Bodyguard: Target (32 page)

How could she have been so stupid!
She’d made the wrong assumption. Jessie wasn’t Ash’s stalker.
Barging past Big T, Charley ran for the door.

‘Where are you going?’
shouted Big T.

‘It’s Pete!’ Charley
cried, dodging Vince’s attempt to grab her and sprinting down the
corridor.

At this very moment the killer had been
left all alone and unguarded. Charley wasn’t there. Nor were Vince, Rick or
Big T. Ash was completely vulnerable to an attack … and she was
responsible.

Shouldering a roadie aside, she rounded
a corner at speed and dashed down
the hallway that led to the stage. The sound of
twenty thousand fans screaming echoed off the walls. Her heart was pounding in her
chest almost as loud as the heavy bass thud blasting from the venue’s
speakers.

She’d always suspected Pete. Why
hadn’t she listened to her gut instincts? Yes, Jessie was the obvious and
logical candidate for the infatuated stalker. But Pete
was the deluded and dangerous
one. His copycat behaviour was a
clear sign of his mental
instability. What sane person would imitate their idol to the point of changing
their appearance entirely and getting the exact same tattoo on their arm?

It only struck Charley now that her
death threats had started right after Pete had joined the tour in his semi-official
capacity as
a decoy. With his ability to pass off as Ash, he could have easily
accessed her room without question from security, especially since she and Ash were
perceived to be an item. Similarly, Pete had the golden opportunity to wander around
backstage without anyone so much as batting an eyelid. He was Ash the rock star! He
could go anywhere he wanted. Not only could he have swapped the
mics, but Pete was
likely the one who’d started the fire at the hotel.

And at any moment Pete could strike
again.

Charley ran up the steps to the wings of
the stage. In the dimly lit recesses, a couple of sound technicians were prepping
gear and a small group of VIP guests huddled to one side watching the show. But
where was Pete?

Charley hunted around for him.
He was
nowhere to be found. Perhaps he’d moved over to the opposite wing? She checked
Amir’s tracker app. Her green dot was now situated beside the stage; the red
dot was
on
the stage.

She was too late!

Elbowing her way through a knot of VIPs,
she ran on to the main stage. The music was thunderous. The spotlights were blinding
and she had to shield her eyes as she looked
for Pete. Was he among the dancers? The
band? The front row? Or already attacking Ash?

The dancers were
moving at such a frenetic pace it was hard to keep track of everyone. Ash was
strutting down the stage’s guitar neck, singing for all he was worth to the
audience, lost in the zone. But Pete wasn’t anywhere to be seen. She rechecked
the tracker app. The red dot definitely
located him on the stage, less than fifteen
metres from where she stood. Maybe Amir’s app didn’t work after all.

‘
Get off the
stage!
’ hissed a beer-bellied roadie, yanking Charley by the arm.

As she was dragged back into the wings,
she happened to glance up and notice the lighting rig. Of course, the app only
displayed a two-dimensional map. Pete could be right above her.
Squinting her eyes,
she searched the rig. It was difficult to make out much against the multiple banks
of flashing lights, but she could see the spotlight operators in their suspended
chairs, tracking Ash with their focus beams. If Pete was up there, they’d
surely know about it and have radioed security by now. All the wire-rope ladders had
been hauled up before the start of
the concert, so how would Pete have climbed there
mid-show?

The song ‘Every Day Like The
Sun’ came to an end and the drummer began pounding out a distinctive backbeat.
The crowd went into a frenzy as Ash launched into his ‘Indestructible’
routine. Above the noise, Charley heard Big T’s furious voice in her
earpiece.

‘
Charley! What’s going
on? Where are you? Report
in right now!
’

Charley couldn’t think straight
with all his shouting in her ear. She tugged out the wireless earpiece, pocketed it
and studied the tracker app again. She racked her brains as
to where Pete could be hiding. If he wasn’t on the stage … or above it
… he had to be
under
it!

Bounding down the steps two at a time,
she reached the bottom, then dashed round
to the walkway that led beneath the stage
to the toaster lift. The passage was poorly lit by a scant run of bulbs, the
criss-cross of scaffolding to either side looking like a steel forest in a horror
movie. It wasn’t the sort of place to explore alone. Nevertheless she entered
the passage and crept along, her eyes darting from side to side. From above, the
muffled beat of ‘Indestructible’
thumped away, sending vibrations down
the steel struts.

Her face lit by the soft glow of her
phone screen, she advanced deeper under the stage, watching her green dot slowly
converge with the red one. Up ahead in the gloom, she spied someone moving. A figure
was hunched over the hydraulic controls to the lift. He had a wrench and was
uncoupling a pressure valve. Charley
allowed herself a triumphant smile. She’d
caught Pete in the act of sabotaging the toaster lift. She had all the proof she
needed.

‘Stop
right now
!’
she warned, coming up behind him.

The figure spun round in shock and
Charley was confronted by the roadie with the caveman-like beard.
‘You’re not Pete,’ she gasped.

‘No, I’m not,’ grunted
Geoff. ‘What are you doing
under here? It’s restricted
access.’

‘What are
you
doing?’ she replied, eyeing the open hydraulic unit.

He held up the wrench. ‘Safety
inspection of the lift. We
have to triple-check everything now.
It’s a flipping nightmare,’ he grumbled.

‘Sorry, I was looking for someone
else,’ she said, turning and heading back the way she’d come. Charley
glanced again at
her phone. On the screen her green dot sat almost right on top of
the red. She peered into the dark recesses beneath the stage. Pete had to be hiding
somewhere in the shadows.

Somehow she had to flush him out.

Bringing up Amir’s text, she
selected the mobile number linked to the IMEI and pressed
call
. In the
darkness, a phone buzzed and a screen lit up.

If Charley hadn’t turned towards
the sound of the vibrating phone, her brains would have been splattered all over the
floor. But she caught sight of the wrench a millisecond before it struck
and managed
to dodge the fatal blow. The heavy metal tool glanced off her shoulder, sending a
rivet of pain through her arm.

Crying out, she dropped her phone and
staggered backwards.

Geoff swung the wrench again. Charley
ducked and the tool clanged loudly against a metal strut. She tried to defend
herself, but her arm was dead. The wrench came down and Charley dived
between the
scaffolding. She landed hard against a cross-beam, all the breath knocked out of
her.

The roadie stepped through the gap as
she tried to crawl away.

‘Where you going, Wild Cat?’
he taunted. ‘
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, so shall you
be!
’

Charley’s eyes widened in horror.
The roadie had made the death threats! He was behind everything: the letter
bomb,
the spotlight, the mic, the fire …

The killer roadie
raised the wrench above his head, a maniacal grin cutting through his thick bush of
a beard like a sliver of bone. ‘Time for Ash’s guardian angel to become
a real angel!’

Charley held up her hands in a vain
attempt to protect herself as Geoff brought down his wrench with the force of a
sledgehammer. But
an overhead strut stopped the tool dead. He glanced up in stunned
annoyance. Seizing her chance, Charley kicked out hard and connected with the
roadie’s kneecap. Geoff bellowed in agony and crumpled to the floor.

Charley scrambled to her feet. As she
tried to get away, he made a wild swing with the wrench and struck her across the
shins. Screaming from the bone-numbing pain,
she fell forward and caught her chin on
a steel strut. Stars burst before her eyes. Through the ringing in her ears, Charley
could still hear Ash singing, oblivious to her plight just a couple of metres
beneath him, the music on stage drowning out the noise of their brutal fight
below.

Geoff began pulling himself upright.
‘For that I’m going to break every bone in your
body, Wild Cat. Ash
won’t even recognize you when I’m finished!’

Dazed and hurting, Charley dragged
herself through the maze of scaffolding. She needed help. Glancing around, she
spotted her smartphone on the floor. The roadie limped after her. Charley scrambled
forward and snatched up her phone. Flicking the volume button, she turned to face
her attacker.

Geoff laughed.
‘Too late to call for help,’ he said, winding up to beat her
senseless.

Before he could whip the wrench round,
Charley darted forward and thrust the arcing stun phone into the roadie’s
chest. Geoff’s whole body convulsed and he let out a guttural shriek. His
muscles locked up and the wrench clattered to the floor. Totally incapacitated, he
toppled backwards and would
have fallen if not for the scaffolding behind. Instead
he hung like a limp rag doll from the bars.

‘How’s that for a stunning
performance?’ said Charley, her head still reeling from chinning the steel
strut.

She leant against the toaster lift for
support. Her shins were on fire, her ribs ached, her shoulder throbbed and she
tasted blood in her mouth from a split lip.
Yet she knew she was lucky to be
alive.

She also knew she needed back-up.
Charley fumbled in her pocket for her wireless earpiece.

But the iStun hadn’t stayed in
contact long enough to knock the roadie completely out. All of a sudden he lunged at
her. Charley tried to stun him again, but he batted her arm aside and the phone went
flying. Geoff threw himself on top of
her and his heavy bulk sent them both crashing
to the ground. In their struggle, his hands found her neck. Charley gasped for air
as he began to squeeze mercilessly.

With only seconds on her side, Charley
drove the tips of her fingers into the notch above his collarbone. Geoff gagged and
jerked away. Charley tried to kick him off, but he was too big and strong.

Fight smarter,
not harder
, Jody
had said.

Charley now
targeted a knife-hand strike at his neck. Though she couldn’t put her full
force behind it, the single sharp blow to the man’s jugular vein caused an
involuntary muscle spasm and a burst of intense pain. Eyes bulging, he rolled away
in agonized shock.

Charley found her feet. But the roadie,
recovering fast, had the wrench in
his hand again. As he swung wildly at her, she
tried to block his attack, but her arm was still dead and her reaction too slow. The
wrench hit her in the stomach. She doubled over in agony. Taking full advantage of
her weakened state, Geoff shoved her against the toaster lift and forced the edge of
the wrench against her throat. Charley choked as she felt her windpipe being
crushed.

‘Where’s
your
guardian angel when you need one, Wild Cat?’ he hissed, digging the wrench
harder into her throat.

Charley couldn’t breathe. Her feet
barely touched the ground as the roadie pinned her to the side of the lift. She
clawed at his face in an attempt to blind him, but her efforts to stop him
killing
her were becoming weaker with every second. Her eyes rolled in their sockets and
what little light there was below the stage began to fade from her vision. Her own
frantic heartbeat pounded louder in her ears than the muffled thud of the bass drum
above. In the swirl of sound and fury, she’d heard the roadie hiss,
‘
Where’s
your
guardian angel when you need one, Wild
Cat?
’

His savage face leered at her like a
bearded devil, the bloodlust in his eyes horrifying. Then out of the darkness
another face appeared, ghost-white and hairless.

‘Right behind you,’ said the
angel, swinging a massive right hook into the man’s jaw that almost knocked
his head clean off.

The pressure on her throat instantly
ceased and Charley dropped
to the floor. Spluttering and gasping for air, she looked
up into the wrinkled face of her guardian angel.

‘The legend
strikes again!’ Big T grinned, flexing the enormous bicep of his right arm and
enlarging the words
DANGER: WEAPON OF MASS DESTRUCTION
inside his cruise-missile tattoo. ‘You OK?’ he asked.

Rubbing at her tender throat, Charley
nodded. She found it painful
to swallow; otherwise she was in one piece. She glanced
at the roadie now lying flat out cold on the floor. ‘Is he dead?’ she
croaked.

‘He deserves to be,’ said
Big T, kneeling down to check. ‘But he’s not. So what’s
Geoff’s grudge with you? I thought you were looking for Pete.’

‘I was,’ rasped Charley.
‘But Geoff’s the one responsible for all the attacks on Ash.’

Big T raised a dubious eyebrow.
‘Are you
certain
this time?’

Charley nodded and pointed to the
hydraulic unit. ‘I caught him sabotaging the toaster lift. Amir’s
tracking app brought me to this exact location. If you look at the roadie’s
phone, I guarantee you’ll find the IMEI number matches the mobile used to post
the accident messages. And I think the fact he tried
to kill me confirms it
all!’

‘Good enough for me,’ said
Big T. ‘Vince! Rick! Pick up the garbage, will you?’

Big T helped Charley to her feet.
‘You look like you’ve gone ten rounds with Tyson.’

‘I feel it too,’ Charley
told him, limping over to retrieve her phone.

‘You’re lucky Jessie spotted
you going beneath the stage. I never would’ve found you otherwise,’
said
Big T as he
picked up the roadie’s mobile from the
hydraulic unit. ‘Next time respond to my calls.’

‘Sorry,’ said Charley with a
weak smile. ‘My earpiece fell out.’

Big T narrowed his eyes, but let the
matter drop.

Above, the concert was still going on,
the audience screaming in delight. Charley followed Big T out from under the stage,
wincing at every
step. The unconscious Geoff was dragged to an empty dressing room
by Vince and Rick, and dumped in a chair.

Big T chucked a glass of water in the
man’s face. ‘Let’s see what this scumbag has to say for
himself.’

Geoff groaned. His eyes flickered open
and darted nervously between the faces of the bodyguards. ‘Whasss …
what’s going on?’ he slurred, holding his fractured
jaw.

Big T bent down to eye level with the
roadie. ‘You’re being held under suspicion of attempted murder of both
Ash Wild and Charley here.’

‘I don’t know what
you’re talking about. I was just doing my job and this wild cat jumped
me.’ He pointed an accusing finger at Charley.

Before Charley could protest, the door
opened and Terry strode in. He stared at the broken-jawed
roadie. ‘What the
hell’s happened to Geoff?’

‘He had a run-in with my
fist,’ explained Big T. ‘You see, Geoff’s the maniac trying to
kill Ash.’

‘
Geoff?
’ exclaimed
Terry. ‘But he’s been with the tour from the start. One of the
hardest-working roadies – first to arrive and last to leave.’

‘Charley
caught him sabotaging the toaster lift,’ Big T told him. ‘We suspect
he
was trying to rig another accident.’

‘That’s not true!’
Geoff turned to Terry with pleading eyes. ‘I was following your instructions.
You asked for everything to be triple-checked.’

Terry nodded. ‘That’s right,
I did.’

Big T held up the roadie’s mobile.
‘Charley has hard proof your phone was used to post the accident death threats
against Ash.’

‘That’s
not my phone,’
stated Geoff.

Charley gasped. ‘That phone was
right next to him. He’s lying!’

Big T frowned and Charley saw his belief
in her claims beginning to waver. ‘So why were you trying to kill Charley
then?’ he demanded.

Geoff put on a wounded look.
‘What?
She
attacked me! I was trying to restrain her.’

‘That’s a lie too!’
cried Charley. ‘He repeated
the “ashes to ashes” threat, then
attacked me with a wrench! He’s a maniac. He wants to kill Ash
and
me. Big T, you
saw
him choking me!’

Terry held up a hand. ‘Enough! Big
T, I told you to keep this girl on a leash. First it was the laser, then the
backpack bomb and now this. Attacking one of my own road crew! She’s gone too
far this time. I want her out and off this tour
right now!’

‘But –’

‘No buts, Big T. You’re
already on thin ice with Kay.
Don’t give me an excuse to
have you fired too!’ Terry put his arm round Geoff and helped him to his
feet.

‘Thank you, Terry,’ slurred
Geoff. ‘If she goes, I might not press charges.’

‘That’s more than they
deserve,’ said Terry, leading the injured man towards the door.

Charley watched
speechless as the killer
roadie walked free.