Green Light (Sam Archer 7) (30 page)

‘
For what?’

‘
I hit someone.’

‘
So? Who was he?’

‘
A Lieutenant; he was running the investigation into Leann’s
death.’

‘
Did he deserve it?’

‘
He deserved a hell of a lot more.’

As April
went to reply, the pair sensed movement at the door; turning, they
both saw Marquez standing there. She was looking at Archer, a
strange look on her face.

‘
Hey, Marquez.’

She took
a breath and tried to speak but nothing came out, tears appearing
in her eyes.

Archer
immediately pushed himself off the table.

‘
Lisa?’

*

The news
about what had happened at the hospital hit him like a locomotive,
leaving him dazed, as if time had suddenly stopped. As Marquez
broke it to him April was caught up in the moment too, seeing the
devastation it’d caused to these two police detectives who’d been
kind to her.

Outside
the room, Hendricks watched them from the walkway. He turned to
Shepherd, who’d taken the initial call from Josh who was still over
at St Luke’s with an NYPD team, cordoning off the hospital in the
hunt for the two suspects.

‘
How the hell did they get to her?’ Hendricks asked
quietly.

‘
Apparently they killed both cops then put Vargas in the bath,’
Shepherd replied, keeping his voice low so Archer couldn’t hear
him. ‘All that was left were a load of empty canisters and pieces
of her gown stuck to the top of the tub apparently.’

He took
a deep breath.

‘
Josh said the hospital is on lockdown but the cameras on 14
were busted up; Henderson and Tully will already be
gone.’

Hendricks didn’t reply as Shepherd walked slowly into the
room to join the others, Hendricks following.

Then
Shepherd shouted in rage and frustration, kicking one of the
chairs, taking it off the ground and thumping it into the wall,
making everyone jump.

‘
Shit!’

A beat
later a large overweight man in a suit and with bruising around his
eye suddenly appeared in the doorway, looking left and right. The
moment he saw Archer, he headed straight for him, Shepherd
immediately stepping into his path to block him.

‘
Son of a bitch!’
Royston shouted at
Archer, pointing his finger. ‘What the hell are you doing
here?’

‘
Not now, sir!’ Shepherd said.

‘
I said what the hell is he doing here?’

‘
I wanted him here,’ Shepherd said.

‘
I want him out! He’s suspended; he shouldn’t be on site and
you know it, Sergeant.’

‘
This isn’t your case anymore, Lieutenant.’

‘
You giving me orders?’ Royston asked.

He made
to step towards Archer again who was standing watching him
impassively but someone else stepped forward.

‘
This isn’t your case anymore,’ Hendricks repeated
quietly.

‘
Back up, both of you.’

Hendricks didn’t move. Neither did Shepherd.

Royston
glared at them both, everyone in the room watching the
confrontation.

Then
after a few seconds Royston dropped his gaze and took a pace
backwards, smoothing down his tie and tucking his shirt back into
his belt over his gut, his left eye socket yellow and purple from
where Archer had punched him a week ago.

He stood
there for a moment then looked around the room and started clapping
sarcastically.

‘
I just got a call from my Captain telling me the Leann Casey
investigation has been blown wide open; apparently my team and I
have over a dozen more homicides to solve, and they’re still coming
thanks to you. Outstanding work, people.’

‘
Excuse us for doing our job,’ Marquez said. ‘And are you
saying murders don’t exist if you close your eyes and stick your
fingers in your ears? What are we, ten years old?’

‘
Watch your mouth, Detective, or I’ll suspend you along with
this asshole here,’ Royston fired back, spitting the words at
Marquez but glaring at Archer who was still watching him
expressionlessly.

‘
Forgive me for being blunt but the only reason we uncovered
these other murders was because we dug deeper, sir,’ Shepherd said,
trying to stay cool. ‘You got the wrong killers.’

‘
No, we didn’t.’

‘
Yes, you did. And we did more with this thing in one day than
you did in four weeks. If you’d moved faster, these girls would
still be alive.’

‘
Hookers.’

‘
Human beings.’

‘
We just lost one of our own too,’ Marquez said.

Royston
paused. ‘Who?’

‘
Detective Vargas. Not to mention two officers who were
guarding her. So are you saying we shouldn’t investigate what
happened to these women and find out who killed them?’

‘
A case where all but one victim was a convicted criminal or
prostitute? Christ, I thought you Counter Terrorism folks had
better things to do with your time. My team will take over and
clear up this mess.’

‘
We should kick this up to the FBI,’ Shepherd said. ‘This is a
nationwide, Federal deal. I’ve got a detective in Denver and a
police department in Scranton wanting regular updates, and I
haven’t even had a chance to get in touch with Chicago or San
Diego’s PD yet.’

‘
No way is this going Federal,’ Royston said. ‘My team and I
will handle it.’

‘
What, like last time?’ Hendricks said. ‘And as Marquez said,
one of our own just died. That means we have point on
this.’

‘
You arguing with me, Sergeant?’

‘
You bet your ass I am.’ Hendricks replied, jerking his head
towards Archer. ‘I also know the strings you pulled to get him put
in Rikers for the weekend. After what almost happened to him in
there, you might want to reconsider your position. Sir.’

‘
Oh he’s in more shit for that. I got a call from the prison
telling me what happened in that shower block.’

‘
Self-defence.’

‘
Assaulting fellow inmates. He’s out of control.’

Hendricks didn’t reply, staring at Royston, who managed to
hold eye contact this time.

However,
he didn’t make any further attempt to move towards
Archer.

‘
Fine,’ he blustered, looking at the others. ‘You’re detectives
in one of the most important Bureaus in the Department, but go
ahead and waste months of your time trying to track down who killed
a load of hookers and low-life gang members. You think the world
will miss these people?’

‘
That’s hardly the point, is it?’ Shepherd said. ‘We can’t
decide whether or not someone’s murder is worth investigating
depending on what job they do. You get assholes in all walks of
life. Sir.’

There
was a sudden silence, the comment hanging in the air. Royston chose
to ignore it, focusing on Archer instead and jabbing his finger in
his direction.

‘
You can do whatever the hell you like, but two things are
going to happen; this investigation stays in the NYPD and I want
him out of here. I don’t care if this case gets over a hundred
bodies deep, he’s still suspended. I saw the incident report from
the bar earlier tonight too; not only did he fire a weapon in a
public space, he also got into that fight in jail. He stabbed two
inmates and sliced up a third.’

‘
They attacked me,’ Archer fired back. ‘I just gave them
something to remember me by.’

‘
Let’s see what the judge says about that,’ Royston snapped,
shifting his attention to Shepherd. ‘He’s out of here in the next
ten minutes. That’s a direct order. You disobey me, I’ll write you
all up and you’ll be on the stand beside him for insubordination.
Ten minutes and counting; that’s it.’

With
that, he stalked out of the room, leaving silence behind
him.

Across
the city, Tully closed the doors on their van, having just parked
up in their East-side warehouse after dealing with Vargas and
getting out of the hospital before anyone saw them. He lay the
cop’s radio carefully on the ground, keeping it switched on so they
could keep up with the progress of the manhunt for them.

‘
I enjoyed that,’ he told Henderson over the intermittent
chatter, grinning.

‘
It gets better,’ Henderson said, checking his phone. ‘I just
got a message from our friend who’s monitoring the NYPD chatter.
The wounded Russian at Mount Sinai died from his
wounds.’

Tully grinned again, checking his watch. ‘Saves us a job. And
the nightclub just opened. Only four of those
Priz
bastards to go.’

Henderson nodded, pulling his pistol and reloading it with a
fresh clip. ‘No point in any subtlety this time; they know who we
are. We can leave some bodies behind.’

‘
Save one.’

Henderson nodded. ‘Save one.’ He picked up an empty canister,
preparing to fill it with more of their lye. ‘We’ll kill the last
three and take him with us. We’ll save him for our
friend.’

He
smiled.

‘
After all, they’ve got some catching up to do.’

At the
Bureau, Shepherd had followed Royston down to the detective pit,
catching up with him by the coffee machine.

‘
I really need Archer here, sir.’

‘
Are you kidding? No way.’

‘
It was a heat of the moment action. He was wound up. He and
Detective Vargas were very close. With the current situation, I
really need him right now.’

‘
I don’t care if they were joined at the hip. That son of a
bitch knocked me out in front of my team. He’s going to pay for
that.’

‘
He’s a great cop. One of our best.’

‘
I couldn’t give a shit. And he and his girlfriend still
managed to get shot in that parking lot, despite both being outside
their car and him being armed. Maybe he’s not as good as you
think.’

Close
by, the team’s families were watching the exchange, Beth Shepherd
looking at her husband with concern as he talked to Royston. She
watched as the Lieutenant turned and jabbed his finger in
Shepherd’s face.

‘
You know what the problem is, Sergeant? Your detective won’t
back down. That son of a bitch is too stubborn for his own
good.’

‘
And that’s a bad thing?’

‘
Yes. He needs to learn when he’s beaten.’

‘
Bullshit,’ Shepherd replied before he could help
himself.

‘
Excuse me?’

‘
That’s bullshit.’

The
exchange had now caught everyone’s attention but Shepherd wasn’t
yet done, his frustration with the fat bullying Lieutenant standing
in front of him finally spilling over.

‘
You know what? I’ve been staring at the screen up there all
night wondering what the point to all our work is,’ he said. ‘As
hard as we try, people like Henderson, Tully, Lister and the
Russians are still out there doing shit like this. And even if we
put them down, others immediately step up and take their
place.’

He
gestured to the floor above.

‘
But I’ll never quit trying and neither will my team. And I’d
take one Archer, Marquez, Blake, Hendricks or Vargas over a hundred
of you.’

Grabbing
a pen and paper from a desk beside him, he slammed the items into
the surprised Royston’s chest.

‘
And you can write me up on that,’ Shepherd finished, turning
and striding towards the stairs as everyone watched him
go.

THIRTY SEVEN

Inside
Conference Room 3, Archer and Marquez were sitting side by side on
the table. Hendricks and Ethan had just left, April going with them
but looking with concern at Archer as they closed the door behind
them.

Still
stunned, Archer was staring unseeingly at the wall. After ticking
past so slowly during the last four weeks, time now seemed to have
stopped altogether. The case, the attacks on the families, rescuing
April, all of it seemed so unimportant now.

The day
he’d met Vargas had been one of the toughest of his life, and
violence and danger seemed to have been stalking them ever since.
They’d been kindred spirits, two people who seemed incapable of
living quiet lives but in it together, watching each other’s backs
just as they had that night in the Harlem building.

She’d
been defenceless, lying in her hospital bed, everyone assuming
she’d be safe with two cops guarding her. Archer pictured Henderson
and Tully entering the room; locking the door and staring down at
her. Restraining her if she woke up or working quietly if she
didn’t.

Drawing
a bath and dragging her from the bed.

Then
pulling her towards the tub.

He
swallowed, forcing the images from his mind. ‘Shit. I only knew her
for six months.’

‘
But you couldn’t have packed more into them,’ Marquez replied,
beside him. ‘You did more in that half year together than most
people do in a decade.’