Still no word from Ford. I’m going to wait until this afternoon and if I haven’t heard from him, I’m going back to the warehouse. I’ll let you know. Sarah.
Then I went downstairs to get some breakfast, half hoping that Nick would be there, even if just to gauge my own reaction to seeing him. I was both relieved and disappointed when there was no sign of him.
Once I’d eaten, I set out on the footpath but couldn’t muster up any enthusiasm for sightseeing. An endless supply of tourists milled around in the streets, but they may as well have been part of a parallel universe for all the connection I felt to them.
I wandered aimlessly past monuments, sex museums and shops selling drug paraphernalia, following one canal after another, dodging the bicycles that whirred past, ever drawn towards the warehouse Nick and I had visited yesterday. Soon enough, I found myself walking along the same canal, up the same street. Like yesterday, there was no sign of any movement, but I couldn’t be sure that I wasn’t being watched. Perhaps there was a gap between one of the vertical, white window frames and the cardboard that covered the glass pane. Perhaps Grady was staring down at me. Or worse—maybe Ford himself was up there, plotting my disappearance.
At this thought, I hurried on up the street, remembering Adelita’s words from the previous night.
I turned back towards the main part of the city and once again became lost in the crowds of tourists. It was an overcast day, and everything around me, from the buildings, to the streets, to the canals, seemed grey. For lack of anything better to do, I sat down outside a cafe in Dam Square and ordered a coffee.
A chilly breeze swept across the wide square and I shivered. It was the first time I’d felt cold since I’d been in Europe. My coffee arrived and I cupped it between my hands and took a sip, scalding my tongue with the hot liquid.
Tourists wandered through the square, pausing every now and then to get their phones out and try unsuccessfully to capture the entire square in one selfie.
A group of four young men stumbled past my table, clearly stoned even at this time of the morning. They clung to one another, giggling helplessly, their eyes red, hysterical tears streaming down their faces.
A couple with two young daughters passed me in the other direction. The two girls were consuming gelato with rapid enthusiasm, their sticky hands clasped in their parents’.
All around me, people were enjoying themselves. I watched them talking and laughing with one another, oblivious to the dangerous cartel operating under their noses, and I envied them. I envied them their unhurried pace, their ability to enjoy their surroundings, the fact that they were here in Amsterdam purely for their own enjoyment. And as I sat there, in one of the most popular cities in the world, all I wanted was to go home.
My phone started ringing, and I sighed. Adelita. I held the phone in my hand for a few seconds, then rejected the call and tucked it back into my bag. I wasn’t up for that conversation right now.
I finished my coffee and paid the bill. My watch told me it was only ten thirty. It was going to be a long day.
I managed to wait until four o’clock that afternoon before I spat the dummy. I’d tried to call Ford on and off all day but heard nothing from him. I’d well and truly had enough. He could be setting me up, or he could be in danger. Either way, it was going to mean some scary shit for me and I just wanted to get it over with before I chickened out and went home to no job.
I called Nick and arranged to meet him back in Dam Square. He was sulky and petulant when I arrived. ‘I don’t suppose you have a sensible plan?’
‘The plan is we go to the warehouse, and we find a way in. Ford must be in danger. We have to find him.’
‘Great. Have you told Adelita about this brilliant plan?’
‘No. She wouldn’t understand.’
‘She wouldn’t understand because it’s a stupid idea,’ Nick said. ‘Our situation hasn’t changed since yesterday, and yet you still want to walk into a den of criminals with no knowledge of what we’re dealing with.’
‘It’s hardly like I want to. But what else are we supposed to do? You were on my side last night.’
‘That was before you—’ He stopped abruptly.
I narrowed my eyes. ‘Before I what? Before I spoke to James? I don’t see what that’s got to do with this.’
‘How is James, anyway? Have you set a date for the big day yet?’
I fought down the anger that had begun to build up inside me. ‘I’m only going to say this once, Nick. I don’t know what I’m going to do about James yet. I’m confused, and I’m tired, and I’m scared out of my brain by what’s waiting for us in that warehouse. I just want to get this story over with and get home. I don’t owe you an explanation, but that’s the way it is. So please stop acting as if I’ve betrayed you.’
‘Fine,’ he said huffily. ‘Let’s go.’
When we reached the street with the row of warehouses that overlooked the canal, Nick hesitated. ‘We should probably go through the backstreets,’ he suggested.
‘Can we just get some photos of the facade?’
‘It’s too dangerous.’
‘Come on, Nick, once we get in there we’re not going to have time to get photos, and we need one for the story.’
He looked sheepish. ‘Actually, I already took some earlier today.’
I raised an eyebrow. ‘Oh really?’
We cut down a side street and headed in the direction of the warehouse. As we got deeper into the maze of narrow, dark alleys that lay behind the main street, we saw fewer people. All sounds of the real world were
