North of the Rock Read online

  North of the Rock

  Ian Jones

  Contents

  Title Page

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Copyright

  Chapter One

  Day 1

  The rental car was a new Buick, perfect for the roads; heavy and wide, a big engine, all the gadgets and a full tank of petrol. He put his bag in the boot and drove out of El Paso International airport, heading south to pick up the 10. He loaded Gray Rock into the satnav. Stated time to destination was three hours and forty minutes. He yawned and settled into the drive, he had been travelling more than sixteen hours already. London Heathrow to Dallas, wait around the airport for a couple of hours, then Dallas to El Paso.

  He hit the 10 and as he followed the road east out into the open space the familiar West Texas landscape surrounded him. Not familiar in he saw it every day, or even regularly but familiar in that he had done this journey about eleven years ago. This exact same journey, and in all that time it hadn’t changed at all.

  And now he was back. It had all started four days ago. It had been a quiet time for him, he had not accepted any work for a while, needing some solitude after taking on some difficult projects. He had been in town, buying groceries, wandering around, not really doing much at all and had eventually gone into a barber shop for a haircut. It had been fairly busy, but he was in no hurry so sat down to wait. There were newspapers and magazines scattered on a table and he had picked up a red top and flicked through it. There was nothing particularly newsworthy, a quiet day. But about ten or so pages in there was a ‘World News’ section, and there he was, staring out at him from the bottom of the page.

  Anthony Collis. He hadn’t laid eyes on him or even thought about him in close to eleven years. It was the mug shot picture, the same photograph that had been in every newspaper when the news broke all those years ago. The heading above the picture just said, ‘Texan Assassin Will Be Freed.’

  The article was brief and not particularly detailed. Texas had recently elected a new Chief Justice for the state Supreme Court, a man called Gregory Raymer, who had been a judge for many years, a proud Texan, viewed as a radical Republican with a controversial history. He was elected by a big margin, despite his extreme views. The case of Anthony Collis had been bouncing around in the Texas legal system ever since his incarceration over ten years ago, although it had quietened down a great deal after the initial furore. The original state governor had reacted very strongly when Collis had been found guilty, and there had been plenty of noise, rumoured pushes for the president to get involved. Reading the article John remembered it without much interest. Collis had murdered two men and a woman, and possibly others. He knew, because it was him that had made the arrest and handed him over to the FBI. But Texas was more than just a big state, it was practically a country in itself, and had rallied around its own. There had even been demonstrations and protests in several cities that it was a conspiracy, the wrong man had been convicted, the FBI had arrested an easy target. Now, Gregory Raymer had promised that one of the first things he would do in office would be to put this miscarriage of justice right, and was working to set an appeals courts hearing for as soon as possible.

  Without reading any more, John turned over the page. This was a load of nonsense. Collis had done it, no question. Even the worst prosecutor in the world would have no problems making sure he stayed in prison where he belonged.

  He got his hair cut, the usual number three all over and then drove home. It was autumn, late September. He loved this time of year, the air seemed fresher and it wasn’t yet cold enough for a coat. He unpacked the shopping and then booted his laptop, idly opening his messaging service.

  Despite choosing to take a break, he had been checking it fairly regularly over the past few days so there were only a couple of new entries, and one jumped out at him straight away.

  Patrick Skelton – PLEASE CALL ME URGENTLY! – and then two landline and one mobile telephone numbers.

  This was very unusual. Patrick was someone he knew who worked for the FBI, he was pretty senior there, his job was basically to investigate the investigators. There were plenty of people who were nervous of him. They had first met when John was working on a case in Atlanta, and then more recently when he had uncovered a mess in Las Vegas.

  It was the ‘urgently’ in capital letters that made him think, this wasn’t a word that he could picture Patrick using, everything had a specific place and time, well structured, there always had to be order.

  Well ok, why the hell not, thought John and picked up his mobile. He liked Patrick, he was one of the good guys. It had been at least a couple of years since they last met, there was no harm in calling. Patrick was based in Washington, so he calculated it was about mid-morning over there. He called the mobile number as that was likely to be the easiest way to catch him.

  Patrick answered quickly.

  ‘Patrick Skelton, hello?’

  ‘Patrick? It’s John.’

  ‘At last, some good news. How you doing?’

  ‘I’m fine, what’s up? Bit of a panicked message you left there Patrick.’

  ‘Yeah, well panic doesn’t really cover it. There’s a lot of headless chickens over here right now if you get what I’m saying.’

  John was surprised to hear it. Patrick led a well organised life.

  ‘Why, what’s going on?’

  ‘It’s not going to make the news over your side of the pond. But Anthony Collis, it looks like he’s getting out.’

  Patrick was looking for him to talk about that? Why?

  ‘Actually Patrick, I just read about that today. By chance. Some new judge or something, but he won’t get out, how can he? He was bang to rights.’

  There was a sigh down the phone and some movement. Patrick sitting down probably. John could picture him; crisp shirt with sleeve creases that could cause an injury and a subtle tie. Shiny cufflinks.

  ‘There was a lot of trouble over that whole thing John. The governor back then made out like Collis was Texas’s favourite son. They claimed that we, and by that, I mean the FBI, set him up. At the time there was already some negative press about the FBI and this just made it worse. The CIA didn’t want it, so everything was down to us; and as a result we ended up looking like we were only after the glory.’

  John remembered. It was true, the CIA hadn’t wanted it, even though it was an American citizen killing people in Europe. Which was why John had been asked to continue with it.

  ‘Sorry Patrick, it’s great talking with you but I don’t see what I can do.’

  ‘Right well, I’ve been given the job of going through everything and making sure that we are covered. The feeling is that this is going to become big news, and we will be dragged through it all over again. I’ve been told fairly bluntly that if we have screwed up anywhere at any point I got to get
it sorted. Thing is, I wasn’t involved in it at all back then, so it’s all new to me. And trust me, I’ve got masses of files to wade through. And what’s the first thing I see? Your name, right there in black and white, stamped all over it.’

  ‘Yeah, well it kind of fell into my lap really. Came out of what we thought was nothing at all. I’d been working on something over here for a while and Collis’s name came up. Like you said, the CIA didn’t want it, they were no help but we had to do something so I went to the FBI with it, we had a good relationship with you guys. It was political at the time, all sorts of problems and your people were nervous about it, so I offered to be on point. And it was no problem at all, we got the right man.’

  ‘I’m sure you’re right John. But there is another factor that you don’t know about. You probably heard about all the protests down in Texas at the time?’

  ‘Yeah, I kind of followed it because I’d been working with you but from memory it didn’t do anything constructive though.’

  ‘Right, but a year later Collis’s younger brother Wayne walked into a public library in Austin with an assault rifle.’

  ‘Shit. No, I didn’t hear about that.’

  ‘I never knew about it either. It can’t have made headline news. Anyway, he barricaded the doors and demanded to speak to someone senior at the FBI. Said it was about his brother. If he didn’t get what he wanted, then it’s goodbye hostages. You know the score.’

  ‘Jesus. What happened.’

  ‘Austin PD were on the scene, and they had it pretty well secured, and they got their local SWAT team down there. Those guys know what they are doing. We sent in our local field officers, one of them starts claiming to be the section chief. Why the real chief didn’t get his sorry ass down there I have no idea. It was a fuck up, that much is clear. Turns out, Wayne Collis was a crack dealer and also an addict, and had been taken down by this same agent in a sting operation along with the DEA just a couple of months before.’

  ‘Ah.’

  ‘Yep. So he starts shooting.’

  ‘I can’t believe I never heard about this, it must have been big news.’

  ‘Well it would have been big news, no question. It happens too damned often over here. The rifle was an M16, stolen from a local gun club. But it was modified and re-chambered to take 9mm ammunition, as you know that’s a lot cheaper.’

  ‘Yeah. The original takes NATO rounds.’

  ‘Right. Maybe he bought the gun off someone or he stole it himself we don’t know, reading the notes we did an ok job of piecing it together but I guess there are a lot of unanswered questions. Ultimately, it looks like the gun was empty and didn’t even have a magazine. Eventually we found out that he bought a clip fully loaded from an old soldier near San Antonio and well, you can guess.’

  ‘The gun doesn’t fire.’

  This explained why it hadn’t made the news.

  ‘Yep, as you say the gun doesn’t fire. Clip is full of 5.56 shells, it fits I guess but the round won’t even get in the chamber, he would have had to force the magazine. So, there’s no shots fired and the SWAT guys storm the building, total textbook stuff. No need to start shooting, nobody has to get hurt. Collis manages to get himself into a store room with a lady that worked in the library, he’s got a handgun, which the PD didn’t know about. So the situation is better, there were forty-odd hostages and now it’s down to one. But that’s one too many, and he could have any number of bullets sitting in there. Anyway, Collis is screaming through the door making all these demands about justice and the decision is made to wait him out.’

  ‘Makes sense.’

  ‘They get a negotiator down there and after a couple of hours Wayne Collis is crying his eyes out about how shit his life is. It’s all looking good. By this time the real section chief has finally dragged his ass down there, probably to face the cameras saying what a wonderful job they are doing, it’s all under control. The negotiator is doing really well, and after another hour or so the lady gets set free so all we have now is an inconvenience. We got a weeping crazy in a store room with a gun in a public place.’

  ‘That’s a happy ending right?’

  ‘Should be, but it doesn’t go that way. They talk to the lady to try and find out what gun it is, but she’s upset and doesn’t know, she can’t really give us anything other than it looks old and is round. So the decision is that it’s a revolver. Six shots, maybe get lucky and only five. The section chief, who was removed very soon after this episode by the way, he orders the SWAT team in. There is an argument. I kid you not, I have read right through this. The SWAT leader is not happy, he feels it is unnecessary and Collis does not present a real and present danger.’

  ‘I have to say Patrick; with all due respect I would have agreed with him.’

  ‘You know what John, if I had been on the scene I would too. But we weren’t there. Anyway, there’s a compromise. The store room is long and thin with the door at one end. They kick it in and tell Collis to come out.’

  John thought he could guess how the story would end.

  ‘And does he?’

  ‘Not at first. He’s still sobbing and then he ups and runs straight out the door waving the gun and one of our agents steps up and puts a bullet in him. Straight through the chest. Dies at the scene.’

  ‘Ok, shit, well, that does happen. Heat of the moment.’

  ‘It does happen. But Collis was carrying a toy gun. Made of plastic, and even worse witnesses said that he was holding the gun in the air by the side of it, he didn’t even have his finger on the trigger.’

  John felt for Patrick, the man was an out and out professional. It would have hurt him badly to have to read through all this.

  ‘Well you can imagine what went on down in Texas after this John. It had just started to calm down and now the place went crazy again, for a time anyway. We were on everyone in the state’s shit list, you can imagine how the FBI looked down there; we had a vendetta against the Collis family, and Texans in general. The FBI were no good. I actually do remember all this going down, it was a PR nightmare for the FBI. It took a long time but eventually, it calmed down. A new governor got elected, and he never said anything about the Collis brothers, well not in public anyway. Every now and then there would be something about Anthony in the local news, a new pressure group was formed to get him freed and all that happy crappy, but it never went anywhere and for the past six or seven years it’s all been forgotten.’

  ‘Until now.’

  ‘Yep. Until now. And that’s why I wanted to speak to you, as soon as I saw you were involved I figured you are the one man that could help out in all this.’

  ‘Patrick, this was a long time ago. It was just a case assigned to me at the Department. I was actually undercover with these right-wing arseholes called One Race, and I met Anthony Collis through them. But I don’t work for the government anymore, I haven’t in years. You know that.’

  ‘Yeah, I do. But we have a big problem. We can’t be seen to be doing any work on this at all. The message to everybody from the top is clear as day: stay well the hell away from this. Then at the same fucking time I’ve got to get stuck in and look for the holes. We aren’t even sending someone to the hearing, whenever that happens. It’s politics John. We have to do what we are told, whether we agree with it or not. But of course it’s never as easy as that. One thing gets said on one side, while something else totally different on the other. And all the time the FBI are not getting involved and publicly making sure everybody knows it. While all that’s going on I’ve been told to do the exact opposite and make goddamn sure we’re clean.

  ‘I still don’t see what the hell I can do Patrick.’

  ‘Well, I have a request. And it’s probably gonna piss you off. And I expect you to say no, by the way.’

  John looked out of the window. Rain was coming in.

  ‘So ask me Patrick. If I say no, then we will still be friends.’

  ‘For sure. I want you to go and see Collis, and m
aybe go back to Gray Rock. If there is someone pulling strings like I think they are then I would like to know who. This shit doesn’t happen by itself, you know that. Of course, we will pay any expenses, plus something in your pocket, that goes without saying.’

  ‘I don’t care about the money Patrick.’

  ‘But?’

  John sat still and stared out the window again, turning the mobile around in his hands. It wasn’t that simple, what could he do? Gray Rock was just a small town, he had arrested Collis there and it was where the man had been born and bred. He had never met the brother. And what would he say to him in prison? Would Collis even see him?

  Patrick had to be desperate.

  There could be any number of individuals or agencies that the FBI could rely on to do jobs like this.

  But Patrick had called him. And he had a lot of time for Patrick.

  ‘Sure Patrick. I’ve got nothing on right now. Why not? I can spare a few days to go to Texas.’

  He could almost hear the enormous relief in Patrick’s voice.

  ‘Thank Christ for you John. Seriously. Thank you.’

  ‘Where is he being held?’

  ‘Federal Penitentiary. Howarth.’

  ‘Where’s that, is it in Texas?’

  ‘Yeah, in fact, it’s not a million miles away from Gray Rock. It’s up north of Odessa. Huge place apparently, the biggest in the state.’

  That was saying something. Everything was bigger in Texas.

  ‘But how will this work? I’m hardly going to be on his visitor list and it’s not like I can just rock up and ring the bell.’

  Patrick laughed.

  ‘There’s ways and means of getting that done John. That’s the least thing I’m worried about.’

  ‘What’s on your mind?’

  ‘To be honest John I don’t know for sure what I’m sending you into. Now all this shit is back in the news feelings are gonna be running very high down there, and if anyone finds out who are you ain’t gonna be popular.’

  ‘Don’t worry about that Patrick. I can do anonymous. Anyway, it sounds like a straightforward in and out. I can’t see anyone would remember me in Gray Rock. I’ll stay there before I go to the prison and then get the first flight out. It’ll give me a chance to have a nose around, but I’m not sure if I will find anything. I mean it makes sense what you’re saying, if there is anyone stirring this up then it’s likely to be around there but the likelihood is I won’t be able to find a thing.’