Souls At Zero (A Dark Psychological Thriller) (13 page)

It bothered Black a bit that someone in Edger's current situation was running around with a gun. Black had no doubt Edger would shoot his daughter's kidnapper if he ever found him, which would make Edger a murder suspect. Not that Edger would care, Black knew. As long as the ex-Legionnaire got his daughter back, that's all he would care about. Black himself would be exactly the same if it was one of his daughters.

But Black was also a policeman who had sworn to uphold the law, and he would do that no matter what. There was no way he was going to let a man like Edger go on the warpath with a gun, not in his jurisdiction anyway.

Yet even as Black sat and thought all this, he could hardly bring himself to hold the conviction to believe it all. Once upon a time he may have cared about being a cop and upholding the law, about keeping people like Edger in line. But all that changed three months ago when he went to the hospital with chest pains and found out he had fucking lung cancer. Riddled, the doctor said. That was the word he had used. Riddled with cancer. Reckoned Black had six months left. Maybe a year if he underwent treatment.

Fuck the treatment.

Black lit another cigarette. He rested his head back against the seat and took another swallow of his whiskey, wondering what the hell he was even doing there.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Edger was still in Donna Lennon's living room, pacing around as Donna continued to work at her laptop. It wasn't long ago that she took an angry phone call from her girlfriend, who was waiting for her at Lisburn train station. Donna spent a few minutes calming the angry girl down, all the while giving Edger looks. Edger had already said he would drive her into Belfast when she had finished. Before she told that to her girlfriend, Donna covered the phone with her hand and asked Edger if he wanted her to stay in case he needed her again. Edger had said no, go to the concert, so she nodded and told her girlfriend she would meet her in Belfast.

Sometime later, Donna was finally able to access the information Edger was after. He went and sat beside her. On the laptop screen was the Lord Mayor's full schedule for that day. Edger looked at his watch. It said 5:56 p.m. Then he looked closely at the Mayor's schedule. Even though it was Saturday, Brian McGinty had internal council meetings right up to 7:30 p.m. After that, his schedule was blank, which meant he would probably go home after that, unless of course he had dinner plans, or some other private social engagement that Edger didn't know about. There was no way Edger was going to approach McGinty in a public place, not unless he absolutely had to. Better to get the man at his home, take it from there.

"I need McGinty's home address," he said to Donna.

Donna nodded, tapped a few keys and brought up the Mayor's address, which was near Andersonstown. "What are you planning on doing, Harry?" she asked.

"Like I said, Donna. The less you know, the better. What kind of security system do you think the house has?"

"You're planning on breaking in? What does the Lord Mayor have to do with any of this?"

"I'm trying to protect you here, Donna. Take it from me, you don't want to be involved in this."

"I'm already involved. I just hacked the city council for fucks sake. At least tell me why I did it."

"No. Now what about the security system on the house? Can it be disabled?"

Shaking her head, Donna said, "I don't know. Most systems are wireless, so theoretically you could probably jam the signal, but you would need a specialist device for that, which I obviously don't have."

"Okay, forget about the alarm. Did you get into McGinty's personal computer yet?"

"Yes, but there was nothing untoward on it. All work stuff. Not even any porn. If you're looking for dirt, you would have to check his laptop or home computer, both of which I can't access from here."

Edger sat back on the sofa and thought for a minute. If he wanted McGinty, he would have to take the man at his house, which meant either grabbing him before he entered the house or waiting until he got inside, in which case Edger would have to break in or talk his way into the house. "Does McGinty have a wife or kids?"

Donna tapped on the keyboard. "Just a wife. Maureen, fifty-eight years old. No kids."

No kids in the house. That was something at least. "Alright, Donna," he said standing up. "Thanks for doing this for me. I'll drop you in the city now."

"Are you sure you don't want me to stay here, give you operational support?"

"No. You've done enough. Just meet your girlfriend and enjoy the concert."

Donna closed the laptop and stood up, her head barely reaching Edger's chest. "Seriously? You expect me to have fun knowing your daughter has been kidnapped and you're going to be doing God knows what to try and get her back? Does Rankin know about any of this?"

"He knows."

"Is he helping you?"

"I don't want him involved either. This is all on me."

Donna grabbed a short leather jacket from off the back of the sofa and put it on. "I think you're foolish doing this on your own. We should all be working as a team What about the cops?"

Edger shook his head. "No cops. Can't risk it."

"I hope you know what you're doing, Harry."

Edger dropped Donna off near Belfast city centre. Before she got out of the car, she told him she would keep her phone on. If he needed her for anything, all he had to was call her. Edger thanked her before driving off in the direction of his apartment. It was 6:20 p.m. He wanted to be at the Lord Mayor's house before McGinty got home, which didn't leave him much time if McGinty's schedule was anything to go by. Assuming McGinty went straight home when he finished up at city hall at 7.00 p.m., that gave Edger about an hour to get what he needed and drive to McGinty's home to wait on him.

Darkness had fully descended on the city, and the intermittent drizzling rain had turned to a constant downpour as Edger negotiated the heavy traffic out of the city centre, and then on towards Stranmillis and his apartment.

When he got to the Lockview Road he used a remote control to open the security gates of the apartment complex, parked the car in the car park and walked quickly into the building. On the elevator that would take him to the top floor, Edger stood taking deep breaths, doing his best to contain the maelstrom of thoughts and emotions all vying for his attention. The thought he couldn't shake no matter how hard he tried was the thought of Kaitlin been held captive somewhere, scared to death, wondering what was happening to her, panicking that she was going to die. And all because of him, even though he had no clue as to why yet.

When the elevator doors opened, Edger rushed down the hall to his apartment, opened the door and let himself inside. His first thought was to get the bottle of whiskey from the kitchen in the hope that it would settle his nerves a bit, but he dismissed the thought immediately. It wasn't whiskey that he needed, it was focus and clarity. Whatever pressure he was feeling, whatever fear was in him, he would use it to focus him on the mission at hand, just like he had done hundreds of times before as a soldier. He stood by the door for a moment, his eyes closed, regulating his breathing while he told himself to focus on the task at hand. That's how things got done, one thing at a time. Any thoughts of bad consequences were pushed to the back of his mind as he forced himself to stay in the moment.

He went to the master bedroom and opened the door of the built in closet. On a metal pole hung the few clothes that he owned. A dark suit that he wore for close protection jobs, a leather jacket, a few shirts and T-shirts, a desert khaki uniform that he brought home from Iraq, and of course, his coveted Foreign Legion uniform, which was contained inside plastic sheeting. On a shelf above the rack, he spotted his white Kepi, the famous cap worn by members of the Legion. Edger took the Kepi of the shelf and held it for a moment, as if doing so would bring him strength and courage. Every time he saw the Kepi, he was transported back to Aubagne where he first experienced the awe as a new recruit seeing fully fledged Legionaries marching around the barracks in their full uniforms. He remembered how inspiring that was to him as an eighteen year old who wanted nothing more in the world than to one day wear that Kepi. Then he remembered the absolute pride he felt when several weeks later, he was handed his own white Kepi after passing basic training. He felt invincible at the time, part of an elite group of soldiers who were the best in the world at what they did.

As Edger stood by the closet, memories of being a Legionnaire flooding back to him, he put the white Kepi on his head and stood to attention, allowing that sense of pride and confidence he once felt so often to wash over him. "Legio Patria Nostra," he said, which was the Legion motto, "The Legion Is Our Fatherland". The words meant little to him when he first saw them inscribed on the Legion base at Aubagne. But after a few weeks, those words began to fill him with strength, inspired courage in him, just as they were doing now as he thought of his daughter. "Whatever it takes…."

Edger removed the Kepi and put it back on the shelf. He bent down to the floor and found a canvas satchel amongst pairs of boots and surveillance equipment. Opening the bag, he took out a spare magazine for the Glock and put it in his jacket pocket, along with a lock picking set that he acquired years ago from a Blackwatch guy in Iraq. He also pulled out a black wool balaclava that he had purchased from an army surplus store just two days ago. He had planned to wear the balaclava the other night while he sorted out Speedy and his gang, hitting them on the street, paramilitary style, with a baseball bat. In the end, he had dropped that plan and decided to wait on Speedy coming to him at the old man's house. Now it looked like he would find a use for the balaclava after all. He put it inside his coat then closed the closet door, stepping out of the bedroom and going to the kitchen where he retrieved a roll of duct tape from one of the kitchen drawers. He put the duct tape in his coat pocket and looked at his watch. It was now 6:41 p.m.

He hoped he would make it to Andersonstown before the Lord Mayor did.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Black sat in his car and opened the whiskey bottle in his lap, his eyes hardly ever leaving the black security gates that led into the apartment complex where Edger lived. He had seen Edger's car drive in less than ten minutes ago, and Black now wondered how long it would be before Edger came back out again. He was doubtful Edger was the type to just sit around his apartment while his daughter was still being held by her kidnapper somewhere. No, Edger seemed the type to go out there and try to find her, or at least do something to try and get her back. Perhaps do whatever the kidnapper had asked him to do, which Black figured was more likely the case. The detective had no idea what that could possibly be, but he knew if he stayed on Edger's tail, he would find out soon enough. Whatever it was, it would probably turn out to be illegal, in which case Black would be there to arrest the ex-Legionnaire. Not that he would relish doing so, but he had a job to do at the end of the day. Or so he told himself anyway. What else was he going to do?

As he screwed the lid back on the whiskey bottle, Black felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. He pulled out the phone and looked at the caller ID, which said Jessica. His thirteen year old daughter. "Hiya love," Black said upon answering. "Everything all right?"

"Fine, Daddy," Jessica Black said. "I was just phoning to say hello, that's all. I haven't seen you since last week. I miss you, Daddy."

"I know, love." Black felt a familiar ball of guilt form in his stomach. He had yet to inform his family that he was dying. He couldn't bring himself to, especially with all the hurt he had caused them already. "I'm sorry. I've just been working a lot. Catching bad guys, you know the score." He laughed softly, but his daughter never responded.

"Mum's going out tonight. I thought maybe you could come around and spend time with me and Lisa."

Lisa was Black's other daughter, two years older than Jessica. Black's relationship with his oldest daughter was somewhat more strained since she blamed him for breaking up the family after he had an affair with a colleague at work. "How is Lisa?" he asked, his eyes still on the black security gates up the road.

"She's a total bitch, Daddy," Jessica said. "She hates everyone."

Black sighed. "Don't talk about your sister like that, Jess. She's just going through some stuff at the moment, that's all. Give her a break."

"Why? She never gives me break. She's always giving me shit about something."

"Hey, remember who you're talking to."

"Sorry, Daddy. So when will I see you?"

"I'll try to come round tomorrow, love. Maybe go to the cinema if you want."

"Yes! That new Kristen Stewart movie is out that I really want to see."

"Who?"

"From
Twilight
, Daddy? You remember you watched it with me on DVD last year?"

Black couldn't remember. "Oh yeah. That one."

"So what time are you picking me up? I doubt Lisa will go so there's no point even mentioning it to her."