One Night (8 page)

The lights of the van filled the end of the alley with a whiteness so bright that it almost blinded her. Against the glare she saw the blurred shape of a man and then heard a metallic crash and the sound of glass breaking. The noises echoed around her, disorienting her and making her feel like she was caught in the grip of a nightmare

Then the sounds faded away and the blinding light dimmed. She blinked to clear her eyes. Joel was on the floor at the end of the alleyway, the bag by his side. She ran to him and helped him to his feet. Her heart swelled at the nearness of him.

The van blocked out the street beyond. She could see the driver bent over the steering wheel, starting to sit up and look around. He was dazed from the crash but she didn’t think he would be for long. He’d been so focussed on running Joel down that his bloodlust had blinded him to the narrowness of alley.

Joel was getting his breath back, regaining his strength. He put his arms around her and pulled her body against his own. “I think you just saved my life,” he said. Then he kissed her.

Eve had wanted it for hours but it still took her by surprise. She yielded to him, loving the feel of his strong arms around her and the pleasure of his lips on hers. She kissed him back, her heart rising as it was filled with a hungry passion that overwhelmed her. His taut body was pressed against hers and she could feel the masculine energy in it. That and his growing erection.

Joel broke off, breathless.

"We need to go," he said. He grabbed up the bag and reached for her hand.

“Wait,” said Eve. She grabbed the bins she’d been standing by and overturned them, spilling their stinking contents onto the path. “That might slow them down a little.”

She took Joel’s hand and led the way.

As they ran down the alleyway the engine of the van grew louder again. Joel looked back and saw the driver sitting upright, starting to reverse the vehicle
away.

“We need to hurry,” said Joel. “They won’t be long.”

“Do you know who they are?”

"Not who. But I know why they're after me. I’m sorry, Eve. I shouldn’t have dragged you into this.”

She looked back at him as they ran. “Stop bloody saying sorry.”

He laughed. “Okay, okay. So how are you enjoying the date?”

“It is a date then?"

"Definitely. Just wait
till you see what I've got planned for later."

“I look forward to it.”

From behind them came the hollow metallic sound of the bins being kicked out of the way. The other end of the alley was in sight now though and Eve was sure they would make it, clear this alley and cross the road ahead into the next one. The further they got away from the men, whoever they were, the better chance they had of escaping them for good. Who were they though? And what the hell was Joel caught up in? Did she have him wrong, she wondered? Until now she’d been attracted to the air of danger he had about him, it felt risky, exciting. Should it have scared her instead? Was she so bored with the routine of her life that she’d misinterpreted something that should have frightened her as something desirable?

It didn’t matter though did it? Because no matter what happened he’d be gone after tonight. She imagined waking up in the morning and knowing she would never see
him again. Just the thought of it made her feel sick. How the hell had he gotten so far under her skin so quickly? He was like a drug she felt she couldn’t give up. Even this chase was exciting somehow, because she was doing it with him. Running down an alleyway at night being followed by men with sticks. Jesus, what had she gotten herself into?

She could tell that Joel was falling behind again when they reached the end of the alleyway. Glancing back she could see that he was struggling under the weight of the bag. As she stepped out onto the pavement he was about six feet behind her. The masked men were twenty and closing.

An elderly couple walking down the road looked at her as she ran out of the alley. She ignored them and stepped out into the road, she didn’t bother looking, just trusted the lack of traffic noise in her ears to tell her that the road was clear. It was a game she’d played with her friends as a child, when her dad had died and she’d started taking risks because they made her feel more alive. She supposed it was her way of being in control.

There were three of them who played it, her and Claire and Rachel. They called it rabbits. The rabbit would be blindfolded and had to cross the road safely. The other two girls would stand on either side of the road and guide them. Partly it was a trust thing but Eve always paid as much attention to the road noises she could hear as she did their voices. Looking back she supposed it was a miracle that none of them had ever been hurt.

There was no-one to guide her now. Just her ears and her determination to save Joel.

The mouth of the next stretch of alley was ahead of her and she ran to it, clearing the road safely as she always had as a child. She stopped when she reached it and looked back. Joel was there, still struggling with the bag. The men were behind him. Even closer now. He couldn’t
outrun them for much longer. She had to put a stop to this; she reached into her bag and pulled out her mobile phone.

Joel could hear them on his heels and knew he didn’t have long. His lungs were burning in his chest from the weight of the damn bag on his back. Escaping the van had been lucky but he wasn’t going to keep ahead of these guys for much longer.

He saw Eve across the road waiting at the next cut through. Whatever they did to him he wouldn’t let them get to her. He was going to have to face them. Three men, two with baseball bats. They were long odds. He knew the best place to take them on would be in the alley where they could only come at him one at a time. If they surrounded him he was done for but if he could face them individually he just might manage. He looked at Eve again and saw she had her phone in her hand.
Shit, the realisation hit him like a hammer blow, she was going to dial 999.

“No,” he shouted at her, gasping for breath. “Just get in the alley.”

Eve heard him and took thumb away from the keypad. She didn’t know why she trusted him but she did. The phone went back in her bag and she ran into the alley.

Joel followed her. He stopped ten feet into the narrow space and dropped the bag by his side. Then he turned to face the three men advancing on him.

Deeper into the alley Eve ran on, oblivious.

Joel was meeting them at a services on the M11, the motorway that ran from the London orbital the M25 out towards the dealer’s house in Hertfordshire. It was the same place that he’d be dropped off at afterwards if everything went well. Fuller’s jobs often started this way, with the players picked up at different locations. The planner claimed it limited the risk because if something did go wrong in the lead up to the job there was a chance not all of them would be caught. Each member of the team was responsible for getting to their meeting point early and checking it out thoroughly. If anything was amiss they would contact Fuller who would call the job off. Only he knew all of the pick up points ahead of time. He’d feed them to Paterson as the driver needed them.

Joel got there an hour ahead of time and had a good walk around the place. It was full of the strange mix of people that seemed to inhabit motorway service stations. Families with screaming kids, groups of eager looking young people in matching track suits, truck drivers who looked like they hadn’t slept for days. God knows what they’d done before you could get decent coffee in these places.

Joel checked the food court for anyone who looked like they were paying a bit too much attention to the world around them. He wandered round the shops, looking at paperbacks and magazines and mobile phone cases. He watched a couple of guys who looked like travelling salesmen playing on the fruit machines and some teenage girls lounging in the massage chairs frantically tapping away at their phones.

After a while he walked outside and stood in the designated smoking area. He pulled his cigarettes out and lit one. The change in the law was useful in situations like this because it made it perfectly acceptable for him to loiter by the entrance to the building. He could keep an eye on the car park and watch people coming and going. He hadn’t seen anything that concerned him and he didn’t expect to but it didn’t hurt to be alert.

Five minutes before the pick up time Joel’s phone rang. It was already in his hand and he answered it immediately.

“All good?” said Fuller at the other end of the line.

“Peachy,” said Joel. The word felt strange but if he’d said anything else or hadn’t answered Fuller would have called the job off straight away.

“Glad to hear it.” Fuller ended the call.

Paterson pulled up bang on time. Danny was in the passenger seat, looking a little edgier than he normally did. He smiled when he saw Joel though and waved at the back of the car.

“I called shotgun,” he said.

Joel nodded and put his bag of tools in the boot before climbing into the back seat.

“I expect
it’s a bit easier for you in the front, eh? What with your arthritis and your dodgy hip.”

Danny laughed. “Cheeky sod. I could still take you, sonny. Don’t you doubt it for one
minute.” 

Paterson pulled back onto the motorway, swinging the car out to the fast lane and maintaining a steady eighty miles per hour. He placed a call on his mobile, the dial tone filling the car through the
hands free kit he had mounted on the dashboard.

Fuller picked up.

“Okay, just one left,” said Paterson. “Where’s that big bugger Reynolds
at?”

Fuller gave him the name of an out of town shopping centre about twenty miles away and roughly en route to the dealer’s house. The pickup wasn’t for half an hour. 

“I expect he’ll be looking at the soft furnishings,” said Paterson.

The Scot stayed on the motorway for fifteen miles and then turned off onto a slip road.
He drove at a steady speed through an industrial estate until they reached the retail park.

He looked at his watch. “Wee bit early, guys,” he said and drove past it, heading into the town the park was on the outskirts of.

Twenty five minutes after the last call the driver checked in with Fuller again.

“Go for it,” said the planner. “He’s given me the all clear. He’ll be waiting for you out the front of the electrical store.”

They arrived at the park a minute ahead of time and Paterson reversed into a space with a clear view of the meeting point. Reynolds wasn’t there.

“Give him a minute,” Danny said. “He’ll be here. We’re early, right?”

Paterson nodded. “Aye, a little.”

They waited. Joel could feel the anxiety rising inside him. Bubbling up from his belly like he’d eaten something nasty.

“Call Fuller,” he said after a minute. “I don’t like this.”

“Me either,” said Paterson and dialled the number.

Fuller picked up immediately. “What’s wrong?” he said.

“Reynolds is a no show,” said the driver.

Joel was watching Paterson so he didn’t see it until Danny said. “There he is.” He looked up and saw the boxer running out of the shop.

“Fuck,” he said. “Fucking idiot.” Behind Reynolds was a security guard. Big and out of shape but still a threat, not to Reynolds who could have laid him out with a single punch, but to the job.

“What’s happening?” said Fuller. Joel could hear the stress in his voice.

“He’s attracted a bit of interest from the rentacops,” said Paterson. “What do I do?”

Fuller thought for a second. Joel wondered if he was following some kind of flow chart that had every possible thing that could go wrong detailed in it. “Pick him up,” he said. “Get him in the car and then get the hell away from there and call me back.”

Paterson hung up and swung the car out of the space. Reynolds saw them and ran in their direction. The security guard was slowing down, either because he was out of breath or because he’d realised chasing after someone as big as Reynolds might not be such a great idea. Joel could
tell that he’d seen the car though. And all of them in it.

Paterson stopped by Reynolds and the boxer climbed in.

“What happened?” said Joel. “What the fuck did you do?”

“Nothing,” said Reynolds. “I swear to God. I got there a bit early and checked the place out. Nothing unusual so I went to look at the iPads.”

“Get to the part where there’s a security guard chasing after you.”

Reynolds rounded on him. “Shut the fuck up or I
’ll put your head through that window,” he said.

Danny turned and looked at both of them. “Stop bloody
squabbling, you’re worse than my kids. Joel, let him tell us what happened.”

“Fuller rang me and I let him know it was all good,” said Reynolds. “Then I lost track of time.”

“Okay,” said Danny. “And then?”

“I realised I was late so I ran out of the shop.”

Danny sighed, “And the guard thought you’d nicked something?”

“Yeah, he must have done.”

Joel groaned. “Brilliant. So the job is blown because you can’t tell the time.”

Reynolds punched his arm hard enough to make it go numb. “I’ve told you once. Shut up. Besides, I didn’t do anything.”

“It doesn’t matter,” said Joel. “What matters is that the cops are going to be looking for this car. The guard will ring it through to them before they even realise nothing’s missing.”

They were driving through the industrial estate now, heading back to the motorway.

“I’ll call Fuller,” said Paterson. “Give him the bad news. Then I need to drop you boys off and ditch this car as quick as I can.”

Danny ran a hand through his hair and then
spoke. “Don’t call him,” he said.

“I’ve got to call him, pal,” said Paterson. “It’s over.”

“No, it’s not,” said Danny. “We’re still doing the job.”

Joel started to speak and Danny turned to face him. He had a gun in his hand. The cold dark hole of the barrel was pointed squarely at Joel’s head.

“No arguments, son,” he said. “We’re doing it.”