“Now, we’re friends,” Borya said. “It’s okay. You’re here to help Minty. You’re a friend of ours. You have nothing to worry about.”
Leo didn’t feel so sure.
Borya said something to the driver and they both laughed.
“Where are we going?” Leo asked again. The darkened buildings of the city had thinned out into suburban sprawl.
Borya rubbed his hands together. The pipe remained clenched between his teeth. “Minty is in a place no one will ever find him. They wouldn’t even think to look.”
“Why does he want people to think he’s dead?”
“You will see my friend, you will see. All will be explained. You have nothing to worry about,” Borya repeated.
Borya pulled a bag from between his legs and put it on the seat between them. Then the driver passed another bag from the passenger seat. Borya opened the first bag and started removing bundles of money. Leo watched him. He could only imagine why a man would be carrying that much money around.
When Borya had divided the money, he passed one of the bags back to the driver, who stuffed it beneath the passenger seat. Borya kept the other on the seat beside him.
The silence was suddenly broken when the driver shouted and pointed her finger at the rear-view mirror. Borya exploded with energy. His jaw tensed, and his previous grey pallor became an angry red.
“We are being followed,” he snarled. “I knew they were suspicious. But to follow me? We must try to lose them,” Borya shouted at the driver. “Lose them now!”
59
Allissa noticed the sign for the U-Bahn at Kottbusser Tor. That’s where it happened. That’s where Minty was supposed to have fallen, jumped, or been pushed in front of a train. She still hadn’t heard from Leo. This was not the way Allissa liked to do things. If a case came up like this again, they would go together or not at all.
Zipping up her coat against the coming chill of the evening, Allissa walked from the station’s raised iron structure. Behind her somewhere, another train shuddered to a shop, and a roar of footsteps headed her way.
The early evening was busy. People walked home from work or headed out for the evening. Laughter erupted from a group sat outside a café.
Allissa flicked to the ‘Find Your Phone’ app and sighed. The blue dot was now on the other side of the city. If Leo wanted to do this all on his own, then he should have just said that. She didn’t need to be following him around Europe for no reason.
She headed to a nearby line of taxis and got in the first one. Maybe he was doing so well he didn’t need her at all. Maybe she should just leave him to it. She could go and see the girls in Kathmandu, or perhaps go somewhere completely new.
60
The next moment, two things happened at once. First, Borya fired a string of serrated words, and the driver accelerated hard. The Maserati, which had been purring softly so far, sprung forwards. Leo tried turning to see the vehicle behind them but was pinned deep into the seat. From the lights which strobed through the rear window, it looked as though it was very close.
Beside Leo, Borya shouted and gesticulated wildly with his pipe. Tobacco scattered on the seats around him.
“We must lose them,” Borya shouted. “They cannot follow us.”
Leo looked from Borya to the driver. The Maserati filled with the xenon of their pursuer's headlights. Leo felt his pulse jolt.
He knew he shouldn’t have trusted the Russian. Now he was involved in some kind of gang war car chase.
Leo felt the pit of his stomach drop as the car squealed around a corner. His muscles tightened further. He fought for breath.
The driver increased her speed on a straight stretch of road. Ahead, an intersection lay empty. A green traffic light hung above the carriageway.
The driver buried the pedal and the Maserati shot forwards. Borya tensed.
The traffic light flicked from green to orange. The outline of a smirk played across Borya’s thin lips.
Leo snatched a breath. Each one became more futile and pathetic.
Then, in slow motion, the traffic light wavered from orange to red. An angry, violent red. A warning. The tarmac, the waiting cars and the pale face of the Russian glowed in the ferocious hue.
Borya shouted and pointed with his free hand.
The car behind continued to bare down on them. Headlights cut through the rear window.
Leo felt a change in speed.
Were they slowing? Was it over?
A moment of relief.
Then, Leo was pushed into the seat as they accelerated for the changing lights.
Fifty metres away.
The driver accelerated for the intersection.
Forty metres.
Borya screamed.
Thirty metres away.
Traffic from the left started creeping into the intersection. The first car, accelerating quickly on the empty road, sped from right to left. Then the snout of a truck began creeping forward. Its engine strained to move the heavy load. Large tyres rolled.
Twenty metres.
The Maserati swerved.
The lights behind them dimmed.
Leo stopped breathing.
A flash of light. Horns. Tyres on tarmac. The hard thump of Leo’s pulse in his ears. Then, nothing.
61
Minty’s family had always been important to him. Although they didn’t see each other that often, with him living in Berlin and them near Brighton, they talked frequently. The four of them — his mum, dad and brother — had wicked senses of humour and often shared jokes or funny pictures. Minty missed them desperately.
He pulled open the back door and looked out into the night. From the back garden, he could make his way straight into the woods. If anyone happened to be watching the front — which was unlikely but possible — they wouldn’t see anything.
Minty looked back into the house. It was the sort of place he had once dreamed about living in. But, in the last few days, it had brought him no happiness. Pacing the marble-tiled hallways, sinking into the large sumptuous chairs, or even lounging in the bath — which at the press of a button produced
