The Murder Exchange (3 page)

23
could make out the sheen of sweat on his forehead.

As I walked towards him through a gaggle of
scantily clad young ladies with loud voices, I saw
he had two briefcases on his lap, one of which
hopefully contained six grand in readies. You'd
have thought the other contained a bomb, given the
expression on his face.

'Mr Fowler. Are you ready?'

Fowler saw me for the first time and cracked a
relieved smile. 'As ready as I'll ever be. Come on
then, let's go.' He got to his feet unsteadily, trying
to hold both briefcases in one hand. It didn't work
and he dropped one. Quick as a flash, he bent down
and picked it up. This one's yours,' he said, passing
it to me in a way that was almost designed to
attract attention. I took it as casually as possible,
and, with him following, turned and walked back
outside.

The car pulled up just as we stepped onto the
pavement and I ushered Fowler into the back with
Tony before jumping in the front.

'Do me a favour, Mr Fowler,' I said. 'Don't draw
attention to us by handing me a briefcase in the
middle of a pub. You could have given it to me back
in the office.'

'Sorry, I wasn't thinking straight,' he said, clutching
the other case close to his chest.

'Is everything all right?'

'Yeah, no problem. I'm just a little nervous, that's
all.' He wiped the sweat off his brow with a
grubby-looking handkerchief as Eric did a three
point turn in the limited space available and
headed back the way we'd come.

24
There's no need to worry/ I told him. Tou're in
safe company.'

I introduced him to the other two. Eric just
grunted an acknowledgement. He wasn't one to get
over-friendly with punters, particularly when they
were greasy-looking nightclub owners. Tony gave
Fowler one of his half-smiles and put out a hand
which was shaken just a little bit too vigorously.

The offices of Tiger Solutions were a set of rooms
above a tatty-looking mobile phone shop near
Highbury Corner. Eric pulled the car up in the bus
lane directly outside and he and Tony waited while
Fowler and I went upstairs to count the six grand.

'Have you got the gun?' he asked me as I put the
money in the safe. It was all there, in fifties and I " cnties.

I looked at him closely. He was watching me,
moving his weight from foot to foot, a man with far
too much on his mind. 'Yeah, I've got it,' I said,
making no move to show it to him.

The want to see it. I want to see that you've got it.'
His voice was almost a whine, like some spoilt kid.

This bastard was beginning to give me a bad feeling.
Still, anything to shut him up. I reached under
the back of my jacket and pulled the Clock 17
from the waistband of my jeans. I held it out in the
palm of my hand for him to see, thinking to myself
that it really was a fine piece of craftsmanship, and
light as a feather, too. Say what you like about the
Germans, but they do do all the important things
right. Cars, football teams, porn (if you forgive the
haircuts) and firearms.

He stepped over and looked cautiously down at

25
it, as if he half-expected it to jump up and bite him.
'It does work, doesn't it?'

'Do you know something I don't?'

What do you mean?'

'I mean, why are you so interested in whether it
works or not? Do you think I'm going to have to
fire it or something, because if you do, then I'm not
sure I want to be coming along with you. My life
and the lives of the other two men down there are
worth a lot more than six grand. Do you know what
I mean?'

'I wouldn't be going along myself if I thought
anything was going to happen, but, just in case
something does, I want to be certain that we've
got some sort of backup.'

'It works/ I said, 1?ut if I have to use it, I'll be one
unhappy man. And if I'm unhappy, so will you be.
I promise you that.'

I opened the door, then waited while he went out,
before switching off the lights and following him.

'Left here,' said Fowler.

Eric turned the wheel and the car pulled into the
entrance of a deserted-looking business park
surrounded by high mesh fencing. An unmanned
barrier blocked our path.

'Pull up to the keypad and punch in the code. It's
C234.'

Eric didn't say anything but did as he was told,
and the barrier went up. The car moved inside, and
carried on down to a T-junction. The single-storey
building up ahead had a neon red sign identifying
it as Canley Electronics.

26
'Stay here for a moment/ said Fowler, and
jumped out of the car before any of us had a chance
to ask him where he was going. As we watched, he
crossed the road and walked up to a short, tatty
looking hedge in front of Canley Electronics. He
stopped and made a great show of looking left and
then right, then bent down and pushed the briefcase
underneath the hedge so that it was out of
bight.

'What's he doing?' demanded Eric. 'I thought
you said they were meant to be the deeds to his
club/

I shrugged. 'That's what I thought/

Eric shook his head, looking troubled for the first
time. 'I'm not sure about this, Max. This just doesn't
look right. What with all this meeting up in the
back end of nowhere .. /

'Perhaps he's just being careful/ said Tony, calm
as always. 'Maybe he wants to see that they've got
the money first/

'Maybe/ I mused, not feeling too convinced
either. 'We've just got to keep our wits about us,
that's all. Obviously these blokes are dodgier than
we thought/

'Christ, I'm getting too old for this shit. I'm a
granddad, for fuck's sake/

'The key to warding off old age is mental and
physical exertion/ said Tony. 'My granddad did
nothing but watch telly when he retired, and he
went completely senile in five years. Ended up
thinking that he was going out with Carol
Vorderman, poor sod/

'I don't know/ I said. 'I quite like her/

27
'He used to send her flowers and everything. My
mum and dad had to put him away in a home in
the end. Lack of stimulation, that's what they said
it was. Think on that one, Eric. There's a moral in
there somewhere.'

Tuck off/ said Eric, giving him a dirty look. Not
that there was any real malice in it. He and Tony
knew each other pretty well and, as far as I knew,
they got on, too. That was one of the other reasons
they'd been mine and Joe's first two choices for this
job.

The conversation stilled as Fowler returned to
the car and got back in. 'OK, turn left and keep
going until the end of the road.'

Tell me something, Mr Fowler,' I said, as the
Range Rover swung left and moved slowly through
the business park, crawling over the frequent speed
bumps. 'How come you chose a venue like this?
There must be getting on for two million buildings
in this city. Surely one of them's got to be better
than round here.'

'We want some privacy, that's all.'

'Christ almighty,' growled Eric. 'If you'd wanted
privacy you could have come round my gaff. This
is fucking ridiculous.'

'We're nearly there,' said Fowler irritably. He sat
back in his seat and sighed, wiping his brow for the
hundredth time that night. He looked about as
comfortable as a case of piles.

Tony asked him if he was OK.

He nodded. 'Yeah, yeah, I'm fine.' He didn't
sound it.

'If things look like they're going to get a bit tasty,

28
we'll just pull out/ said Tony, pulling a pack of
cigarettes out of his shirt pocket and offering
Fowler one. The clubowner accepted and thanked
him as he lit it. 'All part of the service/ said Tony,
leaning forward and dangling the pack between me
and Eric. Eric took one. I told him I'd given up.

'Oh yeah? How long's that been, then?'

Too fucking long.'

We came to another T-junction and Fowler told
Eric to turn right. We were coming to the other end
of the estate now and, beyond the buildings
stretched out in front of us, I could make out the
fence, and what looked like wasteground behind. It
was eerily silent here, a lonely oasis in the middle
of llie city. The sort of place where the killers in
kids' nightmares lurk.

The think it's here, up ahead/ said Fowler.

Looming up on our right-hand side, about fifty
yards in front and partially obscured by trees, was
a large whitebrick warehouse, bigger than the
buildings on either side of it. It was set back a few
yards from the road behind a forecourt where there
was room to park at least a dozen cars, and its
delivery doors were open. The forecourt was empty
but a light appeared to be on inside, the only light
I'd seen in a building on the whole estate.

I felt the hairs prickle on the back of my neck like
it was being stroked by a poltergeist. Something
was wrong with this whole thing. Very wrong. I
pushed back in my seat, feeling the comforting
closeness of the Clock rubbing against the small of
my back, confident that if I had to use it then at
least I knew it would fire.

29
This is it, the one with the light on. That's where
we're meeting.'

'What time's it set for again?' I asked.

Ten thirty.'

I looked at my watch. Ten past. 'Better early than
late, I suppose.'

Eric slowed the car and turned into the forecourt,
watching for any signs of activity.

But there were none. No movement, no voices, no
nothing. The place was as deserted as a cemetery.

Eric brought the Range Rover to a halt outside
the delivery doors.

'Well, someone's been here tonight,' I said.

'It doesn't look like they're here now,' said Eric,
peering inside.

There was a growing tension in the car. You could
almost smell it.

'You definitely got the time right?' I said.

'Course I did/ snapped Fowler, who looked the
most nervous of any oif us by a long chalk. 'It's still
early, remember?' He leant forward in his seat and
wiped his forehead with a handkerchief. His left leg
was shaking uncontrollably and, for some reason, I
found myself enjoying his discomfort.

'Maybe we should drive in there and take a look
around/ said Tony, also leaning forward. What do
you think, Max? We could take up positions so
we're ready when they get here.'

It seemed as good an idea as any. 'Yeah, let's do
that. It can't do any harm.' Which was a statement
I was to remember for the rest of my days.

Eric touched the accelerator and we drove in
through the gap in the doors.

30
The place was about twenty yards deep by ten
yards wide, and empty aside from a row of ancient
looking oil drums which stood a few feet in front of
a door in the far right-hand corner. Above the door
was a long balcony that stretched the width of the
room and overlooked the front of the car. A number
of unmarked boxes were positioned along it,
some of them stacked two or three high. I looked up
a! Ihcm for any sign of activity, but everything was
still. As still as the grave, as my grandma used to
say before she was lowered into her own.

The Range Rover stopped in the middle of
the floor. Eric put it into neutral and pulled up the
handbrake. He too looked up at the boxes. 'Perfect
place for an ambush/ he said quietly, almost to
ii.nii.elf. 'Saw something like this back in Ulster.'

'Look, this is just a fucking meeting/ said Fowler
impatiently. 'Nothing more. All right?'

'It was while we were based out of Londonderry.
The RUC got a call from some woman, said she'd
been raped out by this disused old factory. This was
in the old days, way back at the beginning of the
seventies, before they'd got wise to the way
the provos worked. The Officials were still around
then and they tended to play it more by the book.
Anyway, they despatched a car with three RUC
men in it to pick her up, and an ambulance as well.
Just in case. She'd made the call from a phone box
outside the factory gates, but when the car got
there, they saw her wandering about inside the
grounds, you know, all distraught and that.'

The car fell silent. All you could hear was
Fowler's heavy breathing in the back.

31
'So they drove in through the gates and went
down to pick her up. She saw them, started crying hysterically, and ran off into the building, like she
couldn't come to terms with getting near any men
so soon after what'd happened. The RUC car
stopped in front of it and the coppers, all blokes,
went to get out. None of them drew their guns, they
didn't want to unnerve her, and I don't think the
poor bastards ever suspected a thing.

'They never even got their feet on the ground. A
couple of provo gunmen stuck their Armalites out
of the windows on the second floor, right above
the car, and started shooting on fully automatic. The driver was killed outright.'

'What about the one in the front seat passenger
side?' I asked.

'If I remember rightly, he died later in hospital.'

'Great. That's a real rucking help, that is.'

'Fucking hell, Eric,' snorted Tony. T^ake us all
feel better, why don't you?'

'I wouldn't worry too much, Tone. Or you,' Eric
added, meaning Fowler. The one in the back
survived. Got hit in the neck but the bullet passed
straight through. Didn't touch a single one of his
main cables. Far as I know the bloke's still alive.'

'Stop joking around, and keep your wits about
you,' hissed Fowler. That's what I'm paying you
for.'

Eric's face clouded over. He didn't like taking
shit from anyone, even paying customers. 'You
know, Max, I'm beginning to think this job's worth
a lot more than what I'm getting for it.'

'Life's an underpaid occupation, Eric,' I told him.

32
'Everyone knows that.' I looked at my watch again.
10.14- 'I'm going to take a look around.'

Fowler leant forward abruptly. 'I don't think
that's a good idea, Mr Iversson. It's best we stick
together and wait for them to come.'