CRIME ON THE FENS a gripping detective thriller full of suspense (20 page)

‘And we’ll have a very big and extremely well-armed reception party waiting for them.’ The superintendent seemed to have suddenly shed a few of the years that he had put on over the past days. ‘I’ll get onto that immediately, and I’ll involve the Special Drugs Squad, they have a protocol for dealing with something as big as this.’

‘It’s my guess that the gang who have arranged all this will think it’s going to be a walk in the park.’

‘Well thanks to you, it’ll be far from that.’ Rick Bainbridge smiled warmly. ‘Well done, Nikki. If we pull this off, your job will be safe and secure until you decide to draw you pension!’

‘Or just until I ruffle a few more feathers, sir. But thanks, I appreciate all your support recently. I know I’ve been a total pain in the arse.’ She stood up abruptly. ‘But this can wait, Kerry Anderson is still out there somewhere, and I
have
to find her.’

‘One more thing, Nikki. All co-operation with Archie Leonard stops here. I know you’re fond of him, for reasons that I really don’t want to know about, but this could be the biggest drugs bust of the century, and like it or not, the Leonard family are criminals. We can’t afford for a single slip up and the talking to him constitutes an unacceptable risk. Do you understand where I’m coming from?’

Nikki nodded. ‘I get on with him, but I’m one hundred per cent copper, and I’m not stupid. Although,’ she added, ‘I really believe he’s been used just as much as we have.’

‘By this Fluke character?’

Nikki shrugged. ‘Fluke may not even exist, sir, but there’s someone lurking out there in the shadows, and when we find him, I’m willing to bet that Frankie Doyle will be draped decoratively across his arm.’ An icy smile twitched at the corners of her mouth. ‘Which would be something of a bonus for me. There’s someone I’d
so
like her to meet.’

The superintendent looked mystified, but Nikki’s smile just widened. ‘Sorry, sir. Private joke between Professor Rory Wilkinson and me.’

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Joseph hurried back to the DI’s office with his news. Peterborough was on high alert for an imminent shipment, and the estimated street value was in excess of three million pounds. Something that some evil shits would consider well worth killing for.

He knocked on the door and hearing no reply, stuck his head round. The room was empty and he decided that she must still be with the super. He walked away, then heard her phone ring. With a little shrug, he went back inside and picked it up.

‘I need to speak to DI Galena. It’s urgent.’

The voice was female, and sounded to Joseph as being distinctly odd.

‘Can I take a message, or get her to ring you back?’

There was a long pause, and he thought the woman had rung off, then he heard her say. ‘I
have
to speak to her, and there’s no time left.’

Joseph tensed. ‘Who is this please?’

‘My name is Frankie Doyle, and there are things that she
has
to know.’

The name alone sent a shiver coursing down Joseph’s spine. Was he actually talking to the woman who had deliberately tried to kill Nikki’s daughter?

‘Listen, I’m DI Galena’s sergeant. Tell me what it is she needs to know, and I’ll make sure she gets your message the minute I see her.’

‘No good. It’s her who needs to hear this, and she needs to hear it from me.’

‘Then give me your number, I’ll go find her now.’

There was a strange sort of hollow laugh from the other end of the phone, then he could have sworn he heard the woman start to cry.

‘Are you hurt? Do you need help?’

The answer was a muted sigh. ‘Yes, I need help, but it’s too late.’ There was a pause, then the woman said, ‘You sound nice, whoever you are, just tell her that she’s got it all wrong. Everything she ever believed about me, it’s all wrong.’

‘Where are you?’

‘Hiding.’

‘Why?’

‘There are some very bad people out here. They kill pretty girls.’

Joseph froze. ‘What do you know about that?’

‘Everything. And I have to see DI Galena about it.’ Tears broke through. ‘Don’t you understand, I have to see her!’

‘Look I’ll get her, okay? Just stay on the line!’

‘No, I can’t. It’s not safe. I made a big mistake, and now,’ another pause, ‘now I’m scared, Mr Policeman. You probably don’t know what that’s like, but I’m really scared!’

‘I
do
know about being scared, Frankie. Honestly I do. But I want to help you, just tell me how I can do that.’ Joseph looked frantically out of the door, but no one was in sight, and he was running out of things to say to keep her on the line.

‘If I can, I’ll be at the old cattle market in one hour. The river end. No promises, but I’ll try to get there. Tell her to come, but no other rozzers, understand? Or I’ll disappear, got it?’

‘Sure, sure, I understand. But Frankie? Can I go with her?’

There was a long pause. ‘If you must. But only you, Mr Policeman. No others.’

The phone howled in his ear. Frankie Doyle, if indeed it had been Frankie Doyle, had gone. Joseph tapped the receiver swiftly and asked for a trace. Two minutes later, Joseph uttered a word that rarely escaped his lips, and went to find his boss.

* * *

‘Joseph!’ Nikki’s voice echoed down the corridor. ‘There’s a Dutch cargo vessel docking in two hours’ time, then nothing for two days. It has to be the one!’ Nikki stopped and stared at Joseph’s confused expression. ‘Aren’t you pleased? It looks as though we are right!’

‘I’m sure we are, ma’am. Peterborough confirms that they have heard the rumours, just no time or location.’

‘So, why the long face?’

‘Because you just missed a call from Frankie Doyle, on an untraceable ‘pay-as-you-go’ mobile.’

‘What!’ Nikki’s voice rose several octaves. ‘When? Are you sure it was her?’ With her mind in turmoil, she pushed her office door open and pointed inside.

‘Close the door.’ Nikki spun round. ‘What the hell did she want?’

‘To talk to you.’

‘About what exactly?’

Joseph relayed the conversation, word for word, then leant heavily against the door and stared directly at her. ‘I know you hate her, and with damned good reason, ma’am. But I think she’s in trouble, real trouble.’

‘Fucking good luck!’ spat Nikki, ‘with all my heart, I hope she is!’

‘She sounded terrified.’ Joseph stared at the floor. ‘And I mean, terrified.’

Nikki felt as if her head could explode at any moment, but she fought for control and grittily said, ‘She’s a con artist, Sergeant! Even your pet kid said she’s not right in the head, for Jesus Christ’s sake!’

Joseph gave her a disparaging look at the blasphemy, and once again, her original anger at him welled up. ‘Get real! Sergeant Joe! You’ve just been talking to a cold-blooded, heartless psycho! Do you honestly think she was telling you the truth? Are you really that gullible? Because if you are, I don’t think I want you on my team.’

Joseph clamped his jaw tightly, but said nothing in his defence.

The pressure in her head was building, and without premeditation, she grabbed at her desk lamp, picked it up and flung it against the wall.

The crash echoed around the small office, and shards of glass scattered across the floor. Then everything went quiet, and the crushing force inside her head slowly abated.

She looked across at Joseph, who was still standing immobile and silent, by the door, and said, ‘I’m so sorry. That was unforgivable.’

‘Smart move, actually. It’s what they teach you in Anger Management.’

‘What the hell do you know about Anger Management?’ she whispered, still trying to understand why that dreadful, evil woman could evoke such violent reactions in her.

‘Plenty. I’ve screamed into more pillows, and smashed more plant pots than you’ve had hot dinners, but that’s another story.’ He looked at the pile of mangled cheap metal and glass in the corner. ‘Hope that wasn’t one of your favourites?’

Nikki looked at it and shook her head. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever even noticed it, until I picked it up.’ She sat down heavily in her chair. ‘And when I said that was unforgivable, I was referring to what I said to you, and I apologise.’ She looked up at him. ‘What on earth are we going to do? The ship is arriving in under two hours, and now this! What should we do?’

‘At the risk of endangering more electric light fittings,’ Joseph raised his hands in the absence of a white flag, and said, ‘I have to say that I would meet with Doyle, even if just to see what the hell she’s on about.’

Nikki took a deep breath. ‘And I suggest that this is just another ploy to keep us occupied, to keep us away from the docks.’

‘And if that
is
the case, the gang would be even more complacent if we
did
turn up. They would believe we know nothing about the consignment.’ He turned his head a little, then looked at her sideways. ‘And what if, just possibly, Doyle is out of her depth? You told me once that she was evil, but she wasn’t clever. What if she has pissed off the wrong people. We know what they are capable of, look at Marcus and Mickey.’

‘We should go to the docks. This could be the biggest thing you’ve ever been involved in.’

‘Those guys are professionals, they can manage very well without us.’ Joseph perched on the edge of her desk and looked down at her thoughtfully. ‘You’ve been hunting this woman at the expense of all else for a very long time. This is your one chance to find out what really happened to Hannah.’

Nikki bit down hard on her bottom lip. It was true. She had waited all this time, and now she was going to let the opportunity slip away? She closed her eyes and saw her daughter, her lovely girl, as she was before she went out for a drink one night, with a deadly friend.

When her eyes opened again, they were completely focused, and as cold as ice. ‘So, where exactly are we meeting her?’

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

‘What is this place?’ asked Joseph in a low voice. ‘It’s got a bad atmosphere.’

‘It is what it says, a cattle market, only we haven’t had a livestock market here since the first outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease.’ Nikki looked around. ‘They are gradually demolishing it. They’ve taken most of the stalls away, and the hard standing is being utilised as a temporary overspill car park.’

‘Looks like the kids use it too,’ remarked Joseph. ‘I think I recognise some of my friend, Petey’s artwork over there.’

One wall, in front of which were a few randomly parked cars, was completely covered in graffiti.

‘Yeah, we try to keep them out, there’s a lot of junk and old wood around. What’s left could go up like a tinderbox if they decided to have some fun with a box of matches.’ Nikki’s eyes were continually watching for movement. They were early, but she did not feel at all comfortable about this meeting. The place was secluded, but not completely unused. People took shortcuts through it to the town centre, and although not many felt confident enough to park their cars there, it was frequented on a fairly regular basis. She looked around again and shivered. She could hardly believe that she may be meeting her nemesis after all this time. ‘Where did she say again?’

Joseph watched as a man with a scruffy dog skirted around a derelict wooden office and sauntered slowly towards the riverside path. ‘The river end, that’s all she said.’

Nikki didn’t like it. Every nerve ending was screaming out that something was wrong, but Joseph, the ex-special forces officer seemed strangely oblivious to the dangers.

‘There are no guarantees that she’ll come,’ he said softly, ‘But I hope for your sake that she does.’ He moved a little closer to her. ‘You need to talk to this woman, you
need
to know.’

Nikki nodded. Yes, she did need to know. But what would she do then? Doubts clouded her usual confident, no-nonsense belief that Frankie was responsible for her daughter’s terrible state. What if she’d got it wrong? Most of her information had come via a villain. Maybe Archie wasn’t the friend that she thought he was. Nikki stared around at the boarded up offices and partly dismantled buildings, maybe today was the day that she would find out.

Joseph was edging forward, glancing this way and that. Nikki looked at him and tensed. He had suddenly switched to a more heightened state of awareness.

‘Something moved.’ He swung towards a stack of planks of wood, piled high and waiting for collection by the demolition company. ‘Someone’s there.’

For a second, Nikki was glad that she had told Dave Harris what was happening at the cattle market. Not the full details, just a sighting of Doyle that she and Sergeant Easter considered worth following up. Because right now, Nikki was a bubbling cocktail of anger and anticipation with a splash of fear thrown in for colour. ‘Can you see her?’

‘Someone’s behind those wood piles.’ Joseph inched forward. ‘I don’t know if it’s her or not, but I’m going to check it out.’

He moved forward again, with Nikki close behind. They passed a deserted shell of a wooden office, and began to circle the stack of old timber.

‘Frankie sends her apologies.’ The voice was low and slightly muffled, but its intent was crystal clear. ‘She got tied up at the last minute, Inspector Galena.’

Nikki turned slowly, to see a stocky, broad-shouldered man standing beside the debris of the old office, and the reason for his distorted speech, was the dead rat mask that covered his features. ‘Neither of you even think about making a move! I’m not alone.’ He gave a short, husky laugh. ‘Let me introduce my friends. This is someone you’ve been looking for recently,’ he gestured to a taller, skinnier man who had just immerged from the back of the office to stand unmoving in the shadows. ‘Say hello to Fluke.’

The masked man gave a small stiff-backed bow, and passed a heavy iron bar slowly from one hand to the other.

Nikki felt, rather than saw, Joseph stiffen in the presence of the man who had killed Marcus Lee and tried to beat Mickey Smith to death.

‘It would be polite to take off those masks! You filthy cowards!’ growled Joseph.

‘All in good time. But what right do
you
have to shout the orders, you weren’t even invited to this party, Sergeant Easter!’

As he spoke, two other masked men silently materialised on opposite sides of them. ‘Ah, my other brothers. This is Fluke.’ He pointed to one of the other men, a small man with a large knife clasped tightly in his right hand. ‘And that one over there, you guessed it, is also Fluke.’ He laughed. ‘I hope I’m not confusing you, officers. But you see, to be able to be in more than one place at a time, gives one a wicked reputation.’

‘Where’s Doyle?’ Nikki’s voice held nothing but contempt. ‘You and your freaks don’t interest me one bit. I want Doyle.’

‘Don’t be a fool, Inspector, Frankie was never going to be here. It’s me you should be worried about. It always was.’

As the man ranted at her, Nikki half heard his words, and half watched Joseph, as she saw him glance back along the narrow avenue that they had just innocently walked down, and visibly pale.

To her horror, she looked past him, and saw the reason why.

Across the concrete parking area, a young woman was just unlocking her car, and extracting a child’s pushchair from the boot.

Her knowledge of the area automatically kicked in, and she saw in her mind, the children’s play-school, situated at the end of the river walk. She even saw the rainbow coloured sign above the doors. ‘
Bizzy Little B’s.’
She swallowed hard and tried to think of a way of alerting the girl to the dangers that lay ahead of her.

‘One word from either of you, and I’ll let one of my freaks have her! For as long as they want her, if you see what I mean?’ The voice had a sibilant quality and Nikki imagined snake’s eyes beneath the mask.

‘Then just let her go on her way,’ she hissed back. ‘She has nothing to do with any of this! It’s me you want, isn’t it? Well, you got me, so let her be!’

‘Then you better be as quiet as the grave! Her life, or maybe just her sanity, depends on it.’

As they spoke, the click-clack of the woman’s shoes got closer. Nikki’s mouth was dry as chaff, but she managed to whisper to Joseph. ‘Say nothing. Do nothing.’

‘Wise words, Inspector,’ came softly from behind her.

The silent masked men had blended back into the shadows, and as the girl got closer, it took all of Nikki’s strength to stop herself screaming out loud for the woman to run for her life or she may never see her child again.

At that point, her helplessness, her inability to change this terrible situation, caused the world to slip into slow-motion. All Nikki could see was the girl’s long, auburn hair swaying from side to side as she walked, handbag casually over her shoulder and pushing the bright blue buggy ahead of her. And for the first time, since Emily Drennan had died in her arms, Nikki prayed.

Oh dear Lord, don’t let this happen. Just don’t let this happen.’

And it seemed that her prayer was answered, until the woman was almost past them, and she hesitated, and looked uncertainly back at Joseph.

Whether she was suddenly spooked, or had been in a daydream and realised that a handsome man was looking at her strangely, Nikki didn’t know, but the world came crashing back like a hurricane hitting.

Faster than she would have believed, the masked man leapt out and grabbed the young woman. The buggy fell over, and the woman screamed in surprise and horror when she saw the hideous masked face so close hers.

‘Help me!’ was all she could say before a big hand clamped itself roughly over her open mouth. The girl’s eyes flew wide open, and she looked directly at Nikki.

Those eyes! In that single second, Nikki knew they had been tricked.

She swung round to Joseph, but he was no longer there.

In the time it took her to scream out to him, Joseph had leapt on the masked man, wrenched the terrified girl away from him, and grabbed her to safety.

But there was no safety. Not for Joseph.

As he opened his mouth to calm her, no doubt to utter some soothing words of comfort, as he prepared to rush her away from her assailants, his face changed.

Shock and disbelief fought for recognition, then distress screwed his handsome face into a knotted mass of pain.

‘Joseph!’ Nikki’s cry echoed high above the deserted market place, and she lunged forward to catch him as he fell.

Above him, with a long bladed knife still in her hand, stood Frankie Doyle.

Nikki took Joseph’s weight and went to the ground with him, holding him and trying to roll him away from the woman who was standing there laughing at them.

All she could think of was protecting him from any further thrusts with that wicked knife.

‘Ah, touching! Don’t you think it’s touching, Stevie?’

Stevie? Not . . . ? Shit, right now, she didn’t give a damn who it was. She had to get help for Joseph. She held him closer, and saw that her hands were covered in his blood. If she didn’t act quickly . . .

Nikki looked up, saw a semi-circle of jeering faces looking down at them, and her heart sank. The masks had been thrown to the ground, all except the main man, who was carefully peeling his over his head. If they didn’t care about being identified, then they were certainly going to kill her. So, nothing mattered, did it? Nikki swiftly turned Joseph onto his side, checked his airway, then placed herself between him and the gang. If there was any chance for one of them, it had to be him.

She looked up at them defiantly, then saw the uncovered face of the ringleader, and her defiance turned to revulsion. The rat death mask had almost been an improvement on his distorted features. One side of his head had no hair, the ear looked as if it had been melted into something that resembled tiny cauliflower florets, and his right cheek, temple and jaw were a mass of puckered scar tissue. But the other side was just as it always had been, and she recognised Stephen Cox immediately.

‘I see you haven’t forgotten me, Inspector.’ His twisted face smiled vindictively. ‘And you’ll know that I have debts to settle.’ He squatted down on his haunches beside her. ‘You made my life hell, DI Galena. If you hadn’t driven me away from Greenborough, I wouldn’t look like this!’ He pointed to his ravaged face.

Nikki still had her hand on Joseph’s pulse, and it was becoming erratic. She had to do something but she had no idea what.

Desperation and anger welled up inside her, and in pure frustration she vented it all on Steven Cox.

‘I don’t give a shit what’s happened to you! You are vermin! Filthy murdering vermin, and whatever you’ve suffered it wasn’t nearly bad enough, considering what you did to Emily Drennan. And where is Kerry Anderson? You
do
have her, don’t you? You fucking little shit-bag!’

‘Temper, temper.’ Cox stood up, glanced at his watch, then looked across at his thugs. ‘Fun as this is, we need to finish it.’

‘Seems such a shame to kill her, Stevie, It’d be far more painful for her go on living, with this on her conscience.’ Frankie poked the toe of her shoe viciously into Joseph’s leg. ‘As well as everything else in her sad little life.’

‘What the hell would you know about conscience? You were born evil!’ exploded Nikki.

‘So they say.’ Frankie’s cold fish-like eyes never left hers, and she slowly removed the long wig and dropped it casually over Joseph’s body. ‘Poor Mr Policeman.’

Cox glared at her. ‘We don’t have time for this. We need to be gone. There’s no time for a bloody debate.’ He caught Frankie by the arm and pulled her away. ‘Say your goodbyes.’ He turned back to Nikki. ‘Much as I’d love to stay and watch you both die, we’ve got a little bit of business to attend to. Benny! Get it over with, and fast!’

One of the three Flukes drew a knife, stepped slowly towards her, and Nikki’s heart began hammering in her chest. She loosened her hold on Joseph, and as she did, her hand touched a rough piece of timber that lay just beneath his arm.

As the thug moved closer, Nikki saw an odd expression on the man’s face, an expression of apprehension.

In that second, as she saw the man’s Adam’s apple move jerkily in his throat, she knew instinctively that he had never killed before, and she seized the moment.

With nothing left to lose, Nikki grabbed the piece of wood, and launched herself at him. Swinging the makeshift club with every ounce of strength she could muster, she landed a crushing blow on the side of the man’s head.

Taken completely by surprise at her sudden attack, the man screamed in pain and crashed to his knees, before lurching forward and laying still.

It wasn’t until Nikki saw the blood pouring from his temple, that she noticed the ugly, rusted nails sticking from the end of her impromptu weapon.

Her eyes snapped up and swiftly took in the amazed faces of her assailants, then still clutching the bloodied chunk of wood, she sprang back to Joseph, and stood over him like some fearsome shepherd protecting her lamb from the wolves.

Nikki barely knew what happened next, but she did hear a loud shout echo across from the far side of the car park. “Police! Get away from her! Now!” Then she heard the wail of sirens and saw the two remaining Flukes spin around in shock.