Alex Palmer - Blood Redemption

‘We’ve checked Fredericksen’s finances backwards. That money’s not there.’ He moved forward. ‘So is Hurst working for them? With them?’

‘Maybe they’re using her,’ Grace said.

‘Might be she’s using them,’ Louise replied.

‘Hurst hasn’t been back online?’ Harrigan asked Grace.

‘No. Her mobile’s dead, I think. If that’s the only means of connection she’s got, we won’t hear from her again until she can steal another one.’

Harrigan looked at his watch.

‘All right. We pick that information up and we follow it. Meantime, we still wait. We watch the preacher. We take the phone calls. We keep monitoring. As soon as anything moves, we’re onto it.’

The crowd dispersed, Louise leaving the room with them. Grace turned her chair back to her computer screen and buried her hands in her long hair, then looked up to see Harrigan standing at her elbow.

‘Yeah?’ she said.

‘Come and talk to me while I’ve got a little time, Grace,’ he said very quietly. ‘Come and enlighten me on a few matters. You owe me an explanation. More than one.’

Grace looked at the screen.

‘What if she comes back on?’

‘If she does, Louise will be here, she can get you back in. I’m going to my little Greek cafe around the corner for an ouzo and water and to remind myself there’s another world out there. You can join me there if you want to.’

Not long after he’d left the room, Louise returned. She might as well have been listening to them talk.

‘Take a break, Gracie,’ she said, ‘go and get a cigarette. I’ll keep an eye on things for you.’

‘Will you?’

‘Yeah, don’t worry, I’ll call you,’ the older woman replied. ‘Go have a fag. Indulge yourself. Life’s too short. Too short for anything.’

‘Thanks, Lou.’

Grace smiled and left, in desperate need of nicotine. In the women’s toilets, she washed away her smudged make-up, feeling too worn to replace it. The cold water on her face revived her. Returning to the office she saw that several other people had also left to get some fresh air. She slipped out. Those remaining noticed that she was gone, checked that the boss was also out, and drew their own conclusions.

Outside, the lights of the tower office blocks burned spangled gold in the rain, a chequerboard of light and dark. The streets were empty, more as a consequence of the weather than the lateness of the hour.

Debris littered the footpaths but the rain was reduced simply to a storm, the strength of the wind had dropped. Grace parked illegally, working on the belief that no one would be delivering goods or handing out parking tickets on a night like tonight. The cafe was empty. Yellow lights gleamed on dull wood and polished grey linoleum. The man with the silver and black hair tied back in a ponytail stood behind the counter, looking a little more crumpled than he had that morning. He recognised her as she walked in.

‘He’s out the back,’ he said. ‘Do you want anything?’

‘Coffee. Do you have anything to eat?’

‘Yeah, I can get you something. Go and sit down.’

The room smelled the same as it had early that morning. Harrigan sat at the table in his shirtsleeves, drinking an ouzo and water and eating a bowl of some sort of meat stew. His pager and mobile sat on the table where he could see them. He smiled at her.

‘You did come,’ he said. ‘I didn’t know if you would.’

She smiled and put her cigarettes on the table.

‘Light up if you want.’

‘No, I’m not going to do that,’ she said. Coffee and a simple meal arrived on the table in front of her. ‘What’s the food like here?’ she asked after the counterman had left.

‘Basic,’ he replied. ‘It’s just fuel. It’ll keep you going.’

She started to eat just as he finished.

‘Talk to me, Grace,’ he said. ‘Tell me why I threw Jeffo off the team just now.’

‘Are you sorry he’s gone?’

‘That’s not the point. And you know that. You can tell me. Is there anything else out wide that I need to know about right now?’

Grace ate in silence for a few moments.

‘It’s not Marvin,’ she said. ‘It’s Baby Tooth. I was at the Academy with him.’

‘Lucky you,’ Harrigan said with genuine sympathy, forbearing to ask if she’d had the pleasure of knocking back the attentions of Tooth junior, who was noted for going after anything that could wear a skirt.

‘It’s like father, like son with them, isn’t it? It was our last night. We were having a party and he got legless. Me and a friend took him back to his room so he could sleep it off. And guess what? He had these exam papers on his desk. They had “Embargo” all over them, he’d got them from head office. He cheated at every exam and he still didn’t do that well.’

‘Grace, I thought you had a brain. Tell me you didn’t.’

‘I didn’t, it was my friend. He was so mad, he went and dragged the principal out of bed. That was Sweet Freddie, wasn’t it? He didn’t want anything upsetting his retirement. He sent it up the line to head office. Nothing happened. Until graduation, when the Tooth walks up to me smiling from ear to ear and tells me ever so quietly I might as well quit now and not waste my time because if I don’t I’m going to be really sorry. He’s spent the last eight months proving it. I’ve seen that picture stuck up on a lot of walls. And I know it’s still out there.’

‘What happened to your friend?’

‘He already had another job. In London. I didn’t know that. He’s a forensic accountant. He’s making a fortune over there.’

She tried to laugh it off. Come to London with me, Gracie, but I don’t want anything like babies. She could hear him saying it.

Everything between them had died there and then.

Harrigan watched her as she ate in silence for a little while longer and then pushed the plate to the side, the food not quite finished.

He walked out on you, didn’t he? Dropped you right in it and walked away. I’d treat you better than that.

‘That wasn’t too bad,’ she said.

‘You don’t have to be polite.’ He watched her light a cigarette.

‘That’s a nasty story.’

‘It’s just a story.’

‘The Tooth can’t do anything to you while you work for me. But don’t ever do that again, Grace. You never hit anyone. It doesn’t matter how much they provoke you.’

‘Well, I did,’ she said. ‘Maybe I’m only human. Maybe I got pushed too far.’

He wanted to say, you can’t be human and do this job; you’re too human, that’s your problem. In the brief silence, his mobile rang. It was his surveillance team.

‘He’s on the move,’ the voice said. ‘It’s bucketing down out here and the visibility is very bad. This is not going to be easy.’

‘You don’t lose him,’ Harrigan said. ‘It doesn’t matter what happens.’

Grace was looking at him expectantly.

‘The preacher’s on the move,’ he told her.

‘We should get back in.’

‘In a moment. You still haven’t been straight with me, Grace.’

‘Yes, I have.’

‘Not completely. Don’t tell me you have.’ He had finished his drink and sat leaning his elbows on the table. ‘Marvin’s dangerous but the most he can do is run you out of your job. Don’t think I don’t know what that means. But the people we’re dealing with right now will do a lot more than that. You tell me. Do they know you? Just give me an honest answer. I need to know.’

Grace ground out her cigarette and was faced with a fundamental inability to lie.

‘Yes, they know who I am. I don’t know if they’ve made the connection yet.’

She sat back, feeling cold, her heart beating strongly. She was afraid and her hands were shaking badly. She refused to look at him.