“You’re having a laugh. If I break in anywhere, you’ll arrest me.”
Prosper rattled the handcuffs. “I’ve already arrested you.”
“I don’t know what this is all about, but I’m not going to do it.”
Prosper exhaled slowly. “Well this is the deal. You do what I tell you and then I’ll let you go. You refuse, and I make sure you get sent down for a very long time.”
Rivers shook his head. “You’re lying. As soon as I break in, you’ll arrest me.”
Prosper shook his head. “I’ve already arrested you. Do this job though and I’ll let you go. You have my word.”
“The word of a copper. Great.”
“Well it’s either this or a life in prison.”
“Arrest me then.”
“I’m offering you your freedom here. Think about it. I’m asking you to break into one building and that’s it.”
“What sort of policeman are you?”
Prosper narrowed his eyes. “You wouldn’t want to know. Now look, this is your get out of jail card. Use it or lose it.”
“What do you want me to break in for?”
“I want you to obtain some security recordings for me.”
Rivers exhaled noisily. He didn’t like the sound of this at all. “So what happens if I break in for you? How do I know you’ll let me go?”
“You’ll have to trust me. But after this, I want you gone. Out of the city. Go wherever you want, just as long as it’s a long way from here.”
“And that’s it? Break in, steal the recordings, then go?”
Prosper nodded.
Rivers scratched his chin, picked at a scab and then winced when he peeled it off. “You fuck with me and I’ll tell your buddies everything.”
Prosper nodded. “So we’ve got a deal?”
Rivers nodded, but he couldn’t help but feel that he had just made a pact with the devil.
CHAPTER 16
Despite the smell of disinfectant and urine in the parks public toilet, the stench of blood hit Prosper like a slap.
Graffiti marred the walls of the cubicles, comprising crude jokes and even cruder drawings. The floor outside the end cubicle was awash with blood. Prosper felt hot inside his white scene of crime suit and he dabbed his brow.
“It’s not pretty,” an acne scarred officer with black hair said.
Prosper nodded. “Death never is.”
After receiving the call about the murder, he had handcuffed Rivers (as a precaution) and left him with Wolfe, then he picked Mike up on the way to the crime scene.
Taking a calming breath, Prosper stepped forwards and looked inside the cubicle, grimacing at the sight.
“Told you it was bad.”
The man sat slumped on the floor, wedged between the toilet and the cubicle wall. His face was battered beyond recognition, his nose hanging on by a few strands of skin.
Although hard to tell by the man’s battered face, a lack of wrinkles on his hands meant he probably wasn’t that old, probably in his early thirties. He had short blond hair, but part of his scalp had been ripped off, leaving a bloody section of skull exposed. A small chunk of metal covered in blood and gore lay on the floor by the man’s foot.
A commotion outside drew Prosper’s attention, and he walked out of the public convenience to see two four wheel drive vehicles with blacked out windows parked on the grass. Standing in front of one of them was the man who kept taking over the murder investigations. He was shouting at one of the uniformed police officers standing in front of the police cordon. Prosper couldn’t make out what he was saying. The officer nodded and stepped aside, his face flushed.
“We’re going to have to stop meeting like this.” The man approached Prosper, his arms swinging in almost military fashion.
Prosper gritted his teeth and clenched his fists.
A man and woman exited the other vehicle. The man was tall and muscular, looked mid twenties, his hair shaved close to his scalp. His face was pinched, his nose misshapen, slightly slanted, as though it had been previously broken. The woman looked around the same age. She had a dark tan, black hair, an oval face, slightly pinched cheeks, full lips and thin eyebrows. But despite her delicate appearance, Prosper could tell by the way she walked and carried herself that her looks belied her strength. She walked ramrod straight, chest pushed out.
When the pockmarked faced man reached Prosper, he stopped, crossed his arms and said, “If the general public had a direct line to our department, you wouldn’t have to keep wasting your time attending to these crimes scenes.”
“You mean you haven’t tapped the lines anyway?”
“And break the law? That’s your department, isn’t it?” The man nodded his head and smiled.
Prosper’s stomach filled with bile that rose up into his throat. He does know something. But what? And how?
Prosper sensed movement and he turned to see Mike standing in the doorway to the toilet, staring at him. He swallowed. His heart thundered inside his chest. “Mike, let’s go.”
Mike grimaced. “You mean we’re off the case again? This is crazy.” He stopped, turned to face the mystery man, pointed an accusatory finger. “Who are you people?”
“It’s none of your business.”
“Of course it’s our business. Tell him Prosper. This is bollocks. You know I’m not keen on investigating murder with you, but being taken off the case all the time by these—”
“Forget it, Mike. They aren’t worth it. Come on, we’ve got better things to do.” One of which was to ditch Mike at the station.
When they reached the car, Prosper tugged off his white paper suit and jumped into the passenger seat. Mike sat behind the wheel and started the engine. As they drove away, Prosper looked out of the window at his side, and saw the pockmarked faced man smiling at him.
Prosper had Mike drive them back to the station. Neither of them spoke during the journey. Prosper spent the entire time staring out at the city streets, watching people wandering about without a care in the world. He bet not one of them carried the sort of emotional baggage that he was carting around.
Once they arrived at the station, Prosper made up some excuse about needing to go check something out for a case, then he left on his own and drove back to Wolfe’s house. He parked in the drive, exited the car and walked up to the porch where he pressed the doorbell, keeping his finger on the button.
“Okay, I’m bloody coming.” Wolfe opened the door. “You can let the button go now.”
Prosper held his finger on for a couple of seconds longer, and then let go, the sound of the doorbell still ringing faintly along the hallway.
“So what was the call about that made you rush off so fast?” Wolfe stepped aside to allow Prosper to enter.
“They’ve found another body.”
“Same killer?”
Prosper nodded. “Yes and the man I was telling you about turned up again and took over.”
“I still don’t see why you’re getting so heated up about it.”
“Because he knows something, that’s why. He virtually said as much just.”
“Well, you could have left me the key to the handcuffs. He wanted to go for a piss while you were gone, but he couldn’t go to the toilet as you’d cuffed him to the bleedin’ radiator. I had to get him a bottle.”
“Yeah well, I don’t exactly trust him not to do a runner the first chance he gets.”
Prosper heard shouting and the rattle of metal on metal in the distance:
“How much longer am I going to be kept prisoner?”
“He’s been like that since you’ve been gone. I could have killed him.”
Prosper knew that in this case, Wolfe wasn’t being flippant. When they killed Hatchet Man, Wolfe was one of the instigators, egging everyone on. Prosper had seen something dark and malignant in his friends that day.
“Well I’m back now.” As he entered the studio, the man on the floor looked up and rattled the cuffs.
“Ab
out time.”
Prosper hated it in this room; couldn’t forget it’s where Wolfe brought Hatchet Man’s corpse after they had mutilated it. He walked across, crouched down and started rummaging through the man’s pockets.
“Hey, what are you doing?”
Prosper pulled a wallet out, opened it and scanned through the contents. There was thirty pounds in ten pound notes and cards to the library, Blockbuster and a credit card.
“Samuel Rivers. Well it’s good to have a name to call you by.”
“You only had to fuckin’ ask.”
“Oh and I’m sure you would have told me.”
Rivers shook his head and smirked. “We can’t build a relationship without trust.”
“I don’t want a relationship. I want you to do something for me, that’s all. After that, you get the hell out of town.” He pulled out his PDA, switched it on and connected to the Police National Computer. Then he did a quick search for Samuel Rivers. When the results came up, he clicked through. “Just so you know, I see you have previous for robbery, so I’m sure if you got arrested again, you’d be going down for a long time. So don’t mess me around.”
Rivers worked his tongue around between his teeth and lips, then nodded. “Let’s just get this over with then.”
Prosper put his PDA away, then took out the key and unlocked the handcuffs. Rivers rubbed his reddened wrists.
“So where’s this building you want me to break into?”
“It’s a company called Trent Systems.”
“Well I need an address and a computer with internet access.”
“Get him what he needs.”
Wolfe pursed his lips, eyes narrowed as he glared at Prosper. “Any other demands?”
“Just get him a computer.”
Wolfe exhaled loudly and then walked out of the room. He returned a couple of minutes later carrying a silver Sony Vaio laptop that he placed on the table, moving aside the chisels and hammers. He opened the computer up, waited a moment and then tapped on the keyboard.
“Here you go.”
Rivers walked across, cracking his knuckles. Prosper retrieved a swivel chair from by the window and pushed it towards the table so that the burglar could sit, then he stood behind him to watch.
Rivers started off by visiting Google Earth. He asked Prosper for the address and then typed it into the search box. The representation of the earth on the screen spun around before zooming down on the specified location.
Prosper watched as Rivers zoomed closer, the Trent Systems building appearing in the centre of the screen, surrounded on all sides by verdant swathes of greenery.
“Pretty large place.” Rivers scratched his chin as he studied the screen. “There’s a fence around it too … hold on.” He clicked on a transparent bubble in the road, and the camera zoomed inside, revealing a two dimensional view taken from Street View. He zoomed in on the front of the building. “There’s a guard post and cameras. Looks pretty secure.”
“So can you break inside?”
Rivers shrugged.
“Yes or no?”
“I don’t know. It depends on the security and how long I have to plan. You can’t rush these things.”
“You have until tomorrow night.”
Rivers shook his head. “Well that’s not long enough.”
Prosper grabbed Rivers shoulder and squeezed. “It’s going to have to be.”
Rivers winced. “Okay, take it easy. I can’t promise anything. Not on such short notice.”
“Yes, this is crazy.” Wolfe threw up his hands. “You’re planning this on a bad feeling, that’s all. This man might not know anything. You should just forget about it.”
“I can’t forget about it.” Prosper licked his lips. “Natasha’s pregnant.”
Wolfe grinned and slapped Prosper on the shoulder. “Congratulations. Now that’s an even better reason to drop all this before you do land yourself in an awkward situation.”
“No, it’s an even better reason to find out what’s going on. If what we did comes out, I’ll never get to see my kid. Natasha would disown me.”
Wolfe sighed. “You really think this man knows something about what we did?”
Prosper nodded.
Rivers held his hand up. “Are you going to let me in on what the hell you’re both on about?”
“Shut it.”
Rivers rolled his eyes. “How can we work together when you’re like this? We’re a team now.”
Prosper ignored the mocking tone to Rivers’ voice and looked back at Wolfe. “I need your help. I can’t do this on my own.”
“Then it looks like I’m in, but I hope to god you’re wrong.”
Prosper licked his lips. “You and me both.”
CHAPTER 17
“Hey. You can’t leave me here like this again. I want to use the goddamn toilet.” Rivers rattled the cuffs that attached him to the radiator, chaffing the skin around his wrists.
“I haven’t got the key.” Wolfe didn’t turn around from the painting he was working on. “And don’t you dare piss on my floor; otherwise I’ll cut your cock off. Use the bottle I gave you.”
“I can’t crap in a bottle.”
“Well you’ll just have to hold it.”
Rivers watched him daub more paint onto the canvas, fashioning large dark swirls “I can’t hold it. Why’s he handcuffed me again? I’m not going anywhere.”
“Not now you’re not.”
Rivers shook his head. He still couldn’t believe he had been caught, and that he was now embroiled in something he didn’t understand. Who could you trust in this world when the police themselves were crooked?
“So where’s Prosper gone now?”
“He’s had to go into work.”
Rivers relaxed his arms, letting the cuffs take the strain, wincing as they dug into his wrists. “So what’s this all about?”
Wolfe exhaled loudly, put his brush down and spun around. “Don’t you ever shut up?”
“I deserve to know. I have a lot to lose.”
Wolfe shrugged. “Ask me if I give a damn.”
Rivers ran his tongue around his teeth. “Do people really buy this crap?” He gestured to a statue with a nod of his head.
“Of course they do, otherwise I wouldn’t do it.”
“So what the hell is it?”
“It’s a statue of a woman cut open, you know, a play on the sugar and spice thing, and you see what’s inside is not so nice. I guess you wouldn’t understand.”
“It’s fuckin’ gross is what it is. You’re sick. And people really buy this stuff? I’m in the wrong business.”
“Burglary isn’t a business, it’s taking things that belong to other people – people who have probably worked long and hard to afford the stuff you steal.”
“Oh and kidnapping people is legal is it?”
Wolfe snorted and turned back to his painting.
Rivers looked at the photographs of the industrial unit spread out around him. He had printed them out from Google Earth and Street View and they showed the building from every angle he could find.
Of course he could probably break in, but he didn’t trust Prosper or Wolfe. Obviously there was something crooked about this whole deal, otherwise why on earth would they have staged Wolfe’s death to capture him? If it was all above board, Prosper would just obtain a search warrant.
No, this was all wrong. As soon as he could, Rivers was going to escape.
CHAPTER 18
First stop was Rivers’ house. If he was going to break into Trent Systems, he needed some equipment. Unwilling to let him out of his sight, Prosper accompanied him inside, sticking to him like a shadow.
Rivers gathered what he reckoned he would need, then they returned to the Lexus RX that Wolfe had hired especially for the job.
Wolfe was in the driving seat and Prosper sat next to him, while Rivers slumped in the back. He felt his heart pounding and a tingle spread along his arms and into his fingers. It was not an
experience he was used to. He bit his lower lip, took deep breaths.
Prosper turned in his seat and looked back. “So you know what you have to do?”
Rivers nodded. “Break in and then steal the recordings.”
“If you try anything stupid …”
“Yeah, I know.”
Once they neared their destination, Wolfe slowed down and they drove past the front.
“Where’s the guard?” Prosper asked.
Rivers peered through the side window, but couldn’t spot anyone.
“We’re going to have to hold off until we know where he is. He could be doing his rounds.”
Wolfe sniffed. “We can’t just keep driving around waiting for him to come back.”
Rivers nodded. “He’s right. It’ll look suspicious.”
“I don’t like it. I’ve got a bad feeling,” Prosper said.
“That’s a great thing to say before I risk my neck breaking in there.”
“I’ve learned to trust my feelings.”
“OK, then let’s call it off and you can just let me go.”
Prosper swivelled in his seat, a glare adorning his face. Rivers swallowed; felt himself shrink down slightly. He sensed something dangerous about Prosper.
“We can’t call it off. Okay? You’re going in.”
Rivers licked his lips, swallowed. “Turn up there.” He indicated an area of sloping grass alongside the fence.
Wolfe killed the headlights and steered the vehicle up the pavement and then onto the grass, driving alongside the fence.
“Stop here and park, facing away from the fence. The bushes will shield us from the road.”
“So how are you going to get inside?” Prosper asked.
“Just watch.”
Rivers picked up his backpack and slipped his arms through the straps, adjusting it so that if was a snug fit. Then he exited the vehicle. The cool night air made him shiver. “Once I’m inside, wait, back out on the road.”
He walked past the front of the vehicle, stopped, turned and then ran as fast as he could back towards the Lexus. He jumped at the last minute, hit the bonnet – saw Wolfe’s surprised expression – ran across the roof, then he leapt up and over the fence. He sailed over the top, landed on the grass and rolled, using his shoulder so that the backpack didn’t get in the way. He came up out of a crouch and exploded away across the grass. When he neared the building, he jumped onto what looked like a three foot high telephone junction box with his right leg, and then pushed off, performing a Cat Leap to reach the fifteen foot high edge of the roof.
Prosper Snow Series Page 33
