Zanna obliged. Jo and I pored over the search results, right up to page six. Then we sat back.
“So absolutely loads of links to BriSCA F2 and Stox forums and the Entwistle Garage website and Facebook page with pictures of me in those red shoes,” I said gloomily.
“Links to our business website and business Facebook page,” Jo added.
“But we made sure we had a contact form and didn’t put any address or phone number details on them,” I said in relief.
“All sorts of publicity to do with your dumb series,” Jo said disapprovingly.
“Not much left to do with Thrills and Spills, and I bet you can’t even get it on DVD anymore except second hand on Ebay,” I pointed out. “And I’ve changed address since then…”
“So the garage definitely is the weak link,” Jo worked out. “He is so going to come back there!”
“So what’s all this about?” Zanna asked.
Jo looked at me. “Time to tell her,” she said.
“Thank goodness for that!” Was Zanna’s surprising response. “I kept seeing you slipping surreptitiously out in those red heels and I wondered if you were on the game! And then when you told me you hadn’t had sex since your chap died, I figured you must have joined a pole-dancing exercise class or something!”
“God!” Jo exclaimed disapprovingly. “Do they even exist?”
Zanna laughed. “Yes of course they do, and belly dancing and Zumba, and jazzercise, and balletcise… every permutation of dance and exercise that you can possibly dream up!”
We’d told Zanna a bit more than we’d told Entwistle. Basically most of it.
She looked across at me with her direct blue gaze. “Told you there was more to you than meets the eye,” she observed. “I hope you manage to get those bastards put away!”
On Saturday we escaped off down to Coventry Stadium for a shale outing. It felt good not to be looking over my shoulder the whole time.
On Sunday we were back at Barford for the Grand National Championships. I’d never taken much notice of these. The main use to me of the Grand National series was that at every race day you could double your points if you won the Final and then took a full lap handicap in the Grand National at the end and still managed to finish in the first eight. The ability to double your points gave you a good leg up the Points Table when you were chasing Silver.
But hey, I was on a roll, and got it anyway.
“God Eve,” Jo said sarcastically. “You get more like Tyler every day. Is there nothing you aren’t going to hoover up this year?”
“Oh yeah, thanks for the heartfelt congratulations,” I drawled ironically.
“We’re going to have to put an extra support under the cup shelf in the barn,” Jo said dryly. “It’s going to be groaning under the weight of the silverware!”
When I’d won the World Championship, the presenter of the cup had joked that it was hardly worth Pete returning it, we might just have well’ve left it at home and just moved it a few inches along the shelf.
“Actually Jo,” I said thoughtfully. “I don’t think we should leave them out in the barn anymore where the security isn’t so hot. I’d hate them to get damaged while they were in our care. Maybe we should move them into the house?”
She looked a bit struck by that. “Mum might have a thing or two to say mind you! We agreed years ago that rather than cluttering up the house, we’d keep our cups in the barn, and she’d keep her cups and ribbons in the stables. But hey, since none of us live there anymore, I think it’s about time we all kept our own cups at our own flats, don’t you?”
On Monday Entwistle’s expression was grave again. He called me into his office and ran the CCTV footage for Saturday night through for me.
About ten pm a Porsche drew up and Mohammed got out. He walked thoughtfully around the forecourt examining the whole premises minutely, including the doors to the various buildings and testing the locks. Then he glanced up at the CCTV camera and stared hard into it for a long moment. I felt like he was staring straight at me. My stomach clenched. Then he turned and left.
That was a warning, I thought. He must know the CCTV was there. He was letting me know he knew exactly who I was and where I worked. My skin crawled. Even the examination of the premises was probably just a threatening charade. And as intimidation, I thought, it was working real good.
When I went to leave work that night, Jo suddenly snapped at Tony, “Grab her arms!”
Tony stared at her, taken aback.
“Hold her arms behind her back for me will you?” Jo ordered him grimly.
Hesitantly, he took my arms and then held them really gently. Ok, I thought, I can cause him upset and embarrassment by yanking them away and forcing him into having to make the decision to hold me or not, or I can just submit. I stood still and let Jo rifle through my inner jacket pockets. She pulled out the knife she found in one side and the heavy spanner she found in the other one.
“No, no, NO, Eve,” she yelled at me furiously. “Don’t you get it? If you stab anyone else, whatever the circumstances they’ll put you away for sure! Eight years? Fifteen years? Who knows!” She shoved the knife into her own pocket and replaced the spanner on the wall. “It’s not worth it!”
That was easy for her to say. It might be worth it if it meant I stayed alive.
Tony let go of me. He looked worried. “Just don’t be on your own, ever,” he advised. “Surely they can’t do anything to you if you’re always with other people?”
We locked my bike out of sight in the shed and I went home in Jo’s car.
Ten minutes after we got home to the flat, my phone pinged and then pinged again. I picked it up and glanced at it. Two texts marked with just a number and not a name. I opened the first one. Hi there Ellie! I no who UR, I no whr U live, I no whr U work, I no whr yr family lives, I no whr U keep yr cars. I stared frozenly at it. Then I opened the next one. &U’d betta tel tt littl red-head 2 watch her bak as wel. Cody… Of course, Jessica was one of Mohammed’s circle. When she’d taken Cody to that party, Mohammed may well have seen her. And he only had to look at our business Facebook news page to see who our latest intro client was and see the photos of her winning the two latest Finals to put two and two together. And although I hadn’t admitted to Sahmir that I’d never even considered registering to vote, the fact was, I never had, so my name and address couldn’t be on the public electoral register, so he couldn’t have found out where I lived from that. But he had all those contacts up at the Council didn’t he? Maybe they could access the Council Tax records to find my address? Or maybe he’d simply followed us home from work just now.
I silently passed the phone to Jo. She read the texts with a stony expression and then passed the phone back to me. “Entwistle refers to you as a trouble-magnet,” she said coldly. “But every bit of this is your own doing, Eve. Completely your own doing. I can’t even find it in myself to feel sympathetic! And now you’re endangering everyone else too!”
She got out her phone and a few seconds later she was saying, “You need to do us a favour Pete. You need to have Eve to come and stay with you for her own safety.”
A few minutes later she tossed down her phone and looked at me. “Since Pete’s only just moved there, no-one can possibly know where he’s living. He’s going to come and pick you up in about ten minutes, so you’d better get some stuff together.”
Apart from the recent weekly ritual of meeting up at the Satterthwaites’ to watch the ITV series, Jo and I had barely seen Pete since the World Final. He wasn’t bothering much now till the Birmingham Gala Night which traditionally ended the season with some races with big prize money up for grabs. I sat on his recently acquired settee and tried not to wonder which old lady had died on it.
“So do you know what’s going on?” I asked him glumly.
“The gist, I guess,” he said.
We talked about it.
“I’ll escort you to Belle Vue tomorrow,” he decided. “We’ll use my car to tow, just to add
some confusion.”
I was really grateful. It was a rare Tuesday night Belle Vue and it was Cody’s Whites and Yellows Final there.
“Don’t know where you’re going to sleep,” he said. “I should have invested in a sofa bed I guess.”
“I don’t mind sharing with you…” I suggested diffidently.
He eyed me severely. “As long as you stick to your own side of the bed and don’t bite me.”
Message received loud and clear.
On Tuesday we left work early and went to pick up Cody straight from school. I was a bit surprised to find she was at the all girls’ grammar. So her Dad had higher ambitions for her than marrying a Banger boy did he? Girls in their posh uniforms flocked all around the cars and Cody made the most of her moment of glory explaining to them all about her special purple and orange one. With the recent series just aired, I was a big attraction too, and Cody dragged me out to be gawped at. Then she got Pete out there too to explain the significance of all the colours on the roof of my car. The girls looked warily at Pete as though he was the big bad wolf. Most of Cody’s friends had also been fans of Thrills and Spills, and had seen Pete do the dirty on me. And I bet she’d also been dining out on her recent close encounters with Quinn.
As the girls crowded round, one petite girl with extremely blonde hair looked slyly sideways at me. “What were those marks on your arm that Adam was asking you about?” She said.
I stiffened. So it had been noticed then? “Why?” I asked. “Have you got some as well?”
She shook her head and pulled up her sleeve to prove it.
“A lot of girls in this town have them,” I commented. “Have you noticed any at your school?”
“One of the girls in Year Eight does,” she said with a frown. “The one that keeps getting excluded.”
“One, two or three marks?” I investigated.
“Two like yours,” she dredged up after a long think.
God, even here at this posh school I thought. Nowhere was exempt.
Once on our way, Cody was extremely excitable.
“What did your Dad say when you walked in with your second cup?” I asked her. Pete was driving, and I sat in the passenger seat beside him and Cody was in the back.
“He was speechless,” she reported.
“Not a state that she knows anything about herself,” I murmured to Pete.
“Ooo, so you got to dance with Adam,” Cody cooed jealously. “What did it feel like?”
“I dunno,” I said. “Embarrassing!”
“I mean what did it feel like when he picked you up?”
“Terrifying,” I admitted.
These were not the sort of answers that she wanted to hear. “I wish he’d sing to me,” Cody said wistfully.
“You should just ask him to,” I advised her. “He never says no to being asked for a song…” I twisted my head round at her. “I can’t get used to you in that school uniform. You look so St. Trinian’s. I keep expecting you to start bashing someone over the head with a hockey stick!”
She was a solid built, quite buxom girl and just looked completely wrong in a school tunic, blazer and tie, especially with that untamed mane of hair sticking out from under her 1950’s style cloche hat.
I sent her to change into her driving gear as soon as we got there, and helped Jo unload my own car off her trailer as she turned in about ten minutes after us.
Pete raised his eyebrows as he saw me putting the neck brace on Cody. He too had avoided being made to wear his.
“Although her new driving style is a great success,” I said to Pete as she filed off with the other Whites and Yellows. “It’s not going to be long before she ends up launching into space and landing on her roof. Might as well be prepared!”
As he watched her hurtling round in her rackety uncontrolled style and snatch her third cup, he thoughtfully rubbed the back of his own neck. “I can see why she’s suddenly winning,” he agreed. “But I don’t think I’d want to be on the track with her while she’s at it…”
“We’ll drop her directly at home tonight,” I told him. “I need to speak to her Dad.”
Cody made the most of having her car parked for a few minutes outside her house, and half the street turned out to see it. They were the far end house of an extensive new estate where there were lots of families with kids of the same age as they’d all moved in at the same time when the houses were newly built. The Frost’s house had a slightly larger garden by being on the end and it was filled with wrecks being fixed.
“Lowering the tone of the place as usual I see,” I teased Cody’s father, indicating the dented cars. He looked completely floored when he saw his daughter clutching another cup. “Looks like you’re going to have an expensive second year,” I joked. “Bet you thought you were safe to promise that because you never thought she’d be able to do it!”
“The other condition was that she stayed on to do her ‘A’ levels,” he reminded me.
“Well she was certainly in her school uniform today,” I pointed out, “so she’s keeping that side of the bargain as well.”
“All I can say to you, is ‘well done’,” he said to me. “I never thought you’d be able to do anything with her!”
“Neither did we to be honest,” I admitted. “But anyway, the main thing I’ve come for is just to warn you that the men that Jessica were in trouble with, have now specifically made a threat against Cody. So I think it’s best if this becomes the end of her season and she doesn’t come out with us again. You’ll understand the reason for this in a few weeks’ time… And in the meantime, please just keep an eagle eye on Cody. Don’t let her go out alone and keep her on a curfew if necessary. It’s probably just a completely empty threat – but you never know, do you? We might be able to take her to Birmingham for the end of season bash, but we’ll have to wait and see, so we haven’t promised her anything.”
He frowned a bit worriedly, but otherwise took it in his stride. And I had every hope that he’d keep her safe.
A normal day at work on Wednesday. Pete dropped me there in the morning and picked me up at night. Nothing out of the ordinary took place, but I was tense all day. I asked Pete if we could stop at Jo and Zanna’s flat on the way home.
“It’s your flat too,” he pointed out.
I sighed. “Ever since Zanna moved in it’s felt like theirs,” I explained. “And I’ve felt like the interloper…”
I popped in and picked up all my surveillance equipment. Back at Pete’s I used a Stanley knife to cut open my shoe heel and retrieve the locator. I found a small pouch that I’d kept some tiny screws in, tipped the screws out and replaced it with the microchip. Then I put the pouch on a string and put it round my neck. Pete watched in silence. I looked carefully at the two earrings, found the one with the extra stripe, and put it into my pocket. I put on the watch, and then I rang Quinn.
“Listen Quinn, I’m sorry to do this to you, but can you start monitoring that phone again? But if I press the alarm this time don’t muck about coming to look for me, just get straight on to the police via 999 and tell them an assault is taking place, and where the location is. Pull your RAC status if necessary to get them to believe you, they’ll probably think you’re out on duty and witnessing it from a distance…”
Then I looked across at Pete. “Best I can do,” I said.
That night, he woke me with a shake of the arm. “You were yelling out in your dreams,” he told me sleepily.
I had some confused memories of being chased.
He moved a bit closer to me and draped an arm loosely over me, and then we both immediately fell asleep again.
He escorted me to Skeggie that evening, which meant Jo could have the night off.
“Where will you be this weekend?” I asked Horrocks.
“I was thinking the double bill at Cowdenbeath,” Horrocks said. “Less travelling about.”
“And save some money on tyres at the end of the season?” I hazarded. The alternative ch
oices were Birmingham on the Saturday or Sheffield on the Sunday.
“It gets like that, doesn’t it?” He agreed.
“Oh well, see you there,” I said. Staying in one place for the whole weekend sounded restful.
Next day, Jo and I discussed it at work. We’d go up to the barn after work tonight to get the car ready and we’d take the Beast and make a weekend of it.
“Does Zanna want to come again?” I offered.
“She’s working tomorrow,” Jo said. She didn’t seem too gutted.
“You can move into my room while I’m away,” I offered.
“Might just do that,” Jo agreed.
At five thirty we got into her car to drive out to her parents. As we pulled out of the garage and turned right, a green Porsche nosed its way out of a side street behind us, and followed us really close behind.
“Is that who I think it is?” Jo asked, glancing in the mirror, her knuckles turning white on the steering wheel.
“Yes of course,” I said. I glanced in the passenger wing mirror. “And he’s not being subtle about it so he’s aiming to scare us. If he wanted to take us by surprise then he wouldn’t be driving that car and he wouldn’t be following us just half a metre behind.”
“So what do we do?” Jo asked nervously.
“Well for a start, we don’t lead him up to your parents,” I said. “And we don’t go on any fast roads round the edge of town or off over the moors. Nowhere he can use that one hundred and seventy seven miles per hour top speed to advantage, and nowhere unpopulated…” I glanced at her and grinned. “We’ll frustrate the socks off him if we don’t panic and we stay cruising at twenty miles an hour around town, stuck in traffic jams…”
“But…” Jo said worriedly.
“But we’re ok as long as he doesn’t have a gun,” I said cheerfully.
The look she gave me was eloquent.
“And I’m hoping he doesn’t!” I said. I thought about it for a minute as she drove us slowly through the town centre round the market cross. “And you know what, he wouldn’t be so stupid as to leap out of a distinctive car like that at a red light and shoot me. The police would be round to pick him up within the hour! Have you seen another green Cayman in this town?”
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