Stephen Leather - Dead Men

‘I don’t want to talk to Reception. I want to talk to her.’

‘That’s not going to happen,’ she said.

Shepherd pointed a finger at her. ‘Look, sweetheart, I’ve already shot one arsehole today. I don’t want to have to do it again.’ He pushed past her and went into the ICU. He closed the glass door in the nurse’s face and held it shut.

Button smiled at him. She was ashen and there were dark patches under her eyes. Her right hand was bandaged, there was a drip into her left arm, and a heartbeat monitor beeped in the background. ‘I can see you’re winning friends and influencing people,’ she said. She gestured with her bandaged right hand at the glass window. On the other side the nurse was talking angrily to the doctor and pointing at Shepherd.

‘She didn’t want you disturbed,’ said Shepherd.

‘Didn’t you tell her that you were my knight in shining armour?’ She grimaced.

‘Are you okay?’

‘I said I didn’t want them to go over the top on the painkillers and they took me at my word. I’ll be interviewed soon so I need a clear head.’

‘IPCC?’The Independent Police Complaints Commission investigated all police-related shootings.

‘Home Office,’ she said. ‘Plod’s been squared away. They’re not even sending in a SOCO crew. So far as the police are concerned, it never happened. The nine-nine-nine call you made has been wiped and the paramedics have been briefed.’

A young doctor with receding hair and red-framed spectacles appeared at the glass door, the nurse at his shoulder. Shepherd held up his SOCA card. The doctor read it through the glass, then held up a hand, fingers splayed. ‘Five minutes,’ he mouthed.

Shepherd nodded, and the doctor ushered the nurse away. Shepherd went back to the bed and took Button’s left hand. ‘Charlie, I’m so sorry,’ he said.

‘For what?’

‘I should have taken you inside the house. I should have gone in with you.’

‘If you had he’d have killed you straight away. You saw what he did to Graham. He’d have killed you and then he’d have tortured me. We’d both have died, Spider. There’s no question about that.’

‘Maybe,’ said Shepherd.

‘Spider, you saved my life and that’s the end of it. I’m just grateful you turned up when you did.’

‘What about your daughter?’

‘She doesn’t know yet. I’ll wait until I can tell her myself. I don’t want her finding out over the phone.’

‘I can drive you when you’re ready.’

‘Thanks.’ She lay back and stared at the ceiling. ‘I need a cigarette.’

Shepherd chuckled. ‘I think it’s an arrestable offence, these days, smoking in a hospital.’

‘You’re probably right.’

Shepherd sat down on a chair next to the bed. ‘What will you tell the Home Office people?’ he said.

‘Not much,’ said Button. ‘My old firm’s on the case. I’m a SOCA employee but MI5 takes precedence. They’ll cite national security and take over the investigation. There’ll be a full D Notice on everything that happened at the house. As far as the world’s concerned, it never happened.’

‘Two men died, Charlie.’

‘No one’s going to care about what happened to the assassin or how he died. His body’ll be disposed of by some very clever people at MI5. The damage to my house is being repaired as we speak.’

‘And your husband?’

‘A stroke or a heart-attack. It’s better that way – better all round. I wouldn’t want Zoe knowing her father was stabbed to death. No one will ever know what happened. Except the two of us. And a few select people at MI5. The gun you used, where is it?’

‘Taken care of.’

‘It wasn’t your SIG-Sauer, was it?’

Shepherd shook his head. ‘It was something special.’

‘I sense the hand of Major Gannon in there somewhere.’

‘It’ll never be traced,’ said Shepherd. ‘Is that going to be a problem because I’m not prepared to go into details with any investigators.’

‘Playing hardball, Spider?’

‘I asked the Major to do me a favour and I’m not going to let him down.’

‘And I respect that,’ said Button. ‘They won’t be here to investigate. They just want to know what happened and what, if anything, is needed in the way of damage limitation.’ She winced. ‘Damn it.’

‘What?’

‘Nothing,’ she said. ‘Just my shoulder. It was a deep wound but I can’t be in any other position because of the other cuts. You knew, didn’t you?’

‘Knew what?’

‘That someone was after me.’

After what O’Brien had told her, Shepherd knew there was no point in lying. ‘I had a hunch,’ he said, which wasn’t quite a lie but wasn’t exactly the truth.

‘Must have been a pretty strong hunch to have Martin O’Brien tailing me.’

Shepherd sat back and folded his arms, then realised he was adopting a defensive pose. He unfolded his arms and rested his hands on his knees. ‘Was he easy to spot?’

‘Give me a break, Spider.’

‘Not long, obviously.’

‘The thing is, O’Brien and his pals were tailing me before I got the nod from my former colleagues at MI5,’ said Button, ‘so that must have been one hell of a hunch. I know you’ve got a photographic memory, but I didn’t realise you also had supernatural powers.’

At least he hadn’t actually lied to her, Shepherd thought.

‘Was Richard Yokely involved in your hunch by any chance?’

Shepherd nodded. ‘Yes.’

‘Spider, Yokely is one dangerous son-of-a-bitch.’

‘I know.’

‘He knew I was under threat? O’Brien said you told him there was a contract out on me.’

‘He thought it possible.’

‘Possible enough for you to assign me protection? But not possible enough for you to mention it to me?’

Button winced again, and Shepherd knew that this time it wasn’t because her shoulder was hurting. ‘Yokely thought it best you weren’t told,’ he said.

‘Because?’

‘It’s complicated,’ he said. ‘I’m sorry, Charlie.’

‘You dance with Yokely, you dance with the devil,’ said Button.

‘I know that,’ said Shepherd.

A man and a woman appeared at the door, and Shepherd turned to look at them through the glass. They were both wearing dark coats. The man was grey-haired with steel-rimmed spectacles, tall and thin with the sombre face of an undertaker consoling the recently bereaved. The woman was a decade younger, with short blonde hair framing a sharp face and inquisitive eyes. The man knocked on the door with a gloved hand.

‘Time for my debrief,’ she said.

‘What will you tell them about me?’

‘Nothing,’ she said.

‘They’ll want to know, surely.’

‘Screw them,’ she said. ‘The gun can’t be traced, right?’

‘Everything identifiable has been destroyed and the weapon is back where it belongs.’

‘So I’ll tell them my husband was murdered, the bastard was about to kill me and someone got to him first. I was out of it, didn’t see who it was, et cetera et cetera.’

‘They won’t believe that.’

‘Screw them. I’m going to quit anyway.’

Shepherd’s jaw dropped. It was the last thing he’d expected to hear. ‘You can’t,’ he said.

‘I can do what the hell I want,’ she said flatly. ‘My husband’s dead and my daughter’s going to need all the support she can get.’

‘You’re good at what you do,’ he said.

‘That’s not true,’ she said. ‘I don’t have what it takes. I’m not hard enough.’

‘It’s not about being hard,’said Shepherd. ‘It’s about caring. It’s about giving a damn.’ The man knocked on the door again but Shepherd ignored him. ‘I might not know much, Charlie, but I know one thing for sure. The world would be a much kinder and safer place if it was run by women.’