‘They’re playing it smooth,’ Lopez whispered.
‘They’re smart enough to hit armoured vehicles and banks all the way down the east coast,’ Ethan said, ‘and that makes them smart enough to play a judge and jury as best they can. Clearly, there’s no evidence of them being in the area at the time of the other hits or it would have been presented by now.’
Lopez frowned.
‘Then why, if they were involved from the start, wouldn’t they give up the identities of their accomplices? They’re screwed if they can’t pull this off.’
The lawyer finished laying down his case as he gestured at the police officers behind him.
‘What happened on Williamsburg Bridge was a tragedy, a loss of innocent lives in a deadly pursuit by New York Police Department detectives of highly dangerous, professional criminals. I ask you, your honor, to take a look at my clients and consider what was required of the men responsible for this complex, violent and reprehensible crime, then contrast that with the men you see standing before you today. Both of my clients have prior convictions, neither man is an angel, yet all of their crimes are misdemeanours, not painstakingly planned bank heists. It is understandable that the law-enforcement agencies of this city are desperate to locate and apprehend those responsible for the crimes, but I would caution that a heist of this complexity almost certainly had a plan for my clients’ vehicle to be hijacked, and these two men were purposefully abducted and left to carry the sentence for a crime they did not commit.’
The lawyer glanced up at the public gallery, before he finished his closing speech.
‘In short, your honor, I would ask that you refrain from sentencing these men to trial until further evidence comes to light regarding the heist itself as, I believe that, having reviewed the available footage, my clients have committed no crime at all and that their claims will be validated through further investigation.’
Lopez shook her head.
‘They won’t be able to hold them for long in jail without a trial date, and his case is strong enough that they’ll probably get bail,’ she whispered. ‘Christ, they might even walk out of here as free men.’
Ethan glanced at Tom Ross, and saw that Karina was now holding his hand. Tom’s jaw was hanging slightly open in disbelief as the judge spoke.
‘I concur with your recommendation,’ he said finally. ‘Both of your clients will remain in custody within the jail system. Given the nature of the crimes concerned, I cannot with a clear conscience offer bail at this time until further validation of their claims can be provided. However, I will instruct the New York Police Department that they have a further forty-eight hours to either provide evidence of guilt or release your clients.’
The judge stood and the court rose in silence.
‘I don’t believe it,’ Karina said as she turned to Donovan. ‘What the hell’s going on here?’
Donovan watched as the two suspects were led away, both of their faces shining with delight.
‘I don’t know,’ he rumbled. ‘But we’ve got forty-eight hours to figure it out and drag those sons of bitches back into this courtroom for a trial sentence.’
Glen and Jackson shook their heads in unison as Jackson jabbed a thumb over his shoulder.
‘The other two got clean away,’ he complained. ‘Only way we can prove the involvement of those two losers is to catch them.’
‘You haven’t got CCTV of them leaving the bridge?’ Ethan asked.
Donovan shook his head as they filed out of the courtroom and through the rotunda.
‘The wreck and smoke damaged or obscured the images from cameras on the bridge,’ he explained. ‘Those on the south side didn’t pick anything up, but the guys we’re chasing are probably smart enough to avoid the cameras. Maybe they got under the bridge somehow, or even had another getaway vehicle waiting in support.’
‘They plan ahead,’ Karina explained. ‘The gang has hit banks all down the east coast and nobody’s been caught, except for the two men we’ve got in custody. Whoever the thinkers are behind these heists, they’re smart enough to have planned for blockades around or on the bridge. Switching vehicles would have been an ideal way out.’
The sky outside was darkening as Ethan and Lopez walked down the steps outside the courthouse. Karina walked alongside Tom Ross, whose features seemed locked into a thousand-yard stare. With his family gone and the men responsible on the verge of walking free, Ethan began to wonder just how long it would be before Tom tried to take his own life again.
‘Ethan,’ Lopez whispered beside him.
Ethan turned to look at Lopez, who was staring out across Foley Square. ‘Opposite side of the street, the boots.’
Ethan managed not to look across the street straight away, instead cupping his hands and blowing nonchalantly into them against the cold as he made a fuss of looking for a taxi. As he let his gaze sweep the street, he spotted Lopez’s mark.
A man wearing a gray hoodie that concealed his features. Black jeans and tan leather boots, a black leather bomber jacket. The man was leaning against a streetlight and watching the courthouse, a heavy-looking digital camera held to his face as he snapped images. The brown boots he wore were identical to the ones worn by the person they’d chased out of Hell Gate the previous day.
‘You think it’s the same dude?’ Ethan asked.
‘Close enough,’ Lopez said. ‘You see him in the gallery inside?’
Ethan shook his head as Karina spoke to them from behind. ‘I’m taking Tom home, okay? I’ll see you guys later.’
Both Ethan and Lopez nodded, before Ethan looked down at his partner. ‘Let’s go,’ she said.
Ethan turned and strode out across the street toward Foley Square.
21
Ethan walked not directly toward the photographer, but out to one flank as, across the street, Lopez did the same in a mirror-reflection of his movements.
The chances that the hooded figure was the same person who had been watching them at the warehouse on the docks was remote, but, if it was the same person, then Ethan very badly wanted to know who the hell he was. If the CIA was still on their tail, then they would probably have to flee the city, and Ethan wasn’t quite ready to do that yet after what they had learned from Major Greene.
Ethan turned slightly as he moved behind the photographer, maybe twenty yards away on their right. Through the crowds, he saw Lopez mirroring his movements, starting to close in on their target.
And then, quite suddenly, the mark bolted.
The man leaped away from the post and launched into a full-blown sprint, dashing across the street away from Ethan and Lopez. Ethan raced in pursuit, headed south toward City Hall Park. Ethan saw the figure tuck his camera away into his jacket as he ran and then suddenly break away with a terrific burst of speed.
‘He’s headed for the park!’ Lopez shouted.
Ethan dodged between startled pedestrians as he dashed down Park Row toward City Hall Park. The runner switched direction and dashed across Chambers Street, through the fully flowing traffic, a sea of flashing headlights.
Ethan sprinted hard as he watched the lithe figure vault across the hood of a taxi that screeched to a halt as angry voices bellowed. Ethan dashed around the taxi and through a flock of tourists that scattered out of his way.
He caught sight of Lopez running to his right, cutting into the park to intercept their quarry should he try to hide in the trees. Ethan could see the Brooklyn Bridge City Hall and other major buildings tucked away within the park as he ran.
The fleeing figure cut hard right and dashed down a pathway that led between the trees, the City Hall and the Tweed Courthouse, the low light and growing shadows concealing his movements. Lopez dashed out just in front of Ethan, agile but not quite fast enough to catch the fleeing figure ahead of them. Whoever it was, he was in supreme physical condition and with a long enough stride to outpace even Lopez.