The Final Minute

by Simon Kernick

Jen Jones. The woman I’d been in love with.

  I closed my eyes, and with Luda in my arms I fell asleep basking in memories of a time in my life when, for a few brief minutes at least, I’d felt truly happy.

  Forty-one

  It was a long night for Tina. She was formally arrested and taken straight from Sheryl’s flat to Camden nick where she was forced to undergo a number of forensic tests designed to find out whether or not she’d fired the gun she was carrying, before being examined by a doctor who asked if she felt fit enough to be interviewed. Tina knew there was no point in delaying things so she said she was, and waived her right to legal counsel, which was something she’d never recommended to anyone being interviewed. But all she wanted to do was tell the truth and get the hell out of there.

  The interview got underway at just after eleven p.m., and was conducted by two male detectives from the local Murder Investigation Team. It was clear they knew who she was, and her background as a Met police officer, but they didn’t refer to any of this, and instead treated her first and foremost as a suspect, which was standard procedure. However, Tina kept solidly to her story, explaining why she’d gone to the flat, and the relevance of Sheryl Warner to her own investigation. The only part that wasn’t the truth was the reason she gave for meeting Jeff Roubaix that evening, which she said had just been a friendly drink.

  The point was, the story was plausible, and eventually the questioning softened as the two detectives admitted that Jeff had called 999 to say that she was in trouble and was being threatened with a firearm. They also confirmed that Jeff had died at the scene. Tina took this hard, and she had to work hard to stop herself from breaking down. They also told her that there was no sign of the two killers, although two men walking on the street behind the building had confirmed that they’d seen two people matching Tina’s description running away from the scene.

  Eventually, at just after two a.m., they let her go, the custody officer telling her that there was someone waiting for her in reception.

  It was Mike Bolt, and he was on his own.

  ‘What are you doing here?’ she asked as they walked out of the building into the night.

  ‘I heard about what happened. I wanted to check you were all right.’

  She stopped and lit a cigarette with unsteady hands. ‘Thanks. I appreciate that, but I’ll be fine.’

  ‘You don’t look it.’

  She didn’t feel it either. The shock of the violence and the knowledge of how close she’d come to death filled her with an anxiety she was finding it hard to keep a lid on. For the first time in a while, she was desperate for a drink.

  Mike’s expression was sympathetic. ‘I’ve spoken to my bosses and they’re organizing twenty-four-hour protection for you because it’s clear you were the target of the killers.’

  ‘I don’t need twenty-four-hour protection, Mike. I’d appreciate a couple of officers outside my house so I feel safe there, but I’ve got a missing woman to find, and I don’t want to be trailed everywhere I go.’

  ‘You’re still in danger, Tina.’

  ‘I don’t think they’ll try it again. It’s too risky.’

  Mike raised a sceptical eyebrow. ‘Let me give you a lift home. You don’t look like you’re up to driving tonight. There’s already an ARV outside your place so you’ll definitely be safe there. You can pick up your car in the morning.’

  Tina looked at him and saw the concern in his bright blue eyes. He was a good man and he cared for her, and right then, that felt good. ‘Sure, I’d like that,’ she said.

  When they were in the car and driving through the silent night streets, she asked him about progress on their case with the mysterious Carl Hughie.

  ‘Slow. He’s still not cooperating, and he got himself lawyered up with some high-level representation. What he did do, though, finally, was give us the name of his colleague, the murder victim. He’s William Balham, and he’s on the payroll at MI5, so it looks like it might be one of their ops went wrong.’

  ‘What kind of op does MI5 conduct which involves abducting a British citizen on British soil, taking him to an isolated farmhouse, and then torturing him? You know that William Balham pulled out one of Sean’s teeth? I was there. I saw it. They might work for MI5 but I’m telling you, they work for someone else too. Someone who wants some information from Sean Egan very badly.’

  Mike sighed. ‘That may well be true, and if Hughie and Balham have been working for someone else, we’ll find out who. But right now we’ve got the Home Office and even the Home Secretary involving themselves and putting pressure on us to drop everything against Hughie.’

  ‘So have you let him go?’

  ‘We’ve released him on bail. We didn’t really have a lot of choice.’

  ‘Any sign of Sean?’

  Mike shook his head. ‘Not yet. But we’ve got CCTV footage of him at the scene, plus the mugshot taken of him when he was nicked for rape, and we’re releasing images of him to the media at a press conference first thing tomorrow. We got a positive ID on the footage from his ex-wife so we can officially name him as a suspect as well.’

  ‘What’s his ex-wife like?’

  ‘She seems nice. She’s agreed to make an appeal for Sean to give himself up, but she took a lot of persuading. I think she’d prefer to keep him in the past, and she’s naturally worried about their daughter finding out too much of what’s going on. Do you think he’ll try to make contact with her?’

  ‘To be honest, I’m not even sure he knows she exists. I didn’t tell him about her when he came to see me because I guessed she probably wouldn’t want to see him.’

  ‘He’s the key to all this, isn’t he?’

  ‘He’s definitely connected to these missing girls.’ Tina told him about the timing of Sean’s car accident coinciding with Lauren Donaldson’s phone being switched off for the last time. ‘And the man and woman who tried to kill me tonight sound and look like the same ones who tried to kill him three nights ago. Have you found out any more about the two people who were looking after Sean in Wales, by the way?’

  Mike nodded. ‘The woman’s a jobbing actress who’s had a few bit parts over the years, but nothing major. She’s single with an address in New Malden. The man’s an ex-con with convictions for violence and burglary. Single, no dependants, and an address in Chelmsford. There’s no obvious connection between the two of them.’

  ‘So they were hired to babysit Sean. You need to check their bank accounts and see who was paying them.’

  ‘We’ve already done that. They were both receiving fortnightly payments from an offshore company based in the Bahamas. We’re still trying to find out who owns it, but the authorities over there aren’t being too cooperative.’ Mike rubbed his eyes. It had obviously been a long night for him too. ‘I get the feeling something big’s happening here, but we’re still no closer to finding out what Egan’s part in it is.’ He paused, then looked at Tina. ‘So, what questions have you been asking that makes you so dangerous to the people who tried to kill you tonight?’

  Tina knew she was going to have to come a lot cleaner than she had been the first time she’d talked to Mike, so she told him about Dylan Mackay, the way he’d been pimping out the girls, how he’d refused to tell her the names of the men who were his customers, and how one of them was almost certainly something to do with Lauren and Jen’s disappearance. ‘I think the two people who tried to kill me tonight work for whoever that customer is. They were definitely pros. They knew what they were doing.’

  ‘But where does Egan fit in?’

  She told him about Sean’s recurring dream involving Lauren and Jen.

  ‘It seems you’re holding back quite a lot, Tina,’ Mike said. ‘Anything else you’d like to share?’

  She gave him a rueful smile. ‘No, that’s it,’ she replied. ‘Look, it’s possible Sean was somehow involved with the man behind Lauren and Jen’s disappearances, but when I last spoke to him that part of his memory hadn’t come back.’ She
considered telling him about the psychotherapist Dr Bronson, and how he might be able to shed more light on what Sean was involved in, but held back. Without evidence implicating him – and there wasn’t any – there was no way Bronson would talk to the police. He might talk to her if she deployed the same techniques she’d used on Dylan Mackay, but Tina wasn’t at all sure she had the stomach for that. She’d experienced too much violence these past two days.

  ‘OK,’ said Mike, when she’d finished speaking. ‘We’ll pick up Mackay and see if we can get him to reveal the names of his clients. We’ll go through his phone records as well.’

  ‘He changed phones the day after Lauren Donaldson’s phone was switched off, and the same day that Sean had the car accident that wiped out his memory. I don’t think that’s a coincidence.’

  ‘No,’ said Mike with a sigh. ‘Neither do I.’

  A little later they were coming into Tina’s village, with its single meandering high street. All was silent, the only light provided by the white glow of the streetlights and the illuminated sign on the pub where Tina had taken the call from Sheryl a few hours earlier. ‘I think that’s Jeff’s car,’ she said, pointing to the lone vehicle in the pub’s car park as they drove past, slowing down as they came to Tina’s house. Parked a few yards further on, on the same side of the road, was a marked police car with at least two people inside.

  ‘Have you been seeing Jeff?’ Mike asked, trying to make his tone sound matter-of-fact but not quite pulling it off.

  She shook her head. ‘No, I was using him to get the phone records I needed. But I’d appreciate it if you kept that information to yourself. There’s no point blackening his name now.’

  ‘Fair enough,’ he said, pulling up to the kerb and stopping the car. ‘So what were you meeting him for tonight?’

  ‘To pay him for the information he’d got for me. Then, when I got the call from Sheryl, I had a feeling it was a set-up so I asked him to come along in case I got into trouble. Typical, isn’t it? He helps me out and it costs him his life. The latest in a long line of men unfortunate enough to get paired up with me.’ She laughed hollowly. ‘The media are going to love this, aren’t they? The Black Widow strikes again. In fact, I’m amazed you’re risking riding in a car with me.’

  A wave of emotion passed over her, and once again she had to fight to hold back the tears.

  ‘Don’t be foolish, Tina,’ Mike said. ‘You’re just unlucky, that’s all. You’re a good detective, and you’re determined, which is why you come to the attention of the wrong sorts of people.’ He put a hand on her shoulder and gave it a squeeze. ‘Try and take things easy for a while. If your missing persons case is tied up with our inquiry, then I promise we’ll find out what happened to Lauren so you can give your client some closure. I’ve got a good team. And I’m a good detective too.’

  She smiled, touching his arm. ‘I know you are.’

  There was a couple of seconds’ silence while they both just looked at each other. More than anything, Tina wanted him to hold her, but then she saw a uniformed cop approaching the car, a suspicious look on his face, and the moment was gone.

  ‘Well, at least they’re paying attention,’ said Mike with a smile, and they both got out of the car.

  Tina thanked him for the lift and, as Mike showed his warrant card to the cop, let herself into the house.

  Only when she was safely upstairs in her bedroom with the window closed did she allow the tears to come, weeping and shaking in near silence until finally exhaustion overwhelmed her.

  Forty-two

  I was always going to sleep late. It had been a seriously stressful few days, and Luda’s bed was soft, warm and comfortable. Add to this the fact that I was absolutely shattered and it was no surprise that when my eyes finally opened the following morning, it was almost 10.30. The space beside me was empty and I could hear Luda pottering about downstairs.

  After a couple of minutes of just lying there and enjoying the comparative luxury of my surroundings, I finally clambered out of bed and had a long, hot shower in Luda’s en suite bathroom while I worked out what I was going to do next. I could probably stay here for a few days – although at some point I was going to have to get a change of clothes – but I couldn’t do it permanently, however attractive the idea seemed. Because the thing was, at some point I was going to have to face the music. I considered phoning Tina to see how she was getting on tracking down Dr Bronson but decided to leave it until the next day. First things first. I needed to eat.

  Having dried myself and borrowed some pleasant-smelling deodorant, I got dressed and headed downstairs, hoping that Luda would offer me something tasty for breakfast.

  But as soon as I walked into the kitchen my heart plummeted.

  There was a TV connected to the wall above the kitchen table and the screen was frozen on an image. It looked like it had been taken two days ago back at the hotel. I was looking away from the camera but you could quite clearly see the gun in my hand. Worse still, you could also quite clearly see it was me.

  Luda was standing on the other side of the kitchen table, the dog by her side, a very hard expression on her face. ‘You lied to me, Sean,’ she said quietly, but with real venom.

  ‘Look, whatever they’re saying about me on there, it’s not true. I didn’t kill anyone.’

  I took a step towards her and she immediately bent down and produced a shotgun from behind the table. She pointed it at my chest.

  ‘I’ve called the police, Sean.’

  ‘This isn’t what you think it is.’

  ‘It’s exactly what I think it is. Which is that you’re a murderer, just like the men who murdered Dan. You’ve betrayed me, and if you come a foot closer, so help me God, I’ll shoot you.’

  ‘I haven’t betrayed you. I didn’t tell you the truth because you wouldn’t have believed me. I’m being chased. The man I killed was trying to kill me. It was self-defence.’

  ‘The report said you’re a convicted rapist. How do you explain that one away?’

  ‘I didn’t do it, I promise.’

  ‘Liar. Stay exactly where you are.’

  ‘I didn’t try to rape you, did I?’

  ‘You didn’t have to, you bastard. I let you make love to me. And do you know how that makes me feel now? Unclean.’

  ‘I’m sorry,’ I said, because I honestly couldn’t think of anything else to say. ‘All I want to do is walk out of here, because there’s no way I’m going back to prison.’

  As I spoke the words, I walked over to the kitchen top and slipped a carving knife from the rack.

  ‘I told you to stand still,’ she hissed angrily. ‘I’ll set Roman on you.’ As if on cue, the dog growled menacingly.

  ‘I’m not going to hurt you, I promise, but if you set your dog on me, I’ll stab him, and I really don’t want to have to do that. I’m sorry for the pain I’ve caused you, and I truly hope at some point you’ll realize I’m not the man they say I am.’

  I’d noticed a key rack next to the door the previous evening, and I turned and looked for it now.

  ‘What are you doing?’ demanded Luda.

  ‘I need to borrow your car,’ I said, pocketing her car keys. ‘I’ll leave it as I found it.’

  ‘Try to leave here with my keys and I’ll shoot you!’ Her voice was much louder now, verging on hysterical.

  With the carving knife still in my hand, I began my retreat through the door.

  Luda’s breathing intensified, and I saw her finger tensing on the shotgun’s trigger. At the same time, Roman’s growl became even more pronounced. He looked desperate to take a chunk out of me.

  ‘Don’t do anything you’ll regret, Luda,’ I said, taking another step backwards. ‘For your own sake.’

  ‘You lying, criminal bastard. You think you can just walk all over me …’ The emotion and anger in her voice were almost physical in their intensity, and her hands were beginning to shake. ‘Stay exactly where you are, or I will fucking shoot you.’ />
  She meant it too, I could see that. But I was in the doorway and the front door was twenty feet behind me across the hall. My eyes met hers. I tried to look as honest and reasonable as possible, a man who empathized with her feelings.

  And then, in one movement, I turned and bolted into the hall, slamming the kitchen door behind me and chucking the knife before dropping into a roll as a shotgun blast rang out, sending splinters of wood flying over my head. I’ll probably get the blame for that as well, I thought briefly as I leapt back to my feet. Behind me I could hear the dog’s paws scraping madly at the ruined door as he unleashed a series of blood-curdling barks.

  The front door was bolted and I’d just released the bolt and yanked it open when the dog came hurtling down the hall towards me, mouth curled back in a vicious snarl.

  I slammed the front door in his face and ran on to a driveway that looked out on to open fields, with trees in the far distance. But I wasn’t concentrating on the view. I was far more interested in the two cop cars on the horizon, driving fast down the road in my direction. Their lights and sirens were off but I knew that was only because they were planning on surprising me.

  I ran over to Luda’s old VW Golf, opening it using the stolen keys, jumped inside and started it up just as Luda appeared at the front door, still holding the shotgun, the dog at her side. I shoved the car into reverse and backed out of the driveway in a screech of tyres, keeping my head down just in case Luda decided to take another potshot at me.

  Thankfully she thought better of it and, pulling on to the road, I turned the car in the opposite direction to the approaching cop cars, both of which were barely a hundred metres away, and put my foot down.

  Almost immediately the road, which was pretty poor anyway, gave way to a potholed track, which swung round at almost ninety degrees. The car lurched and whined as I tried to avoid the worst of the holes while continuing to up my speed. Trees sprang up on either side of me and the track got even narrower until it was little more than a wide path which I could only just fit through.