The Coercion Key (27 page)

Jenna shrugged in the darkness. She’d got to five people in a way that had almost been the perfect crime, this should be easy. Anger flooded through her; it would have been the perfect crime if Craig and his cronies hadn’t interfered. Suicides, notes and nothing but a decorative key to give a clue. No-one should ever have worked it out. But Craig had and now he had to be dealt with before she could leave. She patted the new airline ticket in her pocket and glanced at the dashboard clock. Almost nine p.m., plenty of time to finish off Craig and catch the early flight to Heathrow, then on to the Far East where her new life could really begin.

Craig fixed his eyes straight ahead as he drove through every shortcut he knew until he finally reached the apartment complex he called home. Jenna Graham would be at least ten minutes behind them. He’d seen her moving through the shadows beside St Joseph’s church as he’d driven down Pilot Street. It would take her two minutes to reach her car and ten more gained by his knowledge of Belfast’s streets.

Craig pulled sharply into a free parking slot and Sinclair jumped out the passenger door, blocking sight of Liam and Annette’s exit from the street. They slipped into the shadows while Craig and Sinclair strode openly towards the apartment block’s front door. As Craig made a show of seating Sinclair inside the street-level entrance, Annette and Liam took the stairs silently to Craig’s fourth floor flat.

Craig loitered, talking with Sinclair until a pair of approaching dipped headlights said that the game was about to commence. Craig spoke as loudly as he could without it sounding like a shout.

“Stay here, please. There’s no entrance to the apartments other than through this door, so you’ll see everyone who comes in.”

Sinclair nodded and took his seat facing the car-park, folding his arms and scouring the darkened space with vigilant eyes. As Craig turned towards the stairs Jenna watched him go, formulating her plan. What Craig had said was right; there was no entrance except past the guard. Clever. She corrected herself instantly, clever in one way but stupid in another. If she could get past the Neanderthal then she was home free, with only a flimsy apartment door between her and her prey.

Jenna scrutinised the man sitting by the entrance; he just looked like the usual bulky grunt. Good with a gun but without much between his ears. If she’d known Ian Sinclair’s background her blood would have run cold. She scanned the area around his chair. There was no paper by his feet and no sign of a photograph anywhere. If they’d known what she looked like then they would have given him an image to match. Craig wasn’t so clever after all. The guard had no way to prove she wasn’t a resident.

Jenna shook her head immediately at the idea. No, she couldn’t be a resident or she would have had a front door key. Damn! Why hadn’t she thought ahead? She could easily have made one. She thought for a moment longer then tugged the front of her jumper down, revealing an inch of her hard-won cleavage. She’d pretend to be a visitor to someone in the block. The thought of posing as Craig’s girlfriend made her smile then she dismissed it as a trick too far. The guard would have been told if Craig was expecting visitors. She got out of the car then turned to lift her handbag from the passenger seat, deliberately leaning in to display her bottom, certain that the testosterone-ridden guard wouldn’t have missed the view.

She was right. As Jenna locked the car and strolled towards the apartment block she saw the smile in Ian Sinclair’s eyes, just not where it was coming from. She slipped her hand inside her bag, gripping her gun’s handle just in case, but there was no need to fire a shot. The guard stood to open the door for her as she approached.

Ian Sinclair ran his eyes over the redhead as she walked towards him, pretending to find her attractive just as he’d been briefed to do, but he was shocked by his body’s genuine response. Craig had shown him the images before they’d left the squad so that he would recognise her, but the sketch didn’t do her justice. The woman walking towards him was stunning and he’d defy any man he knew to say anything else.

Her legs were long and shapely, encased in tight black jeans, and her slim waist lay beneath a pair of high, full breasts. But it was her face that really made him gasp. It was perfect, with a pair of wide cheekbones that framed eyes so blue that he’d have thought they were lenses, if he hadn’t seen the same eyes in the photo of James Mulhearn from 2004. Long fire-red hair fell heavily to her shoulders, past soft lips that promised everything but gave nothing away.

Sinclair noted her slim hand resting inside her bag, but he was confident that he could beat her in any draw. He spoke first.

“Good evening, Madam. I’m sorry to ask, but could you tell me your name and which flat you’re visiting please?”

Jenna smiled, watching his gaze wash over her body and confident that he didn’t know who she was. Her voice surprised him, although it probably shouldn’t have done. He’d expected some incongruity, a rougher voice than her body would suggest, but he was wrong. Her voice was low but indisputably female.

“I’m visiting my boyfriend in apartment forty-five. My name’s Jane Garston.”

Sinclair smiled inwardly. She’d kept the same initials and chosen a flat as far away from Craig’s as she could, on the other side of the block. He nodded.

“Thank you. I’m sorry I had to ask. Bit of a security issue.”

Jenna feigned concern then turned to walk towards the lift. She was halted again by Sinclair’s voice.

“Sorry, Miss. The lift’s out. You’ll need to walk.”

Jenna shrugged and turned towards the stairs. It would only defer Craig’s fate for a moment. Ian Sinclair watched her ascend and heard her heels move onto the second floor then he slipped out his phone and quietly made the call.

***

Liam had been moaning for a solid five minutes, complaining at having to squash his six-feet-six frame into the space beneath Craig’s breakfast bar. Annette hissed at him from her position behind the settee.

“Shut up, Liam. She’ll be here soon and she’s not deaf!”

Liam made a face. “It’s all right for a pygmy like you, but I’m a man. I’m breaking my neck here.”

Craig broke his silence to hiss. “If you don’t shut up I’ll break it for you. Annette’s right. Be quiet.”

Liam made another face then stuck out his tongue at Annette. Craig sighed, knowing exactly what he was doing even though he couldn’t see. He reached across to the coffee table and lifted his cup, cursing the body armour beneath his sweatshirt for its bulk. It was hard to get comfortable wearing thirty pounds of body armour and a bloody great gun strapped to your hip. Their grumbles were interrupted by a single beep of Craig’s phone and Sinclair’s name flashing up. She was on her way.

Craig signalled to Liam and Annette then dimmed the lamp beside him. The only thing that Jenna Graham would see when she entered the apartment was his silhouette against the TV’s flickering glow. The poor light would conceal Liam and Annette’s presence but give Graham enough visibility to take her shot.

Annette had objected vociferously to the plan.

“Why can’t you just sit in the dark? She’d have to find you and we’d grab her before she had time to shoot.”

“And what would that give us, if you couldn’t see her raise the gun? Breaking and entering and possession of a weapon. We couldn’t prove that she’d intended anything but burglary. No. I want her for the full whack.”

“Whack being the operative word, sir.”

She’d looked at Liam for support but he’d agreed with Craig’s suggestion.

“Aye… aye, you’re right. OK, boss. The full Monty it is then, but you’d better hope that she’s a crappy shot.”

Annette snorted. “You’d better hope she has a sense of humour if you’re doing the full Monty.”

So the plan had been hatched. Craig would give Jenna Graham sufficient target to aim her gun at, and Annette and Liam would stop her firing. That was the plan anyway.

Craig held his breath as Graham’s high-heeled footsteps halted outside his apartment door. He tensed as the lock was manipulated, calculating that it would take Graham around twenty seconds to break through. It was only a Yale and they were easy to crack. Craig’s hand moved slowly to his Glock and he slipped it onto his knee, ready to shoot. What they’d all reckoned without was a crowd of drunken students in the Stranmillis streets outside.

Just as Craig’s front door slipped open, a series of loud cracks erupted in the street below, followed by the sound of glass shattering and a girl’s high-pitched scream. It was all the distraction that Jenna Graham needed. She burst into the open-plan living room and took in the scene in a glance, pointing her gun straight at Craig’s head. Craig moved just as she took the shot and the bullet caught him square on the right upper arm, knocking his gun out of his hand and onto the floor.

Graham raced across the room towards him, passing the breakfast bar just as Liam stumbled numb-legged from his hiding place. Cramp slowed him down just long enough for Graham to turn and take aim at Liam’s chest, pumping two shots into him so fast that he had no time to catch his breath. Liam was thrown back against the breakfast bar and slid unconscious to the floor, as Graham considered whether to finish him off with a head shot or kill the man she’d come to kill. In the time it took her to turn back to Craig, Annette was on her feet and standing between Graham and her prey.

“Armed police. Drop the gun or I’ll shoot.”

Jenna Graham had no decision to make. Every struggle she’d had since she’d been an orphaned teenage boy had been leading to this moment. Her revenge for her mother’s suicide, when she’d finally given up struggling against the people who’d refused to help. Her fight against the male body that she’d been born with, to become the woman she’d known she’d been all her life. And now this woman, who’d probably taken her female body for granted since she’d been born; this woman was standing between her and the thing she wanted, needed to do. No-one did that to her now. No-one.

In the moment it took Jenna Graham to make her choice Annette McElroy was making one of her own. She watched the fire grow in Graham’s eyes and her heart sank at what she knew she had to do. Time seemed to lengthen as she watched Graham turn a fraction towards Craig and fix her gun on him, just as Craig stretched a blood-stained left hand towards his own. It was too far for him to reach in time and Annette knew exactly where Graham’s gun was aimed. She was going for a head-shot so that Craig would never hunt anyone again.

Annette sent up a prayer and eased her finger slowly against the trigger of her Glock, knowing that she had no choice except shoot to kill. Chest or arm couldn’t guarantee that Graham was stopped in time; she was a woman possessed. Behind the fire in Jenna Graham’s eyes Annette had read insanity as clear as day.

As Graham fixed her sights on Craig, Annette did the same to her and fired. She couldn’t see the bullet but she saw the effect it had. Graham’s head jerked back at an angle and blood spewed red across her face as she was propelled sideways across the room. Her gun dropped from her hand just as the door flew open and Ian Sinclair rushed in, gun drawn, to see Jenna Graham lying wide-eyed upon the floor. Annette moved quickly to Liam, shouting orders at Sinclair.

“Check the boss and call an ambulance. They’ve both been shot.”

As Sinclair made the call Craig moved quickly to Liam’s side, feeling for his pulse just as Annette ripped open his shirt. The rhythmic throbbing at Liam’s neck made Craig fall back against the settee in relief. Annette reached beneath Liam’s bulletproof vest to his chest and her fingers returned unstained. She motioned Sinclair to help strip it off so that she could examine him. Two large contusions were forming on the right side of Liam’s ribs but Graham’s bullets hadn’t managed to pierce the skin.

Sinclair pointed to Liam’s ancient vest. It had two extra ballistic plates stitched inside it, front and back. Craig laughed as hard as he could, given the hole in his arm.

“Typical Liam. I bet he’s had that thing since The Troubles.”

Annette snorted. “I’m surprised it still fits him with the size of his paunch. That’s probably why he was moaning so much earlier.”

Liam groaned and Annette looked anxiously at him.

“Liam, Liam, are you OK?”

He turned his head slowly towards her.

“Keep still. You’ve been shot in the chest.”

Liam croaked some words that they could barely make out then he turned his head so quickly that he fell back against the counter, blacking out again. Annette raised her eyes to heaven and went to examine Craig just as the paramedics arrived. She pointed to Liam.

“Check this one first please. He took two bullets to the chest. There are no penetrating injuries but he has bad bruising and he keeps blacking out. He might have a lung contusion. Superintendent Craig was shot in the right biceps.” She peered expertly at Craig’s arm. “It looks like a through and through.”

Annette rushed across the room and scanned the area around Craig’s settee for the bullet. She found it embedded in a wooden book-shelf mounted on the wall. She pulled out her phone to call the C.S.I.s. and Craig beckoned her across.

“Get Des to lead on this, Annette. I want this scene airtight.”

Craig winced as the paramedic tightened a bandage around his arm, to stem the blood still oozing from his wound. He watched as Annette’s eyes were drawn irresistibly to the body on the floor and then filled with tears.

“Look at me, Annette.”

Craig’s voice was so firm that Annette instantly acquiesced. She hunkered down beside him and kept her eyes fixed on his. When he spoke his voice was even softer than usual and slowed by pain, but his words were clear.

“Thank you, Annette, you saved our lives.”

“I…”

Craig silenced her objections with a glance. “If she’d killed me she’d have finished off Liam next. She was insane, Annette. Whatever logic she started her revenge spree with wasn’t there tonight. Trust me, she was insane. I saw it in her eyes. No amount of reasoning would have stopped her.”

Annette nodded, he was right. She’d seen the insanity as well, that was why she’d had to shoot. But it didn’t stop her regretting that she’d had to take a life. Craig beckoned to the paramedic.