Red Notice

59

Delphine led Rose and Daniel through the deserted carriages, their slow progress lit only by the glow of the emergency lights. The guard at her shoulder made his impatience clear, but she resolutely adjusted her pace to that of the children. Daniel was struggling to walk in his soiled trousers. She tried to give him a reassuring smile. ‘Not much further now, mon chéri. Just one more coach and we’re there.’

Both kids reached out, held the hand that was offered them, and followed her like zombies. Towards the end of the next aisle, Delphine brought them to a halt. Unless the corpse had been moved, Grace would still be lying directly in their path. Even in the low light, the children… She shuddered. It didn’t bear thinking about. They’d been through too much already.

‘Rose… Daniel… We’re going to play a little game…’

Tom had already reached Coach Eight. The sprinklers had stopped, and all he could hear was the sound of water dripping off the skin of the train and into the puddles that had gathered on the concrete below.

Heading for the frosted glass of the toilet window, he ducked down, crawled beneath the train and, rolling onto his back, worked his way across the track until he reached the septic tank. The thick plastic containers were removed once a day and replaced with empty ones. Checking out the noise level and staying aware of the gun position further along the track, he unscrewed the butterfly nuts securing the steel clips that kept it in place, then slid it smoothly out from under the toilet seat on its runners, like a kitchen drawer.

Delphine staggered a little with the weight of a child on each hip.

To keep to the rules, they had their eyes closed, and each time she took a step they counted off a number. Rose said it into her left ear, Daniel into her right. Delphine then translated the number into French and they had to say it back to her.

‘And the next number is…’

‘Four!’

‘That’s quatre.’

‘Quatre!’

‘Very good!’

Delphine reached her seat. She nodded in the direction of the carrier bag. The guard shoved her forward, picked it up and examined the contents in the gloom. After a moment he gave a grudging nod.

‘And the next number is…’

‘Five!’

‘That’s cinq,’ Rose said proudly.

‘Well done, Rose. Daniel?’

‘Cinq!’

‘Fantastic! Let’s keep going!’

There was a dark shape on the floor immediately ahead of them. If she hadn’t known better, she might have thought a couple of rucksacks or a loosely rolled rug had fallen from the rack.

‘And the next number is…’ She edged around Grace’s body, grunting with the effort.

‘Six,’ Rose said. ‘That’s a really easy one.’

‘Daniel?’

‘Six!’

‘Brilliant.’

There was a sniffle in her right ear. She felt the little boy’s face wet against her cheek. ‘My mummy is dead, isn’t she?’

Delphine hesitated, uncertain how to reply. She didn’t want to lie to them. ‘We can’t think about that now, chéri. Now what’s the next number? It’s eight, isn’t it?’

Rose said, ‘No, it’s not, Delphine! It’s seven.’

‘Of course! And that is…?’

‘Sept,’ Rose said.

Daniel stifled a sob.

She speeded up her pace, bouncing the children on her hips as she went. ‘Huit, neuf, dix, onze, douze, treize…’

Rose giggled and clung to her more tightly.

They reached the end of the carriage.

Once through the door she slid them down to the floor and squatted at Daniel’s level, then took his and Rose’s hand in hers and gave them a reassuring squeeze. She hesitated for a moment longer, trying to think of what she would say to her niece and nephew if her sister were now lying in a pool of blood behind them. ‘I know it’s very, very hard for you both, but we all need to help each other. I want you to do exactly as I tell you, even if it sounds strange.’ She gave them her most radiant smile and hugged both children to her.

The guard jabbed her in the back with the barrel of his machine-gun. She stood up, gave him a withering glare, and snatched the bag from his hand. She tipped out the clothes and held up a dress for Rose and a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt for Daniel. ‘What do you think?’ She placed them against their trembling bodies. ‘Not too bad, are they? And I think the sizes will be close enough. Now come on, mes petits, let’s get you cleaned up.’

She opened the toilet door and ushered them inside. As she tried to close it behind them, the guard wedged his boot across the frame. He hadn’t said a single word since they’d been together, and he didn’t start now. But his bestial grunt and the look of primal aggression on his face made his message clear.

‘Oh, come on.’ She waved an arm around the cubicle. ‘We’re not going anywhere, are we? They’re only little children, and you’re a very big, scary man. Please, just let them be for a moment.’

The man just stared at her, unblinking and unmoved. After a moment she turned away from him, ran some water into the basin and pulled a handful of paper towels from the dispenser. She dropped to her knees, undid Daniel’s new Buzz Lightyear belt and loosened his off-to-Disneyland jeans. Then she paused and looked up. ‘Are you really sure you want to be downwind of this?’

Delphine removed Daniel’s soiled trousers and pants and held out the stinking bundle. ‘Since you’re here,’ she said, ‘you might as well make yourself useful.’ The guard recoiled, gagging, and allowed the door to slide shut.

Almost immediately, Delphine felt her mobile phone vibrate in her jeans. She pulled it out and read the text message on the Bluetooth display:

Lock door. Lift toilet seat.

Delphine quietly turned the lock, then washed and dried Daniel and helped him into the clean clothes. The trousers were a little large, but she tightened the belt another notch and rolled up the legs a couple of times. Then she helped Rose into the new dress, making sure she had something to comfort her. For Delphine in her childhood it had been a toy rabbit; for Rose it was an iPod in a bright pink sock.

She tiptoed to the door, listened for a second, then stepped back and flipped the seat. Tom, framed by the toilet bowl, his face crusted with oil and dirt, lay on his back beneath them.

Rose leaned forward too, and peered into the bowl. She opened her mouth to scream, but Delphine clamped a hand over her lips and said in an urgent whisper, ‘It’s OK, don’t be frightened. He’s going to help us. He’s not a pretty sight, but he’s our friend.’

Tom reached up and started to remove the square of flooring that provided the base of the toilet bowl. There was a slight scraping sound as he worked it free and lowered it to the ground. ‘Right,’ he murmured. ‘The girl first.’

‘Her name is Rose.’ Delphine slipped her hands under Rose’s armpits, lifted her up and lowered her through the hole in the floor. Tom grabbed her and helped her to the ground. He squeezed her hand, smiled encouragingly and held a finger to his lips. Then he reached up to take her brother.

‘And this is Daniel. He’s a very brave little boy.’ Daniel was a foot shorter than Rose, but a good few Happy Meals plumper. As Delphine lowered him into the hole, he felt the rough edges of the surround scraping at his puppy fat and began to panic.

Tom grabbed his legs and tried to pull him through. Frightened and more than a little ashamed, Daniel started to cry.

‘Sssh… sssh… it’s OK, chéri. Just suck in your tummy — it’ll be OK…’

Delphine cast an anxious glance at the door.

Tom looked along the track in both directions, then checked his watch. Laszlo wasn’t going to wait for ever to find out why the radio hadn’t been put back online, and what had happened to the man sent to repair it.

Delphine gripped Daniel more firmly under his armpits now that his legs were dangling under the carriage. She tried to calm him. ‘It’s all right. Everything is going to be OK. Just breathe in and try to wriggle through. Don’t worry, you won’t fall — the nice man, our friend, he will catch you.’

The guard had heard the boy’s cries, and Delphine watched, horrified, as the handle turned, then stopped. The angry shouts from the other side of the door were followed by boot and body slamming against it.

Tom yanked hard on Daniel’s legs and, with a yelp, the boy finally dropped into his arms.

Delphine lowered herself as quickly as possible into the hole, but the toilet door burst open as the guard kicked it off its lock. He dived forward, grabbed her around the chest, and dragged her out.

As Tom launched himself upwards to help her, she shouted, ‘Save the ki—’

Her assailant slammed a fist into the top of her head. She felt the skin on her scalp split and her face hurtled towards the linoleum.

Fighting the pain as she lay sprawled on the toilet floor, she felt rather than heard him spray three suppressed bursts of 9mm into the darkness, then watched him lean as far as he could into the hole to see what he had hit.