The Lost Testament

85

Outside, the noise of the sirens was very much louder, and he was sure that Angela would already have driven away from the scene, so he ran in the opposite direction, covering as much distance as he could before the first of the police cars arrived.

There was another industrial building about two hundred yards away, and he ducked around the back of it just as the beams of the headlights on the leading police car swept across it. Bronson stopped for a few seconds and looked back, checking that he hadn’t been seen.

Once he was certain that nobody was heading in his direction, he crossed the road and began making his way between the various industrial units dotted about the estate until he reached the other road where he had asked Angela to wait for him. Almost as soon as he stepped onto the pavement, he saw the hire car parked precisely where he had expected to find it.

Less than a minute later, he pulled open the passenger door and dropped into the seat beside her.

The moment he sat down, Angela grabbed and held him for a long moment.

‘I was terrified,’ she said, a catch in her voice. ‘I heard the shots and I was sure I was never going to see you again. So I called the police and then drove here as soon as I heard the sirens. What happened? Was George there?’

Bronson nodded.

‘He was, and he still is,’ he replied. ‘He was tied to a chair, but as far as I could see he was unharmed apart from two or three broken fingers.’

‘The bastards,’ Angela muttered. ‘Why didn’t you bring him with you?’

‘I didn’t have time to cut him free, and in any case he’ll need medical treatment for his hand. And there’s another reason. I left two dead men inside that building and another one with a really bad headache. I explained to George what he should tell the police, and I’m hoping that will satisfy them that nobody else was involved in there, at least in the short term.’

All the time he’d been talking, Bronson had been keeping a careful watch out of the car windows, just in case any of the police officers decided they needed to widen their search of the local area. He didn’t think it was likely to happen imminently, because he guessed they’d have their hands full at the crime scene. Once more cars and officers had arrived, they’d have enough manpower to cover the whole area, but Bronson intended to be long gone before that happened.

‘You killed two men?’ Angela asked, her voice barely more than a hoarse whisper.

Bronson shrugged, mentally reliving the sequence of events.

‘It was self-defence,’ he said, ‘and I only just got away with it. If I’d been just a little bit slower I’d be lying dead on the floor of that office back there, and George would probably be looking down the barrel of a pistol as well. I really had no choice.’

Angela didn’t reply, and Bronson held her gaze for a moment, then looked ahead, through the windscreen.

‘We can talk about it later, but now we really must move,’ he said. ‘Are you OK to drive?’

Angela nodded, looking upset but resolute.

As they drove past the end of the road where the warehouse was located, they both glanced to their left. The flashing red and blue lights of the police vehicle were casting kaleidoscope patterns across the front of the building, but nobody was visible outside it. Bronson guessed that the police were still trying to make sense of the scene inside the office and, hopefully, summoning medical assistance for George Stebbins.

As if in answer to his silent thought, as they drove out of the industrial estate and turned back towards the centre of Madrid, an ambulance screamed past in the opposite direction, siren blaring and roof-lights pulsing.

‘With any luck they’ll pump George full of painkillers before they splint and bind his fingers, and he probably won’t be in any fit state to answer questions coherently for a few hours. I just hope he remembers not to mention you, and especially not to mention me.’

Then another thought struck him, and he glanced over at Angela, who was concentrating on driving as quickly as the traffic would allow.

‘What happened to that bloke I flattened outside the building?’ Bronson asked. ‘The one who came out and obligingly left the door open for me?’

Angela glanced at him, then turned her attention back to the road.

‘He stood up a couple of minutes after you’d gone inside. He looked pretty groggy, and kept on holding the side of his head while he looked around him. But then the shooting started inside the building and that certainly got his attention. He reached inside his jacket, but I guess you’d already taken his gun because he obviously didn’t find what he was looking for. He took a few steps over towards the building, then seemed to think better of it. He walked back to the car, got into it and then drove away. It was about then that I put the battery back in the phone and called the police.’

Bronson nodded.

‘One minor mystery solved, I suppose.’

‘So now that George is in good hands,’ Angela asked, ‘can we go home?’

‘I bloody hope so. I just have no idea how.’