They both used penlights. To avoid being accidentally seen by some passing pedestrian, they kept their lenses partially shielded with their fingers. Stone checked the filing cabinets, while Linda went through the desk. The search yielded little of any interest. The filing cabinets housed what seemed to be genuine client files. Some were for ex-convicts and a few were for willing employers. In total, there were almost one-hundred files. Stone flicked through twenty that he selected randomly, he found nothing to suggest a link with the Wrecking Crew.
In the end, Linda found the only items of any potential significance. Inside a file crudely marked ‘expenses’, she found a small envelope containing around twenty identical USB sticks. Linda took two. In a second envelope, neatly clipped together, were five paid parking receipts for a shopping center in Aylesbury, and two unpaid parking tickets for a street in the same town. She showed them to Stone and pointed to her pocket, he nodded in agreement. As she slipped them into her back pocket and switched off her penlight, there was the instantly recognizable sound of a gun being cocked. A harsh voice spoke from the doorway.
“Put your hands up, or I’ll shoot.”
Stone reacted instantly. He spun around and pointed his flashlight directly at the assailant. Then he stepped to his left, while holding the flashlight at arm’s length to his right. At the same time he used his left arm to push Linda downward, into what he hoped was a position of comparative safety. The gunman, instantly blinded by the flashlight, naturally assumed that Stone would be standing directly behind the light — which is where he was aiming when he fired.
The bullet passed just below Stone’s arm and buried itself harmlessly in the opposite wall. Before the man could fire again, Stone delivered a sidekick to his elbow, snapping the joint and spinning the gun safely to the floor. The man groaned in pain and staggered backwards. Stone could see now that it was the same young man they had seen locking the office a little earlier. As Stone prepared to deliver a second attack, the man stepped backwards into the alley, holding his useless elbow with his left hand.
“You’re dead you two, you’re fucking dead! You’ve no idea what you’re into.”
He backed three steps away from the doorway, turned and ran. Stone made no effort to give chase.
“Are you ok?” he asked Linda.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” she replied, her voice shaking.
“We’d better go, someone may have heard that shot and called the police.”
Be bent down and picked up the gun.
“This may come in handy later.”
“You could be right,” Linda said as she walked through the door, “in the meantime, please try not to shoot me in the ass.”
THIRTEEN
Early the next morning Eric and Linda headed back towards Megan’s place. They wanted to meet with Ed Carter to discuss what they had recovered at Second Chances. Linda had already checked all of the USB sticks and found them to be blank, but Megan still wanted to have them in case they contained deleted files that she could recover. When Stone told him about the weapon, Ed immediately insisted that he hand it over. Eric tried to argue, but Ed pointed out that carrying an unregistered firearm in the British Isles was a very serious offence, and one that they did not have the time to deal with. Stone had agreed reluctantly. One of Ed’s old police buddies at the firearms unit was going to check to see if it was a registered handgun, or if it had ever been used to commit a crime. Either way, the information could prove useful and perhaps provide some compensation for the loss of the weapon.
They spotted the tail as soon as they turned off the M11 towards Harlow. It was the same blue Ford they had seen before. They recognized it because of a distinctive dent in the front wing. This time it had a different driver. They drove randomly for ten minutes, following the beltway. Soon they spotted a second car, and then a third.
“That’s it then,” Stone said with grim finality, “we have to drop off the grid. It’s a bit sooner than I’d hoped.”
“We need to leave my car somewhere and change our clothes,” Linda said. “The second-hand suits that we bought are on the back seat, they’ll do until we can find another charity store.”
“We’re going to need some transport, and a cheap hotel to operate from,” Stone said, “somewhere that’s happy to take cash.”
“Hang on a second,” Linda said firmly. “Let’s think this through carefully. We don’t want to screw this up by rushing things.”
She counted off the actions on her fingers.
“We need to find somewhere to park, somewhere that isn’t going to make them suspicious. Perhaps we can make it look like we’re going shopping or something. We have to leave all of our credit cards locked in the glove compartment, and we have to change our clothes. Then we can take the bag of cash and walk away.”
Stone nodded.
“But first we need to shake off anyone who’s following on foot.”
He thought for a minute, mulling over the options in his mind. Suddenly he snapped his fingers.
“Car-wash, and then the movies!”
“Wow! You really know how to show a girl a good time.”
“There’s an automatic car-wash on a garage forecourt about a mile from here, it’s one of those ones where you drive in one end and then wait, while the big orange brushes do their job. After it’s finished, you drive out the other end. The full cycle with hot wax and a blow dry takes about ten minutes. That’s plenty of time for us to change our clothes. Then we park at the big drive-in center, I think it’s called ‘Cineworld’ — all we have to do is buy tickets and popcorn, go in one door and run out the back. It’s bound to work.”
Linda patted his knee.
“And if we can get to the railroad station unseen, then it’s just two stops to Sawbridgeworth. I know a place there where we can buy a cheap second-hand car — from someone that we can trust.”
“Ok. Let’s do this.”
Changing their clothes in the narrow confines of the sports car, while it was going through the car wash, was rather more of a struggle than Stone had anticipated. Particularly as, despite the imminent danger, they found considerable humor in the situation, and ended up crying tears of laughter. Nevertheless, by the time the car-wash cycle was finished, they were respectably dressed and their pockets were stuffed with all of the drug dealer’s cash. They both had sweaters, which appeared to be free of any tags, so they put them back on and carried their jackets. That way, to the casual observer, they would still appear to be wearing their original clothes.
Linda parked her gleamingly clean car as close to the entrance of the theater as she could. Once inside, they made a big play of selecting the film they were going to watch, and buying drinks, popcorn and candy bars. Stone paid with cash and made an effort to act like a normal customer, fumbling with the change and almost forgetting one of the drinks. Because of the crush at the counter, Linda waited a few yards away where she was apparently watching a large flat screen that was showing trailers for upcoming movies. As Stone handed over her drink, Linda smiled and mouthed a silent ‘thank you’. She pointed to the big screen, as if they were discussing a movie.
“The tall guy in the brown leather jacket and blue sneakers, he’s one of them. He jogged in as if he was late for a movie, but then he waited for us to choose, before he bought his ticket. I don’t see any others.”
Stone led the way up the stairs towards where their film was showing.