Читать книгу DI Sean Corrigan Crime Series: 6-Book Collection: Cold Killing, Redemption of the Dead, The Keeper, The Network, The Toy Taker and The Jackdaw - Luke Delaney - Страница 32

Strong turbulence shook the twin-engine jet and woke Hellier from a light sleep. He could hear the concerned voices of his fellow passengers, unaccustomed to the shaking passenger planes received as they approached Queenstown Airport on New Zealand’s South Island. He peered out of the window and saw the Remarkables mountain range stretching as far as he could see to the south. From peak to base the mountains were reflected in the still, clear waters of Lake Wakatipu. He had left behind a Northern Hemisphere summer and arrived in the middle of the Southern Hemisphere winter. The mountains were covered in snow, which was what most of his fellow passengers had come for. But not Hellier. The plane’s PA system advised the passengers to prepare for landing in five minutes. Reluctantly he fastened his seat belt and stared out of the window, a slight smile on his face, oblivious to the stomach-churning buffeting as the winter winds gripped the jet. Finally they bumped to ground, the engines roaring in reverse to halt the plane on the short, perilous runway. His fellow passengers breathed a collective sigh of relief.

Thirty-six hours ago Hellier had been on the other side of the world. Soon he would be safe in his long-ago established retreat. He had flown from London to Singapore using a British passport, but instead of catching a connecting transfer flight to his destination he had taken his carry-on suitcase containing a change of clothing and toiletries, and passed through Customs and Immigration. Outside the airport he had hailed a cab that took him through the shining skyscraper metropolis Singapore had become, a soulless, generic New Age Eastern business centre.

Finally he arrived in Old Chinatown, with its mix of Chinese, Malay and Indian architecture. Bustling brown-skinned people filled the streets, trading, talking, eating, living. These streets suited him far better than the glass valleys that filled the rest of the island. He’d made his way to a nondescript ornament and souvenir shop in Temple Street. The owner recognized him immediately and fetched a safe box that he handed to Hellier. He’d placed his British passport in the box, and taken out an Australian one in the name of Scott Thurston. Then he made his way back to the airport. Two hours later he was flying Air New Zealand business class to Auckland.

After an eleven-hour flight he touched down at Auckland International Airport feeling refreshed and alive, having slept most of the way. Once again, rather than take a direct transfer flight, he’d cleared Immigration and exited the airport. A cab driven by an over-talkative Samoan took him to Mount Eden, an area popular with young, successful Aucklanders. The owner of the antiques shop almost froze with fear when he saw Hellier enter. He needn’t have been afraid; within minutes, Hellier was heading back to the airport to catch his flight to Queenstown. This time he travelled under a New Zealand passport bearing his photograph and the name Phillip Johnston.

Now he walked through the Domestic Arrivals exit at Queenstown Airport without attracting a second glance from the security services casually floating around the terminal. People came here for a good time; summer or winter, it didn’t matter. Nobody expected trouble. Nobody suspected who or what he was.

A short cab ride took him to the offices of a property letting and management agency in the centre of town. Hellier entered Otago Properties Ltd and scanned the premises for familiar faces. The middle-aged man recognized him at the same time as Hellier spotted him. Both men smiled, the manager getting to his feet and striding across the office, hand outstretched in friendship. Hellier accepted it.

‘Bloody hell, Phillip Johnston, where the hell have you been?’ the manager said in his nasal South Island accent. ‘I thought you must be dead!’

‘Not yet,’ Hellier answered. ‘Not yet.’

Twenty minutes later, he used the key he’d collected from Otago Properties to open the heavy wooden door of the house built into the side of a mountain. He stepped inside and spent several minutes surveying his surroundings, mentally noting every item he saw. After a while he was satisfied everything was as it should be. He dropped his suitcase and closed the front door, walking straight through the house to the lounge and the panoramic view from the huge sliding glass doors. A long wooden coffee table was positioned in front of the windows surrounded by antique leather armchairs. A brand-new laptop computer sat in the middle of the table, just as Hellier had arranged, its standby light blinking green, drawing him towards it.

He stood over the computer and opened its lid, the screen immediately filling with the site he’d programmed it to display from the other side of the world: bank account details for Butler and Mason International Finance. The message on the screen questioned him: Are you sure you want to continue with fund transfers? He paused for a while, not wanting to rush this sweet moment. After a minute or so he finally pressed the Enter button and watched, only his eyes showing any emotion as they excitedly darted around the screen following the rows and columns of numbers as they gradually fell away to zero. Tens of millions of pounds had flowed out of Butler and Mason’s primary bank account into accounts all around the world set up by Hellier. Not a penny of it entered his own accounts; he already had more money than he could spend. It flowed into the accounts of people he might need in the future: people of influence, people who could get him things that would otherwise be difficult to obtain. And millions more poured into the bank accounts of charities he cared nothing about, under the guise of anonymous benefactors. And it was all absolutely untraceable. When the transactions were complete, he turned the computer off and unplugged it. He would throw it in the lake after nightfall. His face showed no flicker of emotion, no happiness. Only a satisfied sigh betrayed his pleasure.

He walked to the giant windows and undid the latches. Throwing the doors open, he stepped out on to a balcony the size of a tennis court. The lake and the mountains stretched out before him as far as he could see. Seemingly miles below, the TSS Earnslaw, a hundred-year-old steamship, left a shallow wake that spread from shore to shore. He walked to the edge of the balcony and held the rail. Closing his eyes, he allowed the freezing mountain air to hammer against his body, sweeping away the stale air of long-haul travel.

Standing there on the balcony of his long-standing hideaway, his life in London as James Hellier fast-forwarded through his mind, from its very beginning to its very end. The time had come to kill James Hellier, to bury him where he would never be found, just as he had done to Stefan Korsakov. James Hellier was gone forever, and all that went with him. All, that was, but for two names: Detective Inspector Sean Corrigan and Sebastian Gibran. Those two he would never forget.

Hellier opened his eyes, stretched his arms into a crucifix position and began to laugh.