of cigarettes. The question neither of them could answer was
She felt utterly bewildered. How was Fernanda Revere’s husband going to react? The other members of the woman’s family? When she had boarded the plane to come here, she knew she had a difficult task ahead of her. But she had never, remotely, thought of a consequence like this. She lit another cigarette with a trembling hand.
‘I think now, Carly, you’re going to have to think pretty seriously and quickly about entering a witness protection scheme,’ Pat Lanigan said. ‘I’m going to see that you have someone guarding you all the time you’re here, but people like the Reveres have long memories and a long reach.’
‘Do you really think I’d ever be truly safe in a witness protection scheme?’
‘You can never say one hundred per cent, but it would give you your best chance.’
‘You know what it means? To move to another part of the country, just you and your child, and never see any of your family or friends again, ever. How would you like to do that?’
He shrugged. ‘I wouldn’t like it too much. But if I figured I didn’t have any option, then I guess it would be better than the alternative.’
‘What – what alternative?’
He gave Carly a hard stare. ‘Exactly.’
85
The air-conditioning was too cold and too loud, but nothing Carly did to the controls in her hotel bedroom seemed to make any difference. She couldn’t find any extra bedding either, so had ended up almost fully clothed, under the sheets, tossing and turning, a tsunami of dark thoughts crashing through her mind.
Shortly after 6 a.m. and wide awake, she slipped out of bed, walked across to the window and opened the blinds. Light flooded in from a cloudless dark blue sky. She watched a jet plane climb into it, then dropped her gaze on to a sprawling mess of industrial buildings and a busy road, thirty floors below.
Her head was pounding. She felt queasy and very afraid. God, how she desperately wished Kes was here now, more than ever. Just to talk this through with him. He was bigger than any shit the world could throw at him. Except that damned white stuff that had encased and suffocated him.
But most of all, the idea of walking away from her life and going into hiding, forever, was total and utter shit. It wasn’t going to happen. There had to be a better solution.
Had to be.
Suddenly her mobile phone rang. She hurried across and picked it off her bedside table, staring at the display. It simply said,
‘Hello?’ she answered.
‘Hi, Carly?’ It was Justin Ellis and his voice was sounding strange.
‘Yes. You all right?’ Carly replied, conscious her voice was strained. She needed paracetamol and a cup of tea, badly.
‘Well – not really,’ Justin replied. ‘I think there’s been some mix-up over Tyler.’
‘How do you mean? His dentist appointment? Have I screwed up?’ She looked at the clock radio, doing a mental calculation. She always got the time differences wrong. England was five hours ahead. Coming up to 11.15 a.m. there. Tyler’s appointment was for 11.30, wasn’t it?
‘What’s the problem, Justin?’
‘Well, you asked me to take him to the dentist. I’m at the school now to collect him, but they’re telling me you arranged a taxi to take him there.’
Carly sat down on the side of the bed. ‘A taxi? I didn’t arrange any-’
A terrible, dark dread began to seep through her.
‘A taxi collected him half an hour ago,’ Justin said, sounding a little pissed off. ‘Did you forget?’
‘Oh, God,’ Carly said. ‘Justin! Oh, my God. Tell me it’s not true?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘This can’t have happened. They must have made a mistake. Tyler has to be in the school somewhere. Have they checked? Have they looked everywhere?’ Her voice was trembling with rising panic. ‘Please get them to check. Tell them to check. Tell them they
‘Carly, what’s the matter? What is it?’
‘Please let him be there. Please, Justin, you have to find him. Please go in there and find him. Please! Oh, my God, please.’ She stood up, hyperventilating now, walking around the room blindly. ‘Please, Justin!’
‘I don’t understand, Carly. I spoke to Mrs Rich. She walked him to the gate and watched until he was safely in the taxi.’
‘It’s not possible! It’s not possible, Justin. Please don’t tell me he’s not there.’ She was sobbing and shouting in her desperation. ‘Please tell me he’s still there!’
There was a brief moment of silence, then Justin said, ‘What’s the matter, Carly. Calm down! Tell me – what’s the matter?’
‘Justin, call the police. I did not order a taxi.’
86
The traffic jam along the seafront was irritating Tooth. This had not been part of his plan. On his schedule he’d allowed a maximum of ten minutes for this section of the journey, but it had already taken twenty-two. And they were still barely moving in stop-start traffic that was being coned into a single lane by roadworks ahead.
The noise behind him was irritating him too, but it was keeping the kid distracted while he drove, so that was a good thing. He watched him in the mirror. The boy, in his red school blazer and wire-framed glasses, was concentrating hard on some electronic game.
Suddenly the kid looked up. ‘Where are we going? I thought we were going to the Drive? This isn’t the right way.’
Tooth spoke in his English accent. ‘I had a message that the address got changed. Your dentist is working at his other clinic today in a different part of the city, over in Regency Square.’
‘OK.’
The taxi’s radio crackled, then a voice said, ‘Pick up for Withdean Crescent. Anyone close to Withdean Crescent?’
From behind Tooth came,
They were getting closer now. In a few moments he would make a left turn.
‘What game are you playing?’ Tooth asked, wanting the kid to feel OK, relaxed, normal, at least for the next couple of minutes.
‘It’s called Angry Birds. It’s ace. Have you played it?’
Concentrating now, Tooth did not reply. The Skoda taxi made a sharp left turn off the seafront into Regency Square. As it did so, Tooth sneezed, loudly, then sneezed again.
‘Bless you,’ Tyler said politely.
Tooth grunted. He drove up the square of terraced Regency houses, all painted white and in different stages of dilapidation, some divided into apartments and some converted into hotels. At the top he made a right, following the road around the grassy park in the middle of the square and then back down towards the seafront. He swung
