Status Report
The helicopter touched down with a gentle bump and the door opened. Kyle Ricci descended the steps to the cold, grey tarmac and sniffed in a lungful of damp, salty air. He seemed unconcerned by the cutting wind that blew across the helipad. He was home. His spiritual home, at least. A smile spread his lips wide. He was going to enjoy the game ahead, was already enjoying the anticipation of the hunt. On the flight to the island he let his mind wander to the joys that lay ahead and lost himself in his daydreams. Perhaps he should have been thinking about how to find Alex, how to capture him. The two things were the same in his mind, find Alex and he would be captured, there was no question he could avoid them, avoid him. Still, he was here now, where the game had begun and he would have to focus on the more mundane aspects of his job, he grinned again.
The grin was still on his face when the lift doors opened, spilling him out into the corridor, two floors below ground, down which Alex had silently run yesterday, in his bid for freedom. It was still on his face when he opened the door at the end of the corridor and stepped into the large reception room adjacent to Shelton’s office, and saw Holly Stowe. If anything, the grin stretched wider.
“Holly! What a pleasant surprise. How was Paris?”
The woman remained seated on the plush sofa, crossed one long, leather clad leg over another and returned Ricci’s smile. “Cold and wet,” she answered. She dropped a copy of yesterday’s newspaper onto the small table before the sofa. “You enjoyed yourself, I assume?”
Ricci glanced at the paper, the same one he had read while waiting for his call to be put through to his room. “You know me, every day is a holiday.”
“I guess the vacation is over.”
Ricci swirled around to see Chazz Borkan leaning against the wall next to the coffee pot, he smiled his easy smile and pushed himself away from the wall, a mug of steaming coffee in his hand. He strolled with false languidness to a straight-backed chair opposite the sofa, turned it around and sat backwards on it. “Hello, Kyle,” he said.
Ricci kept his smile fixed on his face, not for an instant did it falter but inside, he was less than happy. In his own mind, he was the main man when it came to getting things, the nasty things, the things that are not spoken of directly, done. His only serious rival was Chazz Borkan. It was a blow for him to see that Shelton had called in the other man, too. Still, he should have expected it, he’d been too wrapped up in his designs for Alex to think about the possibility that Borkan would be here too. He supposed he was going to have to work with him. They’d been on jobs together in the past and Kyle believed Borkan cramped his style. The man was a professional, that was not the problem, Kyle respected his abilities, but he was just too much of a journeyman, he didn’t have the natural flair and feeling for the job that he himself had. That was the difference, subtle but important. The trouble was he played the political game better. Shelton liked him immensely and Kyle was just that little bit jealous, not that he would ever admit it.
“Chazz,” he nodded a greeting at the seated man.
“Looks like the gang’s all here,” Borkan stated. “What do we know?” He placed his mug down on the table and reached into his pocket for his cigarettes, slipped a filter tip between his lips and offered the packet to Holly. Polished nails reached out and she plucked a cigarette from the packet.
“Alex has gone, that’s all I can tell you right now.” She leant forward as Borkan flicked his Zippo and a small flame ignited her cigarette. She drew heavily, inhaling the smoke deep into her lungs. Kyle watched as she leaned forward, the white blouse unbuttoned one button too much, allowing him a brief glimpse of her bra clad breasts as she held the cigarette in the flame. She exhaled the smoke, glancing quickly, almost mockingly at Kyle. Sometimes he hated the beautiful bitch. And the fact that she had been given to Alex was one more reason for him to hate the little shit, one more reason to enjoy himself when he got his hands on him.
“Kyle?” Borkan looked at the other man. Kyle dragged his eyes away from Holly, met Borkan’s stare.
“Same here,” he said. “Alex just up and walked out of here and no one knows where he is.”
“Well, I know as little as the both of you,” Borkan admitted, “has anyone seen Shelton yet?” They shook their heads.
“I saw Andrew, briefly, when I arrived,” Holly told them, “but he wouldn’t say anything. He looked as if he hasn’t slept since Alex went missing.”
“I doubt that he has,” Borkan mused.
The door opened and Shelton came into the room, Elwes in his wake.
“Gentlemen,” he acknowledged, inclining his head, “Miss Stowe.”
Holly smiled at him, red lipsticked lips parting to reveal gleaming white teeth.
“Shall we go through to my office.” It was not a question and Shelton swept passed them to the door in the rear wall. They followed him to his inner sanctum, Shelton sat in the leather chair behind his desk. He glanced distastefully at the cigarettes that smouldered in Borkan’s and Holly’s fingers and Elwes immediately located an ashtray and thrust it before them. Shelton abhorred the habit and refused to allow it in his presence.
“You all know why you are here,” the three of them nodded.
“Good, we’ll bring you up to speed on what we know.” The neutral tone of Shelton’s voice matched the grey of his suit, the steel in his tone the equal of that in his eyes. His pleasant diversion in the presence of Dean Carter forgotten now, it was business as usual. “Andrew,” he prompted.
Elwes cleared his throat as the others looked at him expectantly. “At twelve oh two this morning, it appears that Alex, uh, decided to leave us. We don’t know why at this time, but we presume he has made a few unpleasant discoveries, about himself and about The Clinic.”
“How?” Holly interrupted him.
“We’re looking into that now, reviewing recordings, tracing his movements.”
“And?” This time Borkan spoke.
“So far nothing, we’ve gone over the last four days and there’s not a trace of anything untoward, no glimmer that this was going to happen.”
“How did it happen? How was Alex able to just walk out of here? What about security?”
“Alex was not a prisoner, Kyle. The island is his home.” Shelton answered.
Yeah, right, and I’m the Easter Bunny, Kyle thought but had the presence of mind not to say.
“Security was lax,” Elwes continued. “It’s Christmas, there’s only a skeleton staff here, and as Mr. Shelton says, Alex was not a prisoner,” not consciously, he admitted to himself, “so why should he want to escape? If he wanted to leave the island, he’d only have to ask. We had no reason to expect this.”
“So he wasn’t being watched?”
“Alex isn’t watched all the time, that isn’t possible.”
“But the cameras were working? I mean, you know what time it was when he… decided to leave, down to the minute, probably the second, so you must have that on disc.”
Elwes nodded.
“So why didn’t someone stop him?”
Elwes coloured slightly, the red flush of heat marking his cheeks. “As I said, security was lax, but that problem has, ah,” his eyes flicked briefly in the direction of Shelton, “been taken care of. It won’t happen again, I can assure you.”
“I’ll bet,” Kyle murmured under his breath.
“So, where are we now?” Borkan wanted to know.
“Alex took the rowing boat,” Elwes paused, his eyes twitched once more in the direction of his boss. “There’s some doubt he actually made it to land. The weather here was atrocious last night, a raging storm. We’ve found the boat.” Pieces of the wrecked rowing boat had been found washed up further down the shore from the tarpaulin, further evidence to Elwes that Alex could not have survived the conditions and that sooner or later his body was going to show up, probably washed up on the same shore. “Well, pieces of the boat,” he continued. “However, until we can verify that Alex did not, in fact, survive, we assume that he made it safely.”
“Which means?”
“The chopper is in the air, has been for hours and we’ve alerted operatives up and down the coast. Photos of Alex have been sent to our people and they are keeping a watch out for him at all bus depots and train stations. The net is spread wide.”
“How wide?” Kyle again.
“As wide as possible. We’ve estimated how far Alex could get with the lead he has and then doubled it. If he’s out there, we’ll find him.”
“And when we find him?” It was the question that most interested Kyle.
“He’s brought back here.” Shelton spoke quietly, again fixing his eyes on Kyle. The order was unspoken but perfectly clear. “We find out why he left us and we make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
“And if he resists?”
Shelton didn’t answer. A silence descended upon the meeting. Elwes finally broke it.
“That’s it for now. Gentlemen, I suggest you rest and freshen up, for the moment all we can do is wait.” The men rose from their seats. “Chazz,” Elwes stopped Borkan at the door. He glanced at his notes. “It’s time for your booster, another couple of days, but in the circumstances…”
Borkan nodded.
“Report to the surgery when you’re ready.”
“Fine,” Kyle following him out of the room. Elwes turned to Holly. “We have another job for you, Holly.”
“I’m listening.”
“We want you to go over the recordings that we’ve already reviewed, see if you can spot anything we might have missed. Anything out of the ordinary about his behaviour. We know him well enough, but you might have some further insight into his thinking,” Elwes blushed again, this time in mild embarrassment. “I’ve had the discs delivered to your room,” he finished.
“Thank you, Andrew.” Holly made no move to leave, remained seated in her chair. Elwes glanced at Shelton, the other man nodded.
“Right,” Elwes said, “I’ll see you later, then.” He closed the door on his way out.
“There’s something on your mind, Miss Stowe.” Shelton said, his eyes perusing her from behind the lenses of his glasses. She had been unusually quiet in the meeting.
“I’m a little concerned, Anthony,” she saw Shelton’s right eye twitch involuntarily at the use of his first name, he did not allow anyone to address him so informally, but it had never stopped Holly before and he had learned to let it pass. For her own part, she noticed the twitch, knew how much he disliked the informality and ignored his sensibilities.
“About what?” He asked, although he knew what was coming.
“You said Alex would be brought back here when he was found.” Shelton nodded. “Assuming that he made it safely to the mainland.”
“What’s your point, Miss Stowe,” he emphasised the last two words.
“Ricci and Borkan. Particularly Ricci. Their speciality is, if I’m not mistaken, elimination not retrieval.”
“That is so.”
Holly raised her eyebrows.
“They have their orders, if they are needed. Elimination is a last resort, and will only be used as such.”
“Does Kyle Ricci know that?”
“Ricci is a professional, Miss Stowe, as are you. He understands what is expected of him, as do you. He may have some distasteful… habits, but he will not confuse business with pleasure.”
“His business is his pleasure!”
“And yours is not? It seems this conversation is fuelled by your own personal doubts about your role in this endeavour.”
Holly’s features coloured, her eyes narrowed and her nostrils flared in anger. Anger at Shelton’s suggestions or because he was closer to the mark than she wanted to admit, even to herself, she didn’t know. “Alex is a sweet boy. I just don’t want him hurt unnecessarily, that’s all.”
“And neither do I. Ricci will do what he has to and no more. Borkan will keep him in check if he gets a little hot headed.”
“I hope so,” Holly said.
“If that’s all, you have work to do.” Shelton dismissed her. He turned his attention to paperwork on his desk. He barely noticed her leave, even when the door closed with unnecessary force.