Don't... 04 Backlash (39 page)

Jack nearly
choked on his coffee, then managed to wipe his mouth and rest his
mug down before doing more damage. “I... I—”

“Leave him
alone, Mom,” Jan was grinning behind his cup. “She knows about your
OCD and social issues, Jack. Take no notice.”

Jack managed a
weak smile, then thumbed back at Jan. “He tell you any good
stuff?”

“Yes,” she
said, winking over at Jan. “Mostly about this other man that he’s
seeing too.”

Gray blushed,
almost, but it didn’t go unnoticed by Jack.

“Well, he
didn’t mention Gray’s name, per se,” said Kate, “but I think I know
who now.”

“Stripped down
in two seconds flat,” said Jack. “Oh you’re good,” he said to
Kate.

There was that
avoidance to look at Jack again. “Jan said you had some more
questions for me, Gray. Can I save you by getting back to
business?”

“Oh most
definitely.” He liked her, and he hoped with every instinct she was
one of the good guys. He’d hate to have to interrogate her. But he
would. “You had a substantial payout from your husband’s death,” he
said eventually. “From a government insurance company.”

She looked at
Jan, then briefly at Jack, then frowned again at Jan. “Yes.” Voice
was a little different too. More guarded, slower, flatter in
tonicity with only one word snapped out.

“Recent
investigations show that the company who dealt with you doesn’t
exist.”

“Oh...” She
held Gray’s gaze. “Oh. Then why—”

“The money came
from an offshore account belonging to a man who doesn’t exist
either.”

She cast a look
at Jan. “I know. I did it.”

“Sorry?” said
Gray. Jack kept focus on his coffee.

“I mean, I
know,” Kate said gently. “It came from my husband’s... funds.” She
frowned again, this time dropping her gaze. “I set the account up
with funds from that. It wouldn’t—”

“Mom—”

“So it wouldn’t
look suspicious.”

“Mom.”

“Jan, Jan, it’s
okay, honey. And I’m sorry.” She nodded, wiping away a tear. “I’m
sorry, okay.”

Gray sighed and
wiped a hand over his face. “I’m going to ask another question,
Kate, and understanding how I know it was Jan that set up the
offshore account, I’ll give you one chance to answer honestly. If
you do, I’ll forget about any misinformation you’ve just given
me.”

Kate tried to
stand, to go to Jan, but Gray’s gentle touch kept her where he
needed her to stay.

“How did you
know about your husband’s money, and, from the look of it, Jan’s
fraud?”

Kate wiped at
her cheek again, once, twice, her other hand gripping her mug hard
enough to break it. “Twelve years ago, I was told about the money.”
She let out a snort. “By his... so-called friends.”

Jan came over
and pulled the chair close to Kate. “Mom?”

She looked at
him. “After I was... told, I found the paperwork to his first
accounts here. It was... was a lot of money, Jan. How we used to
struggle... that was so much money.”

“You took over
it?” asked Gray.

“I couldn’t
risk withdrawing any.” The fear in her eyes said just that. “So I
kept it secret, thinking a good few years out of mind and sight
would give me the safety I needed. So I didn’t touch it. I waited.
Then...” She shrugged. “When I thought it was safe, the money was
gone.”

Jan couldn’t
hold her gaze, but then neither could she hold his.

“You knew it
was me?”

“Such a clever
lad with numbers, Jan.” A tear fell as she touched his leg. “But
the insurance company was the biggest giveaway. Neil... he wasn’t
worth that much. They wouldn’t pay out that much compensation to a
guilty man. He died where he should have done.”

“But you
knew?”

“Yeah, I knew.”
She gave a smile. “You managed to take care of us, and after
missing meals and fighting rats sometimes for scraps, you deserved
to look after yourself too. Jan...” She rested her head in the
curve of his throat. “I did a lousy job of standing up to him when
it mattered, so you deserved that money more than me.”

“Bollocks.” He
shifted his shoulder, getting Kate to look at him. “I heard you
fight him often enough. You needed that money more than
anyone.”

She shook her
head and stroked the back of her hand against his cheek. “I should
have walked long before you heard any of that, baby.”

“How far would
you have got when you didn’t have the money for a bus ticket?”

Jack frowned
between them, perhaps not realising just how tough Jan’s life had
been. But then Jack missed a lot of things, and it was there in
Jack’s eyes too as he looked at Gray.

“You say
“friends” mentioned this account,” said Gray, watching Kate. “Yet
there’s a lot of fear surrounding the mention of them.”

Kate’s gaze
flittered between Gray and Jack, never really resting until Gray
touched her shoulder.

“Something
wrong,” he asked gently.

“Just...” She
was back with Jack. “I remember your eyes.”

“Huh?” said
Jack, his coffee mug finding the table.

“You’ve met
Jack before?” Gray leaned forward slightly, curious now.

“I...” She
seemed to falter. “Not sure. You’re a lot older now.”

“Now?” Jack
pushed away from the table slightly, looking a little panicked, and
Kate shuddered.

“I didn’t know
about the money back then,” she said, confused as she looked at
Gray, then Jack. “I told them that; they wouldn’t listen.
Remember?”

“You’re...
you’ve lost me completely here.” Jack’s hands gripped the table,
arms looking stiff.

“When I saw you
just, I thought Jan had got the name wrong. A Martin was
mentioned.”

Jack got to his
feet about the same time Jan did. “No offence, but I’ve never met
you, lady.”

“Someone...
someone else, then,” she said gently, trying to calm. But Jan was
already there, a hand on Jack’s shoulder, whispering something that
tried to calm too.

“Jack, sit
down,” said Gray. He did and Jan stayed by his side. Gray focused
on Kate. “You met someone like Jack, and he called himself Martin.
When?”

“Jan couldn’t
have been fifteen... sixteen. I’d gone out shopping that night to
get a cake mix for Lacey’s birthday.” She glanced up at Jan.
“Honey, it was that time you were down with that bad case of
tonsillitis. Lacey and Steph were around friends, and you... I’d
left you in bed.”

“I remember. My
throat had swollen badly, even my gums were swollen.”

Kate nodded. “I
didn’t make it to the shop.” Her face paled. “Someone came at me
from behind in the street, and the next thing I remembered, I was
on the floor of a dusty office.”

Jan shifted a
look in Gray’s direction.

“A dusty
office?”

Kate nodded. “I
was a cleaner back then, and, well, it’s something you notice,
where the dust is the thickest, and this office, the floor was
concrete, painted black, and an empty wastepaper basket was next to
a table that had... I don’t know, rat droppings stuck to a leg by a
web. And men, there were two men in there.” Knuckles were white
around the mug. “I was dragged up by the table and they said if I
didn’t tell them where the money was, they’d make a call. They said
somebody was at home with Jan.” Tears came freely. “I could stand
losing my husband, but not one of my kids.”

“I don’t
remember anyone being with me,” said Jan, and his mother
nodded.

“I couldn’t
take that chance.”

“Only you
didn’t know about any money at that point?” said Gray.

“I tried to
tell them that, pleading that I didn’t know, but they weren’t
interested.”

“And you met
someone who looked like Jack, who must have been, what?”

“Seventeen,
maybe eighteen,” said Kate, although Gray had worked it out, he
just needed to see if she could place the difference in ages. “He
looked about as startled as me to start with, then....”

“Then?”

“He seemed
curious, wired.”

Jack’s eyes
widened a touch. “And he did what?”

Kate only
shrugged. “I don’t know. The two men didn’t like being interrupted
and I was knocked to the floor. Next thing I knew, I was back on my
sofa with Jan upstairs in bed. A note warned me to shut up and not
go to the police, but the car that stayed outside of my home for
two weeks ensured it.”

“They kept tabs
on you,” said Gray.

“Yes. But like
I said, I didn’t know about any money back then, or why your dad
would have any, Jan.”

“About the
office.” Gray kept an eye on Jack. “Do you remember anything else
about it? Perhaps any scents? Anything else on the table?”

Kate’s gaze
distanced. “Smelled like oil. Engine oil and cold steel,” she said.
“Like a garage. And there was a notepad on the table.”

“Garage...”

Gray was more
interested in the notepad. “The date, can you remember what it
was?”

She seemed to
search for it. “Summer. June 15th—”

“Fuh—” Jack’s
hands went to his head as the year was then mentioned, and he found
his feet again. Gray followed his every move.

“
Mase.
The night with Mase. Other people were there?” Jack was ready to
bolt, or to grab onto Jan, or just crawl up into a corner and
cry
no
more
, and Gray got
to his feet.

“
What do
you mean... there?” Kate pulled a face. “Were
you
there?” She was up on her feet
now.

“No,” said Jan.
“Jack wasn’t.” And the hardness to voice and eyes said just that.
“You’d have known if it was Jack there.”

“Did he hurt
you?”

“Sorry?”

“Martin. Did he
fuck with you?” said Jack. He looked mortified.

“No... it was
one of the men who hit me. I don’t know what happened after
that.”

“The notepad.”
Gray got a look off Jack. “Was it open or closed?”

Kate wasn’t
with it now. “Closed, I think. I can’t remember.”

Gray buried the
rush of sickness as realisation started to creep in. “Okay. Thank
you. We need to go now.”

Jan nodded, but
Jack bypassed them all and was already reaching for the door.

“Thank you,”
said Gray to Kate, and he gave her an easy smile despite the hollow
pit that hit his stomach. “Jan and Jack—”

Kate looked
distressed as Jan passed by, giving her a kiss on the head. “I
know, I know. Bloody look after my son, though, please?”

Gray left her
there and headed out after them. He’d be getting a text soon, and
he now knew why.

The drive home
was painfully quiet. Jack kept to the back seat, insisting that Jan
go up front by Gray. It was painful to see the mistrust of his own
actions back in his eyes. Making sure Jan stayed out of harm’s way
but also next to Gray. Jan stayed just as quiet, but for the first
time in months, his glances back at Jack wanted to cross the
distance, not hide from it.

They made it
back to the manor for dusk, just as Ed was serving an evening meal.
Jack carried his silence up to the bedroom and this time Jan went
with him. Through either natural default or an ability to push Jan
to a safe distance, Jack took his hand and made sure he went with
him, with a look back at Gray that almost had Gray going up with
them.

But he had to
wait for a text.

He found his
way to his study, just giving a shake of head at Ed’s offer of
food. He wasn’t hungry; he couldn’t remember the last time he’d
eaten properly. So when he took a seat in his study, it pissed him
off to no end when a knock came at the door.

“Ed said you
needed this, bright eyes.” Boots sounding heavy on the polished
wood, Trace came over with a plate of Ed’s Sunday roast and a shot
of whiskey.

Gray held his
hand up for quiet, just sitting there, waiting. He knew they would
have been followed. He also knew what would come next as he put
Logan’s phone on the study desk.

A text came
through a moment later. It came with a number to text back, and one
word that said:

Name.

Gray thumbed it
in. His reply just as simple:

Martin.

Trace frowned
at him as he pushed the meal to one side and looked at the
message.

Another text
came through a moment later.

Well
done, Mr Raoul. Now we can begin.

“You gonna tell
me what this is about?” whispered Trace, easing onto the edge of
the desk.

Gray sniffed,
ignoring how it wasn’t the food that turned his insides. “Martin
interrupted something over twelve years ago when he was fucking
around with Mase. He saw a full list of codenames, MI6 codenames,
and I think he fucked up whatever plans Kes had for them.”

“Kes was
selling on a list of MI6 ops?”

“Or buying,”
said Gray. “Two ops on that list were killed with a signature mark
that goes for accidental death. The same mark that took out Rob
Kershaw too. Jan’s ex-lover. Which means if we only have a partial
list, the rest of those MI6 ops, or some of them at least, are on
Kes’s hit list, and Martin saw them.”

Trace raised
his brow, now leaning forward slightly. “So Kes is a professional
hit man, with a liking for taking out MI6 operatives?”

Another message
came through, and Gray left it on the desk as he opened it.

Wake
Martin up, Mr Raoul.

Gray thumbed
his reply.

No.

Nothing else
was needed. No anger, no retaliation, just... no. After he was
finished, Gray picked up his landline. “Ray.”

“Sir?” came the
reply when it was picked up.

“Get Greg
Harrison from work. Bring him to the manor. Tell him he’ll be
stopping here for a few days. If he asks for clothes, you ask for a
list, drop him off, then go buy new. You take his phone and you
arrange cover for his work via the MC. No one here, and I mean no
one is to go near Greg’s home or work. Not even surveillance.”