Page 7 of The Redemption of Alex Cade
Everything we’d gone through…I felt the shake rise in me, but I swallowed it down. We’d been to hell and back, and the only reason I was still standing, was a survivor, was because of the man just inches away.
My phone rang, slicing through the tension of a past that threatened to burst through to the present. I grabbed it, anything to turn away from the darkness in Kelvin’s eyes. The concierge. A delivery. Thank fuck for Prime.
I ducked out of the flat, needing a few moments away from Kelvin, and collected whatever it was I couldn’t remember ordering.
“I’ll ask Mateo to work up some details and costings, what specialist equipment we might need. You okay with that?” Kelvin asked when I returned.
The air between us was still thick with tension, but getting back to normal business, if what Kelvin and I did could in any way be considered normal, was the shift we needed. I nodded
“Yes. Usual conditions, for the boys who volunteer.”
“Time and a half and an extra-long tea break? With the good biscuits?” Kelvin’s lips twisted in an ill-disguised smile.
I huffed, but Kelvin’s quip was enough to get us back on track. “You want more—” But it was as far as I got. There was a bleep as a message dropped, not to the top-of-the-range smartphones Kelvin and I both had,but to another, used tomake and receive calls and messages to and from a strictly limited set of numbers. I met Kelvin’s eye as he dug it out of his pocket and read.
“Fucking hell,” he muttered.
“What is it?”
“Timmins. Some of the plods at his nick have been caught taking bribes from a strip club. The Assistant Chief Commissioner’s using it as an excuse to investigate the whole team.” Kelvin’s laugh was sour. “And there’s more. What a bastard.”
I wasn’t sure if he meant the crusading ACC or our tame Detective Sergeant, who earned a very nice top-up to his salary in return for making sure our venues stayed out of the spotlight. Kelvin handed the phone across, and I read the message. Fucking hell, indeed.
Kelvin took the phone back and punched in a speed dial number, his brows pulled down tight and his eyes darker than ever. I leant forward over the island, my body held tense, not envying the red-faced, overweight copper who was about to get it with both barrels.
“Detective Sergeant Timmins, are you attempting to extort more money from us?”
I shifted in my seat. My heart rate was picking up, and my mouth was dry. Kelvin’s voice was even, calm, and pitched low. It was the man at his most dangerous.
“Your job, Detective Sergeant, is to deflect any attention away from our business. It’s an…” Kelvin paused, his eyes narrowing as he looked across at me, “arrangement which has benefited us all. If your little gang of plods weren’t smart enough not to get caught out, that’s not our problem. You carry on as you were, making sure none of this shit gets thrown our way.”
Timmins’s raised voice floated across, enough for me to hear the policeman’s agitation.
“Shut your mouth and listen.” Kelvin’s voice was cold enough to freeze the sun, all the lethal calm of moments before gone. The gloves were off, and Kelvin always hit hard. “If any of this comes back on us, your miserable life won’t be worth living. I will make it my personal mission to ensure that, and you know I always keep my promises.”
I sat forward, the edge of the island digging into my stomach. What the hell was Kelvin on about? From the indignant and panicked squawks coming from the phone, Timmins didn’t know either. Kelvin smiled and winked at me.
“Social media. It’s incredible, the way you can reach millions with the click of a button. Doesn’t matter if it’s fake news, the damage is done. People are truly appalling creatures, they always want to believe the worst. And there’s no smoke without fire. There’s AI, too. The images you can conjure up with that, it’s hard to know what’s real and what isn’t. And don’t forget Mrs. Timmins. Got a heart condition, hasn’t she? Wouldn’t take long to finish off the poor old thing. Imagine her falling into the shag pile, before her first cuppa of the day, getting ready to meet Mr. Death. Errghh!” Kelvin gasped into the phone, clutching his chest with his free hand as he imitated a heart attack, a big grin on his face.
Hard, nervous laughter burst from me. In the blackest, most dangerous times we’d been through together, Kelvin’s dark, sadistic humour had never failed to make me laugh and pull me back from the edge.
“So you just need to carry on, and everything will stay sweet.” My laughter withered on my lips. Kelvin’s voice had dropped, back to calm and ice cold. “Just as long as nothing points to us. We don’t want any interest shown in our business. And I mean any. But I’ll tell you what,” Kelvin said, his tone shifting again, taking on an almost sing-song quality. “There’ll be a bonus for you this month. In recognition ofyour efforts during this particularly difficult time. Think of it as an advance on performance-related pay.”
Kelvin disconnected the call and grinned across at me.
“Fake news and AI?” I asked.
“Yep. The tech’s amazing, and we’ve got the contacts to sort it.” Kelvin shoved the phone back into his pocket.
“Do you think we’ve got anything to worry about?” We’d seen other investigations into police corruption before, but nothing had ever touched us. We paid the right people, and we paid them well for a reason.
Kelvin pursed his lips in thought before he shook his head. “No. We’ve faced this before. Timmins just needed to be reminded of the key points on his unofficial job description. He’ll do as he’s told, and he’ll do it for as long as we tell him. We’ve got him by the balls, and he knows it.”
“It’s what you get for doing deals with the devil.”
“I’m not a saint, Alex, and neither are you. Get the coffee on again, and break out those Hobnobs you always have stuffed in the back of your cupboard.”
CHAPTER FIVE
