Final Justice (Lorne Simpkins thriller (Book Three)) (16 page)

‘For what? Forget it, Lorne, I have.’

Chapter Thirty

They trampled through the sodden fields and crouched in the same place they’d used to stakeout the chateau the day before.

‘I don’t know if you’re aware, but they have a marvellous invention in the shops nowadays, Tony. It’s called an umbrella, ever heard of one?’

‘Ssshhh!’

Lorne pulled her soaking wet t-shirt away from her shoulders and made a face behind his rain-soaked back.

The day had started out sunny and warm, but by mid-morning, dark clouds littered the sky, spitting out their contents and thoroughly drenching them. Nettles and brambles, which appeared to have multiplied overnight, surrounded them. Lorne watched the creepy crawlies darting around, seeking cover from the rain.
At least something around here has some sense.

 Because the autumn winds had stripped the leaves from the overhanging trees above, the rain was finding it easy to work its way through, adding to Lorne’s misery.

‘
Can you make out anything?’

‘I think I can make out two lorries. There’s a lot of activity going on over there, but we’ll need to move in closer to get a better view.’ He stepped into the brambles in front of him, making Lorne wince. ‘That’s better. Yep, two lorries.’

‘Is it the same scenario as yesterday?’

‘Nope, one’s loading, the other unloading. Jesus, there must be at least fifteen men over there.’

‘Can I take a look?’ She shuffled up behind him and resting her forearm on his back, she looked through the binoculars. ‘Oh shit!’

They heard a distant crash, Tony snatched back the glasses. ‘Hell. Can’t see Baldwin being happy about that. One of the large ornate framed paintings has fallen off the back of the lorry, no pun intended, and crashed onto the drive.’

A lot of shouting was heard and then silence. Lorne tugged impatiently at Tony’s arm. ‘Come on, give me a running commentary, for Christ’s sake.’

‘Baldwin’s just arrived, wow! His face is darker than the clouds above us. He’s pushing a couple of the blokes around, I get the impression no one is willing to own up to the mishap, mind you if I were in their shoes, I wouldn’t either. Shit!’

Before Lorne had a chance to ask what had happened a shot rang out, her reaction was to cover her head with her hands.

‘Fuck, he just shot one of his guys right between the eyes.’

‘Tony,
please
let’s get out of here.’

‘No chance, things are just hotting-up, if we go now, that’ll be another day wasted.’

‘But it’s too dangerous,
he’s
too dangerous, and if someone finds us, we’ll be outnumbered.’

‘Don’t be daft, Lorne, we’re not going to be discovered, have some faith in me, woman.’

Under her breath she mimicked his deep voice. ‘I’ve been doing this work for nearly twenty years you know.’ But knowing he was an expert in his field did little to ease the fear growing and twisting her insides into knots.   

‘
Jesus, Lorne, give it a rest.’ Tony told her, still keeping a watchful eye on the events over at the chateau. ‘I thought the guys would back off after seeing one of their colleagues shot but they’re not, the shit’s really hitting the fan, even the drivers are getting caught up in the scuffle. Baldwin is well ticked off. He’s waving his gun in their faces as if he was an SS officer during World War II. Going from one to the other, some of the guys are backing off, but most of them are standing their ground.’ Another shot halted his commentary.

‘I take it he’s just shot another one?’ Lorne asked, beginning to tremble.

*   *   *

‘You no good bunch of wankers, anybody else want a go?’

One of the larger men stepped forward to challenge Baldwin.

‘Come on then, Mario, if you think you’re hard enough. You’ve been dying to have a crack at me ever since I wasted your shitty brother, anyway, now’s your chance,
boy
.’

The man leapt at Baldwin, but three men jumped on him to restrain him. Baldwin flinched and took an involuntary step back, wondering if this time he had pushed the group too far. Shaking off the thought and determined to regain his authority, he approached Mario, almost touching noses with the man in an effort to intimidate him.

Mario sucked in a breath and fired the spittle he’d churned up in Baldwin’s face. ‘Go on then, hard man shoot me, shoot all of us. And then what?’

 
Baldwin called the man’s bluff and shot him twice in the head. The man who was built like a gorilla, crumpled to the ground, nearly taking the men who were holding him down with him.

‘Anyone else want to be a pathetic hero?’

Julio stepped forward with fear dancing in his eyes. ‘Boss, there’ll be no more problems. I’ll make sure of that.’

‘For once, Julio, you talk a lot of sense. Now, get these no good shits back to work, any more damage and … well you know what’ll happen.’ Baldwin waved the gun around before he left the group and marched back into the chateau.

*  *  *

‘Fuck, he’s just as callous as ever. That’s three he’s killed without even blinking. He’s still a crazy bastard.’

‘Why?’

Tony shrugged, still watching the proceedings through the binoculars. ‘Because they challenged him.’

‘What’s happening now?’

Tony shook his head. ‘Unbelievably, the men have picked up from where they left off. They dragged the three bodies onto the lawn and left them there as if they were sacks of rubbish.’

‘And Baldwin?’

‘He went back into the house … chateau, whatever you want to call it.’

‘Look, Tony, I’m soaked to the skin here, how long before we leave?’

‘Lightweight. Let’s just give it half an hour and then I’ll consider leaving.’

Feeling miserable and fed up, she slumped back against the bank, but jumped forward again when a bramble dug her in the behind. ‘Ouch, fucking things stick to me like glue, how come they don’t cut you up?’

‘They probably know it wouldn’t be wise to mess with me. Hey, hold on …’

‘What?’

‘One of the lorries is starting up, the one that was being loaded. Come on, we’ll follow it.’

Tony didn’t wait for her to answer he took off through the sodden field and headed for the car, with a drowned rat who vaguely resembled a former Detective Inspector, close behind him. When they reached the car, they let the lorry pass and disappear round the first bend before Tony eased the car out of the lane and followed it, careful not to get too close.

‘Where do you think it’s heading? There’s a port at Caen, isn’t there?’

Tony vigorously shook his head. ‘No way is that lorry going anywhere near a ferry port. It would be far too risky, there’s stolen art on board, remember.’

‘I know what cargo it’s carrying, Tony, there’s no need to treat me like an idiot.’

‘Sorry. My guess is it’ll be going all the way to its final destination by road.’

‘We can’t follow it, not all the way.’

‘Give me a chance, Lorne.’ Reaching in the glove compartment he took out his mobile, punched in a number and gave the details of the lorry, everything from its size, registration plate and location, then asked for it to be tailed by satellite. Once the person at the other end gave him the all clear Tony dropped his speed and pulled into the nearest lay-by.

‘Ah, the joys of being a spy.’ Lorne said sarcastically, feeling kind of foolish.

‘It’s a case of not what you know, but who you know, huh?’ He smiled at her, winked, and tapped the side of his nose. ‘Let’s head back to the hotel and wait for HQ to get back to us.’ After completing a three-point turn in the quiet road he headed back towards the chateau. ‘Get down!’ Tony shouted, he placed a hand behind her neck and thrust her head into her lap.

Her nose thumped against her knee and made her eyes water. ‘Ouch, what the …?’

‘Keep your head down, pass me the see-through bag in the glove compartment, and then get down in the footwell.’

She pulled out a bag with some kind of disguise in it and handed the items to him one by one. First he pulled on the flat cap before balancing the glasses on the edge of his nose then he ripped off the backing of a fake moustache and stuck it to his top lip.

 Despite the tension inside the car Lorne found it hard not to laugh at the transformation. ‘Very fetching, all you need now is a string of onions and a bicycle. Do you mind telling me what’s going on?’

‘Ha bloody ha. Stay down there for the time being, as we came round the corner I spotted two cars coming out of the chateau’s drive. I’m going to tail them. I can’t stay close without some form of disguise, can I?’

Because of the dampness of her clothes it didn’t take long for her joints to cramp up. It worried her that she might not be able to sustain her position for long, she knew they were at least twenty minutes from the nearest major town. She tried to keep the blood pumping through her legs by constantly clenching and unclenching her muscles.

‘Can you make out who’s in the cars?’

‘Can’t tell how many are in the front car, but the rear has four blokes in it, big fuckers too.’

‘Wonder what that’s all about?’

‘That’s what we’re about to find out.’

Chapter Thirty-One

‘Shit!’ Tony swore as they approached the outskirts of Caen town centre.

‘What?’ Lorne bit down on her lip as the pain in her legs intensified.

‘They’ve split up. I’m gonna stick with the front car.’ He dropped down a gear and an impatient driver beeped his horn, but Tony just waved the driver past. ‘There are two people in the car, one burly bloke, and one slightly smaller, I’m taking a gamble that the passenger is Baldwin. How you doing down there?’

‘My legs feel like they belong to someone else, to be honest I don’t think I can stay like this for much longer.’ She hated whining, but it happened to be the truth.

‘Okay, you can sit back in your seat, provided you keep your head down, there’s another car between us, so I doubt they’ll be able to make out I have a passenger onboard.’

Settling back in the seat with her head tucked into her lap, she mumbled, ‘Why thank you, master.’

Tony started to mumble under his breath ignoring her understandable grievance as he concentrated on keeping up with what he thought was Baldwin’s car. The heavy traffic and frequent traffic lights made it a difficult task. ‘I recognize this area, we’re near Caen cathedral and this road … Hmmm … Interesting.’

‘What is?’ Lorne inched her head up, but lowered it again quickly when Tony swiped it. ‘Ouch, you know, Tony, I wouldn’t even treat my dog the way you’re treating me right now.’

‘That’s because you spoil your dog rotten. The car’s stopped outside the hotel where we stayed with the Capitaine and the Lieutenant, Baldwin got out and the driver sped off.’

‘Wow! That
is
interesting. What are we going to do now?’

‘Sit and wait, girl, sit and wait.’

‘Any chance we can "sit and wait" in the café opposite the hotel?’ She asked, remembering where they’d had a drink the week before, when she’d had a hissy fit.

‘I don’t see why not, in fact that’s a great idea, well done, Ms. Simpkins.’

‘Patronising, shit.’

They ordered a baguette and a café au lait at the counter of the bustling café and sat at a table a couple of rows back from the window, an ideal position for surveillance purposes. 

Then they waited. And waited. Dozens of people strolled in and out of the revolving door to the hotel, but not one piqued their interest. At nearly three o’clock the customers in the café had
dwindled. Only four of the thirty or so tables remained occupied.

A car pulled up outside the hotel and a man hopped in the front. In a hushed voice, Tony said, ‘It’s him.’ He left a ten-euro note and a handful of centimes in the saucer with the bill
.
On the way out,
he grabbed Lorne’s hand and they ran back to the car.    

Tony tried to follow the car but it was too late. By the time they pulled onto the main road the traffic had built up, making it impossible to keep up with them. He slammed the heel of his hand into the steering wheel and cursed under his breath.

Lorne laid a reassuring hand on his forearm and said, ‘There’ll be other times, don’t worry.’

‘Yeah, I guess. If I dip into the hotel, will you drive around the block and pick me up in a few minutes?’

Lorne shot him a look and pointed at her chest. ‘Me, drive, around here, on the wrong side of the road, you mean?’

‘It makes sense, Lorne. I’m the one wearing a disguise.’ He pulled the car over and jumped out, giving her little choice in the matter.

The more the cars beeped their horns at her, the more she broke out in sweat.
Damn you to hell, Tony.
If only she’d opened her mouth and told him she had a mini-phobia about driving strange cars and her anxiety seemed worse than usual because their hire car had the controls on the opposite side to her own.

Her phobia had started at the age of nineteen, after passing her driving exam her cockiness had made her take her father’s Cortina for a spin. Without his consent. An accident had occurred, though not caused by her, and the car had been a write off. The guilt and terror of the incident usually reared its head when she found herself in similar situations.   

Her trembling hands gripped the steering wheel and when she switched on the indicator, the wipers scraped on the windscreen instead.
Damn it!
Her nerves became even more on edge. Sucking in a few sharp breaths she tried again, but as she pulled out into the traffic she forgot to put the car into gear and stalled it.
Jesus, Tony couldn’t you have ordered an automatic?

Hastily, she turned the key in the ignition, dipped the clutch and selected first gear, all to a barrage of blasting horns.
Impatient frogs, give me a bloody break, will you?
With
the sweat pouring from her forehead, and her hands still shaking, she eased into the traffic breathing a huge sigh of relief when she turned into the side road on the left. Still in first gear, she crawled along the back of the hotel, and when she spotted the build-up ahead of her, panic rose again. Seeing a free parking space she pulled in, and sat there with the engine still running. After taking a few seconds to calm her nerves, she drove off and attempted to filter into the stream of traffic at the end of the road. Five minutes later, someone finally signalled for her to pull out in front of him.