by Kevin Brooks
I was at Gloria’s desk now, desperately trying to work out what to do with the tracker. Her handbag was hanging on the back of her chair, a big old leather thing with straps and buckles and lots of side pockets. I thought about dropping the tracker into one of the pockets, but it felt too risky. I didn’t know what was in the pockets, so I had no way of telling how often she used whatever she kept in them, which in turn meant I had no idea how safe the tracker would be in there . . .
I heard the toilet flush then, and at the same time I heard Grandad’s voice.
‘Have you seen my car keys, Trav?’
He was coming out into the main office.
I’d run out of time. The bathroom door was opening, Gloria was coming back, Grandad was walking through the doorway . . . I’d left it too late.
Letting out a sigh, I gave up on the whole idea and went over to the coat rack to get my parka . . .
And then I saw Gloria’s raincoat. It was hanging right next to my parka. I didn’t stop to think, I just quickly reached up and slipped the tracker into the top pocket, then took her coat off the rack, turned round, and passed it to her.
‘Why, thank you, Travis,’ she said.
‘You’re welcome, m’lady,’ I replied, bowing my head.
As she put her coat on, and I took my parka off the rack, I just hoped that – like most people – she never actually used the top pocket for anything. Knowing my luck, I thought, she wasn’t like most people. But there wasn’t anything I could do about it now.
‘Right,’ she said, casually picking up some files off her desk, ‘I’ll see you both tomorrow then.’
‘Don’t forget to put your thinking cap on,’ I told her.
‘Already done,’ she said, doffing an imaginary hat. She looked over at Grandad. ‘Goodnight, Joseph.’
‘Night, Gloria.’
As she left the office and closed the door, I said to Grandad, ‘Have you found them?’
‘Found what?’
‘Your car keys.’
‘Oh, yeah . . .’ He grinned. ‘They were in my pocket. Are you ready?’
‘Just a sec,’ I said, pretending to be looking through my pockets for something. I was actually waiting to see if Gloria went past the window. She usually did when she was on her way home. I wasn’t sure exactly where she lived, but I knew it was off Long Barton Road somewhere, and she always walked to and from the office, so it couldn’t be all that far away. If she was walking home now, she’d turn right when she left the building and I’d see her passing the window.
‘Come on, Trav,’ Grandad said. ‘Let’s get a move on, eh?’
There was no sign of Gloria passing the window, so unless she was walking really slowly, she must have turned left, which meant she was heading towards town.
I followed Grandad out of the office, told him I’d see him later, and walked off along North Walk, pulling out my mobile as I went.
30
Following someone on foot is a lot more difficult than it’s made out to be in films and TV programmes. It’s not so bad if the person you’re tailing doesn’t know you, or if they have no idea they’re being followed anyway, or if they don’t know anything about counter-surveillance techniques. But Gloria did know me, and even if she didn’t, she was an ex-MI6 agent with years of experience, so it was safe to assume that she was fully trained in both spotting and shaking off anyone who might be following her. If I hadn’t had the tracker to help me, I’m sure I wouldn’t have got anywhere near her without her noticing me. But the beauty of the tracking device was that I didn’t have to get anywhere near her. I didn’t need to keep her in sight. The software that Grandad had downloaded to my mobile the other day was doing all that for me. All I had to do was follow the flashing yellow dot on the screen.
I’d selected the street-map option from the tracker menu. It was pretty much the same as most online map set-ups, with all the usual features – zoom in and out, click and drag, a search facility. I could have added my own location to the map if I’d wanted to, but there was no need. I knew exactly where I was.
Right now, I was about two-thirds of the way down the High Street, and according to the tracker, Gloria was roughly a hundred metres ahead of me, approaching the High Street entrance to Castle Park. The park is a huge open area on the south side of Barton Castle. The River Barr runs all the way through it, meandering from one side of the park to the other, and on either side of the river there are pathways and rolling fields, picnic areas and playgrounds, there’s even a little boating lake. In summer the park is used for all kinds of open-air festivals and concerts, but at this time of year the only people who regularly visit the park in the evenings are dog walkers and winos and groups of kids up to no good.
I paused for a moment, watching the yellow dot on the screen, wondering whether Gloria was actually going into the park or the castle grounds or was just passing by. The dot turned left into Castle Wynd, an ancient pathway that runs alongside the castle grounds. I carried on watching the screen, making sure Gloria didn’t double back, then I pulled up my hood against the rain and got moving again.
I took a short cut to the castle, turning down a cobbled street into a maze of narrow lanes that eventually brought me out into the upper end of the park at the bottom of Castle Wynd. The tracker had shown me that Gloria had turned right off Castle Wynd about halfway down and headed into the castle grounds. For the last minute or so, the yellow dot hadn’t moved. It had stopped right next to the castle wall.
I couldn’t make sense of it. What was Gloria doing there? Or maybe she wasn’t there, I suddenly thought. Maybe she’d found the tracker and ditched it. I brought up the options menu on my mobile, zoomed in on the map and switched to the satellite view, and suddenly it all made sense. The yellow dot was hovering over a slightly blurred view of a wooden bench in the shadows of the castle wall. Now I knew what Gloria was doing. She was sitting on one of the benches that line the base of the wall at the back of the castle.
But why?
Was she waiting for someone? Had she already met them? Who were they? And why would she want to meet them at the back of Barton Castle on a cold rainy night?
I stared at the yellow dot on my mobile screen, but no matter how useful the tracker was, there was only so much it could tell me. If I wanted to find out what Gloria was doing, and who – if anyone – she was meeting, I’d have to do it myself.
I started walking up Castle Wynd. The castle grounds were on my left behind a two-metre-high wire-mesh fence. The fence was covered with a thick growth of ornamental ivy, blocking my view of the grounds, but here and there the dark-green foliage was sparse enough to see through. I waited until I was reasonably close to the castle, but not too close, and then I stopped by a thinning patch of ivy and cautiously peered through.
The castle is illuminated at night by powerful floodlights, and although they’re mainly directed at the front and sides of the old stone ruins, there was enough peripheral light at the back for me to make out Gloria sitting on one of the benches. She was on her own. Just sitting there, her handbag clasped in her lap, staring straight ahead.
I heard footsteps and voices then, the sound of people coming up the Wynd behind me, and I suddenly realised how suspicious I must look – a kid on his own, standing by the fence, peeping in through a hole in the ivy . . .
I casually moved away from the fence, put my phone to my ear and started talking – ‘Yeah . . . right . . . OK, yeah, that’s fine . . .’
The people I’d heard passed by me – a young couple who’d probably just been for a walk in the park. They gave me a quick sideways glance, but they were too interested in each other to care what I was doing. I waited for them to move on past, checked there was no one else coming up the Wynd, and looked through the gap in the ivy again.
Gloria was no longer alone. A man had sat down next to her. He had his coat collar turned up, so I couldn’t really see his face, but there was something vaguely familiar about him. They didn’t seem to
be talking to each other, they were just sitting there side by side, like two strangers sharing a bench. Except, obviously, they weren’t strangers. I saw Gloria reach into her handbag and take out a document file. As she passed it to the man, I leaned in closer to the fence, trying to get a better view of the file. It was impossible to tell at this distance, but it looked like the file she’d been carrying when I’d surprised her coming out of Grandad’s office. The man took the file from her and put it in his coat pocket. He said something to Gloria, she nodded, then he got up and started walking away. He was heading towards me, his face in plain view, and now I knew why he’d seemed so familiar.
It was Winston, the steely-eyed man in charge of Omega.
What the hell was Gloria doing with him? I asked myself. And what had she just given him?
I didn’t have time to think about it now. Winston was almost at the gate that led out into Castle Wynd, and I had to act fast. He knew who I was, so I couldn’t let him see me, but I didn’t want to lose sight of him either. I wanted, if possible, to see where he went. It didn’t seem likely that he’d come down the Wynd – unless, for some reason, he was going into the park – so my guess was that he’d turn left out of the gate and head up towards the High Street.
I started walking slowly down the Wynd.
After five seconds or so I heard Winston come out of the gate, and I could tell from the sound of his footsteps that I’d guessed right and he was heading up the Wynd. Putting my phone to my ear to half cover my face, I glanced quickly over my shoulder. Winston was walking briskly, his head bowed down, his arms swinging vigorously. As desperate as I was to follow him and find out where he went, I realised now that it was simply too risky. All he had to do was look behind him and he’d see me. And there was Gloria to consider too. I looked at my mobile. The tracker was showing that she was still on the bench, but she could get up and leave any second. If I went after Winston there was a good chance she’d see me, even if he didn’t.
There was only one thing for it – I had to let him go.
As I retraced my steps through the maze of narrow lanes, heading back to the High Street, I racked my brains, trying to come up with an innocent explanation of what I’d just seen. But I knew in my heart I was wasting my time. The scene I’d just witnessed could only mean one thing: Gloria was working for Omega. She was passing on information to them, most probably keeping them informed of our investigation into them. She was a traitor after all. She’d betrayed us, betrayed Grandad’s trust in her.
It was sickening.
I thought about calling Grandad right away, but then I remembered he’d be at the hospital, so he’d probably have his mobile turned off. It didn’t really matter though. I was almost at the High Street now, and there was a taxi rank just up the road. I’d get a taxi and be at the hospital in ten minutes.
My mobile rang then.
It was Jaydie.
‘Hi, Travis,’ she said.
Her voice didn’t sound as bright and breezy as usual.
‘Are you OK?’ I asked her.
‘I need to see you about something.’
‘What is it?’
‘It’s best if I don’t tell you on the phone. Can I meet you somewhere?’
‘What, now?’
‘Yeah.’
‘I’m kind of busy at the moment. Couldn’t it wait till tomorrow?’
‘It’s really important, Trav. It’s sort of about Courtney.’
‘Courtney?’
‘I heard what happened to her. Is she OK?’
‘Not really,’ I said. ‘She’s in hospital. I was just on my way to see her. Do you know something about what happened to her?’
‘Well, kind of. . . it’s a bit complicated. That’s why I need to talk to you in person.’
‘Where are you now?’ I asked.
‘On the bus, just coming into town. I can get another bus out to your place and be there in about half an hour.’
‘I’m in town now,’ I told her, glancing at my watch. ‘How about if I meet you in McDonald’s?’
‘Yeah, that’d be brilliant. I’ll be about ten minutes.’
‘All right, see you then.’
Just after I’d ended the call my phone honked, warning me that the battery was almost dead. I was a bit surprised as I’d only recently charged it, but when I checked the battery-usage menu I found out that the tracking software had used up 65% of the power. Before turning off the phone to save the remaining battery, I checked Gloria’s location on the tracking screen. The yellow dot had left the castle grounds now and was heading back up the High Street at a steady pace. She was on her way home, I guessed. Her dirty work was done for the night.
31
I was leaning against a pillar by the stairs when Jaydie came into McDonald’s. She saw me straight away and came over. She was wearing a cool little zip-up jacket, a short skirt over leggings, and a black peaked cap. She looked really nice.
‘Do you want anything to eat?’ I asked her.
I’d already had a cheeseburger and I still had most of a vanilla shake left.
‘No, thanks,’ Jaydie said, looking around. ‘Can we go upstairs? It’s a bit crowded down here.’
The upstairs section was larger than downstairs, so although it was fairly busy up there – groups of kids, families, couples – it was easier to find somewhere with a bit more privacy. Just as we reached the top of the stairs we saw two women preparing to leave a small corner table right at the back, and as they got up, we hurried over and nabbed the table before anyone else could get to it.
As we sat down, and I cleared away the remains of the women’s meals, I noticed Jaydie looking around again. She seemed really anxious, worried that someone might see her.
‘Are you looking for someone in particular?’ I asked her.
‘Anyone from the Slade,’ she said, keeping her voice low. ‘If I’m seen talking to you, it’s bound to get back to Dee Dee.’
‘Maybe we should go somewhere else,’ I suggested. ‘Somewhere less public.’
She shook her head. ‘It’s all right, I’m probably just being paranoid.’ She smiled at me then, a genuinely pleased-to-see-you smile, and she picked up my shake and took a sip from it. ‘I mean, we’re friends, aren’t we? There’s no reason we shouldn’t be seen together. For all anyone knows, we could be on a date.’
‘Well, yeah . . .’ I said hesitantly.
‘Don’t look so worried, Travis. I’m not going to start snogging you or anything.’
I blushed, which Jaydie obviously found amusing.
‘You’re too sensitive,’ she said.
‘It’s just for show,’ I told her. ‘I’m a tough guy really. I just pretend I’m the sensitive type to impress the girls.’
‘You think we like sensitive types?’
‘Don’t you?’
‘We pretend we do, but actually we prefer tough guys.’
‘I knew it,’ I said, grinning.
She laughed, then took another sip from my shake.
‘Are you sure you don’t want anything?’ I asked her.
‘Maybe later.’ She looked at me, her face suddenly serious. ‘Is Courtney going to be OK?’
‘I think they’re just keeping her in overnight as a precaution. You know, just in case she’s got a concussion or something.’
‘They really did a job on her then?’
‘It would have been even worse if they hadn’t been stopped.’
Jaydie looked hesitant, as if she wanted to say something but didn’t know how to say it.
‘It was Mason and Lenny, wasn’t it?’ I said to her. ‘They were the ones who saved her.’
She nodded. ‘Mase hasn’t actually admitted it, but I’ve been told on good authority that it was him and Lenny and two others.’
‘How did they know she was being attacked?’
‘Mason’s got a network of kids who keep him informed of everything that’s going on around the Slade. He’d heard that some of Dee Dee’s
crew had scared off Raisa, and he had some of his people keeping an eye on her flat. So when Courtney showed up, they called him straight away. He would have got there sooner but he was right over the other side of the estate at the time.’
‘Why won’t he admit to you that it was him?’
‘He won’t talk to me about anything any more. Dee Dee, the salon, Mum, Courtney . . . I think he’s just totally mixed up about everything. He doesn’t know what he should do. He hates Dee Dee for what he’s doing to Mum and for what he did to Raisa and Courtney, but he can’t quite bring himself to openly go against him because he knows that pretty soon Dee Dee’s going to have complete control of the estate. If Mason’s his enemy when that happens, his life’s going to be hell.’
‘Does Dee Dee know it was him who saved Courtney?’
‘Not yet. They were all wearing hoods and masks. But Dee Dee’s going to do everything he can to find out who they were.’
‘Do you think he will?’
‘Mason’s crew are pretty loyal. I don’t think any of them will grass him up. But Dee Dee’s got a lot of resources, and he can be incredibly persuasive when it comes to making people talk.’ She sighed. ‘God knows what’ll happen if he does find out.’
‘Do you know what happened to Raisa?’
‘No one knows. She hasn’t been seen anywhere.’ Jaydie shrugged. ‘Hopefully she’s just left the estate and moved somewhere else.’
‘You know she’s dropped the case against Tanga Tans, don’t you?’
‘Yeah, I heard.’ Jaydie looked at me. ‘I also heard that Dee Dee and a couple of his boys came round to your office.’