The Conspiracy 4

by Jack Probyn

  A few minutes later, a police car pulled in behind him.

  Bridger, Jake thought, opening the door while keeping his eyes on the rear-view mirror. Then he slipped out and scurried towards the saloon. At the same time, Bridger alighted his vehicle. As the two of them met in between the cars, a uniformed officer whom Jake didn’t recognise stepped out from Bridger’s and joined them.

  ‘All right?’ Bridger asked, nodding.

  ‘All right,’ Jake replied amicably. He was willing to be professional so long as Bridger was.

  ‘Been waiting long?’

  ‘Long enough.’

  ‘Sorry. We had to come a long way. Traffic’s a bitch right now as well.’ Bridger hesitated. ‘You heard from Pemberton?’ He leant against the front wheel arch and looked as though he was itching for a cigarette – playing with his thumbs, putting his hand in his mouth.

  Jake shook his head.

  ‘She’s on her way down now. She’s bringing Candice with her.’

  ‘Come again?’

  ‘With the intention of finding the key,’ Bridger finished. ‘Her and one of the bomb squad guys are coming down here now. They’ve quarantined her in the back.’

  ‘I don’t know how I feel about that,’ Jake said, moving closer to his stationary car.

  ‘It doesn’t matter how you feel about it,’ Bridger said. ‘Because you don’t get a say. None of us do.’

  Jake stormed off to his car and opened his driver’s-side door.

  ‘Where are you going?’ Bridger asked, rushing to his side.

  ‘Where do you think? We’re not going to find The Crimsons by standing around waiting for them to come to us.’ Jake sat in the car and, as he tried to pull the door shut, Bridger’s arm stopped him.

  ‘We’re going together,’ Bridger said, pushing the door out of Jake’s reach. ‘Guv’s orders. I don’t like it any more than you. Now leave this here and get in the back of my car.’

  Jake’s frustration multiplied. I don’t need babysitting. He gritted his teeth.

  ‘Orders are orders,’ Bridger added. Jake could see the satisfaction the senior officer was getting from ordering him around, and it was beginning to antagonise him even more.

  Jake conceded defeat, removed the keys from the ignition and stepped out of the car. He followed Bridger to his vehicle and sat in the back.

  ‘Where to?’ he asked.

  Before either the officer in the front or Bridger had a chance to respond, the radio on the dashboard sounded, taking Jake by surprise.

  ‘Echo Bravo four-five, Echo Bravo four-five from Lima Golf, over.’

  Bridger reached for the radio and held it against his lips. ‘Lima Golf, Lima Golf, this is Echo Bravo four-five, go ahead, over.’

  ‘Echo Bravo, we’ve got a positive ANPR hit on the registration for the stolen Audi. Last ping was less than twenty minutes ago. The car was last seen situated in the Harbour Car Park, Havant Street, Papa-Oscar-one, three-Echo-Alpha. Are you able to attend with armed support? Over,’ said the robotic-sounding individual on the other end of the line.

  ‘Lima Golf, we’re on the way. Will report back when we arrive, over.’

  ‘Echo Bravo, received, thank you, over.’

  | EPISODE 4 |

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  DISEMBARK

  The bus pulled in front of them sharply, pistons hissing and brakes shrieking. The momentum caused by the sudden halt propelled the other passengers forward in their seats. Danny, Luke and Michael stood in a line waiting for the X4 from Portsmouth Harbour to Southampton Port via Fareham. They were at the back of the queue, allowing the elderly couples and young families to board first. The less attention they could draw to themselves in this pivotal final stage of their operation, the better. Danny didn’t like to think what a life behind bars would look like. Freddy had told him as much in the letters he’d received from his former leader, but he knew they only scratched the surface; Luke also read those letters, and it was their bond that forced Freddy to play down the brutal realities of prison life. And from what Danny had heard, it made him even more determined to succeed and flee the country.

  It was Danny’s turn to board the bus, and as he stepped up onto the vehicle, he felt as though all eyes were on him. It suddenly made him very conscious of his surroundings, as though everyone inside the bus was an undercover police officer, and they were all just chomping at the bit to apprehend him. Danny dismissed the thought and joined his brothers on the seats towards the back of the bus. As he wandered up the aisle, his bag jostled against the sides of chairs and other passengers’ shoulders. Panic struck him as the jingles of the diamonds and other pieces of jewellery inside the bag turned a few heads his way. But then he remembered that no one knew who they were, nobody knew their faces, nobody had seen them before. Danny rushed to the seat and sat beside Luke, with Michael on the other side of the aisle.

  As soon as the bus pulled off, Danny’s shoulders relaxed. He knew the bus timetable off by heart; as part of their preparations, he’d tested the running time of the journey: ninety minutes. Which left them with just half an hour to get their things together and board the boat. It was cutting it fine, but everything had been calculated to the final moments. They couldn’t afford for any mistakes.

  As Danny sat there wistfully staring at the yellow metal pole in front of him, his thoughts turned to Candice, and how every part of him was grateful that she wasn’t there. For all he cared, she could be several thousand miles away and he wouldn’t lose any of sleep over it. Or, even better, she could be six feet under… where she deserved to be.

  In the first quarter of an hour, the majority of the passengers on board disembarked before they’d even left Portsmouth, and as they merged onto the wider lanes heading out of the city, and as the driver began to open up the throttle, Danny felt more at ease. They were inconspicuous, just a group of lads hitching a bus ride. Nothing to look at or pay attention to.

  Except something concerned him.

  Luke.

  His brother’s attention was focused on the window and had been ever since they’d set off. His face was ashen and pensive.

  Danny nudged him earnestly.

  ‘You good?’ he whispered.

  Keeping his gaze fixed on the window, Luke replied, ‘I’m worried about her.’ His voice was so low that it was almost inaudible.

  ‘I told you she’d be fine. With any luck, mate, she’ll probably be waiting for us by the time we arrive, you get me?’

  Luke said nothing. Danny took the moment to observe his brother and marvel at how much he had grown – physically, mentally and emotionally. At how much he had become an adult within the space of a few years. And at how much he loved him. The man beside him had, in recent months, become exactly that. A man. He had matured and begun to show some independence, something he’d never been able to do when Freddy was in control of them.

  ‘You’ve done well today, Luke,’ Danny said. ‘Dad would have been proud.’

  ‘Dad?’ Luke said, his voice turning agitated. ‘What do you mean, “dad”? Dad wouldn’t have been proud even if he knew what we were up to.’

  ‘What makes you say that? Whenever he was back from serving, he always put you first.’ Danny kept his voice low, lest any other passengers overhear and take it upon themselves to listen in. ‘What else has Candice been telling you about him?’

  Luke swallowed before responding. ‘She told me he was never there. He left when I was three. Flew off to Afghanistan to be with some Arab woman.’

  Danny chuckled in disbelief. It was laughable, the lengths that Candice would go to in order to deceive Luke and win him over. ‘You’re fucking joking, right? You’ve got to be kidding me. How can you turn around and say that Michael and I have lied to you all your life?’

  ‘I’m not—’

  ‘That’s exactly what you’re saying. You’re believing the woman who claims to be your mother – the woman you’ve met fewer times than the number of fingers on your hand. She�
�s known you for two seconds – of course she’s going to feed you stories you want to hear. And you lapped it up, didn’t you?’

  Danny turned to face Michael beside him. ‘Are you hearing this?’

  ‘What’s that?’

  Danny scoffed. ‘This idiot believes the things that woman’s been telling him about our dad. He listens to her stories over ours. She has no clue what she’s talking about. If he was here to defend himself, he’d—’

  ‘But he’s not here, is he? Do you know where he is? I don’t?’ Luke snapped. ‘He hasn’t been there all my life.’

  ‘He’s more than half the man she claims him to be though.’

  Around them, heads started to turn in their direction; he was aware they were raising their voices, but now he also realised that they were also raising suspicion.

  Luke reached into his pocket, produced his wallet and removed a small photo. On it was a heavily pixelated image of a dark-haired man with a thick, shaggy beard. His eyes were as dark as his hair, and they were cavernous, never-ending.

  Danny hardly recognised the man in the photo.

  ‘What’s this?’ Danny snatched the picture from Luke and inspected it. ‘This ain’t him.’

  ‘Yes, it is. Mum gave it to me. It was the last photo she ever had of him.’

  ‘This man’s a pussy. Look at him with his stud earring. This isn’t him. Ours was a hero. A fucking hero.’ Danny clenched his hand into a fist, scrunched the photo in his grip and dropped it. Then he removed his wallet from his pocket. As he pulled it out, the fourth key tumbled out and landed on the floor by his feet. At that moment, the coach seemed to go silent, and the unmistakable sound of a metal key bouncing on the plastic floor deafened them.

  Danny reached his arm out, but Luke beat him to it.

  ‘What is…’ Luke began as he inspected the key. ‘No…’

  ‘Luke—’

  ‘No!’

  ‘Luke, listen—’

  ‘No!’ Luke shook his head viciously, and his voice turned deep, almost demonic. ‘No! No! No!’

  Luke shoved Danny in the chest. The sudden and brute force winded him.

  ‘No!’ Luke screamed.

  By now, others in the coach had turned round and were glaring at them both.

  ‘What’s going on?’ Michael asked, leaning across the aisle.

  ‘Nothing,’ Danny said. He tried to placate Luke by placing an arm around his body and concealing the key with his other hand, but both efforts were pointless. Luke had no intention of calming down – not after what he had just realised.

  ‘Luke,’ Michael said, ‘Luke – listen to me! Shut up and listen.’ Michael grabbed Luke by the wrist and, almost instantly, the youngest brother froze. ‘You’re causing a scene, and you better fucking stop it right now. What’s the matter with you?’

  Luke shook off both Danny and Michael and brandished the key in the air. The sunlight from outside the bus reflected off the key’s darkened surface.

  Before Danny could say anything, Michael spoke first. ‘Is that what I think it is?’

  ‘Yes,’ Luke said, nodding. ‘This cunt betrayed us. He betrayed Candice. He’s left her there to die.’

  ‘Oh my God,’ Michael said. ‘You told us you’d left it on the airfield—’

  Danny snatched the key from Luke and locked it in his grip. ‘Boys—’

  ‘You lied to us. You said she was going to join us at the port, but you knew all along that was never going to happen, didn’t you?’ Michael said.

  ‘Listen—’

  ‘No. You listen,’ Luke said, shoving his finger in front of Danny’s face. He hissed as he spoke. ‘Do you know what you’ve done? You’ve killed your own mum.’

  ‘She was already dead to me,’ Danny replied, pocketing the key in his jeans.

  ‘But she wasn’t to me. And she wasn’t to Micky. We were going to restart our lives together, make up for all the time we’d lost, and you’ve taken that away from us. You selfish bastard.’ Luke’s eyes turned black with hatred.

  ‘What else have you lied about? What else aren’t you telling us, Dan?’ Michael said, bringing his voice down to a hush.

  ‘Nothing—’

  ‘Bullshit!’ Luke blurted out. ‘You’re a fucking liar and you always have been.’

  As soon as Luke finished, the bus skidded to a halt and dipped to the front left. The three brothers stopped and looked ahead. There was no one standing at the front of the vehicle, waiting to disembark.

  ‘Off! The lot of you, off!’ the bus driver called back. He stared at them in the rear-view mirror and pointed to the doors as they opened with an eerie hiss.

  Nobody said anything, and Danny felt all eyes boring into him.

  ‘I said get off!’ the bus driver barked.

  ‘It’s fine. Honestly. We won’t do anything. We’ve stopped.’

  ‘This bus isn’t going anywhere until at least one of you gets off. Otherwise I’m calling the police.’

  Both Michael and Luke glared at him. He knew their intentions, but he wasn’t going to concede defeat that easily. He had hundreds of thousands of pounds’ worth of jewellery in his bag that he wanted to smuggle out of the country – and more waiting for him at the port. There was no way he was going to miss that opportunity.

  As Danny opened his mouth to argue back, Michael hefted his share of the loot from the seat beside him and stood. He stepped into the aisle and stopped beside Danny’s knee; Danny clenched his bag between his legs.

  ‘Come on, Luke. Let’s get out of here,’ Michael said.

  ‘No. Stay here, we—’

  Luke leapt up from the seat and barged into Danny’s legs, trying to pass through.

  ‘No,’ Danny said. ‘I won’t let you go. Luke – you have to stay here.’

  Luke eventually shuffled past and joined Michael’s side. ‘No, Danny, I don’t. I don’t have to do anything you tell me. I don’t have to listen to you anymore. I’ve had enough of you. I wish you weren’t my brother.’

  ‘What are you going to do now, eh? You can’t do anything? You can’t go anywhere. I’m the one with the tickets.’

  ‘So long as we’re without you, we’ll be fine no matter where we are. I’m sorry it’s come to this, Dan,’ Michael said.

  Without saying anything else, Michael and Luke turned and strode off the bus, keeping their backs to him as the driver pulled away.

  | EPISODE 4 |

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  ASSUMPTIONS

  Bridger brought the car to a stop twenty yards from the Harbour Car Park. With them was a convoy of armed support in the back of a van. In the centre of the car park was the stolen Audi. The front bumper was smashed; one of the headlights was missing, the metal bent; and the bonnet had crumpled under impact. The car was written off, and the passenger-side door had been left open.

  ‘They must have left in a hurry,’ Bridger said as he climbed out of the vehicle.

  Jake and Smithers followed, and then all three stopped by the front of the car as they watched the armed support alight from the van. There, they received instructions to remain where they were while the firearms team approached the abandoned Audi for any signs of life or threat. It was clear to all of them that they were under Hampshire Police’s control now.

  A minute later, Jake, Bridger and Smithers were given the all-clear.

  Before they were allowed to investigate the Audi for themselves, they changed into their forensic suits. Bridger was the first to the car. He rounded the front and stopped by the opened passenger door.

  ‘What can you see?’ Jake asked as he edged closer to the vehicle.

  Bridger reached in, out of Jake’s sight, and removed something. At first, he couldn’t see what it was, but then, as Bridger shuffled around the vehicle, the object came into view.

  ‘The mask,’ Jake whispered. In Bridger’s hand was the insidious mask that had been a source of his own nightmares for weeks following The Crimsons’ last heist in Oxford. It invoked fear and horr
or in him every time he saw it.

  ‘I think we can finally confirm it’s The Crimsons,’ Bridger said.

  ‘You mean you think you can finally confirm it’s The Crimsons. The rest of us have known all along.’

  Bridger ignored Jake and continued. ‘We’re close. We can’t be too far behind.’

  Jake took another step closer to the vehicle and looked through the window. Bullet casings were scattered along the floor, and a few jewels and crystals were buried in the seams of the seats from where they’d fallen out of their bags.

  ‘Do you know if the officer they shot is OK?’ Jake asked.

  ‘Sedated,’ Smithers said by Jake’s side. ‘Heavily sedated. They caught him in the side of neck, but someone got pressure on it quickly, helped him until the ambulance showed up – he was lucky.’

  As soon as he finished speaking, a flurry of liveried police cars skidded to a halt on the outskirts of the perimeter that had been set up. It was another patrol from Hampshire Police. Joining them, from the back, was an unmarked car. Two officers disembarked and patrolled towards them.

  ‘What’s going on here?’ one of the uniformed officers asked them. From the way he spoke and the presence he held over the rest of the team, it was clear to Jake that he was the officer in command.

  ‘DS Bridger. Surrey Police,’ Bridger replied.

  ‘We have no need for you here, Sergeant. My team and I can handle this. Let them do their jobs. If I need you, I’ll catch up with you in a minute.’

  Bridger nodded and smiled graciously in defeat. From the short amount of time that Jake had spent with Bridger, he knew that that was going to hurt his senior’s ego, even if it was the procedure to follow Hampshire Police’s orders from here on.

  Deciding that he’d had enough of arguing for an afternoon, Jake stepped to the side and started back to Bridger’s car. As he reached the passenger-side, his mobile rang.

  ‘Hello?’

  ‘Jake.’ It was Danika. ‘I was looking into the tickets for the ferry in Portsmouth. They’re all purchased under their Cipriano name. All through the same credit card. They were all registered to the same address in Guildford, near the university – we’ve organised a team from the office to search the address.’