The Ninth Step - John Milton #8 (John Milton Thrillers) Read online

  Hicks took a drink and, when he rested the glass on the table, it rattled. His hand was shaking.

  “Who is it, Hicks?”

  “General Higgins. Richard Higgins. You know him?”

  “Yes,” Milton said. “He was Director when I was in the Regiment.”

  Milton had only been a trooper then, and so his experience of Higgins was negligible, but he remembered him. He had a reputation for brilliance, together with an irascible temper that had made him feared as much as respected among the men.

  “Higgins has been blackmailing Isaacs and the others for twenty years. He calls it protection, of course, or ‘reputation management’ when he’s had a drink and he thinks he’s funny. They pay him every month and he makes sure that the stories stay buried. It’s ridiculous. They think he’s got their best interests at heart. Most of the time, they’re paying him to keep quiet about what he knows. To sit on the evidence. It’s extortion.”

  “What does he have on them?”

  “Proof that what Eddie Fabian said is true. Photos.”

  “Have you seen them?”

  “No,” Hicks admitted. “But I know he has it. His brother was senior in the Metropolitan Police. Diplomatic protection squad. The men at those parties, they were as discreet as you would expect them to be, but it’s difficult to hide secrets from the man who’s been assigned to protect you. They must have found out about the apartment. The men who used it must have thought that it was secret; if they’d changed their location, maybe none of this would ever have come out. But they didn’t, and they put themselves into a bad place. I don’t know how long it went on for, but they’ve got cast-iron proof. There were men from the military, the civil service, the government, the police—everywhere. Very senior. If this came out, it would cause enormous damage.”

  “Where are the photos?”

  “Hatton Garden.”

  “What—a vault?”

  “Safe deposit box.”

  Milton nodded. “And Higgins knew that Eddie was going to accuse Isaacs?”

  “Of course he did,” Hicks said. “Higgins knows everything. Fabian ambushed Isaacs and Isaacs told Higgins.”

  “Yes,” Milton said. “Eddie told me.”

  “And Isaacs went straight to Higgins. The slightest suggestion that his story is coming out, he’s all over the place, on the phone, telling Higgins what he has to do. Of course, from Higgins’s perspective, Isaacs and the others need to be looked after. The last thing he wants is for the story to break. If that happens, they go to prison, he loses all his leverage, they stop paying him. Maybe he goes to prison for suppressing the evidence. So when Isaacs called about Eddie, Higgins took it very seriously.”

  Milton pulled up one of the spare chairs and sat down. “Go on.”

  “We put observation in right away. Fabian was followed. The night he died, we broke into his house.”

  “We?”

  “Me. I did. Higgins ordered me to do it.” He shuffled on the bench. “I tried to warn Eddie off. Told him what he was doing was dangerous, he needed to leave it, but it didn’t work. He went straight out, stopped and bought a bottle of booze, and then came here to see you.”

  “You followed him?”

  “Me and the others.”

  “Two cars.”

  “You saw?”

  Milton nodded. “A Range Rover and a Maserati. You pulled out just after he left.”

  “I was in the Range Rover. That’s mine. Higgins had decided to get rid of him. He wanted us to do it here.” Hicks gestured around the inside of the shelter. “You too. It was quiet, late at night. You wouldn’t have seen us coming. But you were lucky. We were out of the car and on the way over here when Eddie left. Higgins called it off.”

  “And then you killed him afterwards.”

  Hicks shook his head and there was certainty in his voice. “No,” he said. “We didn’t. We followed him all the way to Littleworth. Just outside it. We had no idea what he was doing. He drove out of London and headed west. He kept going. Higgins wanted to stop him, wait for him to be somewhere quiet then pull him over and top him, but I put him off. I said it was too public, we would be seen, whatever I could think of.” He was trying hard to absolve himself, Milton could see. He didn’t want Milton’s judgment, but it was too late for that. “He stayed on the motorway and didn’t give us the chance. But then he did turn off. He drove into the middle of nowhere—we had no clue what he was doing—then he pulled into the driveway of a house. We went past. There was another car there. We drove by. Eddie was out of the car, waiting for another man.”

  “You see who it was?”

  “No. Too dark.”

  “And then?”

  “So we kept driving. I parked and got out once it was safe. Came back on foot. The other car came by first, a Jeep, and then I got to the house. The gates were open. Eddie was dead inside the cab. The engine was still running.”

  Hicks shuffled uncomfortably.

  “You must have more to go on than that,” Milton said.

  “I do. I got the registration.”

  “And?”

  Hicks looked up. “That’s the thing. I ran the registration with the DVLA. It’s Frankie Fabian’s car.”

  Milton frowned. “What?”

  “His father.”

  “I know who he is,” Milton said curtly. “Was it him you saw?”

  “I told you, I don’t know. It was too dark.”

  “Why would his father have been there?”

  “You tell me.”

  Milton remembered what Eddie had told him: that he was having problems with his family. But he had gone to his sister’s house to get out of the way after Hicks had threatened him. He must have felt safe there. But then this had happened.

  Hicks looked spent. He stared down at his hands. Milton felt a blast of annoyance; Hicks had no right to feel sorry for himself.

  “Look at me, Hicks. Why did you come here? Why are you telling me this?”

  “Because I need help. I’ve got to get out.”

  “So go to the police. Tell them what you told me.”

  “Are you mad? You think that’ll do me any good?” He shook his head with sudden vigour. “Higgins would kill me. I should never have gotten involved with him.”

  “So why did you?”

  “Because I need money. I need a lot, and I need it quickly. He runs a unit of men. All ex-Regiment. He turns over criminals, mostly, takes their money. The way he sold it to me, there was no harm in it. They were bad men. They deserved what they got. ‘A moral equivalence,’ that’s what he said. I did one job with them before this. There was a drug dealer. Turkish, a murdering scumbag. We hit him and his men. Took them out, took their money. But Eddie was different. He was nothing like that. He didn’t deserve what happened to him.”

  Milton’s anger flickered. He got up and pointed to the door. “Just go, Hicks. I can’t help you.”

  “Milton—”

  “Get out.”

  Hicks spoke hurriedly. “The money isn’t for me.”

  “No? I’ve heard that before.”

  Hicks spoke quickly. “My wife has cancer. She needs treatment that we can’t get here, and if I can’t get the funds together, she’ll die. My kids lose their mum. Milton, please. I don’t have anywhere else to turn.”

  Milton paused.

  Hicks pressed on, the desperation evident in his voice. “I was in personal protection before. It pays well, but not well enough. Higgins made me an offer. Enough money to take her to America for treatment. It’s our only hope. I didn’t have any other choice. I wouldn’t have accepted the offer if I’d known what they were doing—I know it’s wrong, and I’m trying to do the right thing so I can fix it.”

  Milton considered. His impulse was to send Hicks on his way, but he didn’t. He paused.

  “Please, Milton. I need to get away from Higgins.”

  “So leave.”

  “Come on, it doesn’t work like that. I know too much. I can’t
just leave. The only way I get out in one piece is if someone brings him down.”

  “Meaning?”

  “What do you think? There’s only one way. Higgins has got to go.”

  “And that’s why you’re here? I told you—I don’t do that any more.”

  “But you don’t forget, do you? How many people have you killed?”

  “Too many.”

  “So one more makes no difference. Just help me.”

  Milton turned his back on him and went to the kitchen.

  Hicks got up and followed him. “And there’s going to be a lot of money. All I want is enough for my wife. You can have the rest.”

  Milton shook his head with irritation and then gestured around. “Do you really think I’m motivated by money? Would I be cleaning dishes if I was? I don’t care about any of that.”

  Hicks didn’t give up. “What, then? What do you care about? There must be something.”

  Milton held his tongue and considered that for a moment.

  “There is one thing,” he said.

  “What?”

  “Justice for Eddie Fabian. You think you can help me with that?”

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  HICKS GAVE MILTON his telephone number and asked him to call when he had had the chance to consider a strategy that might succeed. He left soon afterward. Milton watched him go. He saw how nervous Hicks was as he hurried across the street to his car.

  The rest of the shift was quiet, with just a handful of drivers, and he used the time to think about what he should do. They had spoken for a little longer. Milton wanted as much information as he could get. It was not going to be easy to work out the best way to proceed.

  He felt no loyalty to Hicks. He certainly wasn’t responsible for him. He had sympathy for his plight—if what he had said was true, of course—but his solution for finding the money to pay for his wife’s treatment was not one that Milton would have chosen. Apart from the difficulty that Milton knew he would face in squaring the morals of any enterprise like the one that Hicks had described, there was the simple matter of Hicks’s naivety. Had he not considered the possibility that he might be asked to do something that he found objectionable? It wasn’t like Robin Hood, some romantic ideal that would mean that no one who didn’t deserve to be punished would be made to suffer. Life wasn’t like that. Life was not black and white: it was a spectrum of greys, infinite in variety, some darker than others. Milton knew that better than most. He had lived his life within that spectrum, and, eventually, it had become more than he could stomach.

  The first option that he considered was the moral one: he would go back to Detective Inspector Bruce and tell him what he had learned. He could tell Bruce about Hicks and what he had said he had witnessed at Lauren Fabian’s house. He would stand aside and leave it to the authorities.

  He had almost persuaded himself that that was what he needed to do when another thought changed his mind. He realised what it was: he didn’t believe that the policeman would follow up on the information in a way that might produce results. He had been dismissive and unhelpful and hadn’t given Milton any confidence that he would treat any further information that he brought him in a different way. And, after all, maybe that would have been right. What did Milton really have? A story from Hicks that he would undoubtedly deny if Bruce was ever to interview him about it. And, above that, there was the danger that involving the police would bring. If what Hicks had said about Higgins was true, then making him the subject of a police enquiry would not be good for his prospects.

  No. Milton postponed that idea. He would have to do it eventually, but not yet.

  The second option was more straightforward. He could help Hicks take Higgins out. Hicks could lead the general into a trap, and Milton could close it, but while that might alleviate Hicks’s problems, it wouldn’t mean anything to Milton. It would bring him to Higgins’s level, too, and Milton was trying to be better than that.

  Milton wanted the evidence that would prove that what Eddie had been planning to say was true. He would give it to Olivia and then he would let her publish it.

  Hicks wanted Milton’s help?

  Giving Eddie a voice would be Milton’s price.

  #

  IT WAS FOUR in the morning when Milton called Hicks. He heard the sound of driving when Hicks picked up. Milton knew that Hicks had no room for negotiation if he wanted his help, and, after Milton set out what he was proposing to do, Hicks had quickly agreed to his terms. They had spoken for another thirty minutes about the best way to achieve their goals. Milton had identified one strategy, but it was audacious and he needed more information to assess whether or not it was possible. Hicks said that he would make enquiries and, after a few more preliminaries were taken care of, Milton had ended the call.

  The shelter was quiet and Milton sat down at the table, a mug of tea before him as he rolled an unlit cigarette between his fingers. The evening’s conversation had confused things. He had doubted that Eddie had taken his own life, but the mounting evidence that his suspicions were correct had brought more questions than it answered. Who had Eddie met on the night that he died? How was his family involved? Hicks said that he didn’t know who it was, and Milton believed him.

  Whoever they were, they had murdered Eddie. That meant that Milton needed to know their identity, too.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  MILTON WOKE up the following day and researched General Richard Higgins. He could remember a handful of encounters with him—he remembered his reputation for cantankerousness in particular—but he wanted to fill in the detail.

  It was simple enough to find out all he needed from a few Google searches. Higgins had been commissioned into the Scots Guards at the start of the 1970s. It was a challenging time to be a British soldier, and he had completed several tours in Northern Ireland. By all accounts, Higgins had served with distinction. He completed selection in 1975 and was transferred into 22 SAS where he was eventually made commanding officer of the Regiment. His career after that was similarly illustrious: he held the command of the Airborne Brigade for four years and was then appointed Director Special Forces. There were further promotions, reaching major general before he became General Officer Commanding 4th Division before he retired. It was a glowing resumé. Milton couldn’t imagine why he would blot his copybook as spectacularly as Hicks had suggested. But then, Milton knew, greed could be a powerful motivator.

  Milton called Hicks. The two of them spoke briefly, and Hicks gave him two addresses: the address of the vault in Hatton Garden and the address of Eddie Fabian’s house.

  Milton decided to visit the vault first. It was a twenty-minute drive from Bethnal Green, and it was early evening and dark outside when he arrived. The streets were quiet, the shops were being shuttered, and the men and women who worked here were going home. Milton drove slowly past the address, looking at the big double doors and the low-key signage that announced the business that was transacted behind them. He thought of the vault, almost certainly in the basement, possibly beneath the road itself. He drove around the block, checking out all of the buildings that comprised it and looking for any obvious means of access. There were none. That was not surprising, but he felt better prepared for seeing the premises himself. He had known that he would need help if he was going to get inside, and this was the confirmation.

  He drove out to Leytonstone next. It was half past eight. He didn’t have very long before he needed to think about going to the shelter, but he wouldn’t tarry any longer than was necessary. Milton waited in his car for ten minutes and observed the street. It was quiet, residential, with little passing traffic. The other houses on the terrace displayed signs of life, with lit windows and the flicker of televisions, but Eddie’s was dark. Milton wondered whether anyone had been here since Eddie’s death. Would the police have visited? Would his family? There was no way of knowing.

  Milton collected a small bag from the passenger seat, got out of the car and walked slowly to the
house. He walked onward for a few paces, confirmed that the street was quiet, and then turned back. He followed the pavement to the end of the road. He turned right and carried on until he reached the narrow alleyway that ran behind the terrace, offering access to the back gardens of the terrace that was adjacent to the one that included Eddie’s house. The alleyway was dirty, with dustbins left outside back gates and black bin liners torn open by hungry rats looking for food. Milton picked his way along it until he reached the gate that he guessed would open out into the back garden of Eddie’s house.

  Milton took out a pair of latex gloves from his bag and put them on. He tried the handle. It was unlocked. He pushed the gate open and slipped inside.

  The garden was small. There was a muddy square that might once have been a lawn, but there was very little grass there now. There was a bicycle propped up against the fence. Cardboard packaging had been left to the elements until it had shrivelled in the rain. Each house in the terrace had an extension to the rear, probably for the kitchen and bathroom. Milton crept forward, staying in the shadows, aware that the windows of the houses on either side were lit, and he could hear the sounds of conversation and activity from both.

  Milton reached the extension and looked in through the window. It was the kitchen, the wan light illuminating it just enough to see that it was tidy. There was a door. It was locked, but Milton could see that the key had been left in the keyhole on the other side. He took a breath, reached down for a short length of pipe that had been discarded in the garden, and then, with a brisk jab, used it to smash through the pane of glass. He paused, listening hard, but he heard nothing that suggested that the sound had drawn attention. He reached his arm through the broken window, opened the door from the inside and went through.

  He took out a pencil flashlight from his bag and switched it on. He worked quickly, going from room to room. The place had been given a thorough clean. The kitchen was spotless, the surfaces wiped down and the cupboards emptied of their contents and cleaned. The front room had no furniture, and there were holes in the wall where picture hooks might once have been.