‘There are plenty of airports though. There’s Stanstead, Heathrow and Gatwick too; Luton just happens to be the nearest.’
‘And that’s what makes it the most likely, and not in the way you think. It isn’t for convenience or just laziness that would see them head there.’
‘Go on,’ Cooper prompted, a hint of scepticism creeping back into his voice.
‘They probably know that their mates have been captured, right?’
‘Right.’
‘And that means they know there’s a reasonable chance we’ve managed to break one or both of them, right?’
‘Okay.’
‘Which means we’ll know about their plan to escape the country by plane, right?’
‘I don’t get it,’ Cooper admitted. ‘Not about us knowing about their plan but how on earth that makes them likely to come to Luton. Surely that means they won’t be going to an airport at all?’
‘Quite possibly.’
‘Nah, you’ve completely lost me there,’ he responded, shaking his head.
Ruby allowed herself a quick laugh before continuing. ‘Like I said, I’m not sure at all they haven’t changed the plan, but if they haven’t then I’m pretty sure they’ll be going to Luton.’ She paused for a moment to string out the enjoyment of tying Cooper up in knots. He may have been quick to forget the events of this morning but she hadn’t. ‘We’re both agreed that sticking to the original plan would be throwing caution to the wind, so it makes sense to go for the boldest option. To still be intent on catching a flight would reflect a desire to get out of here as quickly as possible.’ Ruby was about to cross her arms in an indication that she was prepared to rest her case but another thought occurred to her. ‘And you saw what that big guy was like; the way he fronted up to us.’
‘Jordan,’ Cooper mumbled as though considering what the name felt like as it rolled around his mouth. ‘He’s a bold one, I’ll give you that. In which case I think I follow. Someone who’s prepared to run at us rather than high-tail it in the opposite direction might just about be arrogant enough to still think he can make it onto a plane without getting caught.’
‘My thoughts exactly,’ Ruby said, pleased that her education of Cooper was continuing. The ebullience of youth was how DI Jenkins, her former partner, had once described her approach; at the time also failing to understand that her keenness came from a fierce desire to succeed in whatever she did. And yet it seemed that altering Jenkins’ opinion had proven easier than it was Cooper’s. To place her two partners side by side Ruby was sure that everyone in the department would say that Cooper would be the easier to work with. Indeed, Jenkins’ general gruffness and unwilling to engage with any conversation of a personal nature would appear to back it up, but underneath his many layers lay a talented detective, and one who was still keen to get the right result, whereas Cooper’s laid-back style was born out of an inherent acceptance of the status quo, underpinning a fear of going against the grain.
‘Tell me a little about when you and Jenkins were partners,’ she asked.
‘You know what? I think I can see why he enjoyed having you as a partner.’
‘Really?’ Ruby’s shock was less about hearing Jenkins had liked her and more about him choosing to tell someone.
‘Yeah, I asked him if he’d missed me when I got back from holiday. I bet you can guess his response.’
Ruby laughed to think of the derisive way Jenkins would have met such a question.
‘But I could sense something more underneath it. He wouldn’t tell me why, but I could see he was secretly pleased when you said you wanted to stay partnered up with him,’ Cooper said.
‘You didn’t mind, did you?’
‘Obviously what then happened came as a huge shock, but I reckon that you got more out of him in those few weeks than I’d managed in the previous year or so.’
Ruby couldn’t find the words to sum up what hearing that meant to her, so she chose silence rather than risk damning it with faint praise. Cooper seemed similarly content to remain with his own thoughts as they sped down the Harpenden Road.
‘DCs Knight and Cooper, are you receiving me, over?’
It wasn’t just the sudden crackle of the radio coming to life that caused the two detectives to sit up with a start. It was the sound of DCI Nelson over the airwaves. If he needed to speak to either of them he usually phoned their mobiles, and him electing to use the police radio meant he must be down in dispatch, and his call urgent.
‘Receiving you, guv, over,’ Ruby replied.
‘You’re not going to believe this,’ he said excitedly, causing Ruby and Cooper to swap confused glances. ‘Those two have just pinged up.’
‘Oh really, guv?’ Ruby asked, also dispensing with the radio etiquette, and feeling the welcome tingle of excitement shoot down her spine.
‘Yeah, Luton airport. They’ve just bought tickets for an EasyJet flight to Zurich.’
‘Zurich? What’s in Zurich?’ Cooper asked, as much to himself as to anyone else.
‘Nothing that they’re going to see,’ Ruby responded, pushing the accelerator to the carpet and flicking on the blues and twos.
‘We’ll probably have them picked up by the time you get there. Wouldn’t it be quicker for you to meet them back at the station?’
‘Fat chance,’ Ruby said derisively.
‘As you wish,’ Nelson responded. ‘We’ll let you know when we have them. Out.’ And with that constituting all the farewell they were going to get the airway went silent.
‘Is there something you want to say to me?’ Ruby asked mischievously when Cooper had failed to speak for a few seconds.
‘Such as?’
‘It’s probably best left until we’re back in front of the DCI,’ Ruby laughed, keen not to be seen to be taking the bait.
* * *
‘We should have heard something by now,’ Ruby declared impatiently, unable to keep her frustration in any longer. With signs indicating that they were only a couple of miles short of the airport, she might have welcomed the opportunity to bust the remaining two suspects herself, but she preferred not to leave anything to chance. ‘Phone him!’
‘Phone who?’ Cooper enquired with mock innocence; his decision to use levity something he must have instantly reconsidered because he then fished his mobile out of his trouser pocket. ‘Guv, it’s me,’ he said as soon as his call was answered.
Ruby couldn’t hear Nelson’s voice on the other end of the line but she could tell by the way Cooper shifted uncomfortably in his seat that it wasn’t good news.
‘Okay, we’re virtually here now anyway,’ Cooper said before hanging up.
‘You don’t think the tickets were just a red herring?’ Ruby asked, voicing her greatest fear.
‘They were bought online,’ Cooper conceded. ‘But the IP address traced back to an unregistered address at the airport.’
‘Good, so they should be able to pick them up on CCTV then.’
‘Apparently they’re trying…’
‘Call them back!’ Ruby declared petulantly. ‘They need to start with where you can get your boarding cards printed off. If they manage to get through security and onto a flight, then this whole investigation is fucked!’
Chapter Forty-eight
Kate used the ten minutes until the train was due to depart to grab something to eat. Doing so pretty much removed all chances of her getting a seat on one of the carriages, but she needed to build up her energy for what was to come; not wanting anything to distract her once she got home. That her search for something suitable to dine on would take her up the escalator and past the pub she’d frequented yesterday evening didn’t faze her. Revisiting the place where she had first met David didn’t stir up any unwelcome emotions; all it served to do was to bring forward the tiredness she had managed to conceal under a veil of caffeine and adrenaline.
That’s not to say Kate didn’t come to feel a certain amount of nostalgia, especially once the train pulled in at S
t. Albans City station and she walked the same path home she had taken since Scott had first convinced her to move to there. In those days they used to arrange to catch the same train, and walking past the restaurants they would often pop into on a whim, was a reminder that the sense of longing these memories provoked was for something that had already gone. Nothing would bring back those times of relative happiness and dispensing of Scott now was the same as euthanasia – a mercy killing conducted to end suffering.
For whilst she knew that only women in the same circumstances as her, of which she was sure there were many, would understand her actions should they ever come to light, she could maintain the moral high ground. She remembered reading once about how women found guilty of infidelity in some middle eastern country or other were stoned to death. What she was going to do to Scott was far more humane. Not that she was denying she might take a certain pleasure in watching him suffer but, keeping his death consistent with those attributed to the gang, she needed it to be swift and, sadly, relatively painless.
Then again, Kate understood that satisfaction could come in many forms, and that the sweetest feelings of all would be in the days to follow. She was content to trade the instant gratification of torturing him with the deeper enjoyment of seeing all their family and friends flock around her in her supposed hour of need. The icing on the cake would be the funeral where she would ensure it was a sufficiently large affair that Scott’s work colleagues felt welcome to attend. Whilst maintaining her own subterfuge of grief, she would be able to revel in Donna’s genuine misery. Electing to speak to her, she would soak up her despair, as a desert absorbs the first rains, and allow it to enrichen and enliven her. Sure, it would be hard not to whisper to her, out of earshot of anyone else of course, what really happened to Scott and watch the horror dawn on her face. Kate wondered whether that horror would morph into fear, whereby she became concerned for her own safety too.
However, Kate found herself chuckling as she took the final few steps to her front door. The next time she tasted fresh air would be when she was being escorted out by the police, hopefully with one of those foil sheets used to insulate people from shock wrapped around her, rather than finding herself bound with handcuffs.
Chapter Forty-nine
Lexie had first dismissed the notion that the pairs of police officers wandering the halls of Luton airport had changed their demeanour as merely a symptom of the anxiety she was experiencing. But the deliberate way their eyes were flicking at every person they passed wouldn’t allow the concern to go away entirely; eventually prompting her to raise it with Jordan.
It wasn’t just that he agreed with her but the speed with which he responded caused her to understand that he had been thinking the same thing. She had asked him what he thought they should do; her voice shrill with worry. He had told her that the worst thing would be to panic, and they should remain in the quiet corner of the coffee shop until they came up with a suitable plan.
‘We should have stayed outside,’ she had said eventually.
‘And then what? We would have needed to come in at some point and this way we know what we’re facing.’
‘We should just go,’ she said, standing up.
‘Sit down,’ he hissed. ‘If we’re right and they are on to us, now they’re going to be checking everyone coming in and out.’
‘So, we’re fucked then,’ Lexie declared bitterly.
‘Not if we manage to escape.’
‘What?’ Lexie cried out, lowering her voice again the instant she realised her indiscretion could draw attention to them. ‘You just said we couldn’t leave!’
‘I told you that we couldn’t just go. We would need to find a way of distracting the guards on the doors,’ he responded, as though what he was suggesting was the simplest and most natural thing in the world.
‘Like what?’
‘I’m not sure yet. Some sort of commotion that draws them away from their post.’
‘But how can we do that without risking being seen causing this commotion?’
‘We can avoid being seen, but by that I mean not both of us. Only one of us needs to draw in the police and then the other one can slip out.’
‘You’d do that for me?’ she whispered, stunned and feeling the first prickle of tears forming in her eyes.
Jordan shrugged. ‘It makes sense not to have us both banged up, and I probably have the greater chance of resisting arrest.’
Greater chance of getting shot, Lexie thought but decided it best not to say.
‘But perhaps now you see why we shouldn’t do this until we’re certain we’re not just being paranoid,’ he continued.
‘I guess,’ Lexie replied, keen not to dwell too much on it; not just because she retained hope that they might still be able to walk through security and board their flight together, but she didn’t wish to succumb to the feelings his gesture, more generous and selfless than any she had experienced in her life before, was threatening to provoke. ‘Okay, so what’s the plan then?’
‘We watch them for a few more minutes,’ he said, turning away from her. ‘We need to work out who they are paying the most attention to. If they’ve got a description, they’ll immediately dismiss anyone who isn’t like us…’
‘Like old people?’ Lexie chipped in helpfully.
‘Yes, like a pair of old dears,’ Jordan responded as though talking to a child. ‘But if they’re taking a closer look at young couples then we can assume we’ve been rumbled.’
Lexie simply nodded and joined Jordan in watching the armed police do their rounds. Although she knew it was just a matter of time until they started scoping the various retail outlets, the plan was a sensible one, and one that she hoped would confirm they were being overly paranoid and that heading up to security was a risk worth taking.
Hoping is one thing but reality can be entirely different and, much as she didn’t want to admit it, there was nothing random about the police’s sweep of the area. Lexie had first understood it to be true when one pair of officers barely glanced in the direction of a mother and her young child but then spent a long moment studying a lone couple fussing over what to put in their clear liquids bag. But hope springs eternal and Lexie had chosen not to comment on it and waited until two further comparisons yielded the same result before she turned towards Jordan.
She could tell by the way he was regarding her that he had long reached the same conclusion and was waiting for her to accept their lack of options.
‘So, it’s Plan B then,’ he said, more a statement than a question, handing her his bag.
‘Perhaps I should try and squeeze the contents in mine…’
‘There’s no time; we need to do this now,’ Jordan responded, standing up and with a wink at Lexie that nearly broke her heart, he started marching out of the coffee shop.
Chapter Fifty
‘Why the hell aren’t there a shit-ton of police vans out here?’ Ruby complained as they pulled up outside the front of the terminal.
‘You know how politically sensitive air-travel is; they probably don’t want to cause a scene.’
It was a reasonable enough response but Ruby wasn’t in the mood to hear about maintaining public confidence or whatever. Having been told more than twenty minutes ago that the two fugitives had been traced to the airport she had fully expected for her to arrive to find them both cuffed and waiting. ‘I’ll show them a fucking scene,’ she responded acerbically, leaping out of the car.
That one of the armed officers immediately approached her, finger resting on the trigger guard, didn’t intimidate her in the slightest. With barely a flash of her warrant card she swept past him; ignoring his colleagues by the entrance doors.
There she stopped but it wasn’t to allow Cooper time to catch up. She was surveying the terminal, working out the best place to start. Thanks to the automated barriers installed in security, it was no longer a case of just flashing your boarding card to the nearest guard before proceeding through the metal d
etector. Even if Lexie and Jordan had managed to get to security before they’d been red flagged, the system would have pinged up that they had already passed through.
That meant they were still somewhere down there, unless they had thought better of it and managed to slip out before the police had been put on high alert. It had been a few years since Ruby had flown out of Luton but the layout was similar to most airports and she began moving slowly, trying to think where she would look to hide out if she were in a similar position to them.
‘Go check that the toilets have been searched,’ she called to Cooper over her shoulder. If they weren’t there, they must be hiding out in one of the shops or restaurants.
Ruby was heading towards the nearest one when her instincts alerted her to a large group of foreign students.
Her time in uniform had taught her to differentiate between a good-natured hubbub and something more sinister, especially on Friday nights patrolling London’s streets. What she heard constituted a commotion.
‘She has a gun!’ someone shouted in the midst of the students just as Ruby’s eyes were flicking towards them. What she witnessed was a scene of chaos. The group immediately dispersed, heading straight for Ruby. The sense that she was about to be trampled was heightened by the screams, quickly joined by other travellers reacting to the alarm.
No sooner had the students swept by her in the direction of the exit than the armed officers she met on her way in sprinted past, zeroing in on the origin of the tumult. It was then that Ruby found her feet and began pursuing; the corners of her vision picking up the melee as everyone now seemed determined to evacuate the building, with the only people swimming against the tide those officers previously patrolling within.
‘Flat on the floor!’ came the fierce command in front of her. ‘Spread those arms out!’ quickly followed.
Ruby desperately wanted to see the full extent of what was happening but the three officers were now crouched over, the only indication that there was someone under them came from the hands poking out at the sides.
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