Death in the Black Wood, Oliver Davies [short story to read TXT] 📗

I emptied my water bottle in a few quick swallows, trying to moisten a mouth that dried up again almost instantly. I needed to stop thinking about what might be happening in that house right now, wherever the fuck it was. I got up and stuck my head out of the door.

“Caitlin, could you get me some water please?”

She glanced up, surprised at the odd request, took one look at my face and paled. She didn’t waste time asking questions. I went to sit down again before my shaky legs betrayed me.

“You look like you’re going into shock,” she informed me a minute later as she handed me the full glass she was holding and put the equally full jug on my desk. “Like you’ve been shot or had a heart attack or something. What’s happened?”

I drank off the glass and refilled it, sloshing a little. My hands were shaking too.

“Shay did,” I said shortly and turned the monitor around for her.

“Jesus Fucking Christ!” she whispered disbelievingly as she read through his dispassionate little composition, with all its probability calculations and cautions. “He’s in there? Now? Is he insane?”

“It’s McKinnon’s grandson, Caitlin, although he’d probably have done the same for a total stranger, knowing him. It’s just the way he’s wired, he can’t help it. But no, he’s not insane, he’s just whatever you can call being Shay is.”

“What are you going to do?”

Good question. What could I do?

“Call my da. That’s top of the list. He needs to be here, either way. Then send this to McKinnon and Anderson.” And after that? I had no idea. Wait, breathe, hope.

“If Shay found the address, can’t we?”

“And do what? Intervene? Take away any chance he has of succeeding? Get them both killed?” She flinched as I snapped those questions out and I shook my head, “I doubt we even could, in two days.”

“It’ll be on his laptop.”

“Yes, it will. Which means it might as well be locked in the best safe ever built, on board an unmanned ship on its way to Mars. That thing’s totally inaccessible. The best hackers the government has at their disposal have been trying to get into his system for years without success.”

“So we just keep working as usual?”

“Yes. That’s exactly what you do.”

She frowned. “That reply excluded you, Conall.”

“I’m glad you noticed. I can’t be here, Caitlin, I just can’t, and I’m not fit to be either. I’m going home once I’ve done those two things. Consider me to be on sick leave until Friday. It’s not as if my being here or not being here will change anything now. Don’t worry, McKinnon can’t spare anyone to send over to sub for me and you’re as good as DI already. It’s just not official yet.”

“Alright, looking at you right now, I approve. It’s the sensible thing to do. I’m just not sure you should be alone, to be honest.”

“Company won’t help, in fact it would be unbearable. And my da will be back tomorrow.”

I was halfway home before I realised I hadn’t even arranged myself an escort. Not that it mattered. Brady O’Hara was otherwise engaged.

Da had spoken calmly and booked himself a flight while I was still on the phone. He wasn’t calm. He’d never underestimated my cousin, but he was equally pragmatic, and he trusted those numbers. If Shay said he had a 50/50 chance, then that was what he had.

Of course, from the moment my cousin had turned up at that house, that probability would have begun to change, in one direction or the other. We both knew that.

McKinnon rang my doorbell half an hour after I got home. He didn’t look as bad as I’d expected, under the circumstances. Simon Philips was standing at his shoulder. Right. That ‘nobody travels alone’ rule.

“Conall. May we come in?” James asked. I stood aside to let them in and walked them through to the kitchen.

“Tea? Coffee?” I offered as they seated themselves at the table.

“Thank you, no. We’re not planning on staying.” He waited until I’d pulled out a chair to sit across from him before asking me his first question. “Shay’s message, when did you get it?”

“Noon, on the dot. He’d programmed his laptop to send it at exactly that time.”

“You saw him last night? He gave you no clue what he was planning?”

“I did. He didn’t.” I shrugged tiredly. “He knew I wouldn’t be able to let him go alone.”

“The man’s a damned fool!” Philips said hotly. “He had the damned address, and he kept it from us! We could have had a team there last night and got Jimmy out before O’Hara knew what was happening.”

“Could we?” I asked, resisting the urge to punch him in his stupid, ignorant face. “And you know this how, Inspector Philips? Please enlighten me. What kind of security measures does Brady O’Hara have in place? How near the house can you go without triggering any alarms? Do any exterior doors or windows allow quick access or are they all reinforced? Could we get in before Brady got to Jimmy if we set off an alarm? Is Jimmy being held in a room that we could enter before O’Hara could kill him?”

Philips just stared at me, unable to answer any of those questions and struggling to find a suitable response to offer. McKinnon gestured for him to keep quiet.

“Aye, I read your cousin’s assessment, Conall. The man certainly had the time and the money to do that kind of work. He may not have though. Shay tends to err on the side of caution when it comes to that kind of thing.”

“At least we can go in fully prepared on Friday now, in case he did. Shay’s told us what we should take with us.” Formality be damned, Philips or no Philips. “James, you should know that he asked me last night what I thought we’d do once we had the address. I didn’t think anything of it at the time, it was a