over.
And now, suddenly, her dream - his too, since effectively she'd won him over to it - was fading as the reality of his situation sunk in. He was crouched back against the hall wall, facing the
door twelve feet away, both hands holding the standard-issue Browning in front of him, listening to the scraping of their feet as they came to the front door.
The door was made of wood and looked reasonably sturdy, but Cheek realized now that he'd made a mistake. In the melee and confusion, he hadn't been able to find the key to double-lock it, and the chain was too flimsy to act as much of a substitute. If only he'd kept the bloody thing in the door. It was too late now, far too late, and he wondered if it was a mistake that was going to cost him his life. He'd never fired a gun in anger before, even though he'd been a trained firearms officer for close to fifteen years, and had no desire to change that state of affairs now. British police guidelines for opening fire were some of the strictest in the world. If he pulled the trigger, he would face literally hundreds of questions. If he hit anyone, he'd be the subject of a major, and possibly hostile, investigation. There could even be murder or attempted murder charges if he made the wrong decision. It was a bastard of a position to put a man in.
There was a crack as the wood on the door was forced. Cheek's grip on the gun tightened. He tried to force all doubts and fears out of his head, and focus on the few feet of empty space in front of him. But it was hard. Harder than anything he'd ever had to do before. This was it: life or death.
A second, louder crack split the silence, and he heard the door give. His teeth clenched, and he tried to stop his hands from shaking. But they shook anyway, as the fear dragged him deeper into the darkness. The moment of truth, the moment he wished to God he'd never have to face, and it was coming to him as swiftly and unexpectedly as a heart attack. And still he couldn't fire, because he couldn't see his targets, and could not tell for sure whether they were armed or not, even though they had to be, since why else would they be here?
Hold your fire. Pray you can pull the trigger. Pray you've got the strength. Pray they don't fire first.
The door came open slowly, then stopped as the chain went taut. Silence. He thought he heard breathing.
Come on, if you're coming. Come on.
Bang! It flew open like a shot, and then the shadowy figures Were there, facing him down from the porch. His chest constricted painfully as he saw they had guns.
'Armed police! Drop your weapons now!'
A stunningly loud burst of automatic gunfire erupted in the hallway as one of the figures opened fire. Cheek pulled the trigger, twice in rapid succession, but then his whole body seemed to burn up, and he felt himself being slammed against the wall as the bullets struck him.
The shooter with the automatic rifle had been hit by Cheek's rounds and he stumbled backwards, still discharging his own weapon in a hail of fire and noise, the bullets tearing into the ceiling. He hit the ground, his magazine empty, and a second figure appeared in his place, opening up in Cheek's direction with a pump-action shotgun.
Cheek lifted his gun arm and tried to squeeze the trigger again, experiencing a tangible and immediate feeling of pride that his training had come through, and that he'd responded appropriately to the armed criminal in front of him, but then the first deafening shotgun blast ripped a huge hole in his chest, and the second took off most of his face. He died within seconds, knowing that he was in the right, and that the PCA had nothing on him.
The assassin with the shotgun now came cautiously over the threshold, reloading as he did so, followed by another man armed with a .38 revolver.
From where they crouched at the other end of the L-shaped hallway, Malik and Merriweather could see the body of Cheek lying motionless amid the rising smoke. They'd both been deafened by the initial bursts of gunfire, and now realized their complete helplessness in the face of armed opposition.
'Fuck,' hissed Merriweather, crawling into a corner out of sight of the door. 'Never trust a copper.'
Malik moved away to the other side of the door but he knew it was a futile exercise. From his hopelessly exposed position he watched, terrified, as a shotgun appeared round the corner, preceding the powerfully built man holding it. The gunman was dressed in a dark boiler suit and balaclava, giving him the appearance of a medieval executioner of the sort you see in history books. A study in menace.
He started down the corridor in their direction, not having seen them yet, and Malik offered up a silent prayer for salvation, trying desperately to think of a way out of this.
Then, from over the other side of the house, he heard a noise. The gunman turned round towards the lounge, and there was a shout of 'Armed police!', then the sound of shots being fired from a police gun. The shotgun barked angrily in return and the glass in the lounge door shattered. Several other shots also came from somewhere else.
Which was when Malik made a decision. The one with the shotgun had his back to him and was facing the lounge. He took a step forward and fired again, the blast ringing round the bungalow and completely muffling Malik's footsteps as he got to his feet and ran straight at the gunman's back.
He hit him full on, jumping up and wrapping his arms round the other man's neck as he used all his momentum to send them both crashing through the lounge door. Out of the corner of his eye he caught the shadow of another gunman, but didn't have time to react.
As they came into the lounge, with Malik still on the shotgun-wielding assassin's back, he saw the figure of Dan Harold, gun in hand, behind the sofa. Harold fired another two shots towards the door, and the third gunman dived out of sight; then he pointed his weapon in the direction of Malik and the other gunman, who were struggling wildly in the middle of the floor, the shooter desperately trying to dislodge his limpet-like assailant.
The shotgun discharged into the fireplace and Malik let go of his opponent's neck and dropped to the floor. The gunman then straightened up and swung round to shoot at Harold, which was when Harold pulled the trigger again, hitting him in the shoulder and chest and sending him crashing into one of the chairs. A lamp toppled over, followed by the gunman.
A second later, the third gunman reappeared in the lounge doorway. Harold hesitated for a moment, no doubt shocked by the fact that he'd just killed a man, then, realizing that it wasn't over yet, swung round to fire again. But the gunman opened up first, cracking off three shots in quick succession. Harold yelped in pain as one of the bullets grazed his gun-shoulder, at the same time pulling the trigger himself. But he was off balance and the two shots he managed careered aimlessly into the ceiling. The Browning dropped from his hand and he fell back behind the sofa, clutching at his wounded shoulder.
The gunman swung round so he was facing Malik, weapon outstretched in both hands. Malik, still lying on the floor, could do nothing but look up at his would-be executioner, his eyes silently pleading for mercy.
The balaclava-clad gunman simply stared back at him through the near darkness, unmoved and unmoving, and Malik knew that this was it. The end. In the distance, he could make out the sound of sirens. Help was arriving, but it was going to be too late.
Then, suddenly, there was a bellowing roar and the sound of
footsteps charging down the hall. The gunman began to turn round but never made it as he was hit in the upper body by the office chair Merriweather had been sitting on a few minutes earlier. The gunman stumbled but managed to raise his gun in Merriweather's direction and fire off a shot before he was rugby-tackled from the front and sent flying backwards into the room. Malik tried to get out of the way but he was too late, and the gunman and Merriweather crash-landed on top of him, taking his breath away. Within a second they'd rolled off, and Malik saw that their assailant had lost his gun, which had disappeared off somewhere in the darkness, leaving him unarmed as he struggled to fight off a still roaring Merriweather who was raining blows down on his head and body. He managed to get in a punch that connected with Merriweather's jaw, but the other man, his adrenalin and aggression now at full tempo, hardly seemed to notice it as he launched a flurry of counter blows, rolling round so that he was on top of his opponent. At the same time, Harold had got to his feet, having picked up the Browning in his good arm. He looked in a lot of pain and was moving unsteadily, but it didn't matter now because flashing blue lights were appearing outside the window as the ARVs came screeching to a halt.
'You fucking bastard!' screamed Merriweather as he continued to pummel the third gunman. 'Think you can fucking kill me, eh? Do ya? Come on, you cunt, fight me now!'
There was a lot more noise as the first armed officers came charging through the front door. 'Armed police!' one of them cried out, an MP5 in his hand pointed in the direction of the still fighting Merriweather. 'On the floor, now!'
For a split second, Malik's heart went into his mouth as he saw the officer's finger tensing on the trigger. 'Don't shoot! We're police! Whatever you do, don't shoot!' 'Get on the floor now, or I fire!'
'For God's sake, Jack, leave him alone!'
Knowing he was risking his own neck now, Malik, still winded, sat up and grabbed Merriweather by the shirt with both hands, pulling him away from the now unconscious gunman.
Merriweather turned round, a ferocious expression on his face, and Malik half thought he was going to lash out at him, but then the expression calmed as he finally came to his senses. He lay down on the floor, hands raised above his head.
It was finally all over.
50
Woodham and the uniforms stopped in front of the two of us.
'What's happened, sir?' I asked, an irrational fear that it might be something to do with Tina - a relapse of some sort - playing havoc with my imagination.
There's just been an attempt on Jack Merriweather's life.'
Now I just felt a good, hard jolt of shock. 'What happened?'
'Three gunmen turned up. Two police officers have been shot - not Malik - but thankfully the attempt failed.'
'Fucking hell,' said Stegs evenly.
'How the hell did they find out where he was?'
'We don't know. Only a handful of people knew the location. There's going to have to be a full and thorough investigation.'
'Have they caught the gunmen?' asked Stegs.
Woodham turned to him with a look of suspicion. 'I think one, or possibly more of them, might have been shot, but, yes, they've all been apprehended.'
'Good.'
I let go of Stegs's arm, and watched him carefully. He stared back at me, his expression asking me to believe him, but something in it wasn't right. Something said that he knew much more than he was letting on.
'I'm telling you the truth, John. I promise.'
I wondered how he'd react when I told him we knew about Trevor Murk. Act surprised, and continue to keep to his story, I thought. Stegs Jenner was a born liar. He'd been doing it for a career for the past ten years, and I reckoned he'd been honing his trade for a lot longer before that. I decided then that it wasn't worth mentioning Murk just yet. Best to spring it on him in an interview, where any silence or spluttering denials would be recorded.
But something was bothering me. You see, the thing was, parts of his story made sense. Yokes hadn't been there at the first meeting with O'Brien. He'd also been on the raid from which the murder weapon had almost certainly been lifted. He hadn't wanted to be left in the room back at the hotel, had tried to insist that it wasn't him. Yokes Vokerman could answer a lot of questions.
Except he was dead.
I sighed, continuing to fix my gaze on Stegs Jenner. 'Wherever we go, Stegs, and whatever we uncover, things always seem to keep coming back to you.'
'You're getting paranoid, John,' he said, the beginnings of a smile on his face.
Just that little bit too cocky for my liking.
Which was when all the frustrations and fears of the day got the better of me and I punched him hard in the face. For just one second, it was the most satisfying blow I'd ever landed, and it knocked him spark out.
'I'll pretend I didn't see that,' said Woodham, a faint smile appearing beneath the big moustache.
Afterwards
Life, it seems, never goes quite the way you want it to go, and what you think might happen often never does. DCS Noel Flanagan, the head of SO7, was uncovered as the leak to Neil Vaman. There'd been some canteen talk in the dim and distant past centring on the fact that he wasn't quite as straight as he'd have the Brass believe, but no one ever expected him to have been responsible for providing information that led to the death of an officer from his own unit, and that came within seconds of collapsing-the case he and SO7 had been working on for years. Not only was it out of character, it was always going to be impossible to do without being found out. It was the police equivalent of a suicide note. Rumours abounded as to why he'd done it, and there was even talk that Vamen's operatives had kidnapped his daughter and used her to extract the information from Ma, but no-one ever knew for sure, and neither father nor dauber ever said a word about it. Neither did we find out who the anonymous caller was who'd given Malik those few minutes'
warning that an attack on Jack Merriweather was imminent. Again, rumour suggested it might well have been Flanagan, perhaps suffering a fit of guilt (although it seemed a little strange, him incriminating himself), but no-one ever found out for sure.
Initially, Flanagan was not only suspended but also charged with perverting the course of justice. However, the charges were later quietly dropped due to lack of evidence, and he left the police, having denied any wrongdoing. He now lives in France with his wife, while his daughter continues her studies at university in the UK.
Stegs Jenner also left the Force. He was questioned at length about a number of crimes emanating from the hotel and their aftermath, but he too denied everything and the evidence against him remained weak. When confronted about his relationship with Trevor Murk, who'd been confirmed now as the shooter in the O'Brien/MacNamara killings, Stegs expressed shock. He admitted to having had a long and well-documented relationship with Murk, but claimed to be wholly unaware that his erstwhile informant was also a killer with not only the deaths of O'Brien and MacNamara to his name, but also the earlier murder of the garage owner Paul Bailey, as well as the strange killing of Hans Rieperman, otherwise known as Tino Movali, a small-time Dutch porn actor whose body was found two days later in the same building where Murk had been killed. He'd been shot with the revolver Murk had been carrying when he'd died, and it was surmised that he had been the one responsible. Intriguingly, Stegs admitted to meeting both men in the days leading up to their deaths, but explained that the reason for this was that Murk had introduced him to Rieperman, who was a drug dealer, in order to set him up and claim a financial reward. Stegs said that, even though he'd been suspended at the time, and it went against all the police rules to have unofficial contact with informants, he'd