“Why, you should just have showed them, reported it.”

“No. For the moment I don’t want anyone to know he’s dead.”

“But, surely that’s illegal. I mean isn’t that illegal?”

“As I said you’ve got yourself mixed up in something rather nasty. Okay, cards on the table. I am going to trust you. There’s no other way. You’re in danger: the whole thing is a mess and I think it’s only fair that you understand. What I tell can only be between us. You won’t be able to repeat this, do you understand?”

She nodded. Sat now with her hands in her lap, her eyes fixed on his, she waited. Whether she could trust him hadn’t been decided but she would hear him out, give him a chance. What else was there to do?

“I’m undercover. You don’t need to know all the details but the people Jed was working with are particularly nasty.” He stopped and looked at the attractive woman sitting opposite to him, confusion and doubt creasing the skin between those rather lovely blue eyes. “Okay, let’s see. I’m trying to decide how much you really need to know because the more you know the more danger there is.” She nodded, urging him on.

“I have been involved for over a year with a gang of people traffickers. Jed wasn’t very important in the hierarchy. He was just a messenger and a bit of muscle when they needed it. However, he was carrying some very valuable stuff and he was playing a double game.”

“The diamonds?”

“Yes, the diamonds. But also, and more importantly, the computer memory which has information on which, if it falls into the wrong hands – well I guess other wrong hands – will cause big problems for the people I am embedded with.”

“I know you haven’t got it Pauline. I know who has. But that’s another story altogether. The ‘accident’ that you were a witness to was no such thing. I don’t suppose you noticed the amount of blood on the road?” Here she shook her head and pursed her lips. “No, I suppose it was all rather traumatic. But it was too much, way too much for a simple collision. Anyway, to cut a long story short, Jed didn’t hit the sheep. The sheep was killed before he arrived and the blood and guts were spread across the road. There was also a wire; it was the wire that brought him off his bike. I know it’ll haunt me that I couldn’t help him but… in the bigger picture it makes a sort of sense.”

“But… didn’t the police in Yorkshire see that? Did they know about it?”

“No, God no. The thing is though, people are hitting sheep all the time on that road. It wasn’t a puzzle, and though they went through the motions there was no reason for them to suspect anything. The wire was gone – Jed wasn’t supposed to survive but then you coming along just when you did screwed things up somewhat.”

“There was a car. As I was leaving the village there was a car. Was that something to do with it?”

“Yes.” I was in the car. I saw you. I knew it was going to create a problem. I tried to find you but you’d covered your tracks, hadn’t you. You didn’t make it easy for me.”

“No. But I still don’t understand.”

“No, well, it’s complicated. I don’t know that it’s worth going into too much detail. Look, Jed was… well… I suppose you could say he was ambushed by the people I am working with. They spread that poor dead sheep across the road. Then they left a bloke up there to wait and when Jed came off his bike he took the diamonds and the memory stick. He was supposed to finish Jed off but then but you came along and he had to leave him. It was a mess.”

“I didn’t see anyone else. There was nobody there but me and him, in the ditch.”

Pete simply shook his head.

It didn’t make any sense to her but Pauline was trying to understand. “But why don’t you want people to know that he’s dead?”

Pete gave a big sigh, he glanced around the kitchen. “Can I make us some coffee?”

“What? Oh, oh let me do it. I’ll do it now. Look I think I’d better call Dolly, if not she’ll come looking for me.”

“I’ll put the kettle on. You make the call.” He smiled at her, a warm, sweet smile that shone out of the darkness of the last days like sun on the water. He was a good man; she instinctively knew that he would do her no harm and so she relaxed and picked up the phone.

“Dolly, hi it’s me. I just thought I’d let you know I’m okay. It’s lovely over here and I just fancied a cup of coffee, I’ll be back soon, okay?”

Pete was moving around the kitchen, searching in the cupboard for cups and coffee. He held up a packet of biscuits and wagged them in the air. Pauline smiled and nodded and was thrown by the idea that in less than an hour she had gone from trying to flee in terror to drinking coffee and eating Hobnobs with this man.

When they had their drinks Pete shifted on the chair, preparing himself. He nodded to her, “Okay, let’s see if I can make this make sense to you. The diamonds and so on belong to the nasties I’m in with. Jed worked for them. There is another crew and guess what, he worked for them as well.” Here he gave a short and bitter laugh, “Honour among thieves; what a laugh! When money’s involved there’s precious little honour anywhere with these clowns. Anyway, my group, I have to call them that but believe me I’m kosher, I’m not bent. Let’s call them group A, A for Assholes – yes, that works...” He looked at her waiting for a sign that she believed him. She smiled in the gathering dusk, waved a hand for him to continue.

“Right, so Jed was on his way to group B; let’s call them that. So my lot, The A’s wanted their stuff back and they wanted rid of him.”

“So, the accident?”

“Yes indeed. It would have worked except Jed didn’t die and he believed that you had his stuff. He was told, erm, by group B, that you have them, Pauline.” He leaned to her and laid his warm hand over hers where she gripped the cup. “Those people are going to come after you once they know he is dead. They believe that you have the diamonds and more importantly the memory stick. If we can keep his death a secret for a while it will buy us some time; they will assume he is still trying to get the items from you. Once they find out he’s dead then they’ll come after you. I don’t want that Pauline. I am going to have to wind this thing up. We can’t put you at risk.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.” It was ludicrous; here she was in the middle of something that she would never in her wildest dreams have thought possible and she was apologising for first of all helping to save some vicious criminal and then for having killed him. From somewhere deep inside the insanity of it all spilled over and – perhaps in reaction to the emotion of the last hour – she began to giggle. Before long her eyes were streaming as she hiccupped and gasped for breath and a bald, tattooed giant stood across the table gazing at her in disbelief and wonder.

Chapter 34

The laughter, though rather hysterical, had done Pauline a world of good. She shook her head.

“I’m sorry, I really am. I know there is nothing funny going on here it’s just – Oh I don’t know… the whole thing is so – insane and unreal. This sort of thing – all this sort of thing just doesn’t happen to people like me. I’m ordinary. Just quiet and well – ordinary.” She shrugged her shoulders.

“I do see what you’re saying Pauline, but believe me; this is very real. I can’t stress enough that you mustn’t tell anyone what I have just shared with you. Not the lady at the farm.”

“Dolly.”

“Yes, Dolly, and not that odd bloke that lives with her.”

“Jim. Yes he’s a bit odd, but I think he’s okay and he’s been very nice to me while I’ve been there.”

“No matter how nice they are you mustn’t tell them anything. It would put them in danger. Do you understand me?”

“But… they haven’t done anything. They don’t know anything about all this.”