Chasing The Dawn (Luke Temple - Book 2) (Luke Temple Series) (18 page)

Luke’s senses tingled,
what if they did hear or see me? They could be sat watching.
He scanned around and instinctively dropped lower, but there was no sign of human movement. Without warning, the driver’s door swung open, and a man stepped out, yawning and stretching.

Luke lifted the Sig Sauer to shoulder-height, putting the officer directly between the sights. The man must have been slumped down in his seat asleep, that’s why there had not been a shadow or any movement. Luke watched intently as the man scratched his head and threw his cap back into the car. He made no indication that he had seen Luke, his body still facing up the lane. The road itself was a narrow single-lane road; the vehicle was facing a sharp bend as the road curved west. The officer was old, he sported a bald crown encircled by thinning grey hair; his body was solid but he was clearly feeling stiff.

Luke kept his eyes burning into the back of the man’s head, breaking all protocol. During training exercises it was taught that if approaching a static person then the agent was to keep his eyes focused away from his target until the very last second. The theory was based upon a human’s sixth sense to know when someone is looking at them even if they are behind. It was often laughed at by the Group 9 operatives, but the trainer’s response was always the same,
would you stake your life on it being an impossible concept?

Luke was now only ten paces away. The officer was tapping on the metal shell of the car, his steamed breath rising with each yawn.

Nine paces, eight paces, seven paces …

Luke mentally checked his grip on the pistol and his gloved thumb checked the safety was off.

Six paces, five paces, four paces …

Luke didn’t need to be any closer.

“Turn around slowly.”

The officer physically jumped at Luke’s voice, and his instinct began his body spinning round.

“I said slowly!” Luke scanned left and right, checking for any other occupants. The car was empty. The man faced Luke, his face etched with a frown. “How many?” Luke spoke in Italian and nodded at the car.

“Uno, just me.” The officer sported a grey moustache. His eyes immediately clocked the gun, and without being asked he raised his hands.

“Weapons?”

The man shook his head. “You’re Italian?”

“Empty all pockets and holsters.”

“Ok, look, I am doing everything you say, it’s ok.” He very slowly put his hands in each pocket and threw the contents on the floor; he had nothing more than a wallet, some loose change and a bunch of keys. For Luke’s sake, he tipped the gun holster up to show it was empty, then showed a leather-bound loop attached to his cross-strap just to prove his baton was not on him either.

“Hands on the bonnet, gently.”

The man complied.

Luke moved up so he was level with the driver’s door. Glancing inside he saw the man’s pistol laying on the top of the dashboard, resting against the windscreen. It was a crucial mistake,
never be separated from your weapon, even if you’re at Mother Teresa’s birthday you must always be ready to react to a threat.
On the passenger seat lay a pair of thick black gloves next to the baton. He hadn’t been planning on being out of the car for long.

“Listen son, you don’t want to be doing this, not to an officer of the law. I haven’t got anything of worth you can have, but take the wallet, don’t make it worse for yourself.” The man’s voice shivered slightly from the cold.

Luke realised the officer thought he was being robbed. “I am not interested in your money.”

The officer jerked his head to face his assailant, the cogs turning in his brain. “My God, it’s you, isn’t it? The one from the Observatory? Wh ... whe … where’s the girl?”

“What are they saying about me? What was your briefing?” Luke’s mind was running at pace.

The officer went to stand up from the bonnet. Luke didn’t need to speak, he simply trained the Sig Sauer at his head and the man understood, placing his hands back down.

“This morning all off-duty officers were called in to the station. They told us that we were now on staggered duty, posted out on the outskirts like this. Apparently we were looking for a European white male and an Asian female.”

“Who told you?” Luke knew the answer.

“A senior Carabinieri.”

There was a pause, Luke knew that the Carabinieri would be calling the shots. There was a reason he was at the party and it had to revolve around Vittorio, which means he had an interest in Chung Su.

“Is the girl safe?” the officer asked quietly.

Luke didn’t respond, he was planning his next steps. “How many press conferences?”

“None that I know of, I haven’t heard anything on the radio. I tell you what, I have the brief they gave us in the car in a folder, you can have it.”

The officer straightened up, showing Luke his hands. Luke shook his head, but the man didn’t stop. He took two steps towards Luke, hands still in the air. Luke instinctively took two steps back, never dropping the gun below the officer’s head.

“Don’t move! Hands back down on the bonnet, now!” Luke raised his voice.

“It’s ok, I just want to help you. Let me get the brief, that’s all I want, then you can see what information we have.” The man drew level with the open driver’s door.

“Put your hands back on the bonnet.” Luke over-pronounced each word.

“It’s ok, no one needs to get hurt. I just want to help.”

Luke had a familiar bubbling feeling in his stomach. This was not going to end well. The man mistakenly took him for a disgruntled civilian, an everyday kidnapper. To Luke’s amazement the man began to bend his knees. All the time he kept his hands up.

“I am not playing. If you reach inside that car it will be the last thing you ever do.” Luke kept the gun trained on the officer. He flicked his eyes to the gun on the dashboard and the baton on the passenger seat; he couldn’t see a folder.

The officer slowed his movements as if that would appease Luke. He was gambling on Luke not having the guts to shoot a police officer. Against a regular criminal in regular circumstances it would have been a fair gamble.

Slowly he took his right hand and began moving it into the car. Luke had to think fast. He was not trained to mindlessly kill, but he had three threats inside the car: one was the gun, one was the baton and the third was the police radio set hanging on the middle column of the dashboard.

The officer was still gently moving his right arm into the vehicle, his body starting to lean. “It’s ok, I am just going to find the folder and you can have it. If you don’t have the girl then everything will be ok, we can clear all of this up.”

Luke watched every tiny movement, his gloved finger primed on the trigger. He didn’t give any more demands, the officer had clearly gone past the point of no return, refusing to listen.

The officer’s hand was now fully inside the car, he was rested on the driver’s seat,
don’t do it, be sensible old timer
. Then in a move that was disjointed but fast the officer swung his right hand up to the dashboard, scooping up his gun, but due to the speed he caught the pistol at a strange angle. It didn’t matter anyway.

As the man’s arm had started its swing, Luke’s mind was already one step ahead. He pulled the trigger, sending a bullet hurtling towards the man’s head. The rotating, streamlined bullet entered just above the top lip, below the nose, gathering pressure and exploding out of the base of the skull, flinging bone, tissue and blood everywhere. The officer’s expression never changed; his eyes were open as his head jerked back then slumped forward, toppling his body to the ground in a heap.

Silence.

The stillness always felt more intense after violence. It was the same feeling as when a thunderstorm erupts and then passes on; the surrounding area always feels so quiet and still.

Luke ran scenarios.
Is he meant to check in? Is there another vehicle within listening distance who could have heard
the shot? Where to move the body?
The officer’s gun had landed on the floor. Luke could see it was a standard Beretta 9 mm. He picked it up with his gloved hand. It had a full magazine with none in the chamber; the parts had not been well looked after, it needed stripping and oiling, but for the meantime it would be fine. Luke aligned the strategy in his mind.

Slotting the Beretta into his waistband, he lifted the Sig Sauer and shot three bullets from his current magazine into the officer’s torso. He then let off two rounds randomly up and down the officer’s legs, causing the body to twitch. Finally he released the last bullet into the interior of the car. Once finished he ripped off the taped-on magazine, ejected the spent magazine and slotted home the new one. He then tucked the Sig Sauer next to the Beretta.

Caution was now out of the window. Luke pounded back down the road, heading for the position he had left Chung Su in with the canister. For a fleeting moment he thought that she may have decided to run, but as he marked out the distance and dived through the hedge she was there, standing wide-eyed, biting her fingers.

“Come on, we need to go, now.” Luke grabbed up the canister and leapt back through the hedge onto the road.

Chung Su came stumbling after him, her stomach turning at the thought of what she was about to find. The gunshots had echoed around; it was a sound she knew instantly, growing up in the Kangwon province, Chung Su could not remember a night where there was not distant gunfire as the Korean People’s Army fought with the South.

Luke had reached the car; he leant in the driver’s side, careful not to tread in the pooled blood under the officer. The keys were sat in the ignition, he threw the petrol canister onto the back seat and beckoned to Chung Su to climb in. It seemed as though the bullet-riddled body didn’t affect her, she showed no signs of shock or disgust.

Luke turned the engine over and the old machine grumbled into life. Before climbing in, Luke inspected the seat; there was body matter and blood splattered across the head rest and some sprayed over the rear seats. He didn’t have time to clean, he would just have to sit forward to drive and dispose of the vehicle once they had finished with it. Stepping fully over the officer Luke sat on the edge of the driver’s seat. He gave one final scan of the area, still no movement, still no sirens. He turned to face the steering wheel, grasping the car door.

Oh Alex, so much violence, what happened?

Luke span round to where he heard the voice, staring back down the quiet lane.

“What is it?” Chung Su was observing his strange behaviour.

Luke stared down the dark lane, his heart now pounding. He took a deep breath, blew out sharply and slammed the door shut. “Nothing.”

As they drove off, a thought caught Luke and he flipped open the glove compartment. Sat on its own was a manual for the car,
no brief.
The officer really was just going for a weapon.

The night raced by outside, the clouds had parted and the hedges and undulating fields were caught by the moon and stars. The rear view mirror was dominated by the mountain range.

Chung Su sighed as she faced the void. “And people say
my
country is violent and dangerous.”

The area was already swarming with state and provincial officers; there were taped cordons hanging across the road from hedge to hedge. Inside the tape was a makeshift white forensic tent to protect evidence. Beltrano pulled the car up behind a state car and jumped out. Delvechi heaved his bulk out of the passenger door, his sling making things awkward.

Beltrano was disappointed to see Officer Nestor presiding over proceedings, barking orders and attempting to direct the suited forensic teams.

“What happened?” Beltrano asked gruffly.

Nestor sagged a little at the presence of the Carabinieri. “Ah, this is my …”

“What happened?” Beltrano was not playing.

“One of our officers has been murdered.”

“I know … that is not what I asked.” Beltrano pushed past and ducked under the tape, the body had been moved but the forensic teams were still working on collecting information from the crime scene.

“Ah, signor, you can’t go in there, you will destroy …” Delvechi stepped in front of Nestor.

“We will take it from here. Why don’t you get a drink?”

“That is a veteran officer of this town and I want to …”

Delvechi pumped up his chest. “I wasn’t asking.”

Beltrano moved inside the tent and motioned to a woman in a white protective suit. “Give me the run-down.”

The woman walked Beltrano back outside and removed her mask. “You know you shouldn’t be in there.”

Delvechi joined them both.

A shadow clouded her face. “It was a bad one, white male in his fifties, one of us. Seven rounds discharged, three in the chest, two in the legs, one missed and went through the body work of the car. Was a real mess.”

Delvechi fired a question. “Multiple shooters?”

She shook her head. “Shot spacing and exit points are consistent with one shooter, and they were up close. Going from the distance of the shooter and the erratic entry patterns my guess at this stage would be someone who isn’t overly familiar with a gun.”

Delvechi nodded. “So not a professional?”

“Not judging by what we are looking at.”

Delvechi turned to Beltrano who was looking at the ground, listening. “Do you think it’s our man? Maybe it’s a good sign; we clearly aren’t dealing with a professional.”

The forensic woman looked solemn. “My first officer murder … not nice.”

“What about the seventh bullet?” Beltrano asked.

“Ah, now that was a lucky one.” The woman lifted her arm and placed her finger on the crux between Beltrano’s top lip and nostrils. “Straight through, severing the brain stem from the spinal column, but as I say, looking at the shot patterns it would have been luck more than judgement and …”

Beltrano cut her off. “Where is the body?”

The woman pointed over to a large ambulance with its red lights lazily rotating. “They are all ready to ship him off for further analysis.”

“Thank you for your help, Signora, please keep us informed of any further developments,” Beltrano nodded and headed for the ambulance, Delvechi in tow.