on top of the wall, then hauling up the two gas containers and the cylinder full of propane. He lowered them to the ground on the other side, then followed them.
Having been over the wall once already, this time he felt more sure of himself. He doused the wood pile with one container of petrol, set the second a few feet away, but closer to the house, and the propane cylinder closer still. He was counting on no one finding the initial fire until the other items had exploded. It was an imprecise science.
Satisfied, he used a rag soaked with gas to start the bonfire, then headed back to the wall. Ty’s hand reached down and pulled him back over. They had already abandoned the apartment so they retreated to their vehicle, retrieved from the back of the apartment block, and climbed in.
Now all they had to do was wait.
Forty-eight
Hector anxiously checked his watch. They were running late. They should have left the mansion five minutes ago. They would have to make up the lost time on the road.
At the front door, he pulled Julia to one side. ‘Remember what I told you, and you’ll be fine. You understand me?’
‘I understand,’ she said softly, eyes focused on the hallway’s red terracotta-tiled floor. Charlie was standing a few feet away, looking awkward. Hector assumed this was a new experience for him — having to be around one of the girls after he was finished with her.
Eager to get moving, Hector opened the front door and ushered them out. A red Escalade SUV was waiting to take them to the party. Hector opened the rear passenger door. Charlie walked past Julia and climbed in. Julia didn’t move. The look she gave Hector told him that, while she wouldn’t try to escape, there was no way she was sitting in the back with Charlie.
‘What’s the problem?’ asked Hector.
‘I don’t want to sit next to him,’ she said, shooting a glance at Charlie.
‘Fuck it,’ Charlie said, scooting across the seats and getting out again. ‘I’ll ride up front.’
He squeezed past her as he got in, his crotch deliberately brushing her backside, even though there was plenty of room. She shuddered and got into the back. Hector climbed in and started the engine. He put the Escalade into drive and released the parking brake.
A second later she caught sight of one of the guards from the back window. He was shouting and waving his arms. Hector stopped, put the Escalade in park and got out, leaving the door open.
The guard was still animated, waving his arms and pointing to the back of the house.
Julia’s Spanish was rusty but she picked out the word fuego. Fire. She couldn’t smell smoke but the breeze was blowing towards the house and they were at the front.
Hector snapped at the guard, telling him to deal with it. Then he slammed the door, put the Escalade into drive and gunned it, roaring down the driveway, the gates gliding open just in time for them to scrape through and out on to the road.
Behind them there was a loud bang. Louder than a gunshot. Louder than a car backfiring. She looked at Hector. If he had heard it, it didn’t seem to register. His eyes were fixed on the road and that was where they stayed.
In the front seat. Charlie was staring out of the window at a vague orange glow behind them.
‘What was that?’ he asked, unclipping his seatbelt so that he could turn around for a better view. ‘It sounded like an explosion.’
Hector shrugged. ‘Don’t worry about it.’
Lock’s hand slammed down hard on the steering-wheel of the Toyota RAV 4. They had still been moving into position when the gates had opened and the red Escalade had come barrelling out on to the road. The guards couldn’t have anticipated the fire so it was down to bad luck, plain and simple. But it left in shreds his plan to grab the girl as the occupants fled the house.
Given the Escalade’s tinted windows and that they were parked behind it, they’d had no clear view through the windshield so no idea about who was inside it. For all Lock knew, it might be a decoy.
Glancing to his left, he saw a column of dense black smoke rising from behind the wall as an alarm screamed a warning. The Escalade was almost a full block clear of them now.
‘Call Rafaela — ask her to hang back here,’ he said to Ty, pulling out from the kerb and falling in behind the fleeing Escalade.
Ty pulled out a pre-paid throwaway cell phone and made the call. A few moments later, he tucked it back into his pocket. ‘She ain’t happy about staying back there but she said she’ll check the house when the fire crew arrives.’
Lock’s hands tightened on the steering-wheel. ‘All right, then.’
Up ahead, the Escalade was stopped at a red light. Lock eased up and the Ranger dropped back. If it hadn’t been for the possibility that the girl was in the vehicle, and on the way to who knew where, he would have dropped out of the pursuit.
The lights flipped to green and the Escalade drove on. Lock followed at a respectful distance, keeping his eyes on the car but also looking out for other vehicles around and behind them. If the driver of the Escalade had spotted them, which was possible, there was every chance he or she would call in reinforcements.
Presumably sensing Lock’s tension, Ty straightened up in the passenger seat, his head on a swivel, his gun in his hand. They passed a side road. A car pulled out in front of them. Lock swerved around it, careful to keep his hand off the horn. He checked it out in the rear-view. The driver, a middle-aged woman, was the sole occupant. It had been bad driving, nothing more. When he looked up again, the Escalade was out of sight.
Ty pointed at a crossroads. ‘He took a left up there.’
Lock accelerated a little, trying not to get over-anxious, but aware that if they lost the Escalade they might also lose the girl. Ty’s cell phone rang.
Lock spotted the car again as Ty took a call from Rafaela.
‘You’re sure?’ he heard Ty ask. ‘Okay.’
He gave Rafaela their current location and killed the call. ‘Looks like the girl and Charlie Mendez were there but they’re not now.’
‘Did she see any other vehicles exit the property after this one?’
Ty shook his head. ‘Better than evens they’re both inside, so what you want to do, Ryan?’
Lock took a moment. The Escalade’s movements were deliberate. It wasn’t as if the driver was idly circling the town. He had a destination in mind where, it was safe to assume, there would be reinforcements. The Escalade could hold maybe seven individuals. Not great odds, but better than they would be at another narco-mansion where they would have the same problems of entry.
‘I think we roll the dice,’ Lock said, burying the gas pedal and going hard after the fleeing Escalade.
Forty-nine
Hector had spotted the Toyota RAV 4 dropping in behind them a few blocks from the house. When you lived your entire life with one eye open at all times, it became second nature to pick out a car that was following you.
The white splash of headlights in his rear-view prevented him seeing exactly who was inside, but it hardly mattered. No doubt it was connected to whoever had set the fire at the side of the house as they were leaving — to which he’d been alerted by one of the guards as he’d pulled out of the driveway.
As he drove he had made a phone call, bringing his boss up to speed on what was going on. Zapatero had been freaked that he hadn’t travelled with additional security but Hector had assured him that he was fine: he had precautions in place. But if they were being followed it left a question mark over the girl. What did his boss want
