Chapter 52 #2
A woman beckoned to her. It was her turn to cross and she looked away from Joe, taking the stepping stones across, making her way into the cave, towards the back where there were less people.
Johnny was right. She looked back and searched for him but couldn’t see him.
What was Sandy playing at? She waited for Joe, and he smiled at her when he finally approached. Behind him she saw Johnny hovering at the cave mouth, keeping an eye on her and blending in with the tourists and her heart rate calmed.
‘No sign of Sandy?’ she asked him when he was standing beside her.
‘I don’t think she’ll come; I think this was her way of bringing us together,’ he said.
The statement took Kelly by surprise.
‘Really?’ she asked him.
‘I see you brought a bouncer,’ he said.
They looked at Johnny, and Kelly smiled. His face was cross, and she could see he was ready to pounce, but she signalled to him to hold off. She saw nobody else out of place and certainly none of the close protection she’d expected to accompany Sandy.
No sign of Kevin Streeting.
‘I met with Jamie here a few times. I guessed that’s why Sandy chose it.’
‘Do you trust her?’
‘No, I don’t trust anyone,’ he said.
Their voices echoed slightly in the cavern.
‘I’ve been up here enough times to know this is where Jamie and Angelina hid shit they didn’t want finding.’
‘What makes you say that?’ Kelly stared at the lone rock, wondering what was under it.
It was a ridiculous thought because nobody could lift the thing in the first place, never mind hide something under it, and replace the stone.
She must be mistaken. Kelly looked around.
‘It’s all very clandestine. Are you expecting me to believe that they met here like spies and dropped documents for one another? ’
‘That’s exactly what they did.’
Kelly became wary.
‘Why didn’t Jamie tell you where he was taking Angelina?’ she asked him.
He was taken off-guard. ‘To protect her.’
‘But I thought you two were close. The baby was yours, right?’
It was a low blow. Cruel, cheap. Effective.
His face crumpled.
‘You didn’t know?’
Joe looked around and recovered. It was the action of an alpha male. No emotion. She was disappointed because she’d imagined a love story. She thought about what Johnny said.
‘It must have made you mad when Jamie wouldn’t tell you where she was. Did you speak to him the night he died? About Angelina? About where she might be? You were at the hotel as Greg Minda. We have you on video footage in your hoodie. You’re not that clever, DiggerMan.’
He stared at her, having regained his cool.
‘He wouldn’t tell you where their hiding place is either,’ she said.
She watched his face tick and his eyes darted to the mouth of the cave.
‘I know it’s in here,’ he said.
‘Why here?’ she asked him. She saw Johnny from the corner of her eye scouring the place for threats.
‘It’s the only place close to here that cuts off 5G, and there’s no rear exit so it can’t be set as a trap.’
‘But why here in the Lake District? It’s… random.’
Joe smiled.
‘I’m missing something?’ she asked.
He nodded.
‘The injured patients?’
He looked surprised.
‘Survivors, assets, whatever they’re called. It’s not just podcasters who can dig around, Joe Folly.’
They moved aside for a family to squeeze past to take a photo.
‘Tell me why you are still here.’
‘Before Jamie’s death, I communicated with whistleblowers via Instagram posts. I posted something with a message and then the people who “liked” it sent me affirmation I was correct.’
‘So, you used Instagram as a code?’
‘Yep, exactly. I was in touch with Sandy for a long time before Jamie’s death. This was one of the places I posted about, and we had quite a conversation going until Jamie died. Then it all stopped.’
‘So, you pretended to post about a beauty spot, and it was actually a secret conversation?’
He nodded.
‘Is Sandy ready to become a snitch?’
He smiled.
Bingo, Johnny was right again.
Kelly was impressed; they’d missed that in their searches of his social media accounts. It was clever. Everybody must stay ahead of technology, she guessed.
‘And you communicated with Sandy like that?’
He nodded.
‘Behind Jamie’s back?’
‘No, he knew. He trusted her too.’
‘Which was why she was at the guesthouse with Angelina,’ she whispered under her breath.
‘What?’ Joe asked.
‘What is Sandy hiding? What is she so scared of that she can’t come here today?’
‘She confirmed the use of Neurohydroxy-14 and what it does to people. Read that.’
He gave her his phone to read, and she did. It was a medical profile of a patient.
‘He’s right here. Why else would they send their kings and queens here, if not to protect the crown jewels?’
‘That’s why they held the conference here?’
‘Of course. Sophisticated criminals always choose the places you’re least expecting. What do you think they’re hiding in Antarctica? Yetis?’ He laughed.
To Kelly, this was a new world, untouched by her kind.
She had trouble keeping up with it and believing it was another ball game entirely.
She hadn’t decided yet. She glanced at Johnny and knew he was losing patience.
She was supposed to be meeting a woman and she’d been chatting to a young man for almost ten minutes.
‘Jamie tried to tell me, but he was compromised before he had the chance to confirm the location. He became obsessed with the patient. At one point he thought it was Paul, his partner.’
This was new to her. ‘How did he know it wasn’t him?’
‘He didn’t. He suspected.’
‘Paul was close to Angelina, how could he have let anything happen to her, if he knew what was going on?’
‘Perhaps he didn’t, or not at least willingly. I know the methods of these people first hand. I went into hiding because I had a visit from some unpleasant men in black balaclavas.’
‘Ah, I had that last night, but just one.’
‘You get used to it. You’re still here. That means it was just a warning.’
‘Do you have proof that Jamie and Angelina were murdered because of what they were going to reveal?’
‘He does.’ Joe nodded to his phone that Kelly was still holding.
‘This address is near Rydal,’ she said, reading the details.
‘It was here all along, right under Jamie’s nose. He was just too late.’
‘Did he go there to see if it’s true?’
‘It is true.’
‘How do you know? Have you seen it for yourself?’
‘No. Angie did though.’
A couple of hikers muscled in on the queue and caused a stir for pushing in.
Kelly saw Johnny watch them closely and follow them towards the back of the cave.
He’d spotted something. Then Joe moved away.
He’d seen something too. Kelly searched the cave for signs that some of the people there were not tourists, but she struggled to identify any imposters.
She saw Joe leave and turned back to Johnny, who was suddenly behind her. He blocked her with his body and the two hikers passed by. He pulled her arm, and she went to the entrance, and as she looked back, she saw one of the hikers staring at her and give a signal to her of a slit throat.
She was still walking beside Johnny when she turned away from the stranger and walked out into the bright sunshine.
‘Jesus, how did you know?’
‘Their trainers were too clean,’ he said.
‘Damn,’ she said under her breath. ‘Did you see where Joe went?’
‘Joe? The fucking podcaster? That’s him? Jesus Christ, you were set up. He’s down there, getting into his car. Has it crossed your mind why he’s still walking around freely and they’re not following him? He’s playing both sides, Kel. I’d bet my life on it.’
They walked back to her car and watched as Joe got into his and drove away.
‘When you are forced to gather intel like this, Kel, perhaps it’s a sign that it won’t end well and you’re dealing with people who are more powerful than your job.’
‘We need to go here,’ she said, showing him the address in Rydal on her phone.
‘Don’t you think it’s time you requested some back-up? You have no idea what you’ll find there.’
She slammed the car door shut without getting in and peered back up to the caves.
‘What are you doing?’ he asked.
‘I need to find something,’ she said.
As she thought, when they got back to the entrance, without Joe Folly there, the imposters had disappeared.
‘I think maybe you were right,’ she said.
‘About what?’
‘Joe Folly.’
‘Why would you trust a podcaster called the DiggerMan anyway? What kind of name is that?’
‘Look, they’ve gone. It was a dramatic set-up to try to scare us away again. Idiots.’
‘Now what?’
He followed Kelly into the cave once more and she walked around the lone rock.
‘Johnny, can you see a way of hiding anything under this?’
He laughed. ‘No, but I’d say that if that was your intention then I’d look around the back and see it’s a manmade trig, to hide an old electric supply when this place was modernised as a quarry before it closed.’
Kelly stared at him.
‘Here,’ he said.
She walked around the rock and saw what he was pointing at.
It was a small hatch, and she tapped the rock, shocked to hear a hollow sound.
‘Fuck me,’ she said.
He grinned. She hugged him and her face fitted into his neck perfectly. She pulled away but he held her tightly before letting her go.
He found a rock and slammed another against it to break the lock and Kelly reached inside and pulled out a plastic bag containing a USB.
‘You can thank me later,’ he said.