That’ll keep the men in line, fuck them!
The gang reconvened an hour later. Anderton was content to see the three remaining members of his intimate team all gathered at the warehouse ahead of the allotted time.
“Right, let’s move on from what happened earlier, shall we? We have work to do and people to rob.” He laughed and glared at the men standing before him who neglected to join in. He could sense a long, hard battle ahead of him. They’d get over the loss of Caves soon. If they didn’t, well, that was up to them. He had plenty more torture techniques up his sleeve which he was willing to try out.
His driver interrupted his flow a few minutes later. He entered the room accompanied by a blond man-mountain.
“Gentlemen, say hello to your new colleague. Good of you to join us. Maybe you should introduce yourself.”
“Thanks. I go by the name of Ken. My true name is Kentrovski, but most people have problems remembering it. I am Russian and I came to UK three years ago.”
“Stitch, he’ll be your partner.”
Stitch nodded and fist-pumped the newcomer who moved positions to stand alongside him.
“Now we’re back to full strength, here’s what I expect from you.”
Anderton ran through the plans and, once the men had accepted their responsibilities in the task that lay ahead of them, he sent them on their way, instructing them to return within a few hours with their haul.
5
The call came in at around four-thirty that afternoon. Katy had been winding the day down in her office when Charlie barged into the room.
“What’s wrong?”
“Eye witnesses say a gang of men in suits jumped a bloke outside his pub, beat the shit out of him and stole his Porsche 993 Speedster.”
Katy held up a hand. “Wait, is that supposed to mean something to me? A car is just a car, isn’t it?”
“Not if you’re a collector. This is a truly expensive one, apparently, not that I know anything about them. I looked it up, and it’s as rare as a red diamond.”
“Is there such a thing? I thought diamonds were…okay, we’re going off track here. So the owner is still alive?”
“At the moment. He has life-threatening injuries and is on his way to hospital.”
“Poor bloke. What does this have to do with our team, Charlie?”
“I might be way off the bloody mark here, but something clicked with me. Men in suits… What if there’s a connection to the case we’re investigating?”
Katy stood, grabbed her jacket off the back of the chair and followed Charlie out of the office. “Okay, you’ve convinced me. My brain was in a mid-afternoon lull there for a second. Let’s get over to the scene. Where did it take place?”
“I’ll fill you in en route.” Charlie rushed out of the door.
Katy motioned with her head at the rest of the team. “I wonder how long her eagerness is going to last. More to the point, I hope her eagerness doesn’t exhaust me in the meantime. We’ll be back soon. Do the usual in our absence, folks. Find out who the victim is, his next of kin, just in case he doesn’t make it. Also, see if there’ve been any other problems in his recent past for us to go on. See you later.”
She raced down the stairs and found Charlie leaning against her car bonnet fiddling with her mobile.
“Now’s not the time to be playing with that thing,” she chastised.
“Ugh, you should know that’s not me by now. I was researching the car and how many of those particular vehicles have been made over the years, if you must know.”
“Sorry, my mistake. Hop in, you can do that on the way.” Katy drove out of the car park. “Umm…it might be an idea to tell me in which direction I should be heading.”
“Sorry, I got distracted. I have the postcode, I’ll put it in the satnav. I’m not really with it.”
“Everything all right, Charlie?” Katy asked, concerned.
“Fine. Just trying to do my best to impress my new boss and in danger of screwing everything up in the process.”
“Nonsense and pack it in. You’re doing well. There’s no need to try and impress. Actually, you’ll impress me more if you just be yourself and work methodically, the way you always have. I know you’re a decent copper, Charlie, so let’s make a concerted effort to improve that but in a natural way. Ugh…am I making any sense because it sounds to me like I’m talking a lot of gibberish?”
“I have that effect on people. Okay, here’s where we’re going, and I’ll try to rein in my enthusiasm, how’s that?”
“Sounds good to me.”
The pub they were after was around a fifteen-minute drive away. The cordon had been set up, and SOCO were in attendance.
“Good, James is here. He’ll give us the lowdown without any misguided shit.” Katy waved at the lead technician who walked towards them.
“Hello again, ladies. We must stop meeting like this, otherwise people will start spreading rumours about us.”
“That wouldn’t surprise me. Okay, give us the details, James.”
“The man, an Ethan Johnson, owns this establishment.” He leaned in closer. “Well-to-do place, not your spit-and-sawdust type of pub, if you get my drift.”
“Meaning what?”
He shrugged and smirked. “A mere observation which might help your investigation, dear Inspector.”
“Thanks, I’ll bear it in mind. How badly hurt was he?”
“He was barely alive when the ambulance got here. They managed to stabilise his breathing. Their fear is that he’s suffered internal bleeding. You should chase that up with the hospital.”
“I intend to. Any actual witnesses around for us to speak to?”
He pointed at a group of women huddled together in the far corner of the car park.
“What? Couldn’t you have told them to wait inside?”
“Not very gallant of me, was it? Sorry. I knew you wouldn’t be long. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.”
“Never mind. I’ll
