Road Kill

“I don’t like it any better than you do, Pax,” Daz said, voice rising. “And I had a hell of a lot more cash at stake!”

“Fuck that!” Paxo shouted. “Christ. You don’t get it, do you? Two people are dead! We could all go to fucking jail because of you. And getting fucked in the showers every morning by some hairy-arsed armed robber and his mates might be your idea of fun, mate, but it fucking isn’t mine, all right?”

“Hey, back off,” William said, without heat or volume. “OK, so he’s been a bloody fool, but having a slanging match now isn’t helping. The question is, what can we do about it?”

“Depends what you mean by ‘do about it’?” Sean said. “Our best plan is to contact the local police. We’ve already delayed longer than they’re going to like but I think we can explain some of that away. Leave it much longer and it starts to smack of conspiracy.”

“There’s always Superintendent MacMillan,” I suggested. “I know it’s way out of his jurisdiction but he might be persuaded to intervene on our behalf. And he did ask me to look into this in the first place.”

“What?” Paxo squawked. “You were going to sell us out to the filth? You little cow!”

“No, actually,” I said coldly. “He asked, and I told him to go take a running jump.”

“So what good’s he going to do us now?”

“Well,” I said, still smarting enough to be harsh about it, “he might make the difference between a couple of years for smuggling, and life for murder.”

“The other thing to consider is that even if these diamonds don’t show up on the official stolen list, they’ve almost undoubtedly been siphoned off by somebody,” Sean said, cutting in then. “If I drop the word in enough of the right ears your pal Jamie might find life suddenly gets very . . . difficult.”

“Don’t,” I said immediately, even though I could still see Tess’s lifeless face staring out of that bathtub at me. The trouble was, I could see Jacob and Clare’s faces, too, back in the hospital in Lancaster, pleading with me to keep Jamie out of trouble. I didn’t think I could have failed at that in any more spectacular fashion.

I became aware that everyone was watching me. “We don’t know if Jamie’s on his own in this, or if he’s having his strings pulled by Eamonn,” I said quickly. “Don’t you think it might be a good idea to find out before we feed him to the sharks?”

“Sharks are too fucking good for him,” Paxo muttered. “I want to feed him to something with really blunt teeth so it hurts like fuck when he’s being ripped in bits.”

“What do you suggest?” William asked me, ignoring Paxo.

“Well, for a start, where’s his bike?” I said. “He would never have left his helmet if he was planning on riding out of here, so how else did he leave? Maybe you’ve got it all wrong and he and Tess were ambushed on their way to meet the courier. Maybe he’s not to blame for this.”

Nobody looked convinced but Sean was frowning. “We need to see if the bike’s down in the car park,” he said. “We should go and do a search now, before we call anyone.” He checked his watch. “Another ten minutes isn’t going to make much difference, one way or the other.”

Everybody stood, started heading for the door. As I made to follow them Sean tapped me on the shoulder and I paused, waiting until they’d gone on ahead.

“You do realise,” he said gently, “that if Jamie isn’t a willing participant in this enterprise, then once they’d got the diamonds and the money they might not have had any further use for him?”

“I know,” I said, trying to suppress a shiver. “I’m trying not to think about what we might find down there.”

***

Once we hit the underground car park we split up to cover the ground faster. I found myself automatically checking underneath and in front of all the parked cars. The kind of spaces where you might conceivably dump a body.

I was just peering into one of the big industrial waste bins near the service entrance when I heard a deep shout from William. I let the lid clang shut and spun round.

I must have been furthest away because by the time I arrived the others were already gathering next to a shiny black pickup truck just across from the exit ramp. As I rounded the front of the truck I saw Sean crouched by the body of a man lying sprawled alongside it and my skin shrank instantly at the sight of him. Sean glanced up.

“It’s not Jamie,” he said immediately, reading my fear, although the logical side of my brain had already processed that information. The man was too big and his leathers were plain black rather than Jamie’s more garish colour scheme.

Now I looked more closely I could see his dark hair was shorter, too, but it was difficult to tell under the blood that was matting the back of it. A small pool had formed around his head like a halo, staining the dusty concrete almost black. Sean slipped two fingers against the man’s neck, just under his ear.

“Is he—?” Daz asked, his voice hesitant.

As if in answer, the man lurched like Sean’s touch had burned him, starting to thresh. Sean put his hands on the man’s shoulders and braced against him.

“Hold still,” he said sharply. “We’re here to help.”

He had to say it several times before the man quieted down. By the way he was moving it was clear the blow to the head hadn’t done him any serious damage, so we rolled him fully over.

“Bloody hell,” William said in surprise, almost his first sign of emotion since we’d found the courier’s body. “Gleet?”

It was hard to recognise the man who’d hosted Slick’s wake in the field behind the farm in Wray. It seemed a long time ago. One side of his face was coated in dried blood where it had rested on the ground, giving him the