Collision Course by Matt Hilton

Author:Matt Hilton
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781448304509
Publisher: Severn House Publishers
Published: 2020-07-19T16:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-FOUR

‘Pull over here and I’ll walk across.’ Arlen Sampson indicated the parking lot adjacent to the underpass of the river bridge.

Temperance swung the van into the lot, and maneuvered it under the overhanging boughs of the trees at its edge. Dappled shadows concealed the van from all but the closest scrutiny. By chance she’d parked in the same spot as Po Villere had the afternoon previously when Tess Grey had first arrived at Madison Toner’s apartment.

‘Wait here, I won’t be long,’ Sampson instructed.

Temperance said nothing. She sat expelling sharp spurts of air between her clenched teeth.

Sampson had deliberately come back to speak to the Toners without Dominick. As Blake had pointed out, Dom was useful when a blunt instrument was required, but Sampson needed finesse if he hoped to control the damage already done by the aggressive thug. He hadn’t trusted to bring Dom along one bit; leaving him in the van with Temperance he’d probably return to find them locked in a death grip with their hands around each other’s throats. Blake might have given the order, but Temperance had taken too much pleasure in carrying it out, and Dom was not the forgiving type. She’d pay for punching him in the nuts, but not without retaliation. Sampson could’ve driven here alone, but had thought it best to get the woman out of Dom’s reach. She understood his motive, though it aggrieved her, because avoiding a showdown with Dom, or any bully of a man, simply wasn’t in her nature.

Sampson got out of the van and surveyed the metal fabricator’s workshop across the railway line. His gaze tracked from the converted loft on the uppermost floor to the roller-shuttered garages at ground level. A dated model Chrysler was parked with its hood nosing the leftmost shutter. According to the events related about last night, the PI crew had escorted the youths back to Portland but obviously Madison’s friends had returned. Unsurprising to Sampson. During Mike Toner’s conditioning session yesterday, he’d admitted that his daughter was the brain behind the scam, and that he and one of Maddie’s friends had been recruited to assist her with the mechanics of it. Toner, again admittedly, was engaged to do the scut work, while the girlfriend was involved in the social media campaigns designed to draw in the gullible so that Maddie could fleece them of their cash. Without the involvement of the friend, a cog was missing from their otherwise well-oiled machine. Her boyfriend was a loose end that required clipping.

Purposefully, Sampson kept his head down as he paced across the road. If anyone was spying on him from the apartment, he didn’t wish to alarm them. He paused to check the railway line. It was single gauge and rarely used, but he’d no wish of being flattened by a train. He stepped over the tracks and went left, towards a dilapidated garden. As he rounded the corner of the building, he came across a youth hunkered on the raised edging stones around the garden’s single tree.

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