The Murder Exchange (39 page)

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suggest that he'd taken an injury. So I kept going,
charging through the trees down the other side of
the hill, feeling that terrible exhilaration danger
always brings, even though it was tempered by
another, far more worrying thought. What the fuck
had happened to Joe?

The back of the van was open and the engine
running when I came out of the trees and onto the
roid. I threw the holdall inside and jumped in after
it. Tugger was already inside, but there was no sign
of Joe.

'What the fuck happened, Max?' he demanded,
still clutching the M-16. What the fuck went wrong?'

'I don't know/ I panted between breaths, finding
if difficult to think. 'Somehow Holtz fucked us up,
uui Christ knows how. We had everything planned
down to a tee.'

'Do you think they got Joe?'

'I don't know.'

There were a lot of them. They could easily have
taken him out.'

I leant out the back door and looked up towards
the trees. Nothing moved up there. I punched Joe's
number into the mobile. It rang. Five times, six,
seven. No answer. I kept staring at the trees. No sign.
No answer. Eight rings, nine. He would have picked
up by now if he was all right. The longer we stayed
there the more dangerous our predicament became.

'We've got to move, Max. They could be on us
any minute. And the Old Bill could have been
called by now. That was some fucking gun battle in
there.'

Ten rings, eleven, twelve. Still nothing. Tugger

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was right, I knew he was. But to leave, to desert my
mate. It was a big call to make. We'd agreed to meet
back at the farmhouse if it became impossible for
any one of us to make the rendezvous, but still I
was reluctant to make the decision to move.

Thirteen, fourteen.

'Come on, Max, we're soldiers. We can't stop
everything because one man's missing, you know
that. We're endangering the whole operation by
staying here. Come on! Think about it!'

'What the fuck's going on in the back there?'
came Kalinski's muffled but frantic voice. 'Let's get
out of here!'

Fifteen, sixteen. I cursed, then closed up the back
doors, knowing I had no choice. I leant over and
banged the panel twice. 'All right, go!'

Kalinski hit the accelerator like he had lead boots 9
on and we were on our way in a screech of tyres.

As we drove, I holstered my gun, wiped sweat
from my brow and, with a deep breath, opened the
holdall, wondering exactly what was going to be in
there.

It was full. Crammed full with tightly packed
bundles of used fifty-pound notes. So Holtz had been
genuine. Which begged a major fucking question.

Why had they started shooting?

Gallan

I had a takeaway curry that night. Chicken tikka
masala, pilau rice, two poppadoms and an
accompaniment of sag aloo. I knew I wouldn't

364

finish it all, that's a lot of food, but I thought I'd at
least give it a try. What I couldn't eat, I'd have cold
tomorrow. I'd also purchased a four-pack of Fosters
and rented a video. It might have been a Saturday
night and I might have been on my own but I was
determined to enjoy myself. The lounge was comfortable,
the telly - a twenty-eight-inch Sorry
widescreen bought on hire purchase - was on, and
all the worries of the world had been relegated to
beyond my front door.

I was sitting on the sofa in my dressing gown,
warming up for the video by watching a Denis
Nordern pastiche of out-takes and bloopers on ITV,
and was just about to tuck into the food when my
mobile rang. It was ten to nine. I thought about
Laving it. I was hungry and I was sure it could
wait, but habit got the better of me. I've always
been the curious type. I put down my food, went
over to the kitchen top, and picked it up.

'John? Asif Malik here.' He sounded breathless,
and the line wasn't too good.

I walked out of the kitchen with the phone to my
ear and back into the lounge. 'Asif, how are you?'

'Not good. I suppose you haven't heard the
news, then?'

'What?'

'Stefan Holtz. He's been shot, up in Epping
Forest. That's where I am now. It looks like whoever
kidnapped Krys got Stefan out of that fortified
house of his, lured him here, and blew him away.'

I was shocked but not sorry. 'So, it looks h'ke
some sort of takeover, then?'

The don't know,' said Malik. That's what we think,

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but there's absolutely no intelligence coming from
any quarter that gives us a suggestion as to who's
behind it.'

'Will his death make your job any easier?'

Malik managed a humourless laugh. 'I doubt it.
Now they'll all be fighting over the scraps. It means
we've probably got to end up watching ten big
villains instead of one. It never gets easier, John,
you know that. Now, before I forget. This Dagmar
Holdings--'

'I feel bad hassling you about them when you've
got so much else on.'

'Sure you do. To be frank, I don't know how
much help I'm going to be. They are a company
suspected of links with the Holtzes but no major
associate of theirs sits on their board, so it's going
to be extremely difficult to connect Dagmar to
individuals, unless you can lean on the board
members, see what they know.'

'But they won't be inside players?'

There are three people listed as being on the
board. They'll all be known to the Holtzes, but no,
as far as we're aware, they're not inside players. But
they might be worth talking to. I've got their
addresses if you want them.'

I went back into the kitchen and grabbed a pen
and paper from one of the drawers. 'I do. Thanks.'

Malik read out the name and address of the
chairman, then the managing director. When he
said the name of the company secretary, I froze.
'Are you sure that's the name?'

'Definitely,' said Malik.

I took the address, thanked him, then rang off. I

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looked around, then found the statement of
accounts on Dagmar Holdings I'd brought home
the previous night. Then I checked the surnames
and first initials of the board members, listed at the
bottom of the first page. Malik was dead right. How
the hell had I missed that?

I looked at the address he'd given me. It might
lead to nothing but I knew I was going to have to
give the place a visit.

I looked at my watch again. Too late now. I'd go
in the morning.

Iversson

,, hichever way you want to read it, it was a setup/
I said, looking at the other three in turn.

We were standing round the kitchen table, all
grim-faced, the holdall containing the money open
in front of us. There was no sign of Joe. The clock on
the wall above the cooker said that it was five to
nine. Outside, it was raining even harder than it
had been earlier.

'It had to be a set-up. How the fuck did Holtz get
all those people to the drop point without some sort
of inside knowledge that it was going to be where
it was? There were at least three other shooters
there, minimum, and probably more, because
somehow they managed to take out Joe as well. So
someone fucking talked.'

'Not necessarily,' said Tugger. 'They could have
put a tracking device on his car, something that
helped them locate it/

367

'No way. They were on us within minutes of
Holtz arriving. If they'd been tracking the car
they'd never have had a chance of getting into
position in that length of time. I don't care what
anyone says, they were already there. And the way
Holtz was talking to me, it sounded like he knew
his men were in the vicinity. He was way too cocky
for a man delivering a ransom.'

Teah, but you said yourself he was shocked
when the shooting started/ said Tugger. 'I mean,
Christ, they shot him, didn't they?'

'But it was you who fired first.'

'There was some fucking bloke creeping up on
me with a gun! What the fuck was I supposed to
do? Wave to him?'

'Shit,' said Johnny, who was having difficulty
keeping his eyes off the money. 'I can't fucking
believe this. Do you think they popped him by
accident when they were trying to shoot you?'

'Fuck knows/ I said. 'Maybe.' I turned to
Kalinski. 'No-one followed him into the car park,
right?' He glared at me, then shook his head firmly.
'And you drove out when he left and no-one was
following him then?'

'I'm no fucking fool/ he snarled. 'I know what
I'm doing. I followed him and there was no other
car, and no other people with him. When he turned
off the main road, he turned off on his own.'

'Well then, they were already there. There's no
other explanation, is there?'

'No-one rucking talked/ said Kalinski firmly.

"Then you're going to have to explain how the
shooters got there that fast. So far, you haven't.'

368

The don't have to explain nothing.'

'Fuck it, Max/ said Tugger in exasperation. 'It
could have happened. Of course it could. It doesn't
take a huge great battle plan to arrive, advance up
both sides of a clearing so they're flanking their
boss, and confront us. And what's the alternative?
That one of us was talking to them? Who? It wasn't
Joe. Christ knows what's happened to him, but it
doesn't look good. It wasn't me. I'd never even
heard of Stefan fucking Holtz before last week. And
Kalinski here ... hardly. Holtz's people murdered
his brother.' Kalinski grunted in agreement. 'And
Johnny. You had to virtually pressgang him to get
him involved. If someone talked, that only leaves you .'

Or your missus,' said Kalinski.

'She didn't know any of the details,' I snapped. I
didn't like the way this conversation was going.

'Are you sure?' Tugger sounded suspicious.

'Of course I'm fucking sure. I never told her anything
about the drop-off, where it was going to be,
how we were going to do it. So leave her out of it.'

'She might have overheard you talking,' said
Kalinski accusingly. 'You know what women are
like. I had a bird once--'

'No way. No fucking way. You're right up the
wrong tree. I was always careful to keep her out of
all the planning, and that's the God's honest truth.'

'Well, that doesn't leave us with anyone, does it?'
said Tugger.

I stopped and exhaled loudly. Tugger was right,
of course, there wasn't really anyone who could
have talked, but I still wasn't convinced. Something

369

had happened out there, something that hadn't
been planned for either by us or Stefan Holtz, and
somebody somewhere knew a lot more than they
were letting on. I looked at them each in turn, trying *
to keep the deep suspicion I felt off my face. They
all looked back with various expressions: Kalinski
glowering; Johnny nervous; Tugger calm but
concerned.

'We may as well finish off the boy downstairs/ * I
said Kalinski. 'He's no use to us or anyone now.' 5|

'No way,' I said. "This whole thing's been fucked
up enough as it is without us adding another
reason for the Holtzes or the cops to come after us.
He can't recognize anyone, we've got the money, so
we keep our side of the bargain. That means we
stay the night here, wait to see if Joe turns up, and
release Krys and go our separate ways in the morn- j
ing. Just like we originally planned.'

'Joe ain't going to turn up now,' said Kalinski.

I knew Kalinski was pretty much on the button
there, but I didn't need to hear it from him. 'He
may, he may not. We don't know. Anyway, we stay
here. Now, let's count this fucking money. We'll
divvy up each man his due and I'll look after Joe's
share.'

'I don't think it should be kept for him,' said
Kalinski. 'If he ain't here, he ain't here. We share it
out between ourselves. That's the only way.'

1 thought you were only in it for the revenge.'

'Well, I ain't got my fucking revenge, have I? The
cunt's still alive and you're saying we should
release him tomorrow. Even though he fucked your
missus.'

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'Watch what you're fucking saying.'

'If it was me, and he'd done that to my missus,
I'd have fucking killed him.'

I took a step forward, feeling my temper boiling
over. I'm a patient man, but this bastard Kalinski
was pushing it big time.

Tugger put his hand out in front of me. 'All right,
boys, calm down. Let's all take it easy, have a drink,
and talk about it again tomorrow morning. How
does that sound? We're not getting nowhere like
this.'
'I think I should get a bigger share of the Russell,'
said Johnny. 'You say I didn't have to do too much
but, what with all this lot, things ain't never going
to be the same for me again.'

1 turned to him, wanting to re-establish control.
'Bullshit. You've done your bit, and you've done it
well, but nothing changes with the death of Holtz.
No-one knows who we are and no-one's going to
be able to find us. As long as we keep calm and
release Krys. I'll hold the money until tomorrow. If
Joe still isn't here when we're due to leave, then
we'll split his share evenly, but if he is alive, and he
comes looking for it, then it's got to be remembered
that it's his money, and it's each bloke's lookout if
he doesn't want to give it up. Now, let's count this
fucking stuff. Then we can divvy up.'

The atmosphere was tense, unpleasant. No-one
felt much like talking, or even eating. Beers were
cracked open, as per Tugger's suggestion, but there
was no celebration even though every man in the
room was significantly richer. It was all there, too,
every last note. Half a million pounds in fifties, just

371

as Holtz had been instructed, and that settled it for
me. There was no way he'd been accidentally shot
by one of his men who was trying to put a hole in
me. However many times I went over it in my *
mind, one thing remained certain, and that was that
he'd had every intention of paying up.