The Amen Cadence (14 page)

‘Is Young there?’

‘Aye, he’s there. So with the two that are already here that makes eight in total. That’s about what I expected. Nothing to worry about.’

‘Will the new lads be ex-military?’

‘Aye, if Young’s got any sense at all. But don’t worry, that’s to our advantage.’

‘How come?”

‘Because they’ll assess the situation faster, and more accurately, than Young’s lads. They’ll get the fuck out as soon as they see that we’ve got them covered.’

‘And you’ll let them go?’

‘Like I keep telling you, no threat means no action. Now come on, give it half an hour and we’ll get upstairs, and turn the lights off down here.’

‘Blimey, you’re keen.’

Hood smiled. ‘Aye. And why wouldn’t I be?’

It was almost two in the morning before Hood woke Pepper. She’d been fast asleep on the bed, and she came round with a start. All the lights were off, and it took a moment for her eyes to adjust, and to recognise the shapes in the room. Two men were standing in the room, both holding semi automatic rifles. One of them nodded pleasantly at her, as if they’d just bumped into each other in a busy pub.

‘Do you want this?’ asked Hood, holding out a pistol, butt first. ‘Pete here will stay with you anyway, but you’re welcome, like.’

‘No, thanks. I wouldn’t want to deprive you, Davey. Where the hell did you get all this artillery?’

‘It’s on loan, like.’

‘Like library books?’

He grinned. ‘Aye, exactly like that. Except we’ll put them back into the library that we borrowed them from tomorrow night, and no-one will ever know that they’ve even been borrowed.’

All three men had earpieces in, and their expressions registered what they were hearing. Pepper wondered, briefly, why she didn’t qualify for one. Maybe it was boy thing.

‘Right, we’re on’, said Hood, calmly, ‘front and rear assault, as expected, boys.’

He turned, gestured to Pepper to stay where she was, and left. The man who was staying with her moved to the curtained window, moved the edge of the drapes back an inch, and looked down at the street below. They’d agreed in advance that this part of the operation would be down to Hood, and it had seemed like the only viable approach at the time, but now Pepper felt utterly powerless. She did not like that feeling.

But she didn’t have long to wait and wonder, because after another twenty seconds of silence there were three or four loud bangs in quick succession, and the room was lit up. She heard shouts, running feet, at least two windows shattering, more shouts, but no shots. None that she could hear, anyway.

The man at the window stepped back, raised his rifle, and poked the barrel round the side of the curtain. He trained his sights, and seemed to follow a moving figure. He said, ‘target one, eastbound on street A. Approaching grey 4x4. Shot, yes or no? Roger that.’ He pulled back from the window, walked to the bedroom door and opened it, the weapon still at his shoulder. ‘Clear’ he said, and walked back into the room. He put the rifle down on the floor under the window, then flicked on the bedside light. He hadn’t broken sweat.

‘All right, love. It’s all over, I reckon. We’ve got three of them, downstairs. The rest ran for it.’

‘Dai Young?’

‘Away in a vehicle. Davey told me not to take the shot. Shame, really. I could have put one right through his spine.’

‘Is Davey away after him?’

‘Oh, aye, love. We planned for something like this.’

Pepper looked at him sharply. ‘Expected it, you mean?’

‘I couldn’t say, love. I’m just a sniper. I kill whatever wants killing. Anyway, Davey says we need to turn the three who surrendered over to you lot.’

‘And there were no shots, no injuries?’

‘No, love. They bust in, then bust straight out again. We do tend to have that effect on people, me and the lads. The three we got were just too stupid to leg it, like.’

Pepper went downstairs. She walked slowly across broken glass into the living room. One of Davey’s lads had a hand gun trained on three men. It was obvious that he’d understated the size of his team to her, and that annoyed her for a moment. But it was the prisoners who really interested Pepper. She knew all three, but one stood out.

‘Jackie fucking Mercer. Just the man I wanted to see. Thanks for dropping in, like. Mate,’ she said to the man with the gun, ‘would you get these two jokers out of here, so I can have a bit of a chat with this one on his own?’

‘Davey said…’

‘Don’t worry about what Davey said. By the way, where are my two lads?’

‘They’ll be here in a bit. In the end Davey kept them away, see, for their own safety.’

‘Did he now? That’s not what we agreed.’

The man shrugged, not even pretending to give a shit. ‘Out’ he said, and the two men started moving slowly towards the door.

‘Pepper’, said one, as he passed. ‘You’re not going to let them shoot us, are you?’

‘Of course I am. They’re going to do it out the back, aren’t you mate?’

The man with the gun didn’t so much as crack a smile, and Pepper was pleased about that.

‘Sit’, she said to Mercer.

‘But there’s broken glass everywhere.’

‘Not my problem.’

Mercer sat down, very slowly, on the sofa.

‘Are they really going to shoot them?’

‘What do you think?’

‘Probably not. Fuck me, but Dai didn’t half scarper quick, didn’t he?’

‘So I hear. And he’s left you to face the music, like, hasn’t he?’

Mercer smiled his lazy, sly smile. Pepper had seen it before, when she’d nicked him and he’d walked on a GBH charge.

‘No, love, it’s all off the books, is this. There’d be coppers everywhere now, if this was legit. You can’t fucking touch me for this.’

Pepper Wilson didn’t smile back. ‘I’m not talking about this, Mercer. I’m talking about Linda Taylor.’

‘Who?’

‘You remember. The woman you beat to death. The one whose brains you got all over you.’

‘You can’t…’

‘Prove it? Of course we can. You’ve been grassed up, and we both know who by. You can forget about Dai Young too, because he can’t help you now, can he? And now that I know it was you, it’s just a matter of time, isn’t it? We’ll build your timeline, and no-one will lie for you, not now.’

‘I’ll take my chances. You wait ’til I tell the other cops about all this carry on. They won’t fucking believe me.’

‘Exactly, of course they won’t.’

‘What about all this damage?’

‘The lad who lived here, he’s not right in the head. PTSD, I expect. Smashed the place up, like, after he’d had a few. His mates will confirm it all too. Nothing to see here.’

Mercer got up, slowly and carefully.

‘Fuck you, Pepper. You can’t keep me here. I’ve done nowt, and you can prove nowt. Now you get out my fucking way.’

Mercer pushed Pepper, and started to move past. But when the punch hit him in the windpipe he rocked back, clutching at his throat. Then he went down, onto the shards of glass, and Pepper was on top of him, smashing her fists into his face.

Mercer wasn’t fighting back, not properly, and Pepper didn’t hear the door open, or even Rex’s voice, shouting at her to stop. And she only barely resisted the urge to lash out at him as he pulled her off Mercer. And then she stood, sobbing and shaking, while Copeland and Henry Armstrong bent over Mercer. The armed man looked into the room, briefly, then turned back to his two prisoners. One of them was looking at the front door, which was ajar, and Davey’s man caught his glance.

‘Go on, mate’, he said. ‘You make it as far as the front door and you’ll be free, I promise.’ But the man didn’t move.

Copeland had got Mercer up into a semi-sitting position, although it hadn’t been easy. He was breathing, but not talking.

‘You’ll be all right.’

Mercer was wheezing, clutching his throat, and pointing at Pepper.

‘I heard him’, said Henry, from the doorway. ‘I heard him confess to killing Linda Taylor. Just now, before he went for Pepper like that. I heard it all, every word.’

Rex looked up sharply.

‘Mate, are you sure? Think this through, please.’

‘No, I heard him. You didn’t, Rex, because you were a few steps behind me, that’s all. Mercer confessed, didn’t he, Pepper? He said, ‘I did it, and you can’t fucking touch me for it.’ I know it’s not enough to convict the bastard, that confession on its own, but it is enough to get the investigation properly funded. Isn’t that right, Pepper?’

Pepper had calmed down, or at least she’s stopped sobbing, and she walked over and stood next to Armstrong, and looked up at him, the tears still trickling down her cheeks.

‘Aye, that’s right, Henry. That’s what he said. Those were his exact fucking words. Now get him on his feet, would you Rex?’

It took another minute or two to get Mercer upright and moving. A police car had arrived, and a few neighbours were out in the street.

‘Deal with it, would you, Henry? Tell them one prisoner to go, ambulance required, and we don’t need forensics.’

‘What shall I do with these two?’ said the man with the gun, seemingly unconcerned about the two bobbies standing nervously on the street outside.

‘Cut them loose.’ Pepper prodded the man who was nearest her in the chest. Her wrist hurt, but she didn’t mind. ‘Now you, Billy Ferguson, you tell all your mates that Dai Young ran like a little bitch, you hear me? I bet he was all, ‘we’re going to kill these fuckers’, wasn’t he? And then what happened? We all saw it. He just couldn’t get away fast enough, could he?’

When the Duty Inspector turned up, and saw the state of the house, and then Mercer being led to the ambo by Copeland, he beckoned Pepper over to him.

‘You know this used to be a quiet, respectable neighbourhood, don’t you, Pepper? People aren’t right used to seeing nice little old ladies’ houses looking like they’ve been used as the film set for a disaster movie.’

Pepper smirked. ‘Very good, John.’

‘No, it’s not good. Thank Christ the Super’s not picking up her phone for once, or she’d be round here with her dustpan and brush in a bloody flash.’

‘A locksmith and a glazier are turning out now. They’ll soon have the place secure, and everyone can get back to bed.’

The Inspector shook his head. ‘Go on then, love. What’s the story? Amaze me. And how come you and dynamic duo rocked up in the middle of the night like that, because you’re all off duty, aren’t you? Nothing will bloody surprise me, mind, not since I’ve just charged a Professional Standards officer with attempted murder, and in one of our own cells at that. The whole world’s gone mental, love. So tell me, attack by a giant squid from outer space, was it?’

‘No, not exactly. We’d had a tip that Mercer was the bloke who actually killed my mate Linda, but since the Thompson lad had already been charged…’

‘The bosses didn’t want you rocking the boat?’

‘Exactly. So we were following Mercer on the QT, like. He turned up here, there was a bit of a ruck, and we nicked him. We put it to him just now, and he confessed, in front of me and Henry.’

‘One of my PCs says he’s denying it now. Calling you all sorts of names he is, Pepper.’

‘Well they all do that, don’t they?’

The Inspector didn’t look remotely convinced, and Pepper didn’t blame him.

‘And what about the homeowner, this Davey Hood? Should we be nicking him, like?’

‘No, John. Innocent party, he was. 100%.’

‘And where is he now, this innocent party?’

‘Not absolutely sure. Not right at this second, like.’

‘You mean he’s fucked off somewhere, leaving his old mum’s house looking like this?’

Pepper shrugged. ‘Urgent business, I expect.’

‘In the middle of the bloody night? With his bloody doors and windows hanging off?’

‘Apparently, aye.’

‘But you’re looking for him, right? And you will be taking a statement, in due course? You know, doing a bit of old fashioned police work.’

‘Aye, of course. We’re off to look for him right now. So if that’s all, boss…’

The Inspector shook his head, glanced again at the devastation, and noticed, for the first time, that one of the upstairs windows was out as well. Finally, he shook his head again, slowly, and sadly. He only had another twelve months to do.

‘Go on, then. I’m up to my bloody ears in paperwork from the drama back at the nick, without adding World War 3 here to the mix. We’ll get Mercer booked in, and we’ll listen to his complaints, if he makes any. And you’ll be in first thing tomorrow to get it all squared away, now won’t you?’

‘You can count on it. We’ll be bringing charges before the day is out, I promise you. And we both know it, John, that Thompson lad never killed anyone. But Mercer, he’s violent and stupid enough to have done it, isn’t he?’

‘Aye, well, you’re probably right. And she was a right nice lass, was Linda.’

‘She certainly was.’

‘All right. Get out of it, the three of you. But bring me this Davey Hood, and get the CPS to bring charges against Mercer, pronto. Otherwise you and me will need to have a proper talk about all this, love. Because although my main role in this sodding police force might be sorting out the rosters and the sick-notes, I wasn’t actually born yesterday.’

When Pepper found Henry he hung up on a call.

‘I can’t reach Davey.’

‘How about his boys?’

‘They’ve all fucked off. I don’t know how they bloody do it.’

‘What about the lads round at my place?’

‘I tried them. They know nowt, apparently. Davey didn’t brief them. We could try to ping Davey’s phone, I suppose.’

‘Not a chance, love. If Davey wants to stay out of sight we’ll never find him. No, let’s concentrate on finding Dai Young.’

‘You don’t think that maybe he and Hood are together already? As in Davey is dealing with Young, in his own special way.’

Pepper looked at him sharply.

‘Davey gave me his word that he’d not kill Young, and I believe him. I reckon he’ll just be looking for the bastard, the same as us.’