59
‘Dad…’ Lucy’s emotions were a jumbled mess. In her mind, she saw a picture of her father making blueberry pancakes one Sunday morning. She was at the kitchen table colouring in her pony book, her mother pottering amiably around the kitchen. All of them without a care in the world.
He pushed a twenty-pound note at the taxi driver. ‘Wait here. We won’t be long.’
‘Hey…’ The driver began to protest.
‘You’ll get the rest when we get back.’ He was curt.
As her father climbed out of the cab Lucy took a photograph of the taxi ID number before showing the driver her warrant card. ‘I expect you to wait, okay?’
‘Okay, okay,’ he said irritably. ‘I’ve got the message.’
‘And if I need to, I will requisition this taxi.’
‘No you fucking won’t.’
‘Nice to know you’re happy to do your civic duty.’
Lucy stepped out of the cab and into the chill early-morning air. Her nerves were tingling, her stomach hollow, a precursor to an arrest, a bust. Rivers of pale crimson ran through her mind that she knew would thicken into red when the action started.
She followed her father as he walked around the building. They came to the corner. He peered round. ‘They’re here.’ He put a hand on the brick wall beside him. Closed his eyes briefly.
‘Dad…’
‘Let me do this.’
He put his shoulders back. ‘I go first. You stay here. You watch. I will walk to them and your friend Dan will walk to you.’
With that, he strode out of view.
Lucy hurried after him to see a large car park ablaze with security lights. Rows of industrial rubbish bins lined the wall to her left. Three lorries were parked at the far end. It was empty aside from the two vehicles a hundred yards away. A bright red Range Rover Sport and a blue panel van.
Please God, Lucy prayed. Don’t let Dad die. Don’t let Dan die either. Protect them both.
A buzzing sound made her look up. A blinking red light hovered above her. A drone. It came to drift above her father, paused, then hovered over Lucy before moving slowly away, scanning the area. Although it was a clever move, even a drone couldn’t be in two places at once. Could she capitalise on this? With an exit road at the other end of the car park Amina Amari and her gang would easily be able to escape.
She watched her father walk twenty yards or so, roughly halfway to the vehicles, then stop, his hands spread. He was obviously waiting for Dan to appear.
Lucy saw the van’s rear door open and two men began manhandling someone outside. Dan. He was staggering, struggling to walk and obviously in pain, but at least he was moving. The men propped him between them and lugged him to the front of the van, where her father could see him.
Slowly, her father took several steps forward. Stopped.
Nothing happened for several seconds.
The Range Rover’s passenger door opened. Amina Amari stepped out, her heels clacking on the tarmac.
Lucy felt all the air in her lungs vanish.
Amari was holding a gun. A pistol with a long snout. A silencer. She held it steadily in both hands, aiming it at Lucy’s father.
‘Carl, you fucker!’ she yelled. ‘You think we’re going to let him go first so you can bugger off again?’
Infinitely slowly, her father inched forward. His face was grey in the street lights.
‘How can I trust you not to grab me and keep him?’ he shouted back. His voice was scratchy with fear.
‘We don’t want him! We want you!’
At that, her father started walking. Really walking for them. And that was when Lucy knew that unless she did something, he was going to die.
60
Dan almost didn’t see Lucy when she emerged at the far end of the car park. He’d been scanning the area, the solitary man walking towards them, the drone floating above, the Range Rover on his right, the van behind him, and then there she was, peeking around the corner.
He let his gaze drift over her, but his heartbeat rocketed. Were there more police? Teams of negotiators? Marksmen, watching their every move? The drone hadn’t seemed to have spotted anything untoward.
He had no idea who the man approaching was, just that he was called Carl and that it was obviously a hostage exchange. Dan decided to do as he was told for the moment, but be ready for Lucy’s lead, whatever it was.
His body ached and throbbed. There didn’t seem to be a single inch of him which didn’t hurt, but there were no broken bones and he was upright and functioning. If he had to burst into action, adrenaline would see him through.
‘Amina, let Dan start walking,’ Carl called.
‘Not until I’ve got my hands on you, you fuck, and you’ve told me where you’ve put our money.’ Amina didn’t wear a disguise or a latex mask, which worried Dan almost as much as the fact she held a pistol. It meant she didn’t care he’d seen her. And who was in the driver’s seat of the Range Rover? He could see a shape sitting there but whether it was a man or a woman it was impossible to tell.
‘Where’s Lucy?’ Amina suddenly asked.
‘What do you mean?’ Carl said. He looked around. ‘She’s behind me.’
Amina yelled, ‘Lucy! Show yourself!’
Carl was looking over his shoulder expectantly.
‘Lucy!’ Amina roared.
The drone started flying busily about but Amina wasn’t waiting any longer. She stalked to Dan and thrust her pistol against the side of his head. ‘I will kill him if you don’t show yourself!’
Lucy stepped into view. Her hands were open, her arms wide.
‘Walk towards me!’
Slowly, Lucy came forward. Came to stand five yards or so behind Carl.
‘Let Dan go,’ Lucy said.
‘Not until I’ve got my hands on your fucking father.’
Dan did a double take. He was Lucy’s father? Hell. He didn’t know what was going on, but he couldn’t let her dad fall into the hands of these thugs.
Carl walked infinitely
