A moment later he stuck his head above the stone wall scanning the buildings opposite. He stayed there a full minute before leaning over her.
‘Stay put’ he said quickly before sprinting to the car park.
Natasha had a good view of Sean as he ran, crouching low to shield himself amongst the cars. He approached one car in particular and dragged the man out of the driver’s seat. He was so fast the man didn’t have time to respond. She saw Sean dip into the man’s jacket pocket and pull out his wallet. She could she him flipping it over before giving it back. He appeared to give the man instructions, pointing across the street.
The man set off across the road at a run, pulling a gun from inside his jacket. Meanwhile Sean ran to the fallen pall bearer, picking him up and taking him to the cover of the trees. He felt for a pulse and then began to examine the man’s body for signs of gunshot wounds. It appeared that the man had been shot in the ankle and Sean improvised a bandage around the man’s calf. Raising the leg up he placed a rock from the flower border underneath.
For a brief moment there was absolute silence then Natasha heard groans coming from the mourners on the ground. Cautiously Sean began to assist them to the cover of the wall.
Natasha realised that she was breathing rapidly, as though she had run a hundred metres at the Olympics. She was too terrified to move. She could hear a police car siren and a few minutes later Sean was back. Natasha felt his warm hand gently brush her cheek.
‘We should go’ he said quietly.
As Sean drove, he glanced quickly at Natasha. She looked frightened. Her face was pale and Sean detected a tremor in her hands. He found a tissue and she used it to wipe her face.
‘Have you any idea why this happened?’
Natasha shook her head. Sean pulled up outside the apartment and Natasha blew into another tissue. She seemed to arrive at a decision and straightened herself up.
‘This wasn’t the first attack. I had a bad scare two nights ago.’ Natasha drew a shaky breath and related the story. As she relived the experience she caught her breath, trying to suppress the fear she felt. Sean hesitated, then reached out and drew her to him.
Eventually she sat back up. ‘The policeman said they would keep an eye on the apartment for me. I thought that would be enough to keep them away. I thought I would never see them again. This morning was like a bad nightmare.’
Sean rubbed her shoulder. ‘Come on, let’s go in.’
As Sean got out he saw a car parked further down the street. He could make out a figure in the driver seat, reading a paper. Maybe another watcher from the FBI, or possibly the local police fulfilling their earlier promise?
They went in and Sean busied himself making some tea for Natasha and coffee for himself. When he came back into the sitting room he found Natasha on the sofa. He gave her the mug of tea.
‘Get your chops outside of this.’
‘Pardon?’
‘It’s just a saying we have in England. It means drink up, or get this inside you.’
Natasha smiled briefly and warmed her hands around the mug. Sean sat down on the chair opposite.
‘I know it must be difficult for you to talk about it, especially now, so soon after the cremation. But I don’t have much longer in America and I’m curious. Do you mind me asking if you and Ben were seeing each other?’
Natasha sighed. ‘Yes, recently we started to going out more often. I miss him.’
‘I am sorry, Natasha. Did he ever tell you about problems he might be having?’
She stopped to think about it. ‘He never said anything. He preferred not to talk about work.’
‘Do you know if anything had happened to him before? Perhaps his house was burgled like yours?’
Natasha frowned. ‘No, he would have mentioned something like that.’
‘You told me before that recently he was tired. You thought it might have been to do with the hours he was working.’
‘In the last month or so he was working all hours, but he wouldn’t tell me if there was anything bothering him.’ Natasha reflected. ‘I think that’s about all I know.’
‘OK, I’ll stop asking questions now and let you get some rest.’ Sean got up to go.
‘Well’ said Natasha, recovering her composure. ‘I might have a few questions of my own’ she said with a sad smile.
‘In which case I’ll do my best to answer them.’ Sean sat down again.
‘Tell me about yourself. What do you do in England?’
‘I’m surprised Ben didn’t mention that’ replied Sean guardedly. ‘I work for the government — mainly a trouble-shooter for the Navy, but I get loaned out to various departments.’
‘I see. What sort of work is that?’
‘Anything that comes my way. One time I helped find a gang stealing Navy stores from the docks. A lot of my time is spent writing reports, for example on the amount of stock missing from our bonded warehouses. Mostly it’s really boring.’ Sean gave her a tired smile.
The example he gave Natasha had actually happened. In the very early days Sean had been tasked to investigate an organised gang stealing from the Navy on a grand scale. Under the guise of a Navy auditor he was able to observe some members of the gang at the dockyard. But before he had enough evidence to bring them in, one of the gang grew suspicious and Sean was the recipient of a bad beating. The scars still ached on cold winter days.
‘Tell me about it’ asked Natasha.
Sean opened his hands. ‘I’m afraid I can’t. Look, you’re not allowed to talk about your work in detail to anyone. Well, I’m bound in the same way.’
‘I see’ said Natasha. ‘So you work for the British government? You’re not like James Bond, are you?’
Sean laughed. ‘You mean the girls, the excitement, the double oh licence to kill?’
Sean noticed Natasha was looking at him carefully.
He shook his head. ‘No, it’s nothing like that. First, I’m not a spy. It’s true I’ve been involved in the odd rough and tumble, but I don’t carry a gun. I don’t have a licence to kill, let alone thrill!’
Natasha put her mug down on the table.
‘Natasha, I’m worried about you. Is there somewhere else you could stay?’ he asked.
‘Why would I want to do that?’
‘Your boyfriend was murdered. You were chased through the streets and this morning there was another attempt on your life. They obviously know where you live and they might be back.’
Natasha dismissed his fears with a wave. ‘It’s OK. The police are on the case. They said they would send a squad car to watch over the apartment. I’m sure I’ll be OK.’
Sean was about to speak again when Natasha intervened. ‘I know’, she interjected. ‘Thanks for the your interest in my welfare, but I will be OK.’
‘I am sure you will.’ Sean replied firmly. ‘But right now you’re in shock. You are understandably emotional — who wouldn’t be after what happened this morning?’
‘You may be right’ responded Natasha testily. ‘But I draw the line at a baby sitter.’
‘OK, well at least I tried.’ Sean looked at his watch. ‘I had better be going. Are you sure there is nothing more I can do for you?’
‘No thank you’ she replied dryly. ‘I think you’ve done enough already.’
As Sean drove away he noticed the unmarked car had been replaced by a different model. The new car pulled out into the road and starting to follow him from a distance of two blocks. So much for the police promise to protect Natasha’s apartment, he thought.