Steven Dunne - The Disciple

‘Insurance, Mike.’ She tossed it to Nicole who departed to put it in Drexler’s car.

Meanwhile McQuarry busied herself emptying gasoline around the room. When Nicole returned they each took an end of Drexler’s sheet and lifted him onto the floor. They wrapped the sheet round him and McQuarry moved over him. His brain was on fire, his vision blurred and dotted with every colour in the rainbow and more. She slapped him playfully across the face to focus his eyes and grabbed his chin to hold his face to hers. He tried to speak and vaguely heard himself say, ‘This gonna hurt?’

McQuarry smiled at him as he began to drift into a stupor. She slapped him softly again. ‘No. It won’t hurt. I’m going to miss you.’ A tear sprang from the corner of her eye and landed on the sheet. ‘Sleep now.’ She bent down and kissed him on the forehead, then looked up at the girl. ‘Okay, hon.’ Between them they hoisted Drexler in the sheet and carried him to the Audi, squeezing him onto the back seat with some difficulty.

When they were ready to leave, McQuarry lit a cigarette, took a huge pull and threw the glowing butt into the cabin. A few moments later the hiss of the igniting accelerant was followed by the sizzle and crack of a fire starting. McQuarry jumped back into the Audi to watch the flames catch.

Nicole jumped into the passenger seat and turned to Drexler.

‘I’m sorry. I know how it feels to be so powerless.’ She bent down and picked something up from a bag and held it to her cheek. Drexler recognised the rag doll from the wrecked VW, before his eyes rolled up to his forehead and he fell into a black pit.

Drexler felt the cold steel of the gun by his ear and held his own weapon up to the ceiling. An arm grabbed it from him, then spun him round. Drexler looked at McQuarry and put his arms down. He broke into a grin.

‘How you doing, Ed?’

McQuarry stepped into the light. She was below average height with medium-length grey hair; Brook could see the resemblance to the figure watching the Ingham house from Dottie North’s bedroom. She turned her cold gaze to Brook, and gestured him to sit with a wave of her gun.

‘You tell me,’ she said with a touch more warmth in her eyes.

‘You look great,’ Drexler grinned. ‘See you go to the same hair colourist as me.’

McQuarry laughed and her face softened around the rarely used laughter lines. She squinted down at Drexler’s gun. ‘Jeez, Mike. Is this Sorenson’s M9?’

‘Sure is. I knew you’d remember.’

‘I hope you had the firing pin fixed.’ She slid the M9 into her pocket and gestured across to Nicole, who got off the bed and searched Drexler’s pockets. ‘You,’ she barked at Brook.

‘Petra? Agent McQuarry? What do I call you?’ asked Brook.

McQuarry smiled back at him. ‘Well, I finally get to meet the great man without a lens between us. Tell a lie, we have met before. I walked right past you, carrying that piece of fence outta the Ingham yard. That was a rush.’

‘Wearing a forensic suit supplied by Nicole.’ Brook nodded.

‘That’s right, Detective. You let me walk right by you. I coulda reached over and shook your hand — had to settle for a wink.’ She grinned at Brook’s face.

‘And the other SOCOs thought you’d walked round the block to help them lift it.’

McQuarry continued to grin. Then she saw the computer. ‘How long was he in here, hon?’

‘Not long, Ed,’ replied Nicole.

‘He know about RAG?’

‘No. He didn’t know the password?’

Brook’s eyes darted from one to the other. McQuarry grunted and stared at Brook, her grin long gone.

‘On your knees, hands in front. Tie him, honey,’ she said softly to Nicole. Nicole disappeared into the storage room. Drexler stared at Brook with a strange look on his face. Brook shrugged back at him.

‘So you were telling the truth, Reaper man,’ said Drexler.

‘You two know each other?’ asked McQuarry, her eyes narrowing.

‘We’re neighbours,’ smiled Brook.

Nicole returned with a plastic tie. ‘It’s true,’ she said. ‘Agent Drexler saw me at his house. He’s been following Brook.’

‘Why?’

‘To find you, Ed,’ said Drexler. ‘I nearly caught up with you in Brighton.’

‘How did you know I was in England?’

‘I didn’t for sure. But Sorenson lived in England, Brook was here, Nicole was English. I just figured.’

Nicole held Brook’s wrists together and pulled the plastic tie tight around them. Brook stared into her eyes while she worked and was finally rewarded with an almost embarrassed glance before she resumed her position behind McQuarry.

‘Gotta hand it to you, Mike, you haven’t lost your touch.’ Her smile faded. ‘What did you want to see me about?’

‘You’re my friend, Ed. Do I need a reason?’

McQuarry emitted a one-note chuckle. ‘Yeah, after the Golden Nugget, you kinda do. Looking for some payback?’

‘Payback? No. I just wanted to apologise…’

‘Apologise?’

Drexler shrugged. ‘I let you down in Tahoe. I shouldn’t have got so moral on you. Jake Ashwell needed putting down. I know it’s too late to make up for it, but there it is.’

‘Mike, you’re making me feel bad. I thought you’d still be pissed I sold you out to the professor.’

‘You did what you thought was right.’

She fixed him with her cold blue eyes. ‘And then there was your father.’

Drexler grinned. ‘My father? I put that sorry-ass sonofabitch out of my mind from that moment on.’

‘You didn’t try to find him then?’ asked McQuarry, her eyes piercing him.

‘Nope. Far as I’m concerned, if the old fucker’s still alive, whatever bar he’s in right now and whatever woman he’s beating up on, well, they’re welcome to him. I started a new life that day and it’s thanks to you. That’s what I came to say.’ He smiled at her.

There was silence while McQuarry looked at him. Finally she smiled. ‘My pleasure. Well, if there’s nothing else, Mike, we have a plane to catch.’

‘What about Brook?’ asked Nicole.

McQuarry turned her cold eyes back to him. ‘ This sorry-ass sonofabitch is one major disappointment. I don’t know what the professor ever saw in you. Just one cut and the world is saved from another scumbag. How many chances do you need to be a real man?’

Brook managed a chuckle. ‘More than you I’m glad to say, Special Agent.’

McQuarry’s face hardened. She looked again at the computer with its flashing prompt. ‘Maybe we should just shoot him to be on the safe side.’

Brook continued to smile at McQuarry. ‘Can I choose the music?’

McQuarry laughed. ‘Keep it up, fella. With entertainment this good you just might live to see tomorrow. He comes with us,’ she said to Nicole. ‘We can drop him off on the way.’

‘There’s no need, Ed,’ said Nicole. ‘He can’t do anything without giving himself away. Let’s put him under for a day.’

‘He comes with us, hon. Let’s hustle.’

‘What about me, Ed?’ asked Drexler. ‘Anything I can do?’

‘Give us a hand with the luggage?’

Nicole marched Brook in front of her, a gun at his back, a coat thrown over his bound wrists. They went carefully down the stairs and, on reaching the entrance hall, continued down another flight to the basement.

‘How’s your hand?’

‘It hurts.’

‘I’m sorry.’ Brook turned his head to her. ‘She’s going to kill me, Nicole. You know that, don’t you? Mike too probably.’

‘She’s not like that, now stop talking.’

‘People change.’

‘That’s not the way it works, Damen. Uncle Vic wouldn’t allow it.’