‘Let’s get the hell out of here,’ he said.

36

Sadie sat huddled in the corner of the Daimler, shaking like a leaf. She could hardly take it in. It had all happened so fast, a moment of craziness, a moment that could never be changed. She had shot Wayne Gissing. This bare brutal fact would never go away. She would have to live with it for ever. A wave of fear and despair washed over her.

‘Oh Christ! What have I done?’ She wrapped her arms around her chest and began to rock back and forth, her voice rising in pitch. ‘What have I done? How did I… Christ! What will I do now?’

Nathan Stone kept his gaze on the road. ‘You’re already doing it.’

Sadie started to cry, huge gulping sobs that racked her body. ‘We can’t just leave him there.’

‘Sure we can. He’s not on his own. She can drive him to the hospital.’

Sadie shook her head, not understanding how he could be so calm about it all. ‘I don’t want him to die!’ she wailed.

Nathan Stone winced. ‘Jesus, can you stop doing that?’

She turned her tear-stained face to look at him. ‘What?’

‘That noise,’ he said. ‘That bloody awful squawking noise you’re making. It’s going right through me.’

Sadie’s eyes widened with incredulity. ‘How do you expect me to sound?’

‘Quieter,’ he said.

‘But I’ve just shot a man.’

‘Yeah, I’m aware of that. But can we skip the histrionics, please?

‘He could die, for God’s sake!’

Nathan Stone heaved out a sigh. ‘He’s not going to fuckin’ die, all right? You shot the bastard in the leg. It’s going to hurt for a while but it’s not going to kill him.’

‘Are you sure?’

‘Look, if the bullet had gone through an artery, you’d have known about it. Those things spurt; it comes out like a fountain. And, just out of curiosity, where the hell did you get a gun from?’

Sadie was still trying to get her crying under control, taking big deep breaths. She bit down on her lip and stared out of the window. A few seconds passed before she answered his question. ‘Someone gave it to me.’

‘Someone?’

She gave a shrug. ‘It’s not important.’

Stone gave her a quick sidelong glance. ‘It’s a good thing Eddie wasn’t blasted or I’d start to wonder.’

‘I had nothing to do with Eddie’s death,’ she snapped.

‘Yeah, yeah, you’ve already said. What happened to your hand?’

Sadie gazed down at it. The blood was congealing now, closing the wound. ‘He cut me. He had a knife.’

Stone raised his eyes to the heavens. ‘What did I tell you about going to the funeral?’

‘Not to do it. Not to go.’ She glared at him. ‘You really think this is the time for I told you so?’

‘Can’t think of a better one.’

Sadie rubbed at the dried blood between her fingers. ‘Yes, well, you were right. Happy now?’

‘That’s not exactly the word I’d use.’

The exchange with Stone had, she realised, halted her spiral into hysteria. The wild ravings had subsided to be replaced by an aching sense of dread. It settled over her like a shroud, a thick heavy blanket of despair. She was quiet for a while, trying to properly process the morning’s events. After several minutes she said softly, ‘What were you doing at the cemetery anyway?’

‘What do you think? Keeping an eye on things, on you. Making sure that you didn’t cause me even more bother.’

‘That didn’t work out too well.’

Stone barked out a laugh. ‘You can say that again. I reckoned I’d got all the bases covered, but then you pulled that damn gun out of your bag and —’

‘So you were there all the time?’ Sadie interrupted. She threw him an accusing look. ‘You saw what was happening and did nothing. You let him… How could you? Why didn’t you stop it? Why did you have to wait until —’

‘And do what? Ride up on my white charger and gallop off into the hills with you?’

‘He could have slit my throat.’

Stone grinned as if it was all one big joke. ‘To be honest, I was hoping you might outrun him, save me the trouble of getting involved.’

‘And what if he’d killed me?’

‘He was never going to do that.’ Stone left a short pause. ‘Not in the cemetery at least. Wayne might not have the brains he was born with but even he’s not that stupid. No, I figured I’d see how it panned out and take it from there. But then of course you went all Wild West on me and…’ He gave a shrug of his shoulders. ‘Shit, I wouldn’t have seen that coming in a thousand years.’

‘I’m just full of surprises,’ she said dryly.

‘And all of them bad. How do you manage that? It’s quite a talent.’

There wasn’t much Sadie could say and so she said nothing. Instead she turned her face away and gazed out of the window. The traffic was choked up and they were crawling along behind a number 73 bus. ‘Where are we going?’

‘Euston,’ he said.

‘Why?’

‘Why do you think? You’re getting on a train and going home.’

She spun her head round to look at him again. ‘What? I can’t do that! I can’t go back to Haverlea.’

‘Why not?’

Sadie’s eyes widened in exasperation. ‘You know why not! The police are going to be waiting there. They’ll arrest me. I’ll go to prison and… God, I shot a man, in case you’ve forgotten.’

This outburst seemed to cause Stone even more amusement. ‘You’re not on the run, Sadie.’

‘And how do you figure that one out? He’s going to tell them, isn’t he? He’s going to tell them that I shot him.’

‘And why would he do that?’

‘Why wouldn’t he?’

Nathan tapped his fingers against the steering wheel. ‘Okay,’ he said in the tone of a patient teacher talking to a slightly dense pupil. ‘Listen carefully. This is how it works: Wayne Gissing goes to the hospital with a hole in his leg. While the doctors are busy patching him up, a member of staff calls the law. They’re obliged to do that, see, it being a gunshot wound and all. So Old Bill show their faces and what do you think Wayne says to them?’

Sadie, presuming it was a rhetorical question, waited for him to continue.

‘Well, I’ll tell you what he doesn’t say. He doesn’t say, “Hey, officers, there I was in the cemetery, just quietly attempting to abduct this girl, and suddenly she gets out a gun and tries to shoot my leg off.” Not going to sound too good, huh? So he tells them some cock-and-bull story, something he’s cobbled together with Sharon on the way to the hospital, a line about a mugging or such like – and there you go.’

‘And what if they don’t believe him?’

‘Of course they won’t believe him. Wayne Gissing doesn’t open his mouth without a lie coming out of it. But what can they do? Sod all, other than ask Sharon – and she’s going to come out with the same pile of bullshit.’

Sadie leaned her head against the window while she thought about what he’d said. A tiny glimmer of hope was blossoming inside her. ‘But what if he doesn’t? What if he says it was me?’

‘Why would he do that?’

Sadie screwed up her face. ‘I don’t know. Because I shot him? I don’t imagine he’s going to be too happy about that.’

‘No he isn’t, but he’s still going to cover his back. Believe me, the best thing you can do is to go home and pretend that nothing ever happened.’

‘I can’t,’ she said.

‘You have to.’

‘And then?’

‘And then what?’

Sadie rubbed her face with the palm of her hand. ‘He’s going to come after me, isn’t he? I’m going to be looking over my shoulder all the time.’

‘He won’t be doing anything for a while.’

‘How long is a while?’

‘Just go,’ he said. ‘I’ll sort it out.’

Sadie didn’t ask how he was intending to do that. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to know. The bus in front of them shifted forward and a few minutes later they emerged on to Euston Road. He turned into the station, drove down the ramp to the underground parking area and pulled up.