strong and I felt the blade nip at the skin of my belly as he tried to push it into me. At the same time he increased the pressure on my knife hand, and it took every ounce of willpower to hold on to my knife.
I was once told by a football thug and ex-boxer that in close-quarters combat, when you’re struggling hand to hand, your best weapon is your head. Remembering that now, I launched mine into the blackness, hoping to catch him with a strong enough blow to knock him off balance. Unfortunately, he’d also had the same idea, and our foreheads met somewhere in the middle with a loud, agonizing crack that shocked both of us.
For a moment, he loosened his grip on me and I managed to launch myself off the wall, pushing him backwards. But he kept his balance and remained tight to me as we wrestled frantically across the floor, with him trying to land another headbutt on me.
I dodged two of the blows but banged into the office chair, lost my footing and stumbled, only just managing to stay upright. At the same time, he drove his knife hand upwards in a sudden movement until the blade was so close to my face that I could actually see it. Using his momentum, he charged me back into a set of shelves, pushing the knife even further into my field of vision, so close to me now that the tip of the blade was barely an inch from my left eye.
I could see nothing in the gloom, bar the blade and the darkness. But I could hear his laboured breathing, smell the stale odour of his breath.
‘For Christ’s sake, help me!’ I roared, willing Lee to come down. ‘Help!’
My arm was shaking with the effort of holding his wrist and keeping the knife from plunging right through my eye and into my brain. It was a trial of strength but one I was always going to lose because my attacker had all the momentum and the physical strength, and all I had was desperation. Just the smallest slackening of my grip would mean certain death, and I couldn’t have that. Couldn’t. Not before I’d found out what was going on here.
I let out an angry howl, and with my last remaining strength I drove my knee up into my attacker’s groin, knocking him backwards. Seeing my chance, I twisted my own knife hand free and lashed out into the darkness with the blade. The only thing I stabbed was air, though, and a second later his own blade came flashing out of the darkness in a vicious, scything arc. Instinctively, I dived out of the way, lost my footing completely this time, and fell to the ground, twisting so that I landed on my back with the knife outstretched.
‘Help me!’ I screamed again, but this time my assailant didn’t continue his attack. Instead, I heard him racing up the steps.
Exhausted, I got to my feet and scrambled in the direction of the steps, starting up them myself, just as his silhouette reached the top. I was five steps behind him by the time he slammed the door shut, two steps by the time he threw the bolt across and left me once again in total blackness.
With a scream of frustration, I shoulder-barged the door with every ounce of strength I had, but bounced uselessly off it and toppled down a couple of the steps. Panicking now, knowing that Lee was out there somewhere and that I’d betrayed her by not leaving with her when we had the chance, I kept hitting it, making as much noise as possible, feeling a rising sense of panic, claustrophobia, and anger at myself. Having just been released from forced captivity, I’d got myself back into exactly the same situation only minutes later because I’d broken the first rule of undercover work: when things go tits up, get out fast and let the cavalry mop up the mess.
I paused for a few seconds, panting as I waited to get my breath back, the questions racing through my mind. Was it Kent who’d just attacked me? If so, how had he managed to break free from his bonds, and how did he manage to kill Clarence Haddock fifty metres away? Why, too, had he come back to the cellar in which he’d been incarcerated when he’d had the chance to make a break for it? And if it wasn’t Kent who’d attacked me, then, with both Haddock and Tommy already dead, who the hell was it?
One obvious name sprang out at me, and pretty much as soon as it did I heard the sound of cautious footfalls coming from the room outside.
‘Hello?’ Tyrone Wolfe called out, his voice echoing round the emptiness of the building. ‘Where is everybody? Clarence, Lee?’ His voice carried a ring of uncertainty as if he’d just walked in the front door and was surprised to find the place dark and deserted.
My first thought was that this was some kind of trick Wolfe was pulling. But if he was the guy who’d just attacked me, then he had me trapped anyway, so he wouldn’t need to play any kind of trick. Stuck in the darkness, I had little choice but to give him the benefit of the doubt.
I rapped hard on the door. ‘Tyrone. It’s me, Sean. Let me out of here.’
The footfalls came closer. ‘What are you doing in there?’ he demanded.
So I told him the truth. About Lee freeing me; the discovery of Haddock’s corpse; then Tommy’s; and finally Kent’s empty chair and the attack on me.
‘Where’s Lee?’ he snapped, the tension in his voice clearly audible.
‘I don’t know. I left her where you are now. Isn’t she there?’
‘No, she isn’t. No one is.’
‘She was there two minutes ago, I promise.’
‘How do I know you’re telling the truth?’
‘Because I didn’t lock myself in here, did I? And if you don’t believe me about Haddock, go and check. He’s in the outbuilding round the side.’
‘And he’s definitely dead?’ Wolfe sounded incredulous, which I could understand. It was difficult to believe someone as huge and menacing as Haddock could be brought low by anyone.
‘As a doornail,’ I told him. ‘And Tommy.’
There was a long, heavy silence as he took stock of what I’d just told him — that his crew was no more, having been wiped out in the time it took him to bury a couple of guns, and that his girlfriend was missing, possibly dead. Possibly even involved, since right now pretty much anything was possible. One thing was clear, however, and that was that Tyrone Wolfe was as much in the dark as me, which was about the only thing that gave me some hope.
Finally, I heard the bolt being slid across and I took a step back, holding on to the staircase rail as the door opened. Wolfe stood there pointing his gun at me. By the dim moonlight coming through the windows, I could see his forehead glinting with sweat.
He spotted my knife and told me to drop it.
‘No way. Someone’s just tried to kill me, and they’re still round here somewhere. In fact, I’m still not a hundred per cent sure it’s not you. I mean, you look a bit out of breath.’
‘I’ve just been digging a bloody great hole. Of course I look out of breath.’
‘But you kept your gun I see.’
‘It didn’t get fired so there’s no need to be rid of it.’
‘And as you can see, my knife hasn’t been used either. But I’m like you. I need something to protect myself with.’
He licked his lips and nodded. ‘Fair enough, but we need to find Lee.’
‘And Kent. He’s the man the client wants, isn’t he?’
He nodded again, but more uncertainly this time.
‘Who’s the client, Tyrone?’
‘I can’t tell you.’
‘That might have worked before everyone started dying on us, but it doesn’t any more. I want to know who it is we’re up against.’
He looked round nervously. ‘OK. But first I want to find my girl. Understand? She’s got to be in here somewhere.’
‘How do you know she’s not behind all this?’ I asked him.
His expression darkened, and he brought his face close to mine. ‘You know something, Sean? She loves me. She always has done, and she always will. Now, if you want to stay on the right side of me, you won’t say nothing like that again. Understand?’
I stared him down, making sure he knew I was no longer intimidated by his tough-guy routine. Tyrone Wolfe was definitely not a man to cross, but for the first time I wondered if his bark was actually louder than his bite. I wasn’t convinced about Lee, either. In my admittedly limited experience of Thai working girls, they’re nothing if not ruthless, and most of the western men who fall for them are naively oblivious to that. Wolfe, I was pretty certain, fell slap-bang into this category. But I wasn’t going to get into an argument about it.
‘Sure,’ I answered. ‘Lead the way.’
