‘Let’s see if Ferguson can work some more of his magic’, he shrugged. ‘You sure there’s nothing else?’
‘Well we’ll dust the box for prints when forensics get here, but there’s nothing else left here’, I informed him. ‘Goddamn it’, I slammed my fist into the side of the phone box, venting my frustration. What time we on? How long we got left?’
‘It’s just gone eleven,’ Charlie checked. ‘Just under nineteen hours left’, he quickly calculated.
Just as he said that, the phone began to ring.
28
Last week
Cyprian Hague sat in his spacious black BMW, parked back in the driveway of Getty House. He sat for a moment in silence, his brow furrowed deeply, looking in wonder at the unopened file he had picked up from Nick Tanner just over half an hour ago. He had wanted to remain inconspicuous; so thought that heading straight back was the safer decision, rather than risk being seen outside the LAPD, even though he had taken the a seldom used back entrance, conveniently located right next to the Video and Imagery department. Nick Tanner had come through for him, just as promised. He didn’t know if that was purely out of friendship, but he suspected not. Somewhere down the line, he would be repaying the favour, no doubt. It never hurt to have the Mayor of Los Angeles owe you one, did it?
Taking a deep breath, and quickly glancing out of the car windows, despite being in the relative safety of his own grounds, he sliced open the envelope.
It took several moments to wade through its contents. There were several photos of the guards’ untimely demise and Hague visibly shuddered as he viewed them; it looked very nasty indeed. One of the guards had been lying in a pool of blood so large, that the actual scale of the photograph had to be indicated on the back, and that was frightening. It looked like Caldwell was a particularly violent and deranged individual. That made Hague look around once more, aware of his ever-increasing paranoia he shook his head. Still, something was not right; he desperately tried to think back to the meeting and what Burr and McCrane had told them.
All of a sudden, it hit him. So much so, that he actually asked the question out loud. ‘Animi. When the time is right, I will come for you all. The writing in blood on the wall. Of course. Where is that ?’
Another quick flick through the contents of the file confirmed that despite the graphic and unsettling nature of the pictures, there was not one of writing on any wall, in blood or otherwise. There should be though; everything else was here. Why wouldn’t that be in here?
Pulling out his cell, he hit redial and connected straight back through to Nick Tanner. ‘Hey Nick, its Cyprian’.
‘Cyprian, hi’, Tanner replied. ‘I wasn’t expecting to hear from you again so soon. Is everything ok?’
‘Thanks once again for the favour Nick, you really pulled one out of the bag for me there. Listen, are you sure that was everything? I mean, there’s no way you could have missed something out?’
‘Absolutely not’, Tanner sounded almost offended, as if his professional integrity was being called into question. ‘Everything I have here, you have a copy of there. Everything’. Well if Tanner was sure, that was good enough for him. Tanner was one of the most methodical and thorough people he had ever known or worked with.
‘Ok, no problem, Nick. Just checking. Thanks again’.
‘Ok Cyprian, see you soon’, Tanner replied, then hung up.
It didn’t make sense. The photos should be there. There would be no reason for them not to
‘Well we’ll dust the box for prints when forensics get here, but there’s nothing else left here’, I informed him. ‘Goddamn it’, I slammed my fist into the side of the phone box, venting my frustration. What time we on? How long we got left?’
‘It’s just gone eleven,’ Charlie checked. ‘Just under nineteen hours left’, he quickly calculated.
Just as he said that, the phone began to ring.
28
Last week
Cyprian Hague sat in his spacious black BMW, parked back in the driveway of Getty House. He sat for a moment in silence, his brow furrowed deeply, looking in wonder at the unopened file he had picked up from Nick Tanner just over half an hour ago. He had wanted to remain inconspicuous; so thought that heading straight back was the safer decision, rather than risk being seen outside the LAPD, even though he had taken the a seldom used back entrance, conveniently located right next to the Video and Imagery department. Nick Tanner had come through for him, just as promised. He didn’t know if that was purely out of friendship, but he suspected not. Somewhere down the line, he would be repaying the favour, no doubt. It never hurt to have the Mayor of Los Angeles owe you one, did it?
Taking a deep breath, and quickly glancing out of the car windows, despite being in the relative safety of his own grounds, he sliced open the envelope.
It took several moments to wade through its contents. There were several photos of the guards’ untimely demise and Hague visibly shuddered as he viewed them; it looked very nasty indeed. One of the guards had been lying in a pool of blood so large, that the actual scale of the photograph had to be indicated on the back, and that was frightening. It looked like Caldwell was a particularly violent and deranged individual. That made Hague look around once more, aware of his ever-increasing paranoia he shook his head. Still, something was not right; he desperately tried to think back to the meeting and what Burr and McCrane had told them.
All of a sudden, it hit him. So much so, that he actually asked the question out loud. ‘Animi. When the time is right, I will come for you all. The writing in blood on the wall. Of course. Where is that ?’
Another quick flick through the contents of the file confirmed that despite the graphic and unsettling nature of the pictures, there was not one of writing on any wall, in blood or otherwise. There should be though; everything else was here. Why wouldn’t that be in here?
Pulling out his cell, he hit redial and connected straight back through to Nick Tanner. ‘Hey Nick, its Cyprian’.
‘Cyprian, hi’, Tanner replied. ‘I wasn’t expecting to hear from you again so soon. Is everything ok?’
‘Thanks once again for the favour Nick, you really pulled one out of the bag for me there. Listen, are you sure that was everything? I mean, there’s no way you could have missed something out?’
‘Absolutely not’, Tanner sounded almost offended, as if his professional integrity was being called into question. ‘Everything I have here, you have a copy of there. Everything’. Well if Tanner was sure, that was good enough for him. Tanner was one of the most methodical and thorough people he had ever known or worked with.
‘Ok, no problem, Nick. Just checking. Thanks again’.
‘Ok Cyprian, see you soon’, Tanner replied, then hung up.
It didn’t make sense. The photos should be there. There would be no reason for them not to
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