And he had an older brother, all right, who’d fallen in with a rough crowd, and had moved away.
He’d joined the army, for which he’d been perfectly psychologically and physically suited. He’d excelled as a soldier, quickly making sergeant. Eventually he’d become a training instructor on one of the toughest courses devised by the military.
I know, because I was there.
I’d loved him, and he’d betrayed me. Dropped me to the wolves and left me to be ripped to pieces by them alone. Once the news of our affair had broken, and the press had turned on me, that love had withered, died, and rotted into hatred.
Sean Meyer was a name from my past that I’d hoped never to hear again in this lifetime, let alone come face-to-face with its owner . . .
Had he recognised me? He’d certainly been watching the estate, keeping tabs on his younger brother. I thought he’d been aiming for Garton-Jones that night when he’d nearly run us down, but it could just as easily have been me.
Still, Sean was damned good at abandoning people when they needed him.
Now, he veered the Cherokee off the main road, ducking through half a dozen dark and empty back streets, veiled by the fog. I watched his eyes keep flicking to the rear-view mirror, constantly checking for any sign of pursuit. I suppose it was inevitable that eventually he’d have the chance to take a proper look at me.
And as soon as he did, he knew.
How could he not?
I saw the eyes widen. He jumped like he’d been shot, and stamped on the brakes, twisting round in his seat to stare at me directly, as though the mirror might have lied. Madeleine gasped as she was thrown forwards and the inertia jammed her seatbelt. I nearly lost hold of Roger’s still-unconscious body.
Then I took one look at the angry disbelief in Sean’s face, and totally bottled it. Before the vehicle had even stopped, I’d flung open the door, and catapulted out onto the road.
We can’t have been doing more than ten miles an hour or so by that time, and decelerating hard, but it was enough to unbalance me. I rolled through the fall, and came up on my feet, already running.
I heard Sean shout to Madeleine, “Stay with the boy!” and then he was out of the vehicle too, and pounding hard on my tail.
I was never a fast runner, but adrenaline is a powerful stimulant, and fear gave me a turn of speed I didn’t know I possessed. I reached a junction and dipped round it. Unless I was out of his sight, I knew I stood no chance of evading him. Sean was predatory and relentless. It was in his nature.
I ran with everything I’d got, not lifting my head, not looking back. I made another couple of frantic turns, found myself outside a short row of closed-up shops. There was a yard alongside one of them, barred by a mesh gate about ten feet high.
It was an instant decision. I took a flyer at it, sheer momentum carrying me far enough up to grab the top rail and swing my body over in one fluid movement. By the time Sean appeared, I was fifteen feet further back, down behind a stack of pallets. Breathless and terrified.
For such a big man, Sean moved smooth and quiet, with a deadly purpose. Even in army boots his ability to creep up undetected on the unwary had bordered on the supernatural. In the intervening years it seemed he hadn’t lost the knack.
I peeped through the slats in the pallet and saw him stop by the gate, staring up at it. Judging the height, and the probability of my having fled this way. He was still as heavily muscled across the shoulder as he had been when I’d known him. Built like a boxer, exuding menace.
I squeezed my eyes shut as if I was a kid. As if my being unable to see him would also work in reverse.
I heard his footsteps and risked another look. He’d moved back from the gate, turning a slow circle. Alert, as if trying to sense where I’d gone to ground. I fought to keep my breathing steady.
Headlights swept across the gateway then. Sean rounded sharply, and I shrank back. I saw the Cherokee pull up at the kerb next to him. Madeleine had moved over to take the wheel. She leaned out of the window.
“Have you found her?”
“No.”
“What on earth made her take off like that?”
Sean didn’t answer that one. Prowling back over to the gate, he reached up suddenly to smack the mesh with both hands. Making it clatter and jangle. Making me gasp.
“Charlie,” he called out, “I know you’re in there somewhere.”
I kept silent, but my heartrate took off.
“You can’t hide forever, Charlie,” he said, more quietly. “We’ve unfinished business, you and I.”
The words were left hanging. Sinister. Malign.
“Sean, I hate to hurry you, but we really need to get your brother fixed up,” Madeleine broke in. “Judging by the way she did a runner, the girl’s not so badly hurt, and she obviously doesn’t want to be found. Come on. We’ve got enough problems of our own to worry about.”
Sean let out a pinched breath through his nose, shoulders hunched, then he turned without a second glance and stalked back to the jeep. I squirmed round, seeing him climb into the passenger seat and slam the door.
“OK,” I heard him say tightly, “let’s go.”
For a good quarter of an hour after the heavy exhaust note had faded into the night, I remained in my hiding place, not moving. It was only when a thin drizzle of rain started to fall out of the mist that I forced my frozen limbs to stir.
It took willpower to do it. I had an evil headache and the metallic bitterness of the blood I kept swallowing left my stomach raw.
Without the primitive flight reflex boosting me, I found I couldn’t get back over the gate. My hands were grazed and starting to throb, and my bruised body protested more at every failed attempt. Eventually I had to drag one of the pallets over to the base and use that to gain initial purchase on the mesh. Even so, it was an undignified scramble.
On the other side, I realised I had no real idea where I was. I turned in the opposite direction to the way the Cherokee had gone, and started walking. Finally, I reached the main road. I plodded on, one step after another into fog that hung like smoke under the streetlights.
Partly by luck, and partly by keeping a very low profile, I managed to get back to Pauline’s without encountering either Sean, or Garton-Jones’s mob. The way I was feeling, I don’t know which would have been the less preferable option.
Seven
The next morning I dragged myself out of bed with enough aches and pains to send me groaning for the bathroom. My flat only has a shower, and the prospect of access to a long soak whenever I wanted one had in no way helped persuade me to house-sit for Pauline in the first place.
By the time I’d soaked my way through three chin-deep refills of hot water, it was time to get sorted and head for the gym.
I briefly took stock of my reflection in the mirror in the hall on the way out, and found the split lip much less noticeable than it had felt the night before. I reckoned I could probably claim a bit of boisterous behaviour on Friday’s part to explain it away if I had to.
***
The day was uneventful apart from a phone call from Eric O’Bryan, asking if I’d had chance to reconsider my decision to support Roger. I took the opportunity to pick his brains about the relationship between Roger and Nasir.
“If they’re mates, it just doesn’t fit in with Nasir’s threats against whoever’s behind the robbery,” I said. “But, on the other hand I suppose if he’s so friendly with one of the lads who was involved, he might have an inside track,
