Stranger Child

by Rachel Abbott

  ‘Get in the car,’ Finn said, walking round to the passenger side of the Range Rover. He threw his gun to the man with the shoulders, then pulled a handgun out of his pocket, pointing it at her head.

  ‘Drive. I’ll take you to your son. Do anything stupid, and he’ll be dead before we get there.

  62

  Once again, the control room was silent. The only sounds came from the radios and the monitors. The audio equipment had picked up every dreadful word.

  Tom couldn’t believe what he was seeing. McGuinness was getting into the car with Emma. She would be thinking of Ollie – trusting that Finn would be taking her to her son.

  The silver commander of the armed response team was issuing orders, telling his team that McGuinness was on the move and possibly on his way home. He turned to Tom and Paul Green.

  ‘I think we all know how this is going to end for Emma Joseph. We’re going to have to take McGuinness. Anybody disagree?’

  Nobody did.

  There were unmarked police cars covering all the exits to the cemetery, and Tom listened as Titan reassigned some of the detectives to follow McGuinness, who probably believed Ollie was still with Julie. Just in case he had other plans for Emma, though, they couldn’t let him out of sight.

  Tom radioed Becky. ‘You’ve got at the most ten minutes to find out where Ollie is, then get out, Becky. McGuinness could be heading there. Make Julie talk. Finn’s got Emma with him, and he’s armed.’

  He heard a muffled expletive from Becky, who would understand perfectly what that meant.

  There was an edginess to the atmosphere in the room now, as plans were put in place to covertly tail Finn McGuinness. Any indication that he was being followed could be catastrophic for Emma.

  Tom wanted to be there – to make sure that Emma was safe. He forced himself to be rational. If this wasn’t Emma, what would he do? He’d be here – in the control room – managing the situation.

  Tom’s attention was diverted to one of the monitors. In the cemetery, the two remaining men were standing by the van.

  ‘What now?’ he asked Paul Green. ‘Why are they still there?’

  ‘They’re waiting for our informant. He’s the buyer.’

  ‘You knew it was gold, then?’

  Green shook his head. ‘Not for certain. Our informant wouldn’t tell us what he’s buying – too nervous of a bent copper leaking it to Bentley. But our cyber team came across some guy on the dark web who had exchanged a load of his illegally acquired bitcoin for stolen gold – it’s regularly traded there. He’d been talking on a forum about where best to store it, and safe deposits were mentioned.’

  ‘And your informant?’

  ‘Another frequenter of the dark web. I am fairly sure this is a personal vendetta against Guy – or Ethan – Bentley. He said Bentley was setting up a heist, and that he – the informant – was going to buy the goods.’

  ‘So how did Bentley know the name of the bloke who was stashing the gold? He’d have needed that for the hacker to find his box number.’

  ‘Given who your brother was, I expect you know that a half-decent hacker can find out every small detail about a person from next to no starting information – he would have tracked back through his comment trail, sites visited, that kind of stuff, and worked out who he was.’

  ‘What’s your buyer doing now?’

  Green tilted his head. ‘Check out the third monitor. He’s there – waiting.’

  Tom followed the finger that Paul Green was pointing at the screen. A tall man in a black bomber jacket stood in the shadows invisible to Bentley and his minder. Tom could just make out a shaved head and what looked like a goatee beard.

  ‘He’s at the far end of the cemetery. Hang on – he’s getting his phone out.’

  As the man on the monitor lifted the phone to his ear, he lifted his other hand and rubbed the top of his head.

  Tom listened to Paul talking to him, asking him questions. The man lifted his hand and rubbed his head again.

  Tom stared at the monitor for a moment longer.

  ‘Paul, can I speak to your informant please?’

  Paul Green frowned. ‘What for?’

  ‘Will you ask him if he’ll speak to me please?’

  Green shrugged.

  ‘Blake, I have another policeman – a Detective Chief Inspector Tom Douglas – who would like a word with you if possible.’

  Tom would have laughed at the pseudonym Blake, had he not felt so ill, so cheated, so deceived and at the same time, so elated.

  Green handed the phone across, and for a moment Tom couldn’t speak.

  ‘I guess I’ve stunned you into silence, little brother,’ came a voice Tom knew so well and had never expected to hear again in his life. ‘Still the white hat, I see – still putting the world to rights.’

  Tom finally found the words.

  ‘What the fuck’s going on, Jack? What have you done?’

  63

  Feelings of fury, relief, joy all mingled together as Tom listened to his brother’s voice. More than anything he wanted to be in that cemetery – he wanted to punch Jack in the face, knock him to the floor, then pick him up and hold him as close as he could.

  ‘Why are you involved in this, Jack?’

  ‘I’ve always been involved. I thought you might have worked that out by now.’

  Tom had indeed worked it out, even if he hadn’t wanted to admit it to himself. What he hadn’t realised was that Jack hadn’t been working alone. It was obvious now, though. Guy was in it with him. All those days and nights together in Jack’s room, with Tom banished. Probably they set Guy’s father up together. Either that or Jack did it and Guy figured it out. It didn’t much matter now. After that, Guy probably picked the targets and Jack hacked them.

  ‘Hacking’s one thing, but abduction is another.’

  ‘Don’t be stupid, Tom. I had nothing to do with Natasha Joseph’s abduction six years ago. My role was to hack the system, and when I found out what Guy was up to, I tried to stop it.’

  ‘Maybe you weren’t involved in Natasha’s kidnap – but you were still involved in planning a major robbery. That was okay, was it? When did you hit the big time, then?’ Tom asked, sarcasm dripping from his tongue to hide his distress.

  ‘When Guy decided I was indispensable and set his band of warriors on me to make sure I did what I was told. I was in way above my head. What had started as a bit of a lark suddenly turned serious, and Guy wasn’t prepared to cut me loose.’

  ‘You’re a shit, Jack. You caused so much pain to so many people.’ The carousel of emotions took another turn and stopped in a different position.

  For a moment, there was silence. When Jack spoke, his voice was quiet, controlled.

  ‘I thought Caroline and Natasha were both dead. I could cope with the scams – just about – but people were getting hurt and I couldn’t be part of that. I had to find a way out. If I hadn’t died, Guy would have set Finn McGuinness on me, and if I’d just disappeared he’d have hit on you or Emma, or maybe even Lucy, to flush me out. I’ve been waiting for the opportunity to screw him, and finally it’s payback time. Why else would I risk everything to be here now?’

  Tom couldn’t think of anything to say, but he didn’t want Jack to go – to lose connection with him.

  ‘Anyway,’ Jack said, ‘much as I’d love to debate my choices with you, it seems we have a different problem. Green says Guy’s got Emma’s baby. I never thought he’d try that trick again.’

  ‘Ollie was the only card he had left to play. He’d offered to return Natasha to David some time ago in return for his help. He refused to play ball.’

  ‘He always was a twat.’

  ‘Twat or not, he’s been badly beaten up and Natasha’s missing. They must have pulled her out when they were beating the crap out of David. And they’ve found out Emma’s been helping us. She’s in a car with McGuinness now.’

  ‘Shit.’ One word, but to Tom it conveyed a wealth of emo
tion.

  Tom wanted to hang up. He wanted to tell his brother to go to hell. He wanted to sit here and listen to his voice. He didn’t really know what he wanted or how he felt. The one thing he knew for certain, though, was that Jack knew this gang better than anybody else, and Emma needed help.

  ‘How did you know this was going to happen, Jack – what Guy was planning?’

  ‘Because I’ve been watching him. I’ve followed Guy’s every move on the dark web for six years, waiting for a chance to bring him down. I guessed who his target was, and when he was looking for a buyer, I put in a bid.’

  A vivid image of Jack, sitting in a lonely dark room in some remote part of the world, glued to computer monitor, waiting to exact his revenge, flashed into Tom’s mind. He pushed it forcefully away.

  ‘You know these bastards – you were one of them,’ Tom said.

  ‘Uncalled for, little brother, but you are – of course – correct.’

  ‘So what do we do now?’

  ‘I’m going to buy you some time. And you, Tom, have to keep Emma safe.’

  The line went dead.

  *

  Tom put the phone down and closed his eyes for a second. What had just happened? He could scarcely believe it himself.

  ‘Do you want to tell me what that was all about?’ Paul Green was looking at Tom very carefully.

  ‘No, not really. Obviously at some point I’ll have to, but for now let’s just get this child found, Emma safe and Guy Bentley arrested. Your guy Blake …’

  ‘You mean your so-called dead brother Jack?’’

  ‘… is going to buy us some time.’

  ‘Did you know he was alive?’ Green asked.

  ‘Of course not. Did you?’

  Tom knew what a stupid question that was. As if Tom would have been allowed to run the operation if they’d had any idea. Fortunately, they were interrupted as one of the sound devices picked up a ringing phone in the cemetery.

  ‘Hang on,’ Green said. ‘We need to listen to this.’

  It was Guy Bentley’s phone. He answered without grace.

  ‘Yeah,’ he said. There was a pause while the caller spoke.

  ‘What do you mean, you’ve delayed the payment? On what basis?’

  They couldn’t hear what Jack said.

  ‘Listen, wanker, we agreed a time and a place. We’re here. Where the fuck are you?’

  Another moment of silence from Guy.

  ‘That’s bollocks. She was just the courier. Of course she wasn’t followed – they’d have taken us down by now, wouldn’t they?’

  Guy was striding up and down the path, and his words came in highs and lows of volume depending on which way he was facing.

  ‘I know you could walk away from this deal. But you’re not going to, are you – and yes, if you insist, my gorilla with the gun will put it on the floor and stand on it, if you think that’s entirely necessary. I’ll see you in an hour.’

  Guy hung up the phone and stood, hands on hips, gazing around him.

  He turned to the other man.

  ‘I’m not standing out here freezing my balls off for another hour. Besides, that’s too late for this place. We need to find somewhere else. We’ll give him the location when he calls back. He’s not having it all his own way.’

  Green turned to Tom and pulled a face that signified a silent groan. Wherever they chose to go now, there would be no chance to set up any surveillance. They had gained time, but lost all other advantages.

  64

  Tom was striving to force the image of Jack with his shaved head and goatee beard from his mind, but it was a struggle. Had it not been for his brother’s stance and the characteristic stroking of his head when he answered the phone, Tom believed he might well have passed Jack in the street without recognising him. Gone was the long, scruffy ponytail, the unshaven, stubbly cheeks. Only the dazzling light-blue eyes would have given him away.

  Jack had bought them an hour to find Ollie and rescue Emma, and they needed to use every second of it.

  He called Becky on the radio.

  ‘We’re moving Julie out of the house now,’ Becky said, her breathing laboured. ‘I’m trying to get her to walk, to bring her round. We need to get clear before McGuinness gets here. But I think we’re making progress. She’s muttering something.’

  Tom could hear groans in the background. He heard Becky’s voice.

  ‘Come on, Julie. Where’s that lovely baby you were looking after?’

  Tom heard some slurred speech and then a gasp from Becky.

  ‘Say that again, Julie,’ she said, her voice harsh and demanding. ‘Shit and bloody more shit.’

  Tom waited.

  ‘Tom, she says she gave Ollie a pill because he wouldn’t stop crying. The pills are Temazepam. I’ve asked her how many and she just shakes her head. Hang on, she’s saying something else.’ There was a pause and he could tell from the ambient sound that they were outside the house, clearly trying to drag, or carry, Julie away in the remaining minutes before her husband returned.

  ‘She says Mel’s taken the baby. We asked who Mel is and where she’s taken him but we’ve got nothing. She’s being sick now, but she keeps passing out. I don’t remember anybody called Mel in the list Titan gave us, so I’m clueless. We’re bundling her in the back of one of the vans and getting her out of here. The firearms team are getting into position, melting into the shadows. They’ve told me to wait in my car well out of the way until McGuinness is back and Emma’s safe.’

  ‘Okay, Becky. Stick with it. We’ll follow Mel up from this end and keep you informed. As soon as you’re finished there I need you to get over to the Josephs’ house. Something has happened to Natasha. I don’t know what, but we need to find the poor kid. Nobody knows where she is, and we don’t want another dead girl on our hands.’

  He heard a groan from Becky, but didn’t have time to say more because Paul Green was back on the phone and Tom heard the name Blake again. They must be agreeing the handover point for the money. Tom signalled to him that he wanted to talk to Jack, and when Paul had finished he handed over the phone.

  ‘Jack – are you actually going to hand over the money to buy this gold?’

  ‘Not unless I absolutely have to. I can’t risk Guy recognising me. If he knows I’m alive, he won’t rest – even from prison. He believes I’m dead, and it needs to stay that way.’

  ‘Have you got the money?’

  ‘I had a hidden account, which I cleared out a few months ago. So yes, I’ve got it.’

  Tom could scarcely believe what he was hearing.

  ‘You emptied the account? The one in Switzerland? I thought they’d found it.’

  ‘Ah – you found the SD card then. I was hoping you wouldn’t.’

  Like the lock that had been drilled in the vault, the pins were one by one dropping into place in Tom’s head and soon he knew he would be able to turn the key to understanding everything. So close.

  ‘Forget that for now. I want you to think hard, Jack. I need you to think if you have ever heard the name Mel before.’

  Tom heard the intake of breath down the line.

  ‘Keep Mel out of this, Tom. None of this was her fault.’ His voice was harsh, protective.

  ‘Who is she? Don’t mess with me, brother – she’s got Ollie.’

  ‘Jesus,’ Jack muttered. ‘What the fuck did she do that for?’

  ‘Who is she? Just bloody tell me because Julie’s given Ollie a sleeping tablet to stop him crying.’

  ‘This just gets worse. Julie always was stupid, but you know who Mel is. You met her twice, and hated her. Mel – you know – Melissa.’

  ‘Bloody hell – your lover? The woman you dumped Emma for is part of this gang? Words fail me, Jack.’ Had he ever known this man, he wondered.

  ‘You really haven’t got it yet, have you, little brother? Never mind. I can track Mel down. Get me somebody here now with a laptop and a mobile wireless signal – Green knows where I am. The faste
r you get it to me, the faster I can find Ollie for you.’

  Without further explanation, Jack hung up.

  *

  It had only taken five minutes to get a laptop to Jack, and just a couple of minutes later Tom’s mobile indicated he had a message. An address for Melissa had been sent to his personal email. Jack hadn’t lost his touch, it seemed.

  Tom pulled his open laptop towards him. The usual crap was littering his email inbox, but as soon as he saw the name BLAKE he knew which one to open. And there was the address, and a message.

  Mel is Guy’s mistress, always has been, so be careful. She’s not dangerous, but Guy’s thugs are, if they’re around. Your best bet is to take Emma. Mel probably won’t hand the baby over to somebody she doesn’t recognise – and she’ll know who Emma is.

  Mel’s seen Guy do some horrific things, but she would draw the line at him killing a baby. My guess is that’s why she took Ollie. But it’s only a guess. She must have a plan, because Guy will kill her when he finds out. Good luck, little brother.

  Tom looked across at the silver commander of the firearms team. He was staring at the monitor showing the McGuinness house in Salford, all quiet, waiting, not a person in sight. But they were there, hiding in the shadows, watching, anticipating the moment when they could take McGuinness down. He could just make out Becky’s car, parked down the street, out of the range of any gunfire.

  The minute Emma got into McGuinness’s car the team in the control room had accepted that the planned return of Ollie was never going to happen. They gang hadn’t tried to hide Finn’s identity. They had even used his name, and now – according to the team following the Range Rover – he was taking her to his home. Tom knew that Emma’s fate had been decided long before she arrived at the cemetery.

  *

  The inside of the Range Rover felt claustrophobic. The air was dead, and Emma thought she could smell her own fear. She had no idea where they were, but all she could think about was Ollie – getting him back, holding him tight.

  Finn had spoken to her just once on the journey.

  ‘The boss tells me you used to be Jack Douglas’s girl.’ He gave a dirty laugh. ‘What goes around comes around, eh? Pity he died.’