CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Leah did not go back to the hospital.
That was the only reason Michael Quinn remained alive for the next hour.
Instead she sat in Calder's car outside the NCA building and stared through the windscreen while Drew stood in the rain making calls to North End.
Calder waited.
It was one of the first things Leah had liked about her.
No soothing voice.
No bullshit about complicated men making impossible choices.
Eventually Leah said, "If he asked for me to go undercover, he used me."
Calder looked ahead.
"Yes."
"You could pretend there is another interpretation."
"Would you believe me?"
"No."
"Then I won't waste your time."
Leah nodded.
Drew opened the passenger door and got in wet.
"Sam has everyone off the routes. Owen's moving the legal trucks. Nobody touches Goole."
Calder looked at him.
"Good."
"You sound surprised."
"Your club has fired at police twice in forty-eight hours."
"Corrupt police."
"Bullets don't ask for disciplinary records."
Drew accepted that.
Leah said, "Renn expects North End at Goole."
"Yes," Calder said.
"So we don't go."
Drew looked at her.
"We?"
"You heard me."
"I thought you were suspended."
"I am also furious. It is surprisingly transferable."
Calder turned in her seat.
"Neither of you goes near that warehouse. My team will take it."
Drew said, "Renn has people inside police response."
"Not my team."
"You hope."
Calder's eyes hardened.
"Careful."
Drew did not apologise.
Leah stepped in before national law enforcement and an acting MC president developed a workplace issue.
"Renn's plan relies on a public armed response. If Calder gets the warehouse before the call goes out, the frame collapses."
Drew nodded slowly.
"And if Redmile gets there first?"
"Then Calder arrests Redmile."
"You make it sound tidy."
"I'm trying something new."
His phone rang.
Sam.
Drew answered.
He listened for three seconds.
Then his expression changed.
"Where?"
Leah sat straighter.
"How many?"
Pause.
"Don't chase them. I'm coming."
He ended the call.
Calder said, "What happened?"
"Redmile hit the tyre unit."
Leah swore.
"Pete?"
"Gone."
"Sam?"
"Alive. Callum too. They took two North End cuts, a van and the keys to one of our legal trucks."
Calder closed her eyes briefly.
"Cloned vehicles without cloning them."
Drew opened the door.
"Renn's getting his frame."
Calder caught his arm.
"Where are you going?"
"To stop my people being used in it."
"No retaliation."
Drew looked at her hand until she removed it.
"If I wanted retaliation, I'd be asking where Rigg sleeps."
"Rigg is in custody."
"Then he's having an excellent night."
Leah got out too.
Calder stared at her.
"Leah."
"I'm not police tonight."
"That is not reassuring."
"It wasn't meant to be."
The tyre unit looked worse when they returned.
The shutter hung bent from its rail. Broken glass covered the floor. Sam had blood running from his nose and a split lip. Callum sat against the wall holding an ice pack to his neck with one hand and a baseball bat with the other.
Drew stopped in front of him.
"You hit anyone?"
Callum nodded.
"Good."
Leah looked at Drew.
"Excellent mentoring."
"He was assaulted."
"I didn't disagree."
Sam handed Drew a phone.
"They dropped this."
Cheap burner.
One message still visible.
brING CUTS + VAN. 23:45. EAST GATE. POLICE DO THE REST.
No name.
Drew looked at the time.
Eleven thirty-seven.
"How many Redmile?"
"Four came in. Two outside."
"Pete go willingly?"
Sam laughed, then held his lip.
"Pete hasn't done anything willingly since 2004. They dragged him."
Leah looked around.
"Why take Pete?"
Drew answered first.
"Founder ring."
Sam frowned.
"What?"
"Mick's signet was used at the first hostage yard. Pete had one too. Hale used the old founders because Gareth would recognise the symbol."
Leah nodded.
"Pete can identify whoever had access to Mick's ring after the burial."
Sam looked at her.
"Renn?"
"Maybe. Or he can identify which Redmile old boy worked with Hale before Gareth took over."
Drew picked up the burner.
"Either way, they don't want him talking."
A motorcycle engine sounded outside.
Everyone reached for something.
Leah drew first.
One bike rolled through the broken shutter.
Redmile cut.
The rider lifted both hands away from the bars.
"Don't shoot."
Owen came through the rear door at the same moment.
He saw the patch and went straight for the man.
Drew caught his good arm.
"Wait."
"He's Redmile."
"Excellent eyesight."
"Drew."
The rider removed his helmet.
Mid-thirties. Blood at one eyebrow. Exhaustion in his face.
"Denny Cross."
Owen laughed once.
"Rigg's little errand boy."
Denny looked at him.
"Rigg's in a cell and your brother's in a hospital. Maybe tonight we can retire the family introductions."
Owen moved again.
Drew held him.
"Talk."
Denny looked at Leah's gun.
"Can she not point that at me?"
Leah lowered it two inches.
"Improvement."
Denny swallowed.
"Renn's burning Redmile too."
Drew said nothing.
"We thought the Goole load was payment. Rigg said Hale owed us routes. Then Rigg got lifted. Renn's people took over. Tonight they gave us North End vehicles and said we hit the warehouse, take the coke, leave before police response."
Leah said, "You believed that?"
"Some did."
"You didn't?"
Denny reached inside his cut slowly and removed a folded photocopy.
He put it on the table.
A police incident sheet.
Time: 00:10.
Location: Goole bonded warehouse.
Report: ARMED PERSONS. MOTORCYCLE GANG ACTIVITY. SHOTS FIRED.
It had already been created.
Before the incident happened.
Calder's warning became real in paper.
Denny said, "One of our lads has a cousin in control room. Saw it queued for release. Redmile bikes. North End van. Firearms. Cocaine. Nice clean gang war for tomorrow's papers."
Sam stared at the sheet.
"He's going to have police shoot whoever's there."
"Yes."
Owen looked at Denny.
"And Pete?"
Denny hesitated.
Drew stepped closer.
"Where is he?"
"They took him to Goole. Renn wants him in the warehouse when police arrive. Founder of North End at a drug robbery. Makes the story older. Bigger."
Sam swore.
Drew looked at Leah.
She was already calling Calder.
Denny said, "There's more."
Everyone turned.
"The men from Rotterdam aren't buyers. They're cleaners."
Leah lowered the phone.
"Meaning?"
"They came in this afternoon. No money. No transport for coke. Just passports and guns."
Denny looked at Drew.
"Renn isn't selling the evidence. He's putting everyone who can identify the Line in one warehouse and setting the police on it."
Drew felt the pattern close.
Pete.
Redmile.
North End vehicles.
Maybe Daniel if Gareth's deal had worked.
Maybe Michael.
Leah said into the phone, "Calder, change of plan. Renn's not moving inventory. He's staging a burial."
She listened.
Then looked at Drew.
"Calder's team is five minutes from Goole."
Drew picked up his keys.
Leah blocked him.
"No."
"Pete is there."
"Pete sold you to Hale."
"Still North End."
"That sentence is exactly how Gareth ended up Gareth."
Drew stopped.
It hurt because it was true.
Owen looked between them.
Denny said, "If you don't go, Renn gets the story he wants anyway. He'll use the van and cuts."
Leah turned on him.
"And if Drew goes, he gives Renn the actual acting president standing over forty kilos of cocaine."
Denny shrugged.
"Then send me."
Silence.
Owen laughed.
"Absolutely not."
Denny looked at Drew.
"Renn thinks Redmile will do anything for the load. Let him think it. I take the van. I go to the east gate. Your NCA friends watch."
Leah stared at him.
"Why?"
"Because I don't fancy being shot by armed response so a copper can retire in Spain."
"Inspirational."
"I'm having a difficult week too."
Drew looked at the burner.
Then the incident sheet.
Then Denny.
"If you run with the coke—"
"You'll what? Arrest me?"
Leah said, "I might come out of suspension for the occasion."
Denny smiled despite himself.
Drew made the decision.
"Fine."
Owen swore.
"You trust him?"
"No."
"Good plan."
"I trust Renn to underestimate everyone he thinks he's bought."
Leah looked at him.
"That sounded presidential."
"Don't."
She called Calder again.
At eleven fifty-one, Denny Cross drove a North End van toward Goole wearing a Redmile cut.
At eleven fifty-three, Calder's unmarked vehicles moved into position.
At eleven fifty-five, Drew stood in the dark yard of the tyre unit and watched Leah check her pistol.
"You're still not supposed to have that," he said.
"Calder gave it back."
"Why?"
"She has made several questionable decisions tonight."
His phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
A photograph loaded.
Pete Lawson on his knees inside a warehouse.
Behind him stood Michael Quinn.
Alive.
Unrestrained.
Drew turned the phone toward Leah.
Her face emptied.
Under the photograph was one line.
MIDNIGHT. COME ALONE, LEAH.
Leah looked at the time.
Eleven fifty-six.
Drew said, "You're not going alone."
She took the phone from him.
"Obviously."
"Good."
"You're staying here."
He stared at her.
"That is not what obviously means."
She was already walking toward the car.