One Night (21 page)

Joel was watching the men, the top of his head poking up slightly so that he could see them. He didn’t feel too exposed, given the darkness, but he did keep as still as he could. He held one hand in front of his face angled downward to deflect his breath so that it didn’t fog the glass and block his view.

The men had stopped walking and he realised they were just aimlessly searching rather than heading to a particular spot. They’d been striding before but maybe that was just to get them to the point they’d reached. One of them looked at his watch, pressing a button on it to light the dial up. Then he pulled his phone out and woke it up, tapping on the screen to place a call and then raising the handset to his ear.

Joel could hear that the guy was speaking but not what he was saying. The conversation was short, lasting a minute or so. No chit chat just a professional transfer of information. After the man hung up the men stood around chatting and smoking for a few minutes. The odd laugh rose into the night along with the sounds of them clapping
their arms and stamping their feet for warmth.

What the hell were they doing? Joel asked himself. Not looking for him as far as he could tell. Not doing anything much beyond standing out in the cold. It was like they were waiting for something to happen. But what? The one with the phone looked at his watch again. His face momentarily illuminated by its blue glow. He looked bored, thought Joel. They all did. Bored and cold.

The guy said something to his mates and then got his phone out and made another call.  He spoke to the person on the other end, shaking his head and looking at the others as he did, smiling wryly. When the call was done he tapped away at the screen of the phone for a while and then put it into his pocket. What was he doing? Sending a text or something Joel thought.  But to who? And why?

The group went back to their previous mode of idly standing and chatting.  And then suddenly one of them said something that Joel caught. The guy raised a hand and pointed off into the distance and said it loudly and urgently. "Harry".

The men all turned to face in the direction he was pointing. Joel looked too and after a moment of straining his eyes he saw another group walking his way. He soon realised that the man at the front, leading the way, was Harry. The lights from the town made his Brylcreemed hair shine and he strode with the swagger that worried Joel. It looked like a victory walk. 

Joel kept still, watching with a growing sense of horror as he realised Harry and his men were walking towards the mine cart
ride. Towards the shed with the bag in it. She's done it, he thought. Sold me out. Had that been her plan all along? Had the whole thing just been an act? Or had Harry talked her round somehow, bought the information from her? Either way Joel felt sick. The hope that had been building in his heart was dying. The hope that it was all a mistake, that Harry had tricked him, that the love he'd seen in Eve’s eyes had been real. That it hadn’t just happened again, his trust given to another and then screwed up and tossed aside like chip paper.

As Harry and his men got closer Joel could hear the man's voice. Loud and confident like it had been over the phone with a barely concealed aggression beneath it. Joel suspected Harry's
self-assurance came from knowing that he could have anyone who didn't agree with him beaten or killed. It was the confidence of a man with power rather than one who had faith in his own abilities.

Harry and his gang walked up to the shed with the bag in it. Harry approached the door and the others hung back, watching the show. He waved at one of them to step forward and he did. A big fucker with a crowbar in his hand. The guy inserted the end of it between the hasp of the door fastening and the arc of the padlock that secured it. He pushed down on the other end of the crowbar, the tendons on his neck standing out as he did it. The show of strength reminded Joel of something the boxer Reynolds would have done.

The padlock, the same one that Joel had so carefully picked earlier, snapped open and fell to the concrete.

Harry laughed and eagerly pulled the door open.

“Here’s the prize, boys,” Joel heard him say. “A good night’s work, this has been, a very good night.” He walked into the small wooden structure and paused in there for a while. Joel could picture him unzipping the bag, seeing the bundles of notes within it, picking one out and fanning it in front of his face.

Harry reappeared a moment later and swung the bag towards the second largest of his crew. “Earn your money, Frankie,” he said, nodding at the guy with the crowbar. “Big Joe’s knackered after popping that shed’s cherry.
”

“No problem Harry,” said Frankie and lifted the bag onto his shoulder with an ease that told Joel he wasn’t someone to mess with.

The bag. The fucking bag. He hadn’t wanted the bloody thing in the first place but all the pain of the last twenty four hours would be for nothing if he let Harry just take it. All the casualties: Parker and his wife and their poor bloody kid. Jesus, he could still remember the boy’s thousand yard stare as he’d stood in the shower and Joel had rinsed the blood off him. Even Danny and Reynolds didn’t really deserve what had happened to them, maybe some of it but not the lot.

The last casualty was Joel’s heart, ripped out of his chest and stamped on. There was no way he was going to let the bag just walk out of his life after all he’d go
ne through to get it. Joel watched them walk away, back towards the cafe. He knew he couldn’t just run up to them and take the bag. There were eight of them and they’d take him down in no time then kick him around for an hour for the fun of it.

He’d spent so much of the last day acting on pure instinct that having to take the time to plan something felt almost alien to him. He tried to do it anyway.

He could just run, but he had nowhere to go and no money to get him there, just whatever was left in his wallet after paying for the Thai meal. He needed the bag and the money inside it to give him any sort of chance of getting away long term.

If he couldn’t take it now,
all he could do was follow it and wait for an opportunity. It was late and he doubted that now that they had the cash the gang would stick together for long. More likely Harry would let at least some of his men go and take the bag somewhere safe, ready to hand back to whoever had backed the job and started the hunt for Joel.

The gang weren’t making any attempts to be quiet, weren’t going to be hard to find, so Joel ducked his head down again and waited until they were fully out of sight before he opened the door of the booth. While he waited a said a quick prayer. He needed all the help he could get.

Matty saw the handbag swinging at him straight away which was pretty much what Eve had thought would happen. Thinking it through in the seconds before she had swung it she'd figured he would react in one of two ways. He could either jump back to avoid the blow or try and grab the bag. She was hoping he'd do the latter, but if he dodged instead she could always take another swing at him.

She saw his eyes follow the bag as it swung upwards from her waist towards his face. His right hand shot up and grabbed for it.

Silly girl, the look on his face said. As soon as she saw that smugness appear she let go of the strap. The loop of leather around her hand unravelled
like a snake. No longer anchored to a central point the neat arc the bag had been travelling changed. It flew away from her and rather than continuing upwards into Matty’s waiting hand it travelled forward under it. Heavy with her purse and her phone, with makeup and tissues and the paperback she was reading, the compact leather bag slammed into Matty’s throat.

That silly girl look disappeared, replaced with one that said something more like fucking bitch. He coughed and swatted the bag down to the floor, like someone knocking an overly playful kitten away. She couldn't tell if it had hurt him or not but what it had done was surprise him and throw him off balance. In that short window of time where he wasn’t quite so confidently in control she stepped forward and kicked him as hard as she could in the balls.

Matty bent over, he let out a ragged breath and clutched himself. Eve put her hands on his shoulders and shoved him backwards then snatched her bag off the floor and ran for the door. 

The night air outside was bitingly cold after the shelter of the cafe. It numbed her skin and shocked her lungs.

Harry and his men were nowhere in sight and so Eve just ran, wanting to get as far from the cafe and Matty as she could before he recovered enough to give chase. She knew where Harry had gone, to the mine cart ride and the bag he'd so easily tricked out of her. She was heading away from them, to the other side of the park, and so she didn’t worry too much about keeping quiet. She just wanted to reach her destination as quickly as possible and do what she needed to do. Send Joel a sign that she wanted him. Needed him.

It felt kind of strange to be completely out of touch with someone, to be unable to speak to them. She couldn’t pick up the phone and call him or text him, she didn’t even know if he had a phone, she hadn’t seen one. She couldn’t email him or Tweet him or Facebook him. In a world
where everyone was always available he was a mystery. He’d just faded back into the shadows. Run at her shouted warning. Vanished.

She had no idea where he was. None. He could be in Adventure Island somewhere, come back to get the bag. He could be in the town hiding. He could have left, could be hitching his way back to the M25 to disappear to who knew where.

She hoped he hadn’t gone. Wished with all her heart that he was still close to her. But she had no way of knowing, no way of contacting him expect one. Her one chance. A beacon that would call him.

She could see it up ahead of her, her single hope. She ran past the Carousel they had ridden on earlier, remembering how good it had bee
n to be held by him. How safe she had felt in his arms. Much as she wanted to she didn’t stop to really take it in, just kept going, because there was no time. She had to do this as quickly as she could. Had to do what she needed to while he was still close enough to see it.

And then she was there, staring up at it. The Sky Drop. It stretched seventy feet up into the sky, a metal tower with a wide bar across it with seats for the riders. People climbed aboard at the foot of the ride and were strapped in to the chairs attached to the bar. It then rose to the top of the tower and was held there for a moment before being released to freefall back to the ground. It had only opened in the last few years so Eve had never ridden it, had never wanted to really. Tonight she was glad it was there though. Tonight it was all she had.

She ran to the booth that housed the controls for the ride. The door was shut and secured with a padlock. Joel would be able to open it in seconds she knew and she was frustrated by her inability to do the same. She lifted it in one hand, the metal freezing on her skin, and then let it drop, knowing there was no point in even looking at it.

The booth had windows though, big panes of glass that allowed the operator to watch the ride and the people waiting for it. She swung her bag at it and felt her heart drop as it just bounced off, the glass wobbling slightly but remaining intact. Eve looked around her, searching fo
r something she could smash it with. There was nothing nearby so she ran behind the ride, into the less well kept strip of land between the Sky Drop and the fence. She knew that every minute counted. That every second allowed Joel to get further away and reduced the chance that her desperate plan would work. It was dark there, darker even than the area around the booth. The tower blocked out the light from the town, making the ground almost invisible. Eve opened her bag and pulled her phone out, switching it on and using the screen as a torch. The light was weak but enough for her to find what she wanted, half a brick lying in the grass amidst the crisp packets and empty soft drink cans. She snatched it up and ran back to the booth, pulling her arm back and then throwing the brick as hard as she could at the glass.

It shattered, the noise was unbearably loud in the quiet night but she didn’t care. Harry would have other things on his mind. The shards of glass fell to the ground, inside and outside the booth. Eve ran to it and used her
bag to knock out the remaining pieces, leaving the window frame clear. She lifted her right leg up and tested the frame to make sure it could take her weight the pulled herself through it, jumping down into the tiny space. The control panel was in front of her, a bewildering mix of buttons and levers. The latter she ignored, she didn’t need to make the ride move. The switches were labelled in a language she didn’t understand, abbreviations that meant nothing to her.

“Fuck it,” she said, and just flipped them all, going through them one by one until she found the one she wanted.

Sixty five feet above her head the bright neon of the sign atop the Sky Drop flickered on, those two words shining brightly into the night. She wished it could have had a more appropriate name. The Love Boat or the Heartbeat or something. It didn’t matter though. What mattered was that the light shone brightly from a tower that rose above the rest of the park. A light that would be visible from most of the town. A light that would tell Joel that she loved him. If he saw it.

Joel was running again. Was this his future now? Just running. Never allowed to stop and have a life. The thought of it made him wonder if it had been worth it. If he shouldn’t have taken the money straight back to London after that bloody disaster of a job.

He tried not to think about it. Not the future and not the past. He needed to focus on the now.  

He'd waited until Harry and his men were out of sight and then left that frigid booth. After he’d stepped out of it he'd locked the door behind him just in case they ever had a reason to go back there and search the area. Assuming he did get the bag back he didn’t want them to know it was him who had taken it. He had no idea how he would achieve either goal but there was no sense in leaving clues that he didn’t need to.

He turned his eyes in the direction they had walked, back towards the cafe. There was no sight of them and no sound either so he started jogging after them, stopping every twenty metres or so to listen.

Eventually he caught the sound of them again, Harry’s arrogant laugh carrying through the night to him. He stopped jogging, squinting into the darkness for any sight of them. There was none so he started walking, matching their pace and keeping the sound of their voices ahead of him.

In the distance the lights of the cafe came into view and he was able to pick out the silhouettes of the walking men. A tall figure appeared around the side of the building, walking awkwardly. Harry shouted to him but Joel didn't catch the words.

The tall guy said something back and then Harry was on him, his fists raining down a flurry of blows. Harry didn’t fight well, his punches looked like they had some power behind them but they were poorly aimed, his arms flailing rather than punching in a focused and controlled way. The guy wasn't fighting back though. His arms were up to block the blows and he was doing a good job of that but he was smart enough not to hit his boss back. 

Eventually one of the other men stepped up to Harry and put a hand on his shoulder. Harry stopped punching and stepped away
, shaking his head.

Where was Eve in all this? Joel wondered. Was she still in the cafe or had she gone? Was that what Harry’s outburst had been about?

Harry was walking away now, waving at the big guy carrying the bag, the gesture obviously meant to indicate that he should follow. The giant made a move and Harry pointed at a couple of the others too. The four of them walked off together in the direction of the main gates of the park. The other men stood around like they didn’t really know what to do, a couple of them talked to the one who had taken the ineffectual beating from Harry. One of them clapped him on the back and then laughed at something he’d said.

Harry was fading into the distance. Harry and the big guy and the bag. Joel knew he had to get after them, had to follow the bag and not lose it. He ran to the left, skirting around the outside of the cafe, keeping whatever structures he could between him and the group of men. He lost sight of Harry for a minute and then found him again, walking with his three cronies, laughing and joking with them.

As they approached the entrance to the park and the street beyond it the darkness faded away. Joel hung back further, keeping to whatever shadows he could find. The main gates to the park were still shut, Harry opened what looked like a service door to one side of them and walked through it with his men behind him.

Joel ran to it and waited, he could see that the wood around the lock was splintered, jagged spikes poking towards him from where someone had kicked it open. After thirty seconds he pulled the door open a crack and peered out. Harry and two of his men were climbing into a Jaguar parked across the street from the park. The last man was slinging the bag of money into the boot. Behind the Jag were parked two anonymous looking white vans like the one that had chased Joel and Eve earlier. Joel watched as the big guy shut the boot and then climbed into the passenger seat. The engine of the car started and it pulled away from the curb, heading off down the seafront road.

The street was well lit and Joel knew there was a chance he’d be seen but he couldn’t wait any longer. As soon as the car disappeared from sight he’d lose it.

He ran across the road to the first of the vans and pulled his lock picks out. The street around him was deserted but he knew it might not be for long. All it would take was someone to go past in the next minute and he’d have even more trouble on his hands than he had already.

The thin metal tools were cold in his hands but still felt natural to him, like an extension of his fingers. That moment when he was picking a lock was like some kind of bliss to him. A state of being where he was so totally focussed on what he was doing that nothing else mattered, nothing else was able to intrude into his mind. Not Eve. Not Danny. Nothing. It was like that moment of sweet oblivion that accompanies an orgasm.

The driver’s door was open in thirty seconds and he climbed in, pulling himself up into the seat and examining the interior. The van was old and there was no security beyond the ignition lock, no immobiliser to worry about and no alarm. Vehicles were far from his speciality but he knew enough to get something as simple as this started. He smashed the enclosure around the
ignition off with two swift blows from the heel of his palm and pulled the wires inside out. Next he stripped the plastic from two of them with his penknife and twisted them together. The engine coughed into life and Joel breathed a sigh of relief. The street was still deserted around him and in the far distance he could still make out the distinctive tail lights of Harry’s car. 

And then it happened, just as he was pulling off he noticed a light to his side. Suddenly there, bright in the night sky. He tore his eyes away from the road for a second, from the retreating lights of the Jaguar, and leaned against the window to peer upwards. The Sky Drop.

He knew instantly what it meant, knew with an utter certainty that surprised him. It was Eve. She was sending him a sign. Calling to him.

He stopped the van and jumped out of it, left the door hanging open as he ran back to that service door into the park. In the distance Harry’s car turned off the road and disappeared. Joel didn’t notice, didn’t care. All that mattered was Eve.

His heart, oh his heart, it was singing.