Never Coming Home (25 page)

At least she knew Devlin was alive. The body bag hadn’t been him. They weren’t handing her a corpse to dispose of. She stepped cautiously through the broken gates. Something nasty had happened in this derelict office block, and Devlin had somehow got right in the middle of it. Which meant
she
was right in the middle of it. She put her hand to her temple, massaging it. Devlin had left her last night – about ten hours ago – to get a hotel room. Now he was here, on the outskirts of London, after some sort of
incident
. It was her job to get him out. Then she could kill him.

Her escort took her to the blue van parked inside the perimeter wall and produced a pile of forms from somewhere. Incredulous and impatient Kaz signed where he indicated, shoving the copy he offered her into her bag. He frowned, started to say something, then closed his mouth abruptly when a woman glided out from behind the van. She was short, even dumpy, with a long thin face and curly grey hair. Eyes like razors. The effect on Kaz’s escort was electric. She watched, fascinated, as his whole languid body tightened and straightened. It was a salute, in all but the hand gesture. This, then, was the boss. She was smiling. Nice teeth. All the better to eat you with? The smile, surprisingly, reached her eyes. Kaz wasn’t reassured.

‘Mrs Elmore?’ The woman put her hand briefly on Kaz’s elbow to urge her forward. All these people had her name. None of them had offered her theirs.

Devlin was slumped, half in, half out, of the back seat of a dark grey car, parked out of view at the side of the building. Kaz’s heart spiked. He was pale, there was a smear of blood on his face and more on the front of his shirt. He was nursing one arm in the crook of the other.

Kaz took a very deep breath. She felt it all the way down to the scruffy trainers she’d stuffed her feet into, in the daze of early morning. If she’d known that she was going to meet a woman dressed in an Armani jacket, that looked as if she only wore it to walk her dog, she’d have taken more care in her choices.
But then again, perhaps not.

Devlin was squinting up at her. Possibly he looked a little apprehensive.
Good
. The woman had melted away again.

‘Is much of that blood yours?’ she asked, after a while.

‘Not much.’ He shifted and grimaced. ‘At least I don’t think that it is.’

Kaz nodded. ‘Is this the point where I ask what the other guy looks like?’

Devlin swallowed. ‘The other guy’s over there.’ He jerked his head towards the railway line. ‘Under a train.’

‘Ah.’ Now it was beginning to come together. ‘And you
 
–?’

‘Put him there? Yeah.’ He was studying his hands. ‘We fought. If I
 
… it could have been me.’

Kaz felt dizzy. She and Devlin, here in the early morning, discussing violent death. As if it were a stock order from the nursery.

Devlin was staring at the side of the building. ‘There’s a lot of stuff I need to tell you, Kaz, explain.’

‘Like your whole life, maybe?’

He chewed his lip. ‘Something like that, but not here.’

She nodded again. Scratched her nose. ‘When you said last
night that you’d see me today, I didn’t expect it to be this early.’

‘Uh, neither did I.’

‘Yes. Well.’ She moved her weight from one foot to the other. Looked at the trainers. Wondered whether Armani woman was watching, from somewhere behind them.
Probably
. ‘I think I’m supposed to take you home now.’

‘A&E, first. This
 
–’ he indicated his left wrist – ‘is broken.’

‘Oh.’ She rocked back a little on her heels. ‘Did you know, last night, when you left? That this was going to happen?’

‘No. He called me. He had Bobby.’ Devlin shuddered, looking away again. ‘Bobby is dead, too.’

Kaz thought about the black bag on the trolley. Her fingers twisted. She wanted to touch Devlin. And then again, not. ‘Shall we go now?’

There was unmistakable relief in Devlin’s eyes as he shrugged himself carefully out of the car and on to his feet. There was other damage, besides the wrist. She could see that. And more. Mental, not physical. But now wasn’t the time.
Will it ever be?

Ignoring the tell-tale flutter her stomach gave, she led the way to the car.

She had to help him with the seatbelt. With elaborate concentration she turned the car. The on-lookers had drifted away, or been dispersed. The last thing she saw, in the rear-view mirror, was the woman and the man, standing together in the shadow of the wall, watching them leave. A car, large but discreet, pulled up beside them, doors opening.

Chapter Thirty-Three

It was full daylight, and the traffic was thicker than when she’d driven down, heart in her mouth.

‘The nearest hospital is Hillingdon.’ Devlin roused himself as they approached a junction.

‘Fine.’ She glanced up at the road sign. ‘If that’s what you want.’

‘It will do.’

Kaz changed gear and got in lane. Devlin had gone back to his intense contemplation of whatever he could see out of the side window. A quick glance showed her an averted profile. Even then, she could see the mouth was pinched.

‘How are you going to explain it? When we get to the hospital?’ she asked abruptly. She wanted to hear this.

‘What? Oh, whatever.’ He gestured with the good hand. ‘Something. Maybe I fell over the cat.’

‘Mmm.’ She pretended to consider. There was a white van behind her, too close, and another in front. She was a white-van sandwich. She could feel the dangerous edge of hysteria. ‘That doesn’t really account for all the blood on your shirt,’ she suggested.

‘Nosebleed.’ He was still looking out of the window. ‘It was. Just wasn’t my nose.’

She digested this. ‘You think the doctor is going to buy that?’ His face was bruised, but only along the jaw and cheekbone.

‘Some knackered kid, in their dad’s white coat, at the end of a long night shift? You think he, or she, will care?’

‘Well – your experience of this kind of thing is greater than mine.’ She assumed he nodded. Her eyes were on the rear-view mirror. He’d turned towards her now. She felt him shift.

‘Afraid they’ll think you belted me?’

‘Don’t tempt me!’ Without warning, fright and relief segued effortlessly into fury. Now she’d started, she had a list. ‘Just who the hell
are
you, Devlin?’ She seared a glance across at him, saw the shock in his eyes.
Goodie, goodie.

‘I’m hauled out of bed in the middle of the night
 
…’ She gestured away his protest that it had been early morning. Wisely he shut his mouth. ‘Someone I’ve never spoken to before
insists
that I have to come all the way
out here
to collect you. When I get here there are
police
. And a scary man and a
really
scary woman, even scarier than you. And I have to
sign
for you, like a bloody parcel!’

‘Um.’ She could almost hear him thinking about which bit to go for first. ‘I don’t think what you signed was a delivery note, Kaz.’

They had reached a set of traffic lights. On red. Kaz delved one-handed into her bag. A glance at the heading on the sheet of paper was enough.

‘I just bloody well signed the Official Secrets Act!’

‘Er, yeah.’

‘Is that all you’ve got to say?’ Her voice was shaking. Luckily her hands weren’t. How the hell had she missed
that
the first time around?
Because you were crazy to get to Devlin, terrified of what you would find – and determined that no one else was going to know it.

Devlin was still keeping quiet. ‘Hah! You think I don’t know,’ she accused. ‘You’re hoping I’ll yell myself to a standstill, aren’t you?’ She let in the clutch with a jerk as the lights changed, splaying her fingers on the steering wheel in a repudiating gesture. ‘Okay. I’m done.’

They drove on, without speaking. Kaz turned on the radio and pretended to listen to it. An ambulance skated past them. They were nearing the hospital.

‘I’m scary, huh?’ Devlin asked conversationally. ‘Even when you’ve got me naked?’

Kaz clenched her teeth. She was
not
going to give in to the sudden burst of laughter that was forcing its way up her throat. Oh hell, yes she was.

‘Maybe not so scary naked.’
And maybe I’m a liar. It’s just a different kind of scary.

She swung into the hospital’s car park and stopped, slewed across two spaces. ‘Why the hell am I laughing?’

It was coming up now in waves, making her body judder. Laughter that wasn’t laughter, but half-way to tears.

Devlin snapped his seatbelt off, and hers. Wincing, teeth gritted, he gathered her clumsily into his good arm. He couldn’t tell whether the shaking was tears or mirth. Or maybe it was coming from him? ‘I’m sorry, sweetheart.’

He brushed back her hair, stroked it, soothed and took his own comfort. Christ, he
was
shaking. He was getting way too old for this aftermath shit. That’s why he was supposed to be retired.
Pity no one told the bad guy.

Right now he had a woman half-way between sobbing and hiccups in his arms. A woman, God help him, who mattered. He ignored the ice in his gut, concentrated on the warmth in his arms. So sweet, the fit. And he had to make this good.

He shifted her upright, looking into her tearstained face. She was snuffling, but the tears had stopped. ‘All that stuff was supposed to be behind me, Kaz, I swear. I
 
… I have a new life, new name, everything.’ He looked up, over her shoulder. Some things were better without eye contact. ‘I’ve done a lot of bad things. They were meant to be for good reasons, but hell
 
… I don’t know. That’s why I stopped. But things sometimes come crawling back out of the past. Luce was one of them.’

She sat up, rubbing her nose with the back of her hand. He’d have offered her the sleeve of his shirt, except that it was kind of messy.

‘But you didn’t know – that this might happen?’

He remembered in time not to shrug – too many bruises. ‘Luce was supposed to be dead.’

‘Oh
 
… And now he is.’

‘Oh, yes.’

She rocked a little against his arm. ‘How?’

‘It was a fair fight, as far as these things go. I don’t know if that matters.’ Yes it did. He could see it in her eyes and feel it in his gut. ‘I was down, the wrist was already gone. He ran at me and went through the window. I set it up that way. He’d already killed Bobby.’

‘And he would have killed you.’

‘Yeah.’

‘Then that doesn’t make it right, but it does make it
 
… something. I don’t know.’ She shoved a weary hand through
her hair. ‘Come on, I think we’d better get that wrist seen to.’

Kaz straightened the car and stuck the payment ticket on the windscreen, then they headed for the entrance to A&E. Thankfully the place wasn’t crowded. Devlin handed the receptionist a chit of paper. Her eyes widened and she made a call. After that the formalities were whistled though, without question, in record time.

Kaz raised an eyebrow as they took their seats in the waiting area.

‘Sometimes it pays to know someone.’

‘Obviously.’

The triage nurse gave the bloodstained shirt a narrow look, but didn’t ask questions. Kaz wasn’t sure the doctor even noticed. The nurse in the plaster room was sharper, but accepted the story of a fall.

The car park was full when they came out. Kaz led the way to her vehicle and they got in. Devlin’s face looked grey. There was stubble on his chin and white lines beside his mouth. They’d given him painkillers, but Kaz knew they weren’t enough. He needed to rest. But first. ‘Look. If you need
 
–
 
’ She held out her arms.

‘Yeah, well.’ He hesitated, then leaned over, and into her shoulder. She settled her chin on the top of his head and just held on. Despite everything, he felt strong and solid and so right in her arms.
Oh hell
.

After a while, Devlin sat up. Kaz started the car and the radio spluttered to life.

‘–
 
at the junction with the M25. And on public transport, there are currently no trains running in or out of Paddington station, following an earlier incident in the Hayes area. Passengers are advised
 
–’ Devlin punched the channel changer. Rachmaninov floated into the car.

Kaz knew her eyes had saucered. ‘That was you.’

‘I guess.’ Devlin shut his eyes. ‘First time I’ve ever brought part of London to a halt. I think.’

‘My place, or your hotel?’ They were about to come off the A4.

‘Hotel.’ He needed to get out of these stinking clothes – and preferably burn them – and into a shower.