there was no time to waste. I would just have to make do with the thought of using up all my hot water this evening.
Fletcher honked her horn when I was mostly ready to go. I swiped my only partially charged phone off the table and staggered down the stairs still trying to button my shirt. I walked out of the apartment in only my socks, regretted it instantly as the damp pavement soaked into the fabric, and three my boots into Fletcher’s car before I got in.
Fletcher looked like hell, and I was sure I did, too. That was why I hadn’t looked in the mirror this morning. She had dark bags under her eyes, and her bun was ragged and lopsided as if she hadn’t bothered to redo it after sleeping on it.
“Do you also want to kill Dunnel?” she asked.
“Very much so.”
I stuck my feet in my shoes, glad that I’d managed to grab a different pair than I’d worn the night before since those were no doubt still wet, cold, and smelly.
“I’m going to take next week off,” Fletcher decided. She had dirt caked under her fingernails, and her knuckles were still red and swollen from the fight.
“That sounds like an excellent plan.”
I hadn’t taken a vacation in a while. Maybe this was the perfect time.
Fletcher parked as close to the station doors as she could and killed the e
ngine, resting her head on the steering wheel and closing her eyes for a moment. I knew how she felt. Like she’d been hit by a truck.
We rallied and climbed out of the car. The station was a hive of activity when we entered as every available pair of hands worked hard to process the huge haul of suspects we brought in the night before. I didn’t know how to thank them for all they were doing, especially when I should have been there right along with them but had been fast asleep in my bed instead. Perhaps I’d get them a cake.
Dunnel was on the lookout for Fletcher and me and spotted us the moment we walked through the door. He sat in the break room with Ainslee and Finn, since that was the only room in the station not currently filled with chaos or criminals. The Wairs had their backs to us, but Ainslee hand an arm wrapped tightly around Finn’s hunched form as if she would never let him go.
It would be a hard stretch of time for the two of them. Kids were amazingly resilient, so Finn would bounce back faster than Ainslee and then would begin to chafe beneath her extra safety measures, leading to tension within their home. How much of this ordeal would he remember when he was older? Seven was one of those ages that you either had crystal clear memories of or you remembered nothing at all. It was hard to say if this week would be seared into his mind or if he would repress it, push it aside. Either way, he would never be the same.
Fletcher and I let ourselves in, and I shut the door quietly behind us. Ainslee and Finn sat on the weathered couch that had seen better days, steaming mugs on the table in front of them. Finn was wrapped in as many layers as Ainslee could conceivably fit on him, and he looked a little like he was sweating to death in all those clothes. Ainslee’s eyes were red from crying, but she had a huge smile on her face, and she wouldn’t stop glancing down at Finn just to make sure he was still there.
Buried Secrets (DCI MacBain Scottish Crimes Book 1) Page 21
