Dead of Night [Full Book]

by Paul J. Teague

  ‘Good thinking, Luce. You always were the brains of the marriage.’

  Jack was pleased they were no longer rowing, but his good mood didn’t last long.

  ‘Did you see that?’ Lucy asked.

  ‘What?’

  ‘That’s a low bridge sign back there. They’re herding us, Jack. They must know this leads to a low bridge. That’s why they’re hanging back. They’re waiting for us to get to it.’

  ‘Here’s the village now,’ Jack said, passing an old and unloved phone box at the roadside. If he could only stop the lorry and use it to call the police. They’d been stupid to spend time arguing. They should have been marshalling their resources.

  ‘Let’s pull together what we have, Luce. The gun’s on the shelf in front of you. Do you still have Erica’s phone?’

  Lucy reached into her pocket and placed it on the shelf.

  ‘Mine’s still knackered, I think, and Erica’s mobile is pretty basic, but at least it doesn’t have a PIN code. There’s a walkie-talkie there too. Put it all in the middle, between our seats.’

  As they drove through the length of the village, Jack sounded the horn of the lorry continuously. He’d wake up the inhabitants, some old git would surely complain to the police. The vehicles behind them fell back as the horn began to blare. They knew they’d got them cornered, but they were keeping their distance. The doorless van made them conspicuous.

  Lights were being switched on in the houses by the road.

  ‘What have we got?’ Jack asked. He looked down at the pile of equipment they had gathered: walkie-talkie, gun, mobile phone and wristband.

  ‘Jack, look out!’

  There was the grating sound of metal against stone and an ear-splitting crunch as the roof of the lorry’s cabin folded down towards their heads. They were thrown against the already shattered windscreen as the lorry came to an abrupt stop.

  ‘What was that? What happened?’ asked Jack, recovering himself quickly and picking a fragment of glass out of his cheek.

  ‘We hit a rail bridge! Did you really not see it coming?’

  ‘I wasn’t concentrating, Luce. Are you okay? That was some jolt.’

  ‘I’ve hurt my neck, but that’s going to be the least of our problems. Can’t you hear that noise?’

  There was a rumble in the distance and the ground was vibrating.

  ‘Damn, it’s a train! It’s about to go over the bridge.’

  They inspected the debris to their sides. Lucy’s side of the cab was jammed against the wall of the narrow stone bridge. There was very small space to the side of Jack, but the cab had been forced downward by the impact, pushing it to a few centimetres above their heads. They were completely wedged in with no idea at all what damage they’d done to the bridge. The train was almost upon them.

  9

  Jack could hear a dull thudding noise coming from the rear of the lorry.

  ‘They’re coming for us through the back,’ he said, more calmly than he felt.

  ‘We have to get out of here. The only way they can get to us is from behind – or by crossing the track. Either way we need to get moving.’

  She was right. Jack reached for the door handle. The pounding was getting louder. It wouldn’t be long before they managed to break into the rear of the lorry.

  The door didn’t open.

  ‘Shit, it’s jammed!’

  ‘Push it harder!’ shouted Lucy. ‘Come on, they’ll be through soon.’

  ‘It won’t move, the roof has pushed down too far.’

  The train was almost overhead now. There was a steady, ominous rumbling as it neared the bridge. A couple of stones from the arch fell to the ground.

  ‘Luce, I’m not sure how secure this bridge is. Look at that debris, the archway has been damaged in the impact’

  ‘I think you’re right, we’ll be buried in here if it collapses. Come on, there’s a way out of here!’

  Lucy moved right up to Jack and started to kick at the damaged windscreen. Jack lay back a little on the seat to get a better angle, and they kicked together. At last it shattered enough for them to climb through it.

  More stones feel from the arched roof of the tunnel, if too many became dislodged, the entire structure would cave in.

  Jack went through first, placing a blanket that Lucy found at the back of the cab over the shattered glass. He moved through backwards, dropping to the ground in front of the jammed lorry, watching all the time for falling debris.

  ‘They’re almost through, Luce. And there’s one heck of a crack in the bridge up there. Come on, we have to run! If they break through at the back, they’ll be able to shoot at us.’

  Jack shouted up the cab, urging Lucy to begin the awkward journey down to the ground. The stonework was beginning to rain down now, one strike from falling rubble and they could be knocked out cold.

  There were gunshots from within the lorry’s cargo area.

  The train was directly overhead now. It was heavy and thunderous. Perhaps a freight train, Jack thought. Behind them, they could hear the noise of their attackers trying to break through at the back of the lorry. They had no option. They had to jump onto the train.

  More stones shook loose from the bridge, one bouncing on the front of the lorry and narrowly missing Jack’s leg.

  ‘We have to move. Come on!’

  Jack helped Lucy down from the cab then took her hand. They ran around to the front of the bridge. The steep bank to the left was heavily overgrown and securely fenced. At the top of the bank to the right was a hedge which adjoined the next-door churchyard.

  ‘If we climb up the bank to the churchyard, we can get through that hedge and enter the railway that way,’ said Lucy.

  Jack started to clamber up pulling Lucy behind him. They didn’t have time to go the long way round. Once the train had passed by there would be nothing between them and their pursuers.

  ‘Fuck it, I’m going through!’

  He dived into the mass of brambles, forcing his way through the branches and foliage. He tried to clear a path for Lucy, but there was no escaping the sharp thorns.

  In seconds they were on the other side, standing next to the track as the front of the train started to slowly roll past, their only hope of getting out of there.

  It was slow enough to jump on board. Bright yellow, it had the words Rail Grinding painted along the sides. It didn’t appear to be grinding, Jack saw no sparks, it was just making its way slowly along the track. Jack selected a unit with a two-step ladder to the side and an enclosed area where they could safely take refuge. It was this or nothing, the train had almost passed now, they had to commit.

  ‘You go first, Luce!’

  ‘No, you go ahead. I’m going to need you to pull me up, I’m not sure I have the strength in my ankle.’

  There was no time to argue. They could barely hear each other over the persistent rumble anyway. Jack began to run, he was aiming for the small red gate set between two carriages at the rear of the train on which a warning was emblazoned on a bright yellow safety sign Authorized Personnel Only.

  The heavy railway sleepers were set into heaps of stones; they were hard on the feet, even with running shoes on. Jack jumped and swung towards the red gate. He missed and stumbled before recovering and trying again. This time he got it, he was on the train.

  He turned towards Lucy, she’d dropped behind, hanging back when she’d thought Jack was about to fall.

  ‘Come on Luce, run!’

  He watched his wife’s face as she grimaced through the pain, a flashing light on the carriage illuminating her discomfort every couple of seconds. Lucy picked up her pace and held out her hand to Jack. She’d have to outrun the train for a moment so that he could grab her and pull her up.

  ‘Come on, Lucy. You can do it!’

  He held out his arm as far as he could, hanging on to the protective railings at the end of the carriage.

  The last carriage had now passed the bridge. Jack knew that it was now or ne
ver for Lucy. He knew what they would do to her if she didn’t make it. They were ruthless.

  She made a final desperate thrust forward, fighting through the pain of her injured ankle. Jack caught her hand and clasped it tightly pulling her up onto the train’s decking. He slammed the small red gate firmly shut and held his wife as she gasped to catch her breath. They’d made it. They were safe. That narrow, gated area at the end of the carriage had provided sanctuary for the two fugitives.

  ‘Make sure we’re not being followed,’ Lucy urged him, struggling to catch a full breath.

  Jack helped his wife sit up against the side of the carriage and looked back down the railway track. The fog had gone now and he could see clearly in the light of the moon.

  ‘The other side,’ Lucy signalled with her hand, ‘check the other side too.’

  He moved across the width of the train to look back down the tracks. There were three figures gathered at the top of the bridge. They were watching, even from that distance he could feel the tension.

  Suddenly, a tall muscular figure appeared from behind the train. Jack watched in horror as he ran alongside the last carriage, and then leapt up towards the railings, just as he had done seconds earlier

  They were no longer alone. There was no route they could use to make their escape through the carriages. They would have to climb up onto the roof.

  Jack moved fast, he’d seen the size of their pursuer. He was fit and strong, like the rest of them. Jack wouldn’t stand a chance in a fight.

  ‘Did you manage to bring anything from the lorry, Luce?’

  He had to shout to be heard over the noise of the train.

  She put her hand in her pocket. It was a small thing that Jack noticed, but because it was inside out Lucy had to reach awkwardly to retrieve the item. It was Erica’s phone. What were they going to do, throw it at the guy? Lucy saw his disappointment as she placed the phone on the metal deck. She reached behind her into the elastic of her tracksuit bottoms. It was the gun. They could defend themselves at least.

  Jack reached over and hugged his wife hard, relieved that she’d had the presence of mind to grab the most useful pieces of equipment from the lorry cab. He thought about the layout of the train. The man was two wagons behind them. It wouldn’t take him long to move along the roof.

  ‘We have to go up on top.’

  ‘I don’t think I can,’ Lucy replied. ‘My ankle hurts too much. Take the gun, you’re going to have to fire at him. I’ll use Erica’s phone to try to raise the police. They want you alive, remember. They don’t give a shit about me.’

  She was right. If he went up on the roof he might wound or kill the man, but if Lucy went with him, she’d be shot without a second thought. He wished he’d paid more attention to all those films he’d watched so he could figure out how many rounds of ammunition he had left.

  He decided to move across to the next carriage. It was enclosed by a metal frame which would serve as a ladder. He’d be able to get onto the roof from there. He tucked the gun into his waistband and began to pull himself up. Beneath him the sleepers flashed creating a startling stroboscopic effect.

  He scanned the top of the train before he pulled himself up. The man had got to the second carriage, he was almost upon them. Jack quickly moved to a squat. The train was swaying from side to side. They were entering a town, he could see streetlights. He thought it through, this had to be the rural line down to the city. It would take them close to home.

  He put out his arms to balance and tentatively stood up. It was harder than it looked on the TV. Every so often the train would shake and nearly send him over the edge of the roof. His opponent was having the same difficulty too. He felt for the gun tucked into his waistband and pulled it out. The train shook again and he stumbled. He could see Lucy anxiously looking up, trying to see what was going on.

  Jack levelled the gun at his pursuer. The man stopped for a moment, he hadn’t expected Jack to be armed. Their eyes met across the carriages, there was twenty metres between them. Jack recognised him. It was Johnson.

  He stopped dead and examined Jack’s face, working out what he was going to do next. Jack watched for a hand movement, but his opponent appeared to be unarmed. Jack raised the gun, aiming it as best as he could, and fired.

  Johnson dropped to the roof of the carriage, and for a moment Jack thought he’d hit him, but he was only protecting himself, lying flat and making himself less of a target. Jack raised the gun again and fired a second time, but the train lurched making him stumble and causing the shot to go wildly into the air. Johnson leapt to his feet and moved forward another five metres before ducking down again as Jack, completely bungling his timing, fired again, the bullet ricocheting off the metal of the next carriage.

  He suddenly became aware of Lucy frantically waving at him, pointing above his head. What was it? What was she trying to signal to him? He glanced up to see a flash, then another.

  Johnson was waiting to make another move. He was almost at the end of the second carriage, he’d be right over Lucy’s head soon. Could she shoot him through the canopy if he threw her the gun? Jack wondered how many bullets he had left. How many had he wasted, two … three? He’d lost count. He considered his options. He decided he would move up the carriages to lure Johnson away from Lucy.

  Jack levelled the gun, wise to the motion of the train by now. He waited for it to shake, he was ready for it and steadied himself. He aimed directly at Johnson and pulled the trigger. The gun clicked. Jack tried again. Johnson was getting back up on his feet, a contemptuous smirk on his face.

  Below him Lucy was still gesticulating at him, increasingly frustrated at his failure to understand her. Something whizzed over his head. Another flash. At last he understood.

  It was just the two of them now, a fight without weapons on the roof of a moving train.

  They were moving into the city. Jack caught sight of the floodlit cathedral, a welcome landmark. The train was slowing, he didn’t have much time. He looked at Johnson and placed his gun on the roof of the carriage. Jack counted the flashes overhead, getting his timing right. Johnson looked him dead between the eyes, calculating his move. Slowly Jack stepped backwards, giving his opponent just enough clearance to make his jump. There was a shake of the train, both men steadied themselves, and then Johnson started to run before leaping up high to clear the gap between the wagons. Jack saw the spray of blood and then the flash of electricity.

  Johnson had leapt up directly into the path of one of the heavy frames which carried the electrified cables. That’s what Lucy had been shouting at him. As Johnson had made his jump, his head had crashed into the structure, instantly crushing his skull. His body was thrown into the air, entangled in the cables which carried the power for the electrified lines. If he wasn’t dead by the time he hit the solid metal frame, there would have been no doubt about it after what was left of his body fried on the 25,000 volt cable over their heads.

  Trembling, Jack sank to the carriage roof before his legs gave way under him. The train was slowing. He wasn’t familiar with this approach to the station, but he could see they were moving into the city centre. Shakily, he made his way down the metal frame and back to Lucy. She hugged him, hard. They didn’t speak. They both had tears running down their faces.

  ‘What do we do now?’ she asked.

  ‘We’ve got to call the police.’

  ‘I want to ring home first. I want to see what that shit Clive is up to. The bastard has our child!’ It was getting light. She looked at Erica’s phone. It was nearly five o’clock. ‘Hamish will probably be awake already. There’s something that’s been bothering me about this …’

  Lucy dialled the home phone number.

  The phone rang until it switched to answer phone. Lucy dialled straight in again. Again it switched through to Lucy’s bland message, accompanied by the sound of Hamish wailing in the background.

  Hi, we can’t take your call at the moment, please leave a message.

&
nbsp; ‘They must still be sleeping,’ Lucy said, disappointed.

  The train had stopped alongside a platform. There were no passengers around, and apart from the cooing of the pigeons, the station was eerily quiet. There was a taste of engine fumes in the air, Jack hadn’t noticed that while they’d been moving.

  ‘Come on, Lucy. We need to get off this train and call the police.’

  Jack opened the small red safety gate and stepped out onto the platform. Erica’s phone started to vibrate in Lucy’s hand. The train was still idling, but now it had stopped moving they could talk at normal levels again.

  ‘Hello,’ said Lucy, expecting to hear Sophie’s voice returning her call. It wasn’t Sophie. It was the woman in the cemetery. She recognised the voice. She didn’t beat around the bush.

  ‘Is your husband with you? Yes, I can see that he is. We’ve been tracking you.’

  The German accent seemed more pronounced over the phone.

  ‘Yes, I’m here,’ Jack said, his heart beating fast.

  ‘Mr Dawson, you have caused us a lot of trouble this evening. This is what is going to happen—’

  ‘Have you got Hamish there?’ Lucy interrupted. ‘Is he alright? Is he safe?’

  The woman ignored her.

  ‘Mr Dawson, please quieten your wife. My colleagues and I are getting onto a private plane at 6.30am, that’s in just over one hour’s time. It will take you a maximum of thirty minutes to drive to your house, where I will require you to place three fingerprints onto an electronic device. Once you have done that, we will be on our way. If we miss our take-off window at the airport, we will be extremely angry.’

  Jack could hear a sniffing in the background. It must be Sophie. And there he was, Hamish, happy and gurgling, as if nothing was wrong.

  ‘What’s this all about?’ Jack asked. ‘Whatever you’re doing, is it really worth all of this?’

  ‘Jack, I’m sorry! I didn’t know it would turn out like this. I only—’