The Murder Exchange (22 page)

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This is very much a routine one, John, and it
shouldn't take you long. The bloke's ex-wife
phoned in this morning, says she hasn't heard from
him in days, and that he's missed two family
functions which is apparently not like him at all.'
He gave me the standard look of weary scepticism
which greeted any family members' description of
someone's actions as being 'not like him at all'. 'But
the point is, he's a big bloke, an ex-con and ex
soldier who works as a freelance bodyguard, so
he's not likely to have come to much harm. He's
probably just gone off somewhere for a few days
but I want you to give it a quick once-over.
Apparently, he does most of his work for a company
called Tiger Solutions.'

I snorted. 'What sort of name is that?'

'A very foolish one. His ex says she's already
contacted them and they haven't seen him for a
week or two themselves, but I'd like you to speak to
them when you've got a moment, and then give the
ex a call and tell her what you've found out. If you
can do it in the next couple of days it would be a big
help.'

I knew there was no point in arguing. 'Sure, I'll
do that.'

'Your hard work's appreciated you know, John/
he said, fixing me with one of his managerial looks.
'It all counts in your favour, I want you to know
that, and I'm keen for you to make progress here.
But do me a favour, eh? DI Capper told me about
yesterday with Neil Vamen. Don't go talking to him
about anything unless you've got solid evidence
implicating him, and you've checked it through

200
with me.' I nodded, and he let it go. 'Now, remember,
this missing persons case is very much a side
issue, so concentrate on Matthews, and I'll keep
you informed of my discussions with DCI Peppard.
And let's try looking at it from some new angles.
Lateral thinking, that's what we need.'

I got to my feet and said I'd get on to things
straight away. Thinking that Knox had probably
never had a lateral thought in his whole life.

When I got back to my desk, my mobile was ringing.
I didn't recognize the number but picked up
anyway. 'Gallan.'

'Hello, Mr Gallan,' said a pleasant, youthful
"nice I didn't know. 'It's Asif Malik here, SO7.'

'Hello, Asif. Thanks for getting back to me.'

'No problem. What is it I can do for you?'

'I'm involved in a murder inquiry which may
have a link with the area you cover, and I wonder if
I could pick your brains about it for a few minutes.
As you'll appreciate, it's not something I can talk
about over the phone. Do you think we could meet
up for half an hour? I'll come to you.'

'Can you tell me who it's regarding, just
so I know I'm the person you should be talking to?'

For some reason, I felt impelled to whisper into
the phone. The Holtzes, and particularly Neil
Vamen.'

There was a short silence at the other end. Then,
T'm the right person. How about Wednesday?'

'Fine.'

'I'll meet you at the Soul of Naples restaurant. It's
Italian.' Like it'd be anything else. "That all right for
you? It's up near me.'

201
I laughed. 'I'm usually limited to a sandwich on «
the run, so anything above that's a bonus.' If

'Well, this place is good. I'll be there at *
midday.'

Thanks. I appreciate it.' *'

He gave me the address and some basic .
directions, then rang off.

For a few seconds, I sat there staring at the
mobile, hoping that somewhere among the morass
of information Malik and his colleagues had '
undoubtedly gathered on the Holtzes there'd be
something that would stop this case ending up in
the growing ranks of the unsolveds.

At that point, however, I was not feeling
optimistic.

Iversson

'Kidnapping, Max? It'll never work, and it's too
fucking dangerous.'

We were in the lounge of Elaine's apartment, just
the two of us, beers in hand. Elaine had gone out to
give us the privacy to talk things through.

'It will work, Joe, if we do it properly. Elaine says
that--'

'Is this her idea?'

'Course it isn't. It's a product of a lot of thinking
I've been doing. Now, all I want you to do is hear
me out. If after I've said my piece you still don't
want to know, then fair enough, all you have to do
is walk out of here and forget we ever had this
conversation.'

202
Joe took a slug from his beer. 'Go on, then/ he
said suspiciously.

'Krys Holtz likes to go to a little gentleman's club
called Heavenly Girls which is down round here,
not far from Farringdon Road. It's a nice townhouse
in a posh street, which is mainly offices, and
basically it's full of top-drawer and top-price totty.
Krys is meant to keep his movements unpredictable
to stop any of his many enemies taking potshots at
him, but word is that he tends to go to the club
several nights a week, and usually most Friday
nights if he hasn't pulled anywhere else. And sometimes
even if he has.'

'And where's this information coming from?'

'Elaine. She knows some of the girls down there.
\pparently Roy Fowler used to manage it as well
as the club.' Joe pulled a face but didn't say anything.
We might have one or two false starts but we
should be able to survey the place all right without
arousing suspicion.'

'What about you? You're a wanted man.'

'I won't have shaved for a few days, I'll be wearing
glasses, and anyway the street's not particularly
well lit or well used after dark, so I don't think we'll
have a problem there. When Krys arrives all we do
is wait for him to go in - apparently he usually
travels with a couple of associates - then one of us
goes to the door and gains entry.'

'How does the person gain entry in the first
place? Presumably they don't let in any Tom, Dick
or Harry.'

'Someone'll have to do a dummy run first to get
an idea of the place. Whoever does it'll use the

203
name of one of the regulars, say that the bloke's
recommended it to him. Then once he's been once,
he shouldn't have any problem going back a second
time. So when he gets in the second time--'

'If he gets in.'

'He goes upstairs to reception, which is
supposedly fairly quiet, and when he's satisfied
that everything's all right, he pulls a gun, takes
control of the reception area, and gets the
receptionist to let the rest of us in. Then, when
we're up the stairs, we find out the room where
Krys is doing his thing, and grab him.'

'What about the men with him? What'll they be
doing all this time?'

'They usually tend to be with their own women.
They certainly don't hang about guarding Krys.
The beauty of it is that they'll be really easy pickings.
Caught with their trousers down, so to speak.
We tie them up, disarm them, and then we're out of
there. By this time, we've hired a nice little place
out in the country on a short let, and we keep him
there until the ransom's sorted out.'

'And how the hell are we going to collect the
ransom without getting ourselves killed in
the process?'

I paused, not sure whether I still needed to
convince myself of this bit. 'We get his dad
to deliver it.'

'Who? Stefan?' I nodded. TVIax, we're talking
about a man who's a virtual recluse. How are you
going to get him out running errands?'

'Because Krys is his son. One of his boys is in
prison, and now he risks losing another one. From

204
what I hear, they're a close-knit family, and Krys,
even though he's meant to be one mean rucking
bastard, is also the apple of his mother's eye.'

'Where are you getting all this information
from?'

'A lot of it's common knowledge, Joe. You know
that. The Holtzes might try to be secretive but
everyone knows about them. I think that if we play
this right, then we're going to be able to get his old
man to come. And, obviously, if we can do that,
then the chances of anyone trying to fuck us over
are minimal. They won't dare do anything that'll
risk hurting the big boss. Then we take the money,
give Krys a nice kicking so he knows what it's like
to be on the wrong end of a beating for once, and
we're out of there.'

'And that's it?'

That's it. If we make a straight ransom demand
of half a million in cash, that'll be enough to make
up for the risks we're going to have to take, and
give everyone involved the opportunity to take off
elsewhere until things either calm down or they
don't. Either way there'll be a nice little nest egg,
and it's not a sum that people like the Holtzes are
going to have any trouble raising. Not with their
money. The whole thing'll take a few days and
then, bingo, you'll be a whole lot richer than you
are today.'

'If we get away with it.'

'It's a risky venture, I know that. I'm asking for
your involvement because you're my mate, and
you know I've got to do something to sort out this
situation. Plus, I think the money outweighs the

205
risks. Think about it. We spent months at a time fighting
people who make the Holtzes look like pussycats,
and all for five hundred quid a week tax free. This
might be dangerous, but it's no more dangerous than
anything else we've ever done, and this time we can
all take a nice long holiday at the end of it.'

Joe took another slug of the beer. 'Have you
spoken to anyone else about this?'

'Apart from Elaine, no.'

'And what does she think, this woman you've
known for all of one weekend?'

'I think she'd prefer it if we just got out of
London and forgot the whole thing, but now that
she knows I'm committed to doing it, she's right
behind me.'

'How do you know she's not going to go and
blurt the whole thing out to one of her mates?'

'Because she's no fool, Joe. Plus, she owes Krys
Holtz after what he did to her last night. She won't
let us down.'

Joe sat back in his seat and lit a cigarette, still not
back in the habit of offering me one, so I
pulled out
one of my own. 'The police came to see me again
this morning,' he said eventually.

'Oh yeah? How come?'

'Eric's missus. She's reported him missing. This
detective came round asking questions. Had we
seen him? How long's he worked with us? That sort
of thing.'

'Did he mention anything about me?'

'No, it was a different bloke to the ones who
came round Saturday. I got the impression that this
one didn't know anything about you. God knows

206

I
why. You'd have thought they'd have coordinated
things a bit better.'

That's the Old Bill for you. Do you think he
suspects anything?'

He shook his head. 'I don't think so. He sounded
like the whole thing was routine, but we really
don't need the attention, not with everything else.
And you've got to think, they're going to be
.ible to put two and two together eventually, aren't
they?'

That's another reason to go ahead with this. If
we've got money in our pockets, big money, we're
not going to have to worry about it.'

He sighed. 'I don't think they can prove much
anvway, not without a body, but it's a worry. You
kuovv, it's amazing how everything can change just
like that. This time last week everything was hunky
dory. Now look at it.' He sat in silence for a few
moments and I watched him closely, knowing that
if he didn't bite I might as well forget the whole
thing now. This sort of operation's going to need at
least four people involved, maybe even five,' he
said after a while.

'Yeah, I know. I thought we'd use Johnny
Hexham as the driver. He's always available for
work, and we don't have to tell him what we're
doing. Not until it's too late for him to do anything
about it anyway. I can even get him to nick the
vehicles we'll use for the snatch. Any ideas who
else? Anyone we've worked with in the past? I was
thinking of ex-squaddies who are looking for a bit
of extra cash.'

'Not many are going to want to get involved in

207
something like this. Too many things could go
wrong.'

With half a million to play with, we could make
it worth their while.'

What split are you suggesting?'

'Equal shares for everyone who has to carry
a gun, fifty grand for the driver, and thirty to
Elaine for her part in setting it up. Does that sound
fair?'

Joe nodded. 'Yeah, but we've got to be very careful
who else we bring in on this. We don't want to
talk to anyone who then turns round and says
they're not interested, because that'll compromise
everything and probably land me on the same
target list you're on/

'I agree, but I can't think of anyone offhand. A
week ago I'd have said Tony. He was the sort of
bloke who'd have gone for this.'

When are you hoping to make the snatch?'

'As soon as we've got everything organized. The
place where we're going to hold him, the cars, and
obviously the people. It'll be a few days yet, but
that's all.'

'And who's doing the organizing?'

'I'll do all that, if you can get the other people. I
think you're right, perhaps we should have four
gunmen. So, are you going to come in on it?'

Joe finished his beer and sighed. 'All my instincts
tell me I'm an idiot for it, and if it was anyone else
I'd run a hundred miles in the other direction, but I
guess I could do with the money. Yeah, count me in,
and give me a couple of days to come up with other
possible men. In the meantime, you get things

208
moving. Are you going to use the cash I gave you to
cover the costs?'

I nodded. 'Yeah, that should be plenty.' I offered
him another beer, thinking I could probably do
with the company, but he said he had to go.

After he'd left, I poured myself one anyway and
relaxed in my seat. In the end, I'd always known
that Joe would be up for it because, like all people
who'd worked the mercenary game, he longed for
excitement and had been shot at enough times not
to worry too much about the danger involved
in what even I had to admit was not exactly a foolproof
plan. The rewards, though, were not to be
sniffed at.