The journalist placed her hand on her chest with faux humility.
‘Well, it looks we have a deal, Helen.’
‘How quickly can you get on to it?’
‘If you send me everything you’ve got now, I can get it up on the website tonight, with a full-page spread in tomorrow’s edition.’
Nodding her gratitude, Helen rose, departing swiftly.As the journalist watched the former officer go, she reflected on the strange state of their relationship.For so long arch-enemies, were they now becoming allies?Shaking her head, Emilia returnedto her desk, all thoughts of county lines a distant memory.She had bigger fish to fry now.
But as she sat down, her phone buzzed violently in her pocket.Extracting it, she felt a shiver of excitement as she spotted a text from an unfamiliar number.The message was short and sweet:
‘Where and when?’
Smiling, Emilia leaned back in her chair, a broad grin spreading over her face.
Chapter 64
Helen hurried away from theSouthampton Evening Newsoffices, marching fast down the road.Later today, Emilia’s allegations would hit the headlines, the paper’s digital feed disseminating news of Regus’ criminal behaviour onto phones, tablets and computers all over Hampshire.Helen wanted to be ready to strike when the bomb dropped.
She was deep in thought, her mind already scrolling forward to future confrontations, when she suddenly became aware of a noise behind her.The harsh, rhythmic slap of boot on concrete, growing ever louder.Suddenly tense, she strained to hear, now detecting two sets of footsteps coming up fast.Darting a glance at the front window of a nearby house, she caught sight of two burly forms in the reflection, closing in fast.Their body language, the speed of their approach, suggested that they meant business.Had they been waiting for her outside the newspaper’s offices?If so, how did they know she was there?Had they been following her all morning, trailing her to the clinic, then here?The thought made Helen uneasy and she instinctively pressed a protective hand to her midriff.
Increasing her pace, Helen strode on, casting surreptitious glances into the windscreens of the parked cars to her right.And now her heart skipped a beat, as she caught a clearer glimpseof her pursuers.Both had shaven heads, both wore dark leather jackets and jeans, but it was the sight of the leader’s heavily scarred face and immobile eye that sent shivers down her spine.This was no chance encounter.This was an ambush.
The two men were nearly on top of her, so what to do?Now a civilian, she was not armed in any way.She had no baton, no spray, nothing with which to defend herself.Scanning the streetscape, she searched eagerly for a construction site or builder’s skip, somewhere she might find an offcut of discarded pipe.But there was nothing, nor was there any obvious escape route, the street flanked on either side by residential houses, their interiors gloomy and lifeless.There was a nursery towards the end of the street, but she hardly dared lead her assailants there, then a branch of H.Samuel’s.Beyond that, Helen thought that there was a Tesco Metro around the corner, but she wasn’t totally sure and, besides, what chance did she have of making it there when they were nearly upon her?
Striding forward, Helen picked up her pace yet again.There was no question now that they were following her and they appeared to have chosen their spot well, the quiet street all but deserted this morning.Helen’s brain was firing, seeking solutions, opportunities to escape, but with each passing second the window was narrowing.What did they intend to do?Threaten her?Abduct her?Kill her?Helen suddenly felt hopelessly exposed, cursing herself for not having parked closer to the newspaper’s offices, for not having anticipated this attack.
Passing the nursery, she spotted an alleyway up ahead that ran off the street to the rear of the jewellery store.The faint echo of a memory flitted across her mind and with a sudden burst, Helen ran to the mouth of the cut-through, taking her pursuers by surprise.Behind her, she heard angry curses as the men took to their heels, thundering towards her.Bursting intothe alleyway, Helen hurdled a discarded packing case, landing deftly.Dropping her shoulder, she prepared to sprint away, but before she could do so, a meaty hand grasped her trailing arm, tugging her violently backwards.Her momentum arrested, Helen staggered sideways, off-balance.Now another hand gripped her neck, prompting an immediate response from Helen, kicking out violently behind her.Her thrusts met thin air, however, and now she felt herself spin, her attacker flipping her round before slamming her back into the alley wall.Helen connected sharply with the rough brickwork, the air punched from her lungs, as she came face to face with her heavily scarred assailant.Enraged, sweating, he looked like a man who’d known a lot of pain in his life, who’d doled out plenty of the same himself.He was hungry for violence, fizzing with a dark energy, one eye eagerly seeking out his victim’s startled gaze, even as his other eye stared straight ahead.
‘You can run, but you can’t hide, Helen …’
He pushed his face into hers as he spoke, his breath rank and bitter.Clearly, he was expecting the use of her name to freak her out, but Helen refused to give him the satisfaction.Instead, she looked him up and down, before shooting a look down the alleyway, seeking a way out of her desperate situation.
‘Don’t think of trying anything,’ her captor breathed angrily.‘You wouldn’t stand a chance.’
‘Is that right?’she fired back.
‘You can’t fight your way out of this and you can’t arrest us, can you?’
Helen glared defiantly at her attacker, refusing to be intimidated.
‘I take itshesent you?’
‘It doesn’t matter who sent us,’ he spat back.‘All that matters is the message.’
He pressed his elbow onto her throat, pinning her hard against the wall.
‘Forget what you saw, forget what youthinkyou know and walk away.’
‘Or what?’
Quick as a flash, the gun was in her face, her assailant taking great pleasure in running its snub nose down her cheek, before ramming it into her throat.
‘Or I’ll splatter your brains all over this wall.’
His grim smile revealed an array of stained teeth, his excitement, his lust for violence, palpable.
‘Trust me, I’d enjoy doing it.’
