Sixty-Three
Within ten minutes they could hear sirens and, five minutes after that, the blue lights became visible through the trees and a variety of emergency vehicles began to arrive.
There were several unmarked cars not very far behind them and soon the woods were swarming with dozens of uniformed and plain-clothes coppers, firearms officers and paramedics.
Miller had Amar Chopra marked down as a by-the-book, belt and braces type, so could only presume that a fire engine, a bomb disposal unit and several volunteers from the RNLI were still on their way.
He saw Jacqui Cutler jump from the back of a squad car screaming her son’s name.
He watched her drop to her knees, then stand up again and run towards him when she spotted that he was already sitting on a stretcher and waving to her from the back of an ambulance.
Justin was being treated for cuts and bruises – those he had received when he’d first been taken and several more recent ones he’d suffered as a result of being tossed from a moving van – but appeared otherwise unharmed.
Though Miller guessed that the lad would not be looking back fondly at the time he’d spent with Neil Battersby – and might well have a bit of a thing about cellars and dark woods for several years to come – he did not seem quite as emotionally overwhelmed at being reunited with his mother as he might have been.
While Jacqui clung to him, weeping, it quickly became obvious that Justin was rather more concerned about the whereabouts of the drugs that had been delivered to secure his release.
‘Let’s not worry about that now,’ Jacqui spluttered between sobs. ‘It doesn’t matter.’
‘Yes, it does,’ Justin said. ‘It really does.’
‘What’s important is that I’ve got you back and I swear I’ll never let anything like this happen again. I’ll do whatever it takes to keep you safe.’
‘Yeah, I get that, Mum, and I’m sorry if you were worried—’
‘Whatever it takes to keep my precious boy safe. I’ll pay for a personal bodyguard twenty-four hours a day if need be. Ex-SAS or something.’ She was nodding furiously, still sobbing. ‘Some proper hard bastard like that bloke off Who Dares Wins.’
‘OK, we can talk about that later on, Mum, but it’s really important that everything that was in that van disappears. Don’t you get that?’
‘I don’t care about what was in that stupid van,’ Jacqui said. ‘I mean, yes, it does seem a bit of a waste … but basically, I don’t care.’
‘Well, I do.’ Justin clapped his hand to his chest. ‘I want something good to come out of this. I want to do my bit to make things safer for people, to improve the lives of those on the margins of society. On top of which, it’s going to make the perfect conclusion to my extended essay.’
‘To your what?’
‘Human Agents of Environmental Change in Selected Urban Settings. I told you.’ When he saw that she was staring at him blankly, he pushed her away and threw himself drama-tically back down on to the stretcher. ‘God, you never listen to me …’
Miller turned from this touching vignette of mother/son togetherness to see a pair of detectives having serious words with Barry Cheshire.
At least, he guessed they were detectives.
They could just as easily have been two of Jacqui Cutler’s goons, but he eventually decided that their suits weren’t quite expensive enough.
Thinking about the people who worked for Jacqui Cutler made Miller realise there was something he needed to tell her.
That could wait, though, because right now he had more important things to do.
He wandered towards the two detectives, good and ready to stick his oar in, and when he got there he caught the last few of those serious words.
‘ … and anything you do say may be given in evidence,’ said the tall skinny one.
His shorter, somewhat porkier mate chipped in. ‘Do you understand these rights as we’ve told them to you?’
When Barry Cheshire said that he did, the tall one produced a set of handcuffs. Miller immediately stepped forward. ‘Come on, is that really necessary?’
‘He might decide to leg it.’
‘Oh, you think? With half the chuffing constabulary knocking around?’
‘It’s fine.’ Cheshire held out his hands. ‘What I expected, really.’ He tried to smile at Miller, but winced a little as the cuffs were snapped on.
‘It’s not a done deal, Barry,’ Miller said, ‘not by a long chalk. I’ll be putting in a good word and so will my boss, so there’s no need to panic. This is just what Starsky and Hutch over here have got to do right now, but nothing’s been decided, OK?’
‘Whatever happens, happens,’ Cheshire said. ‘If I end up inside, it’s only because I deserve it. I was an idiot.’
Before Miller could remonstrate, he heard his name being called and looked round to see DI Amar Chopra leaning against a shiny black Skoda Superb and beckoning him across.
‘As of now, we don’t know where Neil Battersby is,’ Chopra said. ‘We obviously don’t have a visual on him because … well, the drone got …’
‘Shot to shit,’ Miller said.
‘Forcibly put out of action, yes. These things happen, though, and the main thing is that the hostage was recovered relatively unharmed. So, despite one or two unfortunate glitches, that goes down in my book as a successful operation. Well done, DS Miller.’
He hadn’t been able to look at Miller when he’d said it, and had mumbled his words as though there was a snooker ball stuck in his gob, which pleased Miller immensely.
Miller guessed that top of the ‘glitches’ list were the two bodies they’d been forced to abandon at the roadside, which reminded him of the bad news he needed to pass on to Jacqui Cutler.
He eventually found her leaning against a tree, smoking and staring at the ambulance, in the back of which Justin was still having his injuries tended to.
‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘For getting Justin back to me.’
Miller sniffed. ‘You don’t need to thank me.’ He considered saying something like I was only doing my job, but thought it sounded posey, like he was in some cheesy cop show. Like he was much braver than he actually was. ‘I was only doing my job,’ he said.
‘I wish there was something I could do to show you just how grateful I am. Something I could give you.’
‘I don’t want anything from you,’ Miller said, because truly he did not.
He still felt as he did when he’d told Xiu how keen he was to bring Jacqui Cutler down and why.
Sadly, even though Malky McDougall had confessed to the murder of Darren Grant, it would not be enough.
Yes, it was one case put to bed, but it would not stand up as evidence against Jacqui Cutler.
So Miller would have to keep his powder dry, but he knew that when he got his chance it would have been worth the wait.
In the meantime, there was nothing Jacqui Cutler could offer him in which he would be remotely interested.
All that said, he couldn’t help but picture a large Victoria sponge.
‘I’ve got some bad news,’ he said. ‘Google didn’t make it.’
She looked at him, not understanding.
‘There was an incident on our way here, and he was killed. I’m sorry.’
Jacqui Cutler sucked on her cigarette once, twice, then hissed out a thin stream of smoke. ‘Can’t be helped,’ she said.
There wasn’t a great deal Miller could say to that, so he walked away towards yet another squad car that was just pulling up. Sara Xiu emerged before the car had even come to a stop and ran across to him.
She didn’t speak; she simply pulled him into a fierce hug.
‘Steady on, Posh,’ Miller said.
It was very much the high point of his day.