next room.’ She gestured at the connecting door. ‘That will be unlocked at all times. Any problems and he can be here in a second.’ She sat in an armchair by the window. The view was spectacular, across Hyde Park and beyond to North London. ‘I do wish you’d reconsider. Now’s a pivotal time for Northern Ireland and you could make a real difference to what happens in the province.’
‘If I’m dead, I’m not going to be able to do anything.’
‘And if you run away again, the people of Northern Ireland won’t forget. Or forgive.’
‘Don’t screw around with me, Patsy,’ said Kinsella. ‘You owe me, remember?’
Ellis smiled tightly. ‘We owe each other,’ she said quietly. ‘Don’t forget that.’
‘You said it would be safe to come back.’
‘It
‘Are you stupid?’ hissed Kinsella.
Ellis stood up. ‘I don’t want to fight with you, Noel. Sleep on it. Talk to Elizabeth.’
‘She wants to go home.’
‘Belfast is your home. In the States, you’re just another Irishman on the make. In Belfast, you could be a leader. You could be in the inner circle, making real decisions.’
‘Which is where you want me, right? This isn’t about me, it’s about you. You just want to use me again.’ He threw a grape at her. It bounced off her chest.
‘Very mature,’ she said.
Kinsella tossed a handful of grapes at her. Ellis stalked out of the room, fuming.
Shepherd drove off the motorway into the service-station car park and saw the grey Jaguar beside a strip of grass. As he pulled up beside it, the Major climbed out, grinning. ‘Nice car, SOCA must pay well,’ he said.
‘It goes with the legend,’ said Shepherd. He flashed his Casio watch with its calculator keyboard. ‘Same as this.’
The Major opened the boot of the Jaguar. ‘I’ve got what you wanted, Spider, but are you sure about this?’
‘I don’t have any choice,’ said Shepherd. ‘He sent a man to kill my son. If it hadn’t been for Billy and Jack, he’d have succeeded. I can’t take the chance that he’ll try again.’
‘You don’t have to do it yourself.’
‘Yes, I do.’
‘There are guys who’d do it for you at the drop of a hat.’
‘I know, but this is personal.’
‘If it goes wrong, you’ll lose everything, you know that? He’s a stone-cold killer, no question, but if you handle this yourself you’ll be a vigilante in the eyes of the law.’
‘I know you’ve got my best interests at heart, and I know you’re talking sense,’ said Shepherd, ‘but we both know that if our positions were reversed there’s nothing I could say to you that would change your mind.’
‘I can’t argue with that.’
‘So I appreciate what you’re saying, but this is my fight. That bastard attacked my family, and it’s up to me to take care of business.’
The Major stepped forward, put his arms around Shepherd and hugged him. ‘You be careful,’ he whispered, then released him. He pulled the metal case out of the boot and gave it to him. ‘Okay, I’ve configured it for the nine-millimetre, like you asked. You’ve got rounds, right?’
‘I’m sorted,’ said Shepherd. ‘I had some over from an undercover operation I was on a year ago. Untraceable.’
The Major nodded. ‘Once you’ve used it, remove the bolt, the barrel and the magazine, wreck them and lose them. Make sure you screw up the inside of the barrel with a file, then cut it into pieces so it can’t be used again. If it can’t be test-fired it can never be identified.’ He pointed at the case. ‘In there is a replacement bolt, barrel and magazine for the .45 ACP. Reassemble the UMP in the .45 configuration and get it back to me. No one will ever know.’
Shepherd put it into the boot of his Audi.
‘You’re going to take that on the ferry to Belfast?’ asked the Major.
‘I’ll take it apart and hide it under the back seat,’ said Shepherd. ‘But they never check, anyway. And if they do, my SOCA credentials should get me through.’
‘You need anything, you call me,’ said the Major.
‘It’ll be fine,’ said Shepherd.
Shepherd climbed into his car, waved at the Major and drove off.
Gannon watched him go. ‘I wish I had your confidence, Spider,’ he murmured.
Shepherd arrived in Belfast at just after seven that evening. Customs had waved him through. He drove the Audi into the garage, switched on the light and pulled down the door.
He took the UMP from its hiding place under the back seat of the car, stripped and reassembled it, then checked the firing mechanism. He ejected the magazine and loaded it with the nine-millimetre rounds he’d taken from his house in Hereford. He unlocked the door that led from the garage to the kitchen, went upstairs and slid the weapon under his bed.
As he sat down in front of the television, the doorbell rang. Elaine, in camouflage cargo pants and a yellow T-shirt, was on the step, holding a bottle of white wine. ‘Drink?’ she said.
Shepherd got a corkscrew and two glasses from the kitchen, then poured the wine. ‘To neighbours,’ he said, as he sat beside her.
‘Neighbours,’ she said. ‘So, where have you been the last couple of days?’
‘Manchester,’ he said. ‘Couple of clients wanted meetings so I took the ferry over.’
‘See? You’re getting into the ferry thing, aren’t you?’
‘It’s easier to have the car with me,’ said Shepherd, ‘and it cuts out the hassle of security checks. The airports are such a pain. The last time I flew I had to take my shoes, belt and jacket off, and I still got patted down. Do I look dangerous to you?’
Elaine smiled suggestively. ‘Define dangerous.’ She put down her glass and kissed him. Shepherd kissed her back, then stood up and switched off the lights. He lit two candles in the fireplace, then switched off the power at the sockets for the television and DVD player. He didn’t want Singh or Button listening in.
‘You are a smoothie, aren’t you, Jamie?’
‘I look better in candlelight,’ said Shepherd.
‘Because of your scar?’
‘What scar?’
‘Jamie, I’ve seen you naked, remember? The scar on your shoulder. It looks like a gunshot wound.’
‘It was a long time ago.’
She kissed him on the lips, slipping her hand around his neck. When she released him she smiled at him with amused eyes. ‘Who would want to shoot a nice guy like you?’ she asked.
There had been no military service in the Jamie Pierce legend, but Elaine seeing him naked hadn’t been part of the plan. He had to think on his feet, which was always dangerous. ‘It was another life,’ he said. ‘I was in the army.’
‘No way.’
‘I’m afraid so,’ said Shepherd. ‘Infantry, but I was trained as an electrician. Thought I was learning a trade. Then Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait and I was packed off with a gun and a prayer. I got hit by a sniper and that was the end of my soldiering.’
‘It looks bad.’
‘It wasn’t, but the doctors who treated me weren’t that hot.’
‘You never said you were in the army.’
‘I don’t talk about it much,’ said Shepherd.
Elaine stroked the back of his head. ‘What was it like, getting shot?’
‘I don’t remember much about it,’ he said. That was a lie. He still had nightmares about the dull thump of the bullet slamming into his shoulder, the crunch as he’d hit the ground, the wetness of the blood that seeped from the gaping wound into his shirt as he lay on the sand.
‘My hero,’ she said.
