Fightback (13 page)

‘In that case,' whispered Kier, ‘you'd better think of something quick.'

The police officers stopped in front of them, holding the growling dogs by their collars.

‘Don't mind us,' said Kier. ‘We were just leaving.'

‘I don't think so.' The larger policeman studied Kier suspiciously. ‘I don't suppose you'd happen to
know anything about the car out front?'

‘Nope,' said Saskia. ‘Absolutely not.'

The policeman kept his eyes on Kier.

‘Well, that's funny,' he said, ‘because we've been speaking to an old man who said he saw a boy of about your age driving down the street at around seventy miles an hour.'

‘Seventy miles an hour?' said Kier. ‘No
way
. It was sixty-five, tops.'

‘Right,' said the policeman. ‘So it
was
you.'

‘My friend's life was in danger,' Kier replied. ‘What would you have done?'

‘Take no notice of him, Officer,' said Saskia, glancing sharply at Kier. ‘He's still in shock. He doesn't know what he's saying.'

‘Yes, I do,' said Kier. ‘The man who lives here is—'

‘A respectable businessman,' interrupted a voice, and Kier turned to see a dishevelled McIntyre standing behind him. ‘Good evening, Officers.'

The policeman looked him up and down.

‘And who might you be?'

McIntyre pushed past Kier and brushed dirt from his jacket.

‘I am the owner of this house and I found these two hooligans setting fire to my property. And you say they crashed a car into my gate as well?' He sighed and shook his head. ‘I don't know what the
world is coming to, Officer, I really don't. Ah,' he added, turning and raising his hand. ‘Here's someone who can help us clear this up.'

Kier turned to see a tall, wiry police officer walking towards them. He had silver crowns on the shoulders of his uniform. He also had a moustache. For a moment, Kier wondered why he looked so familiar.

Then it dawned on him.

He was looking at the man from the photograph.

‘Chief Superintendent Tyler,' said McIntyre, holding out his hand. ‘So good of you to come.'

Kier watched Tyler nod and shake McIntyre's hand, saw how he was ready to back up all his lies and knew there was no point in trying to explain anything.

‘All right, you two,' said one of the other officers, reaching for his handcuffs. ‘I think you'd better come with me.'

Saskia looked at Kier and then at the police officer.

‘That's not going to happen,' she said.

At the same moment there was a loud explosion, the sound of breaking glass and an orange fireball rolled out of the windows into the courtyard behind them.

McIntyre, Tyler and the police officers ducked and covered their heads.

Kier and Saskia turned and ran.

‘Not that way!' shouted Kier as another police car screeched to a halt outside the gates.

Saskia immediately changed direction and began running towards the trees. As Kier followed, he saw she was heading straight for the van parked next to the wall. Behind him he could hear the spit and crackle of flames, their long shadows flickering eerily across the grass.

‘Over there!' shouted McIntyre, as the dogs barked and pawed at the ground.

Saskia wrenched the van door open, stood on the passenger seat and clambered on to the roof. Kier turned to see a police dog running towards him, ears flat against its head as it sped across the lawn.

Throwing himself into the van, he waited until the dog leapt before kicking the door open again. He was rewarded with a loud metallic clang, followed by a strangled yelp as the dog bounced back on to the grass. Kier grabbed the door frame, swung himself up and somersaulted on to the roof.

‘Wait,' he said as Saskia began climbing towards the broken glass and razor wire. He took off his jacket and threw it on top of the wall.

‘
Now
go,' he told her.

Glancing down, he saw the four men standing on the grass looking up at him.

‘All right, son,' said one of the officers. ‘Don't do anything stupid.'

‘I wasn't planning to,' replied Kier. He stared at Tyler and McIntyre. ‘This isn't over,' he said, ‘not by a long shot.'

Then he turned and scrambled up on to the wall next to Saskia.

‘OK?' she asked.

Kier nodded.

‘Go,' he said.

Saskia took his hand and lowered herself towards the pavement, walking down the wall on the balls of her feet. When Kier's arm was at full stretch, she let go and dropped with a thump. Seeing the police officers turn and run towards the gate, Kier hooked his blazer over the broken glass and jumped after her. There was a tearing sound as the material ripped, but it slowed him enough to ensure he landed in one piece.

‘Keep going!' he shouted, chasing after Saskia as she raced past the gate where the police car was parked.

He heard angry shouts and then the squeal of tyres as the car reversed away from the kerb before accelerating down the street towards them. Another police car appeared at the far end of the road, siren wailing and blue lights flashing. It
screeched to a halt and two more officers jumped out, cutting off their exit.

‘I think we've had it, Kier,' said Saskia, looking around breathlessly. ‘They've got us trapped.'

‘No, they haven't,' said Kier. He turned to see that the dog handlers had slowed right down, believing there was nowhere else for them to run. ‘Quick. In here.'

Grabbing Saskia's hand, he dragged her past the roadworks and into the workmen's shelter. Dropping to his knees, he pulled up a heavy manhole cover and pointed into the darkness.

‘Go,' he whispered. ‘Go, go, go!'

For a moment, Saskia stared at him as though he was crazy. Then, without a word, she stepped on to the top rung of the ladder and disappeared down into the sewer.

The dogs were close now. Kier could hear their low growls and the scratching of their claws across the pavement.

‘Where did they go?' someone shouted.

Dropping down into the hole, Kier slid the cover over his head and the sounds from the street instantly disappeared, as if someone had pulled the plug on a radio. They were replaced by the faint shuffle of Saskia's footsteps in the darkness below.

‘It
stinks
down here,' she called, her voice
echoing around the cavernous space. ‘Where are we anyway?'

Kier screwed up his nose and smiled.

‘Right where we always are,' he said. ‘But try not to step in too much of it.'

By the time they found an exit hole several hours later, Kier was down to his last few matches. As he cautiously stuck his head out into the road, he saw that the sky was starting to lighten in the east.

‘Look,' he said, taking hold of Saskia's hand and pulling her out. ‘I think it's going to be a beautiful day.'

Later, as they sat in a coffee bar and watched the city coming alive, Saskia said, ‘I'm sorry we didn't get to put McIntyre away, Kier. I know how much you wanted it. But that's just life, isn't it? I guess you can't win them all.'

‘I guess not,' said Kier.

He took a sip of espresso and smiled.

‘What?' said Saskia.

‘Nothing,' he said. ‘Nothing at all.'

Then he dialled the number he'd got from directory enquiries and his smile widened.

‘Who are you ringing?' Saskia asked.

‘Just an old friend,' he said.

The sergeant on reception wasn't too helpful at first, but when Kier filled him in on the details of when they'd last met, he went and fetched Constable Doyle pretty quickly.

‘I'm phoning to apologise,' Kier explained, winking at Saskia, ‘for knocking you out and stealing your police car.'

There was a long silence on the other end of the phone, then Doyle asked, ‘So what's your plan? Are you going to turn yourself in?'

‘Not exactly, no.'

‘Then why are you ringing?'

‘Like I said, I wanted to apologise. But I've also got some information which you might find useful.'

‘I see.' The tone of Doyle's voice suggested that he thought this highly doubtful. ‘And what kind of information might that be?'

‘Last night there was an incident over at The Beeches. A car crash, explosion, that kind of thing. Couple of kids causing problems for a local businessman apparently.'

‘Is that so?'

‘That's what I heard. Poor guy was just minding his own business. Running his little car empire and importing a few doors.'

‘Listen, son, I'm a busy man.' Kier heard the
exasperation creeping into the officer's voice. ‘What's your point exactly?'

‘My point,' said Kier, ‘is that he's got a van full of doors you might want to take a closer look at.'

‘And why would I want to do that?'

‘Because it's my belief that they're all soaked in cocaine.'

‘Your
belief
? Oh yeah, OK. And you expect me to take your word for that, do you?'

‘Not really, no. That's why I'm going to send you a package with some wood shavings in it, so you can take a look for yourself. All you need to do is get them analysed. And if you find out I'm telling the truth, then you might want to give this McIntyre guy a hand to strip a few of his doors down.'

‘Why are you telling me this?' asked Doyle.

‘Because you tried to help me, remember?' said Kier. ‘And now I'm trying to help you. But I'd keep it between you and the anti-corruption unit until you've got some evidence in the bag.'

‘What do you mean?'

‘I mean you were right when you said Chief Superintendent Tyler is only interested in fixing his crime figures. And believe me, he doesn't care how he does it.'

‘Wait. Are you suggesting he's involved in this?'

‘I'm doing more than suggesting it. I've got a
recording to prove it. Your Chief Superintendent is in this up to his neck.'

‘That's a very serious allegation,' said Doyle, lowering his voice. ‘Why should I trust you?'

‘Because, believe it or not,' said Kier, ‘we're both on the same side.'

He closed the phone and smiled.

‘You know what?' he said. ‘I think we've got him. I think our friend McIntyre is finally going down.'

‘I don't get it,' said Saskia, shaking her head. ‘How do you know about the doors?'

Kier poured a tube of sugar into his espresso and took a sip.

‘I thought to myself, “Why does a guy like McIntyre go to all the trouble of importing exotic doors only to grind them up into sawdust?” Then, when I smelt those chemicals, it got me thinking.'

‘About what?'

‘About solvents. Highly flammable ones. Probably not a good idea to chuck a match on them, come to think of it.'

Saskia frowned. ‘What are you talking about, Kier?'

‘All right, listen. McIntyre knows he can get cheap cocaine in Colombia and sell it for a fat profit in the UK, right?'

‘Right.'

‘But he also knows that customs officers are going to be paying special attention to anything that arrives from that part of the world. So he arranges to have some doors delivered. When they arrive at customs, the officers X-ray them for hidden drugs but can't find any. Although they're suspicious, there's nothing they can do. So they let them through and McIntyre gets clean away with it.'

‘Away with
what
?'

‘With a whole shipment of cocaine. Don't you see? The cocaine is dissolved in liquid, which is then soaked into the doors, so that when they go through customs there's no sign of it. But when McIntyre's gang get hold of it, they shave the wood off and drop it in a solvent, which dissolves the cocaine again. Then all they need to do is evaporate the liquid and they're left with one hundred per cent pure cocaine. It's just simple science – separating liquids and solids, same as we do at school.'

Saskia shook her head in amazement.

‘That's incredible.' She smiled. ‘Bit of a science swot at school, were we?'

‘Yeah.' Kier paused. ‘You know, I've been thinking a lot about that lately.'

‘About school?'

‘About that, and about something my dad said to me … you know, before all this happened. He told
me to find out what matters and go after it the best way I can.'

‘Well, you did, didn't you? That's exactly what you did do.'

‘Yeah, I know, but …'

‘But what?'

‘But that was just something I had to do, Saskia. And now it's done, I don't want to live in a world where people are trying to kill each other all the time. I want to go back.'

‘Back where?'

‘To my old life. I want to go back to school. Maybe then I'll find out what really matters.'

‘But you can't, can you? Not after this.'

‘Why not?'

Saskia put her arms on the table and leaned forward, lowering her voice.

‘Because you're too good at it, Kier. Jackson won't want to lose you.'

‘Well, he's going to have to. I can't do it any more, Saskia. I just want to be ordinary again.'

Saskia squeezed his hand.

‘Trust me,' she said, ‘ordinary is one thing you'll never be.'

Then she got up and walked into the cafe.

It was twenty minutes before Kier realised that she
wasn't coming back. As he went to pay the bill, the waitress handed him a folded napkin with his name written on it in blue ink.

‘That girl you were with,' she said. ‘She left it for you.'

Kier opened it and smiled.

Inside Saskia had written:

Sellotaped beneath it was a gift card from Harrods.