A couple of middle-aged bike riders in full leather gear came hurtling down the hill, and Tina dodged to avoid them, mounting the bank at the side of the road before righting herself. They were close to the edge of the woods here. In a few moments the woods would give way to farmland, followed by the next village along.
She slammed on the brakes, slowing to only a few miles an hour. ‘OK, go, go, go!’
They looked at each other one last time in the mirror and Ray said the words he’d used only a handful of times before with Tina: ‘I love you.’
Then he was out the door, across the road, and racing into the trees, as she sped away, wondering how much more of this day she could take.
29
Almost as soon as I hit the tree line I heard the police cars coming up the hill. I dived down in some ferns and crawled behind a beech tree, watching as they drove past, barely thirty seconds behind Tina. There were two of them and I waited for them to pass, counted to ten and, confident that they were the only ones coming, jumped to my feet and continued running through the woods. The light was disappearing but the trees, a mixture of beech and oak, were too far apart to provide much cover. If the police flooded the area it wouldn’t take them long to find me.
I knew from experience, however, that it would take them time to get organized and, if I moved fast enough, I could still get away. In the short time Tina and I had been together we’d spent a lot of time walking round these woods and I knew exactly where I was. To the right of me was the grassy hill that led directly down to the back of Tina’s cottage, whereas to the left, the wood was bordered by a single-track road that ran along its top, and it was here where I was supposed to be meeting Steve Brennan.
My heart was still pounding from how close I’d come to getting killed. Some sixth sense had told me to look round just as I’d come out of Tina’s back door, and there she was. The Wraith, a balaclava covering her head, standing in the upstairs window pointing a gun straight at me. I’d felt the bullet strike the backpack like a punch as I dived to the ground, not sure if I’d been injured or not, but knowing that either way I was totally exposed.
But the second bullet never came, and when I looked round I’d seen The Wraith and Tina struggling.
I looked at my watch. 8.12 p.m. Exactly ten minutes since I’d made the call to Brennan, so the other man should be close by. Somewhere way off in the distance I could hear the sound of a police siren. There’d be a full pursuit of Tina now, and once again I felt a pang of guilt. And for involving Steve Brennan, a man who’d already suffered far too much in life to have to face the indignity of prison. But I quickly pushed the guilt aside. When you’re on the run and desperate, and when of course you believe you’re acting in the greater good, guilt’s a luxury you can’t afford.
The road was about a hundred yards to my left if I remembered correctly, and I turned towards it now, pulling the burner phone free from my pocket.
‘I’m up here,’ I whispered into the phone. ‘Where are you?’
‘I should be at the spot where we’re meant to meet in about two minutes,’ Brennan replied. ‘A police car just came whizzing past me on the main road, with all its lights flashing. Is everything OK?’
I could have spared Brennan the risk of getting caught by telling him just to turn round and go home, but self-preservation was standing right in the way. ‘We’ll be fine,’ I said, ‘but the sooner you’re here the better. Keep driving until you see me.’
I ended the call and picked up the pace, running fast now, seeing the outline of the road up ahead. The siren I’d heard earlier had stopped and all was once again quiet, except for the birds in the trees, and the faint rumble of an engine coming from ahead of me. This would be Brennan.
When I was a few yards from the road, I stopped behind a tree and crouched down.
Which was when I saw it. A car parked in the shadow of a large holly bush a few yards in from the road. It could have been a dog walker but, with darkness about to fall and the temperature dropping, it was a bit late, and I hadn’t seen anyone else in the woods.
Realization hit me. The Wraith would have had to come out either at the front or the back of Tina’s neighbour’s house after the shooting, and to avoid detection she’d almost certainly have chosen the back, which meant she’d have come up the hill and into these woods.
Where she’d probably hidden her car.
I turned round, and saw her immediately, no more than thirty yards away, creeping up on me like a hunter, using the trees as cover. She was still wearing the balaclava and her hair was tied back in a ponytail. She saw me looking at her and stopped.
For a few seconds we simply observed each other. There was no anger, no real emotion at all. Just an interest, born possibly of mutual respect. Three times we’d been brought together now. Three times she’d tried to kill me. Three times she’d failed, but still she came back. I admired her determination. I suspected she admired mine.
And then, just like that, the spell was broken as she whipped up the
