North’s Nikki, Page 8

  “They will suspect the two men who just left,” Anders said. “And I’d say both of them are already marked for death as we speak.”

  And that was the sad fact of it. Whoever was involved in a deal like this was not allowed to talk, was not allowed to see; nobody was allowed to do anything beyond what they were given orders to do. And tonight was completely out of the norm, and that meant the men had to be silenced. And possibly one woman too …

  Chapter 6

  “How long are we waiting?” Nikki asked quietly. The darkness of the night had settled into her bones. It was starting to drizzle. She glanced up, turning her face into the raindrops, smiling gently as they fell on her face. “It would be nice to get some sleep tonight.”

  “We’re almost done copying information off the laptop,” Anders said.

  “We should expect to see Jonas any moment. He’s about ten minutes late as it is.” North checked his watch, then pulled out his phone just as it rang.

  “Is that Jonas?” she asked.

  Anders nodded. “It will be.”

  “North here. What’s up?” North stepped back slightly as if to hear better.

  Nikki’s gaze went from one man to the other, settling on Anders. But his face was impassive. Either unconcerned or already understanding the gist of the conversation.

  There was something in North’s voice as he said in a clipped tone, “Go on.”

  That had both Anders and her turning to him. They couldn’t hear the other end of the conversation, but, when it was done, North looked at them.

  “Funny, both the smuggler’s truck and the vehicle following him had an accident tonight.”

  “What?” Anders asked.

  North nodded. “The truck did a flip, and the black car behind it didn’t have a chance to evade it. Jonas says both men died from broken necks.”

  “But he was there. Didn’t he see who did this?”

  “Apparently it only happened about a mile from here in an even rougher district of town. At one of a couple of well-known spots known for real ugliness. It looks like the truck lost a tire, took a corner too fast, blew out a second tire and went over. And the black car went around the corner and also lost a tire.”

  “Bad day for tires,” Anders said noncommittally. “I presume we’re talking gunfire, and then somebody, instead of shooting them to make it look even more obvious, broke their necks.”

  “Those poor men,” she cried out. She glanced at the laptop. “We definitely don’t want to put that back in place, do we?”

  “Whoever did this will be looking for the laptop. But they won’t know who has it,” North said. “Jonas is only a block or two away. I expect to see him anytime now.” He glanced at Anders. “Do we have what we need?”

  He nodded, shut down the laptop. When it was off, he closed the lid. “He can take this,” he said. “I’ve got what I need.”

  A man behind them said, “Of course you do.” And there was Jonas, no smile on his face, a grim look in his eyes. “This has to be bigger than we thought if they just took out the truck driver and the warehouse clerk.”

  “The clerk is the one who made the call that ended his own life. If you can grab his cell phone,” Anders said, “you should have a number to nail whoever he called.”

  “They’re searching the car, but, so far, nobody found a cell phone.”

  North winced. “Of course. Kill him to take the cell phone. That makes perfect sense.” He motioned to the building and said, “All the shipments are there.”

  Anders handed over the laptop and said, “There’s a shit ton of information on here. You need to seize that warehouse so that nobody can grab the goods.”

  “If only I knew what the goods were. We’d look pretty stupid if we had sugar water here.”

  “Everyone will look stupid,” Nikki cried out, “when a ton of drugs hit the streets soon.”

  “How fast can we get this analyzed?” North asked her.

  She looked down at her phone and said, “I haven’t heard from Granddad.” She called him back. It had been close to an hour since her last text. When he didn’t answer, she turned haunted eyes toward North. “He’s not answering. Why wouldn’t he be answering?”

  They galvanized into action. North said, turning to Jonas, “You know exactly where we’re going. We need to ensure Charles is okay.”

  Jonas nodded. “I’ll be right behind you. First, I want to get this place locked down.” He called out as they turned on the engine, “If it’s nothing, give me a shout. Otherwise I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

  North nodded, pulled onto the main road and raced back to Charles’s place. “What was the last communication you had from him?”

  “He said he had somebody to call about analyzing this substance. He said he would phone him, and then he would get back to me. And he’s still not answering his phone now,” she said.

  Anders, his own phone in hand, was already dialing. “Levi, we’re not getting any response from Charles. Do you have access to his place? Something we can log on to and see if he’s okay?”

  *

  North listened to the conversation as he took the corners, jumping the curbs back to Charles’s place. He wondered about that. It hadn’t occurred to him that somebody would go after Charles. But it would take less than five minutes to connect Nikki via satellite to the London Emporium warehouse and less than that to her grandfather’s townhome.

  “Our ETA to the house is approximately fifteen minutes?” Anders glanced at North.

  North tapped the button on the GPS and said, “Twenty-one minutes according to this.” He hit the gas, hoping to cut that down by half. He’d feel terrible if anything happened to Charles. They’d come here to help, not to lead someone to Charles. That would open another can of worms entirely.

  Charles likely had enemies in a lot of places. As long as this problem was related to his granddaughter, it was much easier to track down those enemies, as it greatly reduced the number of people potentially involved. But, if somebody had gone after Charles for other reasons, the suspect pool would widen globally.

  Anders put away his phone and said, “Levi doesn’t have security into Charles’s townhome. They talked about setting it up but hadn’t done that yet. Levi does have remote access to Charles’s laptop, and they’re working on getting that set up now. It will tell Levi when Charles was last on the computer, but there’s not a whole lot else Levi can do with that.”

  Sensing the fear emanating from the back seat, North said, “Nikki, keep trying to contact your granddad. For all you know, he fell asleep.”

  She laughed, but there was nothing humorous in it. It was dark, bitter. “He rarely sleeps. He said there are too many bad memories, and, when he closes his eyes, they all come back to haunt him.”

  “Well, he has to sleep sometime,” North said, his voice forceful but calm. “Even if just for one or two hours. And this could be his time right now. Remember, stay strong, be positive. We’ll be there in a few minutes.”

  Chapter 7

  No way they could be there faster. It took half an hour to cross town. But soon enough she recognized the street corners. As they whipped around the last one, they came to a squealing stop in front of the building. She was out and up at the front door within seconds. But North still beat her there.

  He stopped her and motioned ahead of her because the door was ajar ever-so-slightly. With her hands at her throat and chest, she watched as he carefully opened the door and stepped inside, listening to anything around him.

  He motioned for her to stand back with Anders. But she refused and stepped in behind him. Moving silently through the bottom floor of the house, North noted nothing was touched in the living room and kitchen. They stepped into the office, and it also was clear. North whispered to Nikki, “Where’s your granddad’s bedroom?”

  She pointed to the end of the hall. They slipped down that way and found the bedroom door also slightly ajar. North pushed it open and found a light on at the b
edside table. Charles was collapsed on the floor. North raced to his side.

  Nikki watched as North quickly searched her granddad for injuries. She dropped down beside him and picked up his hand. “Granddad, please wake up.” To North, she whispered, “Is he okay? Is he dead?”

  “He is unconscious. Looks like he either hit something as he fell or was hit.” North’s voice was hard, his gaze uncompromising as he searched the area for evidence. “Call for an ambulance,” he said tersely.

  She already had her phone out and was dialing. As soon as dispatch came on the line, she explained what they’d found and who he was. “He is seventy years old,” she said, her voice breaking. “Please hurry.” She didn’t want to move him. She remained by his side, holding his hand, talking to him, patting him gently on the shoulder, letting him know she was here.

  Finally the paramedics arrived. They swept into the room, moved her out of the way, did a quick analysis, then lifted Charles and secured him on the gurney and left. She followed behind, not sure what to do.

  North put an arm around her shoulders and tucked her up close. Tired and emotionally wiped out, she rested her head against his chest, and that’s when she realized another man was in the room. Jonas had arrived.

  She stared at him. “Did somebody do this to my granddad?”

  “It’s possible,” he admitted. “But we don’t know for sure yet.”

  “Then you need to get somebody to fingerprint that room.”

  He smiled at her and said, “As much as we would like to, we’re likely to find out things we don’t want to.”

  She looked at him. “You better find out who attacked him.”

  “Now that we will do.” He turned and headed outside.

  North glanced at her and said, “I’m surprised you didn’t question him on that comment he made.”

  “Granddad helped many people. He never would tell me very much about what he did, but I know he had a lot of guests here. Chances are fingerprints in this house are of people who MI6 doesn’t want anybody to know about,” she said. “I didn’t even know about MI6 or Jonas before, but somebody in that division needs to help Grandad. After all he’s done for them, it’s their turn now.”

  “Charles has a lot of friends. I’m sure somebody will step in. All of us will. But right now I need to get you to the hospital so you can be at your granddad’s side.”

  She looked at North gratefully. “I was wondering if I should ride in the back of the ambulance. But I figured I’d want my wheels, so I planned to drive there myself.”

  “I’ll take you. Anders will stay here to look after the place and to control who comes and goes.”

  Grateful, she walked upstairs to her bedroom and grabbed her sweater. “This is not how I thought the night would end.”

  “It’s not how any of us thought it would end,” North corrected. “The thing is, we were so concerned about keeping you safe—”

  “—that we forgot to keep Granddad safe,” she said bitterly. “But if somebody has hurt him because of me, I’ll never forgive myself.”

  “You can’t think like that,” North said, leading her back outside to her car but directing her to the passenger seat. “And Charles would be the first one to step up and help out. You know that.”

  It was a quick trip to the hospital. She gave directions as they flew down the streets. She didn’t think North worried about speed limits. Still, it was the wee hours of the morning, and, although she was exhausted, she was grateful the traffic was almost nonexistent.

  Before long they were parked outside in the visitor parking spots. He was at her side every step of the way as she raced toward the emergency doors. Inside she had to calm down because there was—of course—a long line. She waited her turn and then tersely told the nurse at the sign-in station they were asking about Charles Beckwith. The woman nodded and said to take a seat, and she’d get back to them. That wasn’t really good enough, but while she’d been talking to the check-in nurse, North had disappeared. She turned around to find a spot in the waiting room, realizing that most of the seats were taken.

  Just then she heard her name called. She twisted to see North standing beside a bed with open curtains. She raced toward him and saw her granddad on the bed. He was awake. She burst into tears, sat down beside him and held his hand gently. “Oh my, Granddad. We were so worried about you.”

  He patted her hand. “It’s all right. It’s nothing.”

  “Are you sure? What happened?”

  “I think somebody might have followed you to my place. And, foolish me, I’d had some glitches in my security system days ago, so, when I had one today, I didn’t check it out close enough,” he said. “However, if we check the video cameras, they’ll have picked up his face, and we should be able to track him.”

  “I’ll handle that, sir,” North said. He stepped back a few steps, and she heard him call Anders.

  “Can they get into your security system without you being there to log-in?”

  He nodded. “If the system is on, then Levi knows how to get into it.”

  She stared at her granddad, wondering how he could trust somebody a country apart with that type of information. “What about Jonas? Do you want him involved?”

  “That’s who should get involved. I didn’t recognize the man who attacked me. But I don’t think he was alone.”

  “No, of course not,” she said bitterly. “They need two big strong men against one small older man, don’t they?” He gave her a mock look of horror that had her chuckling. “I don’t mean to make it sound like you’re past your due date, Granddad, but they hardly needed to send two big badasses to take you out.”

  “I’ll have you know,” he said with a smile, “it’s a compliment they did send two badasses to take me out. Because there’s no reason at all for them to think I’m anything other than Nikki’s granddad.”

  “The place isn’t trashed, so I don’t think they suspected your private activities,” North said from behind them. “As far as we could tell, rooms and doors, locks and files, were all still sealed.”

  Charles nodded, then sent a questioning glance to North, speaking softly. “Unless they sent two men for two people.”

  North gave a one-arm shrug. “Let’s hope that wasn’t the case either.”

  She watched the relief whisper across her granddad’s face and wondered yet again how much he was involved in. She knew secrecy was important to him with his clandestine work, and she could understand that. But not at the cost of him getting hurt. “I’m so sorry this happened to you and because of me,” she said. “I’ll leave immediately.”

  His fingers gripped hers hard. “No, you won’t. That’s what they’re hoping for. If they can isolate you, then they can pick you up easily and take you out.”

  She sat here trembling, thinking about how much worse this could have been. What if they’d killed Granddad?

  He patted her hand. “Fool me once, that’s on them. Fool me twice, that’s on me. They won’t get the drop on me a second time.”

  There was just something about the steel running through his voice that made her believe him. She smiled down at him. “You never really left the old days, did you?” At his guarded look, she smiled and said, “Not that I know any details about that life …”

  He winked at her. “As long as nobody else thinks you do.”

  She nodded.

  Just then the doctor came in. “It doesn’t look too bad,” he said. “We’ll send you up for some more tests, and, once we’ve run a scan to confirm we don’t find any internal bleeding, I think you’ll be good to go. But I want you to take it easy with that head. You’ve definitely got a mild concussion.”

  “Then he’s staying here overnight,” Nikki said.

  “No, I am certainly not,” Charles snapped. He glared at his granddaughter. “Recuperating can happen at home. I don’t need to be here, taking a bed from somebody who really needs it.”

  She glared at him, but he glared back just as st
iffly.

  The doctor chuckled. “Considering how you’re acting and sounding, I’m sure it’ll be fine. But let us run the tests just to be sure. Your care is our highest priority, sir.” And the doctor disappeared.

  She glanced at her granddad again. “Sir?”

  He shrugged. “There might be a note or two in my file,” he muttered.

  She smiled. “I think there’s a whole lot more that you aren’t telling me.”

  “There’s not a whole lot more I can tell you.”

  She accepted that as she had accepted so many of the mysteries about her granddad’s life. A hand squeezed her shoulder gently. She looked up to see North standing there.

  He smiled down at her. “Why don’t we wait here until he’s ready to leave? We’ll take him home with us.”

  She nodded and smiled up at him gratefully. “Thank you. Was there any update on the house? Was anything disturbed? Is Anders checking?”

  “Both Anders and Levi are into the security system. It looks like we shouldn’t have too much trouble getting a face. I’m waiting for them to send me something.” Just then his phone buzzed. He clicked it on and swiped to the left. He held it up for Charles to see. “Does that look like the man who attacked you?”

  Charles studied it for a moment, his jaw locked, and he nodded. “Yes, that’s him.”

  North turned the phone, so Nikki could look at the picture, and asked, “Do you know him?”

  She stared at the photo, and her stomach twisted. “That’s Carl. He’s the guy who threatened me in the warehouse.”

  “And was there a second man, Charles?”

  “There was, but I never saw him. He never came into the bedroom. I heard somebody else moving on the other side of the house.”

  “Let’s hope one of the other cameras picked up his face. I’ll send Carl’s photo to Jonas and see if he gets a ping on who this guy is.”

  “We think his name is Carl, but I don’t know more than that,” Nikki added.

  “We’ll find out. Once we get this photo to Jonas, it should be pretty quick.” North walked away a few steps and then lifted the phone to his ear.