CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Spurn at night looked like the end of the country because, geographically, it almost was.
A narrow hook of land pushed into black water beneath a sky with no stars. Wind came across the Humber hard enough to make the grass lie flat. Old concrete, rusted fencing and abandoned structures appeared in the headlights then vanished again.
Leah drove the final mile without speaking.
Drew sat beside her.
Neither had slept.
Neither mentioned it.
Behind them, well outside sight, Calder's surveillance vehicle stopped near Kilnsea.
Michael and Daniel were ahead in a separate car.
Daniel had discharged himself from hospital against advice.
The paramedic had called him a fucking idiot.
Drew had considered asking her to join North End.
"You all right?" Leah asked.
"No."
"Good."
He looked at her.
"Good?"
"Means you're paying attention."
She turned off the road onto a broken concrete track.
The old lifeboat workshop sat beyond a low bank, large doors facing the water. Once white paint had turned grey. Windows on the landward side were boarded. A narrow slipway ran down into the tide.
One yellow light burned inside.
No vehicles.
No visible men.
"Too clean," Drew said.
"Yes."
Leah killed the engine three hundred metres away.
They got out.
Cold hit immediately.
Drew checked the pistol beneath his coat.
Leah noticed.
"You said no heroic idiots."
"That was your rule."
"I remember."
"I didn't agree."
She touched his chest once.
"If I tell you to stay down, stay down."
"Absolutely."
"You're lying."
"Yes."
"Fine. At least we're improving."
They moved through the grass toward a low concrete observation hut Drew remembered from childhood trips with Richard.
His father had brought them to Spurn twice.
Once for fishing.
Once because Daniel had stolen twenty cigarettes and Richard decided making both boys walk six miles in rain would restore morality.
It had not.
Drew had smoked three more behind a lighthouse.
Now the same landscape held the man who ordered Richard's death.
Leah crouched beside the observation hut and checked her phone.
One message from Calder.
MICHAEL + DANIEL ENTERING IN 2. HOLD.
Drew looked toward the workshop.
"He'll search them."
"Yes."
"Daniel has a wound."
"Also yes."
"You're very calming."
"Not my job."
A distant engine sounded over the water.
Workboat.
Drew looked toward the dark Humber.
No lights.
Ben's vessel approached the slipway almost invisibly.
Leah raised compact binoculars.
"Three on deck."
"Ben?"
"Can't tell."
The boat touched concrete.
Two men stepped off first.
Both carried long cases.
Not fishermen.
A third man followed.
Terry Pike.
Even at distance Drew recognised the shape from the video.
Old, lean, upright.
The kind of man who had spent enough years being obeyed that age had not taught him humility.
Behind him came Ben Harker.
Hands tied in front.
One eye swollen closed.
Alive.
Drew breathed out.
Leah lowered the binoculars.
"Four more still on the boat."
"Terry brought seven for two wounded old men."
"He knows Michael."
"Fair."
Her phone buzzed.
ENTERING.
A car rolled toward the workshop with headlights on.
Michael drove.
Daniel sat passenger.
They stopped in the open.
One of Terry's men searched them before allowing them inside.
Daniel lifted both hands and said something that made the man shove him.
Drew shifted.
Leah caught his sleeve.
"Hold."
He held.
Barely.
The workshop doors closed.
Leah checked the earpiece Calder had given her.
A microphone sat inside the button of Michael's coat.
Static.
Then voices.
Terry first.
"Michael."
Michael answered.
"Terry."
"You look terrible."
"Popular opinion."
A second voice.
Daniel.
"Ben first."
Terry laughed softly.
"Still impatient. Richard hated that about you."
Drew's expression hardened.
Leah touched his arm.
Inside, metal scraped.
Probably a chair.
Terry said, "Sit. Both of you."
Daniel answered, "I'll stand."
"You've been shot twice in two days."
"Sitting makes me irritable."
"You were irritable at seventeen."
Drew heard Daniel go quiet.
Terry continued.
"Your father brought you to my house once. You stole my lighter."
Daniel said, "Should have stolen more."
Terry laughed.
The sound made Drew hate him more than shouting would have.
Michael said, "You have the ledger. We have the page. Release Ben."
"No."
"That was the arrangement."
"That was the invitation."
A pause.
"Show me."
Drew imagined Michael removing the copied page.
Paper moved near the microphone.
Terry did not speak for several seconds.
Then:
"This is a copy."
Leah looked at Drew.
Too fast.
Inside, Michael said, "It's the page."
"It's a beautiful copy of the page."
"The information is identical."
"I didn't ask for information."
Terry's voice remained almost gentle.
"Where is the original?"
Michael said nothing.
Terry sighed.
A sharp impact came through the microphone.
Ben grunted.
Drew moved.
Leah held him harder.
"Not yet."
Terry said, "Again. Where is the original?"
Daniel answered.
"NCA evidence."
"No."
"Then why ask?"
"Because I know Richard's sons."
Drew's expression gave him away.
Terry continued.
"Daniel always hides the important thing in the wrong place. Drew carries it himself."
Leah closed her eyes.
Drew whispered, "How the fuck—"
Terry's voice came through clearly.
"You can come in now, Drew."
Silence.
Wind moved around the observation hut.
Drew looked at Leah.
She shook her head.
Terry spoke again.
"Your father used to crouch behind that same concrete box when he brought girls out here in the seventies. Very little changes."
Drew stared toward the workshop.
One of the boarded windows now showed a faint red light.
Camera.
Leah swore.
Terry had watched the approach.
"Drew," Terry called through Michael's microphone, because apparently he knew about that too. "If Leah Quinn is beside you, bring her. I'd like to see whether Michael's daughter inherited his timing."
Leah removed the earpiece.
"Calder. We're burned."
Static.
Then Calder's voice.
"Withdraw."
Drew almost laughed.
Leah said, "Can't. Ben is inside."
"My team moves."
"No. Terry has four on the boat and unknown inside. If he sees vehicles, he kills Ben."
"Leah—"
Terry's voice came through the earpiece again.
"Calder, if you're listening, your first vehicle crosses the old lighthouse track and Mr Harker dies. Your boat comes within five hundred metres and the ledger goes into the Humber."
Calder went silent.
Terry laughed.
"Institutions. Always microphones."
Drew looked at Leah.
"We're going in."
She hated it.
He saw that.
Not fear.
Maths.
Seven visible men.
Ben hostage.
Daniel injured.
Michael injured.
Unknown exits.
Tide moving.
Then her phone vibrated.
One message from Sam.
OLD GIRL IN POSITION. NO AIS. PETE SAYS TELL TERRY HIS ENGINE SOUNDS SHIT.
Leah stared at it.
"Your people are impossible."
"Yes."
"Where is Sam?"
"Offshore."
"How close?"
Drew looked toward the black water.
"Close enough."
Leah exhaled through her nose.
"Fine. We go in because Terry expects us. Calder holds. Sam blocks the water only if the boat moves."
"And inside?"
She checked her weapon.
"We make Terry talk."
"Then?"
"Then we improvise badly, apparently."
Drew smiled once.
They stepped out of the grass.
The workshop door opened before they reached it.
Terry Pike stood in the yellow light.
No weapon visible.
Silver founder ring on his right hand.
He looked past Leah first.
At Drew.
For a moment the old man's face changed.
Not fear.
Recognition.
"Richard's eyes," he said.
Drew stopped ten feet away.
"Funny. Everyone else says Daniel."
Terry smiled.
"Daniel has Richard's temper. You have the part he tried hardest to hide."
"Which part?"
"The ability to wait."
Drew looked through the open door.
Ben sat tied to a chair.
Blood on his shirt.
Daniel stood beside a workbench.
Michael opposite him.
Three armed men inside.
Another door at the river end.
Terry spread his hands.
"Come in."
Leah said, "Search us and this gets boring."
Terry looked at her.
"Michael said you were difficult."
"He missed sixteen birthdays. His character references are unreliable."
Michael closed his eyes inside.
Terry laughed.
"Keep your guns."
Drew frowned.
"Confident."
"Old. There's a difference."
They entered.
The door closed behind them.
Terry looked at Drew's jacket.
"Now."
Drew removed Richard's ledger page.
Not the original.
The original sat sealed with Calder two miles away.
This was the second copy.
Terry took it.
Held it toward the light.
Then smiled.
"Another copy."
Drew shrugged.
"Family tradition."
For the first time Terry's expression hardened.
"Where is it?"
"Somewhere you can't reach."
Terry looked at Ben.
Then back at Drew.
"You think because he's police I won't kill him?"
Ben spoke through a split lip.
"For the record, he has been extremely open-minded about it."
Leah almost smiled.
Terry ignored him.
"The original page is not evidence against me, Drew. Not really. It's a map."
Drew said nothing.
"Henry Vane kept duplicate manifests from the first Rotterdam years. Customs officers. Police numbers. Registration plates. Every shipment between 1997 and 2003. Half the men named are dead. The other half became respectable."
Leah said, "And you want to sell them."
"No."
Terry looked almost offended.
"I want to own the fact that they exist."
Michael whispered, "Same thing."
Terry looked at him.
"You always understood eventually."
Daniel shifted his weight.
"Let Ben go."
Terry turned.
"Still doing that."
"Doing what?"
"Trying to save one person while deciding for six others."
Drew looked at his brother.
Daniel looked toward the floor.
Terry noticed.
Of course he did.
"Your father worried about that."
Drew's voice went flat.
"You don't get to talk about him."
Terry looked at Drew with something almost like pity.
"I knew Richard longer than you did."
The sentence landed exactly as intended.
Drew stepped forward.
Leah's hand caught the back of his coat.
Terry smiled.
"There. Daniel's temper after all."
"You ordered his murder."
"I ordered Robert Hale to solve a problem."
"That's murder with middle management."
Ben laughed once despite himself.
Terry looked at him.
"You see why I wanted Drew at home?"
Drew stared.
Terry's smile disappeared.
"Because Richard asked me to keep you out."
The workshop became very quiet.
Daniel looked up sharply.
Michael's face changed.
Drew said, "What?"
"The last conversation I had with your father. He knew he was in danger. He offered me every vehicle, every lock-up, every penny still tied to the route. He asked for two things. Daniel could choose his own life. Drew stays clean."
Daniel whispered, "You never told me that."
Terry glanced at him.
"Why would I? You'd already chosen."
Drew could not breathe properly.
Terry continued.
"I kept my word longer than most men would. I never recruited you. Never used you. When Gareth wanted to bring you onto heavier work after Daniel disappeared, I told Hale no."
Drew stared.
Pieces moved in old memories.
Jobs Gareth had given other men.
Routes Drew had somehow always missed.
The strange fact that despite years in North End, his criminal record remained mostly violence, bikes and stupidity rather than trafficking.
He had thought Gareth protected him because Daniel was dead.
Perhaps somebody else had drawn the line first.
Drew looked at Terry.
"You want credit?"
"No."
"Good. Because you murdered the man who asked."
Terry's face cooled.
"Richard broke the first rule. He thought family made him special."
Drew stepped closer.
"Family made him right."
Terry looked at him for a long second.
Then toward Daniel.
"And yet here you both are."
Daniel said, "Not for long if you keep talking."
Terry smiled.
"There's Richard."
The river door opened behind him.
Another man entered.
Redmile cut.
Denny Cross.
Drew stared.
Denny avoided his eyes.
Behind him came three Redmile members.
All armed.
Terry spread his hands.
"Now we're complete."
Leah looked at Denny.
"You picked a strange week to choose the losing side."
Denny's face gave nothing away.
Terry said, "Redmile gets the east route. North End keeps Hull under new leadership. Daniel and Michael come with me long enough to locate Vane's manifests. Mr Harker goes home. Everybody survives."
Drew looked at Denny.
"And who's new leadership?"
Terry smiled.
"You."
Drew laughed.
Actually laughed.
Terry's expression hardened.
"Your father built the route. You hold North End now. Gareth is finished. Owen has no appetite for it. You are the cleanest useful face left."
"Clean?"
"Comparatively."
"That's upsetting."
"Take the deal."
Drew looked around the workshop.
Terry.
Ben tied.
Daniel bleeding.
Michael pale.
Denny and Redmile.
Men at the river door.
Twenty-seven years of people deciding what North End would become.
Drew shook his head.
"No."
Terry's smile vanished.
"Think before you answer."
"Done."
"You would throw away an empire your father paid for?"
Drew looked at him.
"My father died trying to get out of it."
Then Denny Cross raised his pistol.
And pointed it at Terry Pike.
"That's the answer I was hoping for," Denny said.