My heart sank as I realized I’d just put Tina in real danger. If the counterfeiters had seen this photo they’d know exactly who I was. I cursed, and looked round for the burner phone, found it on the bedside table, and picked it up. There was a missed call from Tina’s number that had been made eight minutes earlier.
It was risky to call her back but I needed to know she was OK, and I felt a surge of relief as she picked up on the second ring. I started talking before she had a chance to say anything: ‘If you haven’t picked up the stuff yet, don’t. My new look’s plastered all over the news.’
She laughed down the phone, and I could tell she was outside somewhere. ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘So I’ve found out.’
I felt my jaw tighten. ‘Are you OK?’
‘I’m fine. And I’ve got your passport and licence. I’ve still got your money too. The people you were buying from had worked out who you were. They wanted me to tell them your location, but naturally I was too honourable for that. They got rough, but I got rougher.’
This time it was me who laughed. ‘Yeah, I bet you did. Woe betide the man who tangles with you.’
‘I’ll tell you something else,’ she said. ‘The place was under police surveillance. They raided it while I was there. I got out. I don’t think your friend Zafir was so lucky.’
‘Well, that’ll do his credibility with the local criminal fraternity some good. He doesn’t know who you are so even if he talks to the cops, he won’t be able to implicate you. Was your disguise good enough that you won’t be recognized?’
‘Thankfully, yes. And I didn’t drive my own car there, so there’s nothing that’ll tie me to the scene. It was close though.’
I sighed. ‘I’m sorry, Tina. I really am.’
‘Look, I care about you. I don’t regret it.’
I tensed at her words, knowing that in three hours I’d be on my way, and would almost certainly never see her again. ‘Jesus, I’ll miss you. I really will.’
‘I’ll miss you too. But I definitely think it’s best for my sanity if you go. Listen, I’ll be back in an hour or so, depending on traffic. Is it all sorted your end?’
‘Yeah, the pick-up time’s 9.30.’
‘And he’s OK doing it?’
The man picking me up was Steve Brennan, the father of Sheridan and Cem Kalaman’s first victim. I’d been loath to call him but had done it because I could see no other way. But I needn’t have worried. Steve Brennan had been keen, almost desperate, to help.
‘Yeah, he’s fine,’ I said.
‘Good. I’ll see you before then to say goodbye.’
It might, I thought, be better if we didn’t see each other at all, since it was just a way of prolonging the agony, but in the end I knew I wouldn’t be able to face that. I had to hold her one more time. Then no more.
I put the phone back in my pocket and went back into the bedroom. The only sound outside the window was the singing of the birds but I still logged into Tina’s account and checked the feeds on her cameras at the front and back of the house, relieved to find that there was no sign of any intruders.
I closed the laptop and smiled. I was just getting jumpy.
25
Mary West had been napping on the sofa, which was something she did more and more these days, and she was making herself a cup of tea in an attempt to wake herself up when she sensed a presence in the cottage. She frowned, wondering if she was just getting senile, sleeping half the day and imagining people in her house. Bill would have told her that this was just part and parcel of getting old, but Bill had been gone ten years now, and she had no one here to tell her not to worry about everything.
But then she’d always been a worrier. Only now, at eighty-five, had she realized how much worry had wasted her time. Sometimes she’d take her grandchildren to one side and tell them that the one thing she’d learned, now that it was far too late, was that you had to embrace life, take risks, not allow it to get the better of you.
Mary thought she could almost hear her bones creaking as she picked up her tea and walked slowly out of the kitchen and into her living room. The light from the gradually setting sun was still strong through the open French windows, bathing everything in a rich golden glow.
Except Mary was sure she’d closed them.
A long shadow fell across her path, and she felt that presence again, knew now that there was someone in her home. Slowly she turned, a shiver of shock running up her spine.
A figure all in black stood there, a mask covering his face, a gun in his hand.
Mary let out a small, terrified gasp and the man put a finger to his lips.
‘Don’t say a word, and I promise you won’t be hurt. You just need to do me a little favour, that’s all.’
And that was when Mary realized it wasn’t a man at all. It was a woman. And for some reason this scared her even more.
Tina was back in her own car, still parked up in the same back street where she’d left it earlier, removing her makeup and
