Shadow Line by Stephen Edger

Author:Stephen Edger [Edger, Stephen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Mystery & Detective, Traditional
ISBN: 9781489572974
Google: 65vtnQEACAAJ
Publisher: Createspace Independent Pub
Published: 2013-07-23T21:58:08.183000+00:00

25

The next forty minutes of Jack Vincent’s life felt like the longest he had ever experienced. During the whole time he didn’t hear a single sound, even though he was desperate for some sign of life. He assumed that Jake had been killed, as otherwise he would have heard him screaming for help or at least calling for backup.

Vincent was just considering pushing the door to the hatch open when he heard a noise. It was the sound of footsteps on the stairs and a woman’s voice talking. As the voice grew louder he realised it was Smart; she was still alive. He couldn’t tell who she was talking to, but when her one-sided conversation continued he figured she was on the phone.

He couldn’t quite make out what was being said and so pushed the door open and clambered out. The movement startled her and she withdrew her weapon.

‘Jesus Christ, Jack!’ she exclaimed when she realised it was him. What happened?’

He wasn’t sure where to start, how to explain the mess in the room. Jake’s body was out in the hallway and, judging by the pool of blood congealing in the carpet near his body, he had been shot several times and was dead.

‘Laboué’s dead,’ Vincent managed to say as he processed the scene. ‘I think there were three of them; they sounded Middle Eastern and were using automatic assault weapons.’

‘Where were you?’ she asked uncertain how he had survived the carnage.

‘Your agent told me to make a break for it through the window, but then I spotted this little hatch down behind the equipment.’

He pointed down to the small door and, as she moved around to where he was standing, she saw where he was indicating.

‘Jesus!’ she exclaimed. ‘How long have you been hidden in there?’

Vincent straightened up, stretching his compacted muscles.

‘Since they smashed their way in,’ he replied. ‘Do you have any idea who they were?’

‘Several ideas actually,’ she replied putting the phone back to her ear. ‘Give me a second,’ she added before leaving the room and heading back down the stairs.

He crouched down next to Jake and whispered up a prayer of thanks. As he moved back downstairs he saw that the door he had been knocking at earlier was now a charred and splintered mess, presumably an incendiary device had been used to breach it. Smart was pacing up and down in a room off to his left. It too had a former door hanging from its hinges and through the shadows he saw the remains of Laboué slumped across a table. From the sounds of it, Smart was busy explaining to her boss what had happened and that their suspect was now deceased.

She hung up the phone and came out to see him.

‘Are you sure you’re okay?’ she asked.

‘I’m fine,’ he lied, longing for a drink to settle his frayed nerves.

‘Do you want me to drop you off at a hospital?’

‘No, no,’ he replied. ‘I would appreciate a lift back to the station if you don’t mind?’

She told him he was lucky to be alive and agreed to drive him.

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