Deception, p.9
Deception, page 9
Another reason why Devereaux had chosen to buy a car from somewhere with an unscrupulous owner. And it also explained why the boys had been so quick to grab the weapons when Ryker had arrived.
‘And has anyone else come here asking about her?’
‘You’re the first.’
‘You’re sure about that?’
‘I think I’d remember if I’d been in this position already.’
Ryker thought for a moment as he looked around the room.
‘I’ve spotted six CCTV cameras around your premises, including three in this building, one in this room.’ He looked up to the corner. ‘A necessary precaution given the amount of money that comes through here, and who it belongs to.’
Bojan’s eyes narrowed.
‘The front door,’ Ryker said. ‘The glass was broken, so you boarded it up. That happen recently?’
No response.
‘I’d say it did,’ Ryker concluded. ‘You had a break-in. But they didn’t steal anything. No cars taken. The safe wasn’t raided. Am I right?’
Again, no response, but a strange look on Bojan’s face as though he couldn’t understand how Ryker knew so much.
‘So what were they looking for?’ Ryker asked.
Once more Bojan offered no answer. Ryker didn’t need one.
‘Show me the CCTV records. The day Leia came here. The night the intruders came.’
Bojan didn’t move.
‘Do it,’ Ryker said, stepping forward, enough conviction in his voice and his body language to push Bojan into action.
The boss woke up the desktop and headed into the camera files, Ryker keeping a close eye on every key stroke to make sure Bojan wasn’t doing anything clever – or stupid – like trying to send an alert.
‘This is the day she came,’ Bojan said. Two weeks to the day. He spent a few more seconds finding the time, seemingly remembering exactly when she’d arrived. A little past three pm.
Ryker watched with keen interest when he saw Devereaux appear on-screen, confidently striding toward the showroom doors. But how had she arrived? It wasn’t clear from the angle of the camera.
‘Can you show all feeds at once?’ Ryker asked.
Bojan hit a few keys and the screen divided into six segments and Ryker watched in real time for a few minutes. Devereaux appeared to be her usual, charming self. The way she switched her weight from one foot to the other as she talked to the men, pushing her hips out each time. The swooshes of her hair. The sultry smile. Why? Did she feel the need to mock-seduce every man she met or was it simply subconscious?
Even with the small on-screen figures, Ryker could tell her charms had worked too. Bojan led the discussion with Devereaux but Beardy was there too, and Nico, who swarmed around Devereaux like a fly on shit, all of them following her from the showroom and to the outside, eager to please, to open doors for her.
‘She went straight for the Opel?’ Ryker asked, watching Devereaux make a beeline out in the car park for the Corsa.
‘She said she wanted an older model.’
Ryker dwelled on that for a moment. He thought he knew the reason. No electronics, or at least, not as modern. ‘That model doesn’t have an inbuilt tracker.’
Bojan looked at Ryker like he was stupid. ‘Of course not.’
The deal was swiftly concluded and Devereaux drove away in her new – ish – car.
‘Who are you calling?’ Ryker said, noting that less than a minute after Devereaux had gone, Bojan had whipped his phone out.
He didn’t answer the question.
‘Who were you calling?’ Ryker asked, a little more forcefully.
‘My boss.’
‘To say what?’
‘To explain what she’d said. About people coming asking about her. I was asking what to do.’
‘And what did he say?’
‘She. She said find out about her. And to make sure we keep track of her.’
Ryker frowned as he processed that. ‘And what did you find?’
‘I found her name.’ He shook his head. ‘And who she is. I still have no idea why she came here.’
‘Show me the break-in,’ Ryker said.
Bojan seemed reluctant at first but Ryker nudged him with the barrel of the shotgun and he soon set to it. A few minutes later Ryker was looking at the same six feeds, but this time at night, the screens all green from the CCTV’s tame and somewhat dated night-vision technology. Better than nothing though.
‘Only two nights ago?’ Ryker said, processing the information. So… after Devereaux had joined up with – taken? – Muller? It would make some sense. However she’d come to be with Muller, somebody else wanted him back. They’d figured out where she’d bought the car from and were trying to trace her movements.
‘Two intruders,’ Ryker said, eyes fixed on the figures who smashed the front door with a hammer before stepping through the gap. Not the biggest of figures. Men, women? Ryker couldn’t be sure because of the loose clothing and the balaclavas, and the relatively poor quality of the images. ‘You have no alarm?’
The video capture was silent, but the calmness of the intruders suggested they weren’t at all spooked.
‘We do,’ Bojan said. ‘But around here in the night? Who cares?’
Certainly not the intruders, who moved straight for the office. The computer. Within seconds one of them typed away while the other searched the room.
‘What are they looking for?’ Ryker asked. Then it clicked. Bojan’s words about what his boss had said, about keeping track of Devereaux. The boxes he’d seen in the storage cupboard. He recognised the brand name of the electronics company. The only reason the intruders had come was because they needed a way to figure out where Devereaux had gone. ‘You track all the vehicles you sell.’
Bojan didn’t confirm or deny.
‘You fit them all with your own trackers. Why?’ But Ryker could already guess why. ‘You steal them back. Or… is that your sons’ jobs?’
Ryker shook his head in disbelief. Could they really have such a brazen operation? Sell a heap-of-shit car to an unsuspecting customer, then wait a couple of weeks and steal it back again. Perhaps they changed the licence plates before they resold the same car, maybe from a different store somewhere across town or even another city so it wasn’t too obvious.
Bojan didn’t speak but his sunken look suggested a certain embarrassment.
‘Show me the records for her car,’ Ryker said.
‘It’s just a load of data. Numbers and–’
‘Give me the data. I’ll worry about deciphering it.’
Bojan typed away. Ryker had a nagging doubt. Had the intruders – surely the same people who’d subsequently attacked Devereaux and him in Rome – deleted the data already?
‘It’s still there?’ Ryker asked.
‘Still here.’
Bojan took a thumb drive from the top desk drawer and stuck it into a USB slot on the desktop tower. Seconds later he handed the drive to Ryker.
He was about to take the device when a sound outside caught his attention. Vehicles.
Ryker glared at Bojan as he swiped the drive. ‘I can just walk away now. You’ll never see me again.’
Bojan stared at Ryker as though weighing up the options. Ryker didn’t know this man at all. Would he risk his own safety, and that of his family, simply for a bit of payback?
Ryker made to go for Bojan but he pushed back on his chair, staying out of Ryker’s reach.
‘I’ll call them off,’ Bojan said.
Ryker waited a moment, trying to read the man’s face, his mind.
‘Come on then,’ he said.
Bojan slowly rose from his chair. As if sensing a change in mood, or perhaps they’d heard the vehicles too, or even the entire conversation, the three captives began pounding the locked door. Ryker opened the office door a few inches to peek out. Through the murky glass he spotted shadowy figures on the outside of the showroom. Four? Five?
‘You first,’ Ryker said to Bojan.
He looked hesitant but then opened the door more fully and stepped out, Ryker directly behind him, the shotgun still in his hands.
‘Tell them,’ Ryker said, as calm as could be as they entered the showroom floor.
Bojan shouted out in that same language that Ryker didn’t know.
‘You screw me and I’ll kill your family in front of you,’ Ryker said, no hint of bluff in his words, even if he would only hurt these people as a last resort.
Bojan shouted out again and the outer door opened and two men who could have been Beardy’s brothers stepped in. A cleaver in the hand of one. A crowbar in the hand of the other.
Ryker pushed the barrel of the shotgun into Bojan’s back, causing him to squirm and to hold his hands in the air.
‘I’m leaving,’ Ryker said to the new arrivals. ‘I’ll only hurt him if you force me to.’
Ryker pushed Bojan further forward. The two men in front spread out. The other figures remained outside. Bojan reached the door.
‘Open it,’ Ryker said.
Bojan did so and he and Ryker stepped outside. Four more men there on the forecourt. Bojan’s daughter too, hiding around the corner by her plush car, her boyfriend by her side. Apparently he wasn’t a fighter then, despite his swagger.
Ryker turned around and back-stepped toward the road, holding Bojan in front of him, a firm hand on his shoulder, the gun still pressed in his back. The crew in front circled around, taking half-steps here and there. No one said a word. Then Ryker let go of Bojan, kicked him forward, tossed the shotgun and bolted the rest of the way to his motorbike.
A couple of seconds later he bombed away down the road. He glanced beyond the security fence as he passed, where two of the men helped Bojan up from the floor. The older man glared, before Ryker turned away.
Would they come after him? They could try. But if they were sensible, they’d be done with Ryker, like he was with them. He’d got what he came for.
Time to find out what his new-found information meant.
14
Devereaux was awake, alerted by their footsteps, when the door opened and the two masked men barrelled inside, Roseman in tow behind. She folded her arms and stood by the open door as the men marched up to Devereaux. One went either side of her. Each of them linked an arm under Devereaux’s armpit, holding her shoulders to keep her pinned to the chair back. Devereaux squirmed, resisted a little, more to make a point than to seriously try to fight the men off which wasn’t really possible given she was already secured to the chair.
She soon gave up the fight and fixed her glare on Roseman.
‘Your two little lapdogs always have their masks on,’ Devereaux said as she squirmed again when the hold on her right arm became too tight for comfort. ‘As though it’s important for me to not see their faces. But not you.’
Roseman shrugged.
‘So it’s only for effect, really, isn’t it?’ Devereaux said.
‘Perhaps,’ Roseman said. ‘But this isn’t.’
Another man came into the room. A smartly dressed man. Nowhere near as tall or bulky as the other two. Tucked-in white shirt, glasses. A briefcase in his hand which he lay on the table and opened up. Devereaux couldn’t see inside but he drew his hand back holding a long syringe.
‘I did warn you,’ Roseman said with a horrible grin on her face.
The man – doctor? – straightened up and looked over at the two men by Devereaux.
‘Hold her steady,’ he said.
Steady? Devereaux didn’t think so. She kicked out, as much as she could with her arms secured to the chair at least. She flailed and bucked, aiming to kick the doctor but he stood – ever so calmly – just out of reach. Then one of the guards pushed his fingertip into a bundle of nerves on Devereaux’s thigh which sent a stabbing pain shooting down to her toes.
She grit her teeth and roared in agony and that soon settled her protests. Enough, anyway, apparently, as the doctor edged forward, a little tentatively, before he plunged the needle into the flesh on Devereaux’s leg. Cold liquid flushed into her bloodstream, spreading out, up and down. The doctor stepped back again and placed the syringe on the table and looked down to Devereaux curiously. She fought back some more, but within seconds was losing focus, strength… consciousness.
‘How long until she’s under?’ Roseman asked the doctor, though her eyes didn’t leave Devereaux.
‘Give her two minutes to be sure.’
Roseman smiled. ‘Night, night, Leia. See you on the other side.’
Dreaming. She knew she was dreaming because in real life her father was dead. He’d been dead a long time. So to see his big round face, looking down on her, anger in his eyes as he chastised her for… what? She didn’t know. But she cowered and sobbed and begged him to stop and pleaded that she was sorry, even though she knew it wasn’t real…
She woke with a shock. A full body shudder, heart thumping her ribs, head spinning, eyesight bleary, the room before her swirling. She took heavy breaths, every muscle in her body tense before she slumped back in her chair.
Reality. She wasn’t sure whether it was better or worse than the dream.
‘Welcome back,’ Roseman said.
Devereaux squeezed her eyes shut as she tried to recover and regain her senses.
‘Feel different?’ Roseman asked.
Yes. She did. Devereaux opened her eyes. Behind Roseman stood the doctor. No sign of the two goons though. What else was different? She was in exactly the same place as before. Same room, same position on the chair. Except… she looked down. Her clothes were gone, except for her bra and knickers.
‘It’ll be easier from here without them,’ Roseman said.
Devereaux tried to lift her feet, checking she had full use of her body, but her left leg remained tingling, nearly numb, from the sedative, while her right leg was heavy with a stinging pain in her thigh, and not just one pinprick mark but two.
‘You gave me an adrenaline shot?’ Devereaux said. ‘To wake me up.’
A slight nod from Roseman.
‘You put me under just to take my clothes?’
Roseman didn’t respond. Devereaux looked from her to the doctor and back again. The doctor looked a little edgy. Nervous?
Devereaux’s confidence grew a little as her focus returned second by second. She relaxed in the chair, pushed her chest up, before opening her thighs, slowly.
‘Is this why you took my clothes?’ she asked. ‘You wanted to see me like this?’
The doctor, after a hungry gaze, averted his eyes. Roseman didn’t.
‘Sorry, Leia,’ she said. ‘No need to start going all Basic Instinct. It’s not going to have any effect on me.’
‘On him?’
Roseman glanced over her shoulder to the doctor who still wouldn’t look Devereaux’s way. ‘He’ll do what he needs to do. Leia, have some dignity.’
Devereaux scoffed and closed her legs. ‘Dignity? You did this to me.’
But it wasn’t just the clothes. Something else… Devereaux’s mind whirred. Roseman watched her closely as though understanding the realisation, even if Devereaux didn’t understand herself.
‘What did you do to me?’ Devereaux asked, sounding far more worried than she’d intended.
‘What we needed to,’ Roseman said. ‘It’s a new day, Leia. You’ve been here for nearly twenty hours. That brings with it… necessities. But we couldn’t take any risks in letting you out of this room.’
Devereaux shook her head. A strange feeling in her stomach, groin too? But it wasn’t a nervous reaction to thoughts of what had happened while she was unconscious. More… real than that.
‘You fed me?’ Devereaux asked with strange disbelief, and as she said it the burning sensation in her throat ratcheted.
‘Fed, watered… evacuated,’ Roseman said.
Devereaux screwed her face in disgust which only added to Roseman’s self-satisfied look.
‘It’s for your benefit, really, if you think about it,’ Roseman said. ‘We needed to untie you, keep you comfortable. Less risk for everyone this way.’
She stood from her chair and moved to the briefcase still on the table. She lifted up a clear plastic tube, remnants of a brownish liquid lined some of the inside.
‘Good quality nutrients, actually,’ Roseman said. ‘You really could live quite healthily off what we put inside you.’
Devereaux wanted to gag and throw it all up. She didn’t.
‘But what goes in… must… you get the idea.’
Roseman put the tube back down. ‘Glenister is really very clever. He’s got all sorts of concoctions. Muscle relaxants, and bit of an agitator too. Let’s just say your bladder and bowels have rarely been cleared so well. Some people would pay good money for that kind of irrigation.’
Devereaux ground her teeth. She felt… horribly violated. Far more so than she expected to. She wasn’t injured, but the thought of Roseman, Glenister, the two masked guards, moving her, stripping her, putting things inside her body, removing things from her body, all while she was comatose and dreaming…
A tear dropped from her eye, bounced off her cheek and onto the skin of her leg. She chastised herself. She shouldn’t have let that happen. Perhaps the drugs she’d been fed had, partly, caused the emotions that swirled inside her mind.
‘It’s okay, Leia,’ Roseman said, doing a bad job of sounding sympathetic. Or maybe she really hadn’t tried. ‘If you make the right decisions, you will leave this room as you came into it. It’s down to you. And now we’ve got that… admin out of the way, we have hours before we need to go through it again.’
Devereaux didn’t say anything to that.
‘If you think about it,’ Roseman said, ‘it was only necessary at all because of your delaying. If you’d just answered my questions…’
Devereaux shook her head in dismay but still said nothing.
‘Are you ready to talk now?’ Roseman said.
No answer.
‘I thought so. It’s why I asked Glenister to stay with me.’
Roseman turned and nodded to her accomplice who moved over to the table and rummaged in the open briefcase for a few moments. Rummaged? Or was he just preparing something, beyond the open lid which shielded his hands from Devereaux.
