Dark Winter

35

I turned off the light and closed the door on them, then headed for the kitchen, my boots adding to the trail of blood prints and bone splinters already left by Suzy.

She shone her Maglite over the woman’s belongings on the kitchen table. I moved up close. ‘Why the fuck did you drop her? What if she wasn’t even—’

The carrier-bag rustled as she held it up and I could see hard cylindrical shapes pressing against the plastic. ‘Would you have given her the chance?’

I took the bag from her and put it on the table, pulling out three large spray cans of what I hoped was still red car paint. I put it next to the rest of the kit on the table, eighty pounds in notes and some change, a return ticket from King’s Cross, and a receipt for a cheese baguette. There was also a mobile phone and a lone lever key for the front door.

I picked the phone up and switched it on with a rubber-gloved thumb just as Billy and Maureen’s lights came back on next door. Maureen hadn’t had a good night out. ‘You bleedin’ spoil everything, you do!’ The TV went on as her shrill voice disappeared upstairs. ‘Karaoke’s my only night out and you’ve fucking ruined it!’ And whoever Cheryl was she was a big fat slag anyway and he was welcome to her.

The Motorola’s back light came on, then the display, asking for a PIN code. I tried 1234. Nothing. 4321. Nothing. That gave me just one last shot. I tried a random sequence, but the thing closed down. Shit.

I reached across and shoved the side of Suzy’s head to my mouthpiece. ‘We’ve got to go. Get the ready bags in here. We’ll keep out the way of next door.’

She moved my head then, so my ear was next to her mouthpiece. ‘What if this place is contaminated? Even when we’re out we should wait an hour.’

I shoved the woman’s belongings into the carrier. ‘Another hour isn’t going to change anything . . .’

The row next door escalated as we played musical heads.

‘No, now – we can’t wait and I’m not wasting time explaining. Change outside if it makes you feel better. We’re taking the pills, aren’t we?’

I picked up the carrier and headed outside. Doors were being slammed over at Billy’s and the TV was turned up. I pulled down on the toggle and pushed my hood back before ripping off the respirator. The cool air brushed against my wet face. I got the rest of the kit off as quickly and quietly as I could and into the ready bag. Suzy followed after closing the back door. She took her hood down and pulled off her respirator as well. ‘Fuck it.’

We finished packing and checked the yard to see if we’d left anything. We exited by the back gate and headed for the bridge, turning left up Walker Street, ready bags over our shoulders.

A queue had formed outside the chip shop on Loke. The pub was rocking to a bad karaoke singer murdering ‘Like A Virgin’.

Suzy had been striding along beside me, waiting for an explanation. When we were well out of any possible earshot she got what she wanted. ‘We could be in the shit here. What if those cans are DW? What if the rest of those fuckers have already been spraying this shit about today? Or what if they’ve split up, and are waiting to press the button? Look, let’s get the cell to the Yes Man – he finds the numbers, he finds the location, and we get these fuckers.’

Virtually running now, we got to the brick in the wall, retrieved the keys and carried on back to the Peugeot.

I got the Yes Man on the moan-phone.

‘You get it?’

‘Maybe, but only some. Listen in.’ I told him about the Immigration guys, and that the ASU could have been living there. ‘If the cans contain DW, what’s to say the attack couldn’t already have happened? It’s Saturday night, pubs are packed, there’s been football matches, the list goes on. But, look, we have her cell. I can’t open it and we’ll have to be quick in case she has report times and they’ve actions-on if she misses any. The good thing is, it’s closed down – chances are she wasn’t expecting any incoming.’

‘Get moving.’ I could hear a lot of people talking in the background and phones ringing and getting answered around the Yes Man. ‘I want that mobile, and the canisters.’

Suzy was silently mouthing to me, ‘Immigration.’

I said, ‘Are the plates blocked?’ I wanted to know if we could speed without being chased by the police, if the registration number was on their computers as one to be left alone.

‘Of course. Just get your foot down.’

‘What about the Immigration people?’

‘Fuck Immigration. A clean-up team will take care of them.’

There was more background chaos in my earpiece and a bleep from the fill before he closed down.

‘London. We’ve got blocked plates.’

The engine revved and we started to fly out of King’s Lynn.

I was shaking my head. ‘That’s the first time I’ve heard him swear. You?’

‘Never. He must be flapping big-time.’

She went straight across a raised roundabout on the edge of town, showing off the fast-driving skills she’d probably learned in the Det. I checked traser. It was nearly eleven – just before six at Josh’s.

The ops phone rang. It made me jump, but Suzy’s eyes never left the road.

‘Change of plan. Go to Fakenham racecourse – repeat, Fakenham racecourse. Call me when you get there. Have you got that?’

‘Fakenham racecourse.’

‘There’ll be a heli arriving within thirty minutes. Hand the phone to the technician. I want you back in London and ready to move once we find out where these scum are. The situation has moved on now that the agent could already be aerosolized. If they are not found tonight we will have to go to government, and that must not happen. Do you understand?’

‘Yes.’

The phone went dead and I turned round to drag the mapbook off the back seat. ‘We have a heli pickup at Fakenham racecourse.’

‘And where exactly is Fakenham, Norfolk boy?’

I turned my Maglite on and flicked over a few pages. ‘Not the way we’re going.’

She braked and threw the car into the side of the road.

‘We need to get back towards King’s Lynn. Fakenham is about forty Ks east of us, further into Norfolk. The racecourse is south of the town. Better get your foot down.’

She turned the wheel and spun the car round.

‘Why does he always makes me feel as if we’re the guilty party here?’

She changed straight from fifth to third before overtaking a line of three cars. ‘We’re not, I am. You were right about getting out of there early.’

‘No drama. Anyway, he told me that a cleanup team will be on target tonight to sort out the Immigration boys. They’ll be having breakfast with Simon for the next few days. I hope they thank us for the overtime.’

She laughed, a bit too much, but so did I.

She was back to normal now. ‘Throw up, that’s what you call a U-turn in North Det, isn’t it?’

I navigated for her as we screamed along narrow B roads and through villages with no street-lights. The gearbox would be in shit state by the time we got there, but who cared? It was a big firm.

We hit a town called Swaffham and headed northish towards Fakenham. It was a much better road now, but I couldn’t stop myself doing some phantom braking as Suzy threw the car into the bends. ‘Stop doing that,’ she snapped. ‘Or drive yourself.’

I smiled, got out my cell and tapped in Josh’s number. Suzy didn’t say anything as I sat there with something to my ear that obviously wasn’t a moan-phone.

Josh answered. I bent down into the footwell to try to find a quieter spot. ‘It’s me, it’s Nick.’

It seemed he couldn’t hear me too well over the noise of the high-revving engine. ‘What? That you, Nick?’

‘Yes, listen – she’s coming back tomorrow.’

‘Say again?’

‘Tomorrow, she’s coming back tomorrow.’

‘Where are you, man? In a wind tunnel or something?’

‘Call Carmen, will you? Find out her flight and pick her up. You’ll need to pick her up. She is back tomorrow. You get that?’

Josh had, and was in orbit. ‘What are you at, man? You’re doing it again – you’re butting out. What is it with you?’

‘Just call Carmen – she’s arranged everything.’ I didn’t add that I only hoped she had.

Suzy braked sharply and I looked up to see her flashing a VW to get out of the way. Its horn blasted as we overtook near a bend and Josh screamed at me down the cell.

‘Fuck you, man, you’re doing it again!’ The Yes Man wasn’t the only one tonight who’d changed his Christian ways. I must have the gift.

‘Call her, call her.’ I hit the end button. However pissed off he was with me, he’d be on the phone to Carmen right now. We’d just have to patch things up later.