False Witness (John Steel series Book 3) (11 page)

Turning on to the street DC noticed the black transit van parked just down from his club. He smiled to himself as he walked across the road.

Dumb ass cops might as well have WE’RE HERE
written on the damn side
, he thought. Taking out his keys he undid the four locks and punched in the security code for the door. A green light blinked on and he entered the club’s dark interior.

DC walked in and flicked on the house lights. As they flashed alive he made his way to the centre of the room and looked around, wearing a large grin on his face, proud of his creation.

His gaze fell as he saw that his office door was partially open. He reached to the small of his back and pulled out the snub nosed .44 pistol from its holster. True he wasn’t much of a player but he had still made enemies—this club had also ruffled a couple of feathers since it had opened, so he had to be cautious.

As he neared the room he heard the sound of voices coming from inside, voices he didn’t recognise. DC rested his thumb on the hammer of the nickel-plated revolver and prepared to pull it back as he entered.

He would have to be quick. Hell, he didn’t know how many there were or if they were armed. Slowly he opened the door, hoping not to scare or cause the men inside to start shooting just out of instinct. The door opened and he saw two men—a white guy and a large black guy sitting on his grey leather couch in the corner of the room, while another man sat in his office chair with his feet up on the wooden desk. DC held the weapon forwards, waving it from side to side, covering the three men.

“Hey, motha fucka, you want tell me what the hell you are doin’ in my chair and in my place?” he bawled out.

The large man in DC’s chair stood up and walked over to the club owner. “Hey, you ugly bastard, you got some kind of death wish?”

DC stared at the man, who was much taller and wider than he was.

“Yeah, if I gotta keep listenin’ to you yammering on all day!”

The two men embraced, leaving the two guys on the couch looking confused. DC and the other man turned to the others, who looked mystified.

“What you fools starin’ at?” the man beside DC, Tyrell Williams said, laughing. “This here’s my brother Adam, but he prefers to be called DC. Not many people cower in fear before some guy called Adam!” Tyrell Williams laughed. “Adam, this is Darius and Brian.”

The men shook hands and waited for Tyrell’s next cue. “You should have seen your face, man.” Tyrell put a shocked look on his face to mimic his brother’s previous expression. The two brothers laughed and then headed for the bar.

Brian and Darius just looked at each other, shrugged and followed the brothers into the mall hall.

“So, I saw your prison break,” DC said. “Very nice. But not nice enough. I got the cops watchin’ my place—it’s bad for business, man.” The large man shook his head as he poured two glasses of whisky.

“We didn’t do anything but get the hell of that bus, man,” Tyrell went on. “That fool bus driver was going too fast.”

DC nodded as if he understood the whole karma of the situation. “So what you got planned now?”

The big man smiled and turned to his brother. “Time for some payback, brother, time for some payback.” He then turned to the other two and slid some glasses their way. “Tonight we rest, tomorrow we hunt.” He laughed, and then downed the golden liquid in one clear motion.

*

McCall had sent a text to Tina, telling her she would be there as soon as she could, for the moment something more interesting was happening. This was one reunion she didn’t want to miss.

Agent Lloyd stumbled back as if some great weight was attached to her legs. Tony and Tooms quickly sat down at the table waiting at the ringside and McCall joined them.

Steel made his way to the recreation room, and slowly his gaze fixed on Agent Cassandra Lloyd. He had a small grin on his face, like a cat cornering its prey.

“So, Agent Lloyd, how do you know Detective Steel?” A strange look came over Lloyd’s face as McCall asked the question more out of amusement than wanting the answer.

“Detective John Steel!” Cassandra Lloyd said in amazement. “Wow! You went back to your old name.”

The three seated detectives looked at one another, blank expressions on their faces.

“Hello, Cassandra,” John Steel said at last. “You’re looking well, and coming up in the world I see.”

She smiled, giving him a sarcastic grin.

As he came closer, she slapped him hard enough to make the others wince in pain, but he just smiled. His cold stare cut right through her. Even with the sunglasses on she could feel the emotion burning from him, so that she hardly needed to see his eyes.

“Ouch!” Tony said in sympathy.

“You don’t think he felt that, do you?” Cassandra said. “Not Mr colder-than-ice Steel!”

McCall could almost relate to what she was saying: it was true, he never really showed emotion as such. Almost as if feelings like that got in the way.

“You died!” Agent Lloyd went on. “I watched you die! You were in that plane when it crashed. So how did you get out, Steel?”

He just shrugged and smiled as he made for the coffee machine.

The three detectives sat open-mouthed, just wishing they had popcorn to complete the feel of watching a film.

“There is always a way out.” Steel’s voice was calm and soft. “And I have never been a fan of dying. I did it once and I didn’t like it much. . It’s really good to see you again, Cassandra.”

Lloyd rushed forwards and kissed him and held him tight. Steel could feel the whole world staring at them and pushed her away with some effort.

“Maybe we should discuss this somewhere a bit more, er, private,” he said, turning and heading for his office via the far door of the refreshment room, with Lloyd close behind him.

The three detectives waited, poised like alley cats for Steel and Lloyd to leave the room before they bolted after them.

Steel opened the door and stood to the side, allowing Cassandra to enter, the smell of her perfume intoxicating as she moved past him slowly. But he never reacted, just stood firm, then let the door close by itself behind him.

“Drink?” he asked, walking over to the drinks cabinet. She stood in the centre of the room for a moment, taking in the decor before moving to the captain’s chair she had spotted behind the desk.

“You know we are working!” He lifted a bottle of water to prove he wasn’t trying to give her a real drink.

“In that case, yes please.”

They both looked over at the door as it burst open, and Tooms and Tony walked in, as if by accident.

“Sorry, this isn’t the men’s room, is it?” Their wit was cut short as they suddenly noticed the office’s layout.

“Oh my—”

“—God.” Tooms finished Tony’s statement as they looked around the room, mouths open in amazement.

“Come on, guys, it’s only an office,” McCall protested. “God, you would have thought they have never been here before.” She joked as if she had herself been there many times before. Tooms and Tony shot her a look of evil jealousy, then glared at Steel.

“She’s just having you on, gents,” John explained. “She saw this for the first time the other day and had the same look of amazement on her face.” Tooms made a
watching you
gesture with his fingers at McCall, who was laughing at their expense.

Steel gestured for everyone to sit down and walked to the smart-board on the wall.

“So what happened, how did you get out?” Cassandra asked as she made herself comfortable in Steel’s chair.

He just shook his head and touched the screen, thereby activating the ‘on’ switch.

“That story will have to wait, we have bigger problems to deal with right now.” The screen showed several file icons on the large bright screen. Steel touched the one that was entitled
Crash.

The file opened to display a series of photographs. The device worked like a giant iPad, and moving his hand he enlarged one of them so that it filled the screen.

The photograph was of the scene but taken from above. The whole area was captured from the corner with the delivery truck to the crash site.

“You have a smart-board!” Tooms declared in shock. “We are using Stone-Age equipment and you have a smart-board!”

McCall slapped Tooms on the back of the head to shut him up as she walked past.

“Focus, will you?” McCall ordered, making Tony smile.

“Okay, we have a bus that somehow crashed, my question is why did it crash?” Steel looked round at the thoughtful expressions of his colleagues.

“Bad weather and bad driving?” Tony threw in.

Steel thought for a second and then shook his head.

“It was just bad luck, the will of the gods—who on earth knows, man? CSU will find that out,” Tooms barked at him, still pissed about the smart-board. “We find out the why, then we find out the who.”

McCall nodded in agreement.

“That’s great,” John Steel agreed, “but we are investigatingtwo murders, not the bus crash.”

She could see he was leading to something: he always had a motive to do something.

“You think they’re related, don’t you?” McCall asked. “You think they may have broken out to kill those people.” She could see the logic behind his thinking.

Steel didn’t say anything he just turned to the others as he stood next to the smart-board. “Okay, so I took this not long after everyone had left so I could get a clear shot without the masses of cops and CSUs. Now what do you see?”

Everyone looked puzzled at the question.

“It’s the crash site, man, what more do you want?” Tooms offered.

Steel shook his head and looked to the heavens for inspiration. “Look closely. What do you see? Mainly on the road.”

Everyone got up and moved towards the screen for a closer look, each straining to be the first to find what Steel was talking about.

“Nah, you got me, man, ain’t nothing there just the tyre tracks and the skid marks,” Tooms said, but Steel grinned at him, as if to tell him something.

“What, the tread marks?” Tooms went on. “Are you serious?”

Steel nodded and opened up the small bottle of water he had placed on the desk. “The reason the tread marks are still visible is because of a high concentration of oil. Did anyone check what the delivery van was carrying?”

McCall shook her head. “No, but CSU still have it as part of the investigation.”

The English detective pointed towards the board. “This was no accident. Someone planned this. That bus was meant to hit that van so the back door could be damaged. Whoever planned this had it down to a science.”

Cassandra Lloyd looked closely at the photograph. Something she saw troubled her. “Whoever did this had massive resources,” she said. “They would have to get that delivery van, bribe a guard.”

“Two guards,” Steel interrupted, making Cassandra look at him angrily.

“How do you figure two guards?” she asked, folding her arms across her chest in a defiant gesture.

“The bus driver. He changed route when there was no need to. Also, why was he driving so fast? Someone had gotten to him along with the guard who locked them down.”

Cassandra smiled and turned back to the board—she had a sudden feeling like it was the old days.

“So we need to check financials on both the bus driver and the missing guard, see if there is a money trail,” Cassandra said, looking at Tony and Tooms.

Tony reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone to read the text he had just received. “CSU want us down there,” Tony said, reading out the message. “They say they may have found something.”

“Well we have got to go see Tina,” McCall showed Steel the message, which made him cringe. “Apparently she has something for us as well.”

“We’d better hurry up then,” John Steel answered. “I have had enough of crazy doctors with sharp objects for a while.”

As he headed out, Lloyd cut him off and put her arms round his neck. Her look was full of passion. “You, sir, owe me dinner and an explanation.”

Steel smiled and nodded slightly. “Fair enough, when this case is done.”

Cassandra gently pressed her full lips up against his, feeling his warmth against her body. “Okay, after the case. So no going on any trips.”

Steel pulled away from her and headed for the door, leaving Lloyd with a big smile on her face.

“Hey, McCall,” she said. “Make sure he doesn’t go anywhere, will you?”

Sam McCall turned to Lloyd. “Yeah well, I don’t think public transport is his thing at the moment. It doesn’t seem to agree with him.” McCall laughed and left the room.

*

Steel and McCall hurried down the white-walled corridors of the morgue towards Tina Franks’s office. Tina’s message had sounded urgent: normally she wouldn’t request someone to come down unless it was absolutely necessary.

Just a couple of lines on a text or a phone call would have been enough for ordinary information, but she wanted to tell them personally how this case had gotten weirder.

As they neared the morgue, Steel stopped McCall by grabbing her arm. “Hang on a minute. Before we go in, did you tell Tina about what just happened?”

McCall’s mouth fell open in a look of disgust. “John Steel, I do not believe you would think that I would do anything so—” And with that she broke away and slammed through the double doors. Steel shook his head and readjusted his sunglasses.

Oh great, this will be interesting
, he thought. As he pushed his way through the double swing doors he saw Tina Franks with her arms folded and a large grin on her face.

“So, I heard someone had an interesting day!” Tina said.

McCall just smiled and stood out of arm’s reach, near to Edward Gibbs’s body.

“So you got any more ladies stashed away there?” Tina joked.

Steel looked up as though he was trying to remember something and counted, using his fingers on both hands.

“Yeah, yeah very funny,” McCall growled, making Steel crack the side of his mouth in a brief smile.

“We ran some tests,” Tina went on, “on your first vic and found something unusual. Someone had dosed him with scopolamine.”