by Anna Smith
‘Mum. I was talking to Dad on the phone yesterday and he says he’s coming down to get me. Are you two back together again? I thought you’d have phoned me. I don’t want to go home with Dad.’
A chill ran through her. Knuckles never went to school to pick Tony up. Ever. Only once since Tony had been there had Knuckles come with her to visit him. They’d stayed in a hotel nearby, and taken Tony out for lunch before driving back down the road on the Sunday. If the bastard was driving all the way to the Borders to bring Tony home with him, then he was plotting. But she couldn’t let Tony know her fears.
‘You there, Mum?’
‘Yes, I’m here. I didn’t know your dad was coming down. You know how things are with him and me. He probably just wants to spend some time with you.’
‘Yeah. Doing what though? Hanging around those stupid clubs and stuff. I’m not into that, Mum. Can you not come?’
She bit her lip.
‘Not right away, son. Leave it with me just now, and I’ll make a plan so that we can see each other before you go back.’ She swallowed. ‘I do miss you so much, my love. I really do.’
‘I miss you too, Mum.’
Sharon could hear the crack in his voice and it broke her heart. It always broke her heart that she couldn’t see enough of him, but before she’d left Knuckles she’d at least had a level of control. She could drive up there and see him on her own. She hated herself. She should have thought about Tony before she did a runner. But what could she do? It was either stay there and die, or get the hell as far away from Knuckles as she could. Now the scheming bastard was obviously doing something to get her attention. He’d pay for this. She’d bloody make sure of it.
‘Look, I’ll call you on this phone in the next couple of days. But remember to keep this mobile away from your dad.’ She paused, guilty. ‘You know I don’t like secrets like this, Tony. But things are difficult. I promise I will make it up to you. We’ve got a lifetime to make this up. This is a hard time for me, sweetheart, but you and me . . .’ She paused, swallowing hard. ‘You and me . . . we’re buddies for life, aren’t we?’
‘Always, Mum.’
‘Okay. Just go with your dad, and we’ll talk as soon as I can. I love you, darling.’
‘Love you too, Mum.’
Sharon kept the phone to her ear after he was gone, and could feel her heart thumping in her chest. She had to get out of here. She had to get to Tony before Knuckles did. That fucker was so ruthless anything could happen. She was about to punch in Kerry’s number when suddenly the hotel fire alarm went off.
‘Fucking Christ!’ she murmured, the sound deafening. ‘What the fuck is this?’
She could hear doors opening and closing, and activity in the corridor, then suddenly someone knocking on all the bedroom doors. A voice outside was shouting to stay calm and follow the signs for the fire exit. She opened her door and saw various people walking swiftly down the corridor.
‘Is there a fire?’ she asked the young concierge.
‘Yes, madam. You have to leave now. It’s all right. Just be calm and follow the signs for the fire exit. Everything’s going to be all right.’
‘Jesus Christ almighty!’ She closed the door and grabbed her coat, phone and handbag.
*
Everyone moved swiftly along the corridor and down the wide staircase to the main hallway. There was a distinct smell of smoke, but no signs of it coming through from the closed doors off the foyer. Staff and guests bustled around, moving out towards the main door, and when Sharon looked back, she could now see plumes of thin smoke from beneath the door that led towards the dining room and kitchen. The fire alarm was bursting her eardrums and she was glad to be outside despite the chill. Guests were already milling around in the confusion. What the hell was she going to do now? She had to phone Kerry. She took her mobile out of her pocket and punched in her number. She answered after three rings.
‘Kerry. It’s me. There’s a fire at the hotel. We’ve all been evacuated. Not sure what’s happened. But I need to go somewhere. Everyone is just standing around outside. I’m not sure we’ll be going back in. I can hear the fire brigade in the distance.’
‘Shit,’ Kerry said. ‘Don’t worry. Stay where you are. I’ll get someone to pick you up. Just stay put.’
‘Kerry, listen. Do you think this is a put-up job? I’m suspicious.’
‘I don’t know. But I’ll get you picked up.’
Suddenly, Sharon was aware of a firm hand gripping her arm. She turned to see a dark, unshaven older man in a woolly hat.
‘Come with me,’ the man said. ‘I’ve to take you to Kerry.’
Sharon resisted, stood her ground.
‘Wait a fucking minute,’ she said to the man, then into the phone. ‘Kerry. Someone here says they’re taking me to you.’
‘Oh, Christ!’
Sharon turned to the man and shook his arm off.
‘Get your fucking hands off me.’
‘Come with me,’ he said calmly.
‘Kerry! Kerry!’
Sharon felt the hardness of a gun pushed into her back.
‘Do as I say and nobody gets hurt,’ the man said.
‘Kerry. This fucker’s got a gun in my back.’
‘Oh, Christ, Sharon! I’ve got someone on their way.’
‘Keep walking,’ the man said.
Sharon did as he asked and walked as calmly as she could away from the car park and towards the back of the hotel where she could see smoke billowing out of the kitchen and bin area. She saw steps and a small alleyway leading to the street, and the man pushed the gun into her back as she walked. If only she could find a way to get into her handbag and get her own gun, she would waste this bastard right here and now. But where the fuck was he taking her? She walked gingerly down the moss-damp narrow stone steps and into the street filled with parked cars. Then she heard the engine of a van starting up and someone getting out of the driver’s side. It was dark and she couldn’t make out the face, but as she was pushed closer, she felt it was familiar. But when a shaft of light from the street lamp fell on him, her blood ran cold. It was Frankie fucking Martin. He looked at her, his face pale and his dark eyes full of anger.
‘Keep your mouth shut, Sharon, and don’t do anything stupid.’ He opened the back doors of the van. ‘Get in.’
She climbed in, because she had no choice. He climbed in behind her, and made her kneel down while he tied her hands and feet. He held up duct tape in front of her.
‘Do I need to put this stuff on, or are you going to keep your mouth shut? Because if you start shouting and fucking around, then I’m going to have to shoot you. Do you understand?’
‘You will fucking pay for this, Frankie. You’re a fucking dead man walking.’
He stood over her.
‘Aye, right. You picked the wrong team, pal. It’s you who’s going to get it. So keep your mouth fucking shut while I get us out of here.’
Sharon said nothing, watched as he climbed out of the van, slamming and bolting the doors behind him.
Chapter Forty
‘What’s wrong, Kerry?’ Vinny said. ‘You’ve gone white as a sheet.’
Kerry held the phone in her hand, stunned, her mind racing through a blur of possibilities, none of them good. She had to get Danny and Jack up to the hotel to see what was happening. But it would be too late for Sharon. By the sound of things, she was already being kidnapped.
‘Kerry . . . What’s happened?’
She put her hand up to silence him as she pressed Danny’s number into her phone.
‘Danny. You need to get some people up to One Devonshire. The place is on fire. Sharon just called me. It’s a set-up. Everyone’s been evacuated. But she’s been kidnapped.’
She listened as Danny told her he’d get a couple of boys up there straight away. He asked what else Sharon had said.
‘Nothing much. Only that she was being taken. We need to find her. Knuckles must be behind this. He’ll kill her if we
don’t get to her in time. Call me as soon as you get there. I’m going back to the house.’
She hung up and looked at Vinny.
‘Christ, I knew this would happen, Vinny.’
‘Shit, Kerry! If only I’d known where she was, I’d have kept someone watching her.’
She glared at him.
‘That’s not helping, for Christ’s sake.’
‘Sorry,’ he said. ‘But listen. It’s time we got involved in this, Kerry. This is a kidnapping now, organised by a big league gangster. I can’t just leave this to you to sort. For Sharon’s sake as much as anything.’
Kerry knew he was right. She thought she had Sharon protected in the hotel, discreetly where nobody knew where she was. There had been nothing to indicate that she’d been rumbled. She’d been safe until now. Someone must have found out where she was. It could only be someone from her organisation – only one person. It had to be Frankie. Who else could it be? If it was him, he must have followed her to the hotel. She cursed herself for being careless. Sharon had come to her for help and protection, and to offer her a business deal, and straight away, the first major task since she took over, she’d failed. Now the cops were asking to come in on the operation.
‘I need to go, Vinny. I have to get back and speak to the guys to see what we can do.’
‘Listen, there’s a fire in the hotel, our uniformed boys will be up there anyway as a matter of course. I’ll see what we can glean. And I’ll get them to ask about guests and if any of the staff or guests saw anything suspicious. Maybe someone saw her being taken into a car or something. I can help get information.’
‘But, Vinny, if the police get involved and find Sharon then she could end up in big trouble. We haven’t even made an agreement about what we spoke about earlier – about the shipment of drugs and how I could help you nail Knuckles Boyle. You have to give me guarantees that Sharon will be left out of it.’
‘I haven’t got those guarantees yet, Kerry. It takes time. You don’t have time. But if you don’t find her soon, then she’ll have more to worry about than the cops finding her and looking at her for drug smuggling.’
She didn’t reply. She knew he was right. She pulled on her coat and picked up her bag.
‘Okay,’ she sighed. ‘Can you phone me, Vinny – if you get any information?’
‘Of course.’ He went across and kissed her cheek. ‘I’ll do what I can.’
Kerry didn’t know how far she could take this with the police. She didn’t even know if she could trust them. She trusted Vinny, from what she knew of him. They were both on the same side – both trying to nail Knuckles Boyle – but for different reasons. Right now, that paled into insignificance as she thought of Sharon and where she might be headed.
*
In the darkness of the windowless van, Sharon felt sick with fear. She had no idea where she was going, but she guessed by the speed they were travelling that she was now on a motorway. Probably heading south to be delivered to Knuckles. And that would be the end for her. The thought made her choke with emotion, not for her own safety or whatever may happen to her at the hands of Knuckles, but for Tony, and what this bastard was prepared to put their son through to get to her. And worst of all, she was powerless to fight back. Her entire life was about fighting back, about survival, getting up when you got knocked down and pushing your way to the front. There was always a way to get there, and even when Knuckles had sent her to her death with his thugs, she’d been too clever and too quick for them. But she had nothing to work with here. She peered around the van, looking for something that she could use to loosen the ties around her. She could feel with her hands that it wasn’t rope, and it wasn’t plastic cable ties, so whatever it was had been done in a hurry. Frankie hadn’t planned this kidnapping out, that was for sure. In fact, she could see her handbag slung into the corner. The stupid bastard hadn’t even taken her bag off her when he bundled her into the van. That was basic stuff. He was obviously in so much of a hurry he missed simple steps. She had to find a way to capitalise on that. If she could get to her bag, she could get to her phone and contact Kerry. At least she’d be able to say she was in a grey Mercedes van heading south. But what she really needed was to get to her gun. If she could, she’d take real delight in sticking it in Frankie’s face and blasting the fucker to death. But with her hands tied behind her back, she was going nowhere. She shuffled across the van until she could feel the moulded edges of the walls, and tried to rub her hands up and down on that to see if it would make any impact on whatever she was tied with. It felt like cloth, so it wasn’t that strong, or tight. But it was awkward. She took a breath and tried pulling with all her might to see if she could snap it, but the pressure of pulling with her hands behind her back sent pain shooting up her arms to her shoulders. She sat back in despair. There had to be a way. She thought of Tony, his face miserable as his dad picked him up, and how he wouldn’t be saying much all the way home. She felt tears coming to her eyes, but she bit them back. She would get out of this, for Tony and for nobody else. And when she did, she would never let him out of her sight again.
Sharon could feel the van reducing speed and sensed they were coming off the motorway onto a slip road. She steadied herself as it appeared to veer around a long bend and then continued but at a much slower speed. She tried to work out where they could be, figuring she’d now been in the van for almost two hours, so it was possible they were somewhere around the Lake District exit. Perhaps she was being taken there for a face to face with Knuckles. It would be a short handover, she thought. If this van stopped and Knuckles was waiting to greet her, she wouldn’t be going any further. Knuckles wasn’t the smartest tool in the shed, but by this time he’d have worked out that there was a lot of money missing from his bank accounts. The only way he had a chance to get any of that back was to keep her alive and force her to reveal every secret move she’d been making as she’d plundered his accounts over the years. That was her only hope. She would be shot once he had no use for her, and right now she didn’t even care about that. All that mattered was that she could get Tony away from him. She strained again at the ligature on her wrists, but it wasn’t moving. And now the van was shuddering to a halt. She sat still, barely breathing, waiting for him to get out of the driver’s seat. She heard the door close and footsteps around the van. Then a knock at the door.
‘You all right in there?’
‘Like you give a fuck!’
‘Listen. I’m going to open the door and let you out for a breather. But don’t try anything stupid or I’ll knock you out.’
‘Fat chance of me trying anything with my hands tied behind my back. Christ! Can you hurry up? I need a pee. I feel a bit sick.’
She heard the lock being turned and one of the doors was pulled open. It was pitch black, and she peered out beyond Frankie to get some sense of where she was, but all she could make out were bushes. Then in the distance she could see what must be lights of cars on the motorway.
‘Where are we?’
‘Down near Kendal.’
‘Great. I’ve always fancied a trip to the Lake District.’ She glared at him, eyes blazing.
Frankie drew his lips back. She sat up, grimacing in pain.
‘Well? Are you going to untie me so I can get out and have a pee? Unless you’re going to help me?’
Frankie stood watching her for a moment as she tried to ease herself to the entrance of the van.
‘Look, Sharon, you know the sketch here. I’m taking you to Knuckles. So I’m not about to fuck this up. If I untie you, and you make any stupid fucking move, then I’ll be taking Knuckles your body. He’s not that bothered how you’re delivered, as long as you get there.’
‘You’re all heart, you treacherous bastard.’
He said nothing for a moment, took a cigarette from his packet and sparked the lighter under it.
‘That’s good coming from you – cosying up to Kerry fucking Casey. You backed the wrong horse there, pal. Sh
e’ll be history in the next few months – and so will the whole Casey mob.’
Sharon let her head sink a little to her chest and said nothing for a moment, then she looked up.
‘This is not my fault, Frankie. It’s not me who started this, it was Knuckles. He waved goodbye to me in our fucking kitchen, knowing he was sending me to my death. What kind of bastard does that to the mother of his son? I did what I did to survive. I didn’t want any of this. We had a life – we were a family. Knuckles wanted me out for some young bird, but he knows I know too much, so he wanted rid of me. Christ!’ She sniffed, sensing Frankie was taking it all in. She hoped it was working.
He took a long puff on his cigarette and blew the smoke out into the darkness.
‘Not my problem. I’m doing what I’ve been asked to do.’
‘Fine. Can you at least untie me while I go for a pee? I’m bursting here.’
He stepped forward as she eased her way to the edge of the van, so her legs were dangling out. Frankie went behind her and fiddled with the ties on her wrists. She could feel them releasing, then her hands were free. If only she could find a way to reach across and get her bag, but she knew it was hopeless.
‘Right. On you go. But don’t go far. I’m watching you. It wouldn’t be smart to go running off in the middle of nowhere. You’d freeze to death.’
She shot him a glance and shook her head feebly.
‘I’m going to die one way or another, so who cares.’ She got out and stood up, her legs stiff and her back sore.
Frankie jerked his head behind her to the bushes, and she brushed past him, heading into the darkness.
She walked carefully through the soft earth and stepped into the thicket only a few yards away, straining her eyes to see if she could make out any pathway. But he was right. It was icy cold. They were in the middle of nowhere. It would be madness to make a run for it. From where she squatted in the darkness, she could just make out Frankie standing with his back to her, looking down as though he was scrolling through his mobile. She glanced around the ground and saw a jagged stone a little bigger than her fist. She picked it up and slipped it into her coat pocket. She could feel her heart thumping as she stood up and adjusted her clothing, then padded softly out of the thicket. Frankie still had his back to her, and now she was only a few feet away. She put her hand in her pocket and felt the hardness of the rock. She had one shot at this and it had to be good. If he turned around in the next few seconds, she would leave it. But suddenly his mobile rang, and she caught her breath as he pressed the phone to his ear.
