Two nights. Two long, dull nights he’d spent in this cell. Meals had been dropped through the hatch, but he’d had no visitors. No opportunity for a phone call. No one to take him out to be interviewed by detectives or anyone else. He’d not been charged with a crime yet either, and they couldn’t hold him much longer without doing so.
Ryker threw the tennis ball against the ceiling again as he lay on his back on the hard bunk. It bounced off and onto the wall and back into his hand. He had no idea who’d left the ball in there in the first place, but he was grateful; it’d provided some distraction from monotony at least. Perhaps Winter had left it, almost like an apology. Or like a master would leave a toy for a dog when they left their pet in a crate when out of the house.
He tossed it again, with pinpoint accuracy, and the ball fell into his palm with him barely moving.
He sat up in the bed. Repeated the same, but this time off the floor and wall. Over and over. Over and over.
Until he heard a noise outside.
He missed the catch and the ball bounced off the bunk and rolled along the floor toward the door, which swung open. Winter took a step in. He looked confused as he glanced down. He picked up the ball, turning it over as though unsure of what it was. Then he tossed it outside and Ryker heard it pinging away along the corridor floor. He clenched his fists.
‘Good morning,’ Winter said. The door remained open behind him. A prison guard was standing in the doorway, arms folded, glaring.
Ryker was quite tempted to jump up and make a run for it.
‘Good?’ he said.
‘How’ve you been?’
‘Is that a serious question?’
‘Yes.’
‘I’ve been treated well,’ Ryker said. ‘By the guards. Not by you.’
‘You really think that?’
‘What is this? A couple of days in prison is supposed to make me think twice? Supposed to make me feel regretful?’
‘Clearly you don’t.’
‘Not even a little bit. Is he still here?’
‘He’s still here. Broken bones and all.’
Ryker said nothing to that.
‘What you should probably stop to think about isn’t whether or not your tactics would lead to where you want them to lead. And it’s not whether you think Karaman deserves to be hurt like that. The point is… by completely disregarding laws, and everything I’d said and throwing it back in my face and doing what you did right under my nose…’
He seemed to lose his train of thought.
‘You think I disrespected you,’ Ryker said. ‘Is basically what you’re saying. Because we both know damn well, in our world, that we get things done however they need to get done.’
‘Maybe. But you still have to play by certain rules.’
‘Your say so, you mean.’
‘Yes, my damn say so!’ Winter shouted and stamped his foot at the same time and even if Ryker didn’t find the guy in any way intimidating there was no doubting his level of anger right then. ‘Because someone still has to hold people like you to account!’
‘So what do we do now?’
‘You’re not being charged. There’s nothing to charge you with. There are no witnesses, no evidence of a crime. Karaman hurt himself in a fall.’
‘It took you two days to come up with that?’
‘You can stay here longer if you want.’
Ryker stood up from the bunk.
‘But let me make this really damn clear for you, Ryker.’
‘I’m listening.’
‘You’re done here. Whatever mission you were on, personal or otherwise, is over as far as I’m concerned. You won’t get to see Karaman again. You’re leaving this prison today and if you want my advice, I think you should probably just take off. Get out of the country for a while. Carry on your quest somewhere away from me. Or better still, just go and lie on a beach somewhere.’
Ryker did his best to hold his tongue. He really didn’t like Winter’s tone with him, nor his demand, but he also had to be realistic. Without this man’s help, Ryker almost certainly wouldn’t have the opportunity to walk out of Belmarsh a free man.
‘You’re telling me to stop investigating Karaman? The Syndicate?’
‘I’m asking you, in very strong terms, to think very carefully about what you’re trying to achieve, and how you’re going to achieve it from here.’
‘Because you won’t be helping me anymore?’
‘If you cared for me or my career at all, you’d decide to look elsewhere for help, for a while at least.’
Which was an odd way to put things. But Ryker got the point. Winter had had enough of him. Wanted him to clear off so that he couldn’t cause any more trouble. But Ryker hadn’t set out to cause trouble for Winter, that had never been his aim. His aim was to take down a corrupt network of influential criminals. Did that not count for anything?
Yeah, actually it did. Which again was why Ryker was being allowed to walk out a free man today.
He didn’t like the situation but he had seen it for what it was.
He hovered a moment longer, a lingering thought at the forefront of his mind. Karaman’s parting words about Andrew Lebedev. Ryker had wanted to discuss that with his ‘friend’ for coming on for two days but he’d been given no chance to.
Given how this conversation had just played out, he’d keep the lead for himself.
‘Thank you,’ Ryker said, and Winter looked more than a little surprised by the response. ‘Shall we go?’
‘Follow me.’
They headed out along the corridor of cells, along another couple of corridors to a reception area about as bland as one would expect for a prison.
‘You’re doing this the proper way,’ Winter said. ‘The record of your arrest stays. You need to go and sign whatever they’re asking you to sign and collect your things.’
By ‘things’ Ryker guessed Winter meant the few belongings Ryker had taken into the interview room with Karaman, which consisted only of half a pack of gum and a burner phone. He didn’t even need those items, but he’d get them. Yet… Something about the indignity of the whole thing wasn’t lost on him and he was sure Winter really enjoyed the moment even if he still looked and sounded aggravated merely by Ryker’s presence.
Ryker headed over to the duty sergeant at the desk, Winter hovering behind. He spotted the gaggle of reporters outside.
He turned around to Winter and raised an eyebrow and knew that Winter would understand the question.
‘Yes, it’s for Karaman. He’s going to court today.’
‘Are you?’ Ryker asked.
‘Irrelevant to you.’
‘Because I’m not.’
‘You definitely are not. If you need help getting a flight or a ferry out of England, let me know.’
‘I think I’ll manage just fine.’
‘Are we all good here?’ Winter asked. Not to Ryker but to the desk sergeant.
‘All good.’
‘See you around, Ryker.’
And with that Winter headed on out.