“You think so,” I said, but I did nothing as he walked across to the chair and picked up his jacket, and nothing as he walked down between the benches towards the door. He looked back to see what my reaction was. I put the gun back in the holster under my arm and he looked reassured.
It was then that a flash roared across the tension and echoed around the room like a frenzied shark in a pond full of goldfish. Fiona had fired her un-silenced pistol at Harry. I saw him spin around and fall forward against a large crate on the floor. I reached out to take the gun away from her. The hairs on the back of my hand parted as it went off again. The bullet thudded deep into the plaster of the wall somewhere over Harry’s head.
My hand closed over the smoking barrel to drag it away from her; there was enough heat for me to instantly drop the weapon onto the floor with a crash.
I grabbed Fiona around the neck and twisted one of her arms up behind her, so that with her back to me I was able to prevent her from doing any more harm.
From behind the crate Harry’s voice asked, “Has that crazy dame still got a gun, or can I come out without getting my head blown off?”
“It’s OK Harry, you can come out, it’s safe. Now go quickly, before I change my mind and let the lady here finish the job.”
I released my grip on Fiona, who turned around quickly, beating me on the chest with clenched fists and screaming in between sobs, the tears rolling down her cheeks, “Don’t let him go — he killed your friend,” over and over again. She stopped to draw breath, “You just aren’t human,” she gulped. I held her tightly while Harry made his exit, with a big red hand clamped over the top of his arm.
Fiona sat down; finally she looked up at me. And told me that she was an undercover narcotics officer working in conjunction with other Government agencies including the serious crime squad. How I’d just about messed everything up, but it was her damaged esprit de corps she was really crying about as she sat in Harry Caplin’s dream house.
“Then you knew that the smell of vinegar was acetic acid and would be coming from the processing of morphine. Why didn’t you let me in on the real reason you were here?”
She blew her nose. “Because a good operator lets the professional law-enforcers spearhead his or her actions,” she quoted verbatim.
At that precise moment we heard the powerful twin diesels of Harry’s boat the Star Dust start up. Moving outside, we watched as the elegant cruiser moved away from the jetty, Harry at the uppermost helm. He looked behind once, pushed the throttle levers hard forward, lifted a hand and waved. Five minutes later Harry Caplin had faded out of sight. Fiona looked up at me and smiled wanly.
It took only a few minutes to get back to our boathouse in the dinghy. But, all the way Fiona kept saying, “You’ve let him get away. I must call my boss.”
As we were stowing the dinghy away I finally said, “Look — I don’t know what they teach you in the police force, but if you think your prestige there depends on putting the handcuffs on Harry, you are quite wrong. Let him go and spread the good news among his friends. If he goes back to the States, you can be there in a matter of hours. Or you can phone your colleagues in narcotics over there and have them hold him. This is simply like a game of chess; the idea is to out manoeuvre your opponent. Not try and kill him.”
This last remark hit the spot; Fiona’s face flushed and she told me that I was no better than Harry Caplin was. As for hurting Harry, if it hadn’t been for me getting in the way she would have killed him without any hesitation. As for my conduct, it would remain to be seen as to whether I was simply dismissed or charged with obstructing a police officer in the line of her duty.
I couldn’t have Fiona contacting the authorities and attracting attention to what was going on, not just at the moment. At least not before I’d contacted LJ, cleared out the rented house and faded away myself. I began to be aware of a silence and realised that Fiona had said something. “What was that? Sorry, I was a million miles away.”
“Oh, all I was saying was, that it’s all so dammed confusing. I’m used to taking the job so far and then handing it over to more experienced officers to finish off. I really am in way over my head, Jake. What am I going to do?”
“Confusing,” I repeated, “of course it’s confusing. When you’re involved like you are, undercover, rubbing shoulders with drug pushers and serious criminals, it’s bound to get confusing. Look, Fiona, we really are on the same side here, the only difference is that I work for Ferran & Cardini and you work for the Government. The end result has to be the same.”
“Shit, if it ever gets out that I let a key player in a major drugs ring casually walk out of his processing plant, get in his million pound powerboat and sail away into the night, I’ll not only be kicked out of the force, but would almost certainly never get another job in law enforcement as long as I live. This has to end right here, Jake, make no mistake about that.”
“Players like Harry Caplin, Fiona, have the type of lawyers that walk into a police station and five minutes later walk out with their client alongside them.”
“What’s that supposed to mean, that this case won’t stand up?” said Fiona.
“It means that people as well connected as Harry and his friends would be back out on the street on bail within hours of their arrest. They have no hesitation in bribing officials or even by bringing to bear the sort of pressures that are so powerful that the law can be changed to suit the lawbreaker. But the most effective thing of all is good old-fashioned lying by old liars like Harry Caplin.”
“Why, was a lot of what he said untrue?” She sat down on the deck of the Phantom.
“Definitely,” I said, “but like all first-class lies it had a firm foundation of truth.”
“So, what was true, then?” asked Fiona.
“Well, I’ll just say this, he didn’t leave me in any doubt about the way that this investigation should continue. Providing that it is tailored one hundred per cent to the convenience of Harry Caplin. Who I now believe to be one of the most manipulative individuals that I’ve had the misfortune to ever meet.”
“I’m still no wiser, but I suppose you’ll enlighten me at the appropriate time” said Fiona, jumping off the deck of the boat. “I’m going to shower and then sleep in that order,” she added over her shoulder as she walked back up to the house.
Chapter 30
The email came through just as we got back to the rented house. On the small laptop screen a flashing envelope alerted me that there was one new message in my mailbox. Fiona came in and stood beside me, intrigued as to who the sender was at four in the morning.
It was from Harry. “How nice of him to write” said Fiona sarcastically.
The note read:
Sorry to leave without saying my goodbyes properly, but when you gotta go, you gotta go. I didn’t know whether you were playing straight or not when you promised to let me fade. Mr Thomas is jumping around like a cat on a hot tin roof. You can bet on Fiona’s sweet ass that he will want to get his hands on my lady of the sea whom I decided to leave behind and is residing just around the corner from Round Island.
What I didn’t tell you is that Mr Thomas has one of the slickest blackmail set-ups of all time and I do mean of all time. If I mentioned, Constantine’s list, which no one has been able to locate, listing the names of politicians and certain high ranking military types who like to do a little cocaine, hookers and smack, you’ll know I ain’t kidding.
Keep an eye on the lady for me, Ace. You never know your luck; you might even get to close the file on this one — GOOD FISHING! Have a nice life! Harry