Blind pursuit, p.16
Blind Pursuit, page 16
‘No, not happy,’ she said.
‘Because?’
‘Because I didn’t want to have to take anything. I wanted to get in and out without him knowing.’
‘We still can,’ he said, digging into the contents as she looked over her shoulder to the windows. ‘I’m not in a rush. Are you? We can go through everything right here, right now.’
‘I don’t think that’s going to be possible.’
‘Because?’
She nodded up to the corner of the room. Then over into the opposite corner.
It only took Denis a few seconds to figure what she’d seen. Two cameras. Two quite different cameras.
‘One of them’s not connected to the main alarm system,’ he said.
‘I don’t think so.’
One definitely was. The one in the corner to Lea’s right afforded a view over the entire room, doorway included. It was the same one as in several other rooms. But the other… the other camera was a different model and directed down at the safe.
‘You think he’s looking at us right now?’
‘Possibly.’
His look turned to more of a glare.
‘When did you figure that out?’ he asked.
‘While you were cracking it.’
‘You didn’t think about warning me?’
‘Didn’t think there was much point until…’
She didn’t bother to finish. The ‘until’ was made pretty obvious by the flashing blue lights outside.
‘Let’s get the fuck out of here,’ Denis said.
But not before he’d scooped the contents from the safe and stuffed them into his backpack.
No sirens outside yet, which was a good sign, perhaps, but there remained no doubt why the police had turned up. Lea and Denis hotfooted it down the stairs and to the back door then sprinted outside.
‘This way,’ Lea said, tugging on Denis’s jacket before she headed off to the right of the garden to the gate that led to a side access for several of the properties.
‘Stop, police!’ came the shout of a police officer all of ten yards in front of them as they moved out into the alley.
Neither Lea nor Denis stopped. In fact, both sped up and charged the unsuspecting officer. He had his baton out, but nothing he could do really in the confined space except swing it wildly at Denis who dodged easily before swiping the officer’s legs and he tumbled to the ground.
Denis carried on past, Lea hopped over the floored police officer, and they emerged onto the road. Two police cars were on the street right in front of the property. Three more officers on foot there.
‘Hey!’ one of them shouted out to Lea and Denis. Not a very clear instruction, really, but it at least got the attention of his colleagues.
It didn’t stop Lea or Denis though, and they rushed for the car, which sat roughly in the middle of them and the police. Lea and Denis got there first. She had the engine fired up as the quickest of the officers thumped onto the front of the car, as though he thought doing so would stop her from pulling away.
It kind of did, because instead she reversed, hard, and he slipped off just before she crashed into the car behind her. She flicked the gearstick into drive and thumped the accelerator and swung out into the road.
‘Lea!’ Denis shouted out.
But she’d already seen the next officer rushing to try and cut them off. She swerved and he dove out of the way just in time before her car side-swiped another vehicle on the other side of the road. A clattering impact but not enough to stop her. She gunned it to the end of the street, away from the officers, two of them pulling themselves from the ground. The third? She wasn’t sure.
She swung left. Sirens behind them now. Soon the chasing car was in her view.
‘You strapped in?’ she asked Denis.
‘This isn’t my first rodeo, Lea. Not even my first with you.’
‘Still, I’d recommend you hold on tight.’
As soon as she’d finished that sentence, she pumped the brake, tugged on the wheel and the back end of the car flew out to drift them around a right turn. Denis was strapped in, and was holding on, but not quite tightly enough and his head smacked off the window as she adjusted the steering and got them moving straight again.
‘I did tell you,’ she said.
He only smiled in response as she pushed the accelerator again and shot off down the street. She took the next left in the exact same manner. This time Denis was more ready for it.
She could have driven like that all night if she wanted, but she knew the safest thing to do was to ditch the car as soon as possible. Just over a mile later and she raced into a multi-storey car park while the police were out of sight and, lights off, sped up to the second floor. They jumped out and rushed for the stairwell and soon emerged on the street below.
Both took pause there in the cool night-time air, chests heaving with both exertion and excitement.
No sirens drifted over. No flashing lights anywhere in sight here.
‘That was fun,’ Lea said, adrenaline and endorphins surging.
‘Always is with you. It’s why we’re so good together.’
His comment caught her a little off guard, her head fifty-fifty as to the intention behind it.
‘You got a plan from here?’ Denis asked.
‘Take a deep dive into our MP’s treasured items, of course.’
‘You want some company?’
She thought about that one, pushed all the growing doubts away. ‘Yeah. Why not.’
‘Then let’s get to it,’ Denis said with an eager smile.
16
HAMPSHIRE
Present day
They’d hired the puny-engined VW Jetta in Aaron’s name. Having escaped – if that was even the right word – from the bank near Bristol unscathed, they’d realised they needed to ditch Aaron’s car sooner rather than later. The police would no doubt be out looking for them, Brandt and Hinch too, MI6, whoever the hell else wanted to catch up with Callum.
So they’d left Aaron’s Mercedes in a sprawling Asda car park about ten miles south of the city, took an Uber back closer to the centre to a car hire place – an independent rather than a national chain – and had taken the cheapest option available. Not just to save money but because, ominously, Aaron had probably rightly suggested that if this one somehow got wrecked, or they had heat on them and had to dump it someplace before returning it, he wanted the least possible liability.
Still a hefty liability, if it came to that.
Either way, Callum knew the plan, both with the rental, and what came after, was far from foolproof. Everything they’d done had left yet another paper trail, not to mention witnesses at the bank and outside it. They had to expect heat at some point. But hopefully by that point he wouldn’t even be in the country.
Once in the VW they’d initially travelled east, back to Berkshire. Not quite as far as Aaron’s home, as Deena had met them out on the road, both because she didn’t want Callum anywhere near her house and kids and because it simply saved them time. Callum had stayed in the car rather than attempt any kind of interaction with her. He knew she hated everything about the idea of Aaron and her helping him. But she still had.
And so, with what they needed in their possession – most importantly Aaron’s passport – they headed back onto the road, south and a little bit west, aiming for Southampton. More specifically, the port there.
‘Taking off like this…’ Aaron started. Callum didn’t bother to interject during the silence. ‘What about your work?’
‘I have no idea,’ Callum said. He’d tried not to think about that at all. Was it really only yesterday he was last at the construction site? It felt like a lifetime ago. No doubt if he’d still had his old phone, he’d have been battling a plethora of messages and calls, and he did feel bad for leaving the team in the lurch. Perhaps a courtesy call or message to his foreman, Hall, or to Gloria would be worthwhile.
But not yet.
‘How’s it going, though?’ Aaron asked. ‘I mean… everything else aside, is it still want you want to do? Long term?’
A seriously odd question at this point in time.
‘It pays.’
‘It’s good that you found something else. You know, other than rugby.’
Callum raised an eyebrow to show his distaste at the statement. He knew where it was coming from. The same place similar comments had come from for years, mostly from his parents.
You need to get a proper job. Things like that.
‘I haven’t seen your name on the team sheet in a while,’ Aaron said.
‘You bother to check?’
‘I’ve always been bothered. I used to enjoy watching you.’
He’d never really said so.
‘I still keep up with the results,’ Aaron said. ‘Still look out to see if you’re playing.’
‘I’ve barely played the last couple of years. It’s a young man’s sport.’
‘You’re only thirty-two.’
‘Which means I’ve had more than a decade of being pummelled, battered and bruised all for a few quid here and there. It takes its toll pretty fast. Mentally as much as physically.’
Aaron glanced over. ‘You were close to making it, you know. Really close.’
As if he knew. ‘What is this?’ Callum asked.
‘What?’
‘Why are we even talking about this? Now?’
Aaron looked offended. A little embarrassed. ‘I guess… I guess we just don’t get enough chances to talk. Not recently.’
‘And whose fault is that?’
‘You’re blaming Deena?’ Angrier now.
Callum didn’t say anything. The answer was obvious.
‘She’s my wife. The mother of my kids.’
‘Yeah. I get it. There’s nothing for you to justify. It just is what it is.’
‘She has good reason not to like you,’ Aaron said.
‘No, she doesn’t. Not really. What happened before the wedding? However you spin it, you were as much to blame as me. If she’d wanted, she could have forgiven me like she forgave you. You could have had me as part of your lives still. Part of your kids’ lives. You could have been part of mine and Lea’s life too. Who knows… maybe something would have gone different for us two as well.’
‘So now Deena’s to blame for Lea’s death?’
‘Not what I said at all.’
‘But it seemed like that’s what you were suggesting.’
‘Honestly? I’m not sure what I’m suggesting. But you want the truth? I wish I could go back. Fix everything. With you, Deena. Mum, Dad. But mostly with Lea. Thinking now… there were so many moments… where, looking back, maybe the signs were there. I mistook her moods, her emotions for work stress, time of the month, whatever. But maybe… it was always much bigger than that. And I could have helped if only I’d known. If I could have got her out of that life… she’d still be alive.’
‘Maybe she didn’t want out.’
‘Now I’ll never know.’
They went silent and Aaron took them off the motorway, their destination not far now, and Callum’s nerves crept up with each passing moment, especially as nightfall wasn’t far off, as though the dark would bring with it something sinister.
‘You really think this is going to work?’ Aaron asked him.
‘I have to try.’
‘But you really think there’ll be something there for you?’
I love it here. This is the place, Cal. The place I feel most alive. Most free.
He could recall the moment, all of six weeks ago, so vividly. And not the only time she’d said something like that to him on the several occasions they’d visited that place. He remembered those moments for the very reason that they were such happy memories. But was there more to it than that? Had she been planting a seed in his head all along, in the same way she had done with the mention to him of the Simmonds family?
He had to hope so.
‘At the least, if I’m out of the country, I’ll feel safer. Less… on the run.’
‘You won’t be any less on the run. You think MI6 can’t reach you still? Their whole purpose is in operating outside the UK. And not necessarily always above board. And you don’t think the UK police can’t involve anyone overseas either?’
‘But why would they want to?’ Callum said. ‘I’ve done nothing wrong in their eyes. Even if there is some sort of conspiracy here with MI6, the government or… I don’t know what, but there’s no evidence I did anything wrong. So why the hell would the Portuguese police or anyone else outside the UK agree to hunt me down?’
‘Because what Lea knew got her killed. And you’re in her world now. So you need to be prepared.’
Callum understood that point, despite his words, which had been intended to comfort himself more than anything.
‘It still doesn’t make sense to me,’ Aaron said.
‘What doesn’t?’
‘That box being empty. Why give you the clues to go there if it was empty?’
‘Because it wasn’t empty,’ Callum said. ‘Just someone got there before us.’
‘Brandt and Hinch?’
‘It would make some sense. But then why would Hinch make me go in there to prove it was empty? Especially as it’s likely that move raised the suspicions of the bank staff enough for them to call the police.’
‘Which I’m not sure I buy either.’
‘In what way?’
‘I don’t know. It’s just… all these coincidences. Maybe that’s not even the right word. But I don’t like it.’
‘Me neither.’
‘There is one thing you need to seriously consider, though.’
‘And that is?’
‘There has to be one side who’s telling you the truth. Who you can trust.’
Callum thought about that a moment.
‘I’m serious,’ Aaron said. ‘So far, both times you’ve come across Brandt and Hinch? They’ve pulled guns on you. Both times the police have been on the scene too, and both times Brandt and Hinch have fired shots at the police.’
Aaron paused there, as though letting his point sink in. Callum chewed on it, replayed the key moments in his head.
‘Whereas the police and the guy who told you he was from MI6? Firstly, they took you away from Brandt and Hinch. Then all they do is talk to you. Tell you about Lea. Even show you those pictures of people who could be involved. They offered to let you stay at a safe house. And when you attacked them—’
‘I didn’t attack them.’
‘You told me you shoved the woman and elbowed the MI6 guy in the face. Kicked an officer in the balls.’
Callum said nothing.
‘That’s what you said, isn’t it?’
‘Yeah.’
‘You did all that and then they just let you out of there?’
‘Did they let me? I’m not so sure. And then that night they have my face on TV saying I’m a suspect in Lea’s death.’
‘But they didn’t say suspect, did they?’
‘They may as well have done.’
‘Except maybe that’s the point. You’re not a suspect. They know it too. They really do just want to speak to you. To keep you safe while they figure things out.’
‘You’d rather I just called the police now and have them come pick me up?’
‘If it was me?’ Aaron said.
‘It kind of is you, now.’
‘Not for long. But… if it was? You already know what I’d do.’
‘Your lawyer friend. Yeah, yeah, we’ve done this one before.’
‘And how do you know it wasn’t the best idea from the start? Because so far, your way, you’ve been involved in a shoot-out this morning. There’s a manhunt in place for you, and you’re about to abscond to another country with false documents.’
‘There’s nothing false about your passport.’
‘My passport. Exactly.’
Callum played with that document on his lap. Opened the picture page. Again. The brothers hardly had a twin-like resemblance, but they were clearly related. And in the picture, there was no indication of the size difference between the two, other than Callum’s cheeks were that little bit more full. Nothing that wouldn’t be seen as a reasonable change from a recent weight gain though. Unless there was a close scrutiny of the document, Callum could pass it off as his own.
They soon reached the port, no hitches. A good thing, even if it only made Callum all the more questioning. The area was more active than Callum had imagined it would be at this time of night. Lights twinkled and huge cranes whirred and clanked in the near distance, moving shipping containers on and off transport ships. Closer to them sat the passenger port, and a huge cruise ship busy with people queuing to board.
Aaron parked up and glanced over at Callum again. ‘I’ve never been on a cruise,’ he said, smiling.
‘You’re about to.’
Aaron laughed. ‘I guess I am. But I still don’t know if this is the stupidest idea or the cleverest.’
‘Me neither.’
But it had made perfect sense to Callum when he’d first suggested it. He needed to get out of the country. Specifically, he wanted to go to Portugal. To their place. Flying was the quickest route, but airports also had the most stringent security. He could have taken the Channel Tunnel – either driving or on the Eurostar train – to get to continental Europe, but that journey was slower and just… seemed like it had more potential for hiccups.
Slow? Well, the cruise ship wasn’t exactly speedy, but they’d be at their first stop-off in Portugal in the morning. And in his mind… it just felt like the least-expected route for someone in his position to take. Not only slow, but the most expensive too: he’d had to fork out more than £2,000 for the seven-day trip. A ferry to the same area would have cost a couple of hundred, a flight not much more. He’d certainly never seen a film or read a book where someone on the run had chosen a cruise liner to escape.
Either the stupidest idea, or the cleverest.
And using Aaron’s passport was just an extra layer of protection, Callum had decided. Was his name already on a ‘no-fly’ list or whatever such things were called? Possibly. Possibly Aaron’s was too, but it was much less likely.
