“Wait. Wait! Mr Gillespie. Listen. I am going after the man who has captured Dan Bradley. I don’t care how dangerous he is. I’m deadly serious. I’m going after him.”
He looked back. “You could go after Bruce Forsyth for all I care.”
“But think about it. I could be useful to you. Remember, my enemy’s enemy is my friend. For now at least – practically speaking anyway – you could count me as a friend.”
The old man laughed again, looking to his henchmen. “I don’t get propositions like that every day. Not from lookers like you. I suppose you want me to let you out of here scot-free after all the snooping you’ve been doing – which you’ve been doing very badly. Look at you. None of you are going to last five minutes pursuing this.”
“It wasn’t about harming your interests, Mr Gillespie. We needed whatever you knew about Dan Bradley, that’s all. But whoever has taken him won’t be so fortunate.”
“You talk a good game… I’ll take a punt on you. Not on the old has-been - you.”
“I need to know. Who has got Dan Bradley?”
“But you’ve known all along, haven’t you? The Nutcase Russian. Victor Marka. You wasted all your bloody time hounding me and being a nuisance?” Eva’s eyes glanced at Parker. She hadn’t meant to do it, but in anger she had. Gillespie caught it.
“You were listening to him, weren’t you? Now I know you’re screwed. Marka has him. Get out of my sight now, all of you. NOW! Now! Terry. Get rid of them before I change my mind. My missus needs some new toys.” The man called Terry lifted Parker by his arm and threw him into the car park without any effort. Jess moved out quickly before any of them could touch her, Eva tried the same, but the man with tattoos seized her arm and took her to the car park slowly. He eyeballed her all the way, and nodded at her as he let go. Eva ignored him, along with the pain in her bicep. “Come on, let’s get going,” said Eva. She helped Parker to his feet and then proceeded quickly to the broken fence. Gillespie and his men watched like spectators at a park match. When Eva got through the fence, she whispered past Jess’s ear. “Parker is destroying us. When we get back to Southend, follow my lead.” Jess nodded; Eva saw a spark of excitement flash in her eyes.
Two minutes later, Parker was in the front of the Calibra, firing up the engine. He continued to shake his head. He shook it some more and punched the steering wheel. They pulled into the Southend-bound flow of traffic and he finally let off. “What the hell are you doing?! You gave him everything. Everything! That’s it. And he still lied to you. He does have Dan. I know it. And you know what? Now it’ll be your fault if Dan ends up dead.”
Sitting in the front passenger seat, Eva jabbed a finger into Parker’s ribs. “Shut up and drive, Devon. If you haven’t got anything nice to say, best shut your mouth altogether.”
The atmosphere grew tense and cold in spite of the sultry heat. And it stayed that way until they reached Southend. Before they arrived at the office, Eva primed herself to give a signal to Jess. Parker had to be taken out of action at the earliest opportunity.
Just as they were leaving the car park of the printing firm, Gillespie spoke without looking at either one of his boys.
“Don’t be thinking I’ve gone soft, lads. That red-head girl will come in handy if she can do one tenth of what she thinks she can. She’s trouble enough for anyone. They’ll soon be dead anyway. But I hope she makes a mess before she goes.” Gillespie measured their responses. Both remained impassive, as they knew the price of displaying the wrong emotion. “You’ll see, boys. It turns out today has been a very good day for us.” He climbed into the roomy interior of his Porsche and took a nip from the hip flask of highland malt, which he carried in his jacket pocket, and allowed himself to ponder the soft freckled skin of the red-headed private detective. And then he thought of Maggie, and so took another slug of drink to wash it all away.
Nine
“It’s finished. Dan’s finished. You’ve destroyed the case.” Parker couldn’t let it go. After ten minutes of silence they were still thirty minutes away from home as they approached the frustrating speed restrictions which welcomed the world to Southend-on-Sea.
Eva shook her head and stayed silent. But Jess wasn’t so polite.
“Get your head out of your backside. Since I met you, it’s been all talk and no action. Eva took the game to them. What did you do, sit in the car, watching the weeds grow?”
“Eva, who is this brat? What the hell is she here for? She knows nothing, she talks too much and she insults everyone she meets.”
“That’s low, Parker. The truth is, she has been on the right lines with this thing since the very beginning. And that’s the kind of help I need. Not hindrance and a cloud of smoke and mirrors.”
“Is that a dig at me? I knew you didn’t trust me, Eva. What a shame. A terrible shame. Dan will spin in his grave.”
“He’s not dead, Parker, so cut out the worst case scenario talk.”
“Figure of speech, Eva, that’s all. Or is it another reason to doubt me?”
The imaginary list, the detours to Gillespie, the Rob Mitkin connection, these were all reasons to doubt Devon Parker. The wrong metaphor was just another strike to add to a long and growing tally. If the argument continued, her own plan would be unworkable. The plan involved a degree of seemingly apparent trust, even if none existed at all. The atmosphere of trust was difficult to fake.
“Devon… please.”
“Now it’s Devon again. Make up your mind, Miss Roberts.”
She raised her voice to up the stakes - she made it quiver with emotion.
“Devon. Parker, whatever. We are all out of our depth here and all you can do is pick a fight. Are you even surprised we are this badly lost!? Before he went up in smoke, Dan told me it’s all about Marka. You’re telling me it’s Gillespie, and it could still be someone else, all the while our vital first 72 hours are nearly up. I can’t afford to have enemies right now, Parker. If you are on the same side as us – the side you say you are on - then we need to work together.”
“Is that why you rolled over and gave Gillespie everything you knew? You were getting desperate.” He was nodding like he was beginning to believe it made sense. Jess tutted at Parker’s patronising tone. Eva looked at her with sparkling eyes. Jess caught it, a twinkle appearing in her own eyes. Parker shifted in his seat as if he felt the conspiratorial glances.
“If you were getting that desperate, you should have signalled to me. You needn’t feel ashamed, Eva. I’m on your side. I saw you grow up from a clever girl into an intelligent and supremely capable professional. I respect you. You should have shown enough respect and humility to ask for my help.”
But there was no respect at all, as he would soon see.
“You’re right, Devon. We need to stay as a team.”
“You say Dan had just over 72 hours. But those are just statistics. We need to stay calm and remember that Gillespie is the king of liars and holds all the cards now. He thinks you believe him now. There is no need for him to act rashly now and kill Dan.”
“I suppose, Devon. Except for one thing. I don’t think anyone needs Dan alive at all. They’ve already taken everything he has, his money, his good name, his hope. The only thing he has got left is his life. What’s that going to be worth to a gangster? Not much, not for long. I hate to think it, but like you said, he could be gone already.” She wouldn’t use the word ‘dead.’ Her only real hope was Marka, in her estimation he was the only man cruel enough to bother keeping Dan alive.
Devon Parker’s eyes glazed over in thought, and he turned up the volume on his classical music station as they began to play Sibelius’ Aurelia suite. Parker tapped his thumbs on the steering wheel. The music was raucous and lasted a long time. When it ended he looked at both of them individually, coldly. It made Jess shudder. When they got close to town, the lower speed limit signs at Southend’s boundary began appearing and the Calibra growled as it dropped a gear. Jess poked a knee into the back of Eva’
s seat. Eva was motionless, but Jess knew she had caught the meaning. She saw the slightest hint of a nod of Eva’s head.
They got close to Southchurch Road, not far from Eva’s office and flat. The Calibra pulled over and Parker flicked on the indicator. He turned to them both, though mainly to Eva.
“This is your stop, girls.”
“I thought you were coming with us. To work as a team.”
Parker shook his head gently, like a patronising school teacher. “Not quite. I’m all up for peace and love, but we all know we’ve got a problem here. Don’t we?”
Eva’s heart started beating quickly. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. He wasn’t supposed to leave her office, not at least until Dan was saved. Parker’s words were violent in tone. His eyes were sharp and accusing.
“Don’t we?”
“Cut it out, old man. You’re not scaring us,” said Jess, who was clearly frightened.
“What about you, Eva? Am I scaring you at all?”
“No, Parker. You’re annoying me. Get to the point of all this mindless rhetoric.”
“There are people I need to see about our problem. A little conversation, a little analysis. You know the kind of thing. You and Jess must do it all the time.”
“And?”
“Let’s just say there are always consequences for our actions, even when they are well-intentioned. The law of unintended consequences.”
“Drive us home, Parker.”
“No, Eva. You get out here, and I go and see my contacts.”
Eva got out of the car, and put some resolve into her voice.
“You should come with us, Parker. I would have shared some vital information, which you have forgotten to take note of, with you.”
“Really? Of course you were. It’s clear you haven’t got a clue what to do here. You haven’t known what’s been going on since the beginning.”
“And isn’t that because of your mischief, Parker?”
He shrugged, and Eva got out of the car and slammed the back door.
“Or it could be just shoddy investigating.”
“Parker. Ask yourself one thing. How long do you think I’ve known about your lying and duplicity? And how much of what you know from me is because I wanted you to know it?”
“The player has been played, old bean,” said Jess.
Parker blinked while he processed the comments.
“You two should close and run away. I know a few places in London you could get some steady work.” He pointed to Jess. “This one looks like she would thrive on it.”
He turned away and his Calibra engine growled. Jess kicked the side of his car as hard as she could; leaving a dent in the car door. Parker winced and drove away with a screech into the traffic.
“We need to get moving, pack and go, fast. Parker shouldn’t have got away.”
“What?” said Jess.
“We must have leaked something. He could read us.”
“He read our minds?”
“He realised we knew he was a danger to us. And we would have had to hold him captive, to keep him out of the way for a while.”
“That’s what we were thinking?! No wonder he bloody drove off.”
They started walking quickly down the long road towards their offices.
“You know where he’s going?”
“He’s going to see Rob Mitkin.”
“Spot on,” said Eva. “And then Rob Mitkin will pay us the kind of visit they’ve threatened all along. We need to get clear now.”
“Let’s not risk going back. They could beat us back there.”
“No. We need the car, some cash, and we need as much of my work on this as we can grab. Clothes too.”
“What the hell are we going to do?”
“You like excitement, don’t you, Jess?”
“Sometimes.”
“We’re going to find Dan, and stay alive. But staying alive depends on getting out before Rob Mitkin finds us.”
“So how do we hide and find Dan at the same time?”
“Because we don’t hide at all. We’re going to hunt the enemy. From now on, we’re not private detectives on this case. We are hunters intent on surviving and catching our prey. And do you know the place the Mitkins will never see us? It’s their blind spot with us - after all, we are just two helpless little ladies with skirts and breasts.”
“Where’s the blind spot?”
“Over their shoulders. They think we are weak, and Parker will confirm it. But they don’t know just how strong we are.”
Eva believed most of it, but inside there was an edge of fear tuned to something her mind couldn’t yet know. What she and Jess were about to embark on was the most horrible and terrifying experience of their entire lives. Fear was going to be the least of their problems.
They packed and left before the Mitkins or the dreaded Somali gangs arrived. It had taken ten minutes to walk the distance to the office. The shutters were still down and locked in place. They opened up in a real hurry, ignoring the ringing telephone, grabbing the case papers, Eva’s laptop, and the rest of the cash left behind by Dan on his last appearance, along with anything of possible use. Eva grabbed some clothes. As for Jess, picking up clothes from her family home didn’t seem like a good idea. Stress and panic hung around them like an unwanted odour, and Eva knew it. Jess’s mother would have been all over them. Instead, Eva grabbed some of the clothes she thought could just fit Jess. They locked up the shop and walked to the car. As they closed the doors, she saw a white car zoom up into her rear view, bobbing up onto the pavement outside her office. They were forty odd feet away, part obscured by other parked cars. The white car’s doors opened and four thin black guys in sports clothing jumped out. They move up to the shutters and started rattling and bashing them. Within another twenty seconds, she saw one of them produce something long and metallic from his trousers before he started plunging it into the grilles and wrenching at them. They didn’t care who saw. They acted as though they were totally invincible. The attack on the shutters was making enough noise to cloak the Alfa’s starting. Eva bided her time, then sprung the car into a U turn and drove away as quickly and inconspicuously as she could. She wondered how long it would be until she could come back, if she ever could. One way or another, Dan had made her life and career, and he had ruined her. But she was a fighter. If she survived –oh how quickly she had come to this abrupt cliff edge – if she survived, she would start over. Her mother fled Prague long before Eva was born, and she had started again in a foreign country. Anything was possible. But survival had to come first, an equal priority with saving Dan’s skin and keeping Jess alive. But none of it was going to be easy.
The clock was ticking. Laura. Laura would have more information for them, much more she hoped. Laura had opened the door on the Mitkins for them and of all the people involved in this mess, they could surely rely on her words most of all. She stopped at a garage and filled the car with petrol, loaded it with food which could be eaten on the run – wraps, sandwiches, crisps, fruit and drinks - and made their way towards Southend’s haunts for ladies of the night. Now this was a very dangerous game. The Somalis ruled, and they were fugitives. Driving past the Council Estates, it seemed too early to find any working girls; there was no one but women and children returning from the supermarkets or drunks with tattooed suntans and bare chests, pouring beer down their throats. The roads were not long clear of rush hour traffic and the evening buzz of people getting ready for their night of frolicking had just begun.
Eva started on the kerb crawler’s route, navigating the back roads where the girls were known to walk, weaving left and right through residential terraces of Victorian houses and family homes who didn’t need their neighbourhoods being turned into the red light district.
Eva was tense. This was foolish, but she felt it had to be done. Bingo. The Alfa turned a corner into a narrow street of poorly kept terraced houses and she saw a saloon pulled up on the kerb beside a woman who was leaning
down into the driver’s window. She wore an outrageously short skirt exposing her entire thigh and a flimsy sheer summer blouse. She was too heavily made up with frizzy hair tied back. Another woman in too-tall heels and a tiny leopard print skirt leaned against a garden wall, thin arms folded, looking left and right. Further down the street, two more women walked together in the tottering stilettos. A car turned into the street at the end, moving along quickly towards Eva and Jess in the Alfa Romeo, before slowing to eye up the duo in the distance.
“I bet those scumbags drive their kids to school in those cars,” said Jess.
Jess was probably right. Both cars were four door saloons, family cars. The driver of the first car, a Mondeo, was an obese man with a receding hairline. He could have been a pub landlord, an Estate Agent, or an MP. He was non-descript in the extreme. The other car was too far away to see what the driver looked like. It was a disturbingly normal sight and it shouldn’t have been normal at all. Eva’s car carried on down the street and the fat man and the frizz-headed girl looked up at her. The man in the car turned away, but the girl kept looking. She was young, but there was something haggard about her face; she was tired, gaunt and world-weary. Eva reckoned this one- like most of them - was far gone into a drug habit.
Eva reminded herself she didn’t have to save the world, and no one would have thanked her for intervening. The next two women were coming up and so far they were free and untroubled by kerb crawlers. It was Eva’s turn to crawl. She indicated and pulled the car up to the roadside just as the next two women were about to pass. They stopped, curious but guarded.
“You coppers? Or dykes?” said one, laughing. She looked less than twenty and wore a trendy boyish haircut, a white vest with some band’s name on it, and bleached denim hot pants. The other woman was older, thirty-five to forty. Her hair was platinum blonde and with an aggressive fringe, and left long. She was wearing the short skirt uniform of the others, but it didn’t flatter her stringy legs one bit. It made her seem unwell. Eva tried not to show pity or repulsion in her voice.
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