Looking Good Dead

The mooring rope came free. Luvic ran round to the other side of the helicopter. Grace turned to Nicholl and yelled, ‘Stay back!’

Then he began crawling forward on his stomach, looking around for something he could use as a weapon. A short distance to his right he clocked several bags of cement and a pile of bricks. Spiky Hair was working on the second rope. Grace got to his knees and launched himself at him.

Luvic raised his gun. Grace threw himself sideways just as he saw the muzzle flash, wishing to hell he’d had the sense to put on a flak jacket. An instant later he heard the crack of the pistol. The man pulled the trigger again.

This time nothing happened.

Grace went straight for him. The next thing he knew the Albanian’s feet were flying at him, catching him full on under his chin. Grace was catapulted onto his back on the pitch surface of the roof, winded and stu

He heard the engine roar rise. He rolled over, blinking, still a little dazed, saw rooftops, the single tall chimney stack of what had once been Shoreham power station in the distance. Felt the wind increasing. Luvic was on board now. The helicopter’s skids were off the roof.

In desperation he threw himself at the pile of bricks. Then he saw a length of scaffold pole lying beside them. He grabbed it and hurled it in a swirling arc, with all his strength, at the tail rotor.

For an instant, it sailed through the air in what seemed like slow motion. He thought he had thrown it wide. But, to his amazement, it was a bull’s-eye, right in the middle of the rotor.

There was a grinding metallic sound and a shower of sparks. The helicopter lurched sideways.

Then he thought he had failed after all, as it rose sharply several feet in the air, before suddenly begi

The helicopter spun once, twice, then a giddying third time. It veered straight towards him, engine screaming, and he had to flatten himself on the roof to avoid being hit by the skids. The wind threatened to rip his jacket from his back and the hair from his head. Grace heard a huge bang and the next moment was showered with bits of metal and pieces of masonry, as the helicopter struck the side of the lift housing. Like some massive beetle crazed by fly spray, it skewed away, almost sideways, part of one of its main rotor blades clattering down inches from Grace, who rolled sideways to get out of its path.

He caught a glimpse of Ve

The helicopter tumbled over onto its side and did a complete flip, followed by another, tumbling towards the edge of the roof, reminding Grace of one of those cheap toys Brighton street vendors sold which were weighted and rolled over and over, propelled by their own momentum.

And suddenly there was a stench of aviation fuel in the air.

The stricken machine crashed into the lift housing for a second time, crabbed round, still under power, until the cockpit was hanging over the edge of the roof and the helicopter was prevented from going completely over only by its tail wedged against the base of the structure.

The engine stopped.

Grace scrambled to his feet and ran across.

The machine was see-sawing. Teetering on the brink. Luvic was unconscious, lying upside down on the glass bubble of the cockpit roof. Ve

‘Help me!’ the pigtailed man implored, thrusting a hand out of the open, swinging door. ‘Please, for God’s sake, help me, man!’

Grace, who was not good with heights, knelt, staring at the car park a long way below, the wind threatening to blow him over the edge. He grabbed the man’s wrist, which was greasy and thick as a ham.

The helicopter lurched. The stink of fuel was horrendous. Grace felt something bite into his hand. It was the man’s wristwatch. He gripped the pudgy flesh just above it and met the man’s tiny, terrified eyes, staring into his own. Imploring him.

‘Help me! Get me out!’ His medallion was hanging above his head.

The helicopter lurched again. Grace was pulled forward. Another few inches and he would fall over the edge. He realized what the man had to do. ‘Your seat belt! Undo your seat harness!’

The man was beyond thinking in his panic. ‘HELP ME!’ he screeched.

‘UNDO YOUR FUCKING HARNESS!’ Grace screamed back.

There was a grinding sound. The helicopter lurched further. It was going. Only seconds left, Grace reckoned. ‘UNDO YOUR BELT – YOUR HARNESS!’

Suddenly he felt his arm almost wrenched out of its socket. Grace clung on for dear life. But it was no good. Still he clung. Clung.

Clung.

Saw those tiny, desperate eyes once more.

Then Nick Nicholl was beside him, reaching down into the helicopter. Grace heard a faint click. Then, as if in a dream, the helicopter was dropping upside down, away from him. Like a huge toy. Until it hit the ground, straddling the roofs of a black Mercedes and a small white Fiat. Almost instantaneously there was a huge ball of flame.

And the wriggling, petrified, dead weight of Ve

Ve

Ve

Yelling at Nicholl to get the man out of the building, Grace ran back to the fire exit, hurtled down the flights of steps and into the basement. Norman Potting, accompanied now by two uniformed constables, was kneeling beside Gle

‘This whole fucking place is going up! Let’s get him out!’ Grace yelled.

He shoved his arms under his friend’s shoulders, with a constable supporting his midriff and Potting and the other constable each taking a leg. They carried him up the stairs, then burst through a fire exit door into the car park, into a searing blast of heat from the blazing cars and the helicopter, the stench of burning paint and rubber, and a cacophony of sirens.

They carried Branson away as far as they could from the heat, until Grace saw an ambulance racing towards them.

They stopped. He looked down at Branson, bringing his face close to his mate’s. ‘How are you doing?’

‘Remember John Wayne, when he got shot in that movie-’ Branson said, his voice wheezy.

‘Did he live?’ Grace interrupted him.

‘Yeah, he lived.’

‘That how you feel?’

‘Yeah.’

Grace kissed him on the forehead. He couldn’t help it; he loved this man.

Then, standing back as the paramedics took over, he felt something cutting into his hand. He looked down and saw a blue-faced Breitling watch on a broken metal bracelet. It was covered in blood. His own blood.

It was the watch, he realized, which had been on the pigtailed man’s wrist. How the hell did he -?

And he thought back to a couple of hours earlier today, to the phone call he had had from the clairvoyant Harry Frame.