by GB Williams
Sheldrake just looked back at him, utterly resistant. ‘No.’
Locked in determined opposition, there didn’t seem to be much either of them could do.
‘Andrews, Wymark,’ Sheldrake didn’t look behind her as she spoke, ‘get out.’
The two moved quietly from the van, Andrews carefully closing the sliding door after them. Piper felt ridiculously vulnerable. He understood the theory of elected commissioners, but with Sheldrake as the reality, the practice was less appealing. Less appealing again was the memory of seeing her at County Hall for a Chamber of Commerce evening drinks party with Rhys Mansel-Jones.
Sheldrake studied him like he was something unpleasant under a microscope. He supposed to her, he was. He looked back, attempting not to show the contempt he felt. He wasn’t backing down but he knew he couldn’t disobey a direct order from the commissioner.
‘You don’t like me do you, Detective Chief Inspector Piper?’
He didn’t like the way she expanded his title with such chilling civility. Still, if that was the game she wanted to play, sod it. ‘No.’
‘Good.’
Their minute was easily up. Charlie went behind Teddington, his gun pointed at her back for appearance’s sake. She hoped to reach the support of her chair, but the way was blocked by Mr Blue.
‘So, you’re the guard who got shot while handcuffed to a prisoner.’
Teddington kept her eyes on his chin; eye contact at this point was a potential tinderbox. ‘Yes.’
‘Where?’
She reached up with her left hand and pushed the strap of the corset as far aside as she could to show the scar. Mr Blue moved in close, too close. He also spotted the top of Sasha’s picture, which he snatched out before Teddington could stop him.
‘Give it back,’ Charlie said.
Mr Blue looked at Charlie, and Teddington knew what he was going to do before he did it. Two hands rose—another shot out, pulled the picture clear from the threat of being ripped in two.
‘Back off,’ Charlie warned.
‘Back to your post, Mr Brown.’
Teddington was quaking inside but she knew as well as Charlie would, he didn’t really have any choice. There were too many heavy heartbeats before Charlie moved, but when he did he took Sasha’s picture with him, slipping it into his back pocket. She decided Mr Blue had had more than enough time to see what needed to be seen. Her hand went back to hang at her side.
‘If you’re the woman Charlie Bell took on the run, then you lied to us.’
Teddington frowned, this time meeting Mr Blue’s eyes. ‘No I didn’t.’
His slap stung across her face. The same cheek three times now. It was sore already and she was sick of being the beating post. Her head snapped back and this time she didn’t even calculate the risk, she just glared at Mr Blue. ‘What the fuck was that for?’
Suddenly the gun was back at her head. This time he had it pressed up into a nostril, forcing her to tip her head back.
‘You know that negotiator,’ Mr Blue sneered. ‘You know DCI Piper.’
‘What?’ The demand was Mr White’s.
This time Mr Blue slightly turned his head to talk to White. ‘When Bell gave himself up, it was at a news conference held by DCI Matthew Piper.’
There was no denying it now. Teddington swallowed. ‘Yes. Okay. I know Matt is DCI Piper. Yes, I’ve dealt with him before. But I never lied. Not one of you ever asked. What difference does it make anyway?’
‘You went through a lot of hoops to make it seem like the two of you were strangers.’
‘He’s a copper, he must deal with masses of civilians. I wasn’t to know if he remembered me straight off. Besides, Mr Pink over there had already recognised me, already kicked me. I didn’t see any reason to make the connection known. You’d just have stuck a gun to my head and threatened me again.’
For a brief moment a smile flickered across Mr Blue’s face. That scared Teddington.
‘According to the report,’ Mr Blue was too calm as he indicated to the TV, ‘you were also caught up in the riot at Blackmarch. Says you were instrumental in the evidence trail. From what I hear…’ He moved in, his lips uncomfortably close to her ear. ‘You were wearing a wire.’
‘Really?’ It might be true, but had yet to come out publicly, which made her wonder who Mr Blue was, and what connections he had.
‘You wearing a wire now?’
She frowned at him as she stood back. ‘No.’
‘Maybe I should check.’ His fingers curled around the top of the corset.
‘Blue!’
‘Brown.’
Teddington’s eyes jumped first to Charlie, then to Mr White as they issued their warnings, then she looked at Mr Blue, struggling to keep her voice under control as her phone started ringing again ‘It’s a corset. I’ve nothing on beneath it and I am not taking it off. There’s plenty of steel boning which could hide a wire, but none of it is. Why would it? I had to be in that bloody riot, I had no choice. I didn’t know this raid was going to happen. I didn’t have to be here and I wouldn’t have bloody well volunteered for it.’ She pushed her head forward to snarl at him, not caring about the gun pressed viciously into her nose. ‘Now either shoot me or let me answer this fucking phone!’
Piper blinked.
‘Yes. I said “good”, Matt.’ Sheldrake gave him a strangely warm smile that looked out of place. ‘May I call you Matt?’
He was too shocked to do anything but indicate agreement.
‘Men like you shouldn’t like me.’
Maybe the stress was finally getting to him. ‘Men like me?’
‘Yes, men like you. Good, capable, honest coppers.’
When did honest become a barb?
‘Men who don’t need anyone looking over their shoulders to do their job right,’ Sheldrake went on. ‘You should resent my existence. You should also be smart enough to know that plenty of your colleagues do need the likes of me looking over their shoulders. All the same, you should also be glad when someone like me is prepared to step up and be the public face of an op like this one, because if it goes wrong, it’s my blood they’ll be baying for.’
‘Yes, ma’am.’
She actually smiled—slightly. ‘When this is over, talk to Broughton. He doesn’t like me either, but he plays the politics game much better than you do. But for now, we know we can only trust half of the information your informant passed on.’
‘It seems he wasn’t as high up the food chain as we thought.’
‘Do we know where he is right now?’
Piper glanced away, shaking his head, then froze as his gaze fell on the video feed. ‘Bollocks!’ He was already hitting speed dial.
22
Charlie was struggling to breathe. He was stuck out on the periphery of the action. Moving would risk Teddington’s life, but she seemed determined to risk it anyway. She was visibly shaking with anger. She’d had the hostage training at work, he remembered her telling him that. Right now she should be calm and logical. She should be. But she wasn’t. If she kept this up, she would be leaving this place in a body bag and there was bugger all he could to do to prevent it.
Mr Blue only lowered the gun and stepped away when Mr White ordered him to.
Only when he’d moved did Teddington accept the call, taking two steps towards the leader of the pack and holding the phone out to him.
‘Hello?’ Matt’s disembodied voice seemed to echo in the bank.
Mr White said nothing, his features hard. Her look was just as fixed. Had they had pushed her to the point that she was no longer afraid? If they had, then a tense situation just became potentially explosive.
‘Ari?’ Matt sounded worried.
Charlie knew how the man felt. He was more worried seeing how belligerent both Teddington and Mr White looked.
‘Mr White?’
‘Oh for God’s sake! One of you speak to him,’ Mr Pink shouted.
Teddington huffed air through her nose. ‘We
can hear you, Matt,’ she finally said.
‘Is there a problem?’
For a moment, again, no one spoke.
‘No.’
Charlie knew that ‘no’. Spoken from between gritted teeth. It did not bode well.
This time the pause was Piper’s. ‘I’m not convinced by that, Ari. If there’s a problem, I need to know about it.’
Again with the heavy silence.
‘Okay,’ said Piper, ‘if that’s the way you want to play it, fine, but here’s the result. I’ve a van on its way as requested, but you don’t get it until I get another hostage out here.’
Teddington didn’t move, didn’t speak. Neither did Mr White. It seemed like forever until Mr White slowly shook his head.
The room was holding its breath. Finally, Teddington inflated her lungs, then she did the stupidest thing Charlie had ever seen.
She stepped forward, grabbed Mr White’s free hand and slapped her phone into it. She turned on her heel, heading for the only vacant chair as Mr White put the phone closer to his mouth.
‘You want a hostage?’ White barked. ‘You can have a dead one.’
Charlie moved, but Carlisle was faster. He surged up from the floor, grabbed Teddington around the waist. Teddington yelped in surprise as Carlisle dragged her down, covering her body with his. Her head hit the arm of the chair as they tumbled to the floor.
Mr White fired.
Carlisle grunted, just audible through the sounds of the hostages screaming.
Teddington landed with an awkward heavy thump, Carlisle landing on top of her.
Charlie was rooted to the spot, focused on the fact that neither Teddington nor Carlisle were moving. So much for blank ammo. Teddington’s hand rose to her forehead. When she moved it away her fingertips were red. Carlisle groaned.
Teddington looked over her shoulder, swore and twisted. Carefully, she eased Carlisle to the floor. He was sweating and pale, his eyes were scrunched, his teeth clenched behind drawn-back lips.
Coming to her knees, Teddington ignored the gushing gash on her forehead and turned Carlisle on his side. Numbly, Charlie took a couple of steps forward. Once upon a time he and Carlisle had been good friends. He still cared. His gut twisted to see Teddington pulling up Carlisle’s hoodie, jumper and t-shirt, exposing a bullet hole in his upper back. If anyone noticed the slim black wire that also got exposed, no one commented. Carlisle coughed, spitting blood.
‘Oh my God! Oh my God!’ Zanti cried.
Samuel pulled her to him, cradling her as she sobbed.
Lucy was all-out screaming. Charlie wanted to scream right along with her, but found himself rooted to the spot.
Teddington looked up at Judith. ‘Give me your scarf.’
‘It’s Hermès.’
This time Teddington just grabbed the printed silk. ‘It’s not worth more than a man’s life!’ She yanked the scarf, bundling it into a wodge and pressing it against Carlisle’s back. ‘We have to get him to an ambulance!’
Charlie stepped forward, galvanised at last. ‘You—’ He pointed to Samuel. ‘And you.’ This time at Judith. ‘Get up.’
‘What do you think you’re doing?’ Mr White demanded as Charlie knelt to help Teddington help Carlisle to his feet.
‘Not getting put away for murder!’ Charlie draped one of Carlisle’s arms around Samuel’s shoulders.
‘You can’t do this!’
‘Keep the pressure there,’ Teddington told Judith as the two swapped hold of the already soaked pad. Charlie helped on the awkward trip to the door as Teddington rounded on Mr White. ‘He can do this, and what’s more, he has to do this.’ As he checked they were safe, he looked up to see Teddington glance behind her, making sure that Samuel, Carlisle and Judy were already out on the pavement. To her clear relief, and to Charlie’s, men in yellow jackets and green boiler suits were already rushing to help. Teddington glared at Mr White, Charlie shut the hostages outside. ‘Clearly no one else in this building knows, but that man you just shot… he’s an off-duty police officer, you moron. Let him die and you’ll never see freedom again!’
White’s expression was torn between hate and surprise. Charlie knew he should intervene but he couldn’t see a single route that wasn’t going to make things worse.
‘You still have six hostages, that’s enough,’ she snarled, then she lunged at Mr White.
Charlie’s stomach turned to lead.
She was going to tackle Mr White?
No, she just grabbed the phone.
‘Are you still there, Matt?’
‘I am.’
‘Good, pin back your ears and listen. That news report also told these men that I know you, and they are not happy bunnies. Not with me or you. If you want any hope of getting five more hostages out of here alive, then you get that van here and you do it now.’
‘It’s on its way,’ the voice came back. ‘Wait! A second ago, you said six hostages.’
Teddington took a breath before she answered, ‘I said you’d get five back alive.’
Piper swore, already climbing from the van as Teddington hung up. This had all gone badly tits up. He looked at Andrews.
‘Get that van here now.’ Piper hardly cared that he was throwing orders over his shoulder to the commissioner and he wasn’t pleased that he heard her getting it arranged—he was relieved.
As Piper pushed through his colleagues to the cordon, Carlisle was already on a trolley, the paramedics rushing him into an ambulance reeling off a list of stats that did not sound good or even hopeful. Piper grabbed the nearest uniform, having no idea who the guy was. ‘You go with him, and you keep me informed.’
He pushed the man towards Carlisle as he moved on to the other hostages, both of whom were being wrapped in blankets and taken to other medical vehicles, being checked for shock.
‘Are you Matt?’ Samuel asked.
‘DCI Piper,’ he confirmed with a nod.
‘That woman, Ari. She’s been so strong, but I think she’s losing it.’
Piper frowned, not liking the fact that he had to agree with… Piper looked at the Invicta Bank uniform and ran the list in his head. ‘Samuel Frankfort?’
‘Yeah.’
As they moved closer to another ambulance, where the female hostage sat, Piper asked him what he had seen.
‘All that quiet self—’ Sam fumbled for an apt description.
‘Assurance?’
‘Yeah, that’ll do. It’s cracking. Whatever they did to her in Presswick’s office, it got to her. I think I heard her calling Mr White a moron as we left. That can’t be a good sign.’
It wasn’t. When Broughton found out, the air would turn blue. He dreaded to think what Sheldrake would make of the exchange. Delaying that dreaded moment, he turned to the woman sitting at the end of the ambulance.
‘Ma’am, are you Miss Arden or Miss Montgomery?’
‘Montgomery, Judith,’ she supplied. ‘It’s Mrs. Is that man going to be okay?’
‘I don’t know.’ Piper hoped so, but he doubted it. Still, he had to push down his own concerns and get on with his job. ‘And I’m sorry to be brusque, but I need to know what’s going on in there.’
In a succession of quick questions and rapid answers, most from Samuel, who’d been surprisingly observant, Piper learnt where each of the men had been stationed and where the hostages were.
‘Okay, thanks for your help. Is there anything else you think we should know?’
Samuel shook his head.
Judith was frowning.
Piper watched as she turned away. ‘Judith?’
She was sucking on her bottom lip. She knew something.
‘Judith, please. Time is of the essence here.’
She looked up at him, shook her head slightly. ‘It’s stupid,’ she declared. ‘I’ve already shown my quota of stupid for the day.’
Samuel quickly and unnecessarily explained about the scarf. Piper figured that if she could be embarrassed, she’d survive the experience.
‘It’s surprising how often it’s the stupid things people say that help the police, so please, what were you thinking?’
She took a breath. ‘It’s just that the gang’s one short. They’re missing Mr Blonde.’ She looked between Piper and Samuel. ‘What? I like Reservoir Dogs. Y’know, the film.’
Okay, sometimes people just say stupid things. There again, there was the getaway driver, maybe he was Mr Blonde. Piper offered Judith a smile. ‘Well, thanks for your time.’
As he turned, Piper saw Sheldrake taking a printed sheet from one of the Press Liaison Officers. She was right, he didn’t envy her getting in front of the cameras on this one. Checking around, he couldn’t see Dowling. He moved away from the ambulance and headed directly to Sheldrake’s side. ‘I don’t see Dowling any more.’
‘I made a phone call. She’ll be working the agricultural shows for a few weeks at least.’
Piper only barely controlled his smile. ‘Shame.’
‘Isn’t it?’ Sheldrake’s smile was wider but like Piper’s it quickly dropped away. ‘The real shame is, I had to promise her replacement the first question in the next piece to camera.’ She lifted the paper and headed towards the lion’s den.
‘Where are we?’ Piper asked as he went back into the surveillance van.
‘Shit Creek.’
‘Deepest, darkest—’
Andrews held up a hand, listening intently to whatever was being fed through his earpiece. As Andrews listened, the loss of not just Carlisle but their ears inside the bank sank in. If things escalated inside, they’d have no quick warning, no ability to put a call in pre-emptively.
‘The van’s in place to be reversed in at any time,’ Andrews said. ‘Our snipers are in position.’
It was tempting, but Piper shook his head. ‘Can’t use them while they still have hostages.’
‘If they take a hostage it’ll be Ari, and even she knows they’ll kill her given the chance.’
‘That’s only one possibility.’ And a depressing one. ‘We’ll wait and see. When that van goes down the service road, I want one of your guys on open mike, full commentary. I need to know what’s happening as it happens.’
