by Jack Probyn
‘I’m glad to see you both,’ Pemberton said as she approached them. It was clear she was no longer in control of the situation; that baton had been passed to the man currently standing inches away from Candice’s chest, his hands fumbling around the device on her neck.
‘What have we missed?’ Bridger asked.
‘Right now, EOD are looking over the device to see whether we can remove it without blowing her face off.’
‘And?’
‘No luck yet. Did you find the key?’
Jake held his triumphantly in the air. Bridger did the same with the other two.
‘Three of them?’ Pemberton asked.
‘That’s what the riddle said. But only one of them works. Where’s the one I found earlier?’
‘It’s with the guys over there. They’re going to try it when they know more about the device,’ Pemberton explained.
The three of them watched the bomb expert set a metal detector on the ground and remove a pair of wire cutters from his pocket. Jake opened his mouth to speak but was too afraid to voice the question, too afraid to hear the answer he already knew.
‘What happens if we can’t use the keys?’ Bridger asked for him, as if he were able to tap into Jake’s thoughts.
‘With any luck we won’t need them. But if they’re useless, we’ll just have to find another way to defuse it. Any word on The Crimsons’ location?’
Both men shook their head. ‘None yet, ma’am,’ Bridger responded. ‘HQ are running reports on Candice’s stolen Mercedes. We’re still waiting on ANPR and CCTV hits. But it’s very possible they’ve changed plates, so it could be a while until we find anything concrete.’
‘Right. As soon as we hear something, I want you both to go after them.’
Jake’s ears perked up. ‘What about the keys?’
‘You can leave that to us. There are enough uniforms here to go to the locations. But I want you both to follow and get after these guys. I’ve got a feeling we’re not going to be out of this place for quite some time.’
Jake nodded. And then an idea popped into his head. Something he’d thought about on the way down to the golf course and on the way back. ‘Ma’am,’ he said tentatively. ‘Might I make a suggestion?’
‘What?’
‘Their old leader. Freddy. He’s in Winchester Prison – it’s just a few miles down the road. He might be able to tell us a thing or two. Do I have permission to speak with him?’
‘What? No. I—’
‘Ma’am, please. I’ve had dealings with Freddy in the past. I’m the reason he’s locked up. And I’m worried that this is all an elaborate plan for something else.’
‘You think they’re going to try and break Miller out of prison?’
Jake looked at her blankly. He shrugged.
Pemberton dropped her gaze to the ground in a deep state of reflection. ‘If you think you can muscle any information out of him, then yes. But I want a full update once you’re done,’ she said, staring deeply into his eyes. Her gaze filled him with a determination to succeed.
So far he was making two for two on the brilliant ideas front. He hoped he’d be able to bag himself a hat-trick.
‘Bridger, I want you to go with him. DC Tanner has a unique connection to this case, and these are extenuating circumstances. I need you to get in touch with the prison and find out what you can do. I want you there to make sure there’s nothing else going on.’
Something moved in the corner of Jake’s eye and distracted him. It was the explosives officer. He’d stepped back from Candice’s stiff, frozen body and started towards them.
‘Ma’am,’ he said as he neared, his voice barely audible through the thick helmet. ‘I’ve X-rayed the device. There’s a small charge in there that’s connected to the spikes. When the charge goes off, it’ll shoot them into her neck. But other than that, there’s no explosive. So it’s safe to get close to her.’
‘What about the keys?’ Pemberton asked.
‘I think we’re ready to try, from what I can tell,’ the expert said. ‘There’s nothing to suggest the keys will initiate the device.’
‘How certain are you?’
A pause. ‘Seventy-five per cent.’
‘We don’t like those sorts of numbers, Officer,’ Pemberton replied. None of them did. They were far too low – far too low to be gambling with an innocent life.
‘I’m afraid it’s all I can give you at the moment, ma’am. If I had a little more time, I could be more confident.’
Pemberton glanced at her watch. Jake looked over her shoulder and saw it was 11:02 a.m.
‘You have three extra minutes,’ Pemberton said. ‘Discover what you can, and then unlock it with the key.’
‘The machinations in here are incredibly sophisticated. Whoever built it certainly knew what they were doing.’
‘Yes, thank you for that,’ Pemberton snapped. ‘We just need to know how to stop it.’
The explosives expert fiddled with the device for the next couple of minutes before he took another step back and turned his focus to Pemberton, Jake and Bridger.
‘It looks good to me,’ he said finally.
Paralysis gripped Jake as he watched the officer fumble for grip with his oversized flame-retardant glove. Eventually, he found purchase on the small key, steadied it against the lock and inserted it. Jake’s palms dampened with sweat, the stress and paranoia finally beginning to take hold of his body.
The officer switched the lock. The sound was deafening, muting all other noise around them. And then everything seemed to stay still. Nobody moved. The breeze stopped. Jake’s breathing stopped. Even the trees and small blades of grass stopped swaying. It felt like an eternity before someone said or did anything.
And then when nothing happened, they had their answer.
‘It worked?’ Jake asked hesitantly. He kept his voice low, lest he disturb the device and cause it to detonate.
‘I think so,’ the explosives officer said, taking a step closer to Candice.
As soon as he placed a hand on the device, everything changed.
An aggressive beeping sound emanated from the collar, shouting at them, enraged.
Beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep.
‘What’s happening?’ Candice asked, panicking. Her hands lashed at the top of the device and she strained her neck to peer over the top at the source of the noise.
Nobody responded.
Beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep.
‘What’s going on? Somebody tell me what’s going on!’ Candice’s screech pierced Jake’s eardrums. He felt useless. All he could do was stand there and watch.
‘I don’t know,’ the officer said, struggling to keep the device still amidst Candice’s thrashing. ‘Hold on! Stay still!’
Eventually, he steadied the machine and inspected it. ‘The timer’s gone down. It says we’ve got ten minutes left before detonation.’
Beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep.
‘What?’ Candice screamed.
‘How can that be?’ Pemberton whispered.
‘Jesus Christ,’ Bridger groaned, throwing his hands into his hair.
Jake tried to say something, but words failed him.
‘Give me the keys,’ the officer said. ‘Let me try the other keys, for crying out loud! Hurry, before this thing goes off!’
Beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep.
Pemberton panicked. She mishandled the keys and dropped them to the ground. Cursing herself, she bent down. Jake knelt beside her and grabbed two by her left foot. He took the other one from her hand, hurried over to the expert and passed them to him, ignoring Pemberton’s calls for him to retreat to a safe distance.
Jake watched the officer scramble for the lock and insert the keys one by one. By now, the sweat on his body had multiplied, and layers of salty liquid coated his skin.
The first attempt failed. As did the second. As Jake watched the officer insert the final key – the one that he ha
d found – he prayed, for the first time in a long time, that it would work. He didn’t want to see Candice’s head strewn all over the grass.
Beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep.
The officer inserted the key. Twisted. And then an eerie silence filled the air again.
Jake exhaled heavily. ‘Did it work?’
‘Yes,’ the officer said hesitantly. ‘It’s gone back to the normal time.’
Candice let out a loud moan of relief, and then her legs buckled as she blacked out. The officer beside her caught her and eased her to the safety of the grass.
‘Jesus,’ Jake said. ‘Is she going to be OK?’
‘She’ll come round soon enough,’ the officer said.
‘What happened just then?’ Bridger asked.
‘There must have been a setting in the countdown. As soon as we entered the first key, it required the second—’
‘Which means we’re going to need the third and fourth at the same time before we can do anything else…’
The officer nodded.
Two down. Two to go.
Saying nothing, Pemberton turned and started towards the house. ‘You two – with me.’
Jake and Bridger looked at one another before following behind her.
‘What’s the matter, guv?’ Bridger asked.
Pemberton stopped abruptly and pointed at them. ‘We need to move faster. Hurry yourselves and get to the prison. Speak with Freddy and see what he knows, if anything, about this robbery and—’
Pemberton was cut off by her mobile ringing. She held a finger in the air to pause the conversation and answer the call. ‘Yes… OK… Thank you… Understood… No. I’ll be in touch if I need anything else… You’ve been a great help. Stand by for further instructions.’
She shut the phone off. ‘Forensics found a series of fingerprints in the bathroom upstairs. They’ve just run them through Ident1, and we’ve got some hits. All of them came up with a direct match. A Mr Luke Cipriano.’
CHAPTER 27
AN ARRANGEMENT
After what felt like an age – with precious time lost between convincing the relevant persons to allow them access and then funnelling themselves through the various security checks and checkpoints and X-ray machines – Bridger and Jake were finally able to sit in a room opposite one of Britain’s most dangerous and prolific criminals, Freddy Miller. Except, after hearing who he was meeting, Freddy had requested only Jake, which meant Bridger was forced to wait outside until their conversation had finished.
‘I was wondering when you’d visit,’ Freddy said, pulling the chair opposite from beneath the table. ‘I hear you bat for the other team now.’
Jake dipped his head slightly, glancing down at his suit. He straightened his tie and adjusted the metal clip. ‘I’ve got a lot to thank you for.’
Freddy bent forward on the table, his face shining under the light. The man Jake had encountered during The Crimsons’ last hit was completely different to the one in front of him now. Despite his size and domineering presence, there was no energy left in his face. No life. No vigour. The colour had gone from every aspect: his cheeks, his eyes, even his lips. His facial hair was messy and unkempt, and he looked as though he’d only just woken up. And he’d lost a lot of weight too. So much so, in fact, that the prison-issue tracksuit drowned him, hanging from his shoulders and revealing half his chest hair. Jake reckoned he wouldn’t have recognised Freddy if he’d passed him on the street.
‘Have you really come all this way just to thank me. Or are you asking for help?’ Freddy asked.
‘Can it be both?’
A smirk grew on Freddy’s face. ‘I know what this is about. They’ve done it again, and they’ve got you right where they want you, haven’t they?’
‘You’ve heard what’s happened?’ Jake asked. He had to be careful how to play it – give away too much and he would risk losing his hand to Freddy who, in fact, had Jake right where he wanted him: begging on his knees.
Freddy shrugged. ‘I’ve heard things.’
‘Where from?’
‘The walls. You spend a lot of time in this place, they start speaking. Gets quite scary after a while.’
‘Perhaps you should see a doctor?’
‘Shrinks aren’t my friends.’
‘I’m sure I could do an evaluation – I’ve got a degree in psychology.’
‘You clever boy. I’m sure your parents were very proud.’
‘My mum was.’
‘And your dad?’
‘Dead.’
Freddy leant back in the chair, folding his arms. He bounced on the plastic then placed his entire weight on it. He commanded Jake’s attention in one move. ‘How’s that girlfriend of yours? What was her name?’ Freddy touched his temples with his index and middle finger. ‘Alice? Alicia? Eliza? Elizabeth! That’s it. How’s she doing? She still stuck around with a little shitbag like you?’
To Jake’s surprise, he found himself chuckling at the remark. ‘Yes. She’s still with me, by some miracle. We’ve even got a beautiful little daughter together.’
Freddy clapped. ‘You don’t hang about, do you? Did you conceive her on the night we had our little foray? Testosterone levels running high. Ego through the roof. You really had a lot going for you that night, didn’t you?’
‘If only that were the case,’ Jake said.
‘Is the baby healthy?’
‘Fine,’ he lied. The less Freddy knew about his family life, the better.
‘I’m pleased for you.’
Jake shifted the dynamic of the conversation away from him to focus it more on Freddy. ‘What about your little boy? Have you spoken to him?’
‘Don’t be fucking ridiculous. He’s not allowed anywhere near here. I’ve written letter after letter, sent it to his mum’s last known address, but have I heard anything? Fuck no.’ Freddy made a zero gesture with his fingers. ‘His mum wants nothing to do with me, so by default that means Sammy doesn’t want anything to do with me neither.’
Now that he was a father, Jake could think of nothing worse than having Maisie ripped from him. Not seeing her every day, holding her, stroking her hair, kissing her goodnight at bedtime or when he got in late and she was already asleep. She was his everything – his entire world. And he would permit nothing to hurt her. Especially after he and Elizabeth had been told they wouldn’t be able to become parents by a multitude of professionals in the first place.
He allowed himself to think about Maisie properly then. Since he’d arrived at work, he’d forced himself to push her to the recesses of his mind for the most part, yet still within arm’s reach, because he knew that the more he thought about her suffering, the less focused he’d be. The coughing had started a few days ago, and within the space of a day had gradually worsened until eventually, Jake and Elizabeth had made the decision to take her to the doctor. He was still waiting to hear back from Elizabeth.
‘I’m sorry to hear about your son,’ Jake said eventually, finding the courage to say the words.
‘You should be.’ Freddy paused a beat. ‘You’re the reason I’m in here. At least before I was able to watch my son grow up from the outskirts of his life. Now I have nothing, and no way of contacting him. He’ll never know I existed, and there’s fuck all I can do about it.’
There was an emotion in Freddy’s voice that Jake hadn’t heard before. When they’d first met, Freddy had told him about his son, but he hadn’t expressed as much passion and adoration as he had just now. Jake was sure he saw the corners of the man’s eyes glisten in the light.
‘I don’t know anything about what they’ve done,’ Freddy said. ‘This is all on them. Their heist. Their job.’
‘I’m not here to ask you whether you know anything about this one.’
‘What do you need from me then?’ There was no expression on his face and no energy left in Freddy’s tone, as if their previous topic of conversation had vacuumed it out of him.
‘I need to know every
thing about the brothers. Their past. Their present. Their future. This job’s different, Fred. This one’s more… evil.’
Freddy stroked his stubble and smiled. It was clear who had all the power; Jake would have to change that.
‘You don’t ask for a lot, do you? And what do I get out of this little arrangement?’
Jake swallowed before replying. This was it. His ace card.
‘I can get you to see your son. I’ll just need some time.’
CHAPTER 28
GOOD EGG
Dumf-dumf. Dumf-dumf. Dumf-dumf. Danika’s beating heart thumped in her ears and drowned out the sounds of furious typing and chatter and discussion amongst the office. The investigation was gearing up a notch. News and updates from Candice Strachan’s mansion had begun to filter through the team – that the device connected to her neck was live and required a set of keys to defuse it; that DS Bridger and DC Tanner had already found two keys; that there were still a couple more, and that this was the most ingenious and difficult device for the explosives team to encounter.
Danika propelled herself away from her desk, hurried to the printer and grabbed her documents. They were still warm. She paced across the room and stopped beside Murphy. Steam from his freshly brewed cup of tea floated in the air.
‘Excuse me, Mark,’ she said hesitantly. The smell of tobacco still lingered on his clothes.
He peered up at her. ‘Ah, Danika, what can I do you for?’
‘I… I have the suspectology report on Luke Cipriano you asked for.’ She handed him the pages she’d just printed out. After the identity of one of the individuals behind the mask had been discovered, Danika had been forced to stop what she was doing and rearrange her priorities.
Murphy took the documents from her, and as he began to leaf his way through, Danika gave him the condensed version. ‘Luke Cipriano, born nineteenth October 1985 in Newcastle. During his teens he was arrested several times for theft and one incident of assault concerning a vehicle owner, so we were able to find his fingerprints on Ident1. He also has two brothers – Danny and Michael – and they too were arrested for anti-social behaviour when they were younger. They were abandoned as children and, from what I could see, they jumped from foster home to foster home.’
