Buried (DC Jack Warr #1) - Lynda La Plante Page 0,105

headlights were getting closer.

‘Barry, do not attempt to cross the tracks! We have armed officers on both sides! Stop running!’

When the train came round the bend and into view, the headlights were blinding ‒ which was exactly what Barry was hoping for.

He left everything to the very last second. As he turned ninety degrees and darted across the track, he pulled the Webley from his waistband and shot one of the Armed Response officers who’d crossed the track. Before he could shoot the second officer, five bullets from five weapons entered Barry’s torso, hurling him backwards, straight into the path of the oncoming train.

It took forever for the train to pass. Once it had gone, the lead officer ran to his man down and radioed for help. Ridley, Laura and Anik didn’t move; they just watched and prayed that the only dead person on this railway track was Barry Cooper.

The man down was alive, releasing Ridley and his team to find whatever was left of Barry. They looked up the track in the same direction as the train . . . and there he was. As Ridley led the way, he forced his eyes to focus in the darkness. What was lying there was definitely too small to be all of Barry, but looked like it could be a significant portion. Laura and Anik silently followed. And along the top of the embankment, a shadowy figure walked with them. Jack had had a bird’s-eye view of Barry’s death – it was a vision that was now burnt into his brain and would stay with him for as long as he lived.

Both of Barry Cooper’s lower legs had gone with a relatively clean cut, but his left arm had been ripped out of the shoulder joint high up, next to the ear; the rest of his body had been tossed and turned a dozen times as it passed underneath the length of the train and was now a broken pile of bones and bloody flesh. Ridley got out his mobile and turned on the torch. Laura and Anik followed suit.

‘Forget the legs,’ Ridley said. ‘I want the rucksack.’

The three of them spread out across the train track and walked slowly back towards the Armed Response Officers on the ground. The noise had now turned to a strangely calm silence, in which only scurrying foxes could be heard as they ventured out to see if they could find a small enough piece of Barry to sneak off with. Laura’s mobile torch glanced over one of Barry’s missing legs but, as per Ridley’s instructions, she ignored it in favour of finding the rucksack. When Anik froze, hand in the air, unable to speak, Ridley and Laura knew that he’d found something. The rucksack was still on the shoulder of Barry’s missing arm. Ridley opened it up and the only thing inside was money ‒ £20 and £50 notes. All in bundles held by the same style of money wrap as the one they had found deep inside the coal chute at Rose Cottage.

Jack looked down the top of the embankment. Below him, the contents of Barry’s rucksack were lit by three mobile torches.

Shit! Jack thought to himself. This is all Ridley will need to put Barry and Mike at the heart of the train robbery.

Any chance he’d had of convincing anyone that the Grange women were the real culprits had just been totally crushed, along with Barry Cooper.

CHAPTER 29

When Maggie got in from work, breakfast was on a tray in the middle of the kitchen table, along with a single red rose and a handwritten note. On the upside, the tea and toast were still warm – on the downside, Maggie knew that the rose had been stolen from their neighbours’ hanging basket as there was still soil on the stem; the note just said, ‘Sorry x.’

Maggie recalled her ultimatum . . . Tomorrow morning, when I get home, I want breakfast in bed and a cuddle regardless of how bad I smell.

Jack had failed.

*

Jack was waiting for Foxy when he pulled into the police station car park.

‘You want to know if you’re related to any more dead people?’ Foxy quipped. Then he saw the serious look on Jack’s face. ‘Shit, really? Barry Cooper’s not your long-lost brother, is he?’

Jack handed Foxy a battered old baseball cap, sporting the Isle of Man TT race logo, complete with the three legs of man ‒ although time had taken its toll on the embroidered stitching and the iconic symbol