by Dan Latus
As it happened, Senga told me the details when she arrived at Risky Point soon after me.
‘They kidnapped him from Julie’s, and told her to say nothing to anyone if she valued his life.’
‘He was at Julie’s place?’ I asked incredulously.
‘What?’ Senga said defiantly. ‘He’s not allowed out, or something?’
I sighed. ‘It would have been better if someone in the family – if not Tom himself – had thought about security. Where the hell was Marty?’
‘Tom just left and went there, without telling anyone.’
‘That trick again, eh?’ I shook my head. ‘Well, we can’t do anything until he’s safe.’
‘Agreed,’ Senga said, undaunted. ‘So what’s the problem?’
I gave her an impatient look but managed to keep my cool. She probably knew already what I thought of her hapless nephew, fine young man though she obviously thought him to be.
‘The problem is how to keep Tom alive and at the same time avoid letting Logan walk off with a shipload of plant and machinery, none of which belongs to him.’
‘Float off, you mean.’
Luckily for her, she was smiling when she said it.
‘Float off,’ I agreed. ‘Look, why don’t you make yourself really useful and open that bottle of wine you brought?’
‘Yessir!’
Later, after a makeshift supper, we returned to the main agenda.
‘So what happens next?’ Senga asked.
‘Next, I meet Blue tomorrow morning. We will await the arrival of his special consignment, for which we must find a place on the ss Anne. Then, if all is correct, Tom will be released – maybe.’
‘And then?’
‘The following night the ship sails, unless I can find a way of stopping it.’
‘You’re really intent on doing that, aren’t you?’
‘I am. I don’t want to see Tom dead, Josh ruined and in jail, and Anne in tears, but there’s no way I can allow that ship to reach its destination. My little business, such as it is, is honest and legal. It always has been. I’m going to keep it that way.’
‘All right, all right! Enough said. So what are you going to do? Let’s be practical here.’
‘I’m working on it.’ I smiled ruefully. ‘The only idea I’ve had so far is to make Logan and Blue disappear. Unfortunately, I can’t just shoot them, and I haven’t thought of another way of doing it.’
Senga frowned. ‘It might be easier just to make the ship disappear.’
‘I don’t think that’s going to happen either.’
‘No, perhaps not. What’s this mysterious cargo Blue wants to bring on board?’
‘No idea. All I know is that it must be something big if he needs a ship to carry it in. It must be valuable, as well.’
She nodded. ‘Blue seems to be a significant figure, doesn’t he?’
‘Significant?’
‘Well, he seems to carry some clout.’
That was true. I’d seen it during our negotiation. Even Logan had deferred to him at certain points. He was a hard, tough man, and he wielded influence.
‘Do you want me to come with you tomorrow?’ Senga asked.
‘Thank you, but no,’ I said firmly.
‘So I don’t have to get up early?’
I shook my head.
‘Let’s go to bed, then.’
I had discovered by then that it was a mistake to think you knew what Senga would say next. She was just full of good ideas. At the time, though, I was still underestimating her, a situation that soon she was to put right – and not in bed either.
For the moment, at least, my reservations and suspicions about her seemed to have been forgotten.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
It was one of those hard mornings. Eventually it would be light and perhaps the sun would shine, but not for hours yet. The nights are long at the tail-end of the year. Senga got up with me soon after six, when it was still dark and frosty. After a quick breakfast, she helped me scrape the ice off the windows of the car while the engine was warming up. Then I gave her a kiss and got in. With the heater blasting away, I set off, crunching over the frozen snow.
I was supposed to meet Blue at ten, and was in good time. I arrived at Josh’s compound early, made my presence known to the ever-present Gerald and then went over to the jetty to see what was happening on the ship. That was where Josh was, helping his skipper with the logistics. My job was to accompany and accommodate Blue when he turned up. That way, maybe we would get Tom back. Maybe.
There was a lot of fog hanging over the river that morning, and patches of ice covered the puddles on the pitted concrete surface of the jetty. I shivered and tried not to think of how soon the glistening sides and deck of the ship would turn to ice once it left the Tees and headed out into the cold wastes of the North Sea.
That might well be soon, I realized. It looked to me as if there wasn’t much work left to do aboard the ss Anne. In layman’s terms, the ship was full, crammed to overloaded. Only a small space had been left on the main deck. We would have to see if that was big enough for whatever Blue was bringing to the party.
I still didn’t have an answer to my problem of how to stop the ship leaving its berth. Maybe some obscure customs requirement might do it? Or some other bureaucratic hurdle. But when did that ever stop the mafia? A tip-off to the police might do it, but that would bring everyone down. I still wasn’t at the stage where I was ready to countenance the nuclear option.
Blue turned up exactly on time. I was waiting on the jetty when a Toyota Land Cruiser turned in the gates of the compound and accelerated across the tarmac towards me. It stopped and Blue got out. He walked briskly towards me.
‘There will be a delay,’ he announced.
‘Why’s that?’
‘The transport hit slow traffic. It will be another hour.’
I nodded. ‘Fine. Where’s the boy?’
Blue jerked his head towards the Land Cruiser.
‘He’s in there?’
‘As our guest,’ he added with a ferocious grin. ‘Under armed guard.’
‘That’s not necessary, surely?’
‘Just keep your end of the bargain.’
I wondered if there was any way I could get Josh’s men to surround the vehicle and release Tom. I decided against even trying. The compound was likely to be full of corpses if we did that – most of them ours.
‘So what do you want to do?’ I asked.
‘Wait,’ Blue said.
‘Where?’
‘Here is fine.’
I could see he meant it literally. Tough guy, eh? OK. We would wait here together. I was damned if I was going to offer him a seat or a coffee, never mind shelter. We would just wait, here and together.
‘What’s the load like?’ I asked.
‘That’s not your concern.’
‘It is if you want it on the ship. We need to know how big it is, for a start.’
He thought about that but didn’t offer any information. I changed my mind about waiting with him.
‘Right,’ I said. ‘I’ll see you at eleven.’
I turned to walk over to the offices.
‘Stay here!’ he snapped.
‘What for?’
‘Stay here, where I can see you.’
I gave him a big smile. ‘Nice!’
But I was more intrigued than concerned. His edgy response suggested he was under pressure, as well. It was good to know. Maybe I could work on that.
‘You’ll have to tell me if there’s space for your load,’ I said. ‘Be reasonable, for crissake! How big is it?’
He weighed up his answer. I had hit a nerve. He knew I was right, but he was damned if he would admit it. He didn’t want to give anything away until he had no choice. My intent was to give him no choice.
‘You will see at eleven,’ he said.
I shrugged. ‘Fair enough. But, in that case, expect delays.’
‘There will be no del
ays.’
‘There will. How easy do you think it is to configure the load on a ship? How long do you think it takes to move stuff around and arrange things so the ship won’t capsize once it hits a big wave?’
He thought about it some more and then volunteered, ‘It’s big enough.’
‘How big?’
He screwed his face up in concentration, blew out a cloud of condensation and finally added, ‘It’s on a low-loader.’
‘And does the whole lot need to go on board?’
He nodded.
‘Jesus! I’d better check what space is available.’
‘Stay here. If there isn’t enough room for it, something will have to come off. We’ll sort that out when the load arrives.’
More delays, then. Big delays. It didn’t bother me. He was the one who might find delay created difficulties. I had all the time in the world.
On a low-loader, eh? Interesting. That meant a big crate of some description, or a container, perhaps. Full of what? I was no closer to knowing that. But one thing I did know was that there was no space at present for a low-loader on board the ss Anne. So there certainly would be a delay. Maybe that would give me a chance to think of some way to stop the sailing.
Chapter Forty
Shortly after eleven there was a lot of noise and movement at the main gate. Something was happening. I watched as men milled about and opened a second gate that doubled the size of the entrance to the compound.
A low-loader edged into the compound, carrying the kind of thing that had probably never ever been inside Josh’s compound before.
‘It’s here,’ Blue said with satisfaction.
I didn’t say anything at all. I just stared, astonished.
There was no doubt about what it was. Mystery over. It was a tank.
‘A main battle tank,’ Blue said with evident satisfaction.
‘Where’s it from?’
He just chuckled.
It was so shiny and new-looking that there was only one place it could have come from: the factory. The old Armstrong Works in Scotswood on Tyneside was where they were made. At least, they had been until the closure of the works a year or two earlier, as part of yet more government cost-cutting and military downsizing. This one looked as if it had been one of the last to come off the process belt.
I stared at the enormity of the thing on the truck and shook my head with awe. Senga and I hadn’t come up with this when we were speculating about Blue’s planned contribution to the ship’s cargo.
‘Where’s it going?’
‘You know that. Marseilles.’
‘And then?’
He shook his head impatiently and walked forward to clamber up the side of the low-loader, intent on checking that the load was secure.
At present there was no space for it on the ship. I knew that without using a measuring tape.
‘We’ll have to offload stuff to make way for it,’ I called after him.
‘Get on with it, then!’
‘Release the boy first.’
He turned and stared hard at me.
‘Get Tom out here where I can see him, while I talk to Josh about getting stuff unloaded to make way for this thing.’
He thought for a moment and then signalled to the Land Cruiser. A door opened. Tom spilled out, propelled by whoever remained inside. He stumbled, fell, picked himself up and looked towards us. I waved him over and waited until he arrived.
‘Are you all right, Tom?’
‘Yeah. The bastards! They broke Julie’s door down. I couldn’t believe it. Julie—’
‘Forget Julie for the moment, Tom. There’s more important things going on here.’
He bridled at that and was about to argue.
‘Shut up, Tom!’
Wisely, he shut up.
By then, two thugs had arrived to stand either side of him. A couple more were close to their vehicle. The odds were not good. I ruled out trying anything.
Blue joined us. ‘He stays with me,’ he said with a nod towards Tom.
‘Until the cargo is aboard?’
‘And afterwards. We’re both going with it.’
I grimaced but it was no time to argue. I left Tom there on the jetty and went to see his father.
Josh met me as I reached the deck. ‘What the hell’s that thing on the jetty?’
‘A main battle tank. He wants us to make space for it.’
‘Where?’
‘Take something off.’
‘Like what?’
‘Just do it, Josh. Keep him sweet.’
I didn’t want a debate just then, not with Blue watching and waiting. There was no telling how he would react to us making difficulties.
It took time to arrange, but we got it done. Josh had the crew take off a combine harvester and a big excavator, and then shuffled other stuff around to make space.
The main battle tank came aboard. I watched, more determined than ever that this had to be stopped, and as uncertain as ever how to do it.
While all this was going on, Josh became a bit distracted.
‘Anything wrong?’ I asked.
He shook his head. ‘I don’t know. Anne’s not answering her phone.’
‘Maybe she’s got nothing more to say to you?’ I said with a grin.
‘That’s what I’m worried about. She blames me for everything. Mind you, she has good reason, I suppose.’
I patted him on the shoulder. ‘Come on, Josh. She’ll come round. She’s probably busy right now. What was she going to do this morning anyway?’
‘She said she was going to the supermarket.’
‘There you are, then. She’s busy.’
‘Yeah. You’re probably right.’
I probably was right, but I wasn’t sure. When I got away from Josh I took out my phone and rang both the Steeles’ house and Anne’s mobile. No reply from either of them.
Nothing really to worry about, but I was worried. My feeling was that as an anxious mother, Anne would be desperate to take a phone call that morning. She would be hanging on, biting her lip, desperate for news. So why wasn’t she there?
Blue beckoned me over when the loading was complete.
‘We will sail this evening,’ he said. ‘Ten p.m. Tell Steele to make sure the captain has everything ready. I will return before then.’
‘Not until ten tonight?’
‘Just be ready!’
I shrugged. ‘OK. And you’re going with the ship?’
He nodded.
‘And Logan?’
‘Just me – and Steele’s kid.’
‘Anyone else? The captain will need to know.’
He shook his head. ‘No one else.’
That was what he thought.
They left, taking Tom with them as their hostage. I watched them go. Then I sought out Josh again. He was in a bitter mood.
‘You just let them take Tom?’ he said.
‘We want him back alive, Josh, not killed in a shoot-out on the dockside.’
‘I suppose so,’ he admitted, looking despondent. ‘So what happens now?’
‘Blue wants the ship to leave at ten tonight. He’ll be back before then, with Tom.’
‘Anyone else?’
I shook my head. ‘We’ve got things to sort out before tonight, Josh.’
‘Like what? All I’m concerned about is Tom.’
‘Tom’s part of it, but he’s not the whole thing.’
‘He is to me, and to Anne.’
‘I appreciate how you both feel, but it’s not only about him, is it? It never was.’
‘I don’t know what you mean.’
‘I told you I’m not letting Logan get away with exporting a shipload of stolen goods. Now it’s worse. Look down there. That’s a main battle tank – not a bloody tractor!
‘That thing could do a lot of damage in the wrong hands. There’s no way I’m going to allow that to end up with some guerrilla group in North Africa, which is where it’s likely to be going from
Marseilles.’
‘I don’t give a toss about any of that,’ Josh said defiantly. ‘I’m only interested in Tom.’
He turned and walked off to see the captain, leaving me to fret and stew. What the hell to do now?
I’d got a phone number for Logan that Josh had given me. I debated for a moment and then I rang him.
‘Logan? This is Frank Doy.’
‘How did you get this number?’
‘From Josh Steele. He’s worried. His wife isn’t answering her phone. That’s not anything to do with you, is it?’
He chuckled. ‘His security people are crap! They might as well not have been there. Personally, I would fire the whole lot of them. Tell him that from me!’
So my hunch had been right. They must have picked her up from the shopping expedition. Easier than at the house.
I kept calm. ‘What’s this about? You’ve already got the boy.’
‘It’s insurance – my insurance. The boy’s not with me, is he?’
No, he wasn’t. It sounded like the partnership was dissolving. Now Logan and Blue each had a piece of the Steele family for bargaining purposes.
‘Don’t let anything happen to her,’ I warned.
He chuckled again. ‘Just do what we agreed, Doy.’
The phone went dead. I studied it for a moment but it stayed like that. For now, I just had to hope Anne was in better shape.
A couple of minutes later I fielded a call from Bill Peart.
‘What’s going on?’ he asked.
‘Not a lot,’ I lied. ‘Anything happening your end?’
‘It depends on how you look at it, I suppose. Remember I told you we had a badly injured cop, beaten up by some thugs associated with Logan?’
‘I remember.’
‘Well, he didn’t make it. Died this morning. Wife and two kids there with him.’
I winced. ‘I’m sorry to hear that, Bill.’
‘Nothing to do with your client, of course?’
‘Well …’ I blew out with frustration and anger. ‘You can’t tie that to me or to Josh Steele, Bill. Josh is a victim in all this, and I’m a … I don’t know what the hell I am now! A bystander, I guess.’
‘Yeah, well. You’ve just got a remarkable talent for being in the wrong place, I suppose.’
I ignored that. But it wasn’t entirely unfair.
‘How’s the investigation going? Any progress?’
