Takedown by Heather Atkinson (latest books to read txt) 📕

have a clue. We know they went into the office because they busted the door off its hinges with a small tactical ram and we never complained because they were looking for a fire and had to search every room. Thank God nothing incriminating is kept in the office. It’s only used for private conversations, so it didn’t matter.”

“It’s lucky you regularly check it for listening devices Jason,” said Abi.

“When that plan failed,” added Vance. “They decided to approach Dillon instead.”

“Could firefighters have beaten the shit out of Greg and the others though?” said Kevin. “They don’t have that sort of training.”

“Anyone can get martial arts and self-defence training,” said Vance. “You don’t have to be a police officer.”

“Then why did you say they were definitely police officers in that video?” said Caleb.

Vance sighed. “I suppose my mind leapt in that direction because of what Marlow and his men did to our family.” He noticed Faith shiver and he wrapped an arm around her, being careful to make the gesture look a brotherly one. Fuck it, she needed some comfort. “And it was a perfectly viable theory.”

Faith cleared her throat and stood taller, Vance’s warmth giving her strength. “We need to go back to Pulse and pull the footage from the night the fire alarm went off. Maybe we’ll see someone tampering with the fire alarms?”

“They might well have erased it when they went in,” said Vance. “Going off how they handled the robbery at the vault, I’m willing to stake everything I have on it.”

“They might have done,” said a pleased Jason. “But it wouldn’t matter because I set up the feed to record on a back-up system. Even if they had erased it off the main system, it still would have captured everything.”

“Really? Well done, I’m impressed.”

Jason smiled proudly. He was the only member of his family who was any good with technology, in fact he had a real talent for it. “I store it all on my laptop at home.”

“Let’s go and check the footage at Pulse,” said Faith. “If it’s been erased then we know we’re on the right track. Caleb, Kev, go back to Mum’s with Jason so he can get his laptop and meet us at Pulse.”

CHAPTER 10

 

Vance drove Faith and Abi to Pulse, Faith having to warn him to ease up on the accelerator before they got pulled over. She could understand the rush he was in. Finally it felt like they were getting to closer to finding out who’d robbed them.

Vance parked on the staff car park at the rear of the club and the three of them rushed through to the office. All security footage was stored on a hard drive for the standard recommended time limit of a month before it was automatically recorded over. As the incident they were looking for was only two weeks ago, it should still be stored on the hard drive.

Faith brought up the footage from that night to reveal a blank screen.

“It’s been deleted,” said Abi excitedly.

“That proves it,” said Vance.

“Let’s see what the footage Jason has shows us,” replied Faith. “I don’t want to make assumptions.”

Caleb, Kevin and Jason arrived twenty minutes later, the latter clutching his laptop.

“Looks like we could be right,” Vance told them. “The footage from that night has been erased.”

“Then it’s lucky I have this,” said Jason, holding his laptop aloft in one hand.

“Careful,” Abi told him. “Don’t drop it.”

Faith vacated the chair behind the desk so he could sit down. He opened up the laptop and started typing, fingers flying across the keyboard.

“Here it is,” he said, bringing up the footage.

They all gathered round to watch.

“Oy,” said Kevin, poking Caleb in the back. “You’re blocking my view.”

“Sorry,” he replied, standing side-on to allow Kevin to see.

“I’m guessing they’d already done their homework before coming into the club,” said Vance. “Whoever set off the fire alarm would already know the location of each alarm. If they are firefighters then they could probably guess the likely locations of each alarm anyway. Concentrate on the alarms in the public areas only. They would have used one where they wouldn’t have been noticed.”

Jason brought up the feed in the VIP room, the bar, by the DJ stand, the toilets and the dancefloor.

“They certainly knew which night to come on, didn’t they?” said Abi. “It’s hard picking out anyone in all those people.”

“This lot are real pros,” said Vance.

“You sound like you admire them,” said Faith.

“In a way I do. A lot of criminals are really thick, just psychos wanting to hurt people. I enjoyed the clever crimes, where I could pit my wits against someone else’s. They were the most satisfying cases.”

“Looks like you’re going to get to pit your wits again,” smiled Faith. She wanted firefighters to be responsible. That would be better than more corrupt police officers.

“What’s that bloke doing?” said Abi, pointing one of her blood red talons at the screen.

“Where?” said Faith.

“There. That baldy bastard coming out of the toilets. He’s gone in three times in the last five minutes and he’s never in there for longer than twenty seconds.”

“Well spotted Abi,” said Faith. “There are smoke alarms in the male, female and disabled toilets.”

“If it is him,” said Vance. “He could have been going in and out waiting for the right time to set off the alarm. It’s a busy night. Someone would have noticed him holding a lighter under the sensor.”

They watched the bald man disappear back inside the toilets. Ten seconds later, the alarm went off.

“Can’t we check the footage inside the toilet?” said Abi.

“Funnily enough, you’re not allowed to put cameras in places where people get their genitals out,” said Caleb.

“Oh yeah,” she blushed. “I knew that.”

“Keep track of