Disobey (32 page)

‘Coast clear?’ Frankie called to Del who stood by the corner of the building. He quickly glanced around before nodding, whilst Alfie and Frankie began examining any possible entrances. The only way in was the tiny gap in the air vent which Chloe had showed Alfie and it was clear none of them could squeeze through it.

Moving to the far end of the wall and pressing his ear to the steel security door, Frankie waved to the others to be quiet as he listened, checking there wasn’t anyone about.

‘Seems okay. Come on.’

Stepping forward, Franny reached into the brown holdall she was carrying and pulled out a bright red set of eighteen-inch bolt croppers. She gave them to Alfie who, with surgical precision, nipped through the two security padlocks, before swapping the croppers to give Frankie a crowbar.

‘You do the honours.’

Frankie took them, then deftly levered the heavy door frame away from the deadlocks and with one final controlled heave popped open the door. He looked around, signalling to Del to join them. ‘After you, gentlemen.’

‘Nice one,’ Alfie whispered to Frankie as he stepped past him, entering into the basement first. Again he listened, and once he’d established the coast was clear he gestured to the others to follow him.

Alfie immediately recognised the passageway that he and Chloe had been down. He shivered as he saw the line of cell-like rooms again, not wanting to remember the fear he’d experienced whilst being held captive.

Del and Frankie held guns in their hands as they quickly checked every room, kicking open each of the doors – with each door opening to reveal nothing inside. With a flick of his head, Alfie directed the others towards the stairwell and gestured with his thumb to head up. He held Franny’s arm, holding her back as she was about to pass.

‘You okay, sweetheart? You can go back to the car if you want.’

Franny shook her head, appreciating his concern. ‘I’m fine, but thank you.’

With their guns drawn, they crept up two flights of wooden stairs, avoiding the discarded needles and treading as quietly as possible. Leading the way, Alfie winced at every creak in the floorboards. He glanced back at the others; he could see them stepping round every noisy stair. They looked at him, alert and ready for action, and although he was definitely up for it, he sensed that the last few days or so had taken their toll as he heaved himself onwards. Alfie was determined but unclear exactly as to where he was leading them.

The plan was simple. Basic. Old school. Find Jodie and force her to leave before Chloe even got here – or if Chloe
had
come here already and been caught like before, they’d simply outgun any of Lee’s men, then get the fuck out as quickly as possible.

As Alfie continued to ascend the stairs, he realised how quiet the building was. Eerily quiet; he had an uneasy feeling they were walking straight into a trap. But there was no other choice but to try and find Jodie before Chloe did, or more importantly, find Chloe before Mr Lee.

From the fire door in the stairwell, Alf peered through the safety glass down the dimly lit second-floor corridor. No sign of anyone. Frankie pushed his head alongside to have a look.

‘I don’t like this, Alf; something doesn’t feel right. The place is like a frigging ghost town.’ Frankie cocked the trigger of his revolver. ‘My suggestion is we take the place head on. Storm it, rather than play the mouse to their cats. There are four of us, so let’s just kick open all these doors, get what we came for, then get the hell out of here. I ain’t waiting to be ambushed by people who know the layout round here. What do you say?’

Alfie nodded. ‘I say you’re on, mate.’

And with that, they swiftly ran from down the corridors, bursting into every door, guns pointed and at the ready. All of them together, moving with one mind and one goal.

One by one they discovered the rooms had been stripped bare; no people, no furniture and no Chloe-Jane. Breathless, they gathered in the last room. Frankie closed the door as they all stared at one another.

Franny was distraught. ‘The building’s been abandoned. Everything’s gone. She isn’t here, is she Alf? What the hell are we going to do?’

‘What about upstairs? We haven’t tried there.’

Del seemed puzzled. ‘There ain’t an upstairs, Alf, we’re on the top.’

‘No, I counted five floors from outside. Five sets of windows and this is only the fourth. I saw a door at the end of the corridor I didn’t try, and I’m guessing it leads to the top floor but by a different flight of stairs.’

Frankie looked at Alf. ‘Then what are we waiting for?!’

With Alfie still leading the way, they ran through the door at the end of the fourth-floor corridor and up the stairs.

‘Bingo.’ Alfie gave a thumbs-up as he found himself on the top floor. The four of them hurtled along and like before, burst into rooms, only to find nothing.

Alfie glanced around at the others. Pride, shame and revenge ran through him. Pride for his friends, shame for himself, and revenge for Chloe. Mixed emotions raced through him as the pain from the exertion clutched hold of his body. But the adrenaline drove him on.
Revenge
drove him on.

Kicking open the next door, he heard a scream. It was Franny. Frantically swinging his gun round the room, a movement in the corner of his eye made Alfie pivot and instinctively fire three rounds.

Feeling the familiar numbness in his ears when he fired his gun, Alfie experienced ten seconds of deafness, not hearing the words of Del, as he burst into the room behind him.

‘Alf get down! Get down! I got you covered.’

Del pointed his gun, assuming one of Mr Lee’s men had targeted Alf, but only a splattered rat lay bleeding, shot into the floorboards by Alf.

Del breathed out, and shook his head. ‘Fuck me, Alf. Wanna give me a heart attack? Carry on shooting up the rodents. Jesus …’

As Alfie’s hearing slowly returned, both he and Del heard another scream. Alfie’s blood ran cold.

‘Franny!… Fran, where are you?’ he shouted desperately, not caring who heard or who might shoot at him as he ran towards her cries.

Chasing down the corridor, with Del closely behind, as well as Frankie, who had also heard the screams and gunshots, Alfie was relieved to see Franny standing in the last room with the gun he’d given her in her hand.

‘Fran, are you okay?… Fran?’ From where he was standing in the corridor he could see she was pale and shaking. ‘Fran, can you hear me? What’s going on? It’s me, babe.’

But Franny didn’t say anything. She just stared ahead.

Alfie hurried into the room, with Del and Frankie directly behind him. A powerful smell hit them. Alf turned to follow Franny’s gaze until his eyes rested on the swollen purple face staring back at them, a limp body hanging only inches from the floor. It was Jodie.

Alf shouted, ‘Cut her down!… Cut her down! It’s Jodie!’ He ran forward, tugging at the belt, then stood on the chair to try to get her down. He called out to Del and Frankie.

‘Help me guys, help me!’ They ran forward, lifting her body weight up, allowing Alfie to undo the loop.

Jodie fell into Alfie’s arms. ‘Call the ambulance! Call the ambulance!’

Franny put her hand gently on Alfie’s shoulder as he knelt on the floor by Jodie’s body.

‘She’s gone, Alf … She’s gone.’

Alfie buried his face into his hands. ‘She was only a kid. She was only a kid.’

‘I know sweetheart. I know … Look, you guys better go.’

Alfie looked up. He wiped the tears away. ‘We can’t leave her here. I can’t leave her on her own.’

‘I’ll call the ambulance and wait for them,’ Franny answered. ‘It’s better that way. Fewer questions. And I’ll see you back at Lola’s.’

Del put his hand on Alfie. ‘Franny’s right. She can say she was looking for her niece and came across this … Well, you know what I mean.’

Alfie got up, he touched Franny’s face gently, then kissed her on her forehead before turning to the others. ‘Okay. But Lee’s going to pay for this. And I ain’t going to rest till I put him in the ground.’

60

It was gone one in the morning. They were all crammed into Lola’s tiny kitchen, all subdued by their grim discovery and all fearful but not speaking about their deep concern for Chloe-Jane. Lola’s kettle clicked off.

‘Tea, anyone?’ No one answered. ‘Alfie, come on love, have some tea.’ Alfie shook his head.

‘Fran, you’ll have a cup won’t you?’ Franny didn’t say anything, looking down to the tiled floor.

‘Del, Frankie … Anybody. A cup of tea.’

With an empty mug in each hand Lola held open her arms, bursting into inconsolable tears. Her whole body shook. ‘For the love of God, someone have a cup of tea …
Please
… Oh my God, the poor kid … Poor Chloe … Oh, Jesus, what we going to do?’

It was Franny who spoke first. ‘On second thoughts, I’ll have a cup of tea, and so will Alf, won’t you, Alf?’

Alfie nodded. ‘Let’s all have a brew, Lola. That would be good.’

Del chipped in. ‘Yeah, and perhaps even a biscuit or two, then we’ll see if we can’t get our heads together and come up with a plan.’

Lola smiled gratefully, happy she had something to do to try to avoid just thinking about Chloe.

Alfie watched Lola busying herself about. He had an overwhelming fear that finally his luck, or rather Chloe’s luck, had run out. They had no idea where to even start to look for Chloe; the only real lead had been the building in Paddington and Jodie. Thinking about her made him pull his breath in. He didn’t think he’d ever get rid of that image out of his mind. He’d seen a lot, but that … That kid hanging there was another thing completely. A tragic waste of life. And the saddest part? The saddest part was besides everyone congregated here in Lola’s kitchen, none of whom really knew Jodie at all, no one would care that she was dead.

As Lola counted out the PG tips, Alfie thought of all the times he’d knocked back Chloe when all she wanted to do was belong. Even with his own daughter Emmie, he’d never stopped to listen. Of course her mother had driven him mad with her nagging but it wasn’t Emmie’s fault. All the designer gifts he’d bought her to smooth things over and to replace him being there a lot of the time, along with his behaviour, had hurt his daughter to the point where she didn’t want anything to do with him.

Chloe had been a second chance to care for a Jennings kid. Someone who’d needed him, like he’d needed someone when he’d been growing up. But he hadn’t cared for her properly. Not even a tiny bit. And even though he’d known about her childhood, Alfie’s care of his own niece had been so inadequate she’d still needed to turn to the likes of Mr Lee for help.

The image of Jodie came into his mind again. Again it made him shudder; a tight knot in his stomach. She’d risked her life to save him and Chloe and now she was gone; taking her own life had been better than living. He took a sip of his tea to stop him feeling more physically sick than he did already.

Half an hour later, they were all sitting in the front room, the fear and worry still palpable. Inwardly, Del Williams felt uncharacte‌ristically shaken at having seen that poor kid obviously so desperate she’d do that to herself. It made him think of all the times his missus Bunny had talked about her miserable childhood in care, the abuse and God knows what else. He wondered if she ever came close to ending it all herself. When he got back to Marbella, he was going to take her in his arms and not let her go.

Frankie also sat and thought about Jodie. His heart broke for the tragedy of it all. He knew only too well from his own difficult, neglected childhood how it was easy to find yourself lost and alone. He had been lucky, he’d got through it and he had a wonderful family of his own now, and the first thing he was going to do when he got back was tell them how much he loved them.

Alfie had been a prick who’d brought a lot onto himself. But not this; no one deserved this. And he would do everything he could to help him bring Chloe back. Frankie sighed. He wasn’t used to feeling useless, powerless, but that’s exactly what they were all feeling as they all drank their tea, each one of them silently wondering what they were going to say, and what they could possibly do next.

Franny Doyle sat quietly by the window in Lola’s lounge, holding Chloe’s note in her hand, barely able to contemplate the guilt she now felt for pushing Chloe away. She’d taken Chloe in and given her hope and support, then, despite knowing how vulnerable she was, had taken her lifeline away for purely selfish reasons.

Alfie’s phone started to ring, interrupting everyone’s thoughts. He answered, urgently. ‘Yes? Hello?’ As the voice on the other end started to talk, Alfie kicked the table in front of him in frustration, and before the caller had even had time to finish his sentence, Alfie cut in, ‘I ain’t got time for this now, just put everything in the club and don’t bother me with anything. I couldn’t give a flying fuck where you put the frigging beer.’ Clicking the phone off, he stuffed it back in his pocket.

Almost immediately, Alfie’s phone rang again. Enraged, he snatched it off again, barking down the phone. ‘Christ, al-fucking-mighty, I told you, just leave everything at the club.’

But then, Alfie froze. Instead of the heavy cockney accent of his driver, a much softer voice spoke calmly.

‘Mr Jennings, I too have a club, an exclusive club that I think you might be interested in.’

Then the line went dead.

Franny who’d been watching Alfie, saw the mix of anger and confusion on his face as he looked down at the blank screen.

‘Who was that, Alf?… Alf?’

Before Alf could reply, a text message pinged out from his phone.

V.I.P. – You are invited to enjoy a special event.

As Alfie opened the message in full, it triggered an internet link which opened directly into a video stream. What Alfie saw next made him visibly pale, and for a moment he wondered if he was going to throw up

‘Alf, what’s going on?’

Franny took the phone, turning it round so she could see it. They both stared in horrified disbelief at a scantily clad Chloe-Jane tethered to a chair with various torture tools hung neatly behind her; a rolling footnote passed across the screen.