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Flight of the Falcon (Byrdes of York #1) 22. Chapter Twenty-Two 81%
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22. Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Two

Hugh

H ugh was still in shock at Jack’s news when he walked into the conference room at the police station on Fulford Road. He’d had a sleepless night as he and Falcon had gone over and over the information that Jack had passed on about Gil’s kidnapping.

“Whoever they are, they timed it just as Mr Summers was leaving the hospital. He’s still on crutches. Here watch this.”

Jack handed Hugh a tablet which was playing what had to be the hospital’s own CCTV view of the exit. Gil came out on his crutches along with a couple of police officers. One was carrying Gil’s bag. Hugh watched as a large Land Rover screamed to a stop in front of them and three hefty looking men got out. Their faces were covered and they carried cudgels. The police officer nearest to Gil went down first and Hugh winced as he watched the young woman’s head bounce against the pavement.

The other officer was trying to protect Gil and use his radio at the same time. He had his truncheon out and was doing his best, but he was outnumbered by three to one. Once he was down, the three men picked up a struggling Gil and shoved him in the back of the Land Rover.

“That’s awful,” Hugh told Jack. He felt Falcon’s hand in his and squeezed in response to the comfort offered. “Do you have any other information?”

“Not yet. Our officers have followed the Land Rover through some of the CCTV footage, but it was abandoned at the Arndale Centre, and it looks like they swapped cars there. No footage from the car park as the camera had been damaged earlier that day.”

“Shit!” Hugh pulled his hands through his hair. Turning away, he began to pace. “What’s your next step?” Falcon asked Speight.

“There’s a full meeting tomorrow morning of the working group at Fulford Station. DI Matlock is coming over from Manchester. She suggested you both be there.”

Hugh and Falcon were introduced to the rest of the team. When Matlock walked in, Hugh joined her at the table.

“Deidre,” he greeted her by name. “Please tell me you have something.”

She shook her head, looking pained. “I’m sorry Hugh,” she replied. “There’s nothing new to add.”

He nodded and sat down in between Falcon and Jack Speight. Francis had offered to come with them, but they’d agreed he was better off organising Malik’s move.

They’d had a bit of an argument over whether or not they should tell the police about the tunnels and the rooms they led to. It had been their first real disagreement, with Hugh stating it was difficult for the police to get a full picture of what was going on if they didn’t know about the tunnels.

Falcon and Francis had successfully argued that moving Malik was a priority. Once that was done, they could let the police know about the tunnels, and how they’d found them, with the connection going back to Father McKenzie’s death.

Hugh hadn’t been completely happy with that. He had a good working relationship with DI Matlock and Jack was an old friend. He felt bad about keeping information from the police like this but agreed that Malik’s safety should come first in this case.

One of the young PCs in the room was handing around coffee, tea or water to the attendees and Hugh grabbed a coffee. He needed the caffeine more than ever this morning.

“Have you heard from your counterpart in France?” Falcon asked Matlock. Hugh was grateful to him for thinking of Imogen and Lucinda.

“Lucinda and Imogen are both safe,” she answered. “One of the first things we did was check in with the gendarme allocated to them in Villefranche-sur-Mer. They’ve doubled their presence but at the moment we don’t believe Swales knows where they are.”

“That’s good.” Hugh swallowed another mouthful of coffee. “Any update on your officers?”

DI Matlock smiled at him. “They’re both doing fine, thanks for asking. They were kept in for observation overnight, but both have been released by the hospital now.”

There were a couple of questions from some of the other officers in the working party about the places they knew where Ian Swales had been seen. They’d checked out all the places Robert owned, as well as the house the brothers had grown up in, which was still in the family’s hands even though it had been empty for years. They’d spoken again to Robert’s wife to try and see if she had any information as to where Ian had gone to ground, but there was nothing new.

A couple of hours later and they still hadn’t made much progress. Hugh tried to stifle a yawn but couldn’t succeed. He was worried for his friend, but last night’s sleepless night was catching up with him. They’d have to get some sleep soon, or else they’d be useless helping with Malik’s move.

DI Matlock wound the meeting up and came over to talk to Hugh and Falcon. “I’m really sorry this has happened Hugh. I like Gil and have always worked well

with you and your agency. However, I get the feeling you’re hiding something from me.” Hugh grimaced. “Nothing that will help find Ian,” he replied carefully.

“Hmm. I’m off back to Manchester. If you think of anything that you’d like to share, you have my number.”

She said goodbye to some of the other officers before leaving the room. Hugh turned to Falcon and suggested they go get some more sleep.

“Jack.” He stopped his friend as he was leaving the room. “You’ll keep us up to date?”

“I will, Hugh. Just make sure you keep your phone on this time!”

“I will, I promise,” Hugh replied. He could see that Jack was as tired, if not more than they were. He’d been up half the night checking CCTV images.

“We’ll be off then,” Falcon said and steered Hugh out of the conference room. Outside the police station there was a chill in the air, and it looked like it was going to rain.

“Come on, let’s go home and get some rest,” said Falcon.

“Have you heard from your dad this morning?” asked Hugh.

“Yes, everything is going smoothly. We should have Malik in the safe house by this time tomorrow. Then we’ll see if that spell Walker found will work.”

Hugh nodded and followed Falcon to the car. They made their way back towards the city centre and St Mary’s carpark. From there it was only a short walk back to the bookshop.

When they got there, Abbie was sitting on her stool at the till, reading a book. But it was the customer who was coming from the back of the shop that held Hugh’s attention. Abbie put her book down to greet the customer, but he rushed straight at Hugh and Falcon, knocking them to the ground.

“Hey!” Hugh cried out as he tried to stop the man. He recognised him as being at the hospital with Swales the day he’d turned up in Imogen’s room. He scrambled to his feet.

“Abbie, call the police!” Falcon shouted at her and followed Hugh out of the shop.

The man hadn’t got far, having run into Ollie outside his shop which was opposite Falcon’s. Ollie had him down on the floor, his elbow in the man’s back so he couldn’t get up.

Fortunately, the police weren’t long in coming. There was still protection around them, just not always visible. Obviously, that had been taken advantage of today.

“Got him,” the young, plainclothes officer said as he cuffed the man, pulling him roughly to his feet. He handed him off to a uniformed officer to put in his nearby patrol car, parked on the pedestrianized Stonegate.

“I’ll question him myself,” the plainclothes officer said. He introduced himself, “Detective Constable Bill Turner.”

He held out his hand and Falcon, Hugh and then Ollie shook it. “Is the young lady okay?” Turner asked, looking at Abbie who was being comforted by her sister Ella.

“Let’s go find out.” Falcon preceded them and pulled Abbie into a hug. “You okay, sweet pea?”

“I’m fine, Uncle Fal. He seemed like such a nice man when he came in, asking for books on the history of the Minster. I said he should wait and talk to you as history was one of your interests.”

“It’s okay. Turner, this is my niece and assistant Abbie. Abbie this is Detective Constable Bill Turner who wants to ask you some questions.”

Abbie’s face lit up as she met the young man and began answering his questions. Hugh winced as he’d bashed his arm, which was still sore from the bullet wound.

His back had also begun to hurt from being shoved into the doorway then onto the ground.

Ten minutes later, it was as though the incident had never happened. DC Turner had said he would keep an eye on the shop for the rest of the day and Abbie was happily making him a coffee in the staff kitchen.

“You’re sure you don’t want to go home?” Hugh heard Falcon ask her.

“I’m fine, Uncle Fal, don’t fuss,” she answered him then walked out and handed the coffee to Turner. She turned to them. “Why don’t you two get some sleep? You both look dreadful. I’ll be okay with Bill here.”

Hugh hid his smile as Falcon growled. Pulling his lover after him, they left Abbie to it and made their way upstairs. They really needed to catch up with sleep before this evening, but it didn’t mean they couldn’t have some fun as well.

Falcon

In the early hours of the next morning, Falcon and Hugh joined the rest of his family in the sarcophagus room under the streets of York. They were ready to move Malik.

Francis, Hugh and Falcon had manhandled the dolly down the stairs and through the tunnels to the three rooms. They stood around, examining the sarcophagus and discussing the best way to move it to the dolly.

Once they had agreed, Francis lent his vampire strength to Falcon and Ollie and they carefully manoeuvered the heavy marble on to the dolly. Falcon and Ollie were out of breath by the end of it, but Francis didn’t appear to be bothered by the exertion.

Falcon shook his head, remembering the first time he’d seen his father moving a heavy object.

It had not been that long since they’d been rescued from the facility, and they were setting up their bedrooms in the new house Francis had bought for them all to live in. Falcon’s was all done so he was helping get Robin’s sorted. Francis had a heavy armoire that would fit nicely into the room, and it was in the back of the moving truck.

“Give us a hand, Fal.” Francis motioned for Falcon to follow him out to the driveway.

It was only when he dropped his end and Francis had taken the weight of the whole, that Falcon realised just how strong his new father was. He hadn’t needed his help; he had wanted to make Falcon feel needed.

Now, he stood with Hugh and watched as Francis and Robin secured the sarcophagus to the dolly.

“Is there anything else we need from here?” Robin asked, standing up from where he’d been crouched next to the marble.

“How do you mean?” Hugh asked.

“After today, you’re informing the police about this place. I can’t see us being able to get down here freely for a while after that. I’m sure they’ll be investigating how everything was here all this time without being discovered before.”

“You’re right, Rob.” Falcon moved into the ‘gentleman’s club’ room. “There are a couple of books I noticed the other day that I think we need to rescue. They may help with clues about what happened here. I meant to pick them up earlier and get Dad to go through them.”

Francis and Robin moved from the inner room to join Falcon in front of the shelves on the wall.

“What books are those?” Francis asked him.

Falcon picked them up and showed them to his father. Francis nodded, then pointed to two more and Falcon reached for them. One of them appeared to be stuck, so he moved closer to examine it.

“Hugh, can you bring that light over here?” he asked, pointing to one of the battery powered arc lights they had scattered around the room.

Hugh brought the light and set it up so it was pointing directly at the bookcase. “Look.” He pointed to the shelf. It looked as though an old notebook had become

stuck behind a hardback volume and pushed to the back.

Falcon reached forward and gently pulled at the book. The notebook was quite thick and appeared to have several pieces of paper slotted between various pages.

After a moment of carefully dislodging the other book, Falcon pulled the notebook carefully towards him and held it up for the others to see. He opened it to its fly cover and read out loud: “ Hispana Nonus – John Jarratt, Legate 1873-1875.”

“Now that will be very interesting,” Francis remarked as he and Robin began to move the dolly down the first tunnel. “Bring it with you, Fal.”

Falcon nodded. He was bringing it anyway as he couldn’t wait to see what John Jarratt had recorded. He presumed ‘Legate’ meant he was in charge of the society at that time. With any luck it might mention what had happened with Malik and why they had targeted him.

Getting the sarcophagus down the tunnels on the dolly was harder than bringing the empty dolly in with them. Again, Francis’s vampire strength came in useful when they got to the stairs up to the boiler room. They pulled the dolly up and then outside on to Oglethorpe Street. Fortunately, they didn’t have that far to go before they got to the safe house in the close near to the Minster.

As they moved the dolly down the path behind the Minster, Falcon and Hugh kept a close eye out for anyone who might see them, but there weren’t that many people out and about at 3am on an early Tuesday morning. Plus, Francis had cast a net around them that would hopefully stop people from seeing them. They’d stopped and held their breaths when three very drunk young men meandered past, but they never even noticed them, let alone the dolly.

Despite that, Falcon still felt on edge as the dolly created a racket as they steered it down the cobbled street. He drew in a shaky breath as they got to number 33 and opened the door. They were able to move the sarcophagus to the large airy back room, which had been set up like a hospital. There was a high bed with an IV stand ready and waiting, and all the equipment you could expect to find on an ICU ward was there for their use.

The next thing to do would be to open the sarcophagus and move Malik’s sleeping body from there to the bed. That, however, could wait until later.

Francis would be staying at the house until Malik was ready to leave under his own steam. His bedroom had been set up upstairs and he thanked his sons and Hugh for their help and sent them all home to catch up on some sleep.

Holding hands, Falcon and Hugh made their way back towards Stonegate and the bookshop. It was 5am and the streets were beginning to come alive as York began its day. The sun was beginning to rise and though it was still cold in the early morning air, it felt as though it was going to be another warm May day.

Stopping on Stonegate, Falcon pulled Hugh towards him and put his arms around the other man. “Thank you.”

Hugh smiled at him. “What are you thanking me for?”

“For being here with us this morning. For agreeing to wait to let the police know about the tunnels until Malik was safely out of the way. Just thank you…”

He pulled Hugh in for a possessive kiss, almost mauling his mouth, until he got the whimper he was after. Hugh pulled away to take a deep breath before diving back in again.

After a moment or two, Falcon pulled him into a hug. He could feel Hugh’s arousal along with his own. “Come on. We’re not far away, let’s go to bed.”

Hugh grinned at him, then allowed himself to be towed towards the bookshop and their bedroom above it.

It was midday before Falcon joined Abbie in the bookshop. He was feeling guilty after the previous day. He’d been neglecting the shop whilst he was busy with Hugh and his father. Feeling as though he needed to spend some more time there, he sent Abbie off for some lunch and began checking and replying to some of the shop’s email.

About an hour later, Hugh joined him. After enquiring if there was anything he could do to help, he was given a hand-held reader and asked to check inventory.

Abbie returned from lunch and with her was the young officer from the day before, Bill Turner. They were laughing together as they entered the shop.

“Uncle Fal!” Abbie greeted him. “See who I met at the coffee shop?” “Turner,” Falcon greeted him.

“Just making sure Abbie’s okay after yesterday,” Turner replied, going red in the face.

“Aww isn’t that sweet,” Abbie gushed as she turned to relieve Hugh from his inventory duties.

“How are you doing, Mr McHughes?” Turner asked.

“Better than yesterday, thanks. Though I will have bruises upon bruises before long. Any news from yesterday?”

Turner nodded. “It’s part of the reason I headed over this way today. We interrogated Max Damson – the man we arrested here yesterday – and we’re following up on some of the information he gave us. Especially around the kidnapping of Mr Summers from the hospital in Manchester.”

“He was involved in that?” Falcon asked.

“He was. He admitted it when we agreed to certain conditions about his arrest.”

“In other words, you came to a deal.”

Turner nodded. “We have. He also gave us a couple of addresses we didn’t know about to check out.”

“I don’t suppose you’re willing to share those with us?”

“Sorry. I would if I could. At the moment, DI Matlock hasn’t given us permission to share that information.”

“I’ll phone her and see if she’s willing to let us know. I need to speak to her anyway,” Hugh said, coming over to Falcon and kissing him on the cheek. “I’ll be upstairs talking to Deidre. Call me when it’s time to head over to your dad’s.”

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