Stephen Leather: Take Two

‘We need to get this sorted, boss,’ said Halpin. ‘And quick. We need to take care of her and this guy, Terry. We need to take care of them and dump them out at sea.’

‘Five people? We’ve got to kill five people? Just because that shit Cohen stole from me. How the hell did this happen?’

‘Two,’ said Halpin. ‘Two more. Then it’s over.’

Richards ran his hands through his hair. ‘I don’t understand why she didn’t just go to the cops in the first place, when she saw me kill Cohen.’

‘Maybe she wasn’t sure, boss.’

‘Okay, but if she managed to get out of the bloody trunk, why didn’t she go to the cops then? Why pretend to be a non-existent sister?’

Halpin shrugged, lost for words.

‘What if she’s told the cops already?’

‘If she had we’d be behind bars already,’ said Halpin. ‘She’s up to something.’

‘Up to what? It doesn’t make any sense.’

‘Maybe she thinks if you believe Carolyn is dead you’ll leave her alone.’

‘But why didn’t she go to the cops?’

‘Maybe she’s scared of you, boss.’

‘So why come back as Jenny?’

‘Because she has to work. If she hides, she loses her job.’ A slow smile spread across his face. ‘That’s what she’s doing, boss. She’s hiding in plain sight. She pretends to be dead and her so-called twin carries on working. You leave her alone, she gets on with her life.’

Richards looked at Halpin and nodded slowly. ‘She saw me kill Cohen and figured if she told the cops then I’d kill her.’ He tilted his head on one side and smiled slyly. ‘That’s it, mate. She’s scared. She thinks if she gives evidence against me I’ll have her killed. She’s right, too.’

‘So we’ll do it, boss?’

Richards nodded. ‘I don’t see we’ve any choice.’

‘So where do we do it?’

‘We’ll start with Carter. We’ll wait here until he gets back. We can ask him a few questions then we’ll go over and pick up Carolyn.’ He took his phone out of his coat pocket. ‘I’ll call Sonny and tell him to get the boat ready, you go down and reset the alarm.’

It was just after nine when they heard a key in the lock downstairs. Richards looked over at Halpin and nodded. Halpin smiled thinly and pulled a gun from his coat pocket. They heard the front door open and the alarm console began to beep. They heard the front door close, footsteps walking across the floor and then the beeping stopped.

Halpin grinned as they heard footsteps coming up the stairs. It was Terry Carter, holding a Nike backpack. His eyes widened when he saw Halpin. ‘Who the fuck are you?’ he said.

Halpin grinned. ‘I’m the guy with the gun aimed at your nuts,’ he said.

‘What are you doing in my house?’ He saw Richards for the first time and frowned in confusion. ‘Warwick? What the hell’s going on?’

Richards stood up and held out his hand. ‘Give me your phone, Terry.’

‘What?’

‘Give me your phone.’

Carter dropped his backpack and it hit the floor with a dull thud. ‘What’s going on?’ he asked. ‘What’s this about?’

‘Just give me your bloody phone.’

Carter reached into his pocket and took out a white iPhone. Richards took it from him. ‘I need you to call Jenny and get her over here,’ said Richards.

‘Fuck you,’ said Carter.

Richards shrugged. ‘If you don’t, Mick here’ll put a bullet in your head and we’ll drive around and see her at her place. Frankly I’m easy either way.’

‘Me, too,’ said Halpin, pointing his gun at Carter’s face. His finger tightened on the trigger.

Carter put up his hands. ‘Okay, okay,’ he said.

Richards smiled. ‘He scrolled through the phone menu and found Jenny’s number. ‘Terry, mate, we just want to talk to her, that’s all,’ he said. ‘Straighten a few things out.’

‘Okay,’ he said.

‘Just talk to her nice and calmly, ask her over for a drink, tell her there’s something you need to talk to her about, okay?’

Carter nodded again.

‘And just to be clear, you say one wrong thing and you get a bullet in your nuts,’ said Halpin.

‘Okay, okay, I get it,’ said Carter.

‘Good man,’ said Richards. He scrolled through the phone menu and called Jenny’s number. When it started to ring out, he handed it to Carter.

It took Carolyn an hour to get to Carter’s place because she had been about to get into the shower when he called. She rang the doorbell and Carter opened the door. ‘I come bearing gifts,’ she said, holding up a bottle of claret. Carter took it from her as she stepped inside. Richards kicked the door closed and Halpin stepped out from behind a shelving unit packed with electrical equipment.

Carolyn’s mouth dropped open. ‘Warwick? What’s going on?’

‘You can drop the Australian accent, honey, we’re way beyond that,’ said Richards.

‘What are you talking about?’ She looked at the gun in Halpin’s hand. ‘Is that loaded?’

‘Of course it’s loaded,’ said Halpin. ‘What sort of question is that?’

Carolyn looked at Richards. ‘Warwick, why’s he pointing a gun at me?’

‘We know what’s going on, Carolyn,’ said Richards. ‘Now please, drop that stupid Australian accent. Jenny doesn’t exist. Carter here helped you create her. We’ve seen the passport stuff on the laptop, and we’ve heard the message you made on the recorder, the one he sent to you when I was with you at the supermarket.’

Carolyn looked over at Carter and he shrugged.

‘Shit,’ said Carolyn.

‘I’m sorry,’ said Carter.

‘It’s not your fault, Terry,’ said Carolyn. ‘It’s my fault for getting you involved.’ She looked over at Richards. ‘Please don’t do this.’

‘Do what?’

‘What you’re thinking about doing. I won’t tell anyone what I saw. I swear.’

‘I wish I could believe you, Carolyn. Seriously.’

‘I haven’t told anyone. Just Terry.’

‘But you saw what I did to Cohen, didn’t you?’

Carolyn nodded.

‘Why didn’t you go to the cops then?’

Carolyn tried to smile but her lower lip was trembling and it turned into a grimace. ‘I was scared,’ she said. ‘I still am.’

‘Too scared to go to the cops?’

‘I wasn’t sure what I’d seen. And I wasn’t sure if you’d seen me. I thought if I just kept quiet, it would all go away.’ She swallowed nervously. ‘Please, Warwick, we won’t say anything. Will we, Terry?’

Carter nodded. ‘I don’t care what you did, Warwick. It’s nothing to do with me. Carolyn said she wanted my help and I helped her. I saw nothing.’

Richards shook his head. ‘That’s not true though, is it? You helped her out of the trunk, didn’t you? It couldn’t have been anyone else.’

‘Just leave us alone, Warwick. We won’t say anything,’ said Carolyn. ‘And we don’t have any proof anyway. There’s no body, is there?’

‘The body’s at the bottom of the North Sea, which is where it should be,’ said Halpin. He waved the gun at her face. ‘How did you get out of that bloody trunk?’

‘Terry got me out,’ said Carolyn. ‘I asked him to go to the marina with me and to keep an eye on things.’

‘When I saw you leave the boat I went on board and found her,’ said Carter. ‘I got her off the boat and into my car before your goon here arrived.’

‘What did you put in the trunk?’ asked Richards.

‘A couple of scuba tanks. I wrapped them in a quilt from one of the cabins. The weight felt about right. I watched the boat head down the river and got Carolyn home.’

‘But why didn’t you go to the cops then?’