Alex snapped back. ‘Just remember I’ll hunt you till I die if you hurt them.’
‘Bring the money,’ Bridge grunted and the phone went dead.
Alex sat a moment. The part that worried him was waiting for the thumbs up before they were supposed to move off the bridge. He glanced up at the walkway; it was so well-lit, they’d be really exposed up there. Giving himself a shake, he dialled Eddie’s mobile. Eddie answered on the first ring and he told his friend how it was going down.
‘I can only guarantee to watch your back properly once you’re off the walkway,’ Eddie warned. ‘So get off there as soon as you can.’
‘Don’t worry, I will.’
Eddie wished him good luck and Alex ended the call. Focusing on the task at hand, he got out of the car, lifted the suitcase out of the boot. Gripping it tight, he made for the steps that ascended to the walkway.
At the top of the steps he paused. The long corridor stretched ahead for about a hundred yards. It was deserted and there was no movement at the far side. In the circumstances it looked to him like a tunnel to heaven or hell, the kind he’d read about in accounts of near-death experiences, that intermediary stage, the tunnel between this life and the next where you don’t know quite what lies ahead. Way down beneath the bridge, in the real world, cars sped by. How he envied the passengers going about their normal lives while he stood here, his normal life held in suspension.
He began walking, eyes fixed on the far side. When he was ten yards in, he saw movement, realized it was Liz and Ann coming into view. Someone he didn’t recognize was standing with them. He hoped Ann wouldn’t react and run to him, start Bridge’s men panicking. Encouraged that he could at least see them, he picked up his pace.
The walkway remained deserted. Half-way across, he halted, put the suitcase down. Following Bridge’s instructions, he retraced his steps, the back of his neck prickling with anticipation. Several times he glanced over his shoulder, was relieved to see Liz and Ann were following. Ominously, another figure, dressed in a black anorak with the hood up, was walking twenty yards behind them.
Alex reached his end and turned around. Liz and Ann were only twenty-five yards away from him now, faces pale and drawn in the artificial light. They were moving at a snail’s pace, holding on to each other like traumatized accident survivors unsure if what was happening was real. Their shadow stalker was bending over the suitcase checking the contents. When he was satisfied, he picked it up and started back his thumb in the air.
Relieved, Alex held out his arms, beckoned Liz and Ann to hurry to him, calling out they were safe now. Mother and daughter fell into his embrace and he could feel them trembling. His own emotions lurched between relief that they were safe and guilt because he was the one who had endangered them in the first place.
Liz broke away first. ‘Why?’ she asked, hurt and mystification in her voice. ‘Why did they take us?’
Ann was looking up into his face, her eyes posing the same question as her mother. Alex swallowed hard; he wasn’t looking forward to answering that question. But right now he wasn’t sure the danger had passed, so he guided them to the steps.
As they descended the steps he muttered, ‘There’ll be time for explanations later. Right now it’s best we get out of here.’
Crossing the car park, his eyes swept the area. Two people stepped out of the café, startling him. But they became harmless shadows in the night as they walked to their own car. He let out his breath. Not far to go now. Soon all this would dissolve into a bad nightmare.
He opened the passenger door. Ann started to climb into the back. Liz was only a step behind her. Nervous as an expectant father in a maternity ward, Alex fidgeted, wanting them to hurry.
His solicitude became an irrelevance when, out of the darkness behind him, a voice that was by now as familiar to him as it was chilling, made a mockery of any optimism he’d begun to feel.
‘You went too far. You messed up my plans, not to mention taking my money.’
Ann froze, half-in, half-out of the car. Liz pulled her close. Alex’s body tensed. Everything that had gone before in his life, all the possibilities that lay ahead, telescoped as he swung round.
Bridge was two yards away. The twisted grin on his face, more grotesque because of his swollen jaw, made his head more like a Halloween turnip than human. Alex’s eyes riveted, not on his face, but on the gun he was holding by his side. Instinctively, he spread his arms like wings to protect Liz and Ann.
‘Let them go, Bridge,’ he pleaded. ‘They’re innocents. It was me who messed with you, not them.’
‘Should have thought of that before.’ Bridge stated, his voice bitter. ‘But it’s only you I’m interested in. But for you I’d have left the country yesterday. Ironic, isn’t it? Just another day and you wouldn’t have found me.’
The gangster paused. His voice changed again, from bitter to venomous. ‘Right now, I’m wondering if I should kill or just maim you. What do you think? Got a preference?’
Bridge was playing with him, wanting to see him afraid. Alex wondered where Eddie was. He wanted to shout out but the gangster was too close, might panic and shoot. He needed to gain more time, so he gathered his courage, forced his voice deeper.
‘Do what you have to do but be a man for once and let my daughter and her mother get clear. They don’t want to see this.’
His lack of fear seemed to throw Bridge for a moment. Taking advantage, Alex turned to the females who were still holding on to each other.
‘Liz, get Ann out of here now.’
Liz hesitated. She looked to be in shock and he could see tears forming in her eyes.
‘Do it, you silly bitch,’ he shouted, hating himself for it but knowing he’d have to shake her out of it, make her react.
Liz recoiled, her eyes bewildered, but his harsh words served their purpose because she started to walk away, pulling Ann with her. Both looked back at him, agonized, like two refugees being forced on to a road they had no wish to travel.
Bridge watched, a stupid grin on his face. The hand that held the gun started to rise.
‘Time’s run out for you, Alex, and you’ll never really know whether your little darlings got away. I can still gun them down.’
‘Not true!’
The words came out of the darkness behind the gangster. Alex recognized Eddie’s voice. Bridge’s gun hand froze. He was wondering whether it was worth taking a chance, finishing what he had started.
The gangster glanced over his shoulder. His earlier confidence deflated when Eddie loomed into view holding the shotgun. Slowly, in the interest of self-preservation, Bridge lowered his gun hand.
‘Wise decision,’ Eddie called out.
Alex almost laughed with relief. ‘It never rains but it pours, eh Charlie? This just isn’t your week.’
Bridge faced Alex. The temptation to take a chance was there in the body language. Tension hung on the night air. Over at the café, a door opened and a girl’s high-pitched laugh seemed to come from another world to mock them.
Eddie spoke again. ‘Get out of here while you’ve still got legs to carry you.’
Bridge, with one last menacing glance at Alex, turned around. He started to walk in a semicircle around Eddie, his gun held low. Eddie traced his movements with the shotgun. There was a savage, macabre primitivism in the way they watched each other.
‘You’re a lucky man, Doc,’ Bridge hissed over his shoulder. ‘But luck changes. I’ll be back for you. Just think of me like one of those illnesses you can never cure.’
‘You are an illness,’ Alex called after him. ‘You’re as sick as they come.’
Liz and Anne had crept back and Eddie joined them. All four watched in silence as the gangster climbed the steps on to the bridge. At the top he turned and stared down at the car park.
‘Don’t worry,’ Eddie said, for the females’ sake. ‘He can’t see us.’
Alex hugged Liz and Anne. ‘For a minute there I thought I was gone. Tha
nks pal.’
‘Let’s get out of here,’ Eddie said as he watched Bridge progress along the walkway to the other side.
Liz, coming out of shock now that the danger had diminished, suddenly broke Alex’s embrace and found her voice.
‘What have you got us into, Alex?’
‘It’s a long story. No time for it now. I’ll tell you later.’
‘It better be good. By God, it had better be good.’
Anne was watching their faces, trying to read their lips in the poor light. Her eyes were wide with confusion. Alex pulled her closer to him, stroked her hair.
‘We’ll go back to my place,’ Eddie said. ‘It’ll be safer there. He doesn’t know who I am.’
‘Thank God you came in time,’ Alex said.
Eddie grunted. ‘The shotgun wasn’t loaded, by the way.’
‘Didn’t think so,’ Alex said, grimacing. ‘Knew you wouldn’t risk a murder charge.’
‘I’ll drive back in my own car, Alex. You take Liz and Ann in yours. We’ll use the back roads just in case they’re waiting on the motorway.’
A minute later they were pulling out of the car park, Alex driving the lead car. He was grateful that Liz and Ann were so exhausted they fell asleep. If she was rested, Liz would be more receptive later, when he had to explain the trouble he’d brought her to her door.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Eddie’s apartment wasn’t big enough for four but it was a safe haven in a troubled time. Ann was still dog-tired, kept clinging to her father, her ordeal clearly affecting her. Liz made her a cup of hot chocolate and put her to bed in the spare room. Alex followed them in to say goodnight. He had come so close to losing them and, as he leaned over to kiss his daughter, his tears were those of guilt as well as relief. Hiding the depth of his emotion, he followed Liz out of the bedroom. At the door, he paused to blow his daughter a kiss. She gave him a smile and signed goodnight and that she loved him. It made him feel worse.
Eddie and Liz were in the kitchen drinking coffee. Both looked white and exhausted. Eddie handed him a cup of coffee and he drank it gratefully, hoping the steam rising from the hot liquid would mask his tears. He sensed Liz was studying him, impatient for an explanation.
Eddie spoke first. ‘You can stay here as long as you like. It’s a bit cramped but I’ll be out at work most of the time.’
Liz’s eyes drifted from Alex to Eddie. ‘That’s nice of you. You’re a good friend but I think I’ll have to go home tomorrow. Ann has school and I have to go to work as well. We’ll just have to put this behind us, return to normal. I’m sure routine will be the best thing for Ann after what’s happened to her.’
Both men were silent. She saw the meaningful look pass between them, surmised there was something they were reluctant to tell her, something she wasn’t going to like.
His voice hoarse, Alex said quietly, ‘You can’t go home, Liz, because we don’t know if they’ll come for you again.’
Liz’s eyes widened. ‘You’re saying we can never go home?’
Alex lowered his head, mumbled, ‘It wouldn’t be safe, not now.’
Liz’s hand went to her mouth. She’d just been through one ordeal, thought it was over and done with, that she could return to normal. Now she was being told her whole life was upside down. She didn’t cry but the tears weren’t far away.
Eddie, sensing that she and Alex needed to be alone, took his cue and moved to the door.
‘You need to talk this out,’ he said, addressing both equally. ‘I’ll bed down on the sofa and see you in the morning.’
As soon as he was gone Liz sank into a chair, rested her elbows on the kitchen table, put her head in her hands as though she wished to shut the world out. Sheepishly, Alex lowered himself into a chair next to hers, stretched out a hand, touched her shoulder consolingly. Her head shot up, her eyes emotional firestorms as she looked into his.
‘You need to tell me everything, Alex, right from the start and hope that I understand how you could have got us into such a mess.’
Alex reddened. Guilt swarmed over him like an army of grotesque insects intent on consuming any feeling of decency remaining in his body. He swallowed hard. The time had come to tell it all. No matter how bad it made him look, he owed her at least that.
‘I made a foolish mistake,’ he muttered, conscious of the throb in his throat. ‘That led on to more mistakes. Bridge tested me, played me like a fish and in the end, when he had me, I could do nothing because he threatened to hurt you and Ann.’ He hesitated. ‘I need you to forgive me, Liz. I need it badly.’
‘Then tell me from the beginning,’ she said, face and voice impassive. ‘I need to know it all. Be specific.’
He rubbed his tired eyes, met her unrelenting gaze. ‘OK, everything. Right from the beginning.’
He told her it all, the photographic evidence they’d built against him, his attempt to pay them off, the final blow when they’d threatened those close to him. There were tears in his eyes but he felt a little better in the telling, as though confessing was cathartic for him, the way the land is fresh after a downpour.
‘Right at the start, I was a fool,’ he declared at the end, with a long sigh. ‘Bridge built up the pressure but it all stemmed from my initial pride.’
Liz’s brows knitted into a frown. She hadn’t interrupted as he’d revealed the magnitude of his tribulations, his contrition. Now, he could see her weighing it in the scales of her judgement. All he could do was pray she’d understand and find it in her heart to forgive him. When she reached across the table, took his hand in hers and gave him hope, relief gushed through him like a torrent of pure water.
‘Well, Alex, there’s no doubting you were a fool to pay them off in the first place but you were definitely not a fool when it came to trying to protect us. I saw enough of Bridge’s character to know, even if you’d told the police, that there was no guarantee he’d leave us alone. In fact, I’d say the opposite was more likely. The man’s a psychopath. Even beyond the prison walls, he’d have influence over weak-minded followers.’
‘Thank God you understand, at least,’ Alex said. ‘But can you forgive me?’
She gripped his hand more tightly, half-smiled, said softly: ‘Your intentions were well-meaning, if misguided, so of course you’re forgiven. Who’s to say I wouldn’t have reacted the same way in the circumstances?’
Alex sighed. ‘But there’s one thing nothing can help, and that’s my responsibility for the injured prison officer. As I told you, that’s why I went after Bridge’s money. Stupidly, I wanted to try and make up for what I’d done. I never thought Bridge could possibly find out and come for you and Ann. More fool me.’
‘The officer’s injury is something you’ll have to learn to live with. If you dwell on it you’ll go crazy’
Alex cast his eyes down to the floor. ‘Trouble is it’s him who’s living with it and I’ll always know that. You think maybe I should just go to the police and confess everything?’
‘What good would that do now? They’d have to sentence you no matter what the mitigating circumstances were. It could affect your daughter, set her back. What good would you be to her locked up?’
‘But can I live with it?’
‘We’ll live with it,’ Liz said, her jaw set. ‘We’ll have to go away, for now at least. It’ll mean Ann changing schools, me changing jobs, but there’s no other way if that man is likely to come after us again.’
‘You’d do that,’ Alex said, surprised.
Liz threw back her hair, looked him straight in the eye. ‘Do we have any choice?’
He reached out, touched her cheek. ‘I certainly want to be with you and Ann. Always have.’
‘Then we’ll do what I’ve suggested. Now go and make sure your daughter’s OK. She’s been through such a lot I’m worried about her.’
Alex stood, kissed Liz on the forehead and left the kitchen feeling more optimistic than he had done for a long time. There was a chance now that he coul
d salvage something from the wreckage of his recent life. To help him do that, he’d have the two people he loved most in the world beside him.
Ann’s bedside light was on, a habit he knew she’d long outgrown. Since it hadn’t been on when he’d said goodnight, she must have switched it on herself. Yet she seemed to be sleeping peacefully enough. He decided to leave her to rest but, as he was about to retreat, her eyes opened and she smiled up at him. It was the same smile he remembered from years ago, when she was an infant and he’d crept into her bedroom and she’d pretended to be asleep only to open her eyes at the last minute. Remembering that game and so much more, emotion welled up inside him for what he’d put her through.
‘You OK, darling?’ he asked, leaning over so she could read his lips.
She must have read his emotion as well as his lips because she signed: ‘Don’t look so sad. I’m fine now.’
Since she seemed wide awake, he sat down on the bed. ‘Try to get some sleep, Ann. You’re quite safe now. Those men will never come near you and your mother again.’
‘Why did they want to hurt you?’ she signed, shifting her position so she was closer to him.
It wasn’t a question he was prepared for. How did you tell your daughter, who thought you were just about perfect, that you were far from it? How did you explain evil?
‘They’re bad men, Ann. Most people are good and we don’t often meet nasty people but sometimes, not very often at all really, our paths cross theirs. I was just unlucky and they thought they would hurt me by taking you and Mum.’
It was an improvised answer, perhaps not the best but it had been a direct question and he’d had to explain events somehow without going into the more unsavoury aspects, risking disturbing her. Fortunately, Anne seemed to accept it.
She signed. ‘Don’t worry, Dad, the one called Bridge won’t be around to hurt us again.’
‘Won’t he?’ he said gently, indulging her.
But Ann, wise enough to interpret his motive, shook her head sternly.
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