“I know, I’m working on it now.”
“No, another one. It should be easy. One sniper should do it.”
“OK, who’s the target?”
“Tom Kennedy, Donald Kennedy’s son.”
“What about the girl?”
“No, she must stay alive. I repeat, NOT the girl.”
Beaumont could not afford for Lela to be hit. She would soon be the key to their fortune as she would, he believed, be certain to sell Alba instantly.
“Location?” asked Jones.
“Their house is out of the question, it’s a fortress. Their school is just as bad. The only option is their school trip on Monday to Machu Picchu.”
“When I went to school, we went to the local zoo. Not 7,000 miles away to an ancient Inca village,” huffed Jones.
“Hmm, well, it seems their history teacher thinks it’s important. Anyway, it gives us the opportunity to get to him.”
“Consider it done,” replied Jones.
Chapter 59
It was 5.30 a.m. when Tom and Lela went to bed. The information they had uncovered produced more questions than answers. However, one thing was categorically clear, Donald Kennedy was not behind the assassinations but knew he was going to be framed for them. From what they could gather, he had been in the process of trying to track down who was responsible.
With only three hours sleep, Tom and Lela were already up and ready to go. They had only one goal in mind, to clear Donald Kennedy’s name. A lot of the information suggested that Alan, the sacked CFO, knew a lot more than he had let on. Tom had sent a text before they went to bed requesting a chopper to be there at 9.00 a.m. sharp. At 8.45 a.m., as they were finishing breakfast, they heard the whump of the blades as the helicopter landed.
Kisho and Kano had made it clear that wherever they went, they would follow. When they reached the helicopter, Kano had second thoughts.
“What the hell is that?”
“That’s my little bird, it’s an MD520 light helicopter,” replied Tom.
“It’s definitely little, we won’t all fit in it!” said Kano.
“It seats five. Just please get in. I asked for a small one so that we can land wherever we want. It’s great fun, very agile. I’m sure the pilot will show you if you want?” offered Tom.
“No thanks, I’ll just sit back here quietly,” replied Kano.
After everybody had strapped in, the little helicopter took off and hovered just above the ground. The pilot looked at Tom.
“Where to?” he asked.
Tom powered up his new sat nav system and input Alan’s address. It worked in exactly the same way as a car’s system, except it was in 3D and could direct the pilot accordingly.
“There,” said Tom pointing to the chequered flag pinpointing Alan’s home.
As they hovered above Alan’s street, they understood why Tom had not brought the large helicopter. Alan lived in a block of flats overlooking the River Clyde in the centre of Glasgow. The large chopper would have had to land over a mile away at the Alba HQ helipad. The small one, however, took up as much space as an average car. So that’s what they did. They parked it in the car park in front of Alan’s block of flats, taking up just one space.
The four passengers jumped out and made their way to the front door of the building. Tom pressed the buzzer for Alan’s flat. Nobody answered, he pressed it again. Nothing.
“What shall we do?” asked Lela.
“I don’t know,” replied Tom.
“I do,” said Kano. “If this guy knows something about what happened, there’s a good chance we’ll find something inside.” He started pushing other buzzers until somebody eventually let them in.
Kano led the way and after an elevator journey to the top floor, they stood outside Alan’s door. Kano banged on the door but again, there was no answer. He banged again. Nothing.
“What was that?” he asked.
“What was what?” asked Lela.
“I can hear somebody saying help me, help me!”
“I can’t,” replied Lela.
“Neither can I,” said Tom.
“What are you talking about Kano? There’s no noise in there,” said Kisho.
Kano raised his eyes to the ceiling in frustration. He looked back at them and spoke very slowly.
“I can definitely hear somebody who needs help and can’t get to the door, I’ll have to break in to help them.”
He looked at them until they began to understand what he was saying. He then spun around and kicked the door down.
The flat was open-plan with a large panoramic window which overlooked the river and the city. Two doors led off the living area, Kano tried one while Kisho tried the other.
“Nothing in here, it’s just a bathroom,” said Kisho.
A few seconds later, Kano reappeared.
“It appears that I may have been right about someone needing help, although I’d guess we’re a few hours too late.” Pointing to Tom and Lela, he said, “You two wait here and don’t touch anything.”
Kano took Kisho to the master bedroom suite and through to the bathroom where Alan lay in the bath, dead.
“I’ll call the police,” said Kisho.
“No, let’s have a quick look around and then we’ll call them,” suggested Kano. “But I have a funny feeling that we won’t find anything. I’m fairly certain this guy was murdered and they’ve tried to make it look like a suicide.”
“Why do you think that?”
“Because the killers forgot to put away his passport and luggage which are lying at the side of his bed. I doubt he’d pack a bag and get his passport ready if he was planning to top himself.”
“Five minutes and then we call, OK?” said Kisho.
The two of them had plenty of experience of that kind of work as they had both served in a very secret and clandestine team within the British Army. They were as meticulous in their search as they were ensuring that everything was replaced exactly where it had been.
Meanwhile, Tom and Lela were still standing immobile in the centre of the room. They had gathered that Alan was dead. Kano and Kisho eventually came back out.
“Well?” asked Tom desperate to know what was happening.
“Murdered we think but they’ve tried to make it look like suicide,” replied Kano as he began to search the main living area.
“So he really was in with the bad guys then?”
“Yep and these guys are not playing around,” replied Kisho who was searching the kitchen.
“Shouldn’t we call the police?” asked Lela, concerned about the twins rifling through the flat.
“Of course but there’s no harm in having a quick look around before we do,” said Kano.
“Nothing in here,” said Kisho removing his latex gloves.
“Where did you get those?” asked Lela.
“We thought the Accountant might take some convincing.”
“What were you going to do?” asked Tom not sure if he actually wanted to know.
