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  She thought about Frank Parker and his son. They were so secure in their place in the world. No matter how reasonable Parker seemed, or how desperately he wanted to be considered some kind of old-fashioned gentleman, he still ruled by violence. People died on his say. He sold drugs that ruined lives. And what now?

  Soldiers turned drug dealers shot in the head.

  People laundering drug money tortured and killed in their own homes.

  Parker had shaken her with his visit. No doubt that had been part of his strategy too. Letting her know that it didn’t matter that she was a cop — he could still get to her whenever he wanted to. Business would be done on his terms.

  She drained her cup, rinsed it in the sink and went upstairs to her room. She used to love getting into bed and pulling the quilt up to her chin, safe in the womb-like warmth. But tonight she couldn’t get warm, the cold ingrained in her bones.

  And when she closed her eyes all she could see were the faces of the dead.

  16

  Hunter took his time explaining his investigation from start to finish, giving a lot more detail than he had to Cahill and Logan back at the police headquarters building. He spoke in depth about the information that the DEA had shared with him and the intercepted communications.

  ‘If Tim Stark was here he might be able to tell us if this Mexican had been in touch with Raines,’ Webb said when Hunter was finished.

  ‘Maybe he heard something and that’s when he put it all together,’ Cahill said. ‘And was going to get in touch with you, Detective Hunter.’

  Webb nodded, looking thoughtful.

  ‘It’s plausible,’ he said. ‘But there’s absolutely nothing concrete to back it up, is there?’

  ‘No,’ Hunter said. ‘You’re right.’

  ‘But you’re going to do something about it, right?’ Cahill asked, feeling a little exasperated.

  ‘Of course,’ Webb answered. ‘We’re going to treat it as a line of inquiry. Try to find out if there really is a link.’

  ‘But it’s obvious.’

  ‘No,’ Hunter said. ‘I know it kind of sounds like it might be, but it’s not. Look at what we have. The only thing actually linking the two investigations is your e-mail. It might have been a reference to me, or it might have been something else altogether.’

  ‘And because Tim Stark is dead we can’t know for sure,’ Webb added. ‘So we have to treat it like any possible lead. Run it down properly.’

  Cahill knew they were right, but still fought against it. He wanted Stark’s death to mean something. To lead somewhere.

  ‘So what now?’ he said.

  Logan’s eyes were starting to close when a phone in the office rang. It pulled him from his near sleep, the ring tone slightly different from the other phones he had heard go off since he had been there.

  Martinez got up from his desk and went to a phone on the wall next to the door out to the reception area. He spoke into it for a moment and listened for what seemed like a long time, though it was probably no more than a minute or so.

  He hung the phone up without speaking again and went back to his desk. He spoke quietly to his partner, Ruiz, and they both put their suit jackets on and left the office in a hurry. Logan followed them out and saw that they headed up the corridor to where the meeting was.

  Webb stood as if to signal that the meeting was over.

  ‘Let’s speak again in the morning,’ he said to Hunter. ‘Work out where we go from here.’

  Hunter nodded.

  ‘And who does what,’ he said. ‘I mean, we can’t just hand our investigation over to you guys. You know that, right?’

  ‘Of course.’

  There was a knock at the door. Agent Martinez opened it and walked in, followed by Ruiz.

  ‘What is it?’ Grange asked.

  ‘There’s a man downstairs says he needs to speak to the agent in charge.’

  Everyone looked at Webb. He was impassive.

  ‘Well,’ Webb said. ‘Is that all the information he gave you? Because I’ll tell you right now, it’s not much to go on.’

  The more he saw of Webb, the more Cahill liked the man.

  ‘Uh, sorry,’ Ruiz said. ‘He says his name is Matt Horn and he has information about Seth Raines and Tim Stark.’

  17

  Raines knew straight away what Horn was doing at the building on Stout Street. Knew that the FBI had their office here. He wanted to feel something about it. Felt nothing. He looked again at the gun sitting on the passenger seat beside him.

  Raines watched as Horn climbed out of the back of the cab and went to the intercom at the side of the main entrance to the building. The place was locked up tight at this time of night, but there was a security guard inside in case anyone came around. He guessed that happened a lot. Given the FBI’s line of business.

  The cab pulled away, leaving Horn alone with one hand pressed on the glass of the building’s door while he leaned in to speak to the guard through the intercom.

  Raines grabbed his gun, opened the door of the car and stepped out. He walked around to the front of the car leaving the door open. He stopped at the edge of the sidewalk, thought about running over there and taking both of them out in an instant. No witnesses.

  Horn leaned back from the intercom and Raines saw the guard inside get up from his desk. He looked like a retired cop. Carried himself that way.

  Raines took a step forward into the road.

  He tightened his grip on the pistol.

  But the moment passed as the guard opened the door and ushered Horn inside. The guard looked over at Raines before turning to go inside the building.

  Raines went to the car, sat inside and dropped the gun on the seat.

  He picked up his mobile and dialled the number for the compound.

  ‘Change of plan for tomorrow morning,’ he said when his call was answered. ‘Bring everyone.’

  Part Nine:

  Grace

  1

  Logan was alone in the main part of the office when Cahill came in through the door from the reception area. Cahill walked over and sat on the edge of the desk beside him.

  ‘What’s up?’ Logan asked. ‘Looked like something was causing excitement.’

  ‘Yeah, you could say that. One of the soldiers in the group showed up. Guy called Matt Horn.’

  ‘Seriously?’

  Cahill gave him a look.

  ‘What are you, a sixteen-year-old girl?’

  ‘What?’

  ‘ Seriously,’ Cahill repeated, shaking his head.

  Logan stood and went to the window. He looked down on to the street and saw a car parked on the other side of the road. He watched it for a moment before it drove away, then turned to Cahill.

  ‘So what’s the story?’

  ‘Well they’re still no closer to knowing if their investigations are on the same thing. The cops and the Feds, I mean. Maybe this guy who’s coming in will clear it up.’

  ‘Why is he here?’

  ‘Who knows? Guilty conscience.’

  ‘What did you find out?’

  ‘I don’t know if I can tell you.’

  Logan frowned. Cahill played it straight but couldn’t hold it together long enough to be convincing.

  ‘Screw that. I didn’t sign anything in there.’

  ‘You always were trustworthy.’

  ‘This guy Horn and his sergeant, Seth Raines, apparently got caught up in an ambush over in Afghanistan a while back. Horn got injured real bad. Lost his legs. Almost died in hospital.’

  ‘And how do we get from there to here?’

  ‘Seems Raines wasn’t happy at Horn’s treatment when they got him to hospital back here. Bottom line, this Raines guy went postal.’

  ‘They still don’t know if it’s drugs, though?’

  ‘Right.’

  Logan sat down again. Cahill stretched his arms above his head, joints popping as he did it.

  ‘They were all in the ambush?’ Logan asked. ‘The o
ther soldiers who dropped off the radar?’

  ‘Don’t think so. But there was a Brit caught up in the thing.’

  Logan stared at Cahill.

  ‘What?’ Cahill asked.

  ‘I don’t know. Maybe nothing.’

  ‘Spit it out.’

  ‘It’s Becky. I mean, she’s been pulled into some drug squad operation back home.’

  ‘I’m not following.’

  ‘I don’t know if I am either.’

  Cahill frowned.

  ‘Listen,’ Logan said. ‘Becky told me about this the other day and it was in my head when Hunter was going over his investigation earlier. But it didn’t mean anything at the time. But then Becky said tonight that she got information about soldiers being involved in her thing.’

  ‘So?’

  ‘I’m not making myself clear. She got pulled into the drug squad case like Hunter did. Unexplained overdose deaths in suspicious circumstances.’

  Cahill rubbed at his eyes.

  ‘What was the soldier’s name?’ Logan asked. ‘The British one.’

  Cahill closed his eyes, thinking.

  ‘Johnson,’ he said. ‘Andy Johnson.’

  ‘He’s one of them. I mean, in Becky’s case. Or at least he was.’

  ‘Was?’

  ‘He’s dead. Murdered.’

  The door to reception opened again and Webb came in with Grange. They came over to where Cahill was sitting.

  ‘We’re going to speak to Horn alone,’ Grange said.

  Cahill looked at Webb who nodded.

  Cahill was half inclined to have a fight with Grange and Webb because, well, just because he enjoyed it and it would wind Grange up. But he was sick at the thought of what appeared to be happening. He couldn’t quite comprehend how soldiers, people like him, could start up some sort of drug operation that spanned the Atlantic.

  But if there was one thing he had learned over the last few years it was that human beings are capable of anything in extreme circumstances.

  ‘We need to speak to Becky about this now,’ Logan said after the others had left.

  2

  Randall Webb and Cooper Grange sat patiently at the table in the conference room while Ruiz helped Matt Horn into a seat. When Horn was settled, Webb nodded at Ruiz who went out of the room but left the door open. Hunter and Collins came into the room, closed the door and sat at one end of the table. Horn looked at them until Webb spoke, introducing everyone at the table.

  Horn said nothing.

  ‘What can we do for you, Mr Horn?’ Webb asked.

  Horn shifted in his seat and grimaced. He looked at Hunter and Collins.

  ‘Shouldn’t you, like, read me my rights or something?’

  ‘Why would we do that?’ Grange said.

  ‘I don’t know. Isn’t that how it’s done?’

  ‘Why don’t you tell us your story and we’ll see where we go from there,’ Webb told him.

  Horn shifted again. Everyone waited for him.

  ‘I killed those men. The drug addicts. It was me.’

  Some opening gambit.

  Webb leaned forward and clasped his hands on the table.

  ‘Why don’t you start at the beginning, Mr Horn. I find that usually helps.’

  ‘How far back do you want me to go?’

  ‘That depends. When did it start?’

  ‘In Afghanistan.’

  His voice wavered, phlegm at the back of his throat.

  ‘I lost my legs there.’ He looked down and rubbed his thighs.

  ‘You were ambushed?’

  He narrowed his eyes and looked at Webb. ‘You know about that?’

  ‘Yes. Is that where it started?’

  ‘I suppose it is. If we hadn’t been caught up in that…’

  ‘Tell us about it,’ Webb said.

  ‘It was Seth and Andy. Until Andy got killed. But mainly Seth. He lost it after I got sick.’

  ‘Andy?’ Grange asked.

  ‘Andy Johnson.’

  Grange flipped through the file in front of him on the table.

  ‘The Scottish RMP corporal?’

  ‘Yes. He wasn’t the same after he got shot. Losing part of your skull will do that.’

  ‘I’m not following,’ Webb said. ‘Johnson is dead now?’

  Horn nodded.

  ‘Take it back a step and tell us what’s going on,’ Webb said.

  ‘I needed money for treatment and Seth didn’t have it. Andy had been back in Afghanistan working private security after the army discharged him. He made some contacts over there — through another soldier, guy called Jack Butler. Drug contacts. Heroin. Saw a way to make some money. Seth told him no the first time he mentioned it. But he got so desperate, so angry at everyone and everything, that he would have done anything.’

  ‘For you?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Why?’

  Horn cleared his throat.

  ‘He had a son. He died when he was real young and Seth split from his wife after it. I don’t think he ever recovered from it. He saw me as a replacement.’

  ‘He told you that.’

  ‘Not in so many words.’

  ‘Which is why you getting sick…’

  ‘I nearly died. Technically I was dead for a minute or so before they revived me.’

  Webb sat back again, looked over at Hunter.

  ‘You have any questions, Detective?’

  Horn looked at Hunter.

  ‘You said that you killed them,’ Hunter said. ‘What did you mean by that?’

  ‘I’m a chemist. I came up with the idea of mixing the heroin and fentanyl. I wanted to be useful. Didn’t want to get on the wrong side of Seth and Andy. That’s not a good place to be.’

  ‘But you didn’t get it right.’

  ‘Actually I did. I knew what I was doing.’

  Hunter frowned.

  ‘I don’t understand. If you got it right, why are people dying?’

  ‘I changed it. Didn’t tell Seth.’

  ‘You wanted people to die?’

  ‘Yes.’

  Horn showed no emotion now. As though he had stamped it down to where he couldn’t feel it any longer.

  ‘Why?’

  ‘So that it would stop. So that we would get caught.’

  ‘Why did you want to get caught?’

  ‘The Mexicans.’

  Hunter was starting to see it all fit together now.

  ‘They were going to take you out,’ Hunter said. ‘For muscling in on their trade?’

  Horn smiled, but not like it was funny.

  ‘No, not like that. They wanted to buy us out. It appealed to them mainly because they would have a manufacturing facility right here inside the US border. They wanted to flood the market.’

  ‘Would certainly avoid the need to get the product across the border.’

  ‘Exactly. And they were soldiers too. Or at least the guy we dealt with was.’

  ‘Brothers in arms crap,’ Grange said.

  Horn shrugged.

  ‘This is still my country and I couldn’t sit by and let it happen.’

  ‘One thing I don’t understand,’ Hunter said. ‘Where does Johnson fit into this?’

  Horn made a face like he thought it was a dumb question.

  ‘He ran the UK operation. Or at least he did before Seth found out he was taking half the profits for himself. Seth told Butler to kill him.’

  Webb looked at Hunter who put his palms up indicating he was done asking questions for now.

  ‘So, Matt,’ Webb said. ‘What was this all about? I mean, why raising all this money? Are you planning to attack your own country?’

  Horn frowned and shook his head.

  ‘Is that what you think?’

  He laughed.

  ‘What?’ Grange asked.

  ‘It started off because we were all broke and desperate. After that, they got used to the money. That’s all it was. That’s why they’re selling out to the Mexicans. We’re getting
five million dollars in cash.’

  ‘This is all just about money?’

  ‘Is there anything else?’

  Grange sat back in his seat looking disgusted.

  ‘So, Matt, what is it that you want from us?’ Webb asked.

  Always the pragmatist.

  ‘To stop it. All of it. I thought I said that already.’

  ‘But you want a deal. Immunity. For helping us. Am I right?’

  ‘Whatever. I don’t care any more what happens to me. Just stop it.’

  ‘How do we do that?’

  ‘I’m meeting Seth tomorrow morning in town for breakfast. I’ll tell you where and when and you can pick him up with minimum fuss. And I’ll tell you who the others are and where we make the stuff. It’s up in the mountains.’

  ‘You’ll give us everything?’

  ‘Sure. I mean, if you want it.’

  There was a knock at the door. Grange stood and pulled it open. Cahill was there with Logan.

  ‘Uh, there’s a detective in Scotland that you guys might want to talk to,’ Cahill said.

  3

  Detective Superintendent Liam Moore was a creature of habit. He liked being a Super. It meant that he didn’t have to do the legwork any longer. He could work a solid nine to six most days and leave the late nights to his team. He’d put his shift in when he was younger. He was respected and maybe a little feared. Fear was a good thing for a boss to instil in his team.

  Which is why when his wife shook him awake in the middle of the night and stuck the phone on his ear he was not happy. He was less happy when he heard DC Irvine’s voice.

  She was such a hard charger. Which was good. And bad.

  Bad like now.

  ‘Sir, I’m sorry to wake you but-’

  ‘Get to the point.’

  ‘I have a situation with this drug case.’

  A situation. This didn’t sound good. Not one little bit.

  ‘The thing is, the stuff here looks like it might be the other end of a bigger operation. Run out of Colorado.’

  ‘The Colorado in America?’