Takedown

by Heather Atkinson

  “Anymore?” said Vance with a raised eyebrow, making him blush.

  “Anyway,” Kevin hastily continued. “The auction’s tomorrow and I think we should bid on it.”

  “It’s a good idea,” said Faith. “I’ll run it past Jules, she’ll be the one paying for it. But I won’t be going in for a look around.”

  “Why not?” said Caleb.

  “It would look weird a woman going into a porn shop.”

  “Women use those places too.”

  “Actually, I think it’s definitely more of a male-dominated environment. Enjoy yourselves boys,” she grinned at her brothers.

  “Faith’s right,” said Abi. “Those places are disgusting. I’m not going anywhere near it.”

  “I hate to think what Mum would say if she finds out we’re running a porn shop,” said Jason.

  “Then we need to make sure she doesn’t find out,” said Faith with a pointed look at him.

  He blushed and looked down at the floor.

  “I’ll call Jules,” said Faith.

  Her siblings all listened as she phoned the fearsome queen of Manchester, who found the fact that they wanted to use a porn shop to store the product hilarious. Jules approved the idea and said she’d happily bid on it, so Faith could leave the auction in her hands. Jules also informed her that Raven was still trying to get hold of her adopted father, Nik, who made the flash devices the robbers had used on their men. Apparently he had a fondness for travelling and was good at staying off the grid. At least they’d found new premises to store the product. That was one less thing to worry about. Now they had to find whoever had robbed them.

  “I think we should follow the trail of the hydraulic door breacher,” Faith told her siblings when she ended the call. “It’s an unusual piece of kit and someone might remember it.”

  “You can order them online from abroad,” said Vance. “If they did then we’ll have no chance of tracing it and they’re only available in this country to police and rescue services.”

  “Rescue services,” breathed Faith. “Do you remember two weeks ago the fire alarm went off at Pulse at the busiest time on a Friday night and we had to evacuate? There was no fire and we never did find out why the alarm went off. We were so concerned with getting everyone out that we didn’t even think to keep an eye on what the firefighters were doing.”

  They stared at each other as realisation struck them all at once.

  “What if someone set off the alarm on purpose so we’d all clear out, leaving them free to search the building?” said Vance.

  “Exactly,” said Faith. “We didn’t even think twice. Everyone trusts a fireman. Actually, make that firefighters because one of them was female, just like one of the people who attacked our men at the vault.”

  “We were outside a good twenty minutes while they checked the building,” said Caleb. “And no one was allowed back in until they’d said it was safe.”

  “What if we’ve blamed the wrong emergency service for the robbery?” said Faith anxiously.

  “Corrupt coppers I can understand,” said Caleb. “But corrupt firefighters? You never hear of that.”

  “Why not?” said Vance. “They’re in the perfect position to pull off a robbery. No one questions them when they charge in somewhere and they can keep everyone out until they’re finished. They can knock down doors and break windows and who’s going to accuse the heroes of the hour when something goes missing? They could have searched the office while everyone waited outside on the pavement like lemons and we wouldn’t have a clue. We know they went into the office because they busted the door off its hinges with a small tactical ram and we never complained because they were looking for a fire and had to search every room. Thank God nothing incriminating is kept in the office. It’s only used for private conversations, so it didn’t matter.”

  “It’s lucky you regularly check it for listening devices Jason,” said Abi.

  “When that plan failed,” added Vance. “They decided to approach Dillon instead.”

  “Could firefighters have beaten the shit out of Greg and the others though?” said Kevin. “They don’t have that sort of training.”

  “Anyone can get martial arts and self-defence training,” said Vance. “You don’t have to be a police officer.”

  “Then why did you say they were definitely police officers in that video?” said Caleb.

  Vance sighed. “I suppose my mind leapt in that direction because of what Marlow and his men did to our family.” He noticed Faith shiver and he wrapped an arm around her, being careful to make the gesture look a brotherly one. Fuck it, she needed some comfort. “And it was a perfectly viable theory.”

  Faith cleared her throat and stood taller, Vance’s warmth giving her strength. “We need to go back to Pulse and pull the footage from the night the fire alarm went off. Maybe we’ll see someone tampering with the fire alarms?”

  “They might well have erased it when they went in,” said Vance. “Going off how they handled the robbery at the vault, I’m willing to stake everything I have on it.”

  “They might have done,” said a pleased Jason. “But it wouldn’t matter because I set up the feed to record on a back-up system. Even if they had erased it off the main system, it still would have captured everything.”

  “Really? Well done, I’m impressed.”

  Jason smiled proudly. He was the only member of his family who was any good with technology, in fact he had a real talent for it. “I store it all on my laptop at home.”

  “Let’s go and check the footage at Pulse,” said Faith. “If it’s been erased then we know we’re on the right track. Caleb, Kev, go back to Mum’s with Jason so he can get his laptop and meet us at Pulse.”

  CHAPTER 10

  Vance drove Faith and Abi to Pulse, Faith having to warn him to ease up on the accelerator before they got pulled over. She could understand the rush he was in. Finally it felt like they were getting to closer to finding out who’d robbed them.

  Vance parked on the staff car park at the rear of the club and the three of them rushed through to the office. All security footage was stored on a hard drive for the standard recommended time limit of a month before it was automatically recorded over. As the incident they were looking for was only two weeks ago, it should still be stored on the hard drive.

  Faith brought up the footage from that night to reveal a blank screen.

  “It’s been deleted,” said Abi excitedly.

  “That proves it,” said Vance.

  “Let’s see what the footage Jason has shows us,” replied Faith. “I don’t want to make assumptions.”

  Caleb, Kevin and Jason arrived twenty minutes later, the latter clutching his laptop.

  “Looks like we could be right,” Vance told them. “The footage from that night has been erased.”

  “Then it’s lucky I have this,” said Jason, holding his laptop aloft in one hand.

  “Careful,” Abi told him. “Don’t drop it.”

  Faith vacated the chair behind the desk so he could sit down. He opened up the laptop and started typing, fingers flying across the keyboard.

  “Here it is,” he said, bringing up the footage.

  They all gathered round to watch.

  “Oy,” said Kevin, poking Caleb in the back. “You’re blocking my view.”

  “Sorry,” he replied, standing side-on to allow Kevin to see.

  “I’m guessing they’d already done their homework before coming into the club,” said Vance. “Whoever set off the fire alarm would already know the location of each alarm. If they are firefighters then they could probably guess the likely locations of each alarm anyway. Concentrate on the alarms in the public areas only. They would have used one where they wouldn’t have been noticed.”

  Jason brought up the feed in the VIP room, the bar, by the DJ stand, the toilets and the dancefloor.

  “They certainly knew which night to come on, didn’t they?” said Abi. “It’s hard picking out any
one in all those people.”

  “This lot are real pros,” said Vance.

  “You sound like you admire them,” said Faith.

  “In a way I do. A lot of criminals are really thick, just psychos wanting to hurt people. I enjoyed the clever crimes, where I could pit my wits against someone else’s. They were the most satisfying cases.”

  “Looks like you’re going to get to pit your wits again,” smiled Faith. She wanted firefighters to be responsible. That would be better than more corrupt police officers.

  “What’s that bloke doing?” said Abi, pointing one of her blood red talons at the screen.

  “Where?” said Faith.

  “There. That baldy bastard coming out of the toilets. He’s gone in three times in the last five minutes and he’s never in there for longer than twenty seconds.”

  “Well spotted Abi,” said Faith. “There are smoke alarms in the male, female and disabled toilets.”

  “If it is him,” said Vance. “He could have been going in and out waiting for the right time to set off the alarm. It’s a busy night. Someone would have noticed him holding a lighter under the sensor.”

  They watched the bald man disappear back inside the toilets. Ten seconds later, the alarm went off.

  “Can’t we check the footage inside the toilet?” said Abi.

  “Funnily enough, you’re not allowed to put cameras in places where people get their genitals out,” said Caleb.

  “Oh yeah,” she blushed. “I knew that.”

  “Keep track of him,” said Vance as they watched the man exit the toilets again.

  “We’re lucky there wasn’t a stampede,” said Faith. “The last thing you want in a dark, hot building packed with seven hundred people is to hear the fire alarm go off. Thank God we have so many fire exits.”

  “And the staff did well,” said Caleb. “Particularly the door supervisors. They helped keep everyone calm.”

  They followed the bald man as he casually made his way towards the exit by the side of the bar, not looking in the least bit panicky before vanishing outside in the stream of people.

  “I’ll bring up the footage on the exterior of the club,” said Jason, who was clearly enjoying himself.

  The screen flicked to a camera mounted to the side of the building covering the staff car park. They saw the bald man meander down the street, heading away from the promenade amid the other customers who’d exited the club. He reached the corner and waited. A minute later the fire engine pulled up, siren screaming and he hopped in. The vehicle then continued onto the promenade, pulling up outside the main door into the club. When the bald man got out of the fire engine he was dressed in his firefighters uniform, complete with the bulky light brown jacket and trousers, yellow helmet on his head, oxygen tank strapped to his back. Another three firefighters jumped out with him and they entered the front of the club, having to shove their way through the customers still pouring out. Faith and Caleb watched their own images on the screen conversing with the lead firefighter, who was so big he towered over even Caleb while Jason and Kevin comforted a gaggle of swooning women who were revelling in the drama.

  “You remember what Patrick told us?” said Faith. “One of the men who approached him was really big and strong.”

  “What did he say to you?” Vance asked her. He hadn’t been there that night. As he’d hurt his shoulder at the gym he’d been resting at home.

  “He asked me how many people had been in the club,” she replied. “Where the fire was and if I thought anyone was still inside and all the time the git knew it was bollocks.”

  Jason switched back to the interior footage and at first the firefighters all seemed to be doing their jobs, two of them helping one of the door supervisors usher out the stragglers while the rest methodically checked the main dancefloor and VIP room. Only once everyone was out did the search stop. They went straight for the door that led from the dancefloor to the staffrooms and office, which had been left open by the door supervisors to give access to the fire exit at the end of that corridor.

  Jason tapped at the keyboard and the footage flicked to the corridor outside the room they were gathered in. Once again, the firefighters knew exactly where they were going, bypassing all other doors and going straight for the office door. As they watched the figures on the screen bash that open with the ram too, Kevin couldn’t help but look to the door, expecting them to come pouring in.

  The four firefighters rushed inside and immediately began a methodical search of the office, which didn’t take long as the only things in it were a filing cabinet and a desk.

  “They’re picking the locks,” commented Faith as they watched the most diminutive of the firefighters kneel before the lock on the desk drawers and remove their helmet, revealing a woman with dark hair scraped back into a bun. “I never even thought to check. Like I said, everyone trusts a firefighter. We have to improve our security.”

  Vance knelt down to examine the lock on the drawer. “It was a professional job. They didn’t leave any scratches. Even if you had checked you wouldn’t have been able to tell.”

  “This is great,” said Caleb. “They’ve all taken off their masks and helmets, so we can see their faces. Is there any way you can save the images Jason?”

  “Yeah, no worries,” he replied. “I can print them out at home.”

  “Nice one.”

  They watched the firefighters pick open the lock on the filing cabinet too and after some rooting around they discovered that everything in the room was legitimate, all the documentation pertaining to the running of the club.

  “What did they think we were doing?” said Kevin. “Stashing the product in a filing cabinet?”

  “They were hoping to find a clue as to where it was kept,” said Faith.

  Once they realised there was nothing to find, the firefighters locked the filing cabinet and desk drawers while one of them wiped the footage from the hard drive in the office.

  “How did they know how to do that?” said Caleb.

  “It’s not a difficult system,” said Jason. “It wouldn’t take much tech knowledge. Dillon or Patrick could have told them what sort of system we use.”

  “Thank God for you putting in a back-up system,” said Faith, patting Jason’s shoulder. “You’ve done really well.”

  “Cheers,” he smiled.

  “Yeah, well done mate,” said Caleb.

  “Please, save the applause until later,” he grinned.

  “Don’t push it,” said Kevin.

  They watched the firefighters check the room to make sure everything was undisturbed before filing out. They then returned to the pretence of checking the building before leaving.

  “The cheeky bastards,” said Caleb. “They had the nerve to come out and say they’d swept the building and couldn’t find a fire or anyone trapped inside. They said the alarm must have gone off by accident and that we should get an electrician to check the system to make sure it wasn’t faulty, which we did. It cost us a couple of hundred quid too.”

  “I think that’s the least of our problems,” said Faith. “Make copies of this footage Jason. Can you send it to Matthew?”

  “No problem.”

  “Let’s lock up here and do all that from Mum’s, so Jason can print off images of the firefighters’ faces.”

  “I want to compare this footage to the footage of the robbery at the vault,” said Vance.

  “Good idea,” said Faith, sliding her hand across his backside as their siblings made their way to the door, Jason with his laptop tucked under his arm.

  Faith locked up the office, feeling a little sad. Their security had been breached so easily and by a bunch of firefighters of all people. She had to up her game or one day she’d get her family killed.

  Rose was washing up when she heard the front door go and all her children pile in, eagerly chatting.

  “Hello dears,” she smiled, walking into the front room, drying her hands on a tea towel. “I’ve saved some tea.
It’s keeping warm in the oven but I didn’t expect you all to come back.”

  “What have you made?” said an eager Jason.

  “Shepherd’s pie.”

  “Brilliant. I’ll have some.”

  “Me too,” said Kevin. “I’m starving.”

  “There’s enough for Vance, Caleb and Abi too but you boys will have to have less,” she replied, making Jason and Kevin pout. “Sorry Faith, it’s not vegan.”

  “Not to worry,” she replied. “I’m not hungry anyway.”

  “Are you all right dear?” Rose asked her. “You look a bit pale.”

  “Fine,” she sighed. “Life’s just hectic at the moment.”

  “Even more reason for you to eat. I can do you some beans on toast. I know it’s not much but it was always your favourite when you were a little girl.”

  “It still is one of my favourites but I don’t think I could manage anything.”

  “Mum’s right,” Vance told her. “You do look pale and I bet you haven’t eaten anything since breakfast.” The way she avoided his gaze told him he was right. “You need to eat Faith. We can’t have you falling ill, not now.”

  “All right, I give in. I’ll have beans on toast without butter.”

  “Good.”

  “Do the rest of you want the shepherd’s pie?” Rose asked them.

  “Yes please,” the five of them chimed in unison.

  “Coming right up,” she smiled before returning to the kitchen.

  “Right,” said Faith. “Let’s compare the footage of the robbery to the footage taken at the club.”

  Vance brought the robbery footage up on his phone and sat beside Jason so everyone could compare the two screens.

  “That definitely looks like the same man,” said Caleb, pointing from the image of the lead firefighter to one of the robbers who was eagerly subduing one of their men. “He’s wearing a balaclava but he’s the same build and he moves the same way.”

  “And those two are the same,” said Vance, gesturing from one screen to the other. “That walk is really distinctive. He struts more than walks.”

  “Greg wasn’t wrong when he said that woman went to town on him,” said Faith as she watched the woman kicking the crap out of one of their toughest men. “And she does look to be enjoying it.”