The Pursuit of Emma, Dave Moyer [best contemporary novels txt] 📗

seriously, full of confidence.

‘Is it in the diary? Let me check.’ She moved to looked at the computer.

‘NO,’ I exclaimed, slamming my hand on the desk. ‘Aren’t you listening? This has to be a secret. I thought he said you could handle this.’

‘I can Sir,’ she replied reproachfully, ‘but please fill in what I am missing.’

I sighed and looked at her. ‘Jim needs to see me urgently. But he cannot be seen talking to me about this stuff. He needs you to get me to his office, without people seeing me. Do you understand?’

‘Not really Sir, why couldn’t he just book an appointment with you?’

‘Damn it, because I’m his son!’ I shouted, not loud enough for anyone else to hear but loud enough to shock her considerably.

‘Listen Jim doesn’t want everyone knowing twenty-five years ago he had a long affair with my mum and now she is threatening to release it to the public unless we can come to some agreement. He told me to come in and that Jenny would help me get upstairs. He said you know this company better than anyone!’ Was it working? It was touch and go at the moment.

‘Would it be alright if I phoned up to him, just to check?’ she asked tentatively.

‘Yeah sure, and while you’re at it, hand in your resignation at the same time. Because he will fire you the second he knows you have spoken out loud about this. I don’t know why he trusts you but he does. Do you not realise how bad this would be for him and his other sons if it came out? Now help me get to him and I can promise you he will reward you.’

That seemed to sell it to her. I had managed to make her feel important, so instead of questioning it, she was going to treat it like a mission.

‘Of course, Sir. Take this visitors badge and follow me. Nobody will question you if I walk you through.’

‘Are there cameras? I don’t want Dad to be troubled by evidence I was here. This is big. You understand?’

‘OK, there are cameras in the corridors but if you look down it will be impossible for them to detect you. It’s not the most hi-tech place to be honest,’ she said, smiling.

‘Perfect.’

I looked down and we walked together past several people, straight through the doors. Once we were inside I turned to Jenny and asked, ‘Where is Jim’s room?’

‘Mr Kendrick’s office is on the third floor, second door on the left,’ she replied helpfully.

‘Thanks Jenny, you have been great. I can take it from here. I’ll let him know how helpful you have been.’

‘I appreciate that. If anyone asks you why you are here, just say you are here for internship. Nobody pays them any attention,’ she smiled.

‘Thank you,’ I replied, squeezing her arm kindly and I was off. I turned around to check Jenny had gone and ran to the elevator. It came quickly and I jumped in, pressing the number ‘3’ button. I glanced at my watch. Twenty-one minutes had passed already. I was running out of time.

I was ready for the doors to open and pounced into the corridor, looking for Mr Kendrick’s office. It wasn’t hard to find. Firstly, it was labelled and secondly, it was enormous. Most of the floor was being taken up by his office, which looked bigger than my flat. I took a deep breath and burst through the door.

‘What the hell are you doing?’ came a voice from a distant desk. It was Jim Kendrick. It had to be. He was the only one important enough to greet a stranger in that way.

‘James Kendrick?’ I asked. ‘Stephen Mills, Metropolitan Police Force,’ I called out, tossing my ID on his desk. ‘This is important Sir, so listen closely.’

He looked confused but he didn’t stop me so I continued.

‘We have arrested a man under suspicion of breaking and entering. The man is claiming to have broken in here and stolen an item out of your safe late last night. Some kind of watch.’

‘That’s preposterous. There is no way anybody is breaking into this office. There are cameras, alarms and my safe is unbreakable.’

‘The man we arrested seemed pretty confident. He said the Kozlov brothers paid him to take it. Does that name ring a bell?’

Kendrick went instantly white. He didn’t say anything but the look in his eye made it pretty clear he had heard the name before.

‘We have the man in custody but we haven’t found anything. I need you to check your safe to see if anything is missing. We want to keep this as quiet as possible. We don’t know if this man has done anything yet.’

‘I am telling you that nobody can get in here,’ argued Kendrick. He completely believed who I was, but was struggling to believe my story.

‘Do you care to prove it?’ I said sternly. I knew that would work. It is basic human instinct to want to prove someone annoying wrong.

‘Fine, I’ll prove it,’ he said angrily and walked over to a small cabinet. He swung the front door open to reveal the safe. It was enormous, just like the rest of the office. He held his finger to a scanner and I could see the light run behind his finger. Seconds later it beeped to confirm it was valid. This was followed by three more beeps and then a silence which he replaced by stating his name clearly. That too was met with a beep of acceptance and then all that was left was the pin-code. He turned to look at me, which I understood to mean ‘turn around,’ and I did so. I heard four distinctive, rhythmical beeps and finally a confirmation it was correct. I turned back just in time to see him pull down the handle and drag the door toward him.

The safe was open. Chapter Twenty-Two

‘We can both stand here and risk dying or you can let me do my job.’

It seemed to be going to plan so far. I had managed to get inside the building and the safe was now open. My clock was telling me that only thirty-five minutes had passed. So far, so good. I worked out I would need at least ten minutes to get back to Parlour Street so that gave me fifteen minutes to get the watch and get out. There was part of me that was so tempted to pull out my gun and demand the watch. Even as I thought about it, I knew I couldn’t. If the police got involved I couldn’t risk being accused of armed robbery or worse, attempted murder. There was a part of me that wanted to do this properly too. Was I enjoying this?

Kendrick turned to laud his victory over me.

‘See I told you, it is right there!’ he boasted loudly. I had to react now.

‘WAIT! DON’T MOVE!’ I shouted at him. I pulled out my phone and pretended to call someone.

‘Jones, it’s Mills. There are possible signs of tampering with the safe. I’m going to get everyone out. Bring in back-up to the third floor...OK...Thanks.’

Kendrick was clearly stunned and not sure what was happening. That was exactly how I wanted him. If he was worried, my acting was working well enough.

‘Sir, I need you to step away from the safe slowly. It looks like someone may have broken into it and left a trap. It’s not uncommon with the Kozlov’s work.’

‘Oh this is ridiculous; if anyone had broken in don’t you think they might have taken something. I can see my watch is there. Look...’ he said, leaning towards the safe.

‘NO!’ I shouted again. This time he really did listen. He froze where he was.

‘I have been doing this for years James and that safe has been tampered with. By an expert too. Maybe they are after you and not the watch. Do you want to risk your life?’

‘How can you tell? It looks perfectly fine...’

‘We can both stand here and risk dying or you can let me do my job. That could be linked to explosives.’

It finally clicked with Kendrick. Ten minutes ago he had been working in his office and .now he was inches away from death, according to me. I was selling it.

‘What do I do?’ he asked quietly.

‘You are fine there, just don’t touch the safe. Listen, I don’t want to cause a panic here but I need to get you out. Jones is bringing in back-up and until he gets here you can’t talk to anyone. Do you understand?’

He nodded in agreement.

‘OK, I need you to walk away slowly. Is there a meeting room or storage space that will be empty?’

‘Yes there’s an old colleague’s office which is now empty on the second floor. Why?’

‘Good, I want you to go there, lock the door and wait for me to come find you. Don’t talk to anyone. No matter what.’

He was at the door now and agreed to do exactly what I said. He was looking at me in awe. In his eyes, I could see how brave he thought I was. The feeling was incredible.

I couldn’t believe how easy it was. I had walked into a building and got someone I had never met to open a safe and leave the room, just by lying. The power was flowing through my veins. I was visibly shaking. Sadly, I didn’t have time to enjoy the feeling. I had ten minutes to get to the car.

I walked over to the safe and looked inside. It was full of small paper files that looked too important and complicated for me to understand. I pushed them to one side (using my jacket so I wouldn’t leave any fingerprints) and found the watch’s box easily enough. I pulled the lid open and looked inside. It was beautiful. The strap was made of the most expensive leather I have ever seen. I don’t know much about precious metals and stones but I could see lots of gold and lots of diamonds. I would go as far as to say it was the nicest thing I had ever seen. It saddened me that I would soon be handing it over to the Kozlovs but it was a price worth paying.

I replaced the lid and put it into my pocket. Time to move. I ran out of the room and headed towards the lift. Moments later I was on the ground floor. Then a fantastic idea hit me and I dived back into the lift, heading for the second floor. I didn’t have long but this was necessary. After a minute of searching I found Kendrick hiding in a small corner office.

‘Surveillance,’ I said simply. ‘I need to get all your tapes for the last three days right up until this moment. Can you get them?’

‘Of course,’ said Kendrick, happy to help. He led me around a corner and walked towards a door. Before he entered I said, ‘Remember no one else can know yet.’ He nodded in agreement.

I followed him into the room and watched as he asked the technician to leave the room. He wasn’t happy about it but this was Mr Kendrick, and what he asked for, he got. A minute