Die Alone Page 16

  Her mind had been in utter torment, until she’d seen the woman stiffen and raise her gun.

  Pushing down on the palms of her hands, Tina had slowly lifted herself up and was in a crouching position as the woman fired her first shot.

  She was still pointing the gun out of the window as Tina took a silent step forward, then another. Then, holding her breath in an effort to stay completely silent, Tina sprinted across the room.

  The Wraith heard her at the last second, and was already turning round as Tina slammed into her, yanking her gun arm up and away from her body and launching an elbow strike to her face. But The Wraith was quick. She blocked the elbow strike with her forearm even as the momentum of Tina’s attack sent the whole of her top half out of the window. Tina kept going, trying to push her out completely. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Ray. He was getting to his feet, looking slightly disorientated, but as he saw what was happening, he ran towards, then vaulted, Mrs West’s fence.

  Tina just had time to feel a pang of relief that he was OK before The Wraith launched herself upwards, keeping hold of Tina and trying to drive a knee into her groin. The two of them stumbled back into the room and Tina fell backwards onto the bed, landing on Mrs West’s legs, with The Wraith on top of her.

  Now the momentum was with The Wraith as, with a snarl, she yanked her gun arm free, her dark eyes burning behind the mask.

  But Tina had rage on her side, and that gave her strength. She sat up suddenly and punched The Wraith in the side of the head before she had a chance to turn her gun on her. The woman stumbled, the gun went off, and Tina broke free, punching her in the head a second time, sending her sprawling over the bed and down the other side.

  Leaping up, Tina sprinted through the bedroom door, hitting the wall on the other side of the landing, then took a hard left turn towards the stairs as a single round flew past her head and struck the wall.

  Ray was already coming up the stairs, obviously in the middle of some sort of rescue attempt, but now he was just in the way.

  ‘Run! Run!’ she screamed, and he immediately turned round and together they scrambled down the narrow staircase, almost falling over themselves in their haste.

  As they made the turning at the bottom, Tina shoved Ray bodily into the living room, taking a half glance over her shoulder to see The Wraith already at the top of the stairs, taking aim with the gun.

  Tina dived out of her field of vision, landing in a heap on top of Ray as The Wraith fired a second round. She rolled off him in an instant and then she was on her feet, motioning for him to follow her out the front door, knowing that if they went out the back they’d be easy targets.

  Her car keys were already in her hand as she opened the front door. ‘Get in the back,’ she hissed at Ray as they made a dash for the car, knowing that if The Wraith had moved fast enough she would already have got to the front of the house and could get a shot at them from the upstairs window.

  But there was no time for hesitation and she pulled open the driver’s door and jumped inside, keeping her head down. She heard rather than saw Ray come flying into the back and, shoving the key into the ignition and starting the engine, she pulled away in a screech of tyres.

  No shots came, and Tina was halfway through a sigh of relief when she glanced in her rear-view mirror and saw two marked police cars driving fast down the high street in the direction of her house.

  ‘Oh shit.’

  ‘What is it?’ asked Ray from the back.

  ‘Stay down. It’s the police.’

  Tina put the Focus into third gear, rounding the bend so they were out of sight, then put her foot to the floor.

  ‘What the hell are they doing here?’

  ‘I have no idea,’ said Tina, accelerating fast then slowing rapidly and taking a right-hand turn onto one of the back roads at the end of the village, spotting the lead police car just as she pulled across the road. She’d guessed that they were coming to her house but had hoped they hadn’t spotted her driving away. Now she knew they had.

  ‘Jesus, what happened back there?’

  ‘I’m sorry, Ray. The woman with the gun – The Wraith – she used Mrs West to lure me round there. Then she killed her and told me I’d be next if I didn’t call you.’

  Ray shook his head. ‘I’m sorry too. Jesus, what a mess.’

  ‘It is,’ she said as calmly as she could as she accelerated along the narrow, winding, tree-lined road, hoping she didn’t meet anything coming in the other direction. ‘And now we’re going to have to say goodbye. Your passport and licence are taped under the passenger seat so grab them, then when I slow the car, you jump out and get your arse into the woods fast, because if you get caught, it’s going to look very bad for me. And ditch the burner phone somewhere safe. I’m getting rid of mine.’

  She heard him rip the documents free and then he appeared in her rear-view mirror – balding, bearded, but still undeniably handsome – and smiled at her. ‘Thank you for this. I owe you big time.’

  A couple of middle-aged bike riders in full leather gear came hurtling down the hill, and Tina dodged to avoid them, mounting the bank at the side of the road before righting herself. They were close to the edge of the woods here. In a few moments the woods would give way to farmland, followed by the next village along.

  She slammed on the brakes, slowing to only a few miles an hour. ‘OK, go, go, go!’

  They looked at each other one last time in the mirror and Ray said the words he’d used only a handful of times before with Tina: ‘I love you.’

  Then he was out the door, across the road, and racing into the trees, as she sped away, wondering how much more of this day she could take.

  29

  Almost as soon as I hit the tree line I heard the police cars coming up the hill. I dived down in some ferns and crawled behind a beech tree, watching as they drove past, barely thirty seconds behind Tina. There were two of them and I waited for them to pass, counted to ten and, confident that they were the only ones coming, jumped to my feet and continued running through the woods. The light was disappearing but the trees, a mixture of beech and oak, were too far apart to provide much cover. If the police flooded the area it wouldn’t take them long to find me.

  I knew from experience, however, that it would take them time to get organized and, if I moved fast enough, I could still get away. In the short time Tina and I had been together we’d spent a lot of time walking round these woods and I knew exactly where I was. To the right of me was the grassy hill that led directly down to the back of Tina’s cottage, whereas to the left, the wood was bordered by a single-track road that ran along its top, and it was here where I was supposed to be meeting Steve Brennan.

  My heart was still pounding from how close I’d come to getting killed. Some sixth sense had told me to look round just as I’d come out of Tina’s back door, and there she was. The Wraith, a balaclava covering her head, standing in the upstairs window pointing a gun straight at me. I’d felt the bullet strike the backpack like a punch as I dived to the ground, not sure if I’d been injured or not, but knowing that either way I was totally exposed.

  But the second bullet never came, and when I looked round I’d seen The Wraith and Tina struggling.

  I looked at my watch. 8.12 p.m. Exactly ten minutes since I’d made the call to Brennan, so the other man should be close by. Somewhere way off in the distance I could hear the sound of a police siren. There’d be a full pursuit of Tina now, and once again I felt a pang of guilt. And for involving Steve Brennan, a man who’d already suffered far too much in life to have to face the indignity of prison. But I quickly pushed the guilt aside. When you’re on the run and desperate, and when of course you believe you’re acting in the greater good, guilt’s a luxury you can’t afford.

  The road was about a hundred yards to my left if I remembered correctly, and I turned towards it now, pulling the burner phone free from my pocket.

  ‘I’m up here,’ I whispered into the phone. ‘W
here are you?’

  ‘I should be at the spot where we’re meant to meet in about two minutes,’ Brennan replied. ‘A police car just came whizzing past me on the main road, with all its lights flashing. Is everything OK?’

  I could have spared Brennan the risk of getting caught by telling him just to turn round and go home, but self-preservation was standing right in the way. ‘We’ll be fine,’ I said, ‘but the sooner you’re here the better. Keep driving until you see me.’

  I ended the call and picked up the pace, running fast now, seeing the outline of the road up ahead. The siren I’d heard earlier had stopped and all was once again quiet, except for the birds in the trees, and the faint rumble of an engine coming from ahead of me. This would be Brennan.

  When I was a few yards from the road, I stopped behind a tree and crouched down.

  Which was when I saw it. A car parked in the shadow of a large holly bush a few yards in from the road. It could have been a dog walker but, with darkness about to fall and the temperature dropping, it was a bit late, and I hadn’t seen anyone else in the woods.

  Realization hit me. The Wraith would have had to come out either at the front or the back of Tina’s neighbour’s house after the shooting, and to avoid detection she’d almost certainly have chosen the back, which meant she’d have come up the hill and into these woods.

  Where she’d probably hidden her car.

  I turned round, and saw her immediately, no more than thirty yards away, creeping up on me like a hunter, using the trees as cover. She was still wearing the balaclava and her hair was tied back in a ponytail. She saw me looking at her and stopped.

  For a few seconds we simply observed each other. There was no anger, no real emotion at all. Just an interest, born possibly of mutual respect. Three times we’d been brought together now. Three times she’d tried to kill me. Three times she’d failed, but still she came back. I admired her determination. I suspected she admired mine.

  And then, just like that, the spell was broken as she whipped up the pistol from her side and started firing in rapid succession.

  But thirty yards is a long distance from which to hit someone with a pistol shot, especially in poor light, even if you’re a good shot. And The Wraith was definitely a good shot, as was clear by the closeness of the bullets as I crouched low, darted behind a tree, and then sprinted for the road, zigzagging as much as possible.

  But she didn’t hit me.

  And then the shots stopped.

  As I reached the road, I saw a silver Audi estate round the corner a hundred yards away, driving towards me. It was Steve Brennan.

  I broke into a mad dash towards him, stealing a look over my shoulder. I couldn’t see her. I kept running. The Audi was slowing down, now only thirty yards away. Once again I glanced over my shoulder, only this time I saw her, still within the tree line, running parallel to me but slightly behind, reloading her gun as she went. And she was moving fast too. Faster than I was.

  After shoving in a fresh magazine, she again took aim and fired off three more rounds.

  They flew wide and I kept running, gesticulating wildly for Brennan to stop the car and get into the passenger seat.

  At first the other man looked confused. Then, as I came alongside the driver’s door, he seemed to get the message and clambered out of the way. I jumped inside, shoving him the rest of the way across. Thankfully the car was an automatic and Brennan had put it in park. Without missing a beat, I shoved it into reverse and slammed my foot down on the accelerator, just as The Wraith ran out into the road, barely ten yards ahead of us. ‘Keep your head down!’ I yelled as the car shot backwards down the road, turning the ten yards into twenty, then thirty.

  The Wraith lowered her gun and took aim at the tyres, but before she could crack off a shot I spotted a gap in the trees and reversed the car into it, then slammed the gearstick into drive and drove back out, wheel-spinning as we went. In the rear-view mirror I could see her standing in the road, the gun down by her side, her posture one of defeat. Then she was off again into the trees.

  A minute later I brought the car to a halt at the side of the road, still panting with adrenalin. ‘Nice to see you, Steve,’ I said with a smile, looking across to where Brennan was crouched in his seat with his hands over his head. ‘I think you’d better take the wheel now.’

  30

  ‘I love you.’

  It was less than three days since Ray Mason had re-entered Tina’s life, and now he was gone again, leaving chaos and trauma in his wake. It had taken her months to get over him, and she’d come so close. She was proud of the way she hadn’t slept with him the previous night. It would have been very easy. She’d slept with a couple of men this past year, but they’d been as much to forget him as anything else. But she knew if she’d done anything with Ray then it would have brought back all the memories of the intimacy and the desire – the closeness – that they’d experienced together, and that would have been too much to bear. It was why she’d fled the cottage today. Anything to avoid temptation.

  And now, just with those three single-syllable words, he’d drawn her right back in, because the truth was she loved him right back, which was why she’d risked her life and her freedom for him – not once, but twice. And all to no avail, because he was gone. Very likely for ever. Leaving behind the body of her poor, innocent neighbour, Mrs West, a woman who’d always been so kind to Tina. She knew it wasn’t Ray’s fault. The responsibility lay with the woman who’d murdered her, and the people who’d paid for her services. But even so, if Ray hadn’t come back, none of this would have happened. The euphoria and excitement of earlier that day were long gone now, replaced with anger, grief, shock.

  And fear too. Because Tina was scared, not only about the consequences of her actions in the last twenty-four hours, but also because she had no idea who might be coming for her next. Her family was safe for the time being, but they’d be back in two weeks, and the people ranged against her had long memories.

  Yet even now she was protecting Ray by drawing the police away from him. She’d shaken off the patrol cars chasing her in the warren of back roads around her village and now, forty-five minutes later, at close to nine p.m., she was on a B road in Essex, just north of the town of Shenfield, some thirty miles away from her house. She had no doubt that by now the police would be tracking her car using the ANPR, and were doubtless closing in on her, which meant she didn’t have much time.

  She was in open farmland with no one following her, or coming the other way. Slowing the car down, she opened the passenger window and flung the burner phone she’d been using to communicate with Ray into a hedge, before accelerating away. Then, pulling out her regular phone, she put it on hands-free and dialled 999.

  As soon as the operator answered, Tina identified herself with her full name and address, and claimed she’d witnessed the murder of her next-door neighbour but had fled the scene, fearing for her own life. ‘I’m going to attend the nearest police station in the next hour. I’ll give my statement then.’

  The operator tried to get more details but Tina ended the call. She was going to do things her way. She checked the satnav on the phone. She was only eighteen minutes from her lawyer’s house, and was expected. They’d go to the nearest police station together and face the music, and most likely Mike Bolt. Tina knew Mike would be furious. He’d helped get her out of some serious scrapes before, but it would be her lies that hurt him the most. And if she was going to avoid charges and prison, she was going to need to keep lying.

  She’d just lit a cigarette when she saw car headlights approaching fast in her rear-view mirror. She kept her speed at a steady fifty, and when the car got to about twenty yards behind her, its flashing blue lights started. And then, as she rounded the corner, she saw two more police cars with flashing lights blocking the road.

  Tensing, she slammed on the brakes and brought the car to a halt, just as black-clad armed officers appeared on both sides of her, screaming at her to turn
off the engine.

  It struck her then, in one of those rare moments of epiphany, how hollow, lonely and disjointed her life had become. Here she was, a decorated former police officer, alone in the middle of nowhere on a Saturday night, being nicked at gunpoint like the worst kind of thug.

  She switched off the engine as the driver’s side door was yanked open by one of the armed officers and she was dragged from the car and forced to kneel in the road with her hands clasped behind her head. ‘It’s all right, I know the drill,’ she snapped as one of the cops continued to bark orders, the barrel of his gun only inches from her face. Behind her she could hear other officers searching her car. It didn’t take them long to discover it was empty.

  The officer who looked to be in charge walked over to her, standing a few feet away with his MP5 pointed straight at her.

  ‘Where the hell’s Ray Mason?’ he demanded.

  Tina managed a shrug. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ she said.

  31

  ‘We’re here,’ said Steve Brennan, opening the boot of the car.

  I emerged from where I’d spent the journey, under a thick blanket behind a box of painting equipment.

  ‘Thanks, Steve,’ I said, climbing out with my backpack and stretching. ‘I’m sorry about earlier. Are you OK?’

  Brennan didn’t look OK. He looked badly shaken, and every inch of his sixty-five years plus at least five extra. He’d hardly spoken on the journey down here.

  ‘I’m fine,’ he said. ‘But I wasn’t expecting that.’

  ‘Neither was I. If I’d known I was at risk like that, I’d never have involved you.’

  I gave his shoulder a gentle squeeze, trying to calm him. He was obviously shocked by what had just happened. Like most people, he’d probably never encountered violence like that first hand.