Had Simmonds arranged to phone Euan some time after our meeting? Euan was more than three hours away, and Simmonds's body would be discovered soon. If Euan found out, he wouldn't take any chances. He would change location, maybe even kill Kelly right away. Either way, I'd have lost her. This time there was no question of just leaving her. I could call her on the mobile and tell her to run, but what would that achieve? She was in the middle of nowhere; even if she ran for half an hour, it would make no difference.
Euan's cottage was in the middle of acres of mountains, grass, rocks, and sheep shit. He would find her.
I could call the police, but would they believe me? I could waste hours trying to convince them, by which time it would be too late. Or they might take it on themselves to raid Euan's house, and the result would be the same.
For a fleeting second I thought about Big Al. I hoped he'd be well out of it by now. He didn't have getaway accounts for nothing. If he'd transferred four hundred grand into mine, for sure he'd have taken eight hundred for himself. Old Watermelon would be OK. I cut him from my mind.
The highway services just before Heathrow were just coming up. I had a thought.
I pulled off and drove into the parking lot. Now all I had to do was get to a phone and make a call. The service station was busy. I'd had to park a hundred yards from the main entrance. I got out of the car just as the heavens opened. By the time I reached the bank of four telephones outside Burger King, I was soaked. The first two I tried accepted only cards. I had about three pounds in change in my pocket--not enough. I ran into the shop, wiping my face to get some of the blood off. I bought a newspaper with a river, walked out, the woman looking worried at the state of my face. I men went back in and got a packet of M&Ms with a tenner. The woman looked even more scared. She was just happy for me to take my change and get out.
As I dialed the number I felt a knot in my stomach, as if I were a teenager phoning to arrange his very first date. Would she have charged it and left it switched on? Why wouldn't she? She had never let me down before.
It started to ring.
For a moment I felt like a child in a candy store with his dad, hardly able to contain my excitement. Then I had new things to worry about. What ifEuan had the phone now?
Did I hang up or did I try to bluff it and maybe find out where she was?
It was too late to think. The ringing stopped; there was a pause, then I heard a quiet, hesitant, 'Hello, who is it?'
'Hi, Kelly, it's me. Nick,' I said, trying for all the world to sound like Mr. Casual.
'Are you on your own?'
'Yes, you woke me up. Are you coming back now?' She sounded tired and confused. I was trying hard to think of an answer; thankfully she went on.
'Euan said that I might be staying with him longer, because you have to go away. It isn't true, is it. Nick? You said you wouldn't leave me.'
It was a bad connection. I had to put a finger in my other ear to hear her above the noise of the rain on the glass of the phone booth. A truck driver in the next one along was shouting loudly and angrily, arguing with his boss that he couldn't go any farther because of his odometer, and he wasn't going to lose his license just to get a few boxes of bloody anoraks up to Carlisle. On top of that was the steady boom of traffic on the highway, and the noises of people coming in and out of the station. I had to block all that out and concentrate on the phone call, because there was no way I could ask Kelly to speak up.
I said, 'Yes, of course, you're right, I will never leave you.
Euan is lying to you. I have found out some bad things about him, Kelly. Are you still in the house?'
'Yes, I'm in bed.'
'Is Euan in his bed?'
'Yes. Do you want to speak with him?'
'No, no. Let me think for a minute.'
My mind was racing now, trying to think of the best way to say what I wanted.
'Of course I'm coming to get you. In fact, I'll be there very soon. Now listen. I need you to do something very difficult and very dangerous. You only have to do this one last thing for me and everything will be over.' The moment I said it I felt like a lowlife.
'I don't have to run away again, do I?'
'No, no, no it's not like that this time. But it's the most special job a spy ever does.' I didn't want to give her time to think, so I just went on.
'But I want to check something first, OK? You're in bed, aren't you? Get under the covers and talk to me only in a whisper, OK?'
I could hear the rustling, then she said, 'What are we going to do. Nick?'
'First, I want you to press a number and look at the front of the telephone. Can you see it light up? Tell me if there's a picture of a battery. How many blocks are there where the battery sign is? Can you see it?'
I heard some scuffling.
'I can see that.'
'How many blocks are there in the picture?'
'Three. There's three blocks. One of them is flashing.'
'That's good.' It wasn't really. I was sweating: two blocks meant she hadn't recharged it and the battery was down to less than half-power, and I was going to need a lot of air time to talk her through the whole process.
'What's that noise?' she said.
The truck driver was now really pissed off and hollering into the phone, the cigarette in his hand making the phone booth look like a steam room.
'Nothing to worry about. Kelly, I'm going to tell you what to do, but you need to keep listening to me on the telephone.
Can you do that?'
'Why is Euan bad, Nick? What.. ' 'Listen, Kelly, Euan wants to hurt me. If he finds you doing this thing for me, he will hurt you, too. Do you understand that?'
I could hear lots of rustling; she was obviously still under the bed covers. Then there was a very quiet 'Yes.'
She wasn't sounding like a happy bunny. I was sure there was a better way I could be going about all this, I just didn't have time to think what it might be.
'If Euan wakes up,' I said, 'or if the telephone stops working, I want you to leave the house very, very quietly. I want you to go down the track to the road and hide behind the trees, just by the big gate that Euan drove through to get to his cottage. Know where I mean?'
'Yeah.'
'You must hide there until you hear a car come and stop, but don't get out from your hiding place unless it toots its horn two times. Then come out. Do you understand that? I'll be in the car. It's a blue Astra, OK?'
There was a pause.
'What's an As--Astra, Nick?'
Shit, she was seven years old and American. What was I expecting?
'OK. I'll stop in a blue car and come and get you.'
I got her to repeat it, and for good measure I said, 'So if Euan wakes up and sees you, I want you to run to the trees as fast as you can and hide. Because if Euan catches you doing what I want you to do, we will never see each other again.
Don't let me down, OK? And remember, don't you come out from behind those trees, even if Euan calls for you, OK?'
'OK. You will come and get me, won't you?'
There was a bit of doubt in her mind.
'Of course I will. Now, first of all, what I want you to do is get out of bed, then put the phone on the bed and get dressed, very quietly. Put on a nice thick coat. And you know those sneakers we bought? Make sure you take those as well, but don't put them on yet.'
I heard her put the phone down and start rummaging around the room.
