Cold Revenge (Willis/Carter #6)(98)

‘Okay, I’m going down there to talk to her. You coming, Tucker?’

They left Fletcher House and got into a pool car and headed down to Canary Wharf. As they passed through Whitechapel Tucker got a call. Cathy Dwyer had left the building.





Chapter 49


Carter and Hector stood just inside Stony Field and listened. As he looked down the field Carter caught a glimpse of Maxwell’s face looking up from cover. Carter glanced back and nodded at Hector, who had his gun drawn.

Walking a few paces in they could see the side of the container to their left. Looking down the field, Carter could see the black uniforms fanning out and making their way up towards them. As he and Hector got level with the container they noticed the chain on the ground and that the door was slightly open. They heard the turning of a crank handle from inside the container.

Carter raised his hand and signalled to Davies that they’d be going in on the count of five. She acknowledged her understanding and was ready for him to start.

Carter began counting down and then saw Maxwell running up the hill towards them. He saw Davies get to her feet to try to stop him but she couldn’t. He was a solitary figure running straight for the entrance to the container. Carter instinctively went forward first and slipped between the plastic sheets at the entrance to the container and before he had chance to adjust his eyes to the dark, the blast from a shotgun threw him backwards and he grappled to stay upright. He held on to the plastic curtain as Hector pulled him backwards out of the line of fire just as Maxwell ran straight into it. Three shotgun bullets pierced his neck and grazed the side of his skull. One made a hole in the artery in his thigh as he was blown backwards off his feet at the same time as Davies and her team stormed inside.

Carter crawled across to Maxwell, who was semiconscious, his thigh pumping out blood with every heartbeat. Hector was trying to stop it at the same time as he was trying to save Carter’s life.

‘She’s headed towards the Isle of Dogs,’ said Laptop into the radio, after talking to support in the air.

‘Okay,’ answered Tucker, ‘we’ll head straight there now.’

‘When you get there, follow the cranes, they’re working on a large five-storey building there, it’s nearby.’

‘Okay.’

They drove in and around the building site and towards the newest construction. They saw Dwyer’s car opposite the site entrance and the GET Enterprises sign.

Willis and Tucker parked up, went across to the building site manager and showed him their badges.

‘What is this about? What are you here for? We don’t have a problem normally with thieving. You’re going to have to move your car, you’re blocking the road there. How’s that red car meant to get out?’

‘Do you know who owns that car?’ Tucker pointed to the black Range Rover.

‘Ms Bloom. She’s just come back. She’s not stopping though, she told me to make sure no one did what you’ve just done.’

‘Was she alone?’

‘She’s got a child with her. I saw him earlier, he was sleeping then. It’s her nephew. She took him to her office.’

‘And where is that?’ asked Willis.

‘Head towards your right, go to the back of the big building under construction there and you’ll see three blue containers. Hers is the middle one. You’ll need hard hats and there are unstable areas.’

The place was full of men working and machines. They were having to shout over the booms and wails they emitted.

‘Have you got a plan we can take?’ asked Willis.

‘Yes, sure, it hasn’t got the internal structure in there, but it gives you an idea of where everything is going to be.’

As she was talking to the site manager, Tucker touched Willis’s arm and she looked up to catch sight of Cathy Dwyer passing along the first floor of the concrete structures on the main building with Archie in her arms.

‘She must have seen us,’ said Tucker.

They split up as they ran across the site towards her, and Tucker signalled he was going to go around the far side of the building. Willis strapped on her hard hat and started climbing. Inside the concrete shell of the building there were just the cement floors and the open windows. Willis looked around her and listened for any noise above the banging and thumping of machines. She heard Tucker shout and she ran across the floor to the far end, up the ladder to the next level and up again until she heard him shouting at someone. Willis alighted on the top floor and found Tucker bleeding, lying on the ground, stabbed in the neck. She ran towards him.

‘Stay still, Scott.’ Willis radioed in for help as she took off her coat and wrapped the sleeve tightly around his neck. The side of his neck was an open wound and he had stab wounds in his shoulder and arm.

‘She has Archie.’ He pointed to the next section along.

Willis ran across and climbed over the concrete divisions, ducking under scaffolding as she searched on each level and clung to the side of the building. Builders stopped work to watch and one by one the machines became idle. The cranes were the only contraptions still working, their operators unaware of the drama unfolding beneath them.

‘Let him go.’ Willis stopped and watched as Cathy Dwyer stood at the edge of the scaffolding railing. She held Archie under one arm. He was waking up, looking around him, trying to understand. He called out, ‘Ebony?’