American Crow (2 page)

Chapter Two

‘the call’

St Osyth, Essex.

Around 6 months later.

I
sprang up from the sweat-soaked covers gasping, as if I’d
just risen to the surface of the water again all those months ago in France.
The rain was hammering down hard now. So much so, I thought it was going to
drill its way through the trailer roof and sweep me away.

I cursed and looked at the clock, then
what was left of the candle I’d lit for Laura’s eighteenth. I wondered if it
had died at exactly the same time as she’d been born. It wouldn’t have
surprised me after everything that had happened...

I shuddered and played back the last few
desperate minutes again, my face pressed hard into my splayed fingers. Laura
hadn’t been taking her epilepsy tablets the whole time she’d been with me I
soon discovered afterwards, and like a fool I hadn’t thought about checking at
the time.

She was old enough to know that she had
to take them every day, but I hadn’t asked because I didn’t want to get all
heavy when we were just renewing our connection. I just wanted us to have some
fun...

To make matters worse, we’d shared more
than a few bonding drinks to celebrate our first real holiday together.
Mistake. The worst I’d made in my life. She wasn’t supposed to go near alcohol
either. I shook my head slowly. I thought her fits were something of the past,
that a couple of drinks wouldn’t hurt... 

At the funeral, Jackie had looked
straight through me as if I didn’t exist, as the one and only beautiful thing
between us was lowered slowly into the ground. And that was how I still felt
six months on...Transparent. Just like some of the people I’d rescued over the
years that had their personalities erased.

Fists thumping against the door yanked me
away from my sombre reflections, riling me in an instant. Today of all days, I
just didn’t want to be bothered. I wanted to hide until darkness fell again.

‘Blake, there’s a call for you, in the
site office.’

It was Clarissa. She worked on the
holiday park for Jerry, an old friend who allowed me to stay in one of the
statics on the cheap when I needed to get away.

‘It’s six-fifteen in the bloody morning,
girl,’ I shouted, my mind in a fog.

‘The guy says it’s important, that it’s a
business call.’

I shook my head in annoyance. I’d thrown
my phone in the Thames after the funeral so that I wouldn’t be bothered by
anyone. And I knew what this call was about. Lenny had finally tracked me down,
wanted me to look over some new case that no one else would take on.

When I moved out of Elephant, I told
everyone who was worth telling that I’d quit for good. End of. Fifteen years of
tracing work was enough for anyone. And I’d lost my fucking kid over it now.
Didn’t people understand that? I just wanted to be left alone... 

I staggered up, threw on a t-shirt and a
pair of combats, then stomped across the muddy ground in the downpour over to
the site reception, where I picked up the handset from the counter.

‘Yep?’ I said sharply.

‘Alright, son?’ 

‘Didn’t take you long,’ I replied
sternly, recognizing the low, gravelly tones. 

‘Ow you keeping? You looking after
yourself?’

I drew a sharp intake of breath.

‘How can I help, Lenny?’

‘A job’s come up that I think you should
consider, son. I know you said...’

‘I quit, remember?’

‘And how long is
that
going to
last exactly?’ he said bluntly.

‘As long as it does…’

‘But it wasn’t permanent, right? Everyone
says they’re going to quit from time to time, even when things get tough, but I
know you’re bigger than that, Blakey.’

Silence. It was too early for this sort
of conversation.

‘Look, I really need your help on this
one...’

I ran a hand slowly over my face trying
to wake myself up.

‘What about Adam?’

‘He’s on a new case in Thailand. Jo’s
still tied up with the fraud job over at Canary Wharf, and Zac’s in East Africa
trying to find that millionaire’s wife who’s gone walkabouts.’ 

‘I thought you would have taken someone
else on by now, Lenny? There’s loads of guys out there just busting a gut to
come and work for you.’

‘Look, I want someone I can trust on this
one, Blake. Someone I know who can handle a difficult job and bloody well
finish it. That’s the way I work, you know that. And it’s why Baxter’s has got
such a good reputation, which you helped create, remember...’

I sighed and nearly put the phone down
then thought better of it. I’d heard his platitudes before when he wanted to
work on me for some job no one else fancied.     

‘You still there?’

‘Yes...’ I said eventually.

A phlegm-infused cough echoed down the
line. I waited patiently until it had abated.

‘I’ve just got a feeling about this one.
You know how it is...’     

‘Like all the other crap jobs you give
me?’ I said.

‘Like all the jobs I give you because no
one else can pull them off, Blakey.’

 I absorbed the compliment and
waited for him to continue.   

‘All I’m asking is that you come into the
office this morning and have a little chat. I’ll cover the expenses to get
here. All you have to do is listen to my proposal, and that’s that. If you’re
not interested then you’re not interested, okay? No pressure.’

I thought about it for a second while I
listened to his heavy breathing on the end of the line then changed my mind
suddenly.

‘It better be good...’

‘It will be.’

I hung up and wandered over to the site
cafe where Sheila, Jerry’s wife, was opening up early, much to my relief. I
needed to eat. I needed distracting.

‘Hey...bit early for you, aint it?’ she
said, stubbing her cigarette out on the steps.

‘I’m hungry.’

She welcomed me in and wiped over the
Formica table then came back and cleaned my muddy footprints off the floor.

‘What’s up? Couldn’t sleep, babe?’ she
said softly, mop in hand.

‘Something’s in the works. Lenny Baxter
rang about a new job.’

She pulled a face.

‘I thought you’d quit?’

‘So did I. But you know him...he never
takes no for an answer.’

She gave me one of her warmer smiles,
which was different to the ones she gave the other punters, then turned and
headed back into the kitchen. I walked over to the newspaper rack, grabbed a
tabloid, then turned to the sports pages to see what was happening to my
beloved Lions. No news, as ever...

I sat down in my usual spot and stared
mindlessly at the football headlines for a while, then looked up and stared at
my reflection in the glass, at the terrible bags under my eyes. My hair needed
clipping too. It was nearly an inch long. I sighed. The last few months had
taken its toll visibly. I didn’t recognize myself some mornings in the mirror
when I washed. When I did that was...

I shook my head and turned over the
paper. On the front was a picture of some convict who the police said shouldn’t
be approached. The guy looked crazy, his violent résumé reinforcing the
Neanderthal appearance above.

I stared at myself in the glass again,
disconcerted. I didn’t look that much different from the suspect in the photo
when it came down to it. We both had high cheek bones and square jaws, a
significant amount of piercings, and although his eyes were a reddish brown and
mine brown in one and blue in the other, they both had that lost look in them.
We both looked lost...

I looked down as Sheila slid the eggs and
bacon in front of me drawing me away from my moroseness. I didn’t like to admit
it, but Lenny’s call had excited me on some level too and I found that plain
distasteful.

I was sure I’d quit Baxter’s for good
after the funeral, in fact all tracing work and anything resembling private
investigation. End of. I’d made my vow at Laura’s graveside. I’d find something
else to do. Something...I shook my head slowly and dipped a corner of my toast
in the egg yolk. What in the hell was that going to be? 

It was flattering that Lenny had tapped
me up I supposed, rather than chancing his arm on a new face, but was I ready
to go back even if there was something decent on the table? Had I exorcised my
demons enough to get a difficult job done when it came down to it?

After all, the margins between winning
and losing were paper-thin sometimes, especially with cult extraction and
abduction cases. You had to be on your game. It wasn’t all checking electoral
rolls and e-mails, or sitting behind the wheel of a car on a stake-out; it
involved befriending people, creating an illusion to gain people’s trust so you
could illicit that vital information that unlocked that all important door. You
had to be clear-headed and confident, and right now I wasn’t sure if I was
either of those. I felt in limbo still.

To try and help, Jerry had organized it
for me to do some odd jobs around the site to keep me occupied, and we sank
more than a few beers occasionally at the local pub to raise the spirits, but
it wasn’t enough to halt that restlessness gnawing away in my guts since
September.

Trying to overhaul your life was like
trying to cut out a piece of your own flesh, and well, what did a guy like me
do when the majority of his natural had been spent tracking down people, been
spent living out of a suitcase...take up fucking golf?  

It didn’t take long for me to work my way
through breakfast as I worked through the alternatives. A few extra slices of
toast helped mop up any residue and clean the plate as if it had never been
used. I finished the gargantuan mug of tea, left a generous tip on the table as
usual, then gave Sheila a wink as I left to make her day.

Outside, I stood on the steps and looked
up at the heavy rain clouds passing overhead as if they would offer some sort
of answer, then gave up and headed back to the static to take a much needed
shower. A few minutes later I heard footsteps running in my direction.

‘Blake...’

I turned. It was Sheila. Perhaps she’d
set the cafe on fire again...

‘Darling, did you drop something?’

She held out her hand, finger extended. I
stared at the golden object hanging down from the black cord. It was Laura’s
necklace...

‘Where did you find that?’ I said,
shocked.

‘I found it under the newspaper rack, hun,’
she said almost apologetically, folding it carefully into my hand.

I stared at the letter L lying on my
palm, relieved to have it back. I’d brought it for Laura back in France, in
some tacky tourist shop on the seafront on our last day together. She’d loved
it and insisted I buy it for her there and then, even though it only cost a
euro. It was the first thing I’d brought her in a long long time, and
ironically it turned out to be the last.

I clipped it back around my neck,
berating myself for having lost it, then said my thanks and carried on walking,
thinking about how I’d failed Laura in every way a father could.

Back at the static I sat outside on the
steps like a fucking gnome, feeling wretched; then I smoked a stale cigarette
Jerry had given me as some of the other residents stirred and headed for
breakfast. There was definitely something brewing out there and heading my way
that was for sure. I could feel it in the air now, almost see it as a haze
creeping towards me like some poisonous spider.

I’d always had that sixth sense too, from
when I was just a kid, tracking down strangers on my BMX for my old man’s firm
back in the eighties, then later on when I became a professional and happened
to knock on the wrong door. Now, I had that same feeling and it was like hot
sand under my skin. As hot as it had been back on that beach all those months
ago...

I stepped inside the trailer and eyed the
near-empty bottle of vodka on the side-table, then thought better of it and put
the kettle on instead for the novelty. Then I listened to the Dead Kennedys on
volume ten and watched the sun rise higher through the crack in the curtains,
hoping that the proposal would be something different this time, that it
wouldn’t involve cult extraction or kidnap for once, and that it would pay well
in return, and maybe, just maybe, help me forget about everything that had
happened over the last six months, even it was just for a few measly hours…

Chapter Three

 ‘The meeting’

Lenny’s Office. Walworth. South
London.

The next day. Mid-Morning.

I
ignored the worried-looking guy sitting outside the office
and headed straight in. Lenny was sat behind his large mahogany desk as usual,
smoking one of his strong cigarettes and reading a copy of the Racing Post,
catching up on the form for the day, like he did most days before the phone
started ringing.

He let me get comfortable before he
looked up. Then he eyed me intently above the half-moon glasses perched halfway
down his flattened nose. I pointed a thumb in the direction of the door.

‘There’s someone waiting outside to see
you.’

‘He wants a job.’

I cracked an unfamiliar smile. Lenny
always made you wait. It was one of his little tests.

‘How have you been doing these days,
son...you know, since the funeral?’

I looked at him blankly. Lenny nodded
slowly looking concerned, like he always did to punters when they arrived with
their problems.

‘Indeed, indeed...’

Silence. I stifled the emotion at source.
That wouldn’t do. We eyed each other up for a minute or so, searching each
other out. Eventually he stooped down and pulled out a bottle of French brandy
from the bottom drawer, the stuff he knew I liked, then placed a couple of
glasses on the table between us. He talked as he poured.

‘My brother, Mickey, has got a very good
friend in the city called, Henry, who’s a bit posh, right. He works for some
big, banking corporation high up, over in Canary Warf.’

‘Right...’

‘And he’s got a problem.’

‘What sort of problem?’ I asked, tensing.

‘One that needs a great deal of know-how,
to sort...’

‘Go on.’

‘His teenage daughter, Olivia, has gone
missing.’

I nodded respectfully.

‘How old?’

‘Just turned eighteen, but acts a lot
older, he says.’

I took a generous mouthful from my glass,
swallowed, then enjoyed the burn, but not the irony of what I was hearing.

‘And he’s tried the official route I take
it? He’s done all the usual searches online, traced train and plane tickets,
social media sites, card purchases and reverse directories?’

‘He has...’

‘Police?’

‘They’re about as useful as a chocolate
pencil in this particular neck of the woods. Both the P.I’s he’s hired too
haven’t come up with the goods. One drew a blank after just a week’s work and
the other went off with his money and hasn’t been heard of since.’

I chewed my bottom lip, then over what he
was saying carefully.

‘And what neck of the woods is that
exactly?’

‘America...’

 I leant back and let out a loud
sigh, hands clasped behind my head.

‘Well that’s going to be a problem straight
away, isn’t it, Lenny?’

‘Not necessarily. You’ve been back since
the Vegas job, haven’t you?’

‘No, that was Canada. The Hendrick’s
case...’

He pulled a face as if mulling over what
he was going to say, then offered one of his manufactured smiles.

‘We can get around it, as always...’

I returned his gaze wondering what he
meant exactly. A warrant for my arrest was still out in Nevada. End of. Things
got messy out there at the end of that particular jaunt. There was a high
chance I could get stopped at the airport and thrown in the slammer from the
off, especially now things were tighter with Homeland Security.

For a moment I pushed the thought to one
side, still intrigued by the case.

‘So how long has she been gone? It’s not
uncommon for kids of that age to go on a walkabout, is it?’

Lenny leant back in his executive chair
and pushed his belly out, stretching his braces.

‘Problem is, is that no one has heard
from her in over six weeks and she’s been out there for over three months as it
is. She’s missed her flight home, and her visa’s run out her father says.’

I sat upright getting more interested.

‘Go on...’

‘She’s studying history of art or some
rubbish like that, and there lies the problem. She should be at home starting a
family, not studying some arty-farty crap. It’s what’s wrong with the world.’

‘And all the others are tied up you say?
I mean, Zac could do it. You wouldn’t have the worry of getting me in to the
States...’

Lenny sighed.

‘He’s out of the game for the next few
weeks, Blake, just like everyone else on the team. And as for someone new,
well, Henry needs someone he can trust out there, and so do I. He’s had it
dealing with American investigators, with the cops. Nothing’s happening. He’s
even been over himself for a weekend recently. He missed the girl’s eighteenth
birthday too. Her bloody eighteenth...’

Lenny leaned forwards and pointed one of
his fat, sausage fingers in my direction.

‘I need someone out there who can get
results quickly and cleanly, son, especially if she’s going through some
rebellious turn and is in the arse end of nowhere with some bad influences
around.

‘So…’ I said, trying to appear
uninterested.

‘If she’s run off for whatever reason,
it’s going to need someone out there who can talk her around quickly and talk
to her on her level. You can mix it with the worst, Blake, blend in with the
riff-raff... you know what I mean? You’re not some stiff Columbo type in a
mackintosh and never have been, and that’s why you get results on these sorts
of cases, where others can’t. Zac and Adam might be just a little too straight
for this one, even if they were available.’

Lenny inhaled deeply, exhaled, then
finished his drink with one long pull. As he placed the tumbler down, he eyed
me like he did when he was ready to hear a proper answer.

‘You in? It might do you good...’

The offer hovered before me like some
hypnotizing Cobra. Once I’d agreed that was that. Your word was your bond in
Lenny’s old-school world and I’d always respected that. My old man had worked
on the same principles too, before he’d disappeared on a job in Panama.

I side-stepped the issue a little longer,
needing time to think.

‘And you’ll be able to get me in to
America hassle free?’

He made a gesture with his
hands.  

‘Not an issue. You just keep your nose clean
while you’re there, and everything will be fine. I can sort it, as always...’

When Lenny said he could arrange things,
I believed him, but it just might be different to how I imagined it.
Uncomfortably different.

‘And this guy is prepared to pay some
serious cash is he? It might get expensive if she doesn’t want to return, or
has gone to ground somewhere. America is a big fucking country, Lenny.’

‘Find her and we get five clicks each on
top of the usual costs. Convince her to get on a plane then there is twenty on
the table.’

I pursed my lips and whistled.

‘Even split, of course.’

That meant the sweetener was probably
thirty. Lenny topped up the glasses and continued.

‘She’s his only daughter from his second
marriage right, and he adores her. The guy is climbing the walls with worry.
Find her Blakey. Take a photo. Get her to speak on the bloody phone to him, or
even better, bring her back over your shoulder and Henry pays big time. Simple
as that. But I need to know right now whether you’re in, so that he can find
another agency if we can’t do it. You know how it works...’

‘And it’s possible to meet him first?’

Lenny cracked a crafty smile.

‘He’s going to meet you this afternoon.’

Nice manoeuvre. If I turned him down, he
would ring Henry in front of me there and then and cancel, making me feel bad
enough to change my mind.

‘If I take the case on, it doesn’t mean
that I’m coming back for good, okay? I quit right...It’s just one last job.’

‘Of course…’ Lenny said with a poker
face.

I stared at the nude calendar on the wall
behind him and mulled over the offer for a final time.

‘Where in America did she fly to
exactly?’

‘Somewhere in Minnesota, he said. Can’t
remember the city. Been a bit snowed under the last few days with everything.
You know how it is...’

I took a deep breath and exhaled slowly
thinking about my promise to Laura, pursed my lips, blew out some air, stared
at the ceiling then down at my shoes, changed my mind twice, then reverted back
to my second last decision. I needed to do something, I was stagnating. I’d
been in a drunken stupor for the last few months and knew it was a one-way
ticket to oblivion.

It seemed like a straight forward job
once I’d got into the States. It didn’t sound like there were any strange sects
or cults involved, or crazed parent having abducted their kid at the expense of
the other party.

It could all be over in a few days if
things moved fast, and I could use the cash to pay for another trip to Panama
to try and pick up some fresh leads on the old man.

‘Look, I don’t know the area, and haven’t
got any contacts up there, but I’ll give it a shot.’

Lenny beamed ecstatically then held out
his pudgy hand to seal the deal.

‘I know you won’t let me down, son. Now
look, if you find out that she’s dead when you get there, then we still get the
ten, okay?’

I stared at him blankly.

‘Sorry, son, but it happens, doesn’t it?
I didn’t mean to offend you, you know that...’

‘It’s okay,’ I said, feeling my guts
tighten.

‘Plane leaves at ten a.m. tomorrow, from Heathrow.
It’s all sorted. You’re meeting Henry in St James’s Park at twelve o’clock
today.’

‘You weren’t bluffing then?’

‘I knew you would take it, Blakey. Men
like us get bored with nothing to do. It’s in our blood.’

I stared at his rotund mid-rift and thought
his comments amusing.

‘And it looks like you could do with some
fresh air too. You look pale, son, if you don’t mind me saying.’

I offered a deft nod, finished my drink
then headed outside. Halfway down the corridor I heard him shout out a final instruction.

‘Don’t go quiet on me, Blake. I want
regular updates while you’re there, even if it’s just to tell me about the
number of Yank birds you’re nobbing, okay?’

‘Will do...’ I replied, raising an
eyebrow at the perplexed guy still waiting in the lobby.

I jogged down the stairs feeling
strangely re-energized. Getting out of the country might be just what I needed
ironically. My only concern was where my head was now that I’d agreed to take
the case on. I didn’t feel physically fit or focused. And I was unsure of how
effective I’d actually be when I got out there, when I was trying to talk some
errant teenager into ending an adventure, or worse, bringing her back forcibly
if she wasn’t compliant. A girl I thought, heading down the street with my head
lowered, who was probably very much like the one I’d only just buried...