Nick Oldham - Critical Threat

‘Deep breath, pal.’

Henry complied, his hands on his knees, his arms locked at the elbows.

‘Let’s have a look at you.’ The American settled on his muscular haunches and held Henry’s face, tilting it to the light. ‘That’s a hell of a shiner,’ he said, inspecting Henry’s right cheek.

‘Think my cheekbone’s bust.’

‘Let’s look at the hand.’

Henry held out his right hand, slashed by the knife. He’d wrapped kitchen towel round it but the bleeding had continued, soaking the paper. The American slowly unravelled the paper, making Henry wince. His hand dithered. ‘Needs stitching, I reckon.’

‘You still haven’t said what you’re doing here,’ Henry said dreamily.

‘And I haven’t got time to explain just yet. We need to do some pretty fast manoeuvring here first.’

Henry shook his head and forced himself to return to the world. He looked directly into the American’s eyes. ‘What the hell’s going on?’

‘Critical threat,’ he said.

His name was Karl Donaldson.

A bemused Henry Christie, still on the edge of a dustbin in the backyard of a terraced house in the predominantly Asian area of Blackburn, watched the activity in a haze. His face hurt and was swelling by the second and the rest of the injuries and knocks he had taken whilst fighting for his life were starting to have some effect. He compared it to being dragged under a truck.

Suddenly the backdoor of the house opened and the two firearms officers stumbled out, Bill almost dragging Carly, who immediately spewed her guts up over the back wall, retching with a disgusting sound. Bill shot Henry a look of horror. Henry nodded, still not quite with it, but realizing they had just seen the crime scene.

Karl Donaldson came out behind the two officers and pulled Bill to one side. He spoke urgently in his ear. ‘Get her home, get her out of the way and get her to keep quiet, OK, pal?’

Bill turned to Henry for guidance.

‘Do as he says, Bill.’ Bill’s facial response did not look positive. ‘Trust me,’ Henry assured him.

Bill gave him another look, one of incomprehension and fear.

‘You heard, Bill — trust him,’ Donaldson said. ‘Get her home, and if you want to go home too, then that’s fine.’

Henry nodded. ‘Do it.’

‘You’re the boss,’ he said, sounding aggrieved.

Carly vomited again, narrowly missing Henry’s feet with the remainder of her breakfast. She was completely out of it, overwhelmed by shock. Bill led her out of the yard and down the alley. She did not resist.

‘They’re good people,’ Donaldson said.

Henry regarded his old friend, but then his attention was redirected when he heard the warning beep-beep of a vehicle reversing up the back alley. It was an ambulance.

‘For me?’ Henry asked, squinting through his one good eye.

‘No, for the guy I shot.’

‘I assumed he was dead.’

‘He’s not well, but he’s conscious and we need to have speaks with him urgently.’

Two paramedics in green overalls dropped out of the ambulance and armed with their kits and a fold-away stretcher, they dashed into the house. It wasn’t long before they reappeared with a body on the stretcher, completely covered as though it was a corpse. They rushed past Henry and Donaldson and slid the stretcher into the ambulance. One jumped in with it, the other clambered back behind the wheel.

‘Should I get in?’ Henry asked.

‘Nah — you come with me … you’re in this up to your neck and I think we can use you.’

Henry sat dumbly in the passenger seat of his Rover 75 whilst Karl Donaldson drove through the crowded streets of Blackburn. Henry’s face was scrunched up in an expression of unhappiness, the posture of his body matching it.

‘Where are we going?’

‘You’ll see.’

Henry had known Karl Donaldson for about ten years. They had first encountered each other when Donaldson, then an FBI field agent, had been investigating US-related mob activity in the north-west of England. That initial link-up had resulted in their paths crossing several times more over the next few years, both professionally and personally, and they became good friends. Donaldson even married an ex-Lancashire policewoman and settled just outside London, enabling him to commute into the city where he’d landed a job as an FBI legal attache based in the American embassy. His role entailed a lot of liaison work with police forces across Europe.

Over the years, Henry had glimpsed a different side of Donaldson. He came across as a big, handsome, friendly guy who could charm his way into a mother superior’s panties if he so wished, but underneath that veneer Henry had seen a band of ruthlessness a mile wide.

His appearance today, whilst welcome under the circumstances, was also a shock and Henry was somewhat mystified … but hoped for some answers soon.

Donaldson handled Henry’s car easily. He had driven his own Jeep on British roads for over ten years and was comfortable with traffic. He had ordered Henry to get into the passenger seat, continually reassuring him about the crime scene and that it would be looked after and that it would all be taken care of, and after taking his keys, had settled behind the wheel and set off with a squeal of rubber. He headed swiftly back down Whalley Range out of town, anxiously checking the rear-view mirror until, at last, a smile crossed his face and he relaxed.

Curious, Henry glanced down at his door mirror and, with some shock, saw that the ambulance that had set off a couple of minutes before them was behind, no lights flashing.

Henry uttered, perplexed, ‘Is that the same ambulance?’

‘You’ll see … now just relax, H, I’ll explain soon.’

‘Am I being abducted?’

Donaldson laughed. ‘So I could have my wicked way with you? Don’t kid yourself.’

As Henry adjusted his position to get more comfortable, he grunted in pain. He put a finger in his mouth and touched a tooth, which waggled loosely. Then he groaned again for good measure.

Donaldson accelerated through an amber light, straight across from Whalley Range into Plane Street, then Plane Tree Road and sharp right on to Robinson Street.

‘How the hell d’you know your way around Blackburn?’

‘Sat nav.’

‘And why is that ambulance still behind us? Why hasn’t it gone to the hospital?’

‘Trust me, I’m an FBI agent.’

Henry waggled his tooth again. It sent a shock of exquisite pain through his face.

Donaldson dropped down on to Philips Road and turned left into an area that was mainly industrial estates within easy reach of the M65. They were not far from Blackburn police station and Henry assumed this was their destination.

Assumed wrong.

There were lights at the junction of Philips Road and Whitebirk Drive — a dual carriageway, also known as the arterial road which curved around the north-west perimeter of Blackburn, hence the name. To reach the police station, Donaldson should have turned right. Instead, he drove straight across the lights on to Whitebirk industrial estate, a sprawling conglomeration of business units of all shapes and sizes, which seemed to expand continually into the hillside beyond. Henry had always known it to be there. It was probably one of Blackburn’s oldest industrial estates, post-cotton.

Henry could still see the ambulance in the wing mirror, following them.

Donaldson muttered something. Henry turned to him to ask, ‘What?’ but realized the American was talking into a tiny radio mike. To Henry, he said, ‘Nearly there, pal.’

‘Nearly where?’

‘There,’ he said mysteriously. ‘Actually, I could get into deep shit for bringing you here and letting you see where “there” is. But because I trust you, I’m willing to take a chance …’