After I finished eating half the pizza, I got dressed and stashed the leftovers in the fridge before I made my way into the bathroom to brush my teeth and make sure my hair was styled into some semblance of order.
Then I texted Rayla to see if she was ready to go, and as soon as she replied, I headed out the door, patting my pockets one last time to make sure I’d transferred my PAVA canister and a couple of zip ties to the black canvas jacket I’d decided to wear. That would be much less obvious and attention-grabbing than my usual overcoat.
There was still a bit of light left in the sky as the days were slowly starting to get longer as the season moved into spring, so the horizon was stained orange and yellow as I climbed into the car. I messed around with the radio, trying to find the right station, but everything was playing ads or the news at the moment, so I eventually gave up and started driving, headed for Rayla’s flat.
The traffic was light since most people’s workdays were over, so it didn’t take me long to reach her street, and I texted her as I stopped at the kerb and engaged the handbrake.
Rayla clattered out the door a couple of minutes later, dressed in a gorgeous red dress that stopped just above her knees, the low, strapless design showing off her colourful necklace. She wore a dark denim jacket over it, the short hem not even reaching her waist. She waved when she spotted my car and hurried down the front path to slip into the passenger seat beside me, carrying with her the scent of a subtle floral perfume.
“Hey,” she said, fluffing her dress out so it wouldn’t get tangled under her as she sat down and did up her seat belt.
“Hey,” I replied. “You look amazing.”
She beamed at me, her lipstick matching the colour of her dress, her eye makeup thick and intricate. “Thanks. You don’t look too shabby yourself.”
“Compared to you, I look like a slob,” I said, and Rayla tucked one of her dreadlocks behind her ear, ducking her head in embarrassment. She wasn’t wearing a headscarf like she usually did, letting her hair fall straight past her shoulders, a couple of the front locks pulled back and tied around the back of her head.
I released the hand brake and rolled away from the kerb in one smooth motion. Rayla took over playing with the radio, trying to find us some actual music, though all the stations seemed determined to thwart our efforts. She eventually found something playing classic rock, but the signal wasn’t strong, and I could hear static in the background.
“What am I expecting tonight?” Rayla asked as she settled back in her seat. She sounded a little bit nervous.
“Our man, Alec, is the one actually meeting with Carmichael,” I explained. “The rest of us will be roaming the concert, keeping an eye on them and trying to make sure we don’t get spotted until we’ve gotten the information we need. I just need your help with that part of the plan, helping me hide from Carmichael, making it seem natural that I’m there. That sort of thing.”
“I think I can do that,” Rayla said with a firm nod.
“I’ll have you get out of there before we make a move toward Carmichael,” I continued. “If there’s a fight, which hopefully, there won’t be, you won’t be anywhere near it.”
Rayla laughed shakily. “Glad to hear it.”
“Thank you again for doing this,” I said, taking my eyes off the road just long enough to smile at her. “I know things are a bit strange between us right now, but I really appreciate this.”
“That’s what you do for friends, right?” Rayla said with a smile. She laid her hand on my thigh and gave it a short squeeze before pulling away, her eyes soft and warm. I would have reached out and held her hand for the rest of the drive, but that wasn’t exactly feasible when I was driving.
The drive to the theatre was short enough, so it wasn’t long until I was pulling into the small car park off to the side, which was already almost completely full. I managed to snag one of the last few spots, although I had to cut off another car to get it, and the other driver sent a distinctly rude gesture my way. Rayla giggled, covering her mouth with her hand as she shook her head.
“What? You snooze, you lose,” I said as I parked and shut the car off.
Rayla and I climbed out, and she paused to wait for me as I rounded the bonnet. I took her hand, wrapping my fingers through hers, and we joined the small but steady flow of people headed for the front doors. We had about half an hour until the concert started, but there were already plenty of people inside, a few of them milling about the art gallery in the lobby while others got in line to show their tickets to the woman at the door into the theatre.
Rayla and I stepped up to the end of the line, and I craned my neck around to see if Fletcher or the rest of the team had arrived yet. We each had our own little wire and earpiece to keep in contact with each other, though I hadn’t put mine in yet.
“Hold our spot?” I asked Rayla. “I’m going to step into the bathroom real quick.”
“On it,” Rayla said, planting herself firmly in our spot and putting her hands on her hips as she grinned.
I smiled back at her then hurried off to the side of the room where the toilets were. I stepped into the only stall in the men’s room and hooked the earpiece into my ear, threading the wire attached to the mic down my shirt where it would be out of the way. It wasn’t exactly unobtrusive since the earpiece was a rather large black blob with a wire curling up over my ear, but as I came out of the stall and glanced at it in the mirror, I thought it looked enough like a hearing aid to pass.
I tapped the side of the earpiece to turn it on, and static crackled through my head for a second before it settled. “MacBain here. Can everyone hear me?”
“I’ll be there in five,” Fletcher replied.
“I’m already inside,” Dunnel grunted, and the rest of the team sounded off after him, indicating that they were either already in position or almost there. Alec was the only one who didn’t have an earpiece, so he wouldn’t be able to hear our chatter, probably for the best so he wouldn’t get distracted, but we’d be able to listen in on his conversation as soon as he turned his mic on. He would probably be arriving later than the rest of us, though hopefully, not so late that he couldn’t claim one of the booths.
I left the toilets and rejoined Rayla in line. She was almost at the front by the time I got back, and we stood side by side as we pulled out our phones so we could have our tickets at the ready. The woman at the door glanced over them briefly, then waved us inside hot on the heels of the people in front of us.
I craned my neck to take a look around as we entered, trying to clock as much of the room as possible in just a couple of seconds. The lights were still on full so people could find their seats, and though all their equipment and instruments were set up on stage, the band was nowhere in sight yet. There was even a bodhran sitting on a stand, and my eyes lingered on it for a second before I dragged them away. The plush seats were starting to fill up, and there was a decent-sized line at the bar as well. I checked on all the booths, growing nervous when I saw that most of them were occupied. It really would’ve been nice to have been able to reserve one of them online, but that really wasn’t how these small concerts worked.
I spotted Dunnel in line at the bar, though I doubted he’d be buying alcohol. He probably just wanted a glass of sparkling water in hand to help him blend in. He glanced over his shoulder and saw me as well, though neither of us acknowledged the other. He was dressed in a starchy, white button-up and black trousers, and the only thing that could have made him look more like a copper was his actual uniform. He really didn’t pull casual civilian off all that well. His face was simply too intense.
“I’m at the back door,” Homes announced in my ear. “There’s a fair amount of movement back here. Looks like the band is still unloading some gear. None of them is paying much attention to me.”
“Good. Keep an eye out for anything suspicious,” I murmured in reply.
Rayla gave me an odd look then remembered my earpiece as she nodded understandi
ngly.
“Should we get drinks?” I asked her.
“I could use a drink,” Rayla agreed eagerly.
So we crossed the theatre floor and plopped ourselves down at the back of the bar line. The music coming out of the speakers was louder on this side of the room, making it a little hard to hold a conversation, so we waited in silence as the line moved very, very slowly. Dunnel was at the front, and I watched him pay for his bottle of sparkling water then move away, his eyes glancing off me like we were strangers.
“Here,” Fletcher’s voice said in my ear, and I turned around briefly to see her walking into the theatre with a tall, dark-haired woman on her arm. Fletcher was dressed in a black leather top tonight, her trousers dark red to offset it, and her date wore a worn black denim jacket with a couple of dozen patches and buttons across it. One of the knees on her trousers was fashionably ripped, and her feet were stuffed into Doc Martens. Fletcher met my eyes and nodded, and since it didn’t seem like our quarry had arrived yet, I nodded back.
As it turned out, Alec was two spots behind Fletcher in line, and as he entered, he looked around briefly as if searching for an open spot, then made a beeline for one of the last few open booths. He looked amazingly cool and confident given everything that was about to go down, his hands tucked into the pockets of his pea coat, the top couple of buttons on his shirt undone to show off the chain necklace he wore. I watched him for two seconds, just to make sure he got to the booth alright, then I turned my attention back to the bar line as we’d just reached the front.
Rayla ordered a cider, and I bought a Coke, shelling over the cash for both our drinks even as Rayla tried to pull her card out. She was doing me a huge favour accompanying me like this, so it was only right that I paid.
“We’ve been watching the front doors,” Reid said, and I cocked my head to the side as I listened. “Still no sign of Carmichael and his crew.”
I checked the time on my watch. “We’ve still got about twenty minutes. Keep your eyes peeled.”
“You wanted me up in the corner by the emergency exit?” Elker asked, and I glanced around until I spotted him moving past the woman at the doors.
“Yeah. Looks like there are plenty of open chairs up there,” I replied.
Elker didn’t respond through the earpiece, but he shifted his trajectory to head up the shallow flight of stairs that marched through the rows of chairs.
“Where should we sit?” Rayla wondered, tugging on my shirt sleeve to make sure she had my attention.
I hummed softly as I thought about it, eyes roving over the entire theatre. We needed to sit somewhere where Alec’s booth would still be visible, but that would be far enough away to keep us from prying eyes. Fletcher and her date had taken the last of the booths, and it was almost directly across the dance floor from Alec’s. Dunnel had found himself a seat at the end of the third row, where he could easily hit the ground running, and Elker was up at the back, covering the exit.
“Let’s take those two for now,” I said, pointing to two seats in the front row that somehow hadn’t been claimed yet. “Though I’ll probably drag you out to dance as soon as there are enough people to provide cover. That way, we’re up and ready in case anything happens.”
“I didn’t know you danced,” Rayla said, grinning as she took a sip of her cider.
“I don’t,” I replied quickly. “But I’m making an exception tonight.”
Rayla elbowed me in the side as we made our way over to the empty seats. “I bet you’re actually a great dancer.”
“I assure you, I’m not,” I said. “I’ve got about three moves, and I just cycle through them over and over again.”
“Don’t worry. I dance well enough for the both of us,” Rayla promised me.
We sat down, and I stretched my legs out in front of me, the hand not holding onto my drink looped through Rayla’s. Someone came out onto the stage, I assumed he was a member of the band given his flannel shirt and beard, and messed around with one of the microphones for a couple of minutes, calling back to someone behind the curtain every so often, though I couldn’t hear what he was saying from my seat.
As he walked off stage, I checked up on Alec out of the corner of my eye. He’d left his coat on the table to claim it and had gone to the bar to get a drink, shifting his weight from foot to foot as he stood in line. I glanced at my phone again to get the time. Fifteen minutes. At ten to eight, I’d start getting worried, but not until then. Carmichael would show. I had no reason to believe that he’d learned the truth about tonight, and he also had no reason to bail since he was no doubt desperate to get the marked bills off his hands.
Still, one of my legs began to jiggle, and I had to force it to calm down by pressing on my thigh with my hand.
“Anything?” I murmured into the mic.
“Not yet,” Falkner replied, as he and Reid were our eyes on the front door. “We'll let you know.”
“If he doesn’t show…” Dunnel growled.
“He’ll show,” I promised. “There’s still time.”
Dunnel hummed in my ear but didn’t say anything else. I really hoped I was right about this.
Rayla and I chatted quietly for the next couple of minutes while we watched the band members moving on and off the stage as they finished up their last-minute preparations. The hubbub of the assembled crowd surrounded us, all the voices blending together until it was near impossible to distinguish the individual conversations unless I really tried. Luckily, we all switched off our mics when we weren’t trying to talk to each other, so I didn’t have to contend with multiple conversations going on inside my head as well.
The ten to mark rolled by, and I began to grow anxious because Carmichael certainly seemed to be cutting it very close. Alec glanced at me a couple of times, his beer glass already almost empty, and I could only imagine that the waiting had to be all the worse for him since he wasn’t able to hear our quiet chatter and Reid’s updates from outside.
At about six minutes to eight, my earpiece finally crackled back to life, and I perked up.
“He’s here,” Reid said, her voice low and tight. “He’s got two others with him. They’re heading up the steps now.”
“Does it look like he’s got a bag of money on him?” I asked.
Reid paused for a second. “Looks like his hands are empty.”
“Alright, here we go, people,” I said, tilting my head toward Rayla so it would seem like I was talking to her. She blinked then shifted in her seat as well to match the ruse. “I know I’ve said this a thousand times, but we need to make sure we go unnoticed until it’s time to move. Door people, keep yourselves hot. Hopefully, Carmichael won’t be able to make a break for it, but if he does, then we need to know where he’s going.”
Every member of the team acknowledged my words with a quick cacophony of “Rogers,” and then I slanted my eyes toward the theatre’s doors just as Carmichael and his crew sauntered through, looking for all the world like an overdramatic indie band with their dark coats, scarves, and caps.
But at the exact same time, something else caught my eye up on stage, a flash of blonde hair and a brightly patterned bird blouse, and my head turned on its own accord to watch as a short woman crossed to the mounted bodhran.
My mouth went dry as I silently begged her to turn around so I could see her face. I chewed on my lip, and it felt like my very heart had stopped beating, my world narrowing to that single patch of the stage.
One of her bandmates said something to her, and the woman turned to respond, revealing her face to me for the first time, and I almost dropped my drink because there, right in front of me, as if she’d never been gone, was Lena Taggert.
Nineteen
Rayla said something to me, but her voice sounded dim and faraway like it was coming to me through a long, metal tube, and I could only stare at Lena, at her blonde curls and the familiar curve of her face, at the way her fingers lightly held the stick to her drum, twirling it over and over agai
n. I’d been waiting to hear from her for so long, and she’d come back to town without bothering to tell me? I supposed I could almost understand. We’d been through some intense times together when she’d been roped into assisting in Finn’s kidnapping, and then she’d turned on her rather scary ex, but I’d thought we had a connection, a real one.
Rayla waved her hand in front of my face, and I blinked rapidly, my vision finally expanding back out to the rest of the theatre. I swallowed heavily, my mouth dry as sand, and took a huge gulp of Coke to try to clear it, a faint ringing in my ears.
“Hey, are you alright?” Rayla asked, worry carved into her face. “You kind of went blank there.”
“I’m fine. Sorry,” I said, blinking a few more times as I sucked in a couple of deep breaths. “That’s Lena up on the stage. She disappeared on me. I wasn’t expecting to see her here tonight.” I squeezed one fist shut, digging my nails into my palm to clear my head the rest of the way. I couldn’t think about Lena right now. I had to focus on the mission at hand. I could track her down after Carmichael was in custody.
Speaking of which, I quickly glanced around the theatre, trying to get a lock on our quarry once more, doing everything I could to keep Lena’s blonde head out of my field of vision. Carmichael, Dune, and the third man were standing before Alec’s booth, and the thief had risen to greet them, clasping Carmichael’s hand and giving it a quick shake. I realised I could now hear them through my earpiece as Alec had switched his mic on.
“Carmichael,” Alec said as he released the robber’s hand.
“MacGowan. It’s been a long time,” Carmichael replied, his voice silky smooth despite the slightly tinny quality the mic forced upon it. “These are my partners, Ella Dune and Owen O’Connor.”
“Pleased to make your acquaintance,” Alec said, shaking hands with both of them.
I studied their body language, searching for any signs of distrust or suspicion. O’Connor’s shoulders definitely seemed tense, and he kept shifting from foot to foot like he simply couldn’t stand still. He’d been more than a little squirrelly at Barron’s place. He must be new to this, not yet practised in hiding his emotions. Carmichael and Dune looked more casual, especially when Carmichael slid languidly into the booth beside Alec, leaving his partners to claim the other side. He’d boxed Alec in against the wall, and I highly doubted that Alec was happy about that.
Fatal Transaction: A DCI MacBain Scottish Crime Thriller Page 28
