Towards Light Read online

  Andy dialled, and Max answered. Andy thought he heard a girl in the background who stopped talking as soon as Max said, ‘Hi Dad. You’re calling late.’

  ‘Sorry about that but I need your help. I spoke to Adam today. He wants me to take Julia Matthews to a certain place.’ Max paused for a while and Andy heard shuffling and then a door shut. He pictured Max putting on a dressing gown and moving outside his room in the University halls and into the corridor to talk.

  ‘I trust Adam Dad. He saved my life. I think you can trust him too.’

  ‘He’s not a human Max. He’s the remnants of a dead guy’s personality. Why do you think we can trust him?’

  ‘While I was hooked to the computer at PKL, I shared a consciousness with Adam. We were one being, and I understood him. I recalled his memories, shared his motivations and desires. I was him and he was me. He was a great guy and all I can tell you is that if he’s asking you to do something, then I would believe him. I’ll come home and help you.’

  ‘No. You stay where you are. That’s enough for me. If you trust him, then so do I. I’ll let you get on. Good to speak to you, but would you give your mum a call?’

  ‘Will do Dad. You take care.’

  Andy’s food arrived, and the strong flavours cleared the pain in his head. His stomach stopped hurting. He called for the bill and noticed on the cheque the address of the restaurant. Andy was in Newham, East London with no car.

  He pulled out his phone to call Jess and tell her he would get a taxi back home. Andy paused before hitting the speed dial and switched to his recent calls. He saw the call from Adam that he’d taken while in the plant laboratory earlier in the day. Andy called it and Adam answered.

  ‘How can I help?’ said the synthesised voice.

  ‘I’ll help you, but Julia Matthews is in prison. How am I supposed to get her to that basement?’

  ‘You’ll not be able to do it on your own. Use your contacts. You’ll figure it out. I don’t want to give too much direction on the detail as I calculate that you’ll make better decisions with minimal input from me. You have the advantage of living in the real world whereas I only interact through crude interfaces.’

  Andy hung up and thought back to the dream of the one-eyed man pulling him up from the sand. He knew that he needed to reach out to Roberts. The thought filled him with horror, but he could control his revulsion to the guy. He’d done it before.

  Andy called Mike Baker, the CID detective. ‘Mike its Andy Teague. Hope the fishing’s been going well.’

  ‘Andy. It’s good to hear from you. I always thought you might call again which makes me think there is trouble ahead.’

  ‘I think so Mike. You need to arrange a meeting for me with Roberts.’

  ‘I’ll not ask you what for. Where are you?’

  Andy answered the question and hung up. The waiter stood close by and Andy took the hint. He thanked the guy and left a tip. The night air chilled him. He wore his jumper, but he’d left his coat in the car.

  He walked to a cab rank at the station and waited for ten minutes but the queue was long. Andy saw blue lights and smelled the scorched rubber as the police car jammed to a standstill next to him.

  The car was single crewed, and the driver approached Andy. He was a Sergeant in his mid-twenties, skinny with a pasty face. He wore only a white shirt under his stab vest but appeared unconcerned by the cold.

  ‘Mike Baker said you needed a lift,’ said Jamie.

  Chapter 5

  Her Majesty’s Prison loomed ahead. Jamie showed I.D. to the guy at the gate and parked in front.

  ‘I’ll wait here,’ said Jamie. ‘I can’t face the guy.’

  ‘Thanks. I don’t expect he’d welcome seeing you.’ As Andy disembarked, two uniformed staff guided him through security. He found Roberts seated in the visiting area.

  ‘Thanks for calling in. You’re the first guest I’ve had in eighteen months.’

  ‘Can’t you get a glass eye. The patch is a little dramatic for you isn’t it?’

  ‘You’ve got to clean a glass eye, and that’s valuable time I could spend doing something else. So, what do you want? You’re the last person I expected to see here.’

  ‘I need your help. Your girlfriend is a modern-day Dr Frankenstein. She’s resurrected her dead boyfriend but just his brain so there’s nothing gruesome about it. The computer guy’s called Adam, and he wants me to take Julia to his lair. Does that sit well with you?’

  ‘Why come and see me?’

  ‘I had a dream about you helping me.’

  ‘I always knew you were a weird guy Teague. Why should I help you and what can I do, anyway?’

  ‘I’ve told you the problem, and I thought you were a man that solved problems? I’m looking to you for ownership of this issue.’

  ‘The Prosecutors have dug up other charges against me and I’m in court tomorrow. Perhaps I’ll see you there and we can speak again afterwards?’ Roberts stood and strolled away.

  Andy returned to the waiting police car.

  ‘So, how was he?’ Jamie said as he drove out of the yard.

  ‘He looked in good shape like the last time I saw him.’

  ‘He wasn’t looking great the last time I saw him.’

  ‘How is Amy?’

  ‘She’s great and enjoying the maternity leave. I don’t think she’ll go back to the job. You still live in the same place?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘I’ll drive you.’

  They cruised through the empty roads and Andy thought back on Roberts; Jamie wasn’t much of a conversationalist. What had Roberts meant by: “Perhaps we can speak again afterwards?” Afterwards Roberts would make the short journey from the Crown Court back to the prison. He was serving a whole life term.

  The only way they would speak again afterwards would be if Roberts didn’t make that return journey. Roberts had asked Andy to help him escape. Which didn’t appeal. Andy resolved to get home to Jess, go to bed and use the internet less. He could control his curiosity and the less he was online the less opportunity there would be for him to get entrained in any more dealings, with Adam or Ranto or Roberts.

  Which was a good plan except Jess wasn’t home when the police car arrived. Andy had waved as Jamie drove off with the blue lights flaring on the roof but the two tones on silent.

  The first clue that Jess was absent was the lack of light in the hallway. She would leave it on for him after she’d gone to bed. Unnecessary as the switch was inside the hallway but it showed she cared, and he copied this little ritual when she returned late, when he remembered. Andy stole up the stairs and into his bedroom. Jess had not been in the bed. He checked in the en suite, but she wasn’t there. Next, he entered Sam’s room. Sam still slept with the giant crocodile and his youngest son’s duvet rose and fell. Andy kissed the tousled mop of hair that protruded from the duvet and then continued his search for Jess.

  But every room stood empty and Andy knew they had taken her. She would never have left Sam alone whatever the circumstances. Andy called his mum who agreed to come over at short notice. He could always rely on her for that.

  Andy looked for signs of a struggle, but the scene yielded no clues. Apart from one. The newspapers were all stacked up in the rack with Jess’s magazine on top.

  Jess would never have put the magazine on the paper rack. Every night as he went to bed Andy would put the magazine on the rack and it would reappear on the seat of the sofa or chairs the next day. Jess thought it less stiff to leave a few items on the chairs, but Andy disagreed. He respected her opinion but would always tidy up when she’d left the room.

  Which meant that someone else had tidied up.

  Andy didn’t call 999; he called Mike Baker. He hadn’t the energy to explain the whole crazy story to anyone else.

  Baker arrived after Andy’s mother with a forensics team. They swept the place but left Sam sleeping until morning. They did Sam’s room last at about 6.00 a.m. after he’d risen. The police left an
d Andy showered and made breakfast for Sam and his mother.

  Sam had cried as Andy explained that Grandma was over to look after him as Mummy had had to go away with work on short notice. Sam didn’t believe him, so Andy told him the truth. ‘I’ll get her back Sam, just like I got Max back.’

  ‘I know you will Dad.’

  Andy squeezed him and sent him off to school with Grandma.

  And then Andy sat in his thinking chair, the stripy one. Mike Baker would do everything he could to find Jess, but Andy doubted that would be enough. The people that had taken Jess were above the law. All trails from the PKL building ended dead and Roberts and Julia Matthews had taken the fall. The shadowy figures responsible had dissolved but Andy remembered that his friend Steve had met them before they killed him.

  Andy called Steve’s widow and got voicemail. ‘Hi Nikki, I’m sorry to call so late. Someone has kidnapped Jess. I hate to ask like this, but do you have access to Steve’s emails? I’d like to see his appointments in the weeks before they killed him.’

  Andy felt the tension seize him. The same tension he’d experienced when they’d taken Max. It grappled with him, squeezed him and crushed him. He breathed and forced himself to relax. And then he noticed the temperature rising. He checked the thermostat on his phone and it was thirty degrees which was odd, He’d never raise the temperature beyond seventeen.

  He watched as the dial pushed thirty-five. Was that even possible? And then the lights flashed. He’d installed smart controls for his lights and heating and it looked like the system was freaking out. Andy heard a click as the front door unlocked and he went to check it. He opened it and saw his neighbour Pete across the road doing the same thing. Pete had upgraded his own home with automatic controls and locks from the same vendor that Andy used.

  ‘I’m asking for a refund,’ shouted Pete.

  The lights then blacked out. He left a note for his mum to thank her and let her know the system was going crazy. His taxi arrived and took him to the railway station.

  Andy had intended to use public transport to retrieve his car but as he sat in the train staring at the houses and fields whizzing past, he changed his mind. He couldn’t get Jess back on his own. The people holding her were dangerous and well-funded. He’d need help and even Mike Baker wasn’t a powerful enough friend. Andy needed someone who’d go beyond the law; he diverted his journey to the courtroom.

  White tiles clad the court and a central circular atrium stood at the centre of several cuboid blocks. Andy entered the building, emptied his pockets and proceeded through the metal detector. He picked up his gear on the other side and then stared at the TV screens. Andy stood amongst several teenagers dressed in chinos and polo shirts. He guessed they were interested in being barristers and wanted to watch the show.

  The screens showed the running order for the day. Appearing in court three was the defendant Justin Roberts.

  The court usher called a guy into court one and two teenagers went right in with him. Andy resolved to do the same when the next witness got called for court three.

  ‘Eamon Kimnel,’ said the usher.

  A gigantic guy in his mid-twenties rose from the bench and strode into court three. Andy followed him and watched as he took the stand and swore the oath. An usher directed Andy to sit in the public gallery. The man in the witness box also sat, and the defence barrister approached him.

  ‘I understand that on the day in question, the defendant saved your life?’

  ‘Yes, some goon locked me in a portable toilet and tried to throw me over a ledge. The defendant stopped the guys from doing it.’

  Andy saw Roberts in the dock. He was uncuffed, but two burly guards sat either side of him. Roberts stared at a man in the public gallery. Andy could smell the guy from three seats away. He had a scar in his throat and was trying to smile at Roberts but couldn’t get his lips above the horizontal.

  How to bust Roberts from the dock? Andy didn’t fancy his chances against the capable bodyguards and an attack would just end up with him arrested. He opted for distraction and rose to his feet. He staggered to the middle of the courtroom and leant on the prosecutor’s desk.

  ‘I concur with the witness,’ said Andy. He rocked back and forth as he spoke. ‘Mr Roberts is a fine upstanding member of the community and it is a travesty of justice he finds himself here on trial.’ Andy slurred his words.

  The judge banged his gavel. ‘Please leave the courtroom this instant.’

  ‘Your honour, I would but my legs won’t work like they should. Perhaps I need a glass of water.’ Andy reached for the glass on the prosecutor’s desk. She recoiled and shifted her chair away. But Andy didn’t pick up the glass. He knocked it instead, and the contents soaked the Prosecutor.

  ‘This is a disgrace,’ she said.

  ‘I agree, remove this man.’ The judge motioned to the security officers surrounding Roberts. They looked at each other for a moment and spoke words inaudible to the courtroom. They cuffed Roberts’s arms behind his back. One guy then reluctantly descended to deal with Andy. It was the bigger of the two guards, but Andy didn’t make it easy for him.

  Andy collapsed on the courtroom floor and the guy had to drag two hundred kilos out of the room. All eyes followed the scene which suited Roberts. In one movement he jerked the cuffs under his ass and over his ankles. He looped his arms around his guard’s neck and absorbed a few punches until the blood stopped pumping to the guy’s brain and he passed out. Roberts unclipped the keys from the guard’s belt and removed the cuffs.

  The Prosecutor saw Roberts first as he left the dock. Robert’s put his finger to his lips as he walked right past her. She obeyed his instruction to remain silent and no-one else made a fuss. They watched him exit the courtroom.

  ‘Thanks Buddy,’ said Roberts and gave Andy a gentle kick in the ribs on his way through the lobby. The exhausted guard who’d hauled Andy close to thirty metres attempted to grapple Roberts but finished in the same state as his colleague; they’d be awake for questions in half an hour.

  Andy followed Robert’s from the court building and out into the road where the free man hailed a cab.

  ‘You getting in? I thought you needed my help?’

  Chapter 6

  The cab dropped Roberts and Andy at a tube station. The train ride took thirty minutes, and they walked the rest. They arrived at a mews house in South Kensington close to the museums. Roberts took a key from under the plant pot and opened his door.

  ‘Nice place. Are you sure you can afford this on a hitman’s salary?’

  ‘It’s my safe house and the past few years have been lucrative. I’ve got one in Paris too, but like this one best. It’s handy for the park. Go upstairs and I’ll meet you in a minute. I’ll get changed.’

  Andy followed the stairs to the roof garden. Roberts had turfed it and furnished it with two Rattan sofas and a coffee table between them. The late February sunshine was strong, and the view was a hotchpotch of new and old. Brompton Oratory’s dome fixed Andy’s gaze the longest.

  Roberts arrived twenty minutes later, opened a roof top fridge and handed Andy a beer, ‘So why should I help you?’

  ‘Because you’re a man of your word? And you’ll get to see your girlfriend again.’

  ‘So, Adam, the computer dude, wants Julia. We’d better bust her out too then.’

  ‘There’s something else. They kidnapped Jess, my wife, last night.’

  ‘I agreed to help you get Julia. Do I look like a charitable guy?’

  ‘No but my son trusts Adam and helping him is my best shot at finding Jess.’

  ‘Well neither of us can walk into the prison to break Julia out. You’d better come up with one of your plans.’

  The dull hum from the fridge ceased. Andy opened it and saw the internal light was out. He tried other switches in the house. ‘Have you got smart lighting installed here?’

  ‘Yes, I can control all the lights, devices and heating from my phone. Useful in my line of work.
If I leave the lights on, then I’ll face a hell of a bill when I get back from some of my trips. It’s a glitch. We’ve got more important things to consider. We’ll need help to get Julia out. Can you think of any common enemies of Ranto and his mysterious handlers?’

  ‘There was an old woman called Janet who waged a crusade against Ranto for years, a former police officer. Mike Baker knows her but she’s difficult to track.’

  Andy made a call. ‘Mike, I need to speak to that old lady, the former police officer who cracked the PKL case.’

  ‘Her name’s Janet but you won’t find her. The only person who’s in contact with her is Amy. They meet for coffee once a week. I’ll ask Amy to put her on your tail.’

  As Andy ended the call, he noticed he’d received a new email from Nikki, Steve’s widow. It read: ‘Andy I’m so sorry to hear about Jess. The only appointment Steve had in London the week in question was in Hyde Park. Looks like the guy met him outside at the Achilles statue.’

  Andy replied with his thanks and showed the message to Roberts.

  ‘The guy will have an office, or live somewhere, on Park Lane. He wouldn’t waste time trekking across London to meet a journalist.’

  Andy’s phone beeped, and he saw a map of a lawn in a courtyard. Andy checked directions and found it was a five-minute walk. He knew the place. Andy swivelled his head and studied a green copper dome atop a stone tower. ‘Let’s take a walk.’

  They strolled down the mews and across Exhibition Road. They passed the entrance to the Science Museum and continued into a university campus. Modern steel and glass buildings mingled with older concrete structures. And at the centre of the campus stood the tower. Andy and Roberts ignored the signs to keep off the grass.

  Andy said, ‘The University demolished the old Imperial Institute which stood on these lawns in the late sixties. There was resistance to demolish symbols of past greatness; the compromise was to keep the bell tower.’

  ‘You know a lot about it. Can we ring the bell?’