“Hey, sweetie, there’s a spare seat here if you want to join us,” said the guy. Eva shot him a hard look, but she really didn’t want to cause a scene. Instead she bit her lip and looked away. The three of them laughed loudly all over again. A moment later, the guy clapped his hands and called the waitress for drinks. Eva gritted her teeth. The scumbag was ruining everything. Lauren’s case, Lauren’s claims – it all came down to a matter of evidence and confidence. Evidence that what Lauren had said was true, and confidence that Lauren deserved saving. Once that was proved, if Eva was required to take drastic action, then Eva could ensure her response was proportionate. It could never be anything more. If there was going to be any chance of violence, she had to be sure. But the fool and his hookers had put an end to any chance of that. Blane and his friend carried on talking, but now their words were drowned in awful noise, and Eva’s presence was pointless.
A moment later, Eva noticed movement out in the darkness. Something somewhere between the two lines of hotel room blocks. Her eyes tracked to the glass and she found another female shape approaching the diner. As Eva had before her, the woman seemed to be avoiding the light, slinking through the shadows to avoid detection. Probably another infidelity job. Or another of gold-tooth’s scumbag’s coming to join the party… then a sheen of light picked out the wavy blonde-brown hair and Eva’s heart lurched. Lauren.
“What the hell is she doing?” Eva muttered. Her eyes darted to Blane and his friend, but they were engrossed in their huddled conversation. Eva turned her head and ignored the prostitutes who shot mocking looks back. Her eyes were on Lauren, pleading her silhouette not to come any closer. Thankfully, Lauren turned before she reached the lights directly outside the restaurant. Her shaded face turned Eva’s way, before she darted along the length of the restaurant, moving past the row of windows with her head down until she was clear of Blane and his friend. Now, Lauren was gone from view. Eva blinked. It was like watching someone running into the sea and being unable to do a thing about it. Eva’s throat felt constricted and her temples tense. She ignored her phone screen and looked down at the cork tablemat and counted time in her head. Just past the count of sixty, she stood up.
“Here she comes,” said one of the hookers.
Eva stepped away from her table and started walking. She had to pass the jerk and his escorts because the door was beyond them. She kept going. As she passed the table of three, something in Eva refused to be intimidated, refused even to look like she was being intimidated and she stopped walking. Her eyes narrowed and shot around the table, and they hardened when she met the man with the shark-eyes and the gold tooth.
“Oooh. This one’s mean!” he said, with a wheezy chuckle.
“Get a life you pervert,” said Eva. She moved on to the door, hearing the escorts’ snide tone of voice as she walked out into the darkness. It was juvenile, yes, but at least she’d had her say. Eva scanned the darkness of the car park. There was a figure crouching by the corner at the far end of the diner. There was a hint of summer rain in the air. Eva shook her head, angry from her confrontation, and now livid that Lauren had broken the only rule Eva had given her.
Eva marched down the front of the restaurant, slowing only just before she reached Blane’s table window.
She looked down at Jaeger, anger written all over her face.
Just as she was about to speak, Lauren put a finger to her lips, telling her to be quiet.
“What? Are you serious?” said Eva, in a hoarse whisper. “Now you’re trying to get yourself killed.”
“I thought the jury was still out on that,” said Jaeger. “Keep quiet, and stay back, they’re finishing up.”
Eva stepped back and peered into the restaurant window, just keeping Blane’s face obscured by the window frame. The men were moving – it seemed Lauren was right. Chairs juddered over the wooden floor, familiar sounds of goodbyes were uttered. Eva shook her head at Lauren, confused. “What the hell are you doing here anyway?” and then she saw it. Lauren’s hand seemed to be reaching for the windowsill, but now Eva saw Lauren’s arm was outstretched with her mobile phone in her hand.
“That’s it – they’re going!” said Lauren. “We need to get out of here.” The woman stood up and pulled back into the darkness in one swift move, dropping into the deep shadow behind the wooden building. Eva waited until the men had turned away from their table, before darting across the bright window space to join her friend beyond the edge of the building. Lauren leaned back against the wooden cladding, dragging in deep breaths. She rolled her eyes and looked at Eva.
“I know you’re pissed off with me, but I knew I didn’t have any choice. I saw that joker and the hookers walk in.… They were so loud I just knew you wouldn’t be able to hear anything at all.”
“So you risked alerting Jamie to your presence? If that guy really is your hitman, do you understand the risks you just took?”
Lauren looked into Eva’s eyes in the darkness. “Eva, you keep changing your mind. Half the time you seem to think I’m paranoid and made this whole thing up, but now you sound like you almost believe me again.”
Eva screwed her eyes shut then opened them slowly, meeting Lauren’s gaze.
“I don’t want to be pushed into doing something wrong, Lauren. If it’s wrong, I won’t do it.”
“Unless it’s to save a life. I know… so, Eva, you need to hear this.”
“Hear what?”
“I recorded it. I heard what they were saying, and I recorded it. Eva, after you hear this, there can be no doubt in your mind.”
“Lauren…”
“Just listen.”
Lauren tinkered with her smartphone and, as the light changed on her screen, her face was illuminated in orange and white. The woman pressed a button and held the phone towards Eva. The voices sounded in the darkness. They were indistinct, muffled by the walls, windows and the sounds of the breeze and the traffic. But there was still no mistaking the voices, or the context of what was being said.
“We’ve got to do something…”
“Yes, but you’ve been mithering about it for weeks. Enough’s enough.”
“But she knows… It’s like she knows what’s coming and I think she might even know about Suzie.”
“But surely she would only know if you wanted that to happen. If you’d been careless.”
“No. She’s just a very smart woman. She’s picked up on something. I can feel it when I’m with her now. I can see it in her eyes.”
“If that’s true, you’re almost too late. If you really want this finished, then you need to act before she can do anything about it. Make your move. Stop hesitating.”
“But I have to make sure it’s done well. If not, there’ll be repercussions.”
“There are always repercussions, Jamie. It’s just a matter of which ones you’ll accept.”
“But I don’t want any at all,” says Blane.
“Then put a stop to it. Act.”
“When?”
“You know when. Push the button. I’m ready but you have to initiate it.”
Lauren’s recording ended shortly after, and the breeze rushed through Eva’s hair. Spots of rain landed on her face and sparkled in the night air around them.
“Are you in any doubt now?” said Lauren. Her eyes held Eva’s. She was suddenly gripped in a wave of tension which filled every muscle in her body as Eva felt the balance shifting. Words like that, added with what she’d seen and heard already, it was hard to deny. Her mind began tipping towards murder, and as soon as it tipped, Lauren’s situation came into sharp relief.
“You’re not safe,” said Eva.
“No. I’m not. Just like I told you. I needed your help. And if you abandon me to this man, even for just one night… that could be the end of me.”
“I believe, but you don’t know that.”
“You heard him. How can you prevent anything if it happens when I’m asleep in my bed, and you’re ten miles away in Southend? Or eve
n if you’re downstairs at the bottom of our block.”
“Okay, I’m listening, Lauren. What exactly do you want from me?”
“You know what I want.”
Eva winced.
“Let me face him,” said Eva. “I’ll confront Jamie. I’ll make it go away.”
“Why? He’ll only bury if for a while, but then he’ll try again. And in the meantime, there’s my family to think of. No, Eva, I can’t let you do that.”
“What then?”
“I’m begging you, Eva. Jamie is going to kill me, Eva. How are we going to stop him?”
“Stop him?”
Lauren nodded her head slowly. “Permanently.”
The word hung in the air, but for the very first time Eva felt like she was beginning to see things from Lauren’s perspective. Lauren was trapped. Her family were trapped. She saw only one way out – her pain, or someone else’s pain., Lauren nodded as she read the look of resignation in Eva’s eyes.
“You understand now, don’t you? Eva, can you see what we’ve got to do?”
“I think so,” said Eva.
She looked into Lauren’s eyes.
“But that’s not what I do. It never has been.”
“You promised, damn you!”
“I did, Lauren. And I will keep my promise. But not like that. Come with me. I’ll help you, if you come with me.”
“My family. I can’t risk them.”
“For one night? Yes you can. He won’t hit them tonight. Nothing can be organised that fast. He’ll spend tonight waiting for you to come home.”
It looked as if Lauren was going to burst into tears. Eva looked past the end of the restaurant to where Blane and his companion were parting in the middle distance of the dark hotel car park.
“Trust me, Lauren. This might shake him up. He might show his hand. Just come with me and see what happens by tomorrow morning.”
“Where?”
“To my apartment. You’ll be safe there for the night
“And what will that change?” snapped Lauren. The rain began to thicken around them, pearl-size droplets hitting the pavement, faster and harder than before.
Eva shrugged. “Whatever we do next, it has to work. It can’t be rushed.”
“Does that mean you’ll do whatever needs to be done?”
“I said I’d help you.”
“Eva, pretty soon he isn’t going to give you any choice. You’ll see. You’ll see who Jamie is.”
Eva’s eyes glimmered. Her face was showing the strain. “Let’s just see, shall we? Let’s just see…”
Lauren snorted and looked around in the warm, rainy night. They waited until Blane’s car was long gone before they made a hurried, rainy dash back to Eva’s Alfa Romeo. Eva didn’t want Lauren with her, but what choice did she have? They got into the car and shut the rain outside. As Eva slipped on her seatbelt, the rain streaked down the windscreen. She felt like a woman caught in the eye of the storm. None of the worst issues had been resolved, and at any time the storm was going to hit harder than ever. Eva hoped a way out would soon appear. But as the rain strengthened it felt as if the storm had already arrived. The time for pushing back was over. Now there was only one night left to find a solution, because the real storm was about to be unleashed.
Nineteen
“Home sweet home, eh? My God, Alma, look at this pit. You really did sink low in the world,” said Blunt. He pushed Alma through the iron gate. The rain-slicked cobbles of the yard were criss-crossed by lengthening shadows in all directions. The smell of frying chips drifted by from a local takeaway. A sweary argument punctuated the evening along with birdsong. The light was failing, and Alma Poulter could only hope she had made the right call. The woman knew what she had to do. She just wasn’t sure if she would be able to pull it off.
Blunt pushed the gate closed behind them. He watched, expecting it would lock tight behind him, but it swung back open. He pushed it again, and then again. When he turned, Alma was watching him, her eyes shining in the twilight as the rain pattered around them. “The gate won’t close. We tried to secure it after we broke the lock. But we never managed it. At least with the lock broken we could always be sure to get in.”
“And that was clever, was it? You left yourself open to me, and that other trembling idiot. Did you ever work out what he wants from you? Or maybe he knows about your past glories?”
“I didn’t tell anyone anything, not ever.”
“You’re lying, Alma. I know you told someone. They told me where to find you.”
Alma shot him a look of inquiry and defiance.
“No – I didn’t… Blunt, who have you been speaking to?”
“Just one of your new homies. Some rough little bitch with a mouth even bigger than yours.”
Alma made a face. “But I didn’t tell… wait you mean Rhiannon? You’ve seen her? How is she? Where was she?”
“I saw the trollop. It doesn’t matter where she is now. You told her everything, didn’t you?”
“No. No, I didn’t… whatever she told you, she must have—”
“Must have what?” said Blunt, his eyes flashing.
“I… I don’t know. Is she okay? Blunt… is Rhiannon okay?”
Blunt grinned, and shoved her on. Alma looked back.
“What did you do to her?”
“We had a chat, that’s all,” said Blunt. “Sometimes these chats don’t end too well.”
Alma gasped and looked down at the cobbles, her face in shadow.
Blunt’s eyes were like orbs. They seemed to have their own soft glow.
“You can see the risk though now, eh?” said Blunt. “You can see why he sent me.”
“He sent you because he’s a jealous prick who couldn’t stand to let me go.”
Blunt snorted and grinned.
“No. Because eventually, someone like that other idiot would get hold of you – and what you know, when it leaked out – would be enough to bring us down.”
“That wouldn’t happen. I already promised when I left.”
“In that little note of yours?”
Alma said nothing.
“Simeon told me about that. It sounded a bit desperate. Not like you at all. You must have known he wouldn’t leave it at that. Couldn’t afford to, could he? Of course you knew. That’s why you hid. That’s how you evaded me for all this time. You knew this was coming.”
“If you say so, you maniac.”
“I do. Come on. We’d better go inside for the next part. You know what’s coming, don’t you?”
Alma gulped. He saw she knew but he wanted to tell her anyway.
“A little chat. Just a few questions to see if there’s been any leaks. Then we’ll finish up, nice and simple.”
“Finish up? I know what that means. Blunt, we used to be friends.”
“No we didn’t, Alma. Please, don’t sink any lower, sweetheart. It really doesn’t suit you. You knew what was coming. Let’s go and get this done.”
Alma stood her ground, playing for every second. Blunt laid a hand high up on Alma’s bony chest, on the flat of her ribs, feeling the damp sweat and rapid-fire beating of her heart. He left his hand there for a moment, as if enjoying her fear, and then he shoved hard and lifted his silver Walther PPK into the light from the streetlamps beyond the gate. Alma turned away, knowing that if Blunt got his way, she was heading for torture, a forced confession and a painful death. After she’d got out, she’d still heard echoes about her old crew. Echoes of the truth. The word was that Blunt enjoyed his job a little too much. He enjoyed killing to make a living. So far, the look in his eyes said those rumours were true.
“Where are we going?” she said, trying to gain a little more time, waiting for inspiration to arrive.
“You know this dive better than I do. Not quite Barcelona, is it, Alma?”
“Barcelona was a lie. It was paid for by that crap.”
“You were paid for by that crap. You know what buys glamour, Alma? Money.”
Alma shook her head. “Not for me. It was all about the kicks, the music, the freedom. Nothing to do with—”
“Save your self-righteous bullshit. There’s no one here who cares. Shame you turned out to be such a sulk, Alma. I always thought you were okay, until you ran.”
“A man doesn’t kill people he likes.”
Blunt’s eyes sparked with a grin. “You were okay, that’s all. Where do you want to go in this palace? Maybe we should check your bedroom. See if you’ve been keeping any secrets from us?”
He watched Alma’s face, but it stayed blank. She didn’t want Blunt getting an insight of any kind. Eventually she nodded. “Yeah. Let’s go there.”
“No then. Not if you want to. Let’s go back to the meeting room. There’s more possibilities in there…” he said.
Blunt shoved her in the back and Alma stumbled forward into the dark ring of the corridor. Her dark eyes were strained and wide in thought. Her breath was tight in her chest as she struggled to keep composure.
“You’re really going to do this? To me?” said Alma as they walked.
“Got no choice. This is what I do for a living. What I’ve done for years. You should have stayed loyal.”
“I was loyal.”
“Then you weren’t. Loyal isn’t running.”
Cuts Both Ways Page 25