48 Hours - A City of London Thriller (36 page)

At the rear of the unit, where the two Englishmen stood
talking, there was more open space which housed a few lockers, a
coat rack and a few mismatched tables and chairs.

Had it not been for the cars parked just inside the roller
shutter doors, that space too would have been empty. They could be
paying half the rent and still have plenty of room, he thought to
himself.

His musings were disturbed when he heard a click. It appeared
to have come from the shutter doors. He looked quickly at the two
Englishmen. They had heard it, too. Sonny Holloway shouted over to
Rik.

“
Don’t worry Rik, it’s probably kids. Johnny’ll go out and
scatter them in a minute, before they start spray painting their
gang tags on my doors.”

Rik leaned against the door frame and polished his Sig Sauer
P226 handgun, specially adapted for left handed users, by rubbing
it on his trousers. The two tone Sig Sauer was a compact yet
powerful pistol, known to be used by US Navy Seals, and more
importantly it was easy to conceal.

Rik returned to the table, laid his gun down and took his
seat. He was about to drink his lukewarm coffee when all hell broke
loose.

Chapter 75

No. 2 Parliament St, Westminster, London. Sunday,
1:30pm.

Whilst Arthur Hickstead wasn’t under house arrest, his
confinement wasn’t far short of it. The police had his passport,
his accounts were being monitored and if he wanted to leave the
building, Donald on the front door would accompany him whilst one
of the back office staff manned the door.

It didn’t really matter. There was nowhere he wanted to be,
and by tomorrow night the inevitable deal would have been reached
with the authorities. The Establishment didn’t want a newly
ennobled peer of the realm all over the tabloid newspaper front
pages; the country would become a laughing stock. Whilst he had
been very careful, he considered himself fortunate that there was
as yet no evidence linking him to the murders of Sir Max or Andrew
Cuthbertson. As it had turned out, the deaths were being reported
as natural causes and suicide respectively.

He relaxed into the leather upholstery of the wingback chair
as he reasoned that since the money and the painting were now in
the possession of Van Aart’s men, the police would have trouble
persuading the CPS to do any more than prosecute him for the
Hammond blackmail. The peer had been told that the CPS would
probably recommend a deal on that basis. Still, a deal would be
assured if Hammond and Fisher refused to give evidence, hence the
temporary absence of Lavender Fisher and Hammond’s
girlfriend.

The bright spot of the weekend had been the visit of that
awful policeman, Coombes, who had to ‘sadly inform you that your
safety deposit box was broken into and your papers have gone’. The
message had been delivered with bad grace and more than a hint of
malice, because both men knew what had really been in the box and
who had initiated the break in.

The Sunday papers hadn’t picked up on the scandal yet, albeit
one of the more sensationalist tabloids carried the headline
“Unnamed Peer in Criminal Conspiracy” under an ‘Exclusive’ banner
on page 2. He read the article twice. It was a mixture of rumour
and speculation, but there was no suggestion that he was the peer
involved.

He jumped when the phone rang. He hadn’t been expecting any
calls. It was Faik, his Iraqi friend.

“
The documents you requested are ready. Do you want me to
deliver them to the hotel?”

“
Yes, Faik, thank you. Are they as discussed?”

“
You pay for the best, you get the best. Yussi wants his
money.”

“
I have it at the hotel. Meet me there at seven o’clock
tomorrow evening.”

“
OK, I will bring the documents.”

Hickstead terminated the call, and justified the expense to
himself. It always paid to have a contingency plan. Anyway, once
Van Aart had taken the million pound Churchill painting in payment
for his services, he would have a million pounds in cash. A man
could travel a long way on a million pounds, and travel in
style.

Chapter 7
6

Tottenham Press, Commercial Road, London. Sunday,
1:50pm.

Dee was still trying some tentative walking when she was
rocked by two explosions, which occurred almost simultaneously.
Seconds later there was pandemonium downstairs. She heard lots of
shouting, and a moment later a machine pistol rattled off a dozen
rounds.

Lavender was terrified. Dee told her to get under the table
because she would be safer there but, without knowing what was
happening, she had no real way of knowing. It might turn out that
nowhere in this place was safe.

***

Rik grabbed his gun and was at the office door in time to see
two armed men in combat gear run into the building, rifles raised,
screaming orders. As he turned he saw two more identical figures
coming in from the other fire door. Light poured in through the
spaces where the fire doors had been, silhouetting the
policemen.

The first two people the police approached were Sonny and
Johnny, who were so surprised that when they were told to drop
their weapons and put their hands on their heads they forgot they
weren’t even armed. As a policeman came towards them signalling
that he wanted their arms up, three shots rang out from an
automatic gun. The policeman was hit and fell to the floor. Sonny
and Johnny’s eyes widened in horror, expecting a violent reaction
from the police.

Gregor, awakened by the explosions, had slipped out of the car
and concealed himself behind a print machine. Confused and still
dazed, he was uncertain as to who he was facing. He stood up and
fired a controlled burst at the first person he saw. He swore under
his breath when he noticed the word ‘police’ painted on the helmet
of the man he had just shot.

Gregor ducked down again. He saw Piet running up the stairs
and so he stood up to give him some covering fire. Before he could
aim, his head exploded as he was shot from behind. Gregor’s body
shuddered, and then he fell as he was impacted with more bullets,
his machine pistol firing wildly before falling silent.

The roller shutter door had been rising so slowly that the
policemen outside decided to lie flat on their stomachs to get an
angle of fire into the building. When they saw a masked man raising
a machine pistol, intending to fire at their colleagues, three of
them shot at once. Usual protocol; one to the head two to the
chest, except that this time it was three to the head and six to
the body.

Johnny had dropped to the floor when the firing began, and was
now lying spread-eagled as speedcuffs were fastened onto his
wrists. He wondered why Sonny was not being subjected to the same
treatment, but then he saw why. He looked across the floor into the
flat, dead eyes of his boss. Gregor had unknowingly sprayed Sonny
with bullets as he fell to the floor in his death throes. Two
bloody holes were left where 9mm slugs had pierced Sonny’s coat,
and the third slug had taken off part of Sonny’s right ear as it
passed into and out of his skull at an angle of forty five
degrees.

***

Dee pulled Lavender to her feet and stood protectively in
front of her as she heard someone running up the stairs. A second
later the door crashed open and Piet burst in. He wasn’t wearing
his mask, which was a pity because his face was contorted with
rage, and Lavender whimpered.

“
This is your fault! Die, bitch!” Piet snarled as he raised
his gun.

Dee braced herself, spreading herself wide to offer Lavender
maximum protection. She closed her eyes just before the
shot.

***

Rik heard the shot upstairs and took advantage of a lull in
the firing to race up the metal staircase. As he ran he was
accompanied by a symphony of clanging metal as bullets hit the
staircase. One bullet grazed his leg and another gouged out a
wickedly painful groove in his left side just below his ribs. He
dived through the door.

***

Dave had been dozing when the explosions woke him into instant
awareness. He took off his mask as he saw the police burst in, mob
handed. He put his gun down on the table and decided to leave the
girls where they were. They were probably relatively safe in there,
he thought. Then the lunatic Gregor shot a policeman, and within
seconds it had turned into carnage. From his window he could see
Johnny being cuffed, Sonny lying dead, and the twisted ruin that
had once been Gregor’s body.

Piet rushed in to the accompaniment of gunfire and went
straight to the girls’ room. Dave reacted instantly, reaching for
his gun. As he closed his hand around the grip he heard Piet
screeching “Die, bitch!” and watched as Piet raised the gun, ready
to fire. Dave’s finger found the trigger but he wasn’t sure he
would find his target in time. His gun was still swinging in an arc
when he bit his lip and fired.

***

Dee opened her eyes to see Piet’s hands drop to his sides.
There had been time for Piet’s brain to register shock before half
of it hit the wall beside him. He collapsed onto the floor.
Lavender was hysterical, and a moment later Dave came running
in.

He wasn’t wearing a mask, and his face registered concern, not
for his colleague but for the girls. He could see that both were
fine. He spoke in a reassuring tone. “It’s OK now. It’s almost
over.”

“
Is it really, soldier boy?” Dave turned to see Rik standing
in the corridor with his gun aimed at Dave’s chest. Dave lifted his
arms and held his gun away from his body, to show that he wasn’t a
threat.

“
Come on, Rik. It’s all over. There’s been enough killing. We
need to give ourselves up.” Dave kept his voice calm, but Rik shook
his head.

“
Well, I don’t think it’s over. Not yet. We still have two
hostages.”

“
Rik, I can’t let you do this. It’s insane.” Dave was watching
for any sign that Rik might shoot, and he saw it in his eyes. Dave
brought his gun down into shooting position and began to move into
a crouch to offer a smaller target, but he was too late. Rik’s
bullet took him in the chest and threw him against the
wall.

A smear of blood streaked the wall as Dave slid down into a
sitting position, his head lolling to one side.

Rik came into the room, holding his gun ready in his left
hand. When he was satisfied that Dave was no longer a threat to
him, he turned the gun on Dee.

“
Move out of the way! I’m taking the girl.”

“
No, you’re not! “ Dee spat out defiantly.

“
Come on, lady, you’ve already been shot once today. I don’t
want to kill you.” Dee held her ground whilst Rik found a position
to shoot her where the bullet wouldn’t pass through her and hit
Lavender. Then he fired.

Dee spun around when the bullet hit. Her leg gave up and she
fell to the floor. The room was spinning. She was on the verge of
passing out again. How much blood had she lost today? She clamped
her right hand around her upper left arm. At least this time the
bullet had gone right through.

The blood was oozing through her fingers, but she had to get
to Lavender before that madman got them both killed by a stray
marksman’s bullet. Dee tried to stand up, but couldn’t, so she
dragged herself along using her good right arm.

She got to Dave when she heard Rik say to Lavender, “We’re
going down the stairs now. Behave yourself and you’ll be
fine.”

He took Lavender by the arm and led her through the door. “Get
back!” he shouted to the figures below. “I have a
hostage.”

Dave opened his eyes. He was alive, just. He lifted his
gun.

“
Take this, get Lavender,” he grimaced, and coughed. There was
blood on his lips but he still tried to smile.

Dee took the gun from him and shuffled towards the stairs,
inch by agonising inch.

***

Once Rik pushed Lavender ahead of him onto the staircase, the
policeman on the stairs backed away and the others pointed their
weapons towards him. He was probably the only hostile left
standing.

Keeping Lavender in front of him with his right arm across her
throat, he pressed his gun into her neck with his left hand. Step
by step he moved down the stairs, not allowing anyone to get a
shooting angle. The Armed Response team were frustrated, but they
kept him in their sights all the way. Sooner or later one of them
would get a clear shot.

***

Dee had managed to drag herself to the door and look out. Rik
had Lavender by the throat, and they were almost half way down the
stairs. Dee lay down on her stomach and, ignoring the pain in her
left arm, she levelled the gun and took aim.

Dee knew that a poor shot could injure Lavender, and so she
took a deep breath, then aimed and fired.

***

Rik was concentrating so much on the policemen below him that
he had no idea he was in Dee’s sights. Suddenly he felt a great
pain in his chest. It felt like his heart was exploding. He was
almost right. Dee’s bullet had passed through his right armpit and
careered through his ribcage before destroying his
heart.