A Deadly Diversion

by David Barry

  ‘Shapiro, you bastard,’ I said. ‘I see you don’t have a weapon of any sort. What makes you think...?’

  He didn’t let me finish and screamed angrily, ‘I don’t do weapons, guns or otherwise. I leave that to the muscle.’ Then, as if embarrassed by the sudden outburst, he chuckled. ‘I mean, why keep a dog and bark yourself? I leave all the rough stuff to Peter there.’ He nodded towards a raised area in the shadows, and I saw a broad-shouldered, shaven-headed man in a black raincoat, holding a machine pistol.

  ‘Peter?’ I questioned.

  ‘That’s right. Peter Chapmays. The other Peter won’t be needing the false ID anymore, so it seemed a pity not to recycle.’

  ‘I suppose,’ I said to the armed man in the shadows, ‘you realise just how expendable you are.’

  ‘Save it!’ Shapiro snapped. ‘He knows the risks and he’s prepared to take them.’

  ‘But is he prepared to spend a lifetime behind bars? Or will he go the same way as the other Chapmays and fall on his sword? If that’s the case, I suggest he does it soon, before the police get to Sheppey.’

  ‘Don’t kid yourself, Freddie. The police are not coming to save you. I can guarantee it.’ Shapiro smiled grimly. ‘I have friends in high places. And some of them will find recent events rather upsetting. You frightened off an influential customer, for a start. Just as he was about to become acquainted with your daughter. Maybe you recognised him.’

  ‘His face did seem familiar.’

  ‘He’s been on Question Time more than a few times, and is highly influential. And rich. As are most of my potential customers. Now your daughter here was blindfolded when I had her snatched, so she had no idea of where she was. As soon as she had satisfied some of my distinguished customers, we would have blindfolded her again and eventually let her go. And now, because of your interference, your daughter knows where we are. So I’m afraid we will have to find another way out of this mess.’

  I held Olivia tighter as I felt her shaking.

  ‘Listen, you bastard!’ I said through gritted teeth. ‘How could I not do everything in my power to stop my daughter from being taken and abused? And why the hell did you target her in the first place? Was it because Alice Bayne assigned us to investigate her family’s murder?’

  ‘Spot on, Freddie. I had hoped, like Jack Dawe, you might be persuaded to drop the case. Especially once you found out your daughter’s internet abuse was connected to Alice Bayne’s enquiries. And still you carried on, thus endangering little Olivia here. Why did you do it, Freddie? Was it the money? Was Alice Bayne paying you handsomely for your services. You see, in the end it all boils down to money.’ He looked down and spoke to Olivia like a much younger child. ‘I’m afraid your daddy has sealed your fate by the age old story of greed, my darling.’

  ‘That’s not true, Shapiro, and you know it. Alice wanted justice for her family and my partner Bill and I were committed to helping her.’

  Shapiro gave me a slow hand clap. ‘How very noble of you. But it helps when you have a million bucks in the bank, yes?’

  ‘There’s something I don’t understand, though.’

  ‘Go on,’ he said impatiently, glancing at his watch.

  ‘Once your hitman was dead, and I went chasing wild geese in Poland, the trail leading to you would have gone cold. Until you threatened and abducted Olivia.

  That’s when I discovered it was you.’

  ‘So how did you find out?’

  ‘American spellings on Olivia’s computer. It doesn’t matter how clever a criminal might think he is, he nearly always makes a mistake. And you’re no exception, Shapiro. So why didn’t you just drop it and leave us alone once you knew I’d hit a dead end?’

  ‘I suppose it was because you managed to track down Peter and kill him. It was irritating.’

  ‘Irritating!’ I yelled.

  He stared at me impassively, and I realised I was staring at the face of another psychopath. This man felt no sympathy for another human being. His only concern was in achieving enough power to provide for his own needs and gratification.

  ‘I don’t know where you think this will end, you bastard. You may have friends in high places but...’

  ‘Like you would not believe, Freddie,’ he cut in. ‘Some of my customers are cabinet ministers, chief executives of major organisations, high-ranking military and police officers - not to mention some upstanding members of the cloth. If I go down, because of what I know, they all go down with me. And they’re not going to let that happen. So I’m sorry to disappoint you.’

  ‘You really think they’ll stick by you, Shapiro?’ I said, then turned to look at his minder. ‘Do yourself a favour, Peter - or whatever your name is - get out now while you’ve got the chance. Your boss may have friends in high places, but do you honestly think they’ll stick by you? You’ll be their Lee Harvey Oswald. The fall guy. They’re the untouchables, enjoying champagne at Claridges while you’re stuck in a six-by-five, terrified in case the nonce-haters get hold of you.’

  ‘Shut it, Freddie! I’m beginning to find your conversation tedious and we need to bring this meeting to a close.’ He nodded towards the man with the gun. ‘And I may not use guns or weapons myself, but I know something about them. Peter has a Mac 11 aimed at you and your daughter. It can fire 32 rounds in only two seconds, enough to cut you both in half before you even think about...’

  He stopped and listened intently. We all heard a small clinking sound from the corridor leading from the kitchen into the club, as though someone had kicked a scrap of metal on the floor.

  ‘Who the fuck is that?’ Shapiro whispered.

  Both men were alert, straining to hear any other sound. I hadn’t a clue who it could be. If the police were on their way, I doubted they’d sneak in the back entrance. It wasn’t the way it worked. Armed marksmen would surround the building and then would begin a process of negotiation. But the police only had Shapiro’s address which Nicky would have passed on to Michelle, and the only way they could find this nightclub was if they rummaged through his kitchen drawers, the same as I did, and then make the connection. I thought it might be some schoolchildren on their way home and, spotting the car crashed into the rear entrance, decided to investigate. But the noise had sounded too furtive to be young kids. Youngsters would giggle and egg each other on. It might have been an animal of course. A hungry, opportunist fox. But a fox, I realised, wouldn’t push its way through the kitchen swing door. Whoever it was though, I was thankful for their intrusion, knowing it was our one chance to stay alive, using the disturbance as a distraction. Providing the person didn’t enter the main area of the club, I guessed the gunman would have to go and investigate, leaving me alone with Shapiro. And if I could get to the American quick enough and get his neck in a lock...

  ‘You’d better see who that is, but keep your eye on these two,’ Shapiro told his gunman, who started backing away towards the door on my left, his gun aimed at my head. I felt Olivia trembling and thought I could use her fear to mask my instructions.

  I leant over, holding her tight, speaking loudly with my head against hers. ‘It’s OK, Olivia. Everything’s going to be...’

  ‘Shut it!’ Shapiro hissed. ‘Shut the fuck up!’

  As Shapiro spoke, with my mouth close against Olivia’s ear I whispered, ‘When I say “now”, run! Hide under the bed.’

  Shapiro, his eyes like lasers, glared at me, but he couldn’t have heard what I said. His gunman eased the door open slowly as another noise, this time a dull thud, came from one of the other rooms off the corridor. The only way the gunman could investigate was to walk through, leaving the door propped open so he could turn back quickly and spray me and Olivia with a burst of gunfire if we made a move. I saw him looking round for something with which to prop open the door, but the nearest chair was over by the bed on my right.

&n
bsp; ‘Just take a fucking look,’ Shapiro snapped impatiently, the tension unsettling him.

  Holding the door open with his foot, the gunman slid sideways through the gap, turning his machine pistol now so that it was aimed at the first door along the corridor. Then from this room came another thump, louder this time. The gunman stretched his body towards the door his gun aimed at the open door of the room, and I could see he was off balance. This, I realised, was our only chance.

  ‘Now!’ I bellowed, pushing Olivia in the direction of the bed, praying she would dive underneath and out of sight, while the gunman was distracted by me hurtling towards his boss. As I ran towards Shapiro, I heard a shout from the corridor but hadn’t a clue what it was. At the same time Shapiro shouted an instruction to the gunman, ‘Over here!’ But he was just too late. I grabbed him round the neck and spun him to face the door, and out of the corner of my eye I saw Olivia’s ankles wriggling as she pulled herself beneath the bed. A spray of bullets, probably half the magazine, sputtered across the club’s ceiling, some of them shattering glass in the mirror ball, as Alice wrestled with the gunman’s arm. I saw her bring his arm down hard on her knee, the gun clattered onto the floor, while she karate chopped him in the throat with her left hand, following it with a jab from her fingers straight into both his eyes from her right hand, then a fraction of a second later another jab in the eyes with her left hand. He screamed with pain and his hands covered his eyes as Alice finished him off with a rabbit punch on the back of the neck and he fell in a heap on the floor.

  I had Shapiro’s neck squeezed tight in both my arms, his head twisted round in the crook of my right arm. It was a lock designed to break a man’s neck, though I doubted I still had the strength to execute this move at my age. Not that it was necessary as Shapiro stopped struggling as soon as he saw his gunman was defeated.

  Alice looked across at me, a triumphant glint in her eyes. It was only momentary, but it was enough time for the desperate gunman to stretch his hand out to where the pistol had fallen.

  ‘Alice!’ I shouted. ‘Look out.’

  She looked down and saw him raising the gun. He had his finger on the trigger and turned it towards her. But she was a lot quicker than he was and stamped on his hand with her right foot; at the same time her left foot kicked him just above the mouth. His head slammed into the floor with a crack. It was over as far as he was concerned.

  I let go of Shapiro and he stood facing me, his arms relaxed at his sides. His thin smile and vacant eyes were like the worst nightmare I’ve ever experienced as he whispered, ‘You know something, Freddie, I’m completely bulletproof. Untouchable. They’ll never take me, my friend, because if they do...’

  I didn’t let him finish. My right fist caught him on the left of his jaw and he reeled backwards with a loud gasp and fell across the drinks table. Bottles fell on the floor with a crash and glasses shattered and splintered. I was relieved to notice the brandy was unaffected.

  I walked towards the bed. ‘Olivia, sweetheart. It’s OK. It’s safe to come out now. We’re going to be OK.’

  She slid out sideways, her eyes bewildered and frightened. I could see how weak she was as she struggled to stand up. I went to her and held her. She looked across at Alice questioningly, a frown of confusion demanding an explanation.

  ‘Olivia,’ I said. ‘I’d like you to meet Alice, who came to our rescue.’

  Alice smiled sympathetically. ‘Good to meet you, Olivia. Everything’s going to be all right now, and the police are on their way.’

  It was my turn to frown. ‘But how did you know where to find us, Alice?’

  ‘It was Nicky’s doing. She attached a personal tracker to you; stuck it under the collar of your coat.’

  I grinned. ‘Good for Nicky.’

  ‘Yes, she knew an old geezer like you would need looking after,’ Alice said as I struggled to untie Olivia’s hands. ‘After I was bailed from the court, I went straight over to the office and she told me what was going on. And here I am.’

  ‘For which I will always be in your debt. But how did you know what the situation was in here, with an unarmed psycho and one gunman with a machine pistol?’

  Alice tilted her head back. ‘There’s a back stairway leading to a balcony up there. I had a perfect view of what was going on. Then I came back down here and made a noise to distract them.’

  ‘And there’s me thinking you were just being clumsy,’ I said.

  I heard a scuffling sound, and was distracted by Shapiro struggling to stand up. In the distance I heard the familiar wail of sirens as I walked over to him.

  ‘This is it, Shapiro,’ I said. ‘Conspiracy to murder Alice’s family, Rick Bishop, my partner Bill Turner and Jack Dawe. That must be worth six life sentences, quite apart from all the other charges like abduction. You’ll be going down for the rest of your life, you bastard.’

  He smiled but his eyes were dead. ‘If I go down, there’s a lot of the establishment I take with me, my friend. But at the risk of repeating myself, it is not going to happen.’

  I had to stop myself from chinning him again, because I didn’t want to provide him with the luxury of a hospital bed instead of a police cell.

  The sirens were loud and close now. Soon cops would be swarming all over the disgusting nightclub - a building that almost became a living hell for my daughter.

  ***

  Olivia snuggled closer to me on the back seat as we cruised along the inside lane of the M2 in the steady flow of rush hour traffic.

  ‘You OK back there?’ Alice asked.

  ‘She’ll be fine,’ I replied. ‘Olivia’s had a terrible shock but, now it’s all over, home’s gonna be the most comforting place.’

  After the police descended on the nightclub, Shapiro was arrested and handcuffed along with the gunman. They were taken in separate vehicles, the gunman in a police van, and Shapiro in an unmarked car with two detectives, an inspector and a sergeant. They wanted to send Olivia to hospital in an ambulance, to be treated for shock, but my daughter was having none of it. Her priority had been to phone her mother, putting on a brave face and giving her the news that she was well and unharmed. Even though Olivia had the phone pressed close to her ear, I could still hear Michelle crying with tears of joy. Then Jackie said she wanted to speak to her little sister. I watched as Olivia listened attentively to her sister, and then giggled before hanging up.

  ‘What did Jackie say?’ I’d asked her.

  ‘She said some people have all the fun.’

  I knew then everything was going to be all right.

  I felt Olivia becoming restless. She sighed and sat up, staring at the brake lights of the cars every time we were forced to slow down, and I knew she found the journey strenuous, wishing she was closer to home instead of having to endure a long journey on top of everything she’d been through.

  ‘Dad?’ she said, blinking and rubbing her eyes

  ‘What is it, sweetheart?’

  ‘That American man, I heard him say no one can touch him. They won’t let him go, will they?’

  ‘Of course not. He’s responsible for killing a lot of people, and he’ll probably go to prison for the rest of his life. You needn’t worry about that, Olivia. He’ll never be released after what he did.’

  Olivia leant forward and spoke softly to Alice. ‘He killed your family, didn’t he, Alice?’

  Alice nodded. ‘My father, my mother and my little brother.’

  ‘I’m so sorry.’

  ‘No, I’m the one who should be sorry. If it hadn’t been for my father stealing millions of pounds, none of this would have happened.’

  ‘That’s where you’re wrong, Alice,’ I said. ‘Admittedly he ran the cyber crime empire with Eclipse in Poland, but during his internet searches, he must have learnt about the ring of child abusers and he made it his missi
on to expose them and bring them to justice. That’s what got him killed. It had nothing to do with the outfit in Krakow. So I hope that brings you some comfort. He may have been a crook, but where children were concerned, he did the right thing.’

  I could see tension in Alice’s neck and shoulders and I thought she might be crying. But I was mistaken, because after a short pause she spoke with determination.

  ‘I need to finish what my father started then. And make certain no children suffer abuse in the future.’

  Olivia frowned deeply. ‘But I don’t understand. You’ve already caught the man who was responsible.’

  Alice didn’t reply, and I knew she was struggling for an answer to give Olivia. We both knew that catching Shapiro was just a part of the problem, and there were still dozens of rich and powerful predators out there who needed to be stopped.

  As the cars slowed to a twenty mile an hour crawl, a motorway sign lit up and informed us there had been an accident between Junction three and four.

  ‘That’s all we need,’ I said, annoyed at the delay, but relieved at not having to say anything else on the subject of child abusers. ‘We’ll have to come off at Junction Four. Shit! That’ll add more time to our journey, especially if we have to go through Chatham and Rochester.’

  After we eventually reached the Junction Four exit, Olivia became silent and thoughtful, and I could see questions forming in her head.

  ‘Alice?’ she began hesitantly.

  ‘Yes, Olivia?’

  ‘Why don’t you stay at our place tonight? We’ve got a spare room and I’m sure it’ll be all right with Mum.’

  ‘Well, I’m not sure...’

  ‘You’ll be more than welcome, Alice,’ I added. ‘And it’s a long drive from Wanstead to Guildford.’

  ‘Yes, I’d like that,’ she replied.

  I gave Olivia a smile and a hug, guessing that the invitation came from the compassion she felt from Alice’s loss of her family eleven years ago.

  As we drove towards Chatham, I felt a certain amount of satisfaction at bringing Shapiro to justice, although I regretted I would have to explain to Michelle that had it not been for Alice’s investigation, Olivia would never have been put in any danger. But my biggest regret was that Bill was not around to appreciate the result.