The Detective Jake Tanner Organised Crime Thriller Series Books 1-3 (DC Jake Tanner Crime Thriller Series Boxsets)

by Jack Probyn

  ‘We’ll get you on board now then,’ Grahams said.

  ‘I’ve got to deal with this first,’ Jake replied, gesturing to Luke in the distance.

  ‘How long’s that—’

  Jake’s phone started ringing. He silenced Grahams with a wave of the hand and answered the call.

  ‘Hello?’

  ‘Jake,’ Danika began. ‘I’ve spoken with the cruise company. Nobody under the name Harrington has boarded the ship. All four tickets are still awaiting collection.’

  ‘Fuck,’ Jake said loudly. Was this another decoy? Was Danny already on his way to another part of the country to escape their clutches again?

  Jake thanked Danika for the update and hung up.

  ‘What is it?’ Bridger asked as soon as he’d finished the call.

  ‘Harrington. The tickets. They’ve not been collected so he’s not on the boat.’ Jake advanced towards Luke without giving Bridger a chance to reply. He stopped a few feet short from the young, broken man. ‘Where is Danny, Luke? He never used the Harrington ticket.’

  ‘I don’t know,’ Luke said, raising his hands higher in surrender.

  ‘Why isn’t he on board the ship?’

  ‘I don’t know. I thought he was.’

  ‘Did he tell you where he was going?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Where is he?’

  ‘I don’t know!’ Luke gesticulated wildly. ‘I don’t know, all right? I don’t know where he is.’ He turned his attention to the white markings in the middle of the tarmac. ‘He must have bought another ticket…’

  ‘Another one?’

  ‘Another one,’ Luke repeated absentmindedly. ‘For him and Louise.’

  As soon as he finished speaking, a look of horror crawled across Luke’s face, as if he’d just spoken out of line in the classroom and was awaiting his immediate punishment.

  ‘Who’s Louise, Luke?’ Jake asked, cautiously closing the distance between them one step at a time.

  Luke shook his head, avoiding the question.

  ‘Is she a sister?’

  No.

  ‘A friend?’

  No.

  ‘Girlfriend?’

  Luke stopped shaking his head.

  ‘What’s her surname, Luke?’

  Luke returned Jake’s gaze. ‘Where’s my mum? I want to speak to her.’

  ‘She’s coming. She’s nearby.’

  ‘You’re lying. It’s been too long.’

  Where the fuck is Pemberton?

  Almost as if on cue, a prisoner transport vehicle appeared over Luke’s left shoulder. It snaked its way through the traffic and sped the short distance towards them on the other side of the road. As it stopped, the weight of the vehicle tested the suspension, bowing the car forward.

  Luke’s head darted towards the van. ‘Mum!’ he shouted, and then sprinted towards the vehicle. At once, he was prohibited by the wall of armed officers who were quicker to react than Jake. They charged at Luke, keeping their bodies low and their weapons trained on him.

  ‘Get down on the ground! Now!’

  Luke ignored them, and as he reached the central island that separated the two streams of traffic, a uniformed officer opened the door on the side of the vehicle and Candice Strachan fell out. At the same time, Pemberton alighted the vehicle and rushed to Candice’s side, holding the woman’s arms behind her back. The sight of her son was too much for Candice – she broke free from Pemberton’s restraint and bolted towards him.

  ‘Luke!’ she screamed as they collided with one another. Jake was harrowed by the sight of the collar bomb still attached to her neck and a lump swelled in his throat as they clattered together, fearing that the slightest jolt would detonate it and decapitate her right in front of him.

  ‘Get down on the ground now!’ the armed officers continued to shout, gradually encircling them both. Their cries echoed around the area. Jake’s senses heightened and his body turned taut. If someone wasn’t careful, Luke or Candice could be on the receiving end of a bullet.

  He intervened, tearing through the throng of armed officers and grappled Luke, clutching the man by the scruff of his collar and pulling him away. In the process, Jake knocked the bag strap from Luke’s shoulder and the money and jewels and other precious items inside landed with a terrible crash, some of the contents spilling over the side.

  ‘Luke,’ Jake said, shouting into the young man’s ear, holding both of them apart, ‘if you don’t stop right now, you won’t ever get to see her again. Is that what you want?’

  Luke didn’t respond.

  ‘Tell us what we need to know, Luke. Danny… where is he?’

  ‘Let me speak to her please.’

  ‘Not until you answer my question.’

  ‘No. Please.’

  Jake sighed, looked at Candice, who had her hands cuffed behind her back, and then returned his attention to Luke.

  ‘Give me one second. I’ll see what I can do.’

  Before leaving Luke behind, Jake gestured for the officer accompanying Pemberton to come over. The man hurried across, hooked his arm beneath Candice’s and carried her away. Once there was a large enough distance between the two of them, Jake turned his back on Luke and strode towards Pemberton.

  ‘What the hell is going on, Jake?’ Pemberton said, pulling him aside, out of earshot from Candice who was beside the police van.

  ‘Luke won’t tell us where Danny is until he’s spoken to her. Danny never boarded the boat.’

  Pemberton glanced back at Luke in the centre of the street. ‘I knew coming here was a mistake. And you think he knows where his brother is?’

  ‘There’s only one way to find out.’

  ‘Can they be trusted?’

  ‘Like I said…’

  Pemberton sighed and looked down at the ground. She planted her hands on her hips and placed all her weight on one foot, but as she opened her mouth to continue, Bridger appeared, his breathing slightly exasperated from the short run between his car and the van.

  ‘How long until the boat leaves?’ Pemberton asked. ‘Just in case Danny is on there and we just don’t know about it.’

  Jake checked his watch – 2:42 p.m. ‘We have enough time,’ he replied.

  ‘You sure?’

  He nodded.

  ‘What do you think, Bridger?’ Pemberton twisted round to glance at Candice and Luke before turning back to face the detective sergeant. By now, a sea of police officers had surrounded Luke in almost every direction.

  ‘I say we do it. But someone needs to stay with him. We can’t just let them stand there, sharing their own little secrets,’ Bridger said.

  ‘I’ll do it,’ Jake said, keeping his eyes trained on Luke. He ignored Pemberton and Bridger’s muted stares.

  ‘Jake, I can’t allow—’

  ‘I’ll do it.’ He hoped the confidence in his voice was enough to convince Pemberton that he wasn’t about to budge from his decision.

  ‘You’re going to need a wire or something,’ Bridger added, placing a firm hand on his shoulder. ‘I’ll find you one.’

  As Bridger turned on the spot, preparing himself to go, Jake held him back.

  ‘It’s fine,’ he said. ‘I’ll give them a radio.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘If they want to talk, they have to play by our rules.’

  Saying nothing more, Jake reached for the radio on his hip, gripping it tightly. He steadied his breathing with long, deep breaths, and then he started, turning down the transmission volume at the top of the device to prevent any feedback and cross-communication over the channels. To his left, he glimpsed the armed officers adjusting their grips on their SIGs, and to his right, he noticed Candice shuffling closer towards Luke. Less than five seconds later, he was standing in front of the young man, with the radio concealed in the sleeve of his left arm.

  ‘What’s going on?’ Luke asked, eagerly looking straight over Jake’s shoulders.

  ‘Lift your arms in the air.’

&
nbsp; Luke did as he was told.

  ‘Keep them there until I tell you otherwise,’ Jake replied. As he spoke, he turned his body at an angle and clipped the radio to the back of Luke’s jeans so that it was out of Candice’s line of sight. ‘If you touch this,’ he said, giving a slight tug on Luke’s jeans strap, ‘then you lose your privileges. You’ve got two minutes. That’s all I could manage. And then you tell us everything. Nod if you understand.’

  Slowly, tentatively, Luke nodded.

  Jake breathed a sigh of relief as he stepped to the side and returned to Pemberton and Bridger, maintaining his body angle so that he faced both Luke and Candice at all times. Once he was by Pemberton’s side, she gave the all-clear, and the officer guarding Candice released his grip on her.

  As soon as the man’s hands were in the air, Candice bolted. She leapt across the concrete and up the small kerb, and in an instant, she was on top of him. Luke lowered his arms and embraced her. They squeezed one another, despite the big block of metal impeding them. In that moment, it reminded Jake of his relationship with his own mum. Their bond had never been close before his dad died, but since then, they’d become almost inseparable. He appreciated her more now than he ever had done, and he was paying her back by allowing her to spend as much time as she wanted with Maisie. It was the least he could do.

  After a few seconds, Luke and Candice released one another and began talking. Bridger nudged Jake in the shoulder, and together the three of them listened in to their conversation on another radio Bridger had managed to source.

  ‘Where is he?’ Candice asked in a whisper.

  ‘On the boat,’ Luke said slowly. ‘With Louise. I was going to get on with him but then I realised she was here. They must’ve already bought another set of tickets for the two of them under her name as a backup.’

  ‘That fucking conniving, arsehole… bastard!’ Candice breathed heavily.

  ‘Mum. Mum! It’s going to be all right.’

  ‘How?’

  ‘I’ve got the—’

  ‘My handcuffs,’ she said, ‘they’re unlocked. I’m going to find him, and when I do, I’m going to fucking kill him.’

  The words struck fear into Jake. Danny. Louise. Tickets. Handcuffs. Unlocked. Jake shot a look at Pemberton.

  ‘Oh fuck,’ she mouthed, her words silent.

  ‘But wait, Mum,’ Luke began, ‘Mum, I have the—’

  But before he was able to finish his sentence, Candice shook her hands free from the cuffs and swung herself behind Luke’s neck, wrapping her arm around his throat. Jake and the rest of the team watched on in horror. He had been trained extensively to react to even the minutiae in any given situation, but in that moment, nothing happened. It was as if all the hours he’d spent exercising and doing psychometric tests at home were for nothing, his body held back by an impenetrable force.

  ‘Let go of the hostage!’ one of the armed officers shouted. ‘Lift your hands in the air.’

  Candice chose not to comply.

  ‘Candice!’ Pemberton called as she stepped closer to the action. ‘Candice, for heaven’s sake, put your son down. Nobody has to get hurt.’

  Candice shook her head. ‘You don’t understand, do you? He left me to die. I’m done playing games with him. He won’t get away with this.’

  ‘We can all find Danny together!’

  Candice edged backward, moving closer to the other side of the road, closer to the cruise ship, pulling Luke along with her. The armed officers matched her step for step.

  ‘Stay back!’ she screamed.

  ‘Please,’ Luke added, ‘do as she says. I don’t want anyone to get hurt.’

  ‘That’s the last thing we want as well,’ Jake said, finding the courage from somewhere within him to speak up. Next he moved nearer to Pemberton and maintained her pace as soon as he was by her side.

  For the next thirty metres, they followed Candice and Luke across a small expanse of grass, until they stopped between two oak trees positioned like goalposts. Now they were on the other side of the police cordon, and there was nothing between them and the ship two hundred yards down the road. Jake scanned the horizon, searching for anything that could stop them. He found his answer in the form of Grahams. The man was speaking fervently with his hand pressed against the side of his head. Jake’s eyes moved to the rest of the armed officers. One of them spoke calmly, his voice inaudible.

  Radcliffe.

  Jake’s gaze darted back to Candice. The woman was snapping her head from side to side, constantly checking the distance between her and the boat, her hair whipping in Luke’s face.

  And then she bolted, nudging Luke in the back. The young man stumbled forward but quickly regained himself and sprinted after her.

  Pemberton cried after them.

  Bridger cried after them.

  Jake cried after them.

  The armed officers cried after them.

  They were fifty yards away, rapidly increasing that distance with every step.

  And then a bullet rang out, followed closely by absolute silence.

  CHAPTER 58

  BLACK

  Luke Cipriano’s mouth felt dry, rough, like sandpaper. He wanted to vomit. He wanted the ground to swallow him up – the patch of grass where his hands were. Anything. Just so long as he didn’t have to live in this horrifying, paralysing, painful moment. The bullet had torn through his back and wrapped itself around his organs, crippling him, and as he tried to clamber to his feet, the colours of the world melted into one strange dollop of grey. A few feet away, Candice was standing in front of him, her body twisting and morphing as he dipped in and out of consciousness.

  The pain burnt through him. A sensation unlike any other he’d experienced. At first, it started in his front – where the bullet had entered through his stomach – and then made its way to the back before eventually consuming his whole body. As the blood rapidly drained from his system, he became deaf to all sounds around him. The sound of engines ticking over. Water lapping against the boat and sea walls. The screams and shouts from the armed officers for them to remain still. The police sirens bleating in the background. The general hubbub of the city way off in the distance. All of it was replaced by the sound of his heart straining as it gradually weakened and fought heroically – yet naïvely – to keep him alive.

  Before he was able to move any further, Candice leapt down by his side and rolled him onto his back. She supported his head while her eyes danced between his stomach and his face, babbling and muttering incoherently to herself. Luke tilted his head downward and inspected the damage the bullet had caused. A flower of crimson had formed on his stomach and was gushing down the sides of his waist, forming a puddle on the grass. He tried to breathe but it was weak. He coughed and spluttered, the pain rising up and down his body like pistons, each movement worse than the last.

  In this moment of odd serenity, he should have felt scared, afraid. But he didn’t. Instead, he felt calm. He was safe. He was with his mum. Everything was fine. She was going to look after him like she had done when he was a child – from the earliest memory he had of her. She was going to care for him like she had after he’d fallen from the top of one of the garages in the estate when he was three. He’d found himself up there somehow and, when his brothers had tried to chase after him, he’s jumped down on top of a nearby bin, rolled off, and nearly broken both his legs.

  She was going to cradle him until the paramedics arrived and took away the pain.

  ‘M-M-Mum.’

  Candice squeezed his hand and looked into his eyes solemnly.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ she said, babbling, her voice barely a whisper. ‘I should have… I should have been there… I’m sorry I ever left you.’

  Luke’s eyes closed as he danced with death. The lure of emptiness was calling him from somewhere, over the weakened beating of his heart. But there was something he needed to do. From somewhere deep within him, he found the strength to open them.

  ‘The key,’ Luke
whispered, choking on his own blood between breaths and spitting it onto his collarbone.

  Slowly, with as much strength as he could summon, he pointed to his trouser pocket. Without needing to be told twice, Candice rummaged through the contents and retrieved the key, quickly soiling it in his blood. She held it triumphantly in the air.

  ‘Use it…’ Luke tried. ‘Free… Live…’

  He gagged and spluttered as his body convulsed. By now the pain had ceased and been replaced with a warm, tingling sensation. He didn’t know how long he had left, but he wanted to be able to see her survive. He wanted to be able to watch her remove the collar and use it as a final middle finger at Danny.

  Candice’s hands shook as she held the key. Running her fingers along the base of the metal box, she found the collar’s fourth lock and inserted the key. Luke held his breath as he watched her rotate it, his body freezing as the lock snapped into place.

  And then there was complete silence, and the only thing he could hear was his raspy breathing as he waited for the mechanism on the neck to detach itself.

  It didn’t.

  Luke and Candice both glanced at the device, willing it to do something, anything. But when nothing happened, Candice screamed. She clawed at it, beat it, yanked it from her neck, punched it until the edges of the solid metal lacerated her skin and she started bleeding, continuing until her knuckles were covered in her own blood.

  Luke watched, paralysed with despair. It hadn’t worked. Danny had lied to him about the device. He had assured him – he had assured everyone – that the keys would defuse the device, that that was all that was needed. But it had all been a lie. As soon as Danny had put that device around her neck, he had already slammed the final nail into her coffin, while readying himself to start his brand-new life with Louise.