Disobey (36 page)

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. He kicked out at the doors, echoing the sound down the lift shaft. Then he heard it again. The banging. The banging back.

Alfie charged down the stairs, but he missed his footing and tumbled forward. He tried to grab onto something to break his fall, but there was nothing there. He cried out as the steel stairs slammed into his back and smashed his head.

The stairs rolled and spun him around before he eventually slowed down almost to a stop. Alfie lay head first on the stairs. He groaned at the thumping pain, hesitant to move in case he’d broken anything. He looked up and what he saw had him scrabbling up to his feet.

The sign said
, Danger Keep Out – Service Users Only –
but to Alfie, it was a way into the lift shaft.

He opened the door, and immediately stepped back. On the other side was a sheer drop. He didn’t know how far down it went, but Alfie did know if he did fall, there was no way he was surviving it.

Switching on his phone light, he leaned forward, surveying the lift shaft. On his near side, an access ladder ran up the length of the shaft wall. And below him, Alfie could see the top of the lift.

‘Chloe!… Chloe! Bang if you can hear me.’

Multiple bangs, loud and insistent, came from the lift. Chloe-Jane was in there. But more than that, she was alive.

Alfie fought back the overwhelming sense of emotion. He needed to shut down. Focus. Be the hard bastard he knew he could be. Because it was only then he’d have a chance of getting Chloe-Jane out.

The wall ladder looked precarious; brown with rust, and no wider than a foot. Alfie wasn’t certain it could take his weight. But there was only one way to find out. Reaching round to the side, Alfie took a sharp intake of breath before stretching one foot and one hand onto the ladder. It seemed strong enough, but he was also aware a good part of his weight still rested on the stairwell.

Alfie pulled his whole weight on the ladder, bringing his body round. The size of the ladder seemed inadequate and he once more had to battle to push away the sense of vulnerability he felt.

‘Chloe … Baby … I’m coming. Hold on, sweetheart.’ To the sound of the banged reply, Alfie carefully lowered himself down the ladder. One foot after the other. One hand after another. All the time calling out to Chloe. All the time ignoring his own fears.

‘Chloe, just a couple more minutes. Then it’s over. You hear me, Chloe? It’s over.’

The top of the lift came into sight and Alfie cautiously placed one foot on the top of it. The lift seemed to scream out, as the rusting cable wires creaked and groaned, loud and jarring. He pulled his foot away, back on the ladder. Shit.

‘Chloe!… Don’t worry about the noise, it’s only the lift. All lifts do that, babe.’

Alfie wanted to believe his own lie but he knew by the sound of the cables they were weakened and damaged.

Still holding onto the ladder with one hand, he reached down to the lift hatch which sat to the near side of him. He tried to push it across, but he couldn’t get enough strength behind it because of the angle he was at.

Slowly he placed one hand on the top of the lift. It groaned, swaying about on the cables. From there Alfie put one knee down, then the next and finally let go of the ladder, putting his full weight on the roof of the lift.

The lift buckled and instinctively Alfie wanted to grab back hold of the ladder but instead he stayed motionless, almost daring not to breathe. ‘Chloe, I’m on top of the lift now. I want you to stay real still, baby, whilst I push this hatch back. You might hear the lift making a really loud noise but don’t panic. Okay?… Don’t panic.’

Now in the perfect position, Alfie pushed the hatch. It was old and had clearly been unused for a while and as a consequence it seemed to be jammed. He pushed again. It wouldn’t budge. Wiping away the sweat from his forehead, Alfie gave everything he had and was rewarded by a tiny movement from the steel access point, making the lift begin to move.

The hatch ground on its metal runners but eventually it pulled back enough for Alfie to see Chloe.

Through his tears and smiles, Alfie fell over his words. Feeling delight of a kind he’d never experienced in his life before, and for just for a moment it didn’t matter where they were. He had found her.

‘Chloe … I … Chloe … I … Oh Jesus, Chloe, you don’t know … Oh shit, it’s good to see you, babe.’

Although Chloe’s hands were tied behind her back and a tight gag jammed cruelly in her mouth, Alfie knew she was smiling. Her eyes twinkled with joy, deep pools of love and warmth.

The first thing he had to do was get her hands untied, helpless as she was. Ignoring another loud groan of the lift, Alfie expertly lowered himself in. The moment his feet touched the ground, he grabbed hold of Chloe; hard, tight and loving.

He pulled her gag off, holding her face in his hands.

‘Uncle Alfie … You came … You came for me.’

He could hardly speak for his tears. ‘Like you came for me. Jesus, Chloe, I thought I wouldn’t find you.’

Chloe-Jane smiled. ‘I knew you would, Uncle Alfie. I just knew it.’

Alfie bent down to untie her hands. ‘Okay, it’s a bit of a climb but I’ll have you home in no time. I’ll climb back up, and then I’ll pull you up. You ready, babe?’

Chloe nodded enthusiastically. ‘You bet I am.’

Alfie turned to jump back up on the roof of the lift, but before he did he turned back to Chloe-Jane. ‘I don’t know what I’d have done if I hadn’t found you. I ain’t ever going to let you go again.’

Alfie jumped up, catching the edge of the roof. The lift was high but narrow enough for him to splay his legs and use his feet to edge back up to the top, ably assisted by Chloe-Jane giving him a push from underneath.

The effort of getting back out of the lift made it sway back and forth, banging against the sides, frightening Chloe.

‘Uncle Alfie …’

‘It’s okay sweetheart. Remember what I—’

A bright light shone from above Alfie. He looked up, dazzled by it, realising the lift doors at the top had been opened. A voice called down.

‘Mr Jennings, one thing I admire about you is, you’re persistent.’

‘Lee, you bastard!’

‘Indeed … However now you’ve found Chloe-Jane. I hope it was worth it.’

The first bullet from Mr Lee ricocheted round the lift shaft. Sparks of light blasted into the air. Alfie dived down, thudding down hard on top of the lift roof. The lift screeched, banging into the sides, creaking loudly as Chloe-Jane began to scream.

‘It’s going to fall!… Uncle Alfie!’

Alfie, still lying on his stomach, called out to Chloe. ‘It’s fine …’ The next bullet whisked past Alfie’s head, penetrating the metal of the lift.

‘Chloe! Get down … Huddle in the corner, Chloe!’

Pulling his gun out of his pocket, Alfie fired upwards, not able to see where he was shooting. The sound of more bullets was heard within the lift shaft but Alfie didn’t know if they were ricochets and echoes or Mr Lee firing multiple bullets.

He tried to stand up and hold onto the cable which held the lift, but it caused it to clatter too far to the side, smashing into the steel wall. Alfie crouched down with the sparks still flying around him.

Trying to picture where the lift doors were at the top of the shaft, Alfie aimed. There was silence for a moment … And then … And then … Oh my God. He looked up. The noise was deafening as the roar of grinding and whirring began above him. The hum of the cables broken, whistling, unlooping from their tethers as they picked up speed came towards him. And then Alfie felt the vibration, the groaning, the shaking as the lift began to give way.

He yelled out, hanging onto the edge of the hatch whilst his cries were drowned out by the clatter of steel thudding and pound-ing against the wall as the lift hurtled down, careering towards the ground, plunging down as sparks whisked out from the sides, sending out a glow as metal scraped against metal at high speed.

Then it was over. Obscure silence … Darkness … stillness … And then, a voice.

‘Chloe-Jane?’

‘Uncle Alfie.’

‘Are you okay?’

‘Yes. Are you?’

‘Yes.’

Alfie slowly felt for his phone, switching on the light. He moved slightly to the side, and to his horror and Chloe’s screams the lift juddered down another foot into the darkness of the lift shaft.

‘Chloe, stay still baby.’ Alfie wriggled over, slowly stretching his arm downwards towards his niece. ‘Chloe, slowly move towards my hand.’

The movement from Chloe trying to move across from her spot in the lift made it plunge down another two feet as the cable at the top threatened to give way. Alfie shouted out.

‘Stay where you are! Don’t move!… Chloe, don’t move … Chloe, listen to me. I’m going to …’

Chloe interrupted. ‘You can’t leave me! Uncle Alfie, you can’t!’

Alfie closed his eyes for a moment, wanting to take her in his arms. ‘I ain’t leaving you … Remember what I said, girl. I ain’t leaving you again. But I am going to go and get help. Franny, Del, Lola and Frankie are here. They’re all here, sweetheart. They’ve all come to help you, but I need to go and tell them where we are. So I need you to be brave. Which ain’t no trouble for a Jennings girl, hey!’

‘Okay … Okay.’

‘That’s my girl. But Chloe, don’t move babe. Just don’t move.’

Alfie gave one last look to Chloe as he carefully backed up towards the ladder. He reached behind him, pulling his full body slowly off the lift roof.

He called once more. ‘I’ll be back, Chloe, I promise you and then there’s no getting rid of me, darlin’.’

Alfie began to climb up the ladder faster than he’d climbed down it. Once more it felt like he was against the clock. Before he reached the service access door, the climb took Alfie past a large air conditioning tunnel. He was about to ignore and climb on but it struck him if Mr Lee was still about, the obvious place he’d be waiting would be at the service door.

At least going through the tunnel he’d avoid being seen, and from his days long ago as a burglar he knew that any air vent tunnel in old buildings not only led to the outside of the building but also had regular maintenance points accessible through unlocked grilles.

The tunnel was large enough for Alfie to shuffle comfortably through on all fours. He passed two grilles but they were jammed shut; at the third grille he stopped, making sure there was no one about. Satisfied it was safe to continue, Alfie pulled on the grille, surprised at how easily it opened.

He paused again, double checking that the sound of the grille being moved hadn’t attracted attention, then slowly he lowered himself down into the dimly lit room. It felt like the middle of the night, but a large clock on the wall told him it was still only five o’clock.

In front of him was a door which led to the outside fire exit and, wanting to waste no time, Alfie ran over to it, preparing to smash the glass. But once close up, he could see it was already ajar.

Outside on the fire escape, Alfie immediately got his bearings. He was at the side of the building, near to where he’d parked his car. Which meant the entrance and more importantly, help, was round the corner.

Running down the stairs and into the car park, Alfie began to head towards the front of the building to raise the alarm. As he raced on, a sound of an engine, loud and clear, came from behind him. He turned, expecting to see a familiar face or one of Spencer’s men – but sitting at the wheel of the car was Mr Lee.

A smiling Mr Lee revved the engine hard of the stationary car as Alfie locked eyes with him. The car began to crawl forward, then a second later it sped towards Alfie at high speed. Alfie drew his gun and pulled the trigger. It clicked, but nothing else happened. He clicked again, desperately over and over again, realising he was out of bullets.

Closing his eyes, Alfie threw his whole body to the side, diving to the ground and covering his head as he waited for the impact of the car; but as he did so, he heard the sound of two shots and then an explosion.

He looked up in time to see Mr Lee’s car bursting into a ball of flames before it plunged into the canal.

Alfie watched, mesmerised, not by the torrent of smoke, not by the car sinking into the murky waters but by Franny Doyle as she walked towards him, smoking gun in hand. She smiled.

‘Fran … I, Jesus, you saved my life.’

Franny looked at him and smirked playfully. ‘It was nothing; I only shot out the tyres; thought it was best that way. I don’t want Spencer pulling me up for murder. Anyway, I owed you one.’ She winked knowingly at Alfie, then her face fell. ‘Alfie, I’m sorry, we haven’t found Chloe.’

Alfie, helped up by Franny, began to run to the front entrance. ‘Well, I have.’

Without question Franny ran behind him. They raced across the car park to be greeted by Spencer and the others.

Frankie nodded towards the flames. ‘What the hell?’

‘It’s a long story, I’ll tell you later but for the time being it’s going to go like this. I’ve found Chloe.’

The cry of relief was sounded out by everyone, including Spencer.

‘But we need to move fast. She’s in the lift, and it’s about to give way. It dropped down …’

Del spoke up. ‘Jesus, that must have been the noise we heard. One fucking almighty bang. We thought there’d been a bomb. Jesus …’ Before Del had finished his sentence another car sped past them, skidding round, sending billows of dust and grit in the air.

Spencer looked startled. ‘What the …’

Alfie, getting a glimpse of the driver, gave Spencer the answer he was after. ‘It’s Lin. That’s Lin. He’s Lee second-in-command, but we can sort him out later – we need to go to Chloe, now! Lola, you call the ambulance and fire brigade and whoever else you think can help. Come on guys, this way!’

They all followed Alfie as he rushed through the building and back up the service stairs, taking them as many as he could at a time. He shouted loudly.

‘Chloe, Chloe-Jane, we’re coming babe!’

At the top landing, by the open lift doors, Frankie caught up with Alfie. ‘Where is she?’

‘Down there, in the lift somewhere between halfway and the bottom.’ He flashed his mobile phone torch on, trying to light up the lift shaft to show Frankie, picking out the service ladder as it ran down into the distance.