CHAPTER TWENTY
Drew Sayer was released at four seventeen in the afternoon because the National Crime Agency had more urgent problems than arguing about a pistol found in a churchyard full of corrupt police.
He did not mistake that for innocence.
The officer returning his property made that clear.
"Do not leave the country."
Drew checked the cheap plastic bag.
Wallet.
Keys.
Phone with a cracked screen.
No pistol.
"Wasn't planning to."
"Do not interfere with witnesses."
"Define interfere."
The officer stared at him.
Drew smiled.
"Joke."
"I doubt it."
Outside, Daniel leaned against a black hatchback that did not belong to him.
Drew stopped.
"Whose car?"
"Ben's."
"Why are you out?"
"Charming personality."
"Daniel."
"They need me more useful than locked up. Rotterdam pages. Venn network. Conditional release."
Drew looked at the car.
"And Ben?"
The driver's window lowered.
Ben Harker looked exhausted.
"Unfortunately present."
Drew got in the back.
"Leah?"
Neither answered quickly enough.
"What happened?"
Ben pulled away from the kerb.
"She's safe."
"That's not an answer."
Daniel turned in the passenger seat.
"Renn took Hale and Michael from custody."
Drew stared at him.
"Took?"
"Fake transfer for Hale. Inside extraction for Michael. NCA think the same group ran both."
"Leah?"
"Calder has her in protective accommodation."
Drew looked out of the window.
"She'll hate that."
"She already left."
He looked back.
Ben sighed.
"She wasn't technically detained."
"Where is she?"
"Would you like to guess?"
North End clubhouse was burning when they reached Hull.
Drew saw the smoke from two streets away.
Fire engines blocked the road. Police tape fluttered in the wind. Black smoke climbed through the remains of the roof while water hammered through the upstairs windows.
Leah stood behind the cordon in borrowed jeans and a black sweatshirt.
Drew got out before Ben stopped moving.
She saw him.
The relief on her face disappeared so quickly most people would have missed it.
Drew did not.
"You're out."
"You're suspended."
"We both had productive afternoons."
He stopped in front of her.
There were forty things to say.
He chose the easiest.
"Your dad?"
She pressed her lips together.
"Gone."
"Alive?"
"As far as we know."
Drew nodded.
"We'll find him."
Leah looked at him.
"You say that like you're not currently watching your clubhouse burn down."
He turned toward the building.
The upstairs room where she had first put a gun on him was gone.
The bar.
Mick's photographs.
The trophy cabinet.
Nine years of Daniel's memorial wall.
All fire.
Gareth stood beyond the engine with a hospital coat over his clothes, one hand pressed against his bandaged stomach.
Amy was shouting at him.
Drew walked over.
"Why are you here?"
Gareth looked at the flames.
"It's my club."
"You're six hours out of surgery."
"Wasn't major."
Amy stared at her father.
"You have staples in your abdomen."
"Decorative."
Owen stood nearby with his injured arm in a sling.
"Redmile."
Drew looked at him.
"You know?"
Owen pointed toward the road.
Spray-painted across the brick wall opposite the clubhouse was a red line running through a black N.
Not subtle.
"They hit two storage garages this morning," Owen said. "Took a van from Hedon. One of our lads got beaten outside his house. Then this."
"Who gave the order?"
Gareth answered.
"Mason Rigg."
Leah joined them.
"President?"
Drew nodded.
"Four years. Took over after his uncle went inside."
"Why hasn't he appeared until now?"
"Because Redmile liked letting Venn do the talking."
A firefighter shouted as part of the upstairs roof collapsed.
Gareth closed his eyes.
Amy's phone rang.
Every head turned.
She looked at the screen.
Unknown number.
"Again? Seriously?"
Drew took the phone.
"Speaker."
Amy answered.
A man's voice came through.
Warm. Calm. Northern.
"Afternoon."
Drew knew it immediately.
Mason Rigg.
They had met twice in nine years and tried to kill each other once.
Reasonable by club standards.
"Mason."
"Drew. Heard you found your brother."
Daniel had just reached them.
He looked at the phone.
Rigg continued.
"Awkward. We held a memorial ride and everything."
Daniel said, "Send flowers."
A small laugh.
"Still funny. Shame."
Leah stepped closer.
"Where's Michael Quinn?"
Silence.
Then Rigg said, "You must be the copper."
"Where is he?"
"Not with me."
Drew believed him.
Leah apparently did too.
"Then what do you want?"
"Simple reset. Hale's gone. Venn's gone. Routes are open. North End gives up east Hull, the coastal warehouses and the Humber crossing. We stop burning your memories."
Gareth laughed despite the pain.
"Fuck you."
"Gareth. Glad you're alive. Less glad you're stupid."
Gareth grabbed for the phone.
Drew moved it away.
"What makes you think we'll agree?"
"Because I've got something you want."
A video arrived on Amy's phone.
Leah opened it.
Pete Lawson sat on a metal chair in a bare room.
Hospital gown beneath an open coat.
Bandage around his side.
Bruised face.
Alive.
Behind him stood two men in Redmile cuts.
Owen swore.
Pete looked directly at the camera.
"Don't trade anything for me."
Someone hit him from behind.
The image cut.
Amy went pale.
"They took him from hospital too?"
Leah looked at Drew.
"Renn."
Drew understood.
Two hospitals. Two compromised transfers. One regional command structure.
Rigg returned to the call.
"Pete made mistakes. Still one of yours, apparently."
Gareth's jaw hardened.
"What do you want for him?"
"Not territory anymore. Daniel's Rotterdam pages."
Daniel did not move.
Drew said, "Why?"
"Because my name is on one."
That changed the shape of the room.
Leah stared at Daniel.
"You didn't mention that."
Daniel looked annoyed.
"I hadn't got to the Christmas card list."
Rigg said, "Midnight tomorrow. I'll send a place. Bring the original pages. Pete walks."
"And if we don't?" Owen asked.
"Then Pete becomes the first honest thing North End has buried in years."
The call ended.
Gareth turned on Daniel.
"Your pages have Rigg on them?"
"Yes."
"Doing what?"
Daniel looked at the burning clubhouse.
"Meeting David Renn."
Leah went very still.
Drew saw the connection before she said it.
Renn did not just have a police network.
He had a replacement gang too.
Hale had used Redmile.
Venn had used Redmile.
Now Renn was trying to inherit both.
The clubhouse roof collapsed behind them.
Drew watched sparks lift into the afternoon sky.
Daniel stepped beside him.
"Looks like home changed."
Drew looked at his brother.
"No."
Then at Gareth.
Then the wall marked by Redmile.
"Home's still here."
Gareth nodded once.
Drew continued.
"We're just going to have to decide who deserves to stay in it."