Siege

Ninety-four

23.17

TINA STOOD ON the doorstep of Arley Dale’s mother’s attractive modern townhouse, looking out on to the empty wet street. Lights were on in all the houses, and Tina was pretty sure that behind every curtain people were watching the events continue to unfold at the Stanhope.

On the way over here in the car, she’d heard the news that all the gunmen were supposedly now dead and Special Forces were in the building, clearing it room by room, floor by floor, while bomb disposal teams had dealt with a number of suspect devices. Tina knew that her actions had almost certainly saved the lives of SAS operatives, but it had been a close-run thing, and, given everything else she’d done, including killing a man, it might not be enough to save her from prison.

For the past few months, at the back of her mind she’d toyed with the idea of appealing against her dismissal from the Met and trying to resurrect her career as a police officer. But this had scuppered any such ambitions completely. There was no way on earth they could let her back in now.

But Tina didn’t regret what she’d done. A man had once told her that you should judge your actions by how much good they do; if the good outweighed the bad, then those actions were worth it. The man who’d said it might have been a killer many times over, but even so Tina felt he had a valid point. And tonight, the good she’d done far outweighed the bad.

She stubbed her cigarette out on a waist-high stone flowerpot, and rubbed her hands against the cold. She could do with warming up but she had no desire to go back inside, where Arley’s mum would only keep bombarding her with questions. And to be fair, who could blame her? But right now she wasn’t interested in answering them.

A black cab turned into the street, stopping directly outside. It was Arley, still in her DAC finery, although it was looking somewhat dishevelled. Tina had always thought there was something pompous about the uniform of the senior officers in the Met, and she wondered what the taxi driver must have thought when Arley had hailed him.

After paying him, Arley walked up the steps to where Tina was standing, stopping in front of her. She took a deep breath, and threw her arms round Tina. ‘Thank you so much for what you’ve done. I don’t know how I can ever repay you.’

Tina pulled away gently. ‘Save the hugs for the children, Arley. You haven’t got much time.’

Arley took a step back. ‘Have you called the police?’

‘I have, but I haven’t told them where to find us. I’m going to need to call them again now and tell them to come here.’

‘Can’t you leave it for a little while?’

Tina shook her head. ‘I left a crime scene containing the body of the man I killed. I can’t afford to avoid them. Neither can you right now.’

Arley gave an understanding nod. ‘Then I guess I’d better hurry up.’

Tina stepped aside to let her past. She didn’t envy Arley, having to tell her children that they’d lost their father. It was going to be a hard conversation, especially after all they’d been through. But they were good, brave kids and they would have family around them. And at least, unlike many of the victims of that day, they still had their lives in front of them.

Lighting another cigarette, she put up her collar against the cold and walked slowly up the street, waiting until she finished it before making the call.

Then she walked back down to the house and sat down on the bottom of the steps to wait.