I started to panic. He wasn’t giving anything up. On the positive side, we were still tailing Hoogeveen’s police car, so perhaps he really was taking me to the station and he was planning on denying everything. Or maybe he was taking me somewhere to kill me. Either way, I probably only had a few minutes to get him to confess. ‘In none of our conversations did I ever mention that I was looking for Chris Ford. And yet you told me on the phone earlier that it wasn’t your job to save musicians. And back there at the warehouse, you knew who he was immediately. Yesterday, I overheard Grady telling Angus Bright that the boss had spoken to me and tried to throw me off the Amsterdam trail. A lot of things aren’t adding up here.’
Harrington didn’t look at me this time. I kept my eyes on the police car in front of us while I waited for him to respond. There was a long silence. Up ahead, the police car turned left. And then we turned right. I stopped breathing.
‘The station is that way.’ I pointed in the direction Hoogeveen had taken, and when I turned back, Harrington was smiling that horrid, cold smile.
He reached across me and opened the glovebox. ‘We’re taking a little detour.’ He drew out a gun and pointed it at my head. A bolt of white-hot adrenalin shot through me.
‘Where are you taking me?’ I hoped beyond hope that Adelita was listening and that she’d had the sense to put the call on speaker. ‘Are you going to kill me?’
‘I was hoping we could deal with this like professionals.’ Harrington kept one hand on the steering wheel, the other still holding the gun to my head. ‘But you couldn’t give it up, could you? Typical meddling woman. So I’m afraid I don’t have a choice.’
I had to keep him talking. ‘There’s one thing I can’t work out in all this. If you knew I was lying about being a lawyer, why did you give me that information about Grady? You could’ve just told me he’d stayed clean since he got out of jail and left it at that. But it was almost like you wanted me to catch him.’
He sneered. ‘Grady has been making a lot of mistakes lately. Faking Bright’s death, accusing Ford… not to mention letting you live after you found the bar in Paris. He jeopardised the whole operation, so I was ready to cut him loose.’
‘Where are we going now, then? You can’t exactly shoot me in the head in the middle of the city, and it’d make a terrible mess in this nice car of yours.’
‘Honestly, do you ever shut your mouth? Can’t we just enjoy a mutual silence, or do I have to knock you out to keep you quiet?’
Then, through the swirling combination of panic and rage, I registered the squeal of tyres in the distance. I could tell from the sudden jerk of Harrington’s head that he’d heard it too. Sirens started up and he accelerated, narrowly missing another cyclist.
‘They know what you did,’ I said desperately. ‘They’re listening in on this conversation right now. You can kill me, but they’re going to get you anyway.’
For the first time, he looked panicked. ‘I told you to shut up!’
He stabbed the butt of the gun at my head and pain exploded in my temples. I gasped and clutched my head. The police siren grew louder and was joined by another from the other direction. Harrington sped up a narrow, cobbled street. Startled faces of pedestrians stared at us as we raced past.
Then without warning, the tyres screeched and my seatbelt snapped hard across my chest as Harrington braked suddenly. A police car was parked horizontally across the end of the street, blocking us in. My head throbbed from the blow, but I barely felt it.
‘Fuck!’ Harrington roared. He pressed the muzzle of the gun against my ear. ‘Don’t you fucking move, bitch.’
Two police officers leapt from the car and stood in the street, guns pointed at the windscreen. Harrington wound down his window and shouted out at them. ‘Move the car or she dies.’
I squeezed my eyes shut. A week ago I’d fought for this story so I could keep up with my mortgage. I’d thrown myself into an area I had little experience in, risking my life for the chance to spend longer in that big, empty house that I was never going to be able to afford on my own. I’d yearned for James before finding something with Nick that I’d never expected. My almost dormant career dreams had resurfaced.
But now, sitting perfectly still in this car, the cold steel of Harrington’s gun pressed against my earlobe, I’d give it all up in a second to go back to one day of my old life.
The moment drew out for an eternity.
Then there was a click from beside Harrington’s window. ‘Let her go,’ came Hoogeveen’s voice. I opened my eyes.
Harrington turned his head slowly towards the window where Hoogeveen was standing, his own gun against Harrington’s head. Harrington’s voice, when he spoke, was dead calm. ‘Let me go and I’ll cut you in.’
Hoogeveen’s eyes bulged and his face went red. ‘What?’
‘A man in your position could help everything run just that little bit smoother. If you join me, I can make it worth your while.’
Hoogeveen’s face twisted. ‘You are despicable. It’s over, Harrington. If you don’t want me to shoot you in the head, I would advise you to lower your weapon now.’
Harrington jabbed his gun into the side of my head. ‘Do you really want her to die too?’
I let out a whimper. All my instincts were screaming at me to get out of the car, to run and run until my lungs burst, but I didn’t dare to twitch a muscle. No one moved for an excruciating moment.
Then Harrington placed the gun carefully on the dashboard. Hoogeveen gestured to me
