Both of us were slowing down and stepping more carefully so as to not make too much noise. Every sound seemed magnified.
‘I don’t know how we’re going to find this place.’ Nick’s voice was barely a whisper. ‘All these streets look the same. I can’t tell how close we are.’
He was right. I’d lost all sense of direction. We couldn’t even retrace our steps, because I couldn’t remember what they were.
‘Do you know which way the canal is?’ I whispered back.
He stopped and looked around him, his lips moving as if doing calculations in his head. ‘It has to be that way.’ He pointed to the left. ‘I think we’ve gone too far back from it.’
We continued in the direction he’d pointed, our fear drawing us closer together as we went. We were walking so quietly that when the echoing sound of footsteps approached from our right, we both jumped nervously.
The footsteps drew closer, and I looked around for a nearby alley to slip into. Something told me that, whoever this was, we didn’t want to be seen. But there was nowhere to hide. We stared at one another in mute panic. My heart pounded against my chest. Then Nick put his hands on my waist, pushed me gently against the wall of a building and lowered his face to mine.
My breath caught in my throat and my skin zinged as our lips met. The footsteps echoed louder as their owner walked around the corner. The tip of Nick’s tongue lightly stroked mine. My head swam, my legs were weak. The footsteps paused, but it didn’t matter because I wasn’t acting anymore. I was kissing him back.
My hands were on his neck now, and we devoured one other with all the ardour that had been building between us over the last week. I barely registered as the footsteps resumed and passed us by. Nick’s camera hung between us, digging into my hip. For one long moment the world outside of us ceased to exist, and then all too soon Nick lifted his head as the footsteps receded into the distance.
‘Sorry about that.’ One corner of his mouth tilted upwards. But he didn’t move away. My whole body tingled.
‘Is that your camera I can feel, or are you just pleased to see me?’ I joked, my voice shaking.
He laughed gently, his eyes soft in a way I’d never seen before. I tore my gaze away from his and looked up the street to watch the receding figure of the man who had passed us. I removed my hands from where they still rested on either side of his neck.
‘Should we follow him?’ I asked. ‘He might be going to the warehouse.’
‘Yep,’ Nick said briskly. He stepped away, and I had to resist the impulse to pull him back to me again. ‘Let’s go.’
He started off down the street after the shadowy figure. I touched my lips with the tips of my fingers as I followed. God damn.
We walked as stealthily as we could, staying in the shadows of the building in case the man turned around. Part of me wished he would so we could kiss again. But he hurried along, head hunched over, his brown, wiry hair falling to his shoulders. He wore faded blue jeans and a black T-shirt. A blue satchel swung from one hand; it looked empty.
He disappeared to the left down a tiny alley. Nick and I paused at the corner to watch where he went. A row of buildings identical to the warehouses along the canal, with the same gabled roofs, stretched along the length of the alley. And the man we’d been following was walking straight up to one of the doors.
Nick lifted his camera and started shooting as the man gave a series of small knocks on the door. He fidgeted while he waited, casting furtive looks around him and stamping his feet impatiently. Finally, after a few minutes, the door swung open to reveal a short, balding man in a black jacket.
‘It’s Grady!’ I hissed to Nick. ‘This is the place!’
The man disappeared inside. After looking left and then right, Grady closed the door behind them.
‘Come on.’ I started forward, but Nick put a hand on my arm to restrain me.
‘Wait! Look up there.’ He pointed at the wall of the building above the door where a row of security cameras surveyed the alley in all directions. ‘We can’t just walk in there, they’ll see us coming a mile off.’
I grimaced. ‘So what are we supposed to do? Ford is probably in there, probably in a lot of trouble. I’m going in, with or without you.’
Nick opened his mouth to protest, but I was already in the alley. He swore under his breath as he followed me.
I tried the handle. ‘Bugger, he locked it.’
‘Of course he locked it, you nong,’ Nick said. ‘Come here.’
He placed one hand on the back of my neck and plucked out a hairpin that’d been holding back a lock of hair. I raised my eyebrows.
‘I used to get in a bit of trouble when I was a teenager,’ he said.
He opened out the pin and inserted it into the lock, then jiggled it around a little. For a moment I thought it wasn’t going to work, that the lock was too heavy duty to pick, but then there was a metallic click, and when I tried the handle again, the door swung open. It was gloomy inside. Nick and I exchanged glances, and I could see the same fear in his eyes that filled my own belly. Again, I contemplated walking away, abandoning the story and going to the police. But I’d come too far to back out now. I took a deep breath and stepped through the door.
It took a few seconds for my eyes to adjust to the dim light. My heart was in my throat and my limbs twitched in
