69. Electrical Arc
Rook recoiled slightly when he saw Sally. She used that, gliding into place across the table but saying nothing. Letting him sweat as Liam prepared the interview camera.
Then he fell silent.
The solicitor watched Sally with sharp eyes. Roarke kept his gaze down, fixed on the table. Neither Sally nor Liam spoke. They let the silence build.
"Officers," began Carrack, "we should–"
"Who's your uncle, Roarke?" Sally said abruptly.
Rook flinched, almost like he'd been struck.
The lawyer frowned. "Perhaps you'd care to–"
"You said that to Crawford Meeks," Sally went on, "before you stretched out his arm with an industrial digger." Each word seemed to force Rook deeper into a hunch. "Who is he?"
"Don't know what you're talking about," Rook muttered, chancing a glance up at her. "Someone's lying to you."
"Are they now? Because I know you've been over this a few times, Roarke, with my colleagues. Why you wanted full ownership of Reactor Logistics. The record shows you never really answered."
He grunted.
"Now, we know it wasn't ever your idea. What do you care about a decommissioned reactor? There's easier money in vapes, nail salons, and trafficking girls onto your live webcams, isn't there?"
"All these charges are under litigation," Carrack said. "I don't know what you're trying to achieve here, Officer."
"I'm trying to find a murderer."
"It's not my client."
"But your client knows who it is. Don't you, Roarke?"
Rook kept his head low.
"A man in his 60s. You knew him as 'uncle', maybe since you were a child. But Reg has got no brothers, Roarke. You've got no uncle. The man you're lying for has been lying to you all your life, because he's actually your brother."
Rook's head snapped up. "What?"
"Who is he, Roarke?" Sally raced on. "Reg's firstborn son. Born when Reg was only 14 years old and adopted out. But he came back. He would have done anything for Reg. What's his name?"
Rook's jaw worked the air and his eyes darted around the room. "What do you mean, he's my brother?"
"Who is he?"
"I… I just…" He forced himself to look back down. "No comment!"
"Bullshit it's no comment! Your brother came to you, Roarke, called himself your uncle, and gave you the idea to take Reactor Logistics back. Didn't he?"
Rook's head bowed lower. "No comment."
"He told you to get Reactor Logistics back from Meeks. He wanted you in there so you could kill the reactor's CCTV."
Rook's head shot back up again. "I told you no comment, you stupid bitch! This is all your fault! Everything was fine until you came along, everything was–"
"Fine while you trafficked underage girls across the Channel? Fine while you ran an illegal vape and nitrous business on the side? Ketamine too, maybe a cardiotoxic agent like cocaine? Was that all fine, Roarke?"
He glared at her, color in his cheeks again, clearly aching to reach over and finish what he'd started on the marsh. "Fuck you!"
"You are deliberately antagonizing my client," Carrack said. "I am formally ending this inter–"
"You'll do no such thing," Sally leaned closer.
"Your elder brother killed Tom Richter 30 years ago, Roarke.
He killed Jason Harrow, Nancy Cagen and Officer Emily Chakrati now, and you're really going to swing in his place?
If you don't name him, all this is going to come back on you.
Stop protecting the man who sold you out, Roarke. " She slapped the table. "Who is he?"
Rook's gaze sped around the room again, settling briefly on the mirrored glass to the observation room.
Sally saw that. She looked at the glass, then back to Roarke. "Who are you looking for?"
"My client is doubtless trying to signal your DCI for help. This interview has run far beyond the bounds of–"
"That's not it." Her jaw slowly dropped as she recognized the look in Rook's eyes. "That's not a man looking for a lifeline. That's a man terrified for his life."
"What? How can you possibly–"
Sally shoved her chair back with a scrape and sped from the room. The corridor seemed to leer and tilt as she pushed into Observation Room 1.
Empty. Just the large one-way glass, beyond which sat Roarke Rook, his lawyer and Liam, all looking back at her.
Her pulse only accelerated. She approached the glass and thumped on it once, causing Rook to pull hard away.
No. It couldn't be. It wasn't possible.
Back in the corridor she swiveled, looking both ways. The bullpen churned and frothed as normal. The exit to the rear lot was closed. What had she missed?
She ran back to the desk where her team were working. DI Gemmell looked up at her with curious eyes. "You said DCI Mayhew was in with Roarke Rook before me. Is that right?"
"In with Rook? That's correct. Why?"
"And was there anybody else?"
"Ah. I don't think so." He turned to Simms. "Sergeant, you were watching him."
Simms nodded. "That's right. I transferred him in there, watched while he waited for his solicitor."
"And nobody else approached? Nobody spoke to him?"
"No." His eyes narrowed. "Well, there was one stretch where I was talking to the DCI. Only a few minutes, back over here. But the door was locked. He was going nowhere, and I'm pretty sure no one was in or out."
Pretty sure.
"Find out," Sally hissed, lowering her voice, suddenly aware her frantic energy would be a flag to anyone watching. "Quietly. Did anyone see someone go in with him. OK?"
Some of her urgency seemed to be leaking into them. "Yes, ma'am," Gemmell said.
"Thank you."
She stalked back toward the interview room. Liam met her at the door. "What's going on, Sally?"
"I think we're compromised," she said quietly. "Someone's intimidated Rook."
"Someone here? You mean police?"
Sally stepped back inside.
"Banging on the observation glass is a disallowed practice, Officer Rogers," Carrack said sternly. "It constitutes unlawful intimidation, and I will not–"
"He's here, isn't he?" Sally demanded. "Roarke, your brother's here. He came in with you, he threatened you. Who is it?"
Rook's head was down in his hands now, shaking slowly side to side.
"Who did he threaten? It couldn't just have been you. Your other brothers?"
"No comment," Rook moaned.
"This is over," Carrack said. He stood and took Rook's elbow. "Roarke, we're leaving. I've never seen–"
"Did he say he was going to take their eyes, Roarke?" she slammed the table again. "Their ears? What's his name, Roarke? We can protect all of you!"
Rook shuddered then looked up. Carrack started to protest, but nobody was listening anymore, least of all Rook. His eyes were now locked onto Sally, bright with desperation.
"I don't know his full name. Just what my dad called him." He licked his lips. "Uncle Jack."
Realization slammed through Sally like an electrical arc.
Uncle Jack. 60 years old. Emergency services. Tied to the land. Close to Arthur Bledd.
She tried to speak but the revelations kept flooding in. Quoting John Donne. His chaotic life in London, his ordered life on the Rother. DCI Stewart as a second father. And Heraclitus…
Ephesian Tears!
The words leapt into her mind unbidden, swiftly resolving to the name of the houseboat moored next to Arthur Bledd. She'd never really grasped it before, but it was right there in plain sight. Heraclitus was from Ephesus. His nickname was the weeping philosopher!
It felt like she'd been cored out. A man she'd never looked at twice, never suspected. A man who'd seemed broken by the original investigation, a man taking refuge from his past, a man doing everything he could to help them.
The same man who'd murdered Tom Richter. Jason Harrow. Nancy Cagen. Emily Chakrati. Arthur Bledd. Nia Mensah.
"Jack Mercer," she whispered.
"Holy shit," Liam murmured by her side. "Really?"
She pictured Mercer just a few hours ago, lending a hand around the station, offering his expertise. The killer come to gloat, as he had so many times. He could have slipped in and warned Rook not to talk at any point. As far as she knew, he was here in the station still.
"Come on," she barked and ran out, eyes roving the bullpen. No sign of Mercer. She turned and dashed down the corridor to Mayhew's office, throwing open the door.
Empty.
She ran back, Liam right at her heels, to stop in front of their team.
"What is it?" Gemmell asked.
"Ex-DI Jack Mercer, where is he?" Sally asked.
"I, uh…" Gemmell's face paled. "Why, do you think–"
"Where is he, Stephen?"
"He's gone! Twenty minutes back, maybe? It's crazy, in this storm, but the DI just paced right out, then the DCI ran right after him."
Sally reeled. "What? DCI Mayhew followed him?"
"That's right. I told you she'd left. What's happened."
"She left? Where were they going?"
"I've got no idea. I–"
Sally tuned him out and turned to Liam. This was impossible. The worst possible situation; their DCI as a hostage. "Where could he be taking her, Liam?"
Liam nodded, processes turning in his eyes. "He's been here the whole time, Sally. He's been read-in to everything. He knows all the leads we've been pursuing. So–"
"So he knows we're onto him! This is it. Endgame."
"Endgame," Liam repeated. "With DCI Mayhew along for the ride. Maybe his final victim? But why her? And where?"
Sally's mind raced. "They're close; he was best friends with her father, until he died." She looked out over the bullpen as if seeking inspiration. "Mercer provided stability for her, until he left for London."
"A year after he killed Tom Richter," Liam said.
"He killed Richter?" Gemmell said. Still catching up.
"Stability," Sally pressed. "That's Mercer's whole thing, isn't it? He presents as totally in control. He gave nothing to us, nothing to the podcasters. 30 years, he's been stewing over this. Looking for the answer to his question."
"What question?" Gemmell asked, exasperated now, and Liam swiveled to him.
"The one raised by Richter's death. Chaos or order."
"Chaos or order?"
"It's been decades," Sally went on, feeling inches away from grasping something essential. "A long plot, a scheme to wreak destruction and…"
She trailed off, eyes widening as the possibility appeared.
"What is it?" Liam asked.
Sally couldn't speak as the truth unraveled in her mind. The battle for control of Reactor Logistics. Access to all its networks. Roarke Rook restarting his father's people trafficking empire. Jason Harrow posed on the beach staring right at Reactor A.
She'd thought it was the lighthouse. But what if she'd misunderstood, proving Mercer's core thesis from the very outset, that the eyes and ears lied?
"Are there CTSFOs at the reactor?"
"At the reactor?" Gemmell repeated.
"Are there, Stephen?"
He took a second, looking between Sally and Liam, then seemed to snap back into gear. "No. I don't think so. They have security of their own."
"And Mercer had an inside man for years. That's where he's going."
"To the reactor?"
Sally refocused on Liam, a dozen factors spiraling in her head. "He told us all this from the start. Richter. Harrow. Seashells for eyes." Her mouth was so dry she could hardly speak. "If he's got a bomb in Reactor A, dozens of people will die."
Liam's jaw dropped. "A bomb in the reactor? But, it's not active. It's decommissioned."
Sally shook her head, thoughts arcing back to the one time she'd been inside.
"Doesn't matter. Decommissioned doesn't mean clean.
There's 500 cubic meters of contaminated process water in a huge tank.
If Mercer breaches that tank in this storm, it'll spread all across Dungeness. We're looking at another Chernobyl!"
He gasped. "A nuclear spill? You can't be serious?"
"Smaller scale, but yes. Nobody's coming back to Dungeness after that, maybe for generations. Mercer reclaims it for nature."
"Chaos within order," Liam breathed.
A silent few seconds passed as the weight of that sank in.
"But how?" Gemmell blurted. "We all entered that facility. It's locked down hard, heavy security screen on every access. No way he could get a bomb in there."
Sally considered that for half a second. There were countless ways through. Maybe Roarke Rook had brought in the components a little at a time, over years. Maybe he'd built a bomb gradually, secretly. Or…
Her thoughts collapsed into freefall.
"What if the bomb's in his car now? He rams the fence, gets close enough and blows it. With Roarke in and out for years, he'd know exactly where to do it. Then he's dead, Mayhew's dead, the process water's out and anyone who gets contaminated is dead too."
"We've got to stop him from even getting close," Liam finished.
Those words hung between them. Sally looked back out at the bullpen, where dozens of faces were all looking at her now. The large space was silent. She steeled herself and spoke in a loud, commanding voice.
"Our suspect is ex-DI Jack Mercer." Mutters erupted. "As of 10 minutes ago, he's with DCI Mayhew somewhere out in the marsh, we believe heading for the Dungeness reactors." She took a breath. "The DCI may be his final victim, in a murder-suicide involving an explosive device at the reactors."
Gasps rang out. A few cries of disbelief.
"Who the hell are you to say this?" someone barked.
"I know Jack!" another shouted. "He's a good man."
"He's a murderer who's lied to you for decades," Sally answered coldly.
"And he's planning to wipe Dungeness off the map.
We need the reactor's security services to conduct an immediate sweep and harden their perimeter, while we rally everyone, immediately, to that location.
CTSFOs, bomb disposal, Coastguard, ambulance, every warm body we can muster, right now. "
Seconds passed. There were no more defiant cries, just all eyes staring at Sally. She felt the disbelief congeal in the air, swelling from the Gaze's piece on her, from Chakrati's death, the dartboard picture and the flower shrine.
Then DI Gemmell rose to his feet. "You heard Officer Rogers!
This is real, this is happening, and we are going to knock it on the sodding head.
Teams 1, 2 and 3, you're on radio and phones, coordinating all our remote forces under DS Simms here, to the reactors.
Everybody else, you're with me. Gear up and let's go! "
There was another flat second, then the room broke open in movement and noise. Phones came up. Chairs scraped back. Officers ran for radios, jackets, weapons, keys.
Sally was already running, Liam beside her. In moments they were out of the station, into the squad car and revving out of the lot before the first batch of officers burst through the doors.