Wrecking Crew

FOURTEEN

As the man walked passed their car, he was looking directly ahead, apparently unaware that he was being watched. Had he glanced through the car window, he would probably have thought they were a couple trying to get directions to their destination. Stone was looking to the right and talking on the phone to Carter, and Linda had her nose buried in a map that she had grabbed from the glove compartment. When the suspect was fifty yards away and showing no sign of suddenly turning back, Eric and Linda climbed out of the car. Seconds later Carter jogged over and then walked by, gesturing for them to follow. As they caught up Carter breathlessly outlined his plan.

“We need to keep this distance, or more, as we follow this guy. So he doesn’t get suspicious, we’ll keep rotating the person who walks at the front. For now I’ll take point, Eric you hang back about fifty yards behind me, and Linda, I want you to follow Eric, but on the opposite side of the road. Every ten minutes we change places by rotating our positions clockwise. Ok?”

They both nodded their understanding, and the group spread out. In the end, their subterfuge was unnecessary. The man was either so confident, or so incompetent, that they could have followed him with a brass band accompaniment, and remained unobserved.

Walking briskly, and without any outward sign of suspicion or caution, the man took a direct route to a small semi-detached house, in a quiet cul-de-sac, about a mile from the cemetery. About fifteen minutes into the chase, Eric was just beginning to question if they had made a mistake when he saw the man slip something in his pocket and toss the flowers into a bin. Stone looked over his shoulder as he passed the bin, and saw that Carter was already on his way to retrieve the flowers.

When the man entered the house, they hung back, huddling together in the lee of a bus shelter. It was almost dark and beginning to rain. Carter quickly examined the flowers and discovered that they were just that, a bunch of flowers purchased form the superstore where he had parked his car. There was nothing of note, except for the remains of a small envelope taped to the base, evidence of where the data stick had been hidden. Eric pointed at the ripped envelope.

“I saw him put something in his pocket.”

Carter nodded and quickly rattled out some new instructions.

“We need to watch the house. Linda, can you stay here, please? I’ll pass by the house and wait on the opposite side of the road. Eric, do you think you can get into his back yard and have a look through his windows?”

“I’m on it — there’s an alleyway over there, it should lead towards the rear.”

Under the cover of the early evening gloom, Stone slipped over the fence at the rear of the property and dropped undetected into the back yard. It was small, but well-tended, with a central area of neat grass surrounded by a decorative herbaceous border. Keeping close to the fence and using the bushes for cover, Stone belly-crawled slowly for ninety feet until he reached the rear of the house. From there he was able to stand to the side of each window and peer cautiously inside.

There were three windows at the rear of the house. One dark and two brightly lit. The unlit window was obscured with opaque glass, and was obviously a downstairs bathroom. The second window was a small and uninteresting kitchen, but the third was an office. As he crawled through the bushes, Eric had caught glimpses of the man sitting at some sort of desk — his attention fixed on a laptop screen.

The lights from the office cast a long shadow on the lawn, as the man stood and walked towards the corridor. Stone carefully inched his eye around the window frame and caught sight of him walking out of the office. A few moments later, the sounds of running water and banging pots indicated that some cooking was taking place in the kitchen.

From his viewpoint, Stone could see that there was a data stick plugged into a port, on the side of the laptop. On the screen, a green bar marched steadily across a grey box, indicating the progress of some function. Stone risked leaning across the window to have a better look at the laptop. He hoped that he could gleam some useful information, but there was nothing to see, and the desk was clear of papers. Just then, there was an audible chime, indicating that the download was complete. A moving shadow from the doorway, warned that the man was returning to the office. Stone dropped to the ground, and with nothing more to be seen, he retraced his route out of the yard.

Back at the bus shelter, he was joined by Carter and Linda. She brushed the dirt from his clothes as he reported what little he had seen. At least Carter had some good news to report.

“I texted Megan with the address of this house, she just sent back the details of the registered occupant.”

He balanced his reading glasses on the bridge of his nose and squinted at the small screen.

“His name is Peter White. Aged sixty-one, his driver’s license photo seems to match this guy. There is no record of any criminal convictions.”

He turned towards Stone.

“I was thinking he looks a lot like the guy Darren Jeffers described. And get this; he seems to have worked as an actor in the past. Most of his acting was done in America, but currently he is neither working nor registered as unemployed.”

He took off his glasses and nodded towards the house.

“The rent on that place should be in the region of £1,200 a month — so he’s getting a decent income from somewhere.”

Linda was bursting with excitement at the news.

“Perhaps we should come back tomorrow and try and follow him. He could lead us back to their base.”

“It’s an idea, and if we had a staff of twenty, and unlimited time, I would agree. I’ve done stake-outs like that when I was a cop. We could end up doing weeks of patient observation, and still deliver negative results.”

Linda pulled a little pout.

“So what do we do now?”

“Give Megan a little time to complete her research on Peter White. With any luck she’ll have a positive link to the Wrecking Crew by tomorrow.”

Carter put a calming hand on her shoulder.

“Anyway she may already have something useful. There was a cryptic text from her earlier, just as I was getting out of my car. It said that she’d had a ‘brainwave’ and she wants to see me as soon as possible, to discuss it.”

He smiled and rolled his eyes.

“From my experience, it means that she’s solved one of my cases, but she wants to break it to me face-to-face — it’s more dramatic that way. I’m going over there now. I’ll stop in on my way home.”

“Do you want us to come?” Stone asked.

“Thank you — no. This kind of humiliation is best endured in private. Anyway, you two are ‘off the grid’, and I want you to stay that way. For now you should go back to your hotel and keep safe, we’ll talk again tomorrow.”

Stone lay in bed staring at a crack in their hotel room ceiling, illuminated by the soft light of the full moon shining through a half-gap in the curtains. Half an hour earlier, he had woken from a fitful sleep. His gut was churning with acid, and his skin crawled with a sense of foreboding. He felt like a man skiing wildly towards a cliff edge, certain that he had missed a warning sign, and yet unable to stop. For two days, he had been struggling with the feeling that he had missed something — something obvious, something of vital importance. Somewhere in the depth of his mind, some half-heard words were trying to make an important connection.

He knew that the answer was there within the periphery of his mind, but each time he looked it was gone — leaving behind just a shadow of the thought. His nights were filled with dreams of clutching at answers, only to have them slip through his fingers like smoke. He was positive that he could complete the jigsaw, once he could put the final pieces together, but somehow he just couldn’t see the full picture. At the same time, Stone was worried that he was putting people at risk unnecessarily. Because of his relentless pursuit of the Wrecking Crew, Carter and Megan were in danger — and of course, there was Linda. Stone was worried about Linda.

He looked down at her now, as she lay face down by his side — her hair in disarray and her arm casually flung across his chest. What of Linda Smart? This intelligent, funny, beautiful, and erotic lady had come into his life just a few days ago, and yet somehow she had stolen his heart. Suddenly he couldn’t imagine living without her. He involuntarily shook his head as he realized that he was hopelessly in love with Linda Smart. He would do everything in his power to protect her, he would kill for her, he would die for her — and yet here he was putting her in real danger.

In retrospect, he should have kept her away from the investigation, but hindsight is a wonderful thing. Stone knew that he should have been firmer when he saw that the investigation into the Wrecking Crew was taking a dangerous turn. However, Linda was insistent, and Eric had selfishly decided to keep her close. Like most men in the presence of a beautiful woman, his ego and hormones had got the better of his intellect — and now it was too late to change to a different path. Was this the reason for his uneasiness, or was there something else? He took a deep breath to try and ease his tension.

Linda lifted her head onto his chest.

“A penny for your thoughts.”

“I’m sorry, did I wake you?”

“S’ok,” she mumbled sleepily. “What ails you?”

Stone shook his head.

“Just worried about putting you guys in danger. I feel bad, particularly for you.”

In one swift movement, Linda knelt upright. As she did, the sheet fell away revealing her nakedness to the moonlight. Stone realized that this was no time to admire the scenery. Her face was tight with repressed anger, and she was suddenly all business.

“Now you listen to me, Eric Stone. Ed and Megan are good people. You’re privileged to have them as friends who are willing to help you with this, but they are also consenting adults. They know what they’re getting into, they understand the risks, and they have their own reasons for participating. And so do I.”

She waved an angry hand at the world.

“This isn’t just about Charles Rathbone and a search for justice and retribution. Sure, something bad happened to him, but we know now that bad things will continue to happen to others, if this Wrecking Crew isn’t stopped. What was the quote? ‘The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing’. Well that’s where we are with this. We’re the ‘good people’ here Eric, and we can’t trust the authorities or anyone else. This is our responsibility, and we have to see it through.”

Stone sat up. He tentatively reached forward and put a hand gently on Linda’s knee.

“You make a convincing argument Linda, but what about you? I know that you’re one of those ‘good people’, but this really isn’t your fight. Why are you doing this?”

Linda reached up with her arms, as if she were trying to break through the tension. With a gentle sigh, she ran her hands through her hair. In the dappled moonlight, her small breasts bobbed enticingly. Stone had to work hard to maintain his composure.

“It’s hard to explain, Eric.”

She huffed in frustration and dropped her hands to her lap.

“It’s partly because I love you, and I want to be by your side, but there’s something else — and I can’t put my finger on it. When you told me about the Wrecking Crew, something inside me boiled up. It’s hard to describe. I feel duty-bound — like… like a lioness protecting her cubs. Perhaps it’s the injustice of it all. Perhaps their breath-taking arrogance has just pissed me off, or maybe I feel pain for all of the other unnamed victims. I’m not sure why, but I have no choice in this. I am compelled to act — and I won’t rest until this is over.”

Stone was surprised by her answer. He knew that he was inclined to try to protect the innocent, and that he hated injustice. When he had seen his friend’s suicide video, he had immediately committed to action. He was driven by friendship and duty, but he hadn’t really stopped to consider Linda’s motives. He had assumed she was following him like a lovesick schoolgirl. Now he felt like a selfish fool.

“Ok, I understand, or at least I think I do. I’m sorry I was being so selfish. I guess I was so worried about you and the others that I didn’t stop to ask why you were all getting involved. It never occurred to me that you had your own reasons.”

Linda smiled.

“It’s so typical of you to take all of this on yourself — imagining that it was all your responsibility, and that everyone was taking risks, just because you asked. You could lead an army, Eric. You have such charisma and passion. If you just asked, people would follow — but they would all still be volunteers. Do you understand?”

He smiled back.

“I think so.”

“It’s why I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

She leaned forward and kissed him gently on the lips and as Stone responded, Linda put a hand on the back of his head and pulled him closer, teasing his mouth with her tongue. Breaking the kiss, she took his hand in hers and guided it towards her breast, softly caressing her erect nipple. Once she was sure that Eric had the correct idea, she reached under the sheet to confirm her intentions.

The harsh ringing of Eric’s phone impolitely interrupted their embrace. A cold fist squeezed his heart. It was 4am, and only two people knew his number. As he pushed the button to accept the call, his throat was tight with apprehension.

Linda reached over Eric to switch on the sidelight. She pulled the sheet around herself, suddenly conscious that her nakedness had become inappropriate. The phone conversation was one sided, with Stone giving the occasional grunt of acknowledgement. Linda attracted his attention and mouthed ‘What?’, but Stone waved her question away, his face visibly darkening with anger and tension.

“Right, we’ll meet you there in less than two hours,” he said as he hung up.

Stone buried his face in his hands. Linda waited silent for thirty seconds, finally she could no longer stand the tension.

“What… what is it?”

Stone’s voice was ice cold.

“A fire at Megan’s place. They got to her Linda, the Wrecking Crew tried to kill Megan.”

Linda brought her hand to her mouth in shock.

“Oh my God! Is she all right?”

Stone slowly shook his head.

“She’s alive — but barely. She’s in a coma. The doctors’ think she inhaled a lot of toxic smoke. They don’t know if she’s going to pull through. Just now Megan’s in the ICU at Harlow hospital. Ed called in some favours and they have her under police guard. It looks like she’d been attacked before someone torched her place. They’d tried to make it look like a burglary gone wrong.”

“How did she get out?”

“Pure luck. If you remember, Ed said he was going to stop by and see Megan, on his way home. He saw the flames and immediately called for help. Then he kicked down the door and dragged her out.”

“We should go to her.”

Linda jumped up and began searching for clothes. Stone stood and put a gentle hand on her arm.

“Linda, wait… We have to pack. Ed said that there’s nothing we can do for her just now — except find these bastards. He wants us to move out of here immediately. We have to meet him at another hotel a few miles west of Harlow.”

Linda nodded impassively, and began gathering their possessions.

“He’s bringing all of the files and his copies of her work. Yesterday Megan said she’d found something, but she didn’t tell Ed what it was. That’s why he was going round there. He thinks if we look through her stuff, perhaps we can find something — perhaps we can find a clue. For now, it’s all we’ve got,” he said with grim finality.

They left the motel without checking out. They simply loaded their bags into the car, and drove away. Stone figured that housekeeping would report that they had gone, and the desk clerk would probably pocket the additional rent. Linda drove while Stone kept a watchful eye for anyone following, but they saw nothing suspicious in the sparse early morning traffic. When they arrived at the hotel, Carter was standing by his car. He looked haggard and worried. His clothes were crumpled and sooty and his eyes were runny and red. Stone went to hug his friend, but Linda got there first.

“Any news?”

“No, she’s still unconscious. The doctor said that her bloods were not good, but they’re doing all they can.”

Carter’s face was a grim mask.

“At the moment they’re doing Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy. It uses high-pressure oxygen to flush out the toxins. We’ll know more in a couple of days.”

Stone gripped his friend’s shoulder.

“Thank God you were there, Ed.”

Carter shook his head.

“I was lucky to get her out. The fire was so fierce; the heat was incredible. Fortunately, whoever set the fire didn’t know that she had a fire suppression system, sitting behind all of that computer equipment. It kept the flames back for a little while, and probably saved her life. If I’d arrived five minutes later, it would have been too late. As it was, I was still trying to drag her out of the door, when the fire engine arrived. They gave her oxygen and immediately whisked her off in an ambulance.”

Carter looked down sadly.

“There was nothing they could do for the cats.”

Linda broke the silence.

“She’s alive — that’s what matters.”

She put a supportive hand on Ed’s arm.

“You can’t blame yourself for this. It’s not your fault… ”

She remembered an earlier conversation.

“—or Eric’s.”

“I know.”

Ed gave Linda a fierce hug.

“Anyway, this Wrecking Crew thing has just become very personal. We have work to do. Let’s go and check-in.”

He pointed to the hotel with his chin.

“We’re safe here. The owner is an old mate. He’ll book us in secretly.”

Despite having been awake all night, Carter wanted to start work immediately, but he eventually gave in to Linda’s nagging and agreed to get cleaned up first. After he had showered and changed into some clean clothes, Linda took both men firmly by the hand and marched them to the restaurant, where she made sure that everyone ate a hearty breakfast. Cleaned and fed, but still looking exhausted, they went back to Ed’s room to begin working the files.

“Ok. Let’s summarize.”

Carter was standing beside a whiteboard, borrowed from a conference room at the end of the corridor. It was covered in scribbles, lines, and yellow post-it notes — the product of three hours of reading and discussion.

“From the files that Charles got from GCHQ and the additional research that Megan conducted, this is what we know as facts, or strong supposition.”

Ed pointed at the board and began to read.

“One: The Wrecking Crew has been in operation for around ten years. That’s an assumption, but there are no files from before then.

“Two: According to the file from GCHQ, the Wrecking Crew operate on the belief that knowledge is power, and that everyone has a weakness. Once that weakness is identified, it can be exploited as a means to an end. Then the targets are manipulated, discredited, destroyed, or dispatched, to achieve the desired result.

“Three: Megan was positive that such an operation would require substantial resources, with computers, cars, and offices with good internet access.

“Four: We don’t know who runs the Wrecking Crew, or where their base of operations is.

“Five: The Wrecking Crew has worked for the US and UK Governments, but there is no record of who hired them, or how they were paid. However, we can suppose that they are very well connected, with some very powerful friends.

“Six: We know that they operate through the charity Second Chances, but we were unable to find a physical connection to the Wrecking Crew.

“Seven: From the list of operations that they’ve been involved in, we can surmise that they have people skilled in computers and the manipulation of financial data. In addition, they must have access to a legitimate data bank — probably through an employee at one of the big operators.

“Eight: They also use violence and intimidation quite frequently, as well as theft and — as we know — arson. Some of these people may have come from Second Chances, but others must have been specially recruited.

“Nine: The file also mentions an assassin who goes by the name ‘Chameleon’. There’s no clue to his identity, but from the list of killings attributed to him, and the wide range of methods used, he must be ex-special forces. Unfortunately, Megan was unable to find a likely suspect in her searches.

“Ten: Finally, every case that involved an obvious crime has been investigated by the police, but no suspects were found, and no arrests were ever made.”

Ed sat down, looking haggard and defeated.

“So in summary we have nothing.”

Linda stood up and paced in frustration.

“There must be something! What about this Chameleon?”

Ed shook his head sadly.

“He’s a ghost and a shape shifter. We can’t even be sure that he has killed.”

He tossed the marker pen onto the table.

“Take the last two cases as examples. Lynda Devon, CEO of Devon rail, was killed in a mysterious, but very convenient car crash. I personally spoke with the investigating officer. He said that the car’s computerized automatic stability system failed, causing the car to swerve into the path of a semi-truck. When I asked if there was any sign of tampering, he said that although it was theoretically possible to hack into the car’s computer and cause the crash, because the manufacturers have a powerful lobby group, any officer suggesting such a scenario would be laughed off the force.”

Carter ran his hand through is sparse grey hair in tiredness and frustration, before he continued.

“Then there was Valerie Jenkins. She was suggested by Charles as the best person to help expose the Wrecking Crew. As soon as the words were out of his mouth, she was dead — and in the most unusual circumstances. Apparently, she suffocated after falling ill. The investigator believes that she ate some sushi contaminated with a natural, but very rare toxin. Although it may be the first such death in Britain, it’s happened elsewhere — so it’s being treated as an accidental death.”

“Another dead end,” Stone said. “These people really know how to cover their tracks.”

“Damn right!”

“What about the insurance companies?” Linda asked.

“What about them?”

“Bear with me… I was thinking about that film where the rich guy stole the paintings. The insurance company used a private investigator to track them down. It’s the sort of job you might do, Ed.”

“Go on.”

“Well, isn’t it right that because you’re getting paid, usually with a commission, you might be a bit more tenacious than some overworked policeman?”

Stone gave Carter a quizzical look.

“Also… to get to the truth quickly, an insurance investigator might have been inclined to bend a few rules.”

Carter sat forward, suddenly interested.

“You know, you could be right. I don’t think anyone ever talked to any of the insurance investigators.”

Linda pumped a fist.

“She shoots — she scores!”

Stone flipped open the laptop.

“Where do we start?”

Carter closed his eyes and started to scan his encyclopedic memory. Suddenly his eyes popped open and he pointed at Stone.

“Got it! Quite near to the beginning of the file… there was a recycled cardboard business that got burned out. There was a suspicion of arson. The insurance investigator was Helen Anson… or something like that.”

Stone searched, squinting at the screen in silence for a few minutes. The other two waited patiently until Stone leaned forward and tapped the screen with his finger.

“Helen Atkins, Premium Mutual Insurance?”

“That’s her! Do you have any contact details?”

“Nothing in the file.”

“Not to worry.”

Carter gave them a sly smile.

“This is my thing… it won’t take me long to find her.”

Helen Atkins burst into The Fixer’s office without knocking. The Fixer, unaccustomed to such blatant rudeness and disrespect, sat back in his soft leather chair and raised an inquisitive eyebrow.

“Yes, Helen — how may I be of assistance?”

She ignored is cutting sarcasm.

“I’ve just had a message from the answering service on my private line. A private detective by the name of Ed Carter would like to speak to me about an arson investigation I was involved in some years ago.”

“Ed Carter?”

The Fixer sat forward in his chair.

“Which investigation?”

“That cardboard recycling warehouse that Gordon torched. It was my last investigation before I came to work here.”

“Oh… Have you spoken to Carter yet?”

“No, of course not. I’m not a moron, you know!”

She looked away in anger, and began pacing in front of the desk.

“Ok… calm down, this is good. It’s just what I’ve been waiting for.”

She continued to pace.

“Helen! For the love of God would you please sit down?”

She threw herself into the chair and crossed her arms like a grumpy teenager. The Fixer pulled a pad and pen from a drawer and tossed it across the desk.

“Listen carefully and take notes… ”

He leaned forward and gave an evil smile.

“Now this is what I want you to do… ”