Out of the corner of his eye, he was aware of the woman kneeling on the ground, scrabbling for the phone. That couldn’t happen. As she reached for it, fingers almost there, he kicked her arm. Heard the bone snap. She screamed, collapsed.
‘This is taking too long! Finish it!’
Dee’s voice.
The Golem turned, acknowledging his instructions. Turned back to the pair before him.
She was right. Time to finish this.
87
Marina felt as though she had been paralysed and forced to watch her worst nightmare. She couldn’t move for fear Stuart Sloane would shoot her daughter. She couldn’t stay where she was because she had to do something. Josephina was staring at her. Eyes shining with tears, demanding answers. Why are you standing there? Why won’t you help me, Mummy? Answers Marina couldn’t give.
The man holding the gun clutched her tighter.
Time slowed down. The voices around her phased out, people began to move in slow motion.
Marina’s brother screams, runs past her, heads towards the man with the gun. Moves slowly in Marina’s mind, yet also swiftly.
The man swings his gun sideways, away from Josephina. Even from this distance, Marina can see his finger squeezing the trigger, can sense that he is about to fire. She opens her mouth to scream. A dull roar emerges.
Sandro reaches the gunman. And is on him. The gunman looks up, eyes wide with surprise, mouth attempting to speak, no words coming out.
Sandro’s hand clamps round the gunman’s hand, wrenches the gun away from him, throws it behind him.
The gunman tries to shout something. His words don’t make it.
Sandro pulls back his arm, balls his fingers into a fist. Brings the fist down into the man’s face.
Hard.
Marina sees the man let go of Josephina.
Her daughter is free.
Time starts again. And Marina is back in the present. She can move once more.
‘Josephina!’
Her legs free, she began shoving her way through the crowd. Sandro’s exit from the ring had attracted attention. People were beginning to look towards the back of the arena, trying to see what she was looking at, what she was running towards.
She pushed, shouted, tried to force her way through, to get to her daughter. All around her were screams, rushing bodies, crushing her, stopping her from progressing. She caught only glimpses of her brother, her daughter, the crowd pressing in, obscuring her view. She pushed hard, moving forward all the while.
Then stopped suddenly as a pair of big, heavy hands clamped themselves on her shoulders.
She tried to shake them off, couldn’t. Turned to scream at them to let her go.
‘Don’t worry, love,’ said a familiar Welsh voice. ‘I’m here, I’ve got you. You’re safe now.’
DCI Gary Franks.
She turned back to where she had been headed.
Her brother, her daughter were now completely lost to the crowd.
88
‘Taking ages to answer,’ said Mickey.
‘Maybe she’s got a hot date.’ Anni was sitting on the desk once more, swinging her legs.
Mickey waited. ‘Not going to voicemail, either. Strange.’
‘Not really. It is Sunday night. Easter Sunday. Maybe she’s at home. Not everyone’s like us. Some people have social lives.’
The phone was answered. Mickey held up a hand, indicating this to Anni.
‘Hi, Jessie?’
‘Oh, so it’s Jessie now, is it?’ Anni was speaking just loud enough to be heard on the other end.
Mickey waved his hand at her, trying to shush her. ‘Mickey Philips here. I’m just—’
He stopped dead. The voice on the other end of the phone spoke.
‘You’re too late, Mickey Philips. Whoever you are. Much too late … ’
The line went dead.
Anni had a wisecrack planned. The expression on Mickey’s face froze it in her mouth.
‘Shit,’ he said. ‘We’ve got trouble.’
89
‘No!’ shouted Marina, throwing off Franks’s hand. ‘My daughter, my daughter’s down there … ’ She wriggled free from him and ran forward. He followed.
All around was chaos. Franks and his team had identified themselves as police officers and the crowd were panicking, desperately clambering towards the exits. The fight was over. The fight to avoid arrest for taking part in an illegal activity had begun.
Marina pushed her way through with a new-found strength. She wished that strength had been in evidence a few minutes ago. Eventually the barn began to clear, and she could make her way through the crowd. She reached the spot where Josephina had been. Her brother and the gunman were being marched away by police officers, arms up behind their backs. The woman she had spoken to on the phone had gone too.
‘He’s my … my brother … ’ she called out, but no one heard her.
She looked round, scanned the faces in the barn. Checked behind the bales, on the seats. Nothing. She turned to Franks, panic rising.
‘Where’s my … where’s my daughter?’
He answered, but she didn’t hear him. She searched frantically. Pulled everything apart. But the woman was gone.
And so was Josephina.
PART FOUR
RESURRECTION MONDAY
90
Midnight. And Easter Sunday became Easter Monday.
Michael Sloane paced the floor of the hotel room. Or as much as he could, given the tiny space they were
