Close Range (11 page)

Jake felt a blast of relief. Abri wasn’t here and he hoped that meant she was safe.

He heard a door creak and picked up a leg from a broken chair. The wood felt heavy in his palm, but he was ready to use it. Then a scream came from the hallway. Jake rushed back into the corridor.

Abri was standing over Sienna’s body, her hands covering her mouth, trembling. She looked up at Jake, her eyes settling on the makeshift club in his hand.

‘What have you done?’ she screamed.

‘It’s not how it looks,’ he said. ‘I found her –’

He didn’t get a chance to finish. With a howl of anger, Abri lunged over Sienna’s corpse. Jake thought she was going to kick him, but her foot went behind his and she slammed an open palm into Jake’s solar plexus. He fell back, dropping the weapon, and rolled over on the varnished floor. Abri lifted her heel and axe-kicked down towards his head. Jake rolled sideways into the wall as her stiletto snapped off with the force of the blow.

She hobbled back and he sprang up.

‘No!’ he said, moving forwards to stifle any further blows. ‘You’ve got it wrong.’

Abri lurched in, grabbed his hand and twisted him over
her hip in a judo throw. Jake could do nothing as the world turned over and he thumped on to his back. Abri kept a grip of his arm and tried to twist it upwards. Jake rolled with the hold and shoved her away. A second later she would have snapped his arm at the elbow.

This girl knows how to fight.

Abri grabbed the chair leg. ‘How could you?’ she hissed.

‘She was dead when I got here,’ Jake replied, gasping for breath from the hard landing.

‘You expect me to believe that?’ she said, lunging at him, stabbing with the club. Jake fell back. As she flicked a lightning roundhouse kick towards his head, he caught her foot. Abri simply turned and rolled away, pulling her foot free. Jake was left holding her other shoe.

‘I don’t want to hurt you,’ he said. ‘Just listen to me.’

Abri gave a barked laugh, and threw the chair leg. Jake blocked with a hand and it clattered behind him. There were no more weapons to hand, but Jake didn’t fancy his chances anyway. If he didn’t get out, this was going to end really badly for one of them. And it looked like it was going to be him.

He stepped backwards until he was through the flat’s front door. He tripped over the bouquet he’d brought Abri as he stumbled into the main corridor. Abri came after him,
with hate in her eyes. ‘No way,’ she said. ‘You’re not going anywhere!’

Jake ran towards the stairwell. Abri was right behind him. He took the stairs three at a time, using the banister for balance. Down half a flight, he saw Abri vault the handrail, and flip through the air, landing nimbly one flight down on the landing.

Wait a minute …

He stopped.

He’d seen that move before.

Jake struggled to understand. He jumped the remaining steps. Abri caught his cheek with a hook, but his momentum drove him through the punch. He pinned her against the wall with his forearm. Using all his weight to hold her still, he pushed his face up to hers.

‘At the airport,’ he said. ‘It was you, wasn’t it?’

Abri struggled and writhed, but Jake pressed his arm up into her throat. The blood rushed to her face. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ she said, her voice a slick, struggling gasp.

She tried to knee him in the groin, but he turned sideways and pressed closer.

‘You attacked my mother,’ said Jake. ‘Tried to steal her camera.’

‘So what if I broke her lousy camera?’ said Abri.

Jake was stunned. None of this made any sense …

Abri bent her knees and stabbed a vicious elbow into Jake’s ribs. He doubled up in pain, and she swept his legs away from underneath him. She was on top of him before he could catch his breath. Then she reached back to her ankle and there was something cold at his throat.

A knife.

‘Don’t even breathe, murderer,’ she said.

The blade pressed tight against his neck. The look in her eyes, fierce and full of fire, told Jake that Abri wouldn’t hesitate to cut his carotid artery. He’d bleed out on the stairs in less than a minute.

‘I didn’t kill Sienna,’ gasped Jake. ‘I came here to make sure you were all right. Y’know, after what happened at the church and the ground. Think about it. I helped you there, didn’t I? Why would I do that if I was a killer?’

The pressure on the blade reduced a little, but it was still only a centimetre away from ending his life.

‘Abri, I found her like that,’ he said. ‘Someone came here just before me – she was still warm.’

The flames in her eyes were quenched as tears misted over. Abri climbed off him, sinking back against the stairs. She dropped the knife with a clatter and placed her head in her
hands, her shoulders shaking. Jake crouched beside her, and put an arm round her back.

‘I’m sorry, Jake,’ she said. ‘I just saw Sienna … like that and you with the club …’

‘That’s OK,’ he said. ‘Why did you go after me like that? Why did you attack me and my mum at the airport?’

She wiped the tears away. ‘I can’t explain.’

‘Why not? Abri, what are you mixed up in? Is someone after you?’

She didn’t say anything.

‘You need to trust me,’ said Jake. ‘Whoever got Sienna may come back for you and Monique.’

A whip-crack sounded in Jake’s ear and he caught a shower of sparks on the side of his face.

Abri pushed him down. ‘Gun!’ she cried.

A
nother round of shots clipped the hand rail and pinged away.

Hurried steps were coming from below. Jake risked peering over the banister. Two floors down, the man in sunglasses with the buzz-cut was pointing the barrel of a gun straight at him. Jake ducked back as another bullet scorched the air.

‘Come on!’ he shouted to Abri, who was snatching her knife from the floor.

He grabbed the model’s hand and pulled her up the stairs after him.

Despite being tired and bruised from their fight, fear drove Jake on. Without a proper weapon, they had no chance against the gunman. Abri kept pace with him as they climbed the stairs. Feet pounded up behind them.

They rounded the landing on the seventh floor. A short
set of steps led to a fire door. Jake smashed into the metal emergency bar and they were on the roof. The rooftop was on two levels. Exits from the other stairwells were placed at regular intervals roughly thirty metres apart, and there were vents dotted around from the air-con units. The hot sun bounced off baked tarmac.

‘Over there!’ said Abri.

She pointed to the top of a metal fire escape leading off the roof. Jake sprinted after her, but he knew they didn’t have enough time to make it.

He heard the door slam open. Jake dragged Abri behind the nearest air-con vent, a chrome flue bent over to stop the rain trickling in. They stood close to each other, as the warm exhaust fumes blasted over them.

Jake peered round the edge of the chimney. The hit man was looking over the fire escape, his gun ready. He turned around slowly, eyeballing the roof. Jake ducked back behind Abri.

‘He knows we’re up here,’ he whispered. ‘We’ve got to create some sort of distraction.’ He looked out again. The gunman was doing a circuit of the emergency-exit tower, gun steadied in both hands. Jake saw he was breathing heavily from the climb.

‘We’re sitting ducks,’ hissed Abri.

Jake bent down and picked up a handful of gravel. He threw it in a high arc. The pieces rained down six metres away. The gunman heard and darted over to the source of the sound. Jake gripped Abri’s hand again, and led her in the opposite direction.

The gunman turned, levelled and fired. The shot ricocheted off the topside of the vent, and Jake pulled Abri back under cover. He heard a loud rip of clothing. Her top was torn, and a piece hung off the metal.

We’re screwed.

‘Come out!’ said a growling voice. ‘I promise I’ll make it quick.’

Jake looked into Abri’s wide eyes. He shook his head.

‘Come and get us!’ he shouted.

The hit man’s feet crunched closer in the gravel. Jake didn’t have a plan. But Abri did. She pulled out her knife again. It didn’t look much but it was their only shot.

‘Make him come to you,’ Abri whispered.

‘The other girl didn’t suffer much,’ said the hit man. ‘Neither will you.’

Jake thought about Sienna’s bloated, throttled face. She’d suffered, all right. And this guy had probably enjoyed it.

Abri pointed to his side of the vent, and edged the other way.

I get it, he thought. I keep him busy, and Abri takes him out from the blindside.

He stuck out his head a fraction.

The hit man was ten metres away. His gun pointed towards the floor.

‘That’s right. No need to make this messy. Get your hands up.’

Jake stepped out, hands over his head.

‘Where’s your friend?’ asked the shooter.

His head twitched to one side suddenly, and he started to bring the gun round. Something flashed in the air, and the hit man jerked back with a cry, dropping his gun and holding his arm. Abri’s knife was buried up to the hilt in his bicep.

He seemed to dance on the spot for a second, then reached up and yanked the knife out. A thick slop of blood spattered the asphalt.

‘You freak!’ he shouted. ‘You’re going to pay for that in pain!’

As he reached for the gun, Jake charged. He saw the knife come up and slapped it away. At the same time, Abri came flying in, driving her foot into the hit man’s hip. He crumpled to one knee and his gun skittered away.

The hit man stumbled back and Jake went after him, throwing a jab into his nose, and followed up with a cross
aimed at the jaw while he was blinking blindly. Somehow, the guy saw enough to turn and deflect the shot with an arm, pulling Jake down on to his knee. Jake’s breath went out of him as another blow thudded into the back of his neck and sent him to the ground. He rolled over to see Abri turning through the air, and bringing her foot down in the long arc of a spinning roundhouse. The move would have knocked the hit man out if it had connected properly, but it glanced off his shoulder.

Jake was on his knees and could hardly suck in a breath. Abri was sending punches and low kicks at the gunman, but he was just as quick, keeping his guard tight and blocking hard. Each time she hit his injured arm, blood sprayed from the knife wound. Sienna’s killer open-cuffed Abri round the ear, sending her stumbling towards the edge of the building. Jake struggled up, feeling his stomach tighten.

The gunman didn’t see him come in. Jake drove a fist into his kidneys. The man dipped in pain, flailing to protect himself. Abri had backed up, but now she stepped in, delivering a side-kick, powerful as a mule, into the hit man’s midriff. He staggered towards the building’s precipice.

Jake instinctively reached out to grab him, but it was too late. The assassin toppled for half a second on the ledge, arms wheeling, then disappeared over the side. His cry of terror
was swallowed by the drop.

Jake and Abri rushed to the edge and looked down. Below, the hit man slammed into a red, green and white café awning, and bounced over the side. He hit an empty table, scattering cutlery and smashing a couple of bottles on the pavement.

From somewhere inside there was a scream.

‘Is he dead?’ gasped Abri.

Jake shook his head in disbelief. The hit man writhed around for a moment, then slowly climbed to his feet. He stumbled to one side, as though dizzy, then steadied himself against a car.

The hit man looked up, and for a moment their eyes locked.

Then their attacker began walking off quickly down the street.

‘Damn it!’ said Abri, stamping back across the roof to collect her knife. ‘We let him get away!’

‘Hey,’ said Jake. ‘Are you kidding? We nearly got executed out here! We’re lucky to be alive!’

Abri picked up the gun too, and popped the clip expertly. She checked the rounds.

‘We should have killed him,’ she said, reloading and drawing back the barrel. ‘For Sienna.’

Jake watched in amazement. One dead body a day was
plenty for him. ‘You seemed to know how to handle that …’

‘We need to get out of here,’ she said. ‘He might be back.’

‘You think so?’ said Jake, looking back at the seven-storey drop.

‘I’m not taking any chances,’ said Abri. ‘He probably has friends too.’

She tucked the gun in the back of her jeans and set off along the rooftop.

Jake ran after her, thinking how he’d misjudged Abri Kuertzen by about a mile.

They jumped down on to the lower level, past a nest of antennae and dishes. Abri sped up, and Jake saw why. They were coming to a gap.

‘Wait!’ he shouted.

But Abri leapt off the edge of the building and landed gracefully on the other side, barely breaking stride. Jake skidded to a halt.

Definitely not your average supermodel.

The leap was only about three metres, but looking down into the narrow alley about twenty metres below, it seemed bigger. Jake walked back to take a run-up, aware of Abri watching him from the other side.

Just pretend it’s the long jump at school,
he said to himself.

Long drop, more like!

He pelted towards the edge and jumped. It felt like his stomach was trying to escape through his larynx, but he made it, crashing down on the other side, and falling into a roll. As he righted himself, Abri gave him a slap on the back. ‘Not bad … for a beginner.’

They crossed a couple more flat rooftops until they came to a metal fire escape on the side of a building. There was no way anyone could have tracked them here.

‘Ladies first,’ Jake said.

Abri climbed down the short ladder and hopped on to the metal grille platform. Jake shot a last glance in the direction from which they’d come, but there was no sign of the hit man on their heels. He went after Abri.

They were halfway down, and Jake was breathing normally again, when he grabbed her arm.

‘Wait,’ he said. ‘You’ve got some explaining to do.’

‘Take your hand off my arm,’ she said.

Jake complied, but he wasn’t going to let the matter drop. ‘You owe me an explanation.’