In a way he probably paid for a fair chunk of this flat. Then things changed. I didn’t want to charge and he didn’t want to pay. He didn’t seem to mind that other guys saw me and for a while things went along well. Then he upped sticks and moved south. Not a word. One day he was here — next, all I get is static. I didn’t see him for the best part of ten years and then one day he rolls up at my door and wants to carry on as if he had never left.’
‘When was this?’
‘Four years ago. I told him that I wasn’t interested. He wouldn’t take no for an answer at first and even tried to pay me, but I held firm. He vanished again only to reappear the week before I came to see you.’
She stopped and went back to the cigarette. I waited for her to continue and risked sitting on the settee.
‘He appeared again only this time he wasn’t interested in me. He hands me a letter and says he needs it delivered to you. He puts a thousand pounds on the table and a scrap of paper with the prison name on it. So I do the good girl thing. After all a grand is a grand.’
A thousand pounds? It seemed a hell of a lot for a small errand.
‘But you are back with him?’ I said.
‘You can’t teach an old dog new tricks. He started pestering me again. Only this time he did it in nice way. He sent flowers. He called, but now he was as polite as I had ever known him to be. Then one night he turned up in a limo. Corny or what. He had two tickets to the Rod Stewart concert at Hampden. He knows I’m a massive fan and the tickets came with a meet and greet with Rod. How could I say no?
He was a changed man. After a great evening he kissed me on the cheek and left. A week later and we were back on again.’
‘But he hasn’t phoned since Tuesday.’
‘Not a word.’
I looked at the clock and so did Rachel but she showed no sign of moving.
‘Is your work far?’
‘Thirty yards. I rep in a car. A Blue Mondeo. My first call isn’t until ten and it’s only a mile away. Fancy a cup of tea.’
I nodded and she vanished into the kitchen. I had no idea why the change in attitude. Like Maria’s change of mind in Spain, women seemed a mystery to me at the moment.
I got up and went to the window. The morning was coming on strong and it looked like the sun was going to be a winner. I spotted Rachel’s blue Mondeo and for a split second I saw a figure to the left of the car before he disappeared round the corner.
On gut feel I stepped back from the window, counted to thirty and stepped back again. The figure was there and, when I reappeared, he bolted. I recognised him and my heart froze. It was one of the goon patrol. How the hell did they find me here?
I did my party trick again and caught him out again. Not the brightest light-bulb in the box. Rachel came back in with two mugs of tea.
‘I need to go,’ I said.
‘Fuck me. One minute I’m throwing you out and you hang around like a wet puppy. I make you a tea and you want to go. Where to — the hostel?’
‘Rachel you don’t need me in your life. I’m trouble and at the moment I’m more nonsense than I’m worth. I didn’t mean for you to get mixed up in this. I just needed a bed for a night and your name popped into my head.’
‘Get me mixed up in what. Are you telling me that there’s more to you turning up than just looking for a bed?’
I dropped my head a little.
‘You don’t need to know.’
But she did. If the goon patrol really wanted me and I did a runner they might decide to use Rachel as a ‘punch and tell’ machine to find where I had gone.
‘There are two men after me. At least I think there are two. There could be more.’
‘And?’
‘And one of them is standing at the corner of your street doing a crap job of pretending he’s not there.’
She crossed to the window and looked out.
‘Black jacket and blue shirt with greasy hair?’
‘That’s him.’
‘You brought them to my house?’
‘Not deliberately. I didn’t know where I was going last night.’
‘So they followed you.’
‘No. I checked. I made sure I wasn’t being followed before I told the taxi driver where I was going.’
I told her the story of last night and she laughed.
‘And you didn’t think that they might check with the local taxi firms for any pick ups?’
‘It ain’t that easy. They don’t just hand out that sort of info to anyone. Plus I left from a strange address.’
‘Big is it? Eaglesham? Do they have a lot of taxi pick ups at two o’clock on a Tuesday morning?’
‘But they would need to have an ‘in’ with the firm.’
‘Or they just lean on the controller. What would you rather do? Give out a fare’s details or have your head caved in? Come on, you did it all the time in the old days.’
She could be right. She was probably right.
‘So why not break in here and take care of me?’
‘Maybe they only just found out where you are. Maybe they didn’t want a witness. I don’t know. Who are they?’
A good question. I really didn’t want to go into the whole story but it looked like she was in this, one way or the other.
‘You know the French man that Martin said I was in trouble with. Well I think they are working for him.’
‘And is Frenchie bad news?’
‘You have no idea.’
‘Brilliant. So now I’m in the crap with you. If you fuck off do you think they are going to let me go freely about my business without answering a few questions?’
I shook my head.
‘Genius. Fucking genius. I said you were bad news and I was right on the money. Shit.’
She stubbed out the cigarette, gulped the hot tea as if it was cold and lit another cigarette.
‘This is not fucking good. Do you think they will risk coming in here?’
‘Maybe. After all they had no qualms about breaking into Martin’s house last night. For all they knew he could have been at home.’
Rachel sat down at the window table and looked out and said, ‘He’s still there.’
‘We need to go. He’s not that stupid that he doesn’t know he’s been spotted. I take it we can get out the rear and through the back green?’
‘Sure and then what? You piss off and I wait for a knock. Good thinking, batman.’
‘Well we can’t stay here.’
‘Why not? We wait on them, I hand you over and I’m home free. I would say that sounds about right for me.’
‘Dream on. They’re not going to lift me, or worse kill me, and let you hang around to ID them. The French man is not stupid. Like it or lump it we are in this together for a while.’
‘I’m not in anything with anyone.’
I said nothing and I saw resignation cross her face. I had seen that look on a hundred people’s faces when they realised there was no way out.
‘I have an idea,’ I said ‘I need time to sort this out. If I can square it with the French man then you are off the hook. I just need space to figure out how. Once I’m sorted then you are sorted.’
‘And if they catch us? Then what?’
‘You are no worse off than you are right now.’
