Stephen Leather - The Double Tap

‘There’s something strange going on, that’s for sure.’

‘What about your guy?’

‘Half an hour. I’ll get back to him.’

They went to the cafeteria. Lynch ordered two coffees and they chose a quiet table. ‘What are you going to do, Dermott?’ asked Marie as she stirred her coffee.

‘In what way?’

‘The police are after you, the organisation seems to want you dead, you’ve no visible means of support.’

‘Sure, but it’s not all going my way.’ He grinned but could see that she was serious. ‘What do you want me to say, Marie?’

‘I was just wondering what your plan is?’

Lynch put his head in his hands and watched her with amused eyes. ‘I’m in deep shit, I know I’m in deep shit, but dwelling on it isn’t going to make it go away. I could run, but the world’s smaller than it used to be. There aren’t many places I could do a Lord Lucan, and, as you say, I’m not exactly flush with funds. So in terms of planning ahead, I’m not. In the words of Doris Day, que sera, sera . If you’re asking me what my short-term aim is, it’s to see Cramer dead and buried, and maybe dance on his grave.’

Marie nodded sympathetically. ‘You’re sure?’

‘What do you mean?’

She shrugged and put her spoon down on her saucer. ‘Getting Cramer isn’t going to be easy. I just want to be sure that you’re going to go through with it.’

Lynch exhaled slowly as he stared at Marie. There was an enthusiasm about her that was almost child-like. It reminded him of Davie Quinn. Poor, dead, Davie Quinn. ‘You’ve never been engaged have you?’ he asked.

‘No.’

‘You’ve never met anyone you felt you wanted to marry? Someone you wanted to spend the rest of your life with?’

Marie shook her head. ‘No.’

‘Sometimes you meet someone and you just know they’re right for you. Twin souls. It’s as if your whole life had been leading up to the point where you meet that person. It was like that when I met Maggie.’

‘Love at first sight,’ said Marie.

‘I know, it’s a cliche. But when she walked into my life it was like everything clicked into place. Like we belonged together. She was twenty-two when we met, she’d just left Queen’s with a degree in electrical engineering and she was going to change the world. She had hair that gleamed like copper and eyes like a cat, green like emeralds.’ He stopped when he realised that Marie was grinning at him. ‘I know, I know, I’m talking in cliches.’

‘No, Dermott, you’re talking like a man in love.’

‘Aye, I was that. Head over heels. Nothing I’ve felt since has ever compared with how I felt then. Like I could live forever. Like I wanted to live forever.’ He picked up his coffee and sniffed it, holding the cup in both hands. ‘You know what was crazy? I knew she sympathised with the IRA, but she never told me she was a volunteer. She was in an active service unit and she didn’t say a word. Mind you, she was Scottish, so I guess it didn’t occur to me that she’d have been recruited.’

‘Did you tell her that you were part of it?’ Lynch shook his head and sipped his coffee. ‘So why are you surprised that she could keep a secret? Didn’t you tell me that only one member of each cell knows anyone else in another cell?’

‘Aye, of course. But she was so close to me, so close you wouldn’t believe.’

‘She was being professional.’

‘I know.’ He put down his cup. ‘Do you want something to eat?’ Marie shook her head. ‘I think she was recruited before she went to university,’ Lynch continued. ‘It might even have been the organisation that suggested she study what she did.’

‘Electrical engineering?’

‘Yeah. She got a first. She was sharp, all right. Sharp as a knife. You couldn’t pull the wool over Maggie’s eyes, she’d let you get away with nothing.’

‘Why electrical engineering?’

Lynch looked at her levelly. ‘She was a bomb-maker. She made bombs.’ Marie stiffened and Lynch gave her time to digest what he’d told her. ‘We were at war,’ he said eventually.

‘You don’t have to explain anything,’ said Marie.

‘I know, it’s just that. .’

‘It’s just that you thought I might get nervous, that I might chicken out. No chance, Dermott. If the IRA hadn’t done what it did, the British would never have talked to Sinn Fein in the first place. So you don’t have to explain anything, okay?’

Lynch nodded. ‘Okay,’ he said. ‘We got engaged the year after she graduated. She was working for a company outside Belfast, making video recorders. I was on the dole but by then I was already a volunteer. I never told her, but I think she guessed. I had to go away at weekends for training, and she never asked where I went.’

‘It seems a strange relationship. Both of you keeping secrets from each other.’

Lynch sighed. ‘It had to be done. I couldn’t say anything to her, it would have been against standing orders. Her controller was a member of the Army Council, even the rest of the council didn’t know what she was doing. She was sent to London, told me she was going to see her folks in Glasgow. I was sent south for advanced weapons training, I don’t know if it was a coincidence or if it was planned. The next thing I knew was all the bombs going off in London. Real spectaculars. Huge bombs.’

‘I remember,’ said Marie quietly.

‘The SAS discovered that the active service unit was based in a flat in Wapping. They stormed it, all the volunteers were killed. Maggie was shot in the back, Marie. She was shot in the back while she was lying on the floor. That came out at the inquest. Cramer gave evidence, hidden behind a screen. Soldier B, they called him, but it was Cramer. He said that Maggie was reaching for a gun.’ Lynch sneered. ‘Heckler amp; Kochs they had, and she was lying face down. Why the fuck would she be reaching for a gun? They executed her, Marie. Cramer shot her in the back because they didn’t want a trial. They killed them all. That’s what the SAS are. Government assassins.’ Lynch’s hands had clenched into fists and he banged them on the table. Marie reached across and held his hands. ‘She was pregnant, Marie. She was two months pregnant. That’s what they found when they cut her open. Maybe she didn’t even know. Cramer killed her, and he killed my baby. So you don’t have to ask me if I’m going to go through with it. I swore on Maggie’s grave that I’d revenge her. Her and our baby. Oh yes, Marie love, if it’s the death of me, I’ll kill Cramer.’ Lynch suddenly realised that he was glaring at her, so intense were his feelings. He forced himself to relax.

Marie looked at him earnestly. ‘I’ll help,’ she said softly. ‘I want him dead as much as you do.’

They sat in silence for a while. Lynch looked at his watch. ‘I’m going to call him again,’ he said. ‘You wait here.’

Lynch went back to the line of telephones and dialled McDonough’s number. The air traffic controller answered himself this time. ‘It’s a privately-owned jet, not a charter firm. The owner is registered as Vander Mayer. Andrew Vander Mayer. Do you want the address?’

‘Definitely.’ Lynch copied it down. It was an office in Kensington. McDonough even had the postcode and a telephone number. ‘Where was the plane going?’ Lynch asked.

‘They filed for Heathrow. They should be landing just about now.’

‘What then? Are they going on somewhere else?’

‘They haven’t filed another flight plan, if that’s what you mean. Look, I’ve got work to do, okay?’

‘Thanks, Luke.’

‘Yeah. Right.’ McDonough cut the connection. Lynch stared at the name and address he’d written down. Andrew Vander Mayer. Who the hell was Andrew Vander Mayer? And why was the Sass-man flying around in his corporate jet?