All Gone

by Joel Goldman

  “Positive. Do you want me to tell you everything or not?”

  Murdoch turned the recorder on. “Talk to me.”

  For the next hour, she took him through the last five days except for two details she kept to herself.

  “And that’s when I called you,” she said when she finished.

  Murdoch sighed. “By your account, that was half an hour after the shooting ended. What were you doing during that time?”

  “Trying to collect ourselves and find our way out of the catacombs so we could get a cell signal. The place is a maze.”

  “Yes, it runs beneath the entire Camden Lock Market. Used to be for stabling horses, I’m told. The entrance from the garage behind the tea shop doesn’t appear on any maps. Turns out that Lady Tresch owned the property.” He thought for a moment. “Ian Thorpe claims that you stole the Codex Leicester.”

  “I stole the case that it was in. I left the Codex behind.”

  “And used the case to bluff Lord Tresch.”

  “Yes.”

  “Then why go to the trouble of stealing the case? Why not buy a briefcase and tell him that it was for the Codex?”

  “Because there was a label inside the case that said it was the property of the Gates Foundation and that it contained the Codex. The bluff couldn’t have worked if Tresch didn’t believe I really stole it, which I didn’t. I left it inside the shipping crate. You can check with the Library.”

  “We did. And it’s as you said. The Codex was found in the shipping crate and Ian Thorpe has been asked for his resignation. Tell me again about the ransom money.”

  “Like I’ve told you the first three times you asked, it found its way back to the Magna Carta Trustees account. What else is there to know?”

  “Someone had to know the wire instructions when the ransom was paid. I take it that was you.” She nodded. “You must have memorized it when Mrs. St. James gave it to Sir Robert.”

  Cassie nodded again. “Anything else you’d like to know?”

  “Perhaps the identity of the person who sent the money on its way.”

  “All I can tell you is that he’s not subject to the UK’s jurisdiction.”

  “I suppose I shall have to take your word for it.”

  “Then I’m free to go?”

  Murdoch stood. “Not because I think you’re innocent. I’m just not certain what you’re guilty of beyond stealing the Codex case. The Crown Prosecutor would throw me out of his office if I brought him that charge. He’ll be much happier knowing that we solved Malcolm Bridges’ murder as well as the ones at the warehouse and that we avoided a national scandal with the Magna Cartas.”

  “What about Jake?”

  “I’ve no doubt that he’ll vouch for your story but I’ll give him a chance anyway.”

  Cassie waited for Jake on a bench across the street from Scotland Yard. An hour later, he ran to her, dodging honking cars, picked her up and spun her around, both laughing. He set her down.

  “Where to, partner?” he asked.

  “The Library. Sir Robert is waiting for us.”

  ***

  JAKE, CASSIE and Sir Robert sat with Sarah St. James in her office.

  “I don’t know how to thank you,” Sir Robert said. “I regret terribly that I lost confidence in you. Please forgive me. I’ve expressed my gratitude to Prometheus and told him what a wonderful job the two of you did.”

  “Thank you,” Cassie said. “And you should thank Sarah for retrieving the Codex and putting it back in the shipping container.”

  “Is that so,” he said. “Where was it?”

  Sarah said, “Cassie hid the Codex in an abandoned tube station on York Road.”

  “I didn’t give her much time to go get it, either,” Cassie said. “I knew that Inspector Murdoch wouldn’t believe I’d only stolen the case. Sarah had to return it to the shipping crate to back up my story.”

  “Tell me,” Sir Robert said. “Would you really have turned the Codex over to Lord Tresch?”

  “To save Jake and Gabriel’s lives? Without a doubt.”

  “As would I.” He turned to Sarah. “You’ve had quite an adventure this last week.”

  “I’ve had my fill of adventure. I’ll be glad to return to my boring curating duties.”

  “I’ll see to it that you get a nice raise for all you’ve done. There is one thing I don’t understand, Cassie. Why did your man in Iceland…what’s his name?”

  “Gunnar,” she said.

  “Yes, Gunnar. Why did he only return eighty-five million pounds of the ransom. What happened to the other fifteen?”

  “We thought the Trustees would want to set up trust accounts for the survivors of the three library guards.”

  “Five million pounds for each sounded right. You’re very generous people,” Jake said.

  Sir Robert smiled. “Indeed, we are.”

  ***

  CASSIE AND JAKE STOOD on the balcony outside their tenth-floor suite at the George V Hotel in Paris. They’d checked in two days ago after leaving London. It was near midnight. They were wearing the hotel’s plush bathrobes and nothing else. The breeze was refreshing. The city spread out below sparkled and glowed. Jake poured them each a glass of wine.

  “Here’s to a weekend in Paris spent making love and ordering room service,” he said. Cassie’s cellphone was in the bedroom behind them. It rang four times before quieting. “I’ll bet that’s Prometheus again. He’s called you half a dozen times since we got here. Eventually, you’re going to have to answer.”

  “I briefed Gunnar on what happened and he said he would send Prometheus a report. I’m not ready for anything else.”

  “Why not tell him that so he’ll leave you alone.”

  “Because he won’t. He’ll insist I come to the island to talk about what he did to Gabriel and me.”

  “His terms. His territory. I get that but you can say no.”

  “You’re right except that’s the only way he does things. He won’t apologize. He’ll say he did it for my own good and that he’d do it all over again.”

  “What will you tell him?”

  “That he’s a cruel old man and that what he did was unforgiveable.”

  “Will you quit or ask him about the next job?”

  She looked at him, hesitating. “I don’t know.”

  Jake put his hands on her waist. “What will you tell him about us?”

  “He already knows that you helped recover the Magna Cartas and the ransom money.”

  “I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about you and me teaming up. Prometheus will never go for that. You can’t trust him after what he did to you and Gabriel. He’ll do the same to us or worse. So, the hell with him. Let’s go out on our own. People who need us will find us.”

  “Oh, Jake. You make it sound so simple when it’s not.”

  “Don’t tell me Prometheus made you sign a non-compete agreement or that he’s like the mob where there’s only one way out.”

  “I didn’t sign anything and Prometheus would never hurt me.”

  “You can’t be sure. If you’re not with him, he could see you as a threat either because you might give away his secrets or use them against him.”

  Her phone rang again. She recognized the ring tone.

  “It’s Gunnar.” Cassie walked into the bedroom and answered, putting the call on speaker. “Hello.”

  Gunnar said, “You remember Costin Pretescu, the fence you killed in Bosnia?”

  “That was a long time ago.”

  “Not long enough for his brother, Lucian. Since Costin died, he’s been looking for his killer and someone put him on your trail.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “I monitor anyone who might be a problem for us. I’ve been on Lucian Pretescu since Bosnia. In the last couple of days, he’s been bragging on the dark web that he knows who killed his brother and that he’s going to even the score. He knows where you’re staying and he’s coming for you. Get out. Now,”
Gunnar said and ended the call.

  “It’s a bluff.” Jake said. “You’re telling me that after all these years, the brother pops up hot on your trail. C’mon. Prometheus put Gunnar up to it. He wants you to run back to him so he can protect you. Once you do that, he owns you.”

  “Maybe, but I trust Gunnar.” She went to the balcony and looked down at the street in front of the hotel. Two black SUVs pulled up. Eight men got out and headed for the lobby. “Get dressed.”

  They pulled on their clothes and opened the door. Their suite was at the end of the floor across from the entrance to a stairwell. The hallway was empty.

  “What did I tell you,” Jake said. “It’s a bluff.”

  The elevator door opened and two black-clad men got off carrying handguns at their sides.

  “I don’t think so. Quick. Take the stairs.”

  They pushed through the door. Cassie started to go down but Jake stopped her and motioned her to one side.

  “They expect us to run. Let’s switch it up.”

  Jake braced himself against the wall behind the door. Seconds later, when the first man came through, Jake shoved the door back at him, knocking him toward Cassie. She grabbed him by the arm and flipped him over the rail. The second man followed. Jake let him pass, then kicked his legs out from under him, sending him tumbling to the next landing.

  Cassie leaned over the rail. The first man had fallen ten flights. They continued down to the second man who was unconscious but alive. Cassie scooped up his gun as the stairwell door one flight below opened and two more of the men looked up at them.

  Jake tugged on Cassie’s sleeve. “Let’s back up.”

  They returned to the tenth floor and ran for the service elevator in the middle of the floor. They got on but their pursuers were left to pound on the doors as they closed. Cassie hit the button for the lobby.

  “I saw eight of them get out of their cars,” she said. “They’ve split up into pairs. If the first two didn’t get us in our room, the others would cover the stairwells and the entrances.”

  Jake stopped the elevator at the fourth floor. “This is where we get out.”

  She followed him into the corridor. “Why? We’re no better off here.”

  Jake pulled the fire alarm on the wall. “We need company.”

  They ran up and down the hall, pounding on doors, shouting fire, fire. As guests stumbled out of their rooms, they herded them into the stairwell. When the stairs were clogged, Jake and Cassie joined them, emerging into the lobby that was packed with guests making their way outside. Firemen going the other direction pushed through the crowd in search of the fire while hotel staff urged everyone to remain calm.

  “Did any of those guys look like he could be Petrescu’s brother?” Jake asked when they reached the sidewalk across the street from the hotel.

  Cassie shook her head. “All I saw were four guys that could have been Slavs or Romanians or Russians or who knows what.”

  Jake pointed to four men dressed in black standing together near the hotel entrance. “Did they look like those guys?”

  Before Cassie could answer, one of them saw her and took off toward them with the other three close behind.

  “Let’s get out of here,” she said.

  “Hold on. What are they going to do? Gun us down in the middle of the street in front of all these cops and firemen?”

  “What are you suggesting?”

  “That we stop doing what they expect us to do. C’mon.”

  Jake headed toward the nearest policeman and tapped him on the shoulder.

  “Do you speak English?” The cop rocked his hand back and forth, meaning a little bit. “How about this.” He pointed toward the advancing men and shook his finger at them, then turned to the cop. “Those guys are going to blow up the Eiffel Tower.”

  The cop’s eyes got wide. He let loose a flurry of French into his radio and ran toward them. The foursome stopped in their tracks and took off in the opposite direction.

  “Well done,” Cassie said.

  “I guess I was wrong about the bluff,” Jake said. “But I wasn’t wrong about Prometheus. He and Gunnar were the only people that knew where we were staying. We even checked in under fake names to make sure no one bothered us. You said you trust Gunnar. That means Prometheus gave you up.”

  Cassie looked at Jake. “I guess we just went out on our own.”

  A NOTE FROM THE AUTHORS

  THANKS FOR ADDING All Gone to your library. Readers depend on readers to recommend good books, and authors depend on readers to generate positive word of mouth for their books. If you liked All Gone, please leave a review on Amazon, Goodreads, or any other online platform of your choosing, even if it’s only a few words. It will make a big difference, and Joel and Lisa will be very thankful.

  ABOUT THE AUTHORS

  Joel Goldman is the bestselling author of the Lou Mason thrillers, the Jack Davis thriller, the Alex Stone thrillers and, with Lisa Klink, the author of the Ireland & Carter thriller series. Together with Lee Goldberg, he founded Brash Books where they publish the best crime novels in existence. He was a trial lawyer for twenty-eight years. He wrote his first novel after one of his partners complained about another partner, prompting him to write his first thriller, kill the son-of-a-bitch off in the first chapter and spend the rest of the book figuring out who did it. And he never looked back.

  Lisa Klink started her career in the world of Star Trek, writing for Deep Space Nine and Voyager before coming back to Earth for shows such as Martial Law and Missing. In addition to writing for television, she’s scripted a theme park attraction and authored graphic novels, short stories, and three novels in The Dead Man series. Klink is also a five-time champion on Jeopardy.