Crossfire

by Malorie Blackman

  ‘Then empty the bucket,’ snaps Libby. ‘Or let us out to use a proper toilet.’

  ‘You two are staying right were you’re at.’ The bald guy’s eyebrows begin to knit together at the suggestion. He trains his phone on me. ‘Stand together.’

  Libby takes a couple of steps to stand at my side.

  ‘Start speaking, Troy.’

  Glaring at him, I clamp my lips together while my hands flutter in front of me.

  The guy lowers his phone to scowl at me. ‘Speak or I’ll snap your girlfriend’s neck like a twig.’ He raises his phone again.

  ‘Fuck you, baldie, your two shithead friends and the grey van that brought us to this derelict dump,’ I state slowly and clearly. ‘Will that do?’

  He lowers the phone and gives me an oily smile. ‘That’ll do just fine.’ If I didn’t know better, I’d say his smile held grudging respect.

  ‘You got a message you want to share, princess?’ he says to Libby, holding up his phone again.

  ‘What Troy said – squared,’ Libby replies. Her tone would give a lesser man frostbite, but the bald guy just laughs and stops recording. He heads back up the stairs and leaves the basement, not forgetting to bolt the door behind him.

  sixty-nine. Callie

  * * *

  ‘Solomon, I need to talk to you,’ I began.

  Sol turned from his computer screen to look me up and down. A frown bit into his face.

  ‘I’m not going to like this, am I?’

  I raised an eyebrow. ‘What makes you say that?’

  ‘Because you never call me Solomon unless you’re about to say something that’s going to ruin my day. Am I right?’

  With a sigh, I took a seat in front of his desk. This wasn’t going to be pleasant. Now that I’d been sent proof that both Troy and Tobey’s daughter Libby were indeed alive and being held captive, I had no choice but to follow the instructions I’d been given.

  ‘Oh, dear God. Callie, what’ve you done now?’ Sol swung round in his black, custom-built ergonomic chair to face me.

  ‘It’s about Tobey Durbridge.’

  ‘I kinda figured it would be.’

  I took a deep breath and told him everything – about growing up together, about the money Nana Jasmine had left him, about the reason we’d split up at school and about the night we’d recently spent together. The only facts I omitted were Tobey’s tattoo, his threats if I dropped his case, and that my brother and Tobey’s daughter had been taken and why. I didn’t dare tell Sol about Libby and Troy in case it got back to the kidnappers. The fewer people who knew the whole truth, the more room we’d have to manoeuvre. By the time I’d finished, my cheeks were on fire, but I forced myself to tell Sol the sorry, sordid truth – just not all of it. When I stopped speaking, you could’ve heard a grain of sand drop on a beach. Sol looked at me like I was certifiable – which probably wasn’t far from the truth. He closed his eyes briefly, muttering, ‘Jesus, take the wheel!’

  I winced. That was Sol’s go-to exclamation whenever he was about to explode. I didn’t have long to wait.

  ‘Are you out of your ever-loving mind? Have you lost the little sense you were born with? You know what Tobey Durbridge is. Hell, everyone in these chambers knows exactly who and what Tobey Durbridge is. The smart money reckons that Daniel Jeavons wasn’t the one heading up the biggest criminal fraternity and drug-running business in the country – it was Tobey pulling the strings.’

  ‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ I retorted, frowning. Tobey the ruthless, ambitious politician, I could believe. Tobey as some kind of crime overlord? Not so much.

  At my dubious look, Sol let me have both barrels. ‘You’re still unwilling to believe that your friend is corrupt, aren’t you? Are you really that naïve? Callie, I’m telling you, Tobey is no good – and that’s the man you jumped into bed with. I hope he was good in bed. I hope he was the best damned lover you’ve ever had because you’re going to suffer some serious consequences over this.’

  ‘Sleeping with Tobey may not have been the smartest decision of my life—’

  Sol guffawed. ‘You think?!’

  ‘But the trial proper doesn’t begin until tomorrow. There’s still time to salvage this.’

  ‘Salvage th-this?’ Sol spluttered. ‘Have you been taking stupid pills?’

  ‘Now hold on a minute, Sol—’

  ‘No, you hold on, Callie. I suggest you kiss your career goodbye.’

  I leaned forward in my chair, briefly covering my face with my hands. Smoothing back my hair, I desperately tried to marshal my thoughts, but it was like herding cats and toddlers at the same time.

  ‘Sol, trust me, OK?’ I said at last. ‘I need you to trust me.’

  He tilted his head to one side. ‘What aren’t you telling me?’

  ‘Sol, I’m not stupid, though the evidence would indicate otherwise. I’m asking you, as a friend, to let me handle this case my way.’

  He shook his head. ‘Are you going to continue this affair with Durbridge?’

  ‘No,’ I replied vehemently. ‘That’s all over. It was a one-time, huge mistake and it’ll never be repeated.’

  ‘Hmm … And is Durbridge likely to blab to the media about your … indiscretion?’

  ‘No.’ I forced myself to look Sol in the eye and lied. ‘He wouldn’t do that.’

  ‘I kinda wish you hadn’t told me,’ sighed Sol. ‘You’ve made me complicit in your inappropriate behaviour.’

  ‘That wasn’t my intention,’ I said.

  ‘You realize if Tobey decides to make a complaint or publicizes what you’ve done, there could be charges levelled against you. You could end up in prison, Callie.’

  I nodded. ‘If it comes to that, you can deny all knowledge. As far as I’m concerned, this conversation never took place.’

  Sol steepled his fingers, resting them against his lips as he regarded me. ‘You mean that?’

  ‘Of course.’ I was shocked he even had to ask. ‘If I go down, I’m not going to drag you with me. We’re friends.’

  ‘You want to continue with Tobey’s case?’ asked Sol.

  Hell, no! If I could walk away from this unscathed, then I would in a heartbeat. But I was caught like a fox in a steel trap.

  ‘Sol, I need to see this case through to the end.’

  ‘Even if it leads you to the gates of hell.’

  ‘Even if it drags me into hell itself.’

  ‘Callie, park your pride for a moment and listen. I really think you should let me take over as lead counsel. Have you filed the IDT-12 forms with the appropriate court clerk yet?’

  I shook my head. ‘I wanted to talk to you first.’

  ‘Good. Leave the counsel and co-counsel sections blank and send the rest.’

  ‘Sol, I’ll do as you suggest, but Tobey wants me to defend him. How can I back out now?’

  ‘At least give it some serious thought. OK?’

  The phone on Sol’s desk began to ring. He snatched it up. ‘Yes?’ he barked into it. ‘I’m sorry. Hold on just a moment, please.’ He covered the mouthpiece with his hand. ‘Callie, I hope you know what you’re doing.’

  I stood up, forcing a smile. ‘That’s what you pay me for. Don’t worry, Sol, I’ll fix this.’

  And I walked out of his office, quietly closing the door behind me. Fix this? I hoped I sounded convincing because I didn’t have a clue what I was going to do. My brother’s life was slipping through my fingers like sand and the tighter I tried to hold on, the more sand escaped.

  Troy, I’ll get you out of this. I swear I will.

  But how? How?

  seventy. Tobey

  * * *

  I’d been shown to one of the interview rooms in the basement, beneath the courts. The room was a shoebox and unpleasantly warm. There was no window, just downlighters set into the high ceiling. The headache that had started the previous night hadn’t abated any. It was still kicking my arse. In one corner of the ceiling sat a security camera, no bigger than a g
olf ball. Callie had assured me that, though our conversations in here would remain private, they still had to be recorded.

  Hurry up, Callie. I want to get this over with.

  I didn’t have long to wait. Callie entered the room, closing the door behind her. To my surprise, she looked the way I felt, like she’d been left out in the rain for hours and put away wet. I obviously wasn’t the only one who’d had trouble sleeping. Callie sat down, only giving me a cursory glance before opening the work satchel she took everywhere.

  ‘As you know, I’ve had Jon investigating our’ – Callie glanced up at the security camera – ‘our case. He hasn’t made the progress we both hoped for and the judge wouldn’t entertain my motion to dismiss the case so you will have to enter your plea for the record. When you plead not guilty, the judge will want to hear statements from both me and the prosecution outlining our case. Then she’ll make a decision on whether or not there’s enough evidence to commence a jury trial. I think I have enough to create a reasonable—’

  ‘Who’s prosecuting?’ I interrupted.

  ‘Gabriel Moreland with Leanne Grant as his co-counsel.’

  ‘I heard Moreland is a piranha.’

  ‘You heard right then,’ Callie confirmed. ‘Gabriel is a man who likes to win. He’s looking forward to taking you on personally.’

  Yeah, I bet. The world was full of wannabes who had something to prove.

  ‘I guess this is it. We both know what we have to do, Callie. You’ll resign as my lawyer. I’ll plead guilty and give Dan’s friends what they want, and just hope they keep their end of the bargain.’ I spoke with a calm I was far from feeling.

  ‘So that’s it? You coerce me into defending you, and now you’re prepared to roll over and play dead?’ Callie frowned.

  ‘What choice do I have? What choice do either of us have?’ If I continued with Callie as my lawyer, they might harm my daughter. They might even come after Callie next. Causing pain to the two people I cared most about in this world wasn’t something I was willing to contemplate.

  ‘Now you listen to me, Tobey Durbridge,’ said Callie, frost crackling in her voice. ‘I’m your lawyer, and I’ll remain your lawyer unless and until you explicitly tell the judge you want someone else defending you.’

  Godsake! She wasn’t making this easy, was she?

  I lowered my voice until it was barely above a whisper. ‘If you don’t drop me as your client, Dan’s friends may carry out their … promise regarding Troy and Libby. You want to take that risk?’

  ‘Jon is still working on that,’ said Callie. ‘Thanks to Troy, we know there are three male kidnappers – all Noughts – and we have reasonable descriptions of each. We also know that Libby’s mum and two friends snatched Libby and Troy off the street in the first place, bundling them into a grey van, but Misty and her friends were killed by these new thugs.’

  ‘Misty is dead?’

  Callie’s expression was immediately contrite. ‘Tobey, I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have just blurted it out like that. After all you and her were once an item.’

  I shook my head. An item was overstating it. I took a moment, unsure what I was meant to be feeling. Surely more than this … nothingness? Misty was dead.

  And she was the one who’d kidnapped my daughter in the first place? What the hell? What kind of mother would do that?

  ‘How d’you know all this?’

  ‘Troy told us in the video,’ Callie said. ‘Try watching it again and concentrate on what his hands are doing, not his mouth. I taught him one-handed sign language when he was younger as a way for the two of us to hold a conversation in front of Mum without her having a clue what we were saying. He got very good at it, better than me. He can sign different things with both hands simultaneously, something I was never able to master.’

  I hadn’t even noticed Troy’s hands signalling. I thought they were just twitching with nerves or fright. Besides, watching the recording, I had eyes for nothing and no one but my daughter and the look of abject terror on her face. Someone was going to pay for that alone. I already had my own people working on finding Libby.

  ‘Until I know they’re safe, I’m going to give Dan’s cronies exactly what they want. And so are you, Callie. Tell the judge you’re no longer defending me.’

  ‘No. Then the scumbags win. We give in, and then it’s open season for anyone who thinks we lawyers can be blackmailed into capitulating.’

  ‘It’s not about winning or losing.’ Didn’t Callie see that? ‘I don’t want anything to happen to Libby and Troy – and neither do you.’

  ‘I’m not dropping this case, Tobey.’

  I sighed inwardly. Like this wasn’t difficult enough already. From the speculative look on Callie’s face, I knew my mask was beginning to slip. I was so tired. Tired of pretending. I was ever the politician, ever the diplomat, picking my words carefully so they couldn’t be batted back at me to explode like grenades. It was hard to speak the truth in a world where lies were currency.

  This was the fight of my life. I was about to go on trial for murder and someone was working overtime to see both me and Callie go down. That person didn’t just want me out of a job, but locked up and disgraced. Out of a job, I’d still be hard to get at, protected. But in prison … In prison, I wouldn’t last a day. Who hated me enough to feel that way? It wasn’t a short list. Whether they had a personal grudge against Callie or she was just collateral damage, it was time for some damage limitation.

  ‘Callie, please don’t make me do this. Just recuse yourself from the case and let me find another lawyer.’

  ‘And I’ve already told you that’s not going to happen.’ She was digging her heels in and she wasn’t going to budge. There was only one thing left that I could do. And once I did it there’d be no turning back. Callie would never forgive me, but what choice did I have?

  ‘Callie, you can’t take this case because you’re not allowed to deceive the court. Take this case and put me on the witness stand and you’ll force me to tell the truth.’

  Shocked realization crept into Callie’s eyes, albeit with the wrong conclusion. ‘Are you … are you telling me you did it? You killed Dan?’

  ‘No.’ I inhaled silently, bracing myself for the onslaught to come. ‘Callie, I didn’t kill Dan, your mum did – and, what’s more, I can prove it. You can’t defend me without putting your mum on the hook, which will never happen. That’s why you need to tell the judge you’re no longer my lawyer. That way you won’t be forced to dissemble.’

  Stricken, Callie stared at me, her mouth open. A storm was brewing. I didn’t have to wait long for it to hit.

  ‘That’s a lie. You’re a liar, Tobey Durbridge. No power on this earth could make my mum kill Dan or anyone,’ she said with predictable fury.

  ‘Wrong. There’s one reason – love for you and your brother. Sephy would stop at nothing to protect both of you.’

  ‘Protect us from what? Let’s see this so-called proof of yours,’ Callie demanded.

  ‘I have the letter opener used to kill Dan. I carefully took it out of his back and plunged the ornamental knife into him to cover up any traces of the original weapon. That letter opener has Sephy’s fingerprints all over it. That’s my proof. I also have the disk and the files with the CCTV footage of Sephy committing the crime. I made sure to remove them before the police arrived. Both the letter opener and the disk containing the footage are in a safe place.’

  ‘But the witnesses saw Mum leave while Dan was still alive—’

  ‘She snuck back and hid in one of the bedrooms until Dan was alone.’

  ‘I don’t believe you. I want to see this so-called proof.’

  I gave her a facsimile of a smile. ‘You think I’m stupid? If I show it to you and all this comes out, you could be called as a witness against me or charged with perverting the course of justice. That way I still lose everything. I’m not bluffing, Callie. I do have proof of what I say. Up till now I’ve been trying to protect Sephy. I fe
lt I owed her – and you – something. But not any more. That debt is paid in full. So I’ll ask you once and once only. Are you my lawyer or not?’

  The clerk popped his head inside the interview room to inform her, ‘Miss Hadley, the court is now open.’ He propped open the door, waiting for us to depart. Just beyond the door were two Cross police officers, ready to escort me to the dock. We both stood up.

  ‘Callie, we’re going to keep the customers satisfied. Right?’

  She didn’t reply.

  ‘Right, Callie?’ I insisted.

  ‘Time to go. I’ll see you up there.’ And with that Callie turned and left the room.

  I watched her walk away, my heart thumping. Would she back down? Her brother’s life was on the line as well as my daughter’s if she didn’t. We both had to be smart about this.

  The two police officers led the way to court number twelve. As we made our way up the stairs which led directly to the dock, it hit me that these were my last moments of freedom. Once I pleaded guilty, I would probably be remanded in custody until sentencing. And, if Dan’s friends on the inside didn’t get to me first, Owen Dowd’s friends would. Either way, my hours were numbered. So it was up to me to make sure Callie didn’t suffer the same fate. There wasn’t a lot left that I could do to protect those I loved, but I could do that.

  seventy-one. Callie

  * * *

  Court number twelve was packed with reporters. They’d take their notes and record every word said in the hope that the super-injunction would be lifted and they could report on one of the biggest stories of the decade. I sat next to Sol, my mind a hive full of angry bees. I could feel Tobey’s eyes searing into my back from the dock.

  Mum …

  Was Tobey telling the truth about Mum? I didn’t know, and that alone was killing me. In spite of all my bravado in front of Tobey, I wasn’t at all sure what I was going to do. If anything happened to Troy and Libby, I’d never forgive myself. But if I were to capitulate now, once word got out about what had happened, justice would become a commodity to be bought, sold, exploited or bullied. And, if Tobey was right about Mum, how could I defend him and not implicate her?