She stirred. ‘She is here?’
‘Should be by now.’
We walked back out across the park, the traffic still zooming backwards and forwards overhead but now behind us. What I was looking for was a silver Opel estate. The start of the reg was 62-LH.
I spotted it parked just past the junction, and then the silhouette of Anna’s head. There was no time for casual contact drills. I wanted to get in the car and go.
As we got nearer, I heard the clunk of the central locking. I opened the back door for Lily and I got into the front. Anna backed out and moved off without saying a word. The sat nav gave her a string of English instructions. I caught a hint of Bulgari that made me feel a whole lot better.
Anna checked her rear-view. She didn’t want to talk yet. She wanted to get out of the area. I looked at her face and gave her a smile. It wasn’t returned. She wasn’t impressed with life right now.
It was only when we hit the dual carriageway that Anna broke the silence. ‘Lily … Can I call you Lily?’ She didn’t wait for a response. ‘My name is Anna.’ She gobbed off in Russian.
Lily gasped, and then almost choked with emotion. Her hands whirred like she was signing for the deaf. She leant in towards the front seat, her lips on overload. The only word I could understand was ‘Angeles’.
‘Stop, Lily. Stop.’ I turned to Anna. ‘All she knows is that Angeles is dead. I’ll tell you everything as soon as we get to the hotel. But not now, yeah?’
27
We parked in a multi-storey at Schiphol. Lily had crashed out on the back seat. I felt like doing the same. The heater had been working overtime.
Anna showed me her Radisson door card. The room number was scrawled on its folder. ‘Fifth floor.’
‘Which way are the lifts when you walk into Reception - left, right, straight?’
‘Turn right as soon as you go in, past the reception desk.’
‘I’ll give you and Lily fifteen minutes, yeah?’
Lily yawned, stretched and sat up. She must have sensed that we were no longer moving.
I looked over my shoulder. ‘We can’t all go in together. Anna and you go first. I’ll come after.’
Her hand was already on the passenger-door handle.
‘Lily, it’s OK.’ I reached over and gripped the leg of her jeans. ‘You stay with me. We’ll go together.’
Anna cut in: ‘You two go in first, and I will follow. Is that all right with you, Lily?’ She passed me the door card.
We climbed out of the Opel and headed down the stairs of the multi-storey, arm in arm again. The stairwell didn’t stink of last week’s piss like it would have done back home. ‘Walk normally, Lily. Smile at me if I smile at you. It’s just like we’re staying here and we’re heading back to the room for the night. Is that OK?’
She knew as well as I did that the desk staff would think she was a whore I’d picked up for the night. I was banking on the night shift not expecting to recognize any faces, and not wanting to embarrass me by checking. This was Amsterdam, after all.
We walked into the empty foyer. In case there were eyes, I fiddled conspicuously with Anna’s door card and turned immediately right, as if I knew where I was going. I strode towards the lifts and pressed the up button. I studied the card again for good measure.
It was after midnight and a few people still propped up the bar. Flat-screen TVs above the optics showed pictures of fire fighters at the silo. The roof had collapsed. Two fireboats pumped water over the smouldering ruin. It was drenched in spotlights from police boats alongside. People in high-vis clothing swarmed all over the area.
I held Lily close as we waited. She’d seen the screens. A tear finally did roll down her cheek.
‘It’s OK, Lily. You’re safe. Everyone is safe.’
The lift pinged open and we shot up to the fifth floor.
With its twin beds, walnut veneers, TV and mini-bar, the room could have been in any chain hotel anywhere in the world. I threw her chocolate and a carton of orange juice. She ripped the wrapper off the Milka bar and got stuck in. ‘Thank you, Nick.’
‘Go and have a bath. Anna will give you some clothes for tomorrow. I’m not going anywhere. Leave the door open if you want.’
She padded into the bathroom. I dug out the folder and threw it onto the bed.
‘Lily?’
I heard the sound of running water. She came to the door.
‘Anna will look after you, I promise. She won’t let anything happen to you - you understand that, don’t you?’
She nodded. ‘Yes. Thank you.’ She closed the door behind her.
I sat on the end of the bed and shoved cashews down my neck. According to the price list they cost the best part of a euro per nut. I washed them down with the world’s most expensive can of Pepsi and channel-hopped with the remote. The silo fire was on all the local stations, as well as CNN and BBC News 24. Kate Singleton was showing the world her gravitas.
There was a knock on the door. I checked through the peephole and opened up.
‘No problem with the desk, Nicholas?’ She nodded past me, towards the sound of running water.
‘Everything’s fine.’
I led her into the room. She sat next to me, pointing at the screen. ‘Why?’
‘Fuck knows, but it’s just the tip of the iceberg.’
28
I told Anna everything about the Flynns and the neo-Nazis, the Moldovan competition and Tresillian changing the plan and wanting all the girls dead. Then I told her about going back to the safe-house to find Bradley waiting for me, Angeles getting killed, and the police bursting in.
‘The police? How did they—’
‘Bradley maybe - fuck knows what else he got up to in that house. Or the neos - who must have followed us from the market? Who gave a fuck? What pissed me off more was what happened to Angeles. She wanted to protect me.’ I pictured that shy smile again, and the endless steaming, super-sweet brews. ‘She got fucked up by doing it and that’s down to Tresillian - and, of course, Jules.’
She wouldn’t believe it. ‘But he is a friend.’
‘You reckon? I want to think so, but I don’t know what the fuck is going on.’
Then I told her what had been clawing away at me ever since Bradley pulled the shotgun. ‘Everything and everyone connected with Lily is being taken out. This can’t just be about a favour to a friend. It’s something bigger, and Tresillian is tying up all the loose ends …’
She looked at me. She knew where this was leading. She was too smart not to.
I nodded. ‘If he doesn’t know already, he’ll find out soon enough that you were in on it too.’
She didn’t answer. She just let everything sink in.
Lily emerged from the bathroom, freshly scrubbed and fragrant, wet hair scraped back from her face. She curled up on the bed, in her own private world, eyes glued to the flickering TV screen.
I couldn’t wait around. We had things to do.
‘The Panda is going to flag up Nick Smith. The flight to Russia is history. Lily is the key, and I’m starting to think I might know why. As long as we’ve got her, they won’t get us. You must take her somewhere safe. I need both of you out of harm’s way.’
She sparked up. ‘I know people in—’
I put a hand over her mouth. ‘Stop. I don’t want to know.’
