Silent Night (Sam Archer 4) (31 page)

For the first time since they’d met she smiled at him. He smiled back.

‘What the hell happened?’ Josh asked.

Archer rubbed his head. ‘We went into the lab. Someone had placed an electronic bug on the cabinet and taken the bio suits. We triggered the countdown when Maddy entered the keypad code and the doors locked behind us. If it wasn’t for the freezer, we’d be dead.’

‘Someone was trying to kill you.’

‘Not me,’ Archer said, nodding at Maddy. ‘Her.’

Josh went to speak, but spotted Shepherd walk out of the building. He saw them at the ambulance and walked over swiftly, arriving outside the doors.

‘You’re awake,’ he said to Archer. ‘Good. Are you OK?’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘I heard what happened.’ He looked over his shoulder at Maddy. ‘Someone wants her in a coffin.’

‘Where’s Dr Kruger sir?’ Josh asked.

‘I just called him. He’s on his way down here. Until this is over, both he and the woman stay with us at all times.’

‘Where’s Marquez?’

‘She’s inside, talking with the guard who was manning the desk.’

Rubbing his chest, Archer was starting to feel better. The headache was beginning to pass. Swinging his legs off the bed, he struggled to his feet, shrugging off the blankets. Josh grabbed his shoulder as he swayed.

‘Take your time,’ he said.

‘We don’t have time.’

‘Who came in this evening?’ Marquez asked the reception security guard.

The man shrugged. ‘Anyone who works here has a key-card. They can come and go as they please. Visitors have to sign in and out on the call-sheet. It’s on this board.’

He passed her a clipboard and she scanned the page. The list was long.

‘Busy for a Saturday.’

‘Always is. Upstairs we’ve got legal firms, office space, multi-million-dollar corporations, real estate agencies, bio-chemistry labs. This is
New York
. Saturday night here is like Monday morning to the rest of the world.’

Archer, Josh and Shepherd had just arrived beside her. She turned and saw Archer was back on his feet. She gave him a quick smile then looked back at the desk guard.

‘Any of them catch your eye?’

‘Not really. Girl with a nice ass came in. That’s about it.’

‘Anyone come in for Flood Microbiology tonight?’

‘No one who signed in.’

‘And this is the only entrance into and out of the building?’ Marquez asked.

‘Yes ma’am.’

Archer, Marquez and Shepherd scrutinised the sign-in board. Josh thought for a moment, then pulled a piece of paper from his pocket.

‘This is a Hail Mary, but do you recognise any of these people?’ he asked, unfolding it and showing the four mug shots to the man.

The guard’s eyes suddenly widened.

‘Wait. Yeah. Yeah, I do.’

The team stared at him. The guard grabbed the sheet and tapped it. ‘I recognise this guy. He was in here tonight.’

He was pointing at Finn Sway’s photograph.

‘Are you sure?’ Shepherd asked.

‘Positive. We talked about football.’

The team scanned the check-in board but there was no Sway anywhere.

‘He must have signed in?’ Shepherd said.

The guard shook his head. ‘He swiped his way in. Like I said, only way to do that is with a valid key card.’

‘Did you see him leave?’ Marquez asked.

The guard nodded. ‘Yeah. He was only here for about ten minutes.’

‘What time?’

The guard thought for a moment. ‘Would have been 10:15 or so. The second half of the Giants game was going on.’

‘Hang on,’ Marquez said. ‘You’re imagining this. It’s impossible.’

‘No I’m not.’

Marquez shook her head, pointing at Sway’s mug shot. ‘This man couldn’t have been here. We had him in handcuffs downtown at that time.’

The guard shook his head, adamantly. ‘He was in this building, Detective. I’m positive.’

‘Impossible.’

‘No. You’re both right,’ Archer said.

‘How?’ Marquez asked. Then she thought for a moment and looked at Archer. ‘Oh shit.’

‘What?’ Shepherd asked, confused. ‘How could he be in two places at once?’

‘Because there are two Sways, sir,’ Archer said. ‘Finn Sway has a brother.’

At his girlfriend’s place thirty one blocks downtown, Reese Sway had almost finished packing up his stuff. Or her stuff, to be exact. He was working fast but methodically, going for the most valuable things. Jewellery, money in her bedside drawer, a gold watch. Finn had promised that they would both be millionaires by the end of next week, but Reese had only made it this far by being good at what he did.

And anyway, a grifter stays a grifter, no matter how much money he has.

He and Finn were born three years apart. Before Reese was born, Finn and their parents lived in the middle of Roller, but half-way through her second pregnancy the boy’s mother had found out that their dad was screwing other women in town. She’d packed her stuff, got in her car and driven away, leaving three- year old Finn behind with his cheating asshole of a father.

Reese had grown up moving from place to place, leap-frogging from town to town. Eventually his mother had all but given up, living in a trailer in
North Carolina
and spending her unemployment on alcohol and drugs. When he was fifteen he’d had enough; he packed his shit and left. Two months later, he’d called his grandma and found out that his mother had overdosed on Oxycontin and died.

The moment he’d left home, Reese had been forced to fend for himself. He bounced from homeless shelters to subways and bus stations. A few weeks after he’d first walked out he’d been sitting in a park in Charlotte in the middle of the afternoon, the same bench where’d he slept the previous night, hungry and tired. A nineteen year old blond girl called Christina had sat down beside him. They’d got talking, and he’d given her his story.

But rather than walk away, which he’d been expecting, the girl had been horrified at what had happened to him. She took Reese home and luckily for him, her parents were equally kind-hearted. They’d let him stay in their spare room, fed him and bought him some new clothes from the local store outlet. After countless nights sleeping rough on park benches and under bridges, he lay there between the soft sheets and suddenly realised he had something that other bums didn’t have.

Women were attracted to him.

He’d humoured the family, sensing Christina had taken more than just a passing interest in him. That instinct was justified when she snuck into his room late at night about two weeks into his stay. But after a while the situation started to feel claustrophobic. Reese hadn’t grown up in a family environment and he sure as hell didn’t need one now. He didn’t care about anyone but himself and after they’d taken him to church one Sunday he’d realised enough was enough. So, just under a month into his stay at the family’s residence, he’d slid open the bedroom window and headed for the first train out of town.

But not before he’d cleaned the house out of as many valuables as he could carry.

And that’s where his grifting began. Conning became a game, one he was very good at. And the better he got, the more money he made. Given his youth, people underestimated him. He’d lost count of how many women he’d ripped off using a variety of routines and set-ups. Often it was as easy as going home with a girl from a bar, then robbing her blind the moment she fell asleep. He’d always skip town before anyone realised what had happened or had a chance to call the cops.

However, something his mother had said just before he left home had always lingered at the back of his mind. He’d tried to ignore it, but it kept coming back. He knew piss-all about his father but one night, in a drunken, drug-induced haze, his mother told him that he had an elder brother.

Apparently the guy lived in a town called Roller, down in
Texas
towards the border with
Mexico
.

Eventually, two days after his twenty first birthday and with money in his pocket from a successful rip-off, Reese had made a decision. He’d booked a flight to
San Antonio
then taken a bus out to Roller, arriving just after 9pm. He’d dumped his bag at the only motel in town, then gone to the only bar for a beer. He was planning to have a few drinks, get his head down then ask around and find his brother the next day but the man he was there to find had walked in less than an hour after Reese, with some of his friends. Looking up from his Bud, Reese had done a double take. The guy was the spitting image of him. He’d stepped off his stool and walked over to him, apprehensive.

The man had seen Reese then done a double take himself. The two men spent a few seconds staring at each other. It was like looking in a mirror.

The night that followed was still the most enjoyable of Reese’s young life. He’d been apprehensive on the journey down there, wondering if his brother would acknowledge him, whether he’d turn out to be an asshole or if he was even still here. But he needn’t have worried; they’d spent the entire night getting drunk and catching up on twenty one years of history. It turned out their father was dead too. After he put all his money in a bad investment four years ago he’d drunk a bottle of Jack, put a shotgun in his mouth and eaten a shell. Finn had enjoyed hearing the tales about his brother’s grifting, how he conned his way from place to place and ripped people off.

In return, Finn told him about his work. Six months ago he’d joined a local right-wing chapter called
The Stuttgart Soldiers
. He’d done six months upstate and had been cell mates with one of their members.
They aren’t just Nazi dumbasses
Finn had said, seeing the look on his brother’s face. This was a business and a civic responsibility, taking the fight to domestic enemies. Reese had assumed all they did was burn books and run non-whites out of town, but Finn told him how they took guns and dope back and forth across the borders. They patrolled the area in trucks, searching for immigrants and then removing them from the land,
taking back their country one wetback at a time
.

Interested, but too self-centred to be concerned with other people’s issues, Reese had made the right noises then spent the rest of the night drinking whiskey and having a great time with Finn and his friends. They had all welcomed him as family. More so than anyone else ever had.

Two days later, Reese had bid Finn farewell but had a new outlook on life. He had a brother, some family he actually cared about and who gave a shit about him in return. In the five years since that night he and Finn had stayed in constant touch. Victims of the young conman assumed that he only cared about one thing: himself. But that wasn’t true. He’d do anything for his big brother.

Which is exactly what he’d done tonight.

Reese had been in
New Jersey
for the past three months, his meagre savings dwindling fast as he rented a motel room over in
Elizabeth
. He was working on a girl he’d met at a bar in Midtown who had a husband fighting the Taliban and who was bored and lonely. He’d put in some solid groundwork, eventually winning her over, but it had been a lot of effort.

Then a week ago he’d received a call from Finn.

He was coming to
New York
. Reese was surprised and delighted. He’d asked him why, but Finn wouldn’t reveal anything over the phone. He said he’d tell him in person.

And he had. Earlier today he’d asked Reese to meet him at a lab complex in
New Jersey
. He’d ridden a taxi over there, then taken a few moments to shake hands with Finn’s crew, Wicks and Drexler, two of the people he’d hung out with that night in Roller when he’d first met his big brother. Finn had then explained about the virus and what he and Bobby were planning to do with it.

However, he said there was a problem, which is why Reese was there.

Finn was due to meet with a so-called buyer later that night but had a feeling it was a set up. However, he wasn’t going to pass up the chance of getting his hands on $2 million. The plan was to stake the bar out, watching for any pigs who might be undercover. Finn would set up with a rifle nearby. If the bar was kosher, he had Drexler in the club. She’d approach the man, tell him to transfer the $2 mil via wire transfer then once payment was confirmed, pass over a fake vial. The guy would never know it wasn’t the virus; he couldn’t exactly open it and test it in the club. And if it was a trap, Finn would kill him. But given that he had eyes and ears on him everywhere, Finn needed a solid alibi. And that was where Reese came in.

Finn had asked him to go to a Starbucks at 10pm on the nose, buy a drink, make himself visible on camera, hang about for a few moments and then leave. Reese couldn’t have been more willing to help. Anything that was a con or put one over the cops was his bread and butter.
What about our clothes?
Reese had asked. Finn said they’d stop at a retail store on the way to
Manhattan
and buy a matching set.