Blood and Ashes

Chapter 20

So what the hell just happened?

Vince lifted his head to see if anyone would respond to his question, before realising that he hadn’t actually spoken out loud. There was another problem, too: no one was around to answer him even if he’d screamed the question.

He asked himself the question again.

When things became no clearer, he blinked into the surrounding darkness. He had no idea where he was, let alone what had just gone on. All he knew was that he was belly down like a pretty-boy on a prison cot.

He tried to get up, but found that it wasn’t so easy a task. What the hell? His arms were twisted behind his back, something digging painfully into his wrists. His ankles were bound too.

He jackknifed on to his side, his head swimming with the effort.

From this position he had a better view of his surroundings, but it took a moment for him to make sense of them. The smell of damp carpet wafted round him, followed by the heady tang of motor oil. He swung his boot heels and heard the dull chime of struck metal.

He was in the back of the black van, the one that Holland and Wilkes had ridden earlier. There was only one reason for being trussed in the back of the van that he could think of… that weasel Darley had cold-cocked him from behind. Proof of that was the throbbing lump the size of a hen’s egg that pushed out through his ducktails.

A flash of pain from the back of his skull brought it all back.

Darley had followed him to the car where Gant lay and as Vince greeted the other two skinheads, Sweeney and Dillman, the little shit had shuffled behind him. Vince thought his warning to the man had been enough to cow him, but it looked like Darley had his own ideas about who should still be their boss. And obviously his creed was a greater motivator than money. Vince felt the first smack of the man’s gun barrel come down on the nape of his neck. As he turned, trying to grab one of the Glocks from his belt, Sweeney and Dillman had grappled him. He got a headbutt into Dillman’s face, but then Darley had slashed the gun across his skull and that was that.

Till now.

He was surprised to be alive, but not really happy about what that might mean. Gant had probably survived the car wreck, and he wasn’t going to be pleased when he heard that Vince had planned a coup. If what he’d heard about Gant’s viciousness was even partly true then he was going to be put through a world of hurt before he died.

He had to get out of here.

When Gant finished up with the Griffithses, he’d be back. And with nothing more pressing to contend with, he’d take his own good goddamn time making Vince sorry that he ever contemplated betrayal.

Vince kicked and rolled.

His exertions were repaid by a hand slamming the partition that separated the rear compartment from the van’s cab.

‘Keep the fuckin’ racket down, Vinnie, or I’m gonna come in there and break your fuckin’ nose.’

Vince stopped kicking. He wasn’t alone after all. Was Mike Dillman the only one left behind, though?

‘I broke your nose, did I, Mike?’ Vince hollered back. ‘Pity I didn’t get Sweeney as well. You there, Sweeney? Why don’t you come in here an’ I’ll do the same to you?’

‘Shut the fuck up, Vinnie. I mean it…’

Dillman again. So the prick was the only one left behind to guard him?

Now that he’d learned what he wanted, he’d no reason to goad Dillman any further. First he had to get free from his bonds. He took it easy, shifting round so that he could pull his knees up to his chest. Vince had a gangly frame, but he’d always been flexible. He shuffled his wrists down under his butt, then behind one knee while he slipped the other toes between his arms. The bindings made things awkward, but he managed to wriggle free. Once he had one boot through, the other followed easily enough and he straightened out, bringing his wrists up to his chin. His night vision had begun to kick in and he could make out his bindings. Insult added to injury, he thought, when he saw that his wrists had been strung together with his guitar string.

He chewed at the metal coil, hooking an eye-tooth round a loop and pulling. The medium-gauge string was good for throttling a victim, but wasn’t the best for securing wrists. The copper-coiled wire spooled away from his flesh and he slipped one hand free. Then it was only a few seconds’ work to loosen the other. He made a check of the wire, feeling a couple of kinks in the metal, but otherwise it was undamaged. He wound it loosely and jammed it into his jacket pocket. Then he set to the bindings round his ankles. Gaffer tape this time. It peeled off easily enough, but he had to take it slow so that Dillman didn’t hear him.

Vince flexed his hands, rolled his ankles, to promote blood flow into his extremities. His fingers and toes tingled, and he decided to wait until they settled down before making his break for freedom. The last thing he wanted was to leap from the back of the van only to find his numb feet giving way under him. The tingle became pain, but it was endurable, even welcome.

He felt for his guns, his cell phone. All gone, though that was to be expected. He searched the compartment for anything he could use as a weapon. Nothing. That was expected as well. He still had his garrotte but that was a tool used for stealth work and not much good against a pissed-off skinhead with a gun, especially one holding a grudge over a broken nose.

His Glock would come in handy, more than that, though, he needed his phone.

He came slowly to his feet, carefully negotiating the van so that he didn’t rock it and alert Dillman. He found the back doors, but the inside handle had been removed. It was pointless cursing, but he did anyway, making sure he held the swear words deep in his chest. Then he had a thought.

The metal doors were sheathed in panels with little more substance than thick cardboard coated with vinyl. He inserted his fingertips along one edge and slowly tore the panel down the middle, checking all the time for movement from the front. When the hole was big enough, he inserted a hand through the gap and felt for the wires that controlled the levers that locked the doors. He slowly exerted pressure and the wire dug into his skin but he felt the locks disengage.

Bang, bang, bang on the partition. ‘The fuck you doing in there, asshole?’

‘Just gettin’ comfortable, Dillman. That OK with you?’

‘Lie still, or I swear to God I’m gonna come in there and put a round through each of your knees. I gotta keep you alive for Gant, but he said nothin’ about you having to be in one piece.’

Vince smiled at Dillman’s bravado. The bullshitter’s words helped cover the faint squeak as he pushed open one of the doors. He slipped out of the van, then gently closed the door. Dillman wouldn’t even know that he’d escaped until he finally came out of the warm cab to check why Vince was so quiet. He guessed that could be a while.

Ensuring he stayed in a direct line with the van and out of Dillman’s view in the mirrors, he hurried away. He kept going until he was a good hundred yards distant and hidden by the drizzle before he ducked to his right and sped off at a tangent. The lack of a corresponding shout or bullet whizzing after him confirmed that Dillman was blissfully unaware of his escape.

Vince found that they hadn’t moved far from where Sonya had been killed. He followed the verge at the side of the road to where it widened out, then ran for the demolished cabin. His Ford had been shifted, sent down the embankment on the far side, and it was lying in a stream bed, on its side. Gant’s men had made it look like the Ford had been in a tragic accident, and had gone to the trouble of placing Sonya and Gant’s driver inside before they set the vehicle on fire.

Vince eyed the smouldering corpses inside and for the first time felt a genuine twinge of regret for Sonya. She was a crazy bitch, but he had to admit that there was a lot he liked about her. In a different world, maybe they could have been… No. That could never happen. He turned away, retraced his steps back to the demolished cabin.

Then he began sifting through the wreckage. When he couldn’t find what he was looking for, he followed the trail to where Sonya had ended up on the floor, and began kicking over splinters of wood. That failed to turn up what he was after, so he stood in the spot where he’d rolled the woman’s body over to retrieve her gun. Then he walked in a spiral away from her. Not as good as conducting a grid-pattern search, but it was faster. Ten yards out he saw it, and he stooped down and picked up Sonya’s cell phone. Debris on top of it had kept it dry. At first he feared that the phone was broken, but the cover and battery had merely slipped when the collision had knocked the phone out of her pocket. He clicked them back in place and was rewarded with a glowing screen as the phone rebooted. The screen saver was a picture of Vince. He was giving her the Elvis lip when she’d snapped the image, his quiff flopping over one eye.

‘You jerk,’ he said.

Then he made the call.