CHAPTER ELEVEN
The refrigeration tunnel came out beneath the river road two hundred metres from the terminal.
Leah knew because she crawled every metre of it with Amy in front of her and Drew behind, while armed police searched the warehouse above for people they had apparently been ordered not to find alive.
The tunnel was barely shoulder wide in places.
Water reached Leah's knees. Rusted pipe brackets tore her jacket. Somewhere behind them, a flash-bang detonated and the concrete shuddered.
Amy stopped.
"I can't."
Leah bumped into her.
"Yes, you can."
"It's blocked."
Drew's voice came from behind. "What's there?"
Leah leaned around Amy.
A collapsed mesh gate filled the tunnel.
Beyond it, grey daylight.
Freedom ten feet away.
"Gate."
Drew squeezed past as far as the space allowed.
"Move back."
He kicked once.
Nothing.
Again.
The rusted frame shifted.
Above them, boots thundered across concrete.
Leah heard a voice through a drain cover.
"Check the service tunnels. Hale wants Sayer alive if possible. Quinn too."
If possible.
She looked at Drew.
He heard it.
"Comforting."
"Kick harder."
"Helpful."
Third kick.
The mesh tore free from one side.
Drew forced it back far enough for Amy to crawl through.
Leah followed.
They emerged behind an abandoned tyre depot beside the A63.
Sam Ridley's van was waiting.
Leah almost shot him when he opened the side door.
"Get in."
Drew shoved Amy inside.
"How did you know?"
"Old terminal plans. We used the tunnel in 2009 after a fight with dock security."
"Of course you did."
Sam looked at Leah. "Long story."
"I believe you."
They drove west with no lights for the first mile.
Owen was in the passenger seat, shoulder bandaged and face white.
He looked back at Amy.
"You alive?"
She started crying again.
Owen turned around immediately as if tears were more dangerous than bullets.
Drew sat opposite Leah in the rear of the van.
Blood from his temple had dried along his cheek.
"Ben?" Leah asked.
Sam shook his head.
"Didn't see him come out."
"Gareth?"
"Venn's Range Rover left before the police sealed the east gate."
Amy covered her face.
Drew looked away.
Leah understood. Anger at Gareth did not cancel what had happened in front of his daughter.
"Where are we going?" she asked.
"Safe house," Sam said.
Owen snorted. "We said that about the last one."
"This one isn't ours."
"Whose?"
Sam glanced in the mirror.
"Mine."
The farmhouse stood outside Market Weighton behind a line of bare trees and a collapsed stone wall. It belonged, according to Sam, to his late wife's sister, who lived in Australia and thought he checked the pipes twice a year.
Inside smelled of dust, cold fireplaces and lavender furniture polish.
Amy showered.
Owen swallowed painkillers with whisky despite Leah telling him not to.
Sam made tea because apparently no criminal emergency in Yorkshire could defeat that instinct.
Drew stood at the kitchen sink while Leah cleaned the cut on his temple.
"Hold still."
"You keep saying that while stabbing me."
"It's antiseptic."
"Feels personal."
"Some of it is."
He looked at her.
The sex in the office seemed like it belonged to another version of the day. One where betrayal still had edges they could see.
"You okay?" he asked.
"No."
"Good."
She glared.
"Consistency matters."
She taped gauze over the cut.
"Hale ordered armed officers to fire on us while Venn walked out."
"I noticed."
"That means whatever's on that card can hurt people above Venn."
"Card Gareth handed him."
"Maybe not."
Drew frowned.
Leah reached into the inside pocket of her jacket and placed a microSD card on the kitchen table.
He stared at it.
"What is that?"
"The card."
"No. Gareth took it."
"Gareth took a card."
Drew looked at her.
"When?"
"After we opened the folder. I cloned it to Sam's old phone memory card and put a blank one back in the sleeve."
"You cloned an encrypted evidence archive while I was having a nervous breakdown?"
"You were washing your hands."
"I was gone ninety seconds."
"You wash your hands thoroughly."
He stared at her for another second.
Then laughed.
Not the small humourless sound he usually made.
A real laugh.
Owen appeared in the doorway.
"What's funny?"
Drew held up the card.
"Policewoman stole the evidence before Gareth stole the evidence."
Owen blinked.
Then looked at Leah.
"Still filth."
"You're becoming repetitive."
Sam brought in an old laptop that had never been connected to the farmhouse internet.
They opened the archive again.
This time Leah went to the most recent folder.
A directory labelled HARKER contained photographs of Ben entering a hotel in Rotterdam, meeting a man with grey hair.
Michael Quinn.
Her father.
The dates were three months old.
Another file held a transcript.
Leah read silently.
BEN HARKER: YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD.
MICHAEL QUINN: SO ARE A LOT OF USEFUL PEOPLE.
BEN HARKER: VENN THINKS YOU RUN IT.
MICHAEL QUINN: VENN THINKS WHAT I NEED HIM TO THINK.
BEN HARKER: AND LEAH?
MICHAEL QUINN: LEAH WAS NEVER SUPPOSED TO GET CLOSE TO NORTH END.
Leah stopped.
Drew read over her shoulder.
"Why not?"
"Keep going," Sam said.
BEN HARKER: SHE'S ALREADY IN.
MICHAEL QUINN: THEN GET HER OUT BEFORE SHE FINDS DANIEL.
Drew's hand closed around the back of the chair.
The transcript ended.
No explanation.
Owen said, "So Harker was working with your dad."
"Or recording him."
"You love that answer."
"Because evidence matters."
"Tell Gareth."
The room cooled.
Amy stood in the doorway wearing an oversized sweatshirt Sam had found upstairs.
She had heard enough.
"My dad isn't evil."
Nobody answered.
"He was scared," she said. "He told me Venn would bury the whole club if he stopped helping."
Owen's laugh was sharp.
"So he let Redmile bury us instead."
Amy flinched.
Leah stood.
"Owen."
"What? Men died. Callum nearly did. Drew's brother got sold. But because Gareth has a daughter we're supposed to call it complicated?"
Drew spoke without raising his voice.
"Enough."
Owen looked at him.
"You're defending him?"
"I'm stopping you making her pay for him."
Owen's jaw worked.
Then he walked out.
Amy sat at the table.
"There's something else."
Drew waited.
"Dad had another phone. Not the one you searched."
Leah sat opposite her.
"Where?"
"At home. Under the floor in the garage. I found it once. That's how this started."
"Can we get it?"
Amy shook her head. "Police will be there."
"Maybe."
"There was a number saved as D. Dad called it after every conversation with Venn."
Drew and Leah looked at each other.
Daniel.
Sam said, "Could be anyone."
"It could," Leah agreed.
Drew pushed away from the table.
"We're getting the phone."
"Your face is on every police radio in the county."
"Yours too."
"I'm aware."
"Then wear a hat."
"Excellent operational planning."
Sam sighed. "I preferred you two before you liked each other."
Neither corrected him.
They reached Gareth's house just after midday in Sam's sister-in-law's ancient Volvo.
Leah wore a wool hat pulled low, glasses from a petrol station and a coat two sizes too large.
Drew wore a builder's jacket and looked exactly like Drew Sayer wearing a builder's jacket.
"You're terrible at disguise."
"I don't usually need one."
"Criminal arrogance."
"Police jealousy."
The house was sealed.
Police car outside.
One uniformed constable sitting inside it, drinking from a flask.
Leah watched from the end of the street.
"Rear alley."
They went through neighbouring gardens, over two fences and into Gareth's garage through a side window Amy said never locked properly.
The floor compartment sat beneath an old tool chest.
Inside was a cheap Nokia phone, three SIM cards and twenty thousand pounds in cash.
Drew picked up the money.
"Emergency fund."
"Or payment."
"You really are determined to ruin every comforting interpretation."
Leah powered on the phone.
No passcode.
One saved contact.
D.
Thirty-seven calls in six months.
She opened the messages.
Most were short.
MOVED 4 NORTH. VENN CONFIRMS.
DO NOT USE DOCK 17.
AMY KNOWS.
Then one from two nights earlier.
D: GET THE CARD BEFORE VENN DOES. IF LEAH FINDS IT, TELL HER I AM SORRY.
Drew stared.
"Daniel."
A floorboard creaked in the house.
Leah killed the screen.
Voices.
Two men entered the kitchen above.
One was Venn.
The other voice made Leah's blood freeze.
Chief Superintendent Hale.
"Gareth won't last," Hale said. "Quinn wants him moved tonight."
Venn replied, "Michael or Leah?"
A pause.
"Michael. Leah still doesn't know which side her father is on. Keep it that way."
Drew looked at her.
Leah did not move.
Hale continued.
"And Sayer?"
"Michael wants him alive."
"Why?"
Venn laughed quietly.
"Because Daniel does."