Green Light (Sam Archer 7) (44 page)

She
smiled.

‘
Now at last, it’s there for us to take.’

The two
men placed the barrels down beside the two injured NYPD detectives,
then backed away.

‘
If you want to dispose of a body successfully, you have to
think of the elements,’ Palmer said, ‘We
Volki
prefer fire. So much neater
than waiting for a body to dissolve or burying people alive. Our
people have already started to move in on Little Odessa. We’ll stay
in our roles; me working for Polaris. Such a help being on the
inside.’

With the
barrels sitting on the concrete directly beside him, Josh looked at
Marquez. She was clutching her leg but looking at Palmer. They
watched the five Chechen mobsters, four male and one female, move
back out of the blast radius.

They
came to a stop thirty yards away.

‘
I’m sorry it had to end this way for you two,’ Palmer called
out, as the group raised their guns. ‘Sooner or later, we all run
into someone stronger, tougher or smarter than us.’

She
shrugged.

‘
It’s nothing personal.’

‘
It is for me,’ a voice suddenly said, forty feet to Palmer’s
right.

Snapping
her head round, she saw a blond-haired figure standing in the
loading bay, holding a pistol double-handed.

But he
wasn’t aiming it at her or any of the four men beside
her.

Focusing
on the ether cans stacked in the van immediately behind the group
of Chechen Mafia, Archer aimed his sights on the central
barrel.

‘
You’ve been green lit, bitch,’ he said.

Before
the four men and Palmer could react, he pulled the
trigger.

A
split-second later the entire van exploded, knocking him back off
his feet once again as the vehicle went up in a huge fireball, the
heat intense. The van hit the ground with a crash, a flaming mass
of metal.

Pushing
himself back to his feet, Archer looked at the wreckage and the
billowing flames.

Palmer
and the four men were gone.

Then he
looked at Marquez and Josh. Having been far enough away not to be
seriously affected by the blast, Josh hauled himself to his feet
and moved over to Marquez who was lying on the ground, blood
pooling out from the gunshot wound to her leg. Running over, Archer
and his partner did what they could to staunch the flow, sirens in
the distance confirming that back-up would be with them very
shortly.

‘
I never trusted that bitch,’ Archer said, compressing the
wound.

‘
You’re hurt…too,’ Marquez said, looking at Archer, Josh
glancing over and seeing blood running down his partner’s
neck.

‘
It’s just a scratch.’

‘
Liar,’
she whispered, screwing up her
face in pain as Archer applied pressure to the gunshot
wound
. ‘Maybe it’s about time…we found
another career.’

‘
And give all this up?’ Archer said, smiling at her. ‘No
way.’

Pause.
The sounds of sirens in the distance could be heard clearly now
over the waves and crackling flames from the burning van. It was
strangely peaceful. As emergency vehicles pulled into the dockyard,
Josh rose and ran towards them, attracting their
attention.

Staying
with Marquez, Archer suddenly realised he was still wearing
Henderson’s coat, which was keeping him warm but was also bulky.
There was something in each pocket.

‘
Remember what I told you?’
Marquez
said quietly, catching his attention.
‘About my son?’

‘
Of course,’ Archer said, seeing the paramedics climb out of
their vehicle.

‘
I never told anyone…else in the Department…that.’

He
smiled. ‘I won’t say anything.’

‘
You’d better not. Or I’ll…kick your ass.’

Laughing
but keeping the compression on her leg, Archer watched as
paramedics ran over towards them, the operation finally over, the
burning van crackling and casting their silhouettes out across the
dockyard behind them.

After
the fight in the Rikers shower, the shootouts at Santiago’s and
Josh’s homes, saving April at Park Avenue, the attack at his
apartment, Henderson and Tully’s ambush at the safe-house,
Royston’s grenade and the explosion which killed Palmer and the
other Chechen Mafia, he figured he could use another bandage or two
himself.

FIFTY THREE

After
ensuring April was safely under police protection and the surviving
Latino gang who’d attacked Archer were in custody, Hendricks and
Shepherd made it to the docks twenty minutes or so after the
paramedics, fire service and other officers from the NYPD. They
found a burning van, a dead police Lieutenant and a dead Karen
Casey.

By the
time the two sergeants arrived, Archer and Marquez had been taken
by ambulance to the nearest hospital, Josh left to fill them in on
the showdowns with Royston, Karen Casey and Theresa Palmer. They
were stunned to hear of Palmer’s involvement and of what had
happened to her and her companions thanks to Archer. Almost by way
of poetic justice, their bodies were nowhere to be found and never
would be.

As Josh
explained, the full scale and depth of the evening’s events started
to become clear to the two men. Karen Casey had been the wife of a
Russian mobster, Leann Casey’s father, a man called Vladimir
Bashev; he’d been ordered to kill Karen, all part of this Thieves
Law Detective Massaro had told them about, to prove his total
loyalty. He’d failed, and Karen had survived.

The consequences had been far-reaching; the end of the New
York
Prizraki
faction Bashev had been inducted to lead. It turned out that
not only had Karen intended to destroy the faction, but Henderson,
Tully and Lister had also targeted the gang for totally different
reasons. Grandchildren of the leader of the Pittsburgh
Suki
, the
Prizraki
’s hated rival,
they’d been sold by the
Prizraki
in Pittsburgh to people in San Diego when they
were teenagers, finally tracking the man responsible to New York
City, Vladimir Bashev. Responsible for twenty seven homicides
across three different states, Henderson and Tully’s bodies had
been found at the NYPD safe-house, Henderson’s in much better
condition than his brother’s by the time officers arrived at the
scene.

Inside
the warehouse, the NYPD found equipment for making the lye
solution, empty canisters and a van containing a significant number
of files. It soon became clear the trio had carried out their
blackmail business in two other cities while always managing to
remain anonymous. The van had contained meticulous records and
boxes of explicit photos and DVDs they’d used to blackmail the men
caught in their carefully prepared operation. Royston had been one
of them and he’d ended up paying the heaviest of prices for his
corruption.

Theresa Palmer and the men who’d been with her had operated
completely under the radar. Detective Massaro had been right in
that the
Volki
had
arrived in the city some time ago, but the level and extent of
their influence and power had been completely underestimated.
Palmer’s phone which she’d left in the car and her partial
explanation had given him plenty to work with and he and his team
were setting up operations at the Beach, waiting for the
unsuspecting Chechens to turn up. They also now had a wealth of
valuable information on the
Prizraki
organisation, which still
had ties in other cities across the country; the FBI had already
been in touch.

Josh
left to go to the hospital to see how his wife, Marquez and Archer
were doing and the two sergeants were finally being seen to by
medical personnel, Shepherd on the phone as they worked on him,
wanting to find out what Marquez and Archer’s statuses
were.

‘
You need to get to a hospital,’ one of the medics told
Hendricks.

‘
I’m fine.’

‘
You got shot, Sergeant. You need to get checked
out.’

‘
I tell you how to do your job?’

Beside
him, Shepherd ended the call and thanked the medic treating
him.

‘
How are they doing?’ Hendricks asked.

Before
Shepherd could reply, his attention was caught by a commotion
taking place across the warehouse, right by Henderson and Tully’s
truck. Standing up, he made his way over, the other officers making
way for him.

As soon
as he saw what they were all looking at, he stared in
amazement.

‘
Oh my God.’

He swung
back to Hendricks.

‘
Jake! You need to come take a look at this!’

*

At Grand
Central Station the next morning, dressed in a new pair of jeans,
top and jacket, April stood beside Josh on the platform. For the
first time in a very long time, she was feeling upbeat and with
very good reason; she was getting out. She’d only suffered mild
whiplash in the crash last night but fortunately nothing more
serious. She’d experienced far worse at the hands of the pimps who
used to control her.

And now
she was free.

‘
Archer was sorry he couldn’t make it,’ Josh said. ‘He had a
court date.’

‘
They’re still going through with that?’

Josh
smiled. ‘I reckon he’s got a good chance of beating the charges
now.’

He
looked at her.

‘
You know you don’t have to leave so fast.’

‘
I don’t want to stick around. I’ve really had enough of this
place.’

He
smiled. ‘I can understand that.’

‘
I’m nervous,’ she said.

He
smiled. ‘That’s a good thing.’

He
passed over a jacket.

‘
Archer told me to give this to you. He said you might get cold
on the train.’

Frowning, she held it up. ‘It looks big.’

‘
Trust me; just take it.’

‘
Tell him thanks.’

‘
I will.’

The last
call for the train echoed around the station.

‘
I’d better go,’ she said.

They
shook hands, then April turned and headed down the platform.
However, after a few steps, she turned and looked back.

‘
You think I deserve a second chance?’

He
smiled. ‘I think you deserve a hell of a lot more than
that.’

She
grinned; then moving through the crowds, she showed the conductor
her ticket and stepped onto the train, walking down the aisle and
taking a seat.

Settling
back, her neck aching slightly from the crash last night, she
thought back to the moment when she’d roared out of the parking
lot. Taking the car had been her idea and she’d had a hell of a job
persuading Archer it was a good one; she was well aware he’d only
given in because he needed to get after Karen Casey.

She
looked down at the jacket he’d asked Josh to give to her and was
confused; it was definitely a man’s, too large for her slim frame,
and she was puzzled why he’d insisted she take it.

As it
rested on her lap, she felt something in the pocket under her right
hand. Reaching inside, she took hold of something and pulled it
out.

It was a
banded brick of hundred dollar bills.

Caught
completely off guard, she snapped her hand back inside the pocket,
checking around to make sure no-one had seen. Satisfied the other
passengers’ attention was elsewhere, she stared down at the jacket.
She tentatively felt in the other pocket and found another large
brick of notes. Then the same in the inside pocket, what had to be
thousands and thousands of dollars in total.

Feeling
something else pinned to the inside lining, she saw it was a
note.

Figured all this belonged to you anyway. Take care of
yourself.

Ax

P.s: Next time you’re in town I could use a good set of eyes
looking over my car.

Covering
her mouth in shock, she closed her eyes as tears started to roll
down her cheeks; suddenly, she wasn’t penniless anymore. Archer
must have found the jacket inside the van when he’d raced to the
docks, along with the money she and the other girls had been made
to work so hard for.

Outside
there was a whistle and the train lurched forward as the wheels
engaged.

A few
moments later it slowly pulled away from the platform and began to
gather speed, taking April Evans towards a brighter future, far
away from New York City.

Outside
the courthouse on Pearl Street near One Police Plaza, Josh pulled
up in a replacement Bureau Ford to find Shepherd and Hendricks
standing in the Square, both men looking upbeat despite their
injuries.

‘
What happened?’ he asked.

‘
The case was thrown out. After it was reported what Royston
did, no way was Archer going to be punished. The judge commended
his actions instead.’