Breaking Point by John Macken Read Free Book Online Page A

and back again. ‘Reasonably,’ she answered after a couple of seconds.
    ‘Well, talk to IT, see what they’ve got to say. In the meantime, keep an eye on it. This is something maybe to come back to when things calm down.’
    Sarah smiled, her lips staying closed, her brow creased, her face slightly forward, an expression that said the meeting was over. Mina took the hint and retreated from the office. Sarah watched her go, frowning, sighing to herself. Then she picked up the phone and dialled a number.

11
    REUBEN ANSWERED THE call with a quiet ‘Yes?’ Even though the windows of the car were up he kept his voice low and whispered the word. It was a hard habit to shift. Through the windscreen, the steel-shuttered door ten metres away remained tightly closed. In the three hours that he and Moray had sat watching, two cars had entered and one had left. But none of them had carried the man they were interested in.
    ‘Where are you?’ Sarah Hirst asked.
    ‘Surveillance,’ Reuben answered.
    ‘You’re not in the force any more. You don’t do that sort of thing.’
    Reuben grunted. ‘It’s precisely because I’m no longer in the force that I
can
do this sort of thing. Particularly without a senior officer telling me not to.’
    Sarah was quiet for a second. ‘Who are you after?’
    ‘Maclyn Margulis.’
    ‘Margulis? Christ. So let me guess. You couldn’t get to him when you were at GeneCrime, so now you’re having a go, all vigilante style.’
    ‘Something like that.’
    ‘And who’s your back-up? You got your fat friend with you?’
    Reuben raised his eyebrows at Moray. ‘That’s big-boned,’ he said. ‘And a dodgy metabolism. So, what can I do for you?’
    ‘First, stay the hell away from Maclyn Margulis. He’s a dangerous enemy.’
    ‘And second?’
    ‘You got a minute?’
    Reuben stared at the steel shutter. He knew what lay behind it. GeneCrime surveillance had infiltrated the place during his time there. Reuben had no idea how they had got access, but he had seen the pictures. The underground car park descended four storeys. It was tightly packed and poorly lit, the kind of place you drove round carefully, trying not to leave your paintwork on concrete pillars. Then you reached a no parking section with freshly painted yellow cross-hatching. In front of that, another steel shutter which was always closed. And beyond that, Reuben had been told, lay Maclyn Margulis’s centre of operations.
    ‘Sure,’ he answered. He had all day.
    ‘It’s about Mina.’
    ‘Go on.’
    ‘I guess we did all that we could do – promoted from within. Someone to steady the ship for a few months. She was the logical choice when you left and things went pear-shaped.’
    ‘And now?’
    ‘A fair amount of mustard isn’t getting cut.’
    ‘She’s struggling?’
    ‘She’s not messing up exactly. She’s a bright girl. It’s just the things she isn’t doing.’
    ‘Like what?’
    Reuben heard the rustle of a polystyrene cup of coffee being drained. Sarah’s voice softened. ‘Rube, will you do me a favour?’
    ‘Sounds familiar.’
    ‘No, really. Let’s get together, sit down and talk.’
    ‘When?’
    ‘I need to sort out a couple of things first, which will take a few days. And then I want to do some serious bending of your ear.’
    Reuben grunted noncommittally. He had learned a long time ago that the only language Sarah understood was hardball. But something in her tone of voice excited him.
    ‘And until then, Reuben, stay the hell out of trouble.’
    Sarah hung up and Reuben slid his phone back into his jacket. Moray passed a biscuit across and Reuben took it in silence, wondering. A proposition from Sarah could mean a multitude of things, some good, some bad.
    Moray closed the CID file that had been occupying him for the last ten minutes and shuffled round in his seat.
    ‘How did Margulis come by a place like this?’ he asked, nodding in the direction of the door.
    ‘Probably owns the building.