Green Light (Sam Archer 7) (25 page)

*

Across
the city, the two men were patching themselves up at the East-Side
warehouse they used as a base to mix the lye solution and store
their vehicles, the car they’d jacked to get out of the Upper West
Side now abandoned across the hangar.

Both
were severely pissed off, not only because April Evans had slipped
through their fingers but because street CCTV and cameras from
inside the bar would have crystal clear images of them by now. They
knew they couldn’t wear ball caps inside that upmarket bar without
standing out like sore thumbs, but the bar hadn’t had cameras at
the rear of the building and they’d already located an exit they
could use to get April’s body out so they hadn’t expected it to be
a problem.

Once
they’d found her, they’d assumed the rest would be easy, but then
that cop had turned up.

They’d
also realised that with the fight in the bar and the chase that
followed, cameras would have captured them without masks or their
baseball caps. For the first time since they’d started all this,
they’d be identifiable. And as well as their van, the NYPD would
probably have their IDs already or would do very soon, which meant
that one mistake was threatening to unravel years of meticulous
planning. Like roaches when the lights came on they’d scuttled for
cover but were now feeling the intense spotlight of attention
focusing right on them. Reloading his silenced FN.45 pistol, the
bigger man swore, furious. He didn’t like to lose; it didn’t happen
often.

‘
How the hell did that son of a bitch know she was at that
bar?’ he said.

‘
Who gives a shit,’ the smaller man replied, pulling away the
gauze on his cheek and spitting out blood. ‘I’m getting the hell
out of here. Forget leaving at midnight; I’m splitting right
now.’

‘
No you’re not,’ the big guy said. ‘We’re not done.’

‘
I don’t give a shit. We need to get out while we still
can.’

‘
Have you suddenly forgotten the whole reason we’re here? And
who you are?’

‘
You think I could forget that?’

‘
We don’t leave until we close it out. We’ve waited too long
for this. There are still four of them left. Five if you include
that son of a bitch who survived the shotgun blast.’

‘
The cops have our faces, on camera,’ the smaller man said
slowly, raising his voice and emphasising the words. ‘It’s not
going to take them long to find out who we are, if they haven’t
already. They’ll be crawling all over us soon.’

‘
We’ll be careful.’

‘
These people aren’t dumb. They’ll track back and make
connections.’

‘
Forget the cops; what about the hooker? You think we can just
leave without taking care of her? She knows too much.’

‘
She doesn’t know shit. We’re safe enough.’

‘
She and the bitch who got shot in the car park were friends;
they were thick as thieves. Who knows what they talked about? Leann
knew a lot. April Evans is dangerous.’

The
smaller man paused, trying to stay calm, his body sore from that
asshole cop slamming him around the restroom. Inhaling and exhaling
slowly, he breathed through the pain, trying to focus and not let
it cloud his judgement.

‘
We can’t leave without taking care of the whore,’ the big guy
repeated, seeing his words were having an effect. ‘Not to mention
the other
Prizraki
. We’re in this together to the end, right?’

The
smaller man nodded slowly. ‘Shit. You’re right.’

‘
I know. I usually am.’

His
partner smiled, calming down. ‘So what now? How are we going to get
to the bitch?’

‘
It’s being worked on,’ the larger man replied, taking his
phone out of his pocket and motioning with it. ‘But we’ve got an
hour to kill. The last few
Priz
are all holed up in the club and it doesn’t open
until 10pm.’

‘
So what are we going to do until then? Lay low?’

‘
Get some revenge on that son of a bitch who killed Nina and
did this to us.’

‘
The pretty boy cop? How?’

The
bigger man smiled. ‘Think about who got shot in the car park the
night all this shit started.’

‘
The prostitute, the cop-’ He paused. ‘And his girlfriend. Holy
shit.’

His
partner nodded.

‘
Detective Alice Vargas. And she’s not behind security at any
police station. She’s still at St Luke’s hospital.’

THIRTY ONE

Once
April finished her account, the detective team separated. Asking
CSU to call the Conference Room back the moment they had anything
from the missing girls’ apartments, Hendricks went downstairs to
check on his wife, kids and the others involved in the night’s
events as Marquez called the hospital to get a report on the gunman
and speak to Josh to get an update on Michelle’s
condition.

Upstairs, Shepherd and Ethan were still inside the Conference
Room talking with April, Shepherd going over the main points again
and making sure he hadn’t missed anything that could prove to be
useful, as Ethan ran the two suspects’ faces through every system
at his disposal, searching for IDs.

Standing
on the wooden walkway and taking the opportunity of a moment alone,
Archer looked back into the Conference Room at the red-headed
woman. She was only eight years younger than him but life had dealt
them a very different set of cards. No wonder she was scared; if
he’d been ten seconds later in getting to the bar or had checked
the other place four blocks south first, there would have been a
very different outcome.

As he
watched her talk with Shepherd and Ethan, his thoughts turned to
her friends, the ten missing women, and the three people they were
ninety nine percent certain were responsible for their
disappearance. Archer had encountered evil on many occasions in his
time as a cop, men and women who’d had no value for human life, but
dissolving their victims’ bodies and then flushing them into the
sewers was a new one on him. Totally outmatched, the women wouldn’t
have stood a chance.

And that
really pissed him off. Turning and looking down at the pit below,
Archer saw all the investigation team’s family members gathered,
people who would most probably have died tonight if not for Isabel
and Melissa’s interventions. Hendricks was down there reassuring
them, making sure they were coping in the aftermath of what had
happened.

Isabel
was with Josh’s eldest son, who was listening to Hendricks closely,
but she’d spotted Archer and was looking straight up at him, not
paying attention to what the Sergeant was saying.

She
smiled and gave him a wave, both of which he returned.

As he
did so, he felt a pang of guilt. She had no idea that Vargas had
been so badly injured. The morning after the shooting, when
Vargas’s condition was still critical and Archer had literally only
just scrubbed her blood off his hands, he’d gone home, picked the
girl up from his neighbour and taken her to Josh’s. He’d told her
that Alice had been forced to go back to LA to visit a sick
relative, which was why she’d left in such a hurry.

He’d
blundered through the explanation, exhausted and stressed, but
Isabel was young enough to have taken it at face value, trusting
him implicitly. He still wondered whether that had been fair of
him. The only person in the world who arguably cared more about
Alice than he did was Isabel; did she deserve to know the truth
even though he was just trying to protect her?

Was it
his right not to tell her?

With the
little girl still looking up at him, Archer heard some movement
from the Conference Room and turned as Shepherd approached, having
just left Ethan with April. As his Sergeant joined him on the
walkway, Archer glanced past Shepherd at April who was looking at
him uncertainly. He gave her a quick thumbs up, which seemed to
reassure her, but just like Isabel downstairs she kept her gaze on
him. Her account had taken a lot of honesty and courage to tell. He
liked her for it; she’d not held anything back, even though it
can’t have been easy telling a roomful of cops what had happened to
her.

‘
Talk about a goddamned Pandora’s box,’ Shepherd said, standing
beside Archer and looking over the railing at the people below. ‘We
decide to take a look at this case to make sure Homicide nailed the
right two guys. Now we find two more victims and possibly another
ten.’

‘
Any word on the surviving gunman?’ Archer asked. ‘The guy in
surgery?’

‘
Not yet.’

Archer
swore. ‘They moved on our families within twenty minutes of Lister
getting shot. They had those addresses so damn fast and that info
is confidential. It had to have come from the
Department.’

‘
But who?’ Shepherd said.

‘
Christ only knows.’ Archer glanced at him. ‘Where did that
social worker show up from?’

‘
Palmer? She was working with the 114
^th
.’ He read Archer’s mind.
‘Don’t worry, I had Ethan run some background checks. She’s kosher.
Born and raised in Brooklyn, father was a doctor, mother worked in
social care, third generation Europeans. She’s been working for the
Polaris Project for almost two years. She’s legit.’

Archer
smiled. ‘Been screwed over too many times not to be
suspicious.’

There
was a pause.

‘
Jake told me what went down in Rikers,’ Shepherd said. ‘I
can’t believe Royston put you in there. He’s a real piece of
work.’

‘
That’s one way of describing him. And now he’s got even more
to use against me; I fired Josh’s weapon inside the bar and the
Park.’

‘
It was self-defence and protecting a witness. I’ve got your
back.’

‘
That’s if I’m still a part of your team by midday
tomorrow.’

Shepherd
didn’t reply. Taking a deep breath, he exhaled slowly and continued
to look down into the pit below.

‘
Isabel still living with Josh?’ he asked, looking at the
little girl.

Archer
nodded, following his gaze.

There
was a pause.

‘
You ever make the same mistakes with your kids that your
father did with you?’ Archer suddenly asked.

Shepherd
thought about it; smiled ruefully and shook his head. ‘Some of mine
make his pale into insignificance.’

Archer
suddenly realised what he’d said. ‘Shit, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean
it like that.’

‘
I know. It’s OK.’

Pause.

‘
What’s worrying you?’

Archer
considered the question. ‘By the time my dad died, I hadn’t seen
him in over ten years. He left the UK one night when I was sixteen
and never came back. I can forgive but I can’t forget
it.’

Shepherd
glanced at his detective, following his gaze to Isabel. ‘You think
you might do the same thing? Abandon her?’

‘
I’d never walk out on her.’

‘
But?’

‘
I know how it feels to see someone you care for walk out the
door and never come back. And you know what this job’s like; life
insurance companies aren’t exactly fighting each other to sign me
up. After everything she’s gone through, what happens if she gets
attached and something happens to me?’

‘
What’s the alternative; keep her at a distance?’

‘
Maybe.’

‘
To that kid, you and Alice are the best parents she’s ever
gonna have. Better than her original set, that’s for damn sure. And
she needs you right now; Alice has been gone a month.’

He
looked down at Isabel, then to his own son.

‘
Parenthood isn’t about DNA. What matters is how much you’d do
for that child. And you showed six months ago in that building how
far you’d go for her.’

Archer
didn’t respond. Shepherd turned to him.

‘
My advice? Stop keeping yourself distant from her, otherwise
one day she’ll be the one who leaves. And once that happens, after
everything she’s been through, she’ll never come back.’

Archer
didn’t reply. A few moments later, the two men became aware of
movement down the walkway, the sound of high-heeled shoes clicking
on wood; turning, they saw Theresa Palmer walking towards them. The
last time Archer had seen her had been at Santiago’s apartment,
just before he’d received the call from Isabel, but a hell of a lot
had happened since then.

‘
Where’ve you been, Theresa?’ Shepherd asked as she joined
them.

‘
You guys all vanished from Santiago’s before I could join
you,’ she replied. ‘I’ve been talking with my people and trying to
get a fix on April Evans. But I just got a call saying you rescued
her from an attack?’

Shepherd
nodded, indicating towards the Conference Room. ‘Arch did. And
she’s in there.’

‘
Is she OK?’ Palmer asked, stepping forward and looking at the
young woman.

‘
She’s fine. Just a little shaken up.’