Kindred Intentions (20 page)

“One would say he is surprised to see you.”
Amelia pushed her gun into the man’s side, to draw his attention. “Actually, it
seems like he’s seen a ghost.” And she laughed.

Goldberg narrowed his eyes. It seemed he tried
to focus on the person in front of him. “And who the fuck are you?” A flash of
comprehension then shone in his face. “The policewoman!”

“I’m afraid the prediction about our imminent
death, as ensured by Jeff Matthews’s men, was a bit exaggerated.” Mike turned
back to the steering wheel and placed the weapon in the door storage pocket.

“Oh, yeah,” she remarked. “Now we should go
for a drive, shouldn’t we, lawyer?”

The car pulled away from the pavement and
entered the traffic.

“What are you planning?” Goldberg’s arrogance
was lightly veiled by a hint of uncertainty.

“We’ll take you with us for now,” Mike said,
while driving. “And we’ll tell you what you can do for us, for starters.”

The lawyer loosened his collar and laid back.
He emitted a faint sigh. He was still nervous, but must have understood that,
as long as they wanted something from him, they would keep him alive. “I must
say I admire you.” He was using a paternal tone. If it wasn’t for the sweat
dripping from his temple, he could have appeared as if he was at ease in the
situation. “You’ve survived Matthews and his men, and now you’ve got to me.
You’ve got balls.”

“It wasn’t so difficult.” Mike eyed them
through the rear-view mirror. “Your driver is a creature of habit, he always
takes the same routes. I’ve been watching him for a while. When I work for
someone, I make sure I can reach them at any moment.” He sneered.

“And you, officer.” The lawyer had addressed
Amelia. “I’m surprised to see you here, in these circumstances.”

“Haven’t you seen the TV this morning?” She
was having fun, goading him with her weapon, getting an agitated reaction,
which the man tried to conceal. “It seems that Officer Amelia Jennings is
dead.”

Goldberg cleared his throat in a forced way.
Apparently he hadn’t welcomed the news very well. “So,” he exclaimed
resolutely. “What do you want from me?”

“If I was to base my actions just on what I
want, my first instinct would be to kill you.” The hard voice of Mike caused
the other man’s lips to tremble. “But perhaps we could come to an agreement,
couldn’t we?”

The lawyer swallowed again. “Yes … sure. What
… should I do?”

Amelia laid the briefcase on her legs and with
her free hand pressed the opening button, but the mechanism seemed locked.
“Would you mind opening the lock?”

“Sure …” The man moved forward to grab the
briefcase, but she pushed him back with her weapon.

“Slowly, no sudden movements.”

The car slowed down and halted at a traffic light,
while Goldberg’s trembling fingers were fiddling with the combination. “Here it
is.” The opening clicked and he backed off again.

“I think I deserve some compensation for the
man-hunt I had to endure this last day.” Mike’s tone was serious, but Amelia
couldn’t help smiling.

There wasn’t much inside the briefcase. A laptop
and a tablet were laid on top of a few dossiers contained in a folder. She
considered which of the two would be more suitable and decided to look at the
first one. She took it out and gave it to the lawyer, who accepted it with
little conviction. He was alternating between looking at her, and the man at
the steering wheel on the seat in front of hers.

“For instance, ten million pounds, the same
amount you used as a bait to lead me into a trap.”

“I …” Goldberg was almost gasping. “I don’t
have that amount of funds available.” He shook his computer with both hands. “Do
you really believe I can wire transfer such an amount so easily? The money
wasn’t mine, it belonged to my client—” He paused, perhaps realising he’d said
something wrong.

“We’ll talk about your client later,” Mike
stepped in. “As for you, we know full well you have a secret account in
Switzerland
. I’m sure you have that
amount.” Amelia pulled out a sheet from her jacket pocket and handed it to the
lawyer. “My partner is providing you with the bank routing number of my account
in the Caymans. You won’t need more than a few minutes to carry out the
transaction.” The car moved again and entered a wider road, where the vehicle
travelled more freely.

More pale than ever, Goldberg took the sheet
of paper and opened his computer, resigned to the situation. “How can I be sure
that after giving you the money you won’t kill me anyway?” It took some minutes
before the device was ready to use.

“You can’t. That’s the beauty of it.”

This time Amelia laughed.

“Fuck …” the lawyer murmured, concentrating on
the screen. The LED of the USB connection device lit up. He brought an icon to
the foreground and typed in some codes. Then he turned his attention to the
sheet. The operation took some time, during which he checked out of the window.
There were so many cars out there, so many people. He was surely thinking of
asking for help, but the dark glass made him invisible from outside. And anyway
the gun in his side had to be a sufficient deterrent to make him set aside the
idea.

An animation appeared on the screen, together
with some writing: ‘Transaction in progress.’ It went on for a while, then it
changed to ‘Transaction completed.’ Amelia smiled and closed the computer with
a slap. Goldberg had just time to pull away. “It’s done,” she stated, as she
put the device back in the briefcase.

There was a beep. Mike pulled out his mobile
phone from a pocket and read the confirmation message from his bank, as he
drove. A real public danger. Amelia laughed under her breath. She was concerned
about him using the phone while driving and not about the corpse on the
passenger’s seat. She’d got her sense of irony back. It was a good sign.

“Good,” Mike commented.

“Let me go now.” Goldberg didn’t sound at all
confident that they would listen to him.

“Why, don’t you like our company?” she said,
mocking him. She put her hand in her pocket again, but this time she pulled out
a plastic tie. “Put it around your left wrist and then around the support up
there.” She pointed at the handle over the door. “And fasten it tight.”

“What do you want to do to me?” He took the
tie and looked at it, then he raised his gaze to her again.

“We still want to talk to you, but we’d prefer
that you don’t leave the car.”

“You want to kill me, I know.”

“I suggest you don’t irritate my partner,”
Mike stepped in. He was checking them in the rear-view mirror. “She’s
particularly bloodthirsty today.” It was supposed to be a joke, but his voice
was too serious. Then he accelerated.

“What’s happening?” Amelia leant forward and
threw the briefcase onto the bodyguard’s corpse. It slipped down to the foot
well.

“Someone’s following us.”

She turned to look behind and recognised a
blue vehicle. It was travelling in the fast lane too, but was keeping a certain
distance. Oh, sure, how could she have forgotten? “It must be
Monroe
’s squad; they keep this bastard
under surveillance. I hadn’t thought about it.”

“It’s not that bad.” Mike slowed down again,
queuing behind another car. “But we must be ready for later.”

“Later?” The lawyer had spoken. He’d checked
through the rear window too, but he was addressing her now. “What will happen
later?”

“You must tell me which client ordered the
murders, including mine,” Mike said, resuming a calm tone and ignoring his
question.

“I … can’t reveal his identity …” Goldberg was
more and more agitated. He was also growing insensitive to the menaces of
Amelia’s gun. “I’m a dead man, if I speak.”

Annoyed by his reticence and by the impression
she’d lost her
touch
, she raised the gun and this time pointed it at his
temple. “You’re a dead man now, if you don’t speak.”

“So pull the fucking trigger!” the lawyer
shouted out without any apparent dread for the situation he was in. “Because,
if I tell you, he will kill my whole family.”

“I don’t like it; they’re too close,” Mike
said, distracting her from her prisoner.

Amelia looked back again. Yes, they were too
close. “Will they have found the driver?”

“Fuck off!” The lawyer hurled himself at her
and seized her wrist.

What did he think he was going to do?

The car accelerated again and started to
overtake the other vehicles both on the right and on the left. For a moment she
found Goldberg on her. He was stronger than her. She felt her head pressing
against the window.

The gun went off.

Mike counter-steered and the lawyer was pushed
against the opposite door, releasing Amelia’s arm. Fuck it. She aimed the
weapon and shot. Once, twice, three times. Goldberg’s lifeless body fell
forward.

“I’m sorry, I know you still wanted to
interrogate him.”

“Ah …” Mike commented. The traffic light in
front of him had changed to red, but he didn’t brake. “Well, he wouldn’t have
spoken anyway.” He steered without slowing down. A screeching of tyres
accompanied the ninety-degree curve.

The car tailed out a bit, making Amelia’s head
hit the upright. “Oh God …” Another bump on her head wasn’t really necessary.
She’d already got too many.

“As soon as I stop, cross the road and get
away as fast as possible.” Mike braked and the vehicle came to a grinding halt.
“Go!” he ordered. “I’ll find you.”

Amelia opened her door, got out, and then
closed it. She ran across the road, but once on the other side she slowed her
pace, placing her armed hand under the jacket she was holding. Okay, she was
just a pedestrian, nothing more. She proceeded with calm, walking near the wall
of the building running along the street. She reached the corner of an alley
and turned. She cast a fleeting glance behind her, and since she couldn’t see
anybody, she started running.

The roar of a sudden explosion echoed between
the walls. Amelia bent down, as she felt the wind created by the blast reaching
her from behind, but she didn’t stop.

She had only one purpose now: getting away
from there before the area was invaded by the police.

People of every kind were looking out of the
windows and doors, but she continued to go on, ignoring the onlookers who had
started moving in the opposite direction. She didn’t know those streets well;
she tried to head as far as possible from the explosion. The more the minutes
passed, the more the streets became deserted.

Who knew where Mike was? He had surely moved
away to a safe distance, before activating the explosive device. He would find
her. He just had to follow her position on the GPS from the mobile phone he had
given her one hour earlier, when they had paid a visit to one of his
refuges
in the city to get what they needed. It was a beautiful flat and Amelia had
been sorry to leave it so soon. She was so tired. She’d just slept for a
handful of hours that night, and now that the tension was loosening up,
drowsiness was creeping over her. Her eyelids had become heavy. She was looking
forward to the time he reached her so that they could get away and she could
rest.

A constant shuffling interrupted her thoughts.
She was in an alley running along the back of a block of flats. She had nothing
to fear. It had to be just a pedestrian. The weird thing was that the noise was
getting closer, although she wasn’t walking slowly at all.

It was just a sensation, a pure instinctive
reaction on her part. She glanced behind her.

“Hey, you!” the man called, speeding up as he
came towards her.

Monroe
!

Amelia started running.

“Stop! Police!” His shoes thundered as he gave
chase.

No, not him, no. She couldn’t let him
recognise her, least of all let him catch her. She dug deeper into her
remaining energies. In spite of her tiredness, her body was accustomed to
constant training and it responded, pushing her forward. Her motivation was so
strong it gave her the strength she needed. She could leave him behind.
Monroe
was twenty years older than her and
had a rotund belly as proof of his non-existent fitness regime. She smiled,
hearing his steps becoming weaker and farther away.

The lane bent to the left. She could do
nothing but follow it.

In horror, she stopped. A wall closed off the
opposite end of the alley. Oh, fuck.

She resumed running. She had to find a way
out, maybe a door, some stairs. There had to be one. She had a gun, she could
use it to make her way.

“Stop or I’ll shoot!”

She halted as she heard the intimidation. She
knew the detective wouldn’t really shoot at her, given that she had no way out,
unless attacked she him. She was really in a trap.

Keeping her back to him, she stretched out her
arms. One was holding a jacket, the other a gun.