Dead at First Sight

60 Tuesday 9 October

As he walked away from the pub, the heavy package still tucked in his belt, safely concealed by his jacket and parka, Tooth checked his phone.

The blue dot was heading north on the A23, the main road out of Brighton towards London, passing Gatwick Airport.

He hurried back to the Polo, which he’d parked down a side street a short distance away, and jumped in. Under the glow of a street lamp, he peered cautiously inside his coat at the contents of the brown carrier. Inside was an unbranded handgun that looked like a backstreet copy of a Beretta, a silencer and a plastic bag containing some bullets — around twenty he guessed, he didn’t have time to count them. More than enough for his purposes.

He balanced the phone on the seat beside him, stuck the bag with its contents in the glovebox, looked at the moving blue dot again and calculated that the Hyundai was around fifteen minutes in front of him.

He drove carefully through the city, then once he was out of the 30-mph zone and on the A27 dual carriageway he accelerated hard up the hill and down the far side, before peeling off left, onto the A23 north.

Taking a risk on the quiet road, he increased his speed until the needle was nudging the 90-mph mark. Steadily, over the next fifteen minutes, he narrowed the gap with the blue dot. He maintained his speed. It was reckless, he knew, but he watched out for police cars like a hawk. The gap continued to close.

A few miles on, the A23 became the M23 motorway. He continued maintaining his speed. Less than ten minutes between them now. The blue dot was turning left, off the M23. Onto the Gatwick Airport slip road, the map showed him.

Shortly after, the blue dot stopped moving. Why?

Tooth almost shot past the Hyundai. He spotted it pulled over in a lay-by a few hundred yards ahead.

He slowed right down and switched off his headlights. A couple of taxis overtook him as he was wondering where to pull in. But he didn’t need to as the Hyundai suddenly began moving again, crawling round the perimeter road. Tooth followed behind it at a safe distance, wondering what they were doing. Were they returning the car? Flying out?

The Hyundai drove all the way round, through the Departure drop-off zone and back round the perimeter road. Then it entered the short-term car park.

Tooth felt a beat of excitement. The car park would be pretty quiet at this time of the night. Perhaps, if they parked in a dark area, he could get them both as they climbed out of the car. A double-tap to each of their heads.

An untraceable gun and bullets.

He could be on a plane out first thing in the morning. Job done. Then on to South America. To the house he’d recently acquired in Cuenca, in Ecuador.

But instead of heading up the ramp to the parking levels, the Hyundai made a right, into the Sixt car rental area, and pulled up in a bay.

What were they doing?

Then he saw, under the weak overhead lighting, there was only one person in the car. Which puzzled him.

Red Shoes got out and headed towards the office.

Tooth reversed into an empty bay that gave him a view of the office through his mirrors. He watched Red Shoes approach the reception counter, with a bored-looking woman behind it.

And now he had a pretty good idea what was happening.

Leaving his Polo and keeping stealthily out of sight of the office, he hurried behind several rows of parked cars and over to the Hyundai. He crouched down behind it, felt underneath until he found the magnetic tracker, pulled it free and pocketed it.