Minty smiled weakly.
“This is me,” Minty said, signalling towards a large house.
“You’re staying here?” Leo said.
Minty nodded.
“Not exactly hiding out, is it?”
“No,” Minty said, “It’s not mine, though. I can’t wait to leave the place, to be honest. The car’s been packed and ready to go for days now. I’ve been freaking out at everything that’s happened.”
Leo knew the feeling.
“Good luck,” Allissa said, extending a hand. Minty shook it.
“I’m glad we found you,” Leo said.
“Thank you, again,” Minty said. “I’ll contact my family as soon as we’re safe.” He turned and begun to cross the road before pausing and looking back at Leo and Allissa. “See you around,” he said, raising a hand.
“I hope not,” Allissa said.
76
“There’s just one thing I don’t get…” Allissa said as they began to walk away. Neither she nor Leo had thought about the events of the last hour. Both still felt dazed and confused.
“I get why the guys were after him now,” Allissa said. “I even understand why Minty faked his death. But why now? What changed to bring this on?” Allissa stopped and turned. “Wait a minute.”
“What now? We’re done. Let’s get back to the hotel and —”
“No, we don’t know it all. Quick, follow me.” Allissa turned and walked back towards Minty’s house and ducked behind the front hedge of the house opposite.
“Are you serious?” Leo followed her, grumbling.
“I just want to see,” Allissa whispered. “There’s something that doesn’t make sense here.”
“What’s that?” Leo crouched beside Allissa and peered through the leaves. “Minty just wanted out, and the gangsters said no. It’s pretty simple from where I’m looking.”
“No, it’s not. There’s more to it,” Allissa whispered. “He said ‘we’re getting out of here tonight.’ Not, ‘I’m getting out of here tonight.’ There’s someone else involved.”
Allissa glanced at Leo. Patchy shadows from the surrounding trees patterned across his face.
“Look, watch.”
A light snapped on inside the house. A shadow moved through the room.
“Minty admitted that business wasn’t going well,” Allissa said. “Yes, he was involved in underhand dealings with the packages, but he said there was no danger. He could deny all knowledge if he wanted.”
The shadow in the house disappeared for a few seconds, then another light began to blaze on the first floor. Two more quickly followed.
For five minutes Leo and Allissa watched for movement. Leo shifted his weight from one foot to the other. Then the lights of a car appeared in the driveway. The still night was disturbed by the sound of its whining engine. A VW Golf pulled out onto the road and stopped outside the front door.
Minty got out and ran to the door. He pulled the door open and a rectangle of light flooded into the street. Two suitcases sat on the hallway floor.
Leo and Allissa watched from behind the hedge as Minty carried the first suitcase to the car. He opened the rear door, slid it in and then returned for the second. As Minty forced the second suitcase into the already packed car, a dark figure walked into the door’s rectangle of light.
“I told you,” Allissa whispered. “We’re getting out tonight.”
Minty began to smile. It was a smile Allissa recognised. The sort of smile a person saves not just for happiness, but for someone they love. Giving the suitcase a final shove, Minty slammed the car door and scampered towards the silhouette.
All Allissa could see was a dark shape against the light. A woman, she assumed by the long hair and body shape. Minty whispered something to the woman and kissed her cheek. Then, taking the woman’s arm, Minty led her down the stairs. Watching from behind the bush, it suddenly made sense to Allissa. She understood why Minty needed out. Why he needed to leave his life with the Russian gangsters and mysterious packages. Why he would risk anything to get away. And why he even felt the pain caused to his family was justifiable.
The woman, who took the steps slowly with Minty’s assistance, was heavily pregnant.
77
It all made sense, as Minty opened the car’s front passenger door and helped the woman clamber in. Minty needed a new life. He needed to start again. He needed to do it properly because he was going to become a dad.
“I told you,” Allissa whispered, beaming in the darkness.
Leo nodded. Allissa was right. The risks involved with mysterious packages from the Russians may have been acceptable for a man on his own, but Minty would have felt differently faced with the prospect of being a father. Children changed things.
“People don’t change for no reason,” Allissa said.
Minty climbed up to the house for the last time.
“No,” Leo agreed. “You’re right.”
“Circumstances change people,” Allissa said. “Sometimes for the bad, but sometimes for good.”
As Minty locked the house, Leo found himself grinning. He glanced at Allissa beside him and felt a flourishing warmth.
Minty posted the keys through the letterbox, then turned. He looked right and left, up and down the street. The habit of someone used to checking over their shoulder perhaps, or someone saying goodbye to a place that had protected him and his family.
Minty wrapped a bright yellow scarf around his shoulders and, with a broad smile, looked directly at Leo and Allissa. Leo stumbled further out of sight. With his smile unfaltering, Minty waved.
“Bugger,” Leo whispered.
Minty turned to a large plant pot next to the door and removed a camera from amongst the leaves. He had been watching the street the whole time.
“Clever guy,” Allissa said as they stood up.
Minty looped the scarf around his shoulders and got in the car. For a moment, the engine’s gentle purring was the only sound, then the car clunked into gear and pulled away.
Leo stepped out onto the road to watch it go and raised a hand too. At the end of the street, the car turned left. A yellow scarf
