Charlie turned to look out of the window, and that was the spark that set Payne’s anger off. He reached across the table and grabbed his friend’s arm, pulling him back to face him. His cheeks were going red; he could feel the slow burn on his skin and he didn’t care. A flash of irritation appeared on Charlie’s face but it quickly went. There was another emotion on his face but Charlie was hard to read tonight—shame?
“They’re not the first and I doubt they’ll be the last. But, I’ve never known them attack anyone before. I’ve only ever seen them dead, or in a near death state.”
Payne let go of his sleeve and Charlie smoothed his jacket down. The waitress behind the bar carried on putting glasses on a tray, reassured no doubt that the moment had passed.
“Why didn’t you say anything earlier?”
“It’s been a while since I’ve seen them at all.”
“What does that mean? I’m supposed to be your friend. I needed your help.”
“And you can have it. That’s why I wanted to meet you. I had to collect a few things first, but it’s all here. Everything you need.” Charlie patted the folio on the seat beside him.
Payne felt like he was sitting across from a stranger. “If you’d have told me what you’d known when we brought Heather Hudson in from under the pier, I might have solved this case by now. The widows of the men who died at the station wouldn’t be spending the night consoling their crying kids. I should arrest you.”
“Do what you’ve got to do Spencer. It doesn’t matter anymore. If those blanks are out walking, then you’ve got a whole heap of shit to deal with. Having me in the cells won’t make the slightest bit of difference.”
Charlie broke off and stopped paying attention to Payne. The detective twisted his neck and looked behind him to where Charlie was staring. A man with tousled blond hair and a crumpled leather jacket the colour of coal was approaching. His thin face carried a wry smile and after dismissing the waitress who greeted him at the door, he ambled his way toward their table.
“Charlie, long time no see,” his voice full of confidence, that arrogance one often has when on the right side of thirty. Payne found himself taking an instant dislike to him. “Mind if I join you?” He directed the question at Charlie but Charlie in turn looked across at Payne, a worried look on his face.
“We’re having a private conversation. Some other time,” Payne replied.
The newcomer sniffed and glanced at Payne, before nodding his head amiably, and thrusting out a hand.
“Mo Carey. Nice to meet you Inspector.”
Payne shook hands as briefly as was barely polite. “You know me?”
“Who doesn’t? You’ve been busy.” He turned back to Charlie. “So, what about that drink you promised me?”
Payne stood up. “Not today.”
But Charlie wasn’t paying attention to Payne, or if he was he dismissed him.
“I wasn’t talking to you Inspector,” Carey said.
“It’s OK, Spencer. He can join us,” Charlie said, glancing out of the window. Payne thought for a moment he was seeing something out there but Payne could only see deepening shadows and the light spattering of rain on the glass.
“Shift up then Charlie. There’s plenty of room for all of us.” Carey flapped his hand urging Charlie along the bench seating closer to the window. Charlie had to grab his folio to stop it dropping to the floor.
Carey smiled from his seat directly across the table from Payne.
“Like you said, Mr Carey, I’ve had a busy day. I’d sooner not have you make my evening a difficult one. You’re not going to do that to me are you?” Payne said before taking a sip of his water. The waitress appeared by Payne’s arm and asked if she could get drinks for anyone. Carey told her to get the same again for the table adding a sparkling water of his own.
“I don’t intend to make anyone’s evening difficult. I saw you on the news earlier, outside the station after the blast. It’s a terrible thing all right. Unbelievable what’s happening to this town, fucking unbelievable.”
“It’s not all doom and gloom.”
“Well you say that, but aren’t you on a murder case as well? Young woman wasn’t it? And there’s all them people blacking out in Ainsdale this morning.”
“You’re well informed.”
“Well, you’ve got to be in my business.”
“And what business is that?”
The waitress arrived and passed the drinks around the table. Carey took a long slug from his own glass, before placing it neatly back on its coaster.
“I’m a doctor as it happens. Me and Charlie have a lot in common, isn’t that right Charlie?”
Charlie forced a smile onto his worried face and looked anxiously across at Payne. When he spoke, a slight tremble hid behind the words. “It sounds like we’ve got a lot of catching up to do. I don’t want to bore Spencer with this so I suggest we meet up some other time.”
“Ah, well, I can’t do that. I’m under instructions.”
“And who’s giving you instructions, Mr Carey?”
“You’ll meet him soon I’m sure.” Carey took another swig from his glass, and set it down, spinning it round slowly between his index fingers. “But my boss is just as preoccupied as you are right now.”
“So, he sent his pet monkey instead to run his errands.”
A flash of anger crossed Carey’s face, then it broke into a smile. “I’m not that easy to wind up. Really, I’m not.”
“Sorry to hear it,” Payne retorted. “Charlie, I think maybe we should leave.”
“No,” Carey said so quietly that at first Payne thought he must have misheard. “That was instruction number one.”
“I’m sorry?” Payne asked.
“Instruction number one. On no account is Charlie to be allowed to leave with Inspector Payne.” He recited the words like they were an old prayer ingrained in memory.
Payne’s stomach tightened.
“Is that right? What other instructions were you given?”
“Instruction number two. Take Charlie’s bunch of files when you leave and burn them all.”
Charlie glanced down at his folio notes in his hands. Payne wished he hadn’t agreed to coming here tonight. If Charlie had something important to say, why the hell didn’t he meet up with him somewhere private?
Payne pushed his glass to one side and rested his arms on the table. “Listen to me sonny, I’m a DI and I don’t like the tone of your voice. I suggest you leave now before I take you with me back to the station for a little chat about how to behave in polite society.”
“Have you not been listening to me Inspector? I’ve been honest and open about what my agenda is here this evening. I’ve told you the instructions I’ve been given. I’m not trying to hide anything. I’d say that was pretty polite.”
This was ridiculous. Payne shuffled out from his bench seat and stood by Carey’s shoulder, putting a hand on it and gesturing that he should stand up himself.
“I was given a third instruction as well.” Carey pushed his hand inside his jacket pocket revealing a gun in a holster. Before Payne could react, his hand had pulled it free and kept it lowered under the jacket. “Instruction number there. Go in peace but be prepared for trouble.”
Payne nodded and sat back down in his chair. Carey’s gun hand was clearly pointing in Charlie’s direction now and Charlie didn’t need to see it to know exactly what was going on. His troubled face was all Payne needed to see.
“What does Thadeus want?” Charlie asked quietly. His voice was full of resignation, level and unfaltering.
“He’d quite like you to come along with me for a chat. Nothing too serious, just a chat.”
“And if I don’t agree.”
“Well, I hate to be a bore but I did just list out my instructions. I’m sure you can work out how this is going to pan out if you don’t agree to come with me.”
A shimmer of silver flashed across the whites of Carey’s eyes, but he blinked and the
man’s eyes looked normal again. Payne thought he must have imagined it, or maybe his eyes had caught the lights in the restaurant in an odd way. A shiver ran along Payne’s back.
Payne glanced around the rest of the restaurant. A family with children were sharing a joke three tables down. An older couple squabbled at the table behind them. On the table to his left, a young couple gazed across their Peking duck and couldn’t keep their eyes off each other. The waitress who’d annoyed Payne earlier with her persistence was nowhere to be seen. In short, it seemed like no one who might have noticed what was happening at the table, who might be able to raise the alarm. Payne would have to wait for his moment to act and that wouldn’t be in the middle of a crowded restaurant with children. He had to get him outside.
“What do you want with him?” Payne asked.
“Charlie needs reminding to keep his mouth shut.”
“I think he gets the message. There’s no need to take him anywhere.”
Charlie slammed the folio on the table. “Here, take it! Just leave me alone.”
Carey reached over and put his hand on the folio, but before he could pull it towards him, Charlie punched his fork into the back of Carey’s hand. Blood squirted out from the wound and Carey screamed in agony. The background chatter ceased and dozens of heads spun round to face them. Even as Carey pulled out his gun, Payne leaned over the table and grappled for it, pulling it deftly from his grip. Carey used his now free hand to pluck the fork from his hand with a gasp but as he brandished it out to stab at Payne, he saw the gun levelled at his chest. Payne heard the cries of alarm from around the room and tried to put them from his mind. He didn’t want to have to deal with the rest of the room right now. He had to stay focused to keep things under control.
“Drop the fork and put both your hands on the table where I can see them.”
Carey obliged but his face was seething. He grabbed a napkin and held it tightly against the wound, all the while shaking his head.
“You’re dead men.”
Payne glanced around the room and saw a sea of panicked faces staring back at him. “I’m a policeman, no one’s in any danger but I need someone to call 999.” When the man at the table next to them took out his phone and started dialling, Payne relaxed a fraction. He just needed to keep his cool and keep the man contained. To the room he shouted. “I’d like you all to leave as quickly as possible through the back of the restaurant and stay together. My men will be here shortly to take statements and make sure you’re all OK.”
The patrons didn’t need telling twice and moved quickly towards the back of the dining area where the waitress hustled them through the kitchens.
“I need to go to the hospital,” Carey said, the anger in his voice simmering menacingly.
“It’s a scratch. A bullet from this range will do far more damage.”
He paused and bit his lip. When he released it, a tiny bead of saliva stretched over the bottom lip before it snapped.
“What do you want?” Carey asked.
“Charlie, pass me over that folio. I’ll be taking that for starters.”
Charlie obediently passed it over.
“Secondly, you can tell me where I can find your boss, Thadeus is it?”
“I can’t do that. He wouldn’t appreciate me telling you.”
“I’m sure he wouldn’t. But then, he probably wouldn’t appreciate me shooting you either.”
“But we both know you’re not going to do that.”
“I’ve already shot one person today. I think I might be getting a taste for it.” He noticed the look from Charlie and ignored it.
“You shot a blank. I’m not sure they count as people.”
“So you know about them? Who are they?” Payne asked.
“Put down the gun and we’ll talk.”
“Not going to happen. In a few minutes a dozen policemen are going to be arriving and you’re going to be spending the night in the cells.”
He shrugged his shoulders. “That’s not going to happen.”
Payne spotted the red dot on Charlie’s chest a fraction of a second too late. The window exploded, sending glass crashing to the floor. Payne instinctively ducked away from the next bullet which he felt zip across his head into the room beyond. The edge of the next table, the one with the young couple who’d only minutes ago been feasting in each other’s company, cracked in a puff of splinters. The woman in the red dress screamed and dropped to the floor.
Before Payne could return fire, Carey snatched his gun and snapped to his feet. Payne yelled and forgetting the risk of being shot for a moment, sat back upright in his seat. But it was too late, Carey was pointing the gun at him now.
“I told you it wasn’t going to happen. You should have listened.”
Payne saw with some small satisfaction that the wound from his hand was still bleeding, but then he caught sight of Charlie. He thought at first he was ducking under the table top like Payne had done, but he wasn’t blinking. His face was still and etched with the shock of being punched in the chest with a bullet.
For a moment, the gun pointing at him was insignificant. Payne saw red, and he lunged for Carey awkwardly across the table. But, Carey took a step back and was out of reach.
Payne heard the sound of siren’s approaching and the jubilant blue flashing of lights making their way across the car park towards the restaurant.
“Think about it. You don’t want to make it to my next list of instructions.” Carey sounded out of breath. “I hope I don’t see you again.”
Another man appeared in the window. A stout fellow in black jeans and a brown jacket. In his hands he was carrying a rifle with a laser sight attached.
Carey gestured to the folio on the table but the newcomer had already spotted it and reached through the space where the window had been and grabbed it.
“We’ve got to go!” the newcomer shouted at Carey, then turned and legged it away from the oncoming lights.
Carey didn’t need telling again and turned from the table, lowering his gun as he did so, and started to run for the entrance. Payne watched him go, knowing that the oncoming police would be doing their best to catch him, and that he would most likely get in the way. He wanted the man to leave so no one else got hurt and he could attend to Charlie.
“Excuse me,” a small voice called out.
Payne looked up and saw Carey turn around just as he reached the entrance. That was his mistake: he should have kept running.
The waitress swung the wok towards his face in a semi-circle of Chinese bravery. The steel dome struck Carey across the bridge of his nose and he fell to the floor, out cold.
Payne scrambled out of his chair and saw Charlie’s life blood running down the bench seating into a pool on the floor. He grabbed the edge of the table and pulled it aside. One of the legs got caught on Charlie’s and he had to lift the table to clear it. He let it fall to the floor behind him. There was silence in the restaurant and then the waitress started shouting in her own language at the chef who was running across the room with some cord he’d acquired from somewhere to tie Carey up.
Payne moved beside Charlie, aware of walking in his blood. Oh god, how can there be so much on the floor? His friend’s face hadn’t changed expression. It didn’t look like he was breathing.
“Charlie! Don’t give up on me. Keep with us son. Don’t do this to me.” The entry wound was obvious and crude and vile but Payne held his hand to it all the same, knowing that the wound on his back would be ten times worse. He would move him if he had to, take a look and try to stop the bleeding behind but first he checked his neck for a pulse.
Nothing. Charlie was dead.
18
Nixon met him on the pavement outside the Red Dragon. Their eyes met.
“We'll catch him Guv. Have you got anything out of your man Carey yet?”
“No. He’s a bit dazed. He’s asking for an ambulance.”
“We’ll get a doctor to the station to see him.”
&n
bsp; Payne had been about to apply a bit of pressure to Carey when Nixon had stormed in with a couple of armed response policemen. The restaurant had been empty of all but the restaurant’s owner and the chef who had been sitting on top of Carey. He’d looked relieved when asked to get off the man. Carey had just woken up and was threatening anyone who’d listen. Payne had been relieved when his backup had arrived as he’d caught sight of the wok the waitress had used and was thinking of using it himself.
Now outside in the cool air and drizzling rain, Payne struggled to believe what had just happened.
“He’s on his way to the station. We'll interview him as soon as we get back.”
Payne explained about the folder to Nixon.
“What could have been in it?” Nixon was good at keeping the emotion fenced off while under pressure. His calm demeanour tethered Payne.
“No idea. Never got a chance to see.”
“What were you talking about?”
Payne told Nixon about the knowledge their prisoner seemed to have about the case. “We need to find this man Thadeus. He put these two up to it tonight. Find him, and we’ll get some answers. Get a search going at the Pathology lab. Maybe that'll turn something else up. Charlie might have left a copy of his notes for us to find.”
“He knew this guy right?”
“Right.”
“But how? They used to work together?”
“He’s worked for the pathology department as long as I’ve known him. But Carey said he was a doctor. There’s a connection. He implied they’d worked together.”
“I’ll check out Charlie’s employment history. See what we can find out. His wife hasn't been told yet. Pauline isn't it?”
Payne's stomach crumbled. He thought back to how Pauline had looked the last time he'd seen her. Her smile was always enough to lift his spirits and now he was going to crush hers. “They don’t live together anymore. She’s remarried. I'll speak to her. Tell the liaison officers to hold off an hour.”
The Face Stealer Page 11
