Girl Seven (25 page)

Standing behind his open door, guarded. ‘How did you know I was here?’

‘Noel told me.’

‘Why would he tell you?’

I blushed, or at least I tried to look as though I was blush­ing. ‘We’re pretty close, you know. I don’t know if Mark would have mentioned it but... Noel tells me things. He said you were watching Neville’s house because of what happened last time.’

Nic glanced up and down the road, looking deeply unhappy with the idea of speaking to me about this. ‘Look, Seven... It is Seven, right? Get in. You’ll draw attention.’

I did as he said, and opened the passenger door.

‘In the back,’ he said, sounding paranoid, probably thinking I’d been followed.

I got into the back seat and Nic did the same, rubbing his eyes. On the floor there were a couple of sandwich wrappers and several empty cans of Red Bull. I picked up a pile of crumpled newspapers from under me and shoved them into the back of the seat in front.

‘Thanks for the drawing, by the way,’ I said, checking on my phone that I still had a good few hours left to get back to the flat. ‘It really helped.’

‘Er, you’re welcome. What’s urgent?’

I glanced over my shoulder for dramatic effect. ‘This house you’re watching is going to be robbed tonight.’

His eyes narrowed and I started to sweat.

‘OK, you’ve got to understand that I’m quite surprised here so... one, how the fuck do you know about that? And two, how do you know it’s gonna be tonight? Also just... how the fuck do you know about that?’

I wanted to sit on my hands to stop them from trembling and giving me away, but the best I could do was clench them together tight. ‘I was working in the club last night and I heard a group of Russian men, youngish guys, talking about it. They thought no one could understand them because they were all speaking in Russian but I know Russian, I learnt it when my dad said I had to learn another language. I already had an advantage what with speaking two different languages fluently anyway—’

‘OK, OK, I get it, you know Russian.’ He cut me off, gesturing for me to hurry it up. ‘What did they say? Did you get their names?’

‘Um, no. Sorry. I think one of them was called Alexei – maybe. They were laughing because they were talking about robbing Noel and Ronnie while in their own club and neither of them would know. But they definitely said it was tomorrow night... Well, they said it was going to be tonight.’ I was doing my best to come across as young and as nervous as possible. ‘I knew you were going to be here because Noel told me you’d be watching.’

Nic stroked the stubble on his chin, unconvinced. ‘You and Noel are close?’

I nodded. ‘I know he’s married and... I’m not proud of it but he does talk to me. He talks to me about a lot of things. I know they lost a load of money recently and that it was stolen and someone died.’

‘It’s OK, I’m not judging you.’ Nic pulled a face he must have thought was reassuring. ‘I’ve been there and done the
married
thing and it didn’t work out very well for me.’

‘You were married?’

‘No!
Fuck
no!’ He laughed, ruffling his overgrown hair. ‘Daisy would crack up if she heard that... No, I wasn’t married, I, er... got involved with this woman and she was married and it was... a bit fucked up. So, no, I’m not judging you, don’t worry. I’m just asking questions.’

I knew I was thinking about Caroline too much, but she sprang into my mind again unbidden. ‘Did her husband find out?’

He might have seen the guilt on my face. That might have been what caused him to share such an intimate detail. I wondered just how much of my shame was visible to the world.

‘Yes, he did. I suppose they always do, in the end. Like I said, it was fucked up...’ For a moment he trailed off, staring ahead into space, but then he shook himself out of it. ‘So, why come to me? Why not Noel, if you guys are so close?’

‘Of course I couldn’t just go to Noel.’ I imitated being offended. ‘His wife has just left him and he’s already turned into a borderline alcoholic over this. I couldn’t exactly take this shit to him and stress him out even more. Also, I figured it’s not like there’s anything he’d be able to do that you wouldn’t be doing already.’

Nic ran a hand over his face again and gave himself a small slap, blinking hard. ‘Right. OK... How many were there in the club? These Russians.’

‘Three.’ I frowned, picking at my nails. ‘Look, I also didn’t want Noel to do something stupid and get hurt. That’s why I didn’t go to him. I don’t want them to hurt him.’

He gave me a smile. ‘That’s fine; I wouldn’t have mentioned it myself. Best not to with these things, until they’re over. People get stupid and think they can go all maverick. Thanks for telling me.’

‘Look, I know he has kids. The guy who lives here, Neville Hallam... I wanna go warn them.’

Nic shook his head. ‘Absolutely not.’

‘But they have to know!’

‘You know the saying what they don’t know, won’t hurt them?’

‘That’s bullshit! They have
kids
– you can’t just let them be oblivious!’

‘Nothing is going to happen to their kids, Seven. How shit at my job do you think I am?’ He raised his eyebrows at me. ‘I’m not just here to look after the money, you know. I’m here to look after them too. If it was a choice between their lives and the money, obviously we’d choose them. You know Noel, he’s not a monster... and neither am I.’

I couldn’t imagine Nic doing things like Mark, like I’d seen in the videos. But then I hadn’t been able to imagine Mark doing them either, until I’d seen it with my own eyes.

‘Sorry. I’ll go now. That’s all I wanted to tell you.’ I let myself out of the car and paused, shivering in the open air. ‘Um... don’t tell Noel I was here, if that’s OK. He won’t like that I didn’t tell him and that I came to you. I mean... he’d be really pissed.’

‘Don’t worry. As far as I’m concerned, you weren’t here.’ Nic smiled at me awkwardly. ‘Thanks for this.’

‘No problem.’ I sighed. ‘I want to believe you, about caring about them more than the money, but... you’re right, I know Noel, and if he really cared about them and their kids more than the money, he’d be looking after it himself, in
his
flat, or at the club or something. He wouldn’t have let it go into a family house after the last guy died.’

Nic knew I was right. He couldn’t argue with me.

‘No harm is going to come to anyone in that house,’ he said.

‘Right...’

I shut the door and walked down the driveway and on to the road, past Neville Hallam’s house and back in the direction of the tube station.

When I was far enough away from Nic I stopped and leant against a wall to let myself gasp for breath, overwhelmed with relief. He’d believed me. Thank God, he’d believed me. Nic Caruana wasn’t stupid, but he was tired, and there was no reason for him to think I would be lying. I was just a girl, after all. Just a girl.

Everything looked different at night. Even though I’d seen the street and the house twice I had trouble finding it from where the driver parked around a far corner. It was a ten-minute walk but it took nearer fifteen I was so disoriented. I knew Nic would see me as soon as I got close and was conscious of every movement: whether I was walking too purposefully, looked too confident or too poised... I had to look scared.

I
was
scared.

‘You’re fine, you’re fine, you’re fine, you’re fine,’ I said to myself as I walked. ‘You’re not going to die. You’re not going to die. You’re not. You’re fine, you’re gonna be fine. You’re not going to die.’

I glanced in the direction of Nic’s car as soon as I recognized the house.

‘Fuck... You’re not going to die. You’re
not
.’

I jogged up and across their lawn, not looking in the direction of the silver Audi. I only stopped muttering to myself when I approached their door and, after standing there for a minute or so, rang their doorbell.

Nic would be watching me, wondering what the fuck I was doing.

What the fuck
was
I doing here? How had I got myself into this utter fucking mess? A joke. A joke about a password and now here I was. Well done, I thought. Well fucking done, Seven.

I didn’t expect Neville’s wife to answer the door, but she did, with the chain on. I smiled at her. I saw the relief that crossed her face at the realization that I was a girl. Just a girl. She had a sweet face, with the sort of warm features a mother should have. Her dirty blonde hair was pulled up into a ponytail.

‘Hi, Mrs Hallam, is Mr Hallam in?’

‘He’s on the phone. Sorry, who are you?’

‘It’s about work, Mrs Hallam. It’s very urgent. I’m Noel Braben’s PA.’

‘Neville’s boss?’

‘Yeah.’

She looked over her shoulder back into the house and then back to me, frowning. ‘It’s nine o’clock.’

‘I know. It’s really urgent. Not something he could have talked about over the phone.’ I shrugged, making myself seem small, harmless. ‘I really don’t mind if you want me to stay here until he’s free.’

‘... OK. What’s your name?’

‘Daisy.’

‘Daisy. OK, wait here.’

The door shut.

I waited, forcing myself not to look back at the car, nor catch Nic’s eyes. Neville would be more likely to recognize Daisy’s name than mine. She helped them more with the infamous ‘books’, after all. Give it a few years and she would probably be running the Underground herself. I took a step back and looked up the front wall of the house, at the bedroom windows. One light was on. Probably the teenager.

If this didn’t work we were all going to die, I thought.

The door opened again.

Neville appeared, looked me up and down and said, ‘You’re not Daisy.’

He wasn’t a tall guy but he had a military look about him. Military discharge maybe. Crew cut, couple of tattoos, a silver tooth, sensitive eyes.

‘I know, but you have to listen to me.’ I put a hand against the door in case he tried to slam it. ‘Your house is going to be raided in about ten minutes. You need to get everyone upstairs now and keep them quiet and out of sight, otherwise you’re all going to die. You get it?’

I’d confirmed his worst-case scenario. With barely a hint of fear he pushed me off his doorstep so that he could move forwards and look up and down the road.

‘Who are you?’ he asked. ‘Why would Noel send you?’

‘Do you really think he’d come himself? Don’t worry, I can deal with this, I really can, but I need you to get your family upstairs now! Where’s the money?’

‘I’m not telling you! Fuck off, you think I can’t protect my own family?’

‘No.’ I ran up to the door and forced it open as he tried to shut it on me. ‘No, I don’t because I know these people: they will kill all of you. You think they’ll spare your kids? Your daughter, how old is she? Two? Well, they’ll kill her first just for the hell of it. They
like
that sort of thing.’

‘Don’t...!’ He pointed a finger at me. ‘Don’t talk about my girl like that!’

‘Look, Noel sent me because I know how to deal with them, OK? I’m kinda... I’m kinda undercover, OK? I might have to take the money and then bring it back but I can get them out of your house without them hurting anyone. I promise.’ I glanced over my shoulder. ‘
Please
hide everyone upstairs. You must have known there was some risk of this happening, right? Look...’ I jabbed my thumb out into the night. ‘Look, I know Nic Caruana is parked right over there and he’ll get involved if it comes to it. But if he comes over here it’s probably because someone’s dead, so let’s not encourage that.’

‘Caruana?’

I nodded.

He wanted to question me, I could tell. He wanted to ask why a tiny little girl was undercover with people who wanted to kill him. But he didn’t, he shouted to his wife and left the door open so I could follow him inside. I stood there rooted to the doormat and leaning against the back of the door, while the inevitable argument ensued in the living room to my left, out of sight.

‘Upstairs,’ he barked at her. ‘Now. Upstairs. Take Courts with you.’

‘But... Why? Who is
she
?’

‘It’s
work
. Please just... do as I fucking say, OK?’

The little girl started crying.

I ran my hands over my face and willed her to be quiet. I was sure I’d used up all my time already.

There was a poem on the wall, written in embroidery, that looked as though it had been written by an elderly relative: ‘
If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take
.’

‘Neville.’ His wife’s voice had become low and sharp.

‘Look, Caz, just fucking
go
! This is fucking serious, love! Like, life or death serious. Now get Courtney upstairs and shut her up!’

Neville’s wife walked past me on her way to the stairs, red-faced and wishing death on me with her eyes. The girl was still crying.

Neville followed her into the hallway and shouted upwards, ‘Tyler! Help your mum now! Now!’ He turned to me. ‘So exactly what’s going to happen here?’

‘You’re going to hide upstairs and two or maybe three men are going to come through the back door... very soon. I’ll tell them you’re all restrained in one of the bedrooms upstairs. Then we’ll take the money and I’ll bring it back to Noel tomorrow. Where is the money?... It’s not in a bedroom, is it?’

‘No, it’s...’ He stopped.

I spread my hands. ‘You can either tell me now or have someone kill you for the answer when they get in here.’

‘I have a gun,’ he said. ‘Upstairs, in case this happened.’

‘Good for you.’

‘The money is behind the fireplace in there. It’s not a fireplace, there’s a panel that comes out.’

I raised my eyebrows. ‘Wow, at least you didn’t pick somewhere too predictable.’

‘If I hear anyone coming up those stairs who doesn’t sound as if they have your little bird feet I’ll blow them to fuck.’

I nodded, trying to hurry him along. ‘OK, OK, right. But
please
stay quiet.’

Finally, he made his way up the stairs. I checked the living room first before walking forwards past the kitchen and into a dusty utility room, with a washing machine and a pile of shoes and an open door to a second toilet.