Pia ran back to her secret roof access and came quietly down to the servant’s floor. She cleared the door and the hall as best she could in the dark. She made her way down the hall to where she’d last seen Mr. Bling.
A step before she fell in, a lightning bolt exposed the bad part of the hall. Near the middle were exposed joists and gaping holes that could swallow a leg. Piles of lumber, both rotted and new, were stacked on the other side. One knee-high stack of new floorboards had been scattered. Probably what saved her from Mr. Bling’s charge.
Something bumped nearby. Something on the same floor with her but not in the hallway. She crouched with her back to the outside wall. She looked left and right. Trying to see in the dark. Waiting for lightning. Hoping to hear Mr. Bling give himself away. Which would be exactly what he was doing: listening for her. For all she knew, he was an arm’s length from her. Tingles ran up her spine.
Desperation had driven her to win in the past. Would it work against a man trained to outwit desperation?
She reached out with her pistol to the left. Nothing. She stretched to the right. Nothing.
Rain pelted the windows. Wind rattled the trees. The house was solid. Nothing moved.
Footsteps. Below. Coming up the main staircase from the ground floor to the second. The man she’d seen outside? She replayed the brief glimpse in her mind. Who was he? Not a cop.
“Pia, PC McDonald made it to us.” Tania’s voice scared her enough to let out a small gasp. “He says someone’s working their way through the cars in a clearing operation. They’re not police.”
Pia heard movement down the hall toward Eric’s end. She rose to a shooting stance and aimed into the dark. She considered shooting wildly and hoping for the best. If she didn’t hit anything, her muzzle flash would give away her position. That idea was high-risk.
She willed herself to see into that dark corner where there were no windows. She tried again.
Nothing.
Her back tingled. She twisted around. Nothing behind her but that creepy sensation. Mr. Bling was somewhere nearby. She could feel it.
Something dropped behind her at the far end. Pia wheeled back and fired. At the same time, she saw a string running the length of the floor. It had moved. Mr. Bling had tricked her into looking the wrong way. He was behind her. With no time to turn around, she leaned right.
A bullet buzzed her earlobe. She bent her knee, jumped to the left, and slammed into the wall as another bullet zipped by her head. Dropping, rolling, and spinning, she ended up prone on the floor. The third bullet came closer than the first two, right over her butt and between her feet. Mr. Bling was moving. She leveled her pistol and almost pulled the trigger.
Before she did, she heard someone take three big, heavy steps and body slam into the shooter. Presumably, a friendly ally. She held her fire and scrambled to her feet. A fight broke out between two men in front of her. She could see only shadows and forms. One of them had to be Mr. Bling. Who was the other?
She aimed her pistol at both of them and yelled, “Freeze!”
Neither man followed her instruction. They were in a frantic fight to the death.
The lightning bolt she’d been waiting for arrived. In the four flashes, she saw Mr. Bling up against the wall with a forearm crushing his windpipe.
The owner of that forearm—Liam Pickford.
She ran up and shoved her pistol under Mr. Bling’s jaw. “Thank you, Liam.”
Both men stopped struggling.
She slammed her knee into Mr. Bling’s balls to pacify him while she came up with a plan. She asked, “Do you have a belt?”
“Aye,” Liam said.
“Wrap it around his wrists and cinch it hard.”
She leaned close to Mr. Bling’s face. “Kieran, I’m going to give you a choice. First option, I blow your brains out on the wall here. There’s been enough shots fired that they’ll give me a pass for self-defense.”
She left a long silence.
“Oh aye?” Kieran said in an accent almost identical to Liam’s. “What’s the other option then?”
“You cooperate and get maybe five years.”
“Yer aff yer heid.”
Pia tried to translate Scottish to English and thought it meant, you’re off your head.
“Listen to her,” Liam said angrily. “She’s a crabbit lass who’s already done for your mate. You’ve got two seconds, not more.”
“She can’t. She’s with the plod.”
“Wrong,” Pia and Liam said in unison.
“They’re not fond of her,” Liam said. “But they won’t ask her too many questions either.”
“Pull him back from the wall,” Pia said. “The blood splatter will give it away if he’s too close.”
“Hang on.” Kieran swallowed hard. “Whatcha want to know?”
“Why are you trying to kill me? I’m the customer.”
“No idea. Cobra offered £200,000 for your lot and destroy the frogs. We’re to get another £200,000 for taking care of Viper.”
“Who are Cobra and Viper?”
“Cobra’s the stockbroker ya met in Camden Town. Viper’s the guy who used to call the jobs. I reckon he ran out of luck with Cobra.”
“What are their real names?”
“Didnea ask. Knowing that would be a death sentence, yeah?”
She worked out his codenames to mean Skilling was Cobra and Walker was Viper. She asked, “How many more men do you have?”
“Just the two of us. You got the others arrested in London.”
“There were two more of your boys at Eden-Sonnets. Where are they?”
“Bastards. They didn’t answer the call tonight, or we’d be having this conversation the other way round, with you at the end of my pistol.”
Pia checked the belt around his wrists. It was tight. She backed away from Kieran, pulling Liam with her, while still holding her pistol hard against Kieran’s neck.
She gave Liam a big kiss. “Thank you. You saved my life.”
“Oh? Does this mean I’m not a suspect anymore?”
“Not anymore. I’ve been trying to call you all afternoon.” She pulled back from him. “Where are Tanner and the other guy?”
“We thought the house was empty, so they went to check out the greenhouse.” He grinned. “But then a man crashed to the ground. When I looked up, I saw a flash of ponytail. There’s only one lass in Britain who’d be tossing men from the roof.”