Green Light (Sam Archer 7) by Tom Barber Page B

up inside Rikers Island, the city’s biggest prison and the
second largest in the country.
    An
unarmed police detective.
    Surrounded by the some of the most dangerous criminals in New
York State.

    Lowering herself down the last rungs of the fire escape
ladder, April hung for a moment then dropped onto a large metal
garbage receptacle with a thump . Sliding off the edge and
landing on the ground, she hurried down the small side alley then
paused when she reached the end, looking cautiously round the
wall.
    As she
watched, she saw the door to her apartment building on her right
suddenly open and two figures in white overalls and Yankee caps
hurry out, looking left and right, clearly searching for
someone.
    She
jerked back before they spotted her and thought for a moment, her
back to the wall, her heart-pounding.
    She
stayed where she was for a few more seconds.
    Then she
turned and ran down the alley in the opposite direction, exiting at
the other end and taking off down the street as fast as she
could.

EIGHT
    Ten
miles away, dressed in the orange Department Of Justice overalls
and white shoes that all inmates were required to wear, Archer
watched as the gate to the busy prison yard buzzed and then opened
in front of him, his heart thumping and his mouth dry.
    ‘ Move, pretty boy,’ the guard behind him said, drawing his
baton. ‘Rec time.’
    With
inmates already in the yard turning to watch and no choice other
than to do as he was told, Archer walked forward and immediately
felt the clock on his life start ticking.
    The last
four weeks had unfolded like a slow-moving nightmare but this
current predicament was beyond anything he could have expected, all
triggered by that night in the car park when Leann Casey, Vargas
and he had been shot. Help had arrived minutes after the shooting
and treatment on Alice had started immediately. Archer had sat with
her in the ambulance and watched as the medical team fought
frantically to save her, her heart stopping twice on the way to the
hospital. She’d clung to life by a fingernail, Archer not leaving
her side until she was out of immediate danger, Josh taking care of
Isabel.
    Once the
medics said that she was going to pull through, followed a short
time later by a call from Shepherd telling Archer he needed him
back on duty at the Bureau, he’d reluctantly left her in the care
of the two guards and the medical team. He, Shepherd, Josh and
Marquez had waited anxiously for any updates from Homicide,
becoming increasingly frustrated when constantly told the
investigation was still in progress.
    Last Saturday, eight days ago, their patience had finally run
out and they’d headed over to the 114 th to try and get some answers.
The Precinct boss, Lieutenant Royston, had been both arrogant and
uncooperative, in the end ordering them to leave. Shepherd had done
his best to reason with the man, but it had been hopeless. He
wouldn’t listen.
    Realising they weren’t getting anywhere, they’d headed for
the door, but just as Archer had been walking past Royston the
Lieutenant had made a derogatory comment about Vargas.
    It’d
been like holding a flame to a box packed with tinder.
    Before
he could stop himself Archer laid the son of a bitch out, firing
off a vicious right hook that had taken the fat Lieutenant
completely unawares, knocking him out cold. Archer had been
suspended immediately, his badge and gun confiscated, and was
banned from every police Precinct in the city. His hearing was due
for tomorrow morning, Monday, but he knew that was just a
formality. He was going to be demoted out of Shepherd’s team and he
knew it. He’d be lucky if they didn’t bust him out to some middle
of nowhere beat in Staten Island.
    But it
had also meant that now he had nothing to lose.
    Josh had called on Thursday, saying Homicide had finally come
through and found the shooters. Finding it all a bit convenient,
Archer had broken the rules by contacting a friend at the
114 th and persuaded her to