CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
By the time they reached the industrial estate behind North End, the police cordon had vanished.
That was worse.
The clubhouse yard stood open.
No marked cars.
No tape.
No officers.
One downstairs window was broken.
Drew parked behind a shuttered tyre shop.
"Hale pulled them."
Leah checked her phone.
Still no service suspension notice. Still no message from her unit. It was as if her career had been erased before anyone officially admitted it existed.
"Or Venn did."
Michael sat in the rear with the ledger under his coat.
Daniel stared at the clubhouse.
"Camera was in the trophy case for years."
"What's inside it?" Drew asked.
"I don't know."
"Venn does."
Ben coughed from the passenger seat.
"Maybe not exactly. Michael used old film backs for dead drops."
Leah looked at her father.
"Of course he did."
Michael ignored the tone.
"A Polaroid cartridge can hide paper if you strip the film."
Daniel's expression changed.
"Mick asked me to repair the back because it wouldn't close. I found a second plate inside. Thought he'd made it himself."
Drew looked at Michael.
"And you never knew?"
"No."
Leah said, "So Mick had another compartment nobody knew about."
"Maybe."
Drew opened the door.
"Let's stop saying maybe."
They entered through the rear workshop.
The clubhouse was empty.
Not abandoned.
Emptied.
Drawers open. Office files gone. CCTV recorder ripped from the wall.
The trophy cabinet had been smashed.
The old camera was missing.
Drew stood in front of the broken glass.
"We're late."
Daniel reached into the cabinet and pulled out a strip of black plastic.
"No."
"What?"
"That's the camera back."
The instant camera itself was gone, but the detachable film door lay broken among the trophies.
Michael crouched beside him.
Daniel pressed the inner plate.
Nothing.
Then Drew handed him Mick's ring.
"Try the stupid family jewellery."
Daniel frowned.
The raised pattern on the signet fitted a worn indentation in the plate.
Click.
A thin compartment opened.
Inside was a folded strip of paper sealed in waxed plastic.
Leah's pulse quickened.
Daniel unfolded it.
Not a ledger page.
A list of names.
Twenty-three.
Beside each was a date and an amount.
At the bottom, in Mick Pike's handwriting:
THESE ARE THE MEN HALE OWNS. IF I DIE, GIVE THIS TO QUINN.
Leah scanned the names.
Senior officers.
A port director.
A magistrate.
Two councillors.
A customs supervisor.
And one name she recognised from the current regional organised crime command.
Assistant Chief Constable David Renn.
Her stomach dropped.
"Renn signs my operational authority."
Ben swore.
Michael read the list.
"This is why Hale survived so long."
Drew pointed.
"One name crossed out."
Leah read it.
MARCUS VENN.
Underneath, in different handwriting:
NO LONGER HALE'S.
Daniel said, "That's recent."
"How recent?" Drew asked.
Michael touched the ink.
"Not Mick's."
Leah looked at her father.
"Yours?"
"No."
Ben went pale.
"Mine."
Silence.
Leah turned slowly.
"What?"
Ben sat down on the edge of the pool table.
"I found the compartment eight months ago."
Drew raised his pistol.
Leah stepped between them.
"Let him talk."
Ben laughed bitterly.
"I wondered when this would happen."
Leah's voice hardened.
"Eight months. You found proof Venn had broken from Hale and said nothing?"
"I told Michael."
She looked at her father.
Michael nodded once.
Rage arrived cleanly this time.
"You knew."
"We knew Venn was building his own network. We didn't know how far it went."
Ben said, "I went back into the operation to find out."
"And got captured."
"Eventually."
"Why was your name on Daniel's archive transcript with my father?"
"Because I was working with him."
"Without authorisation."
Ben gave her a tired look.
"Authorisation from Renn? Hale? Venn? Pick one."
Leah hated that he was right.
Drew lowered the gun slightly.
"What does Venn want with Daniel?"
Ben looked at Daniel.
"Daniel met Venn in Rotterdam two years ago."
Drew's gun rose again.
Daniel did not deny it.
"You worked with him too?"
"No. I used him."
"Everybody uses everybody in this family."
Daniel stepped closer.
"Venn thought I wanted Hale dead. He offered to help."
"Did you?"
"Yes."
"And?"
"I realised Venn didn't want Hale gone because Hale was corrupt. He wanted Hale's chair."
Leah looked at the crossed-out name.
"So Venn has been replacing Hale's people one by one."
Ben nodded.
"Some through blackmail. Some through arrests. Some disappeared."
Owen's voice came from the workshop doorway.
"Lovely. Another copper empire."
He entered with Amy behind him.
Drew stared.
"Why is she here?"
Amy answered. "Because I'm twenty-three and everyone keeps putting me in houses that get attacked."
"Strong point," Leah said.
Owen looked around the empty room.
"Sam's moving Gareth. Hospital guard changed twenty minutes ago. Men he didn't recognise."
Leah's pulse spiked.
"Venn."
Amy went white.
Her phone rang.
Unknown.
Nobody breathed.
She answered.
"Hello?"
Venn said, "Amy. Put me on speaker."
Her hand shook but she did it.
"Good," Venn said. "Now everybody can hear this once."
Drew said, "Where's Gareth?"
"On his way to me."
Amy made a sound.
Venn continued.
"Before you panic, I'm not going to kill him. Hale is."
Leah said, "Hale doesn't have him."
"Not yet."
"What do you want?"
"A trade. Gareth for Robert Hale."
Drew looked at Michael.
Michael looked back.
Leah said, "We don't have Hale."
"You will."
"Why?"
"Because I've sent him the location of the ledger."
Everyone looked at Michael's coat.
Venn laughed softly.
"Don't worry. I lied. I told him it's somewhere else."
Drew said, "Where?"
"The old North End chapel."
Owen frowned.
"What chapel?"
Sam's voice came from the phone in Drew's pocket before he could answer. He had been calling repeatedly.
Drew picked up.
"Sam."
"Gareth is gone. Two men took him from the private ward. Doctor's unconscious."
Amy covered her mouth.
Venn was still on speaker on her phone.
"See?" he said. "Now we're all motivated."
Leah's voice was ice.
"You took him."
"Technically Hale's men did. I simply helped them find the room."
"Why would Hale go to this chapel?"
Drew knew.
He looked at Daniel.
Daniel knew too.
Their father had been buried there.
So had Mick Pike.
So had the empty coffin marked DANIEL SAYER.
Drew said, "Because Hale thinks the ledger is in a grave."
Venn's laugh was quiet.
"Midnight. Bring Daniel. Bring Michael. Bring the real ledger. If Hale leaves that churchyard alive, Gareth dies."
The call ended.
Amy stared at Drew.
"You're not trading my dad."
Drew looked at the names in his hand.
Then at his brother.
Then at Leah.
"No."
Leah understood the expression.
"You're planning something terrible."
"Probably."
"Does it involve a wall?"
"Not yet."
"Improvement."
Daniel stepped beside Drew.
"This time you tell me the plan."
Drew looked at him.
Nine years of anger remained.
So did something older.
"This time," Drew said, "you don't disappear halfway through it."
Daniel nodded.
"Deal."