Gun Street Girl (21 page)

‘You're living in a fantasy,' I said. ‘Who the hell am I supposed to get a million pounds from? Tell me that.'

‘Don't be purposefully obtuse, son,' he said and gestured around the bare walls. ‘Use your head. The family is dripping with loot. It's coming out of their ears. Tell Elizabeth to get her hands on some of it. If she doesn't, her sister is going to turn up floating in the Thames. Just do it. Take the message like a good boy. We'll talk to you tonight. Stay by the phone. We'll be off now. Don't bother to come with us, we'll see ourselves out.'

They backed out into the garage proper, guns in hands, and I heard their footsteps on the floor and the small garage door open and close.

I stuck my head around the corner of the wall. The garage was empty except for the huge Rolls-Royce. ‘It's okay,' I said. ‘They've gone.'

Vincent pushed himself away from the wall and dusted his hands together. He was shaking and his face was pale.

‘Are you all right?' I asked.

‘I am now. Christ, I was scared. I thought they were going to kill me.'

‘Come and sit down.' We went to the car and he sat behind the wheel and I sat next to him on the passenger seat. I lit two cigarettes and handed him one. ‘So what happened, Vincent?' I asked.

He composed himself and closed his eyes as he spoke. ‘Miss Catherine gave me an early call,' he explained. ‘She wanted me to drive her to Covent Garden. We got there just after nine, but the shop she wanted to go to wasn't open, it was too early. So she did some window shopping and as it still wasn't open she told me to drive her up to Camden. There's a dress shop up there she buys a lot of stuff from. I drove through the bottom of Mercer Street, by the theatre, and a Transit van cut us up and forced me to stop. Those two men who were here jumped out of the back of the van, and the one with the ginger hair stuck a gun in my face.'

‘What about the driver?'

‘He stayed put, I never saw him.'

‘Was your window open.'

‘Yes.'

‘Didn't you have the air-conditioning on?'

‘Only in the back. I had the partition up. I like fresh air.'

‘So what happened then?'

‘I had the back doors locked. I always do in traffic. There's a switch by the steering column. That ginger bloke tried the door. He said he'd shoot me unless I opened it, then shoot the lock. There was nothing I could do, honest, so I opened the locks. Then the ginger bloke got in the back and he said something to Miss Catherine that I couldn't hear because of the partition. Then the bastard hit her … ' Vincent put his head into his hands.

‘All right, Vincent,' I said. ‘Take it easy.'

‘Like I said, he hit her,' he went on. ‘And then he pulled her out of the car, dragged her over to the van and pushed her into the back and slammed the doors. The fat bloke kept his gun on me. I couldn't do a thing. Then those two got in the Rolls. The ginger one was up front where you're sitting and the other in the back. Honest, Mr Sharman, I couldn't do a thing to stop them, I swear.'

‘Okay,' I said. ‘It wasn't your fault. Did you get the number of the van?'

‘No, there was a piece of cloth over the plate.'

‘Was it a plain van?'

He nodded.

‘Colour?'

‘Dark blue.'

‘Fine, that's about half the Transit vans in London. And no one in the street did anything?'

‘No, that street is quiet, there was no one about. And it all happened so quickly.'

I opened the ashtray on the dashboard and stubbed out the butt of my cigarette. ‘Well, here we are.'

‘Where?'

‘In the shit.'

‘I'm sorry,' he said and leant his head forward onto the steering wheel.

‘I'd better go and tell Elizabeth.'

‘God, she'll kill me.'

‘Don't worry,' I said. ‘I'll make it right. And for now, don't tell anyone about Catherine being snatched. Not the servants or the family, and certainly not the police, understand?'

He nodded. I left him sitting in the car, still shaking slightly and gazing through the windscreen at the blank wall opposite.

I went upstairs to Elizabeth's apartment. She was in her sitting room. There was a breakfast tray on the table.

‘We've got problems,' I said.

‘Tell me something new.'

‘I'm serious.'

‘What then?'

‘I'll give it to you straight,' I said. ‘Catherine's been kidnapped.'

‘What?' she cried, and got to her feet, her face ashen.

‘Kidnapped.'

‘Are you sure?'

‘Never more so.'

‘But who would do such a thing?'

‘Who do you think? The little firm that dropped by to see me the other night after killing Leee. Who else? They were serious when they told me they wanted their money.'

‘When did it happen?'

‘Just after nine this morning.'

‘Where from?'

‘The Rolls.'

‘Where was the Rolls?'

‘In the street, in Covent Garden.'

‘What the hell was Catherine doing in Covent Garden at that hour? She didn't tell me she was going out.'

‘She was shopping.'

‘Was she alone? Where was Vincent while all this was happening?'

‘In the car too.'

‘Didn't he put up a fight?'

I shook my head.

‘Is he here now?'

‘Yes, downstairs in the garage.'

‘You mean he just let her get abducted and then calmly drove back here?'

‘No, he had two guns pointed at him at the time.'

‘Did anyone in the street see what was going on or try and stop them?'

‘Apparently not. You can do a lot on the streets of London these days before anyone calls foul.'

‘Have you told anyone else?'

‘Not yet, the kidnappers told me not to.'

‘You've spoken to them?' she said in surprise. ‘Did they telephone?'

‘Better than that, I've seen them.'

‘What? Are you serious?'

‘I already told you, never more so.'

‘When did you see them?'

‘They just left.'

‘They were here?'

‘Yes, downstairs in the garage. They made Vincent bring them back in the limo, at gunpoint.'

‘I don't believe this. You mean you spoke to them and you did nothing? Did you offer them lunch? The place is crawling with police and two men with guns drive into my house like they've been invited! Where's Vincent? I'm going to fire that incompetent fool.'

‘Calm down,' I said. ‘Losing it isn't going to help, nor is firing Vincent. And the place is hardly crawling with police. I don't think there's any here at all this morning. Even the news people have gone to pastures new.'

‘I'm not “losing it” as you put it,' she said haughtily. ‘And by the way, where were you when Catherine was abducted? Correct me if I'm wrong, but weren't you hired as a bodyguard?'

I was hoping she wouldn't ask that. If I hadn't been awake half the night, breaking the first rule of the game, screwing the client, I might have been with her when she'd been snatched. I went on the offensive.

‘You're wrong,' I said. ‘I was hired for all sorts of little jobs and all sorts of reasons. I inherited the job of bodyguard. I told you yesterday I wanted to go to the police, but you two talked me out of it.' I declined to tell her I'd already done just that. I was beginning to get pissed off again, at everyone connected with this little caper. ‘Catherine went shopping early. She didn't wake me or else I would have tagged along. I can't be everywhere at once.'

‘So what do these bastards want?'

‘One million. The original price.'

‘When do they want it? I haven't got that sort of money lying around.'

‘Soon. They're going to contact me.'

‘Why you?'

I shrugged. ‘Why not?' But I was beginning to ask myself the same question.

‘So what should I do?'

‘About the money, nothing at the moment. Let me tell the police. This whole thing is getting out of hand.'

‘No.'

‘You're crazy.'

‘Why?'

‘Because it's not good policy to pay kidnappers. Catherine may be dead already.'

‘Do you think so?'

‘I don't know, but paying up won't guarantee anything.'

‘So what should I do?'

‘I've told you. Do nothing and I'll go to the police.'

‘No. I'll pay. I'll get the money.'

I sighed. ‘Where from?'

‘From the business. We'll liquidate funds.'

‘As I understand it, you don't have the authority.'

‘I'll get it.'

‘From?'

‘From the board. David is the MD.'

‘If you're determined to pay, I'm afraid you won't be able to go to the board.'

‘Why not?'

‘Because a thing like this has to be kept totally secret. Anyway, he may not agree.'

‘She's his sister, for God's sake.'

‘Half-sister,' I reminded her. ‘A half-sister he accepted on sufferance and who is now turning out to be very inconvenient to have around. It might be better for the lot of you if she was dead. At least that would allow the will to go through probate.'

‘Don't say that.'

‘It's true. And as far as I can see, relations between you and him are a little strained too.'

‘Not that strained. I'll speak to him now. Is he here?'

‘I don't know. I told you, I haven't seen anyone this morning.'

‘Except a pair of crooks.'

‘Except a pair of crooks,' I agreed,

‘Get out now, will you?' she said. ‘I have to think.'

I couldn't blame her for being miffed, so I went.

I sat in my own apartment like a naughty boy being sent to bed early. I didn't like it, believe me. I sulked and smoked a cigarette and drank a beer from the ice box. An hour later the internal telephone rang. It was David Pike. He'd obviously been tracked down wherever he'd been and dragged home. He sounded well pissed off. ‘Will you come to the morning room?' he asked.

‘Of course,' I said and hung up. I put on a jacket and went downstairs. David and Elizabeth were waiting for me. The atmosphere in the room was so thick you almost needed a blow torch to get in. Elizabeth looked as raw as a bitten nail. David was as dapper as ever. He was standing by the window, done up to the nines in a charcoal grey double-breasted suit that fitted so well I suspected the hand of divinity in the tailoring. The look he gave me made me feel about as welcome as broken glass in baby food.

‘What's all this nonsense I've been hearing?' he snapped as soon as I had closed the door behind me.

‘I don't know,' I replied. ‘What particular nonsense are you referring to?'

‘You know very well,' he said. ‘My sister, where is she?'

‘Your guess is as good as mine. She's not here, is she?' He was beginning to get right up my nose and I wasn't about to be helpful.

‘Stop it, both of you,' interrupted Elizabeth with a voice that was only a hair's breadth away from cracking up. ‘It's Catherine you're talking about. She's been kidnapped and all you're interested in is scoring points off each other.' She was more on top of the situation than I'd thought she'd be, and perfectly correct.

‘Okay,' I said and told David what Vincent had told me, and the kidnappers' demands. He looked at me all the time I was speaking, then went to the telephone and summoned Vincent. The chauffeur came into the room looking like he'd lost a tenner and found something nasty. He told his story too. And while he was talking, I smoked a cigarette and watched the smoke hover in the corners of the room like the ghosts of good intentions.

When Vincent had finished, David dismissed him perfunctorily and got back to me and Elizabeth. ‘Who are these people?' he asked.

Elizabeth looked at me, then down to the floor and finally straight at David. ‘They're people Catherine knows.'

‘People she knows?'

‘People from her past.'

‘Christ,' he said. ‘But why kidnap her?'

‘Money. That's what it always is with us, money.'

He didn't argue. ‘She brought them here.'

‘They followed her.'

‘Why?'

‘They say she owes them money.'

‘What for?'

‘Blackmail.'

‘Over what?'

‘I can't tell you.'

‘Then I can't pay.'

‘Tell him,' I said.

So she did. The whole story again and I smoked another cigarette as she did so.

At the conclusion of the story David slammed a clenched fist into an open palm and Elizabeth jumped, and so did I a bit.

‘I'm going to the police,' he said.

‘No,' said Elizabeth. ‘Get the money and pay.'

‘Are you serious? I don't have access to that sort of cash.'

‘Get access then. She's your sister.'

For a moment I thought he was going to refuse. They stared at each other until I thought the air would crack with the vehemence in their gaze. Finally David dropped his eyes. ‘And if I can?'

‘Then Mr Sharman waits for those men to contact him and he takes the money to them and gets Catherine back.'

‘You mean you intend to let him walk out of here with a suitcase containing one million pounds in cash. The man's no better than a crook himself.' He didn't look at me as he spoke.

I didn't say anything.

‘He's perfect, then,' said Elizabeth. ‘At least he's got a chance of getting her back.'

‘I don't believe I'm hearing this, Elizabeth,' he went on as if she hadn't spoken. ‘Since Catherine came into this family's life there's been nothing but trouble.'