Cause of Death (24 page)

Abruptly, he changed direction, striking out across the busy road, until he spotted Tomas, running parallel and now on the opposite pavement and heading him off.

‘Shit.' Jerry's lungs burned. He was fit and fast but fear and adrenalin tightened his airways and made his limbs feel like lead. He spun around and headed back the way he had come, catching Santos off guard but only for a split second. They were both on his heels now and Jerry could hear the shouts and yells of shoppers who found themselves in the way.

And then he spotted his chance, only a slim chance but it was there. A man had pulled up at the side of the road to let his passenger out. He seemed unaware of the panic on the street.

Jerry launched himself at the car, tugging at the door. The man turned in panic, yelped in fear that was nothing compared to the terror Jerry was now feeling.

‘Out. Get the fuck out.'

The man fumbled with his seat belt and Jerry could almost feel Santos's breath on his back. He pulled the man out of the car and on to the road. The shoppers had seen him now and someone shouted in protest. The passenger was screaming on the pavement. A police officer ran from the opposite side of the road and Santos swerved away as he spotted him.

Jerry slammed the door shut and gunned the engine, taking off in first and redlining before he managed to shift the gears. The driver had been shorter and the seat too close to the wheel and pedals for Jerry's long legs. Jerry hurtled down the road, narrowly avoiding the line of cars stopping at the lights. Behind him was mayhem. This was not the discreet exit Jerry had been hoping for. He wondered just how many of the crowd would have captured events on their mobile phones, and how many CCTV pictures there would be of his dramatic escape.

You've done it now, Jerry. Boy have you done it now.

At the end of the road he went with the flow and turned left. No way was he going to be able to use this as a getaway car. But he had to get away from the bloody CCTV cameras before he could do anything more. First chance he got, he swung the car down a side road and then into another, finally pulling into the drive of a semi-detached house. He got out and looked back down the road. No one there, just the slow flow of normal traffic and a single dog walker.

Jerry crossed the road, knowing that time was very much against him. He began to walk, looking for a way to get off the street. He cut down a passageway between a house and a shop, found it led only to a back garden, but at least he was off the road and out of sight. He paused to take stock. He needed a car, but first he needed to put more distance between himself and the hotel. Closing his eyes, he visualized the route he had just taken, working out where he was in relation to Haines and the rest. The sound of a police siren jolted him back to the here and now. He listened as it became louder and then faded again, obviously heading towards the chaos he had created on the main road. A moment later he heard a second siren, then a third.

At least, Jerry thought, that might make Haines think twice about sending out his men. Santos and Tomas, like Jerry, would have been seen, could be identified. Haines would recall them and keep them close. With luck . . .

Cautiously, Jerry left the shelter of the little alleyway, checking no one saw him as he stepped back on to the street and walked away.

T
oday it was Karen who was waiting when George and Ursula got out of school. George was dumbfounded.

‘What the hell are you doing here?'

‘Well, hello to you too, little brother. Don't worry, I won't be stopping, I just need you to get this to Mac. Bit of luck and it'll sort out Haines and a bit more besides.' She held out a large Manila envelope.

‘What is it?' George demanded.

‘Just some papers. It won't bite. Just take it to Mac for me.'

It was Ursula who reached out and took it from her. ‘Are you leaving for good now?'

Karen smiled at her, but unusually for Karen it was a genuine smile with no sense of threat in it. ‘I'm leaving, yes.'

‘For good?' George sounded uncertain now. ‘Will I see you again?'

‘Maybe. One day. I'll send postcards. George, you'll be OK. Oh, and Rina should be in touch soon, she's got some news for you that I hope will make everything a bit easier.'

‘What news?'

‘Oh, she'll explain. Goodbye, kiddo. I love you, don't forget that.'

George nodded. His fists were clenched and his face white beneath the freckles. He watched as his sister turned and walked away. Watched until he was certain she would not look back. His shoulders sagged and he tried hard not to cry.

Ursula reached out and took his hand. ‘Come on,' she said ‘or we'll be keeping the minibus waiting again.'

Kendall had managed to supply an officer to look out for George between school and bus. He wasn't convinced there was a need, but Mac had pricked his conscience. When Karen had approached, DC Colin Brady had watched, wondering if he should intervene. He didn't know who the dark-haired young woman was, only that the kids seemed to know her and the boy seemed upset.

He watched the handover of the envelope with interest, wondering what it meant, and then took pictures of all three participants with his mobile phone and sent them to Kendall. Finally he began to tail the two teenagers to the bus stop.

The woman's voice was soft and educated. Something made him notice that. What he noticed more was the something she had pressed against his back.

‘And you are?' Karen said.

‘DC Brady. I'm DC Brady.'

‘And what are you doing here?'

‘I'm watching George Parker. Keeping an eye.' Brady could hear the shake in his voice and he was ashamed of it. What the hell was she going to do?

‘Alone, DC Brady?'

He nodded.

‘Then you'd best go and do your job. Don't turn around, DC Brady. I'll know if you do.'

Brady froze. Whatever it was had gone from the middle of his back. He swallowed hard, wondering if he dared to turn around.

‘Well, go on then,' Karen said. ‘They're getting way ahead of you.'

Stiff-legged, Brady walked on. When he did dare to look around he saw only an empty street. He was torn between chasing after the girl and watching over the kids, and furious with himself for being such a wuss. Not sure what else to do, he followed George and called DI Kendall.

‘I'm guessing you just met Karen Parker,' Kendall told him. ‘Think yourself lucky, Col. The last two men to get that close to her ended up dead.'

A
ndy drove past Ted's house. Ted's car wasn't there and he felt slightly relieved. He had to act, but not just yet. That morning he'd followed Frank Baker's advice and handed everything over to Mac, but he still couldn't rest easy. He noticed that the For Sale sign had been taken down. So Ted was no longer planning to move. That was a sudden decision. In a way it just reinforced Andy's suspicions: the rest of Kath Eebry's bones must still be at the house. The publicity and excitement must have made it impossible for him to dispose of them and so now he'd decided that he dare not move.

Andy hated his job at that moment, but he also knew in that instant what he had to do. Ted Eebry had been his friend.

What to do with the envelope Karen had given him? So many things went through George's mind on the trip home, but it seemed that Ursula had decided for them. She had texted Mac and said they needed to see him. Now, tonight, but not at Hill House. By the time they reached home, it was arranged. They would meet DI MacGregor on the cliff path in half an hour. They dumped their bags and went back outside, slipping across the lawn on to the public footpath and heading towards Frantham and the De Barr hotel.

Mac arrived about ten minutes after they did.

‘We can't stop,' Ursula said. ‘Cheryl is a stickler for meal times, you know.'

‘I know,' Mac agreed. He took the envelope from them. ‘Have you opened this?'

‘No, we thought best not to. We just wanted it gone.'

‘How are you both?' Mac asked. ‘I'm sorry for lately . . . I've been clumsy. I'm sorry.'

‘We're OK,' George said. ‘Don't worry about it. We'll be all right. Right, better go.'

Mac watched as they walked away, wondering if he should offer to go with them, anxious that they should not be out alone, despite the fact it was only a ten-minute walk back to Hill House and he could see from where he stood that the path was empty even of other walkers. He watched them anyway, and it was only as they left the path and returned to the gardens of Hill House that he turned back towards his car.

Only a few miles from where they stood on the cliff top, Haines was preparing to board his yacht. He was in a fine fury. Karen Parker was now far from his mind; the new target of his rage was Jerry Mason.

Santos and Tomas were ready to leave. The address of Louise Mason, Jerry's ex-wife, was in their hands, as were instructions to deal with both her and Jerry. And they were to do it any way they liked, Haines didn't care.

Santos was relishing the idea.

Haines warned them: ‘Don't come back with the job half done.'

M
ac had been about to call DI Kendall when his phone rang and Kendall saved him the bother. Mac found himself being summoned to Dorchester and an hour later was sitting in a hastily assembled incident room in the bar of a rather smart hotel.

‘Jerry Mason,' Kendall said when he met Mac in the lobby.

‘Your undercover man.'

‘Not any more. He made a rather dramatic exit about three o'clock this afternoon. Oh, and your Karen was spotted meeting her brother out of school. I put a man on point, Karen spotted him. I sent him home to change his pants.'

‘She's not my Karen,' Mac said. ‘And I know.'

Kendall looked at the package he held. ‘Ah,' he said. ‘The envelope. My man sent me pictures. What's in it?'

‘That,' Mac said, ‘is a good question, but Karen seemed to think it would be effective against Haines.'

Kendall sniffed. ‘Doesn't smell like garlic,' he said. ‘Right, come on through and I'll introduce you.'

There were nine people present in the little conference room. Mac didn't catch all their names, but one of them was called Didcott and it seemed he had been responsible for Jerry. It was also obvious that he was hopping mad, though Mac was not immediately sure if it was with Jerry or with another man who, Mac gathered, had been responsible for not agreeing to a more dignified exit from Haines's crew.

They showed him pictures of Jerry's precipitate escape captured from CCTV.

‘Mobile phone footage is already making it on to YouTube,' Kendall said, ‘and the local media will lap up everything else.'

They also had pictures of Karen talking to Ursula and George. Mac laid the contents of the envelope on the table. The man called Didcott shuffled through the pages. He stopped at one that showed a list of figures; one group had been circled.

‘You did this?' he asked of Mac.

‘No. Karen must have done. It's the same set of numbers as were on the slip of paper Jerry gave to Stan Holden and I gave to Kendall.'

From the glances cast around the table, Mac gathered that not everyone was au fait with the Stan Holden connection. He decided he would leave that for Kendall to explain.

‘You have no idea where she got this from?' Didcott asked.

Mac shook his head. ‘I think she believes it will bring Haines down and that will protect her brother. That's all I know.'

‘And that's assumption,' someone else commented.

Mac shrugged. ‘Is it a correct assumption?'

‘Oh yes,' Didcott approved. ‘And taken with Jerry Mason's testimony it will do a great deal more. So we'd better make bloody sure Jerry survives to testify.'

‘How do we know he will? If he's gone rogue . . .'

‘If he had he'd have stayed with Haines,' Didcott said irritably. ‘He ran because he'd reached his limits, most likely because he knew his cover was compromised. He'd reached out to us three times and each time we let him down. What the hell else was he supposed to do?'

‘Does he have family?' Mac asked quietly. ‘It's the way Haines keeps his people in line. His ultimate sanction.'

‘Very poetic,' Didcott said. ‘His parents are dead, no siblings or close family, but he does have an ex-wife. She divorced him and we lost track of her. I believe Jerry did too.'

‘Haines will know where she is,' Mac said.

S
omehow, Jerry had believed there would be more time. That he'd be able to call Louise and warn her and she would listen to him and get away somewhere before the danger could get to her.

But here, the luck that had stayed with him for the rest of the day seemed to have run dry. The phone rang and there was no answer. Louise was not home so she could not be warned.

Three times he tried and three times the phone rang out into empty space. In desperation he tried her parents' old number but someone else answered the phone.

They had moved a year ago and no, the new tenant did not know where, and why should he tell Jerry if he did?

‘Who are you?' the man asked, worried by Jerry's tone and his insistence. ‘Who the hell are you?'

Jerry had hung up. What to do, what to do?

He thought of calling Didcott, but didn't know if he could trust the man to help after all the recent failures to assist him. He needed help, someone who could get through to Louise before Haines's men arrived.

He could steal another car, drive up there, hope to stay ahead of them.

No, too risky. Haines had resources. Fast cars, probably men close to where Louise lived that he could call upon. Jerry had already wasted too much time. In the end he could think of only one place to go for help, and he wasn't even sure where that was, only that it was somewhere in Frantham.