Gemini Rain (38 page)

‘Sorry, did you say something?’ the secretary inquired as she opened the office door.

‘Nice new offices Patricia,’ Lauren greeted her mother and then stopped in her tracks. Her face dropped when she realised who was in the office with Patricia, ‘Declan?’ she barely uttered his name.

‘
Jesus that’s her brother w
e got him! We got the bastard!’ Marc screamed to the others listening in the van hidden in the factory next door. O’Reilly told Marc to shut up; he wanted more a lot more.

Colombia –
Fear now dre
nched the air in the cramped prison cell
. Another crew member was taken away for questioning this time one of the English scriptwriters was singled
out. Everybody knew the police guards were
panicking, no confessions were coming forward despite their best efforts all they now had were a few grams of cocaine and two positive blood results, not the big haul the government were informing the newspapers about.

Jaqueline clung onto David, ‘I’m next,’ she screamed.

David returned her hug, reassuring her. Throughout the night he kept thinking of Lauren, what she would do or say in this type of crisis, knowing that she would find the strength to survive within herself not depending on others to lean on. It made him determined, ‘I’m going to survive this,’ he kept repeating to himself, ‘I’m going to get home.’ He amazed himself at how cal
m he felt, the heat in the
cell was stifling and he was sweating but the earlier churning he felt in his stomach was now gone.

Xavier stormed into the office,
his boss Alejandro turned to him, ‘
we can’t get anyone to confess are you sure the informer is correct.
’
The head of the police division, Alejandro hit the table, ‘What the hell is going on, Xavier!’

Both men stared at each other, unable to answer the question. Was the informant lying to them
to cover up another operation, what sh
ould they do? It took a lot of official persuasion to get permission to raid the hotel and Alejandro pulled many strings to get the court order.  This could hurt them and the government badly if the
y
didn’t get any results.

‘Is it possible to find the
informant again and take him in for questioning?’ Xavier asked his colleague.

‘If he’s still in the same hotel we traced the call to, yes.  I’ll send my top two officers to get him immediately.  Take in the two positive blood tests in for questioning next, perhaps we’ll get more from them, especially the woman.’

Xavier watched as Alejandro left the room, knowing full well the fool would not find his informant.  It was he who placed the call, an old favour was called upon and Xavier needed to work fast if he still wanted his p
ension to stay intact.  A police detective
’s pension was not enough and through his past 15 years work within these walls, he planned and schemed and made his connections.  Now he knew who his target was, he needed to ensure that the prisoner was shot as he was running away.  A foiled escape would cover the inquiry.

Ireland –
‘Are you surprised my dear?’ Patricia was delighted Lauren was so dumbstruck.

Lauren
restrained herself from the urge
to answe
r her mother back and checked
herself, ‘Declan, what
on earth are
you doing here?’

Her brother didn’t respond and nodded to Patricia, ‘We’re waiting for a call,’ she answered for him. Patricia didn’t show it but she was getting nervous the way Lauren was speaking. This was supposed to be acted out as a social visit, Lauren wasn’t to show any surprise at who might be in her office. As was Patricia’s nature she got straight to the point, ‘Where’s the file?’ Declan angrily turned to her and immediately she knew she shouldn’t have mentioned it aloud.

‘When will your call come through?’ Lauren quickly responded then turned on Declan, ‘Declan, did you kill Peter?’

Patricia
gasped
‘
what the hell was the bitch doing
!
’

Declan didn’t show any emotion, he just poured some tea and offered it to Lauren with a wry smile.

Lau
ren looked away with disgust, ‘y
ou bastard!’

They sat there in silence for nearly fifteen minutes. Declan’s mobile started playing Bach’s fifth symphony, he answered it quickly and for the first time ever he spoke in Patricia’s office but only talking in short one worded Spanish. He hung up, looking at Lauren he
said, ‘i
t’s over.’

Lauren was afraid to ask about David and stayed silent
.

‘We’ve done what we promised but
I don’t know what individuals are free.
Mother told you we couldn’t guarantee his safety once he left the police station.
Where’s the file Lauren?’ Declan was getting angry, he was revealing himself too much.

‘Did you kill Peter, Declan?’ Lauren repeated her earlier question as she stood up to leave.

He walked over to her and frisked her; he didn’t
find anything, no wires giving him reassurance he finally had her where he always wanted her
. Looking at her in the eyes he noticed she didn’t even flinch, ‘YES!’ he responded with venom.

Lauren hit him across the face he
just
smiled holding his
cheek. Taking three USB keys
from her jacket pocket
and threw
them at Patricia, ‘Peter destroyed all the paperwork, but I got to scan everything before he did. It’
s all there
I hope you both rot in hell for this.’ Turning she walked out of the office vowing never to trust again.

Patricia turned to Declan, ‘Is he really free?’

‘I don’t have t
hat much influence in the Columbian Police Force
Mother.  Like you Lauren doesn’t speak Spanish.’

Patricia eyed her son, ‘What have you done Declan?’

Declan smiled, it was a smile Patricia recoiled from, ‘Lauren will soon find out she’ll be attending yet another loved one’s funeral.  My poor, poor sister.’

As Lauren drove away she looked in her rear
-
v
iew mirror, Marc’s van and five
police cars were already outside the premises they were entering with guns t
o the ready, ‘Christ that poor r
eceptionist won’t know how to greet those visitors,’ Lauren whispered.

The plan was for her to meet up with Paul at the safe house, but Lauren opted for another route. She needed to do something first, an apology was in order, knowing there wouldn’t be time after she met with Paul she drove to the north side of Dublin and her home town of Glasnevin.

Marc burst through the door and couldn’t contain his excitement nearly dancing over to Paul he grabbed him by the shoulders and exclaimed, ‘We did it! Lauren did it! The look on the bastards faces when we barged through the office door!  Paul, it was fantastic!’ looking around for Lauren he presumed she was busy changing her clothes or something. ‘Paul, I couldn’t believe it was actually happening, Declan Maguire even admitted to murdering Peter. Lauren got him to confess it, she was so cool! Where is she? Lauren!’ Marc approached the stairs, ‘Come down here, I wanna kiss ya!’ 

Paul tried to interrupt Marc as he was speaking but Marc ignored him then O’Reilly entered the house, ‘Calm down Detective. I know you two are friends but have a bit of respect for the Minister.’ 

When he got no response
from the rooms upstairs
Marc turned to Paul, his face becoming serious, ‘Where is she Paul?’

‘
When she didn’t come back immediately
I thought she was
still
with you,’ Paul’s heart sank.

Everybody immediately left the house O’Reilly went back to the station to question Declan. Marc and Paul got into another car with the others following. They tried to retrace her steps then a call came from O’Reilly, Marc stopped the car as O’Reilly spoke, Paul knew by his face it was bad news.

Hanging up Marc turned to Paul concern etched his face, ‘We’ve got to find her Paul. Have you any idea where she could have gone. Think Paul, think. The bastard has a
hit man
on both Lauren and David in Colombia!’

Paul was panicking, he couldn’t think straight. Her father’s in England on business so she wouldn’t go to him, ‘
Debbie
and Pat! Head for Glasnevin!’

As Marc radioed the others and the car screeched away, siren
s
blaring. Paul was on his cell phone
immediately getting a direct line to the Colombian Ambassador.  Having already given the Ambassador an update, no full details we
re required
the conversation was to the point and ended as quickly as it started. 

The three police cars met up at Hart’s Corner at the edge of Glasnevin, the traffic as usual was hectic and they opted for the cemetery route, as they passed Glasnevin cemetery Paul shouted to Marc to stop the car. Marc quickly pulled over and the two cars behind missed the stop but pulled in a little further on. 

‘What is it?’ Marc couldn’t believe Paul was hesitating.

Paul turned to him, ‘Did you say Declan admitted to Lauren he killed Peter?’

‘Yeah so what,
Paul we haven’t got much time what are you thinking?’

Paul got out of the car and pointed to the cemetery, ‘She’s in there,’ he said calmly.

Lauren was sitting on Peter’s family grave, laying flowers and apologising to him. Tears were streaming from her eyes at last she could
now
grieve for him, at last she allowed herself to cry for her own and the children’s loss. She
had
blamed him for everything and she was wrong, she apologised to him again and asked his forgiveness. ‘You’re not a coward, you’re not selfish I was wrong Peter, please forgive me. You tried to get out, you tried to prove your love to me and I hated you, I wronged you!’ putting her head in her hands. She didn’t notice or hear the man walking up to her from behind he was carrying a small bunch of flowers.

‘Lauren!’

She looked up, it was Marc he was maybe fifty feet away from her aiming his gun, but it wasn’t pointing at her. Everything was in slow motion as she turned to see where he was aiming, a sharp pain shot through her, she heard gunfire as she hit her head of the gravestone
and
everything went dark.

Paul carried Lauren to the car
he was struggling with the tears
starting to form in his eyes. Marc opened the back passenger car door and he quickly started the car, once they left the area of the cemetery he turned on his siren. Marc’s colleagues were quickly carrying the
hit man’s
body into their car they
didn’t want the public to see what just happened
- under no circumstance were
these events or
Lauren to be exposed.

Lauren opened her eyes trying to lift her arm she let out a groan.

Paul held her close, ‘w
e thought we’d lost you,’ his tears dropped onto her cheek and neck.

‘My head and arm hurt,’ she
murmured
.

He kissed
her on the forehead, ‘w
e’ll get it sorted at the airport, a police doctor will be waiting but they’re just grazes it’s nothing to worry about.’ 

Lauren looked at the blood on her clothes and on Paul, ‘Just grazes huh!’ she closed her eyes again.

An hour later Paul and Marc watched from the private room as the ministerial jet lifted into the air. ‘Do you think she’d mind if we visited her on holiday,’ Marc asked Paul casually.

‘Knowing Lauren she’ll welcome us with open arms,’ Paul smiled, ‘when it’s better that is.’

‘I like your taste in women,’ Marc added, ‘very strong, very determined, she’s a woman who knows what she wants and I’d say 90% of the time gets it too!’

Paul looke
d at his lover and confessed, ‘w
e were virgins when we first met you know
. With that special bond and Emma i
t’s why she’s so special to me.’

‘Oh, I kno
w alright!’ Marc interrupted, ‘a
nd she told me you weren’t when you split up. I think she was trying to make me jealous!’

‘Did it work?’ Paul asked.

They both looked at each other and laughed.

Chapter 43

Colombia
–
The prison cell door opened once more and everybody strained to see who would walk through, hope etched across each face that it would be an American official telling them they were free to go.  But hope soon turned to disappointment when the silhouette was none other than the guard’s commander.

Xavier had two passports in his hand and showed them to the young guard, ‘I want them for questioning.’