HE WILL KILL YOU an absolutely gripping crime thriller with a massive twist

by Charlie Gallagher

  Harry fiddled with his own phone. It had been pinging and had rung at least once. She still had her phone in her hand from Harry’s instruction but she was frozen to the spot, trying to work out where they went next. Harry looked up, the screen of his phone shone against his shirt. His face was suddenly ashen.

  ‘Maddie . . . the car at 21 Campbell Road . . . it’s not there.’

  Chapter 33

  Josh Haines rolled the window down a little further. Thick white smoke arched through it.

  ‘Dan, you got your window down back there, mate? It’s like an Amsterdam coffee shop in here!’

  Josh heard laughter from his two mates in the back. He could feel the cannabis having an effect. He leaned back in his seat and let his head roll to the right so he was facing out. His eyes moved around the shuffling greenery. He smiled at the branches as they dipped and waved at the car with their leafy fingers. He grinned back.

  ‘What time we heading back, Josh?’

  The question drifted over him. He didn’t look away from the scenery. He had always liked the woods. He found them calming; nature moving in unison with a gentle shushing noise. He could sleep here. Finally the question registered — what time were they leaving? He needed to get the car back to his house, then get back to his dad’s before he got in from work. He looked at the clock on the dash: 11.35 a.m. They were around a half hour from his house. He would give it a few minutes for his head to clear.

  ‘We do need to get back. Leave the windows open for a bit. I don’t want the car smelling of weed.’

  ‘Maybe we should get rid of this then!’ The chuckling voice was of a girl this time. Alison Woolgar was in the front passenger seat next to Josh. He looked over at her. She was so pretty. His face slipped into a lopsided smile — he couldn’t help it. He would never have dreamed of taking his mum’s car out just a few months before; he could get into so much trouble. But it was all for Ali. As soon as he saw her look of amazement and the beaming smile when he turned up in it, he knew it was worth the risk. She had called him badass! He loved that. It had been easy too. He and his car had blended effortlessly into the choked roads and motorways that took them to their concert. Now he was just a short drive from home. He would drop the two mates in the back off first. Then park the car on his drive and head over to his dad’s. Ali had said she would come with him, they could watch Netflix. She had suggested it! He had never been with her on his own before; she had never shown any interest.

  Now she was holding a large, clear bag of cannabis. Her pretty eyes were rested on him. There was still a lot of stuff left. Enough for another couple of meets.

  ‘Keep it sealed, Ali. It’ll be cool. We can all meet up again to finish it off, yeah?’

  He heard a cheer from the back.

  ‘You got some place to stash it, Josh?’

  Josh thought about it. He didn’t really. The last thing he needed was his mum finding drugs in his room. But Ali was still looking over at him. She was biting down on her bottom lip and then she tucked an errant strand of auburn hair behind her ear. He didn’t want to say no, not in front of her.

  ‘Yeah, leave it with me. I’ll drop you boys off and then stash it at my house.’

  ‘You not dropping Ali back?’

  ‘No, he’s not. We’re going to his dad’s,’ Ali said.

  ‘Ah, I getcha!’ There was laughter from the back and then a wolf whistle. ‘You have fun, then, won’t ya!’

  Josh could feel his cheeks flushing a little.

  Ali didn’t look embarrassed at all. She was turned towards the back, unfazed. ‘You’re just jealous!’ she said.

  Josh could have punched the air. She was keen, very keen.

  He started the ignition. It was time to go. The trees waved them all goodbye.

  Chapter 34

  The scenery was a blur outside Grace’s window. Things seemed to be all in a rush now. It didn’t make sense. They had left the flat as the first morning light was struggling to break through the layers of grey clouds. It was obvious why: Viktor needed to move Sally.

  He had wrapped a winter coat around her and put the hood up. He’d also messed up her hair, so it fell over her face before he threw her over his shoulder like he was carrying out an old sack. Grace was forced to follow him down the steps. She had tried to hang back, but Viktor whispered for her to keep up — there was venom even in his whisper. She couldn’t look away from Sally; the eyes that peeked out from behind her tousled hair seemed so sorrowful. Every step down shook her hair aside and loosened her hood until it was as if Sally was staring right at her.

  The effort to conceal Sally was hardly necessary: Grace didn’t see or hear another soul in the block or in the short dash across the frosty ground to where Viktor had parked a red saloon car with its boot up. He dropped her in the boot with a thud — like you might discard a heavy bag of rubbish at a refuse centre. She landed with her eyes up, her face now completely exposed. Still Grace couldn’t look away. It had been snowing, steady flakes — bigger than the day before: a thick flake whirled past her eyes and it floated into the boot, falling end over end until it rested gently on Sally’s nose. It didn’t melt. Sally must have been just as icy cold. It was Grace’s last image of her before the boot was slammed shut. She shivered now at the memory.

  She had been ordered into the car and they had driven to a lay-by, where Viktor had parked fifty metres away from a catering truck that was handing out hot breakfast rolls and coffee. It had a steady stream of customers. Grace wasn’t sure how long they sat there. Viktor let the windows steam up until she couldn’t see out. She closed her eyes and tried to sleep while Viktor looked busy on his phone.

  Now they were moving again and on the motorway. Viktor was leaning forward and Grace was sure they were travelling too fast for the conditions. He was hogging the outside lane and muttering at every car in front of them, pushing up so close behind them that they were almost touching. The cars soon moved out of his way, their drivers peering over at her when they passed. She considered mouthing something at them — a plea for their help — but she was sure she would be ignored and the risk was far too high. She still didn’t know what Viktor had in mind for her. She still had no idea why he had brought her this far. She finally found the temerity to speak and hoped this wouldn’t distract him too much on the perilous road.

  ‘Where are we going?’

  He was still leant forwards, eyes narrowed, with one hand gripping tightly around the steering wheel and the other just as tightly around the gearstick. The snow was now whipping straight at the windscreen, curving away at the last minute as if they were being propelled through little beams of light. The windscreen wipers were on constantly; dragging against bone-dry glass, they squeaked and juddered every time. Viktor didn’t seem to notice.

  ‘We need to leave.’ His attention stayed straight ahead.

  ‘Leave? Leave where?’

  ‘Here. England. I take you to my country. I know people that can make sure we are not known people. Make us disappear.’

  Grace didn’t know quite how to respond. The panic, which had subsided a little since her experience in the flat, started to rise up again. ‘But I don’t want to leave! I can’t leave here! What will I do?’

  ‘Not go to prison. This is what you will do! This is favour. I help you.’

  ‘Help me? Sally . . . she said they would have no idea, she said I would just be able—’

  ‘Sally?’ He laughed aggressively. ‘Still you talk about Sally like she is friend of yours. You are silly girl. Sally and me had a plan, not Sally and you. Sally and me had a plan and Sally was making sure you were not going to be well after this plan.’

  ‘I don’t understand. I don’t understand why she would want that. And I don’t understand why you needed to set the bombs in the tunnel. You didn’t need to do that. You killed innocent people!’

  ‘We needed to make a noise, to make confusion. I wanted to be sure brother would pay money. The documents, the bad money wa
s one part of it, but if he did not pay, one day maybe the bomb will be for him, this is who he is dealing with. He had to know I am bad man. And the explosions, the chaos! I like this! The police, they go look for terrorist people, not for simple man like me!’

  He took his eyes away from the road for a second to glance over. He was beaming, his eyes wide with delight. There was no doubt that he was enjoying himself. It made her feel sick.

  ‘People died!’

  ‘People died. Your boyfriend died, too. You did this. I gave people chance at least. Empty car at front, then empty car in middle. Sally parked this car in tunnel. She enjoy it too — she tell me this! The people, they all had chance to leave but some were too slow. Natural selection maybe!’

  ‘Jesus . . . Why am I still alive, Viktor? You don’t need me.’

  ‘You would not be. If Sally was here . . . if she was driving car. You should know that. She knew Frank Dolton would not pay for brother — for family. She knew she had you in her control. She could make you call to detonate. She knew you would come to her place after — you do as you are told. So she told me I get rid of you. She said it was to be suicide. You gave Sally bank account details. We transfer one million from untraceable source then string you up by the neck to be found. Police think you could not live with guilt maybe? No links with us. All on you. The nine million left never found. Half each she said. I did not like this. I have all the risk. Bribing on computer, sourcing grenades, pushing them under cars. It is big risk. She does nothing.’

  ‘So you killed her?’

  ‘I do not like to share. I get the feeling you will not be asking to share!’ He grinned and Grace stayed silent. ‘Do not worry. I will make sure you have money for new life — good money. But not here. The police, you are wanted. You cannot be free here. I know you are victim too. Not like Sally, she made plans for you, you not deserve.’

  Grace was back to peering outside of the window on her side. A sign for Dover flashed past with a symbol for a ferry port next to it. It was three miles away.

  ‘But I don’t have my passport! They won’t let me through without a passport!’

  Viktor grinned again. He leaned over to push a button on the glovebox and it fell open with a clunk. A passport was lying on top. She opened it up on the first page. It was hers. ‘Burglar boy. Sally . . . she tell you to leave back door unlocked so he could get car keys. But I also say to get passport for you. I always knew I would take you. Make you safe.’

  ‘I can’t . . . I can’t go away. I don’t know what I’ll do.’

  ‘You can.’ There was menace back in his tone. ‘And you will. I make sure of this, too. There is one more bomb. When we are clear of tickets, when we are through to board, you can make a call. The bomb, it arms at twelve o’clock. Twenty-five minutes from now. This is under a car. It arms, but will not detonate until car is moved. This car, this is Ian Hughes’s car. This is who Sally told me. This is your father, no?’

  Grace felt her breath leave her all at once. Her hand flashed to her mouth. He glanced at her, and in that brief instance she felt like he was looking deep into her soul.

  ‘I can see this is right. You can stop him moving car, Grace. You can make call. I do not need to hurt him. But you need to do what I say. You understand? I only did this to make you see. You need to do what I say to be safe. You cannot be safe here. When we go through tickets, you can call your father. I give word, okay?’

  Grace still held one hand tightly over her mouth. Her injured arm was still wrapped against her chest. She nodded her head in a jerk.

  ‘Good girl.’

  Chapter 35

  Rob Ford chewing gum was maddening. It was maddening to watch, it was maddening to listen to and it was maddening that, right now, it seemed to be the only thing he was doing. Rob was a forensic media technician, one of a team of four for the area, but, for Harry at least, he seemed to be the go-to guy. Maddie could only watch as he stared at the screen of his laptop, sighing at regular intervals, while it scrolled through lines of white letters and symbols. It was all gibberish to her.

  They were in Frank Dolton’s study. Dolton himself had been taken away, despite his protestations. The plan was to interview him as soon as possible, but they all knew it wasn’t going to help. Their 12 noon deadline was only twenty-five minutes away.

  The blue lighting of Rob Ford to the address was a desperate move, a faint hope that he might be able to get something they could use in time. But from his facial expressions and the severity of his chewing, Maddie’s hope was getting even fainter with every passing second.

  ‘What are we looking at?’ Harry said. He had been pacing behind where Maddie was stood over the desk and this was the third time he had asked this same question. Rob looked up from his laptop and sighed. He played with the wire that trailed from the side of his laptop and chased round to the back of Dolton’s computer.

  ‘This isn’t ideal, Harry. Remotely I mean. I can do a lot more back at the office.’

  ‘None of this is ideal. This is where we are and this is what we have.’

  ‘So you keep saying. Maybe we should do something about the tension in here. No one should work in this sort of atmosphere!’ He grinned towards Maddie. She didn’t return it.

  ‘Can you tell me anything about that computer?’ Harry asked.

  Rob sighed again. ‘I can tell you it’s been attacked and I can tell you it’s crude.’

  ‘Crude? What does that mean?’

  ‘Crude like amateurish. There’s some pretty high-tech stuff out there right now but this sort of takeover could have been done ten years ago.’

  ‘Takeover?’

  ‘It’s a keystroke device. Like I said . . . amateurish.’

  ‘Keystroke device? Talk layman, Rob, you know this isn’t exactly my area.’

  Rob twisted the tower that was stood alongside the monitor and gestured at a row of plugs behind.

  ‘What are we looking at?’ Maddie said.

  Rob had a pencil behind his ear. He pulled it out and used it to point at a black plug with a wire trailing away under the monitor.

  ‘This is the connection to the keyboard. Only it isn’t just a keyboard plug. The plug is longer than it should be. Someone has run the keyboard through a logger via the USB port. The untrained eye wouldn’t look twice, but for me it stands out instantly.

  ‘So what does it do exactly?’ Harry said.

  ‘It’s as it sounds. It records the keystrokes and transmits them to another source. All you need to do is come in here, clear the cache, plug your keyboard in through this device and boom! Sorry . . . poor turn of phrase.’

  ‘Clear the cache?’

  ‘The history and all the saved . . .’ Rob sighed again, then tutted. ‘Say you need to go into your email account. You would type, say . . . Hotmail in the search bar. Then click about until you’re logging in. You get asked for your login details which you type in, username and password. This device would record all of that activity and ping it out to an external source. The person receiving that then knows what email account you use and your security details. Effectively they have complete control. That’s one example. Going onto your banking site, unlocking your computer in the first place, sending emails, searching for porn — it’s all recorded on there. It transfers it out as a string of typed characters, but you don’t even need to worry about deciphering that. You can run it through some software and it will give you a complete picture — everything you need to take over the user’s life.’

  ‘It’s not remote though?’

  ‘Well, not initially. You have to physically unplug the keyboard and push this little fella in the back of the computer, for the keyboard to be plugged back into it. But everything from that point is remote.’

  ‘Any way you can tell me where that information is transmitting to?’ Harry said.

  ‘I will be able to find the device. I’ll kill the main power in here and it will be one of the power sources left that is still giving off a signa
l. Your man will have to have hidden something in the room that picks up the signal and sends it back out — maybe even using the Wi-Fi in the house. I can interrogate the router too.’

  Harry grunted. He was back to pacing. ‘Interrogate the router and looking for signals. This isn’t going to be quick, is it?’

  Rob leaned back in his chair. ‘Not twenty-five minutes quick, boss. And finding that device is not likely to get you any closer to who planted it — not if they’ve got any sense. The computer has been corrupted remotely. Judging by the simplicity of how it’s been taken over, it may be that I can restore the contents, but there’s no way of knowing at this point. It will take time. I would say days.’

  ‘That’s not something we have. Maddie?’ Harry left her name hanging in the air. He stopped his pacing to look directly at her. He wanted ideas.

  Maddie was struggling for them herself. ‘He has staff. Someone had to have access into here to put that device down in the first place. I’ll get a list.’

  ‘I agree, but it’s a slow time enquiry. Is there anything here that gets us closer to the person responsible for crashing this computer in the next twenty minutes?’

  ‘Nothing I can think of.’

  ‘Grace would make that list, of having access I mean. It’s possible at least.’

  ‘We will be sure to ask her,’ Maddie stopped the words if she isn’t gunned down first from completing her sentence. Harry moved on quickly.

  ‘We can’t stop it. There’s no time. We need to be out looking for this car.’

  ‘Okay. I know Vince would agree. He’s chewing the steering wheel out there. He’s called to check in three times in the last twenty minutes.’

  Rob had insisted Maddie turn her radio off while he did his work — something about the signal interfering. Vince was outside, listening to the search for the car on his radio, keeping her informed. He was on the phone to her immediately after it was announced that the Haines car was now a vehicle of concern, and it was clear that he was desperate to be part of it. Officers had gone over to the house to sweep the car for explosives, but the car had vanished. A search revealed this same car had been captured by ANPR, the automated number plate recognition technology used by police, heading London-bound the previous day — towards the venue. It had also been captured coming away this morning, but ANPR coverage was patchy at best. That was at 0947 hours this morning, heading in the general direction of home. Since then . . . nothing. With Nikki Haines out of the country, officers had got in contact with her ex, and what he suspected had happened to it was not good. Joshua Haines had bought four concert tickets on a credit card registered to his dad. His dad knew he was planning on going and had given his blessing, but he was now convinced that Josh had taken his mother’s car. Every available resource with a vehicle had been sent out across the southern part of the country, while efforts were ongoing to speak to the boy’s mother; contact had been made with the Italian police at Lake Garda so they could find and inform Nikki Haines. The team’s biggest concern right now was that if the car had been headed directly home it would have been there by now, which left them hundreds of square miles to search for a car that could be carrying explosives.