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“Nice to meet you too.” We were at the front door now, and I opened it and stepped through, barely trying to disguise my relief at the empty, patrol-car-free road outside.
“Thanks again,” I said. “Take care.”
“Take care,” she echoed, and then the door closed behind me.
As I turned out of Lancaster Lane onto the main road, I shoved my hands into the pockets of my coat to stop them shaking. The relief I had felt at getting away from Officer Wheezy was fading, and I could feel a growing pain in my side where I had landed on top of the wall. There was no time to stop and investigate. The most important thing was to put some distance between myself and Salisbury Lane, where the police cars were probably already amassing. After that… God. What should I do? I needed money. And a plan.
Hel. I needed to contact Hel and explain what had happened. But I couldn’t go to her house—that would be the first place Miles and Malik would go. I tried to still my racing brain enough to think through the next few steps. Could I call? They probably hadn’t tapped Hel’s phone yet—I was hazy on the logistics surrounding this, but I was pretty sure that monitoring phones needed a warrant, and that took time. So Hel’s end was probably fairly safe right now.
But they would seize her phone records eventually—so whatever I did now, they would discover it when they came to comb through her texts and call logs. Did that matter? I tried to think it through. This phone, the pink unicorn-stickered phone Hel had handed me that morning, was a goner as far as traceability went. I had used it to call too many people connected to me and Gabe, and besides, the SIM card was almost certainly registered to Roland’s account. It was useless to me from today. Which meant that I might as well burn it one last time.
I turned it back on and dialed Hel’s number.
“Jack!” Her voice when she answered was pleasant, cheerful, no hint of concern beyond what she was already feeling about having her baby sister interviewed by the police. “Are you done? Shall I come and collect you?”
“Listen,” I said abruptly. “Hel, I’ve done something really stupid. No”—as she broke in, trying to ask questions—“I don’t have time to explain now, but I’m in deep shit. You were right, I am a suspect.”
“Okay,” Hel said. There was a slight tremor in her voice, but I could tell she was trying to keep calm. “Okay. But… they haven’t arrested you?”
“I didn’t give them the chance. I walked out of the interview.”
“And they let you go?”
“They didn’t exactly… know. But they do now. And I’m pretty sure there’ll be a warrant out for me.”
There was a silence at the other end of the phone. I could hear Hel’s breathing, and I could tell she was trying very hard to keep hold of herself, not to shout What have you done? down the phone at me, much as she probably wanted to.
“I need cash,” I said into the charged silence. “As much as you can spare. But don’t go to the bank, just whatever you can get out of an ATM.” If she was being followed, a trip to the bank would be a huge red flag. “And… warm clothes. A sleeping bag.” Shit. What else? A plan was what I really needed, but right now I didn’t have one, beyond getting out of London before I was arrested. “Oh, and one more thing. Bleach. For my hair, I mean. I need to get rid of the red.”
“Okay,” Hel said tightly. “What time and where?”
“I don’t know.” I tried to think. “How long do you reckon you’ll need to get everything together? We probably shouldn’t leave it too late. The more time we give the police to get warrants and put you under surveillance, the harder this is going to be.”
“It’s…” I could hear her voice go faint as she took the phone away from her ear to look at the time. “It’s just gone half one now. Say an hour to get everything ready, then half an hour to make sure I’m not being followed. But I’ll have to pick the girls up at three. Fuck. That doesn’t leave much time.”
“What time does Rols finish work? Or could you slip out after supper?” The thought of finding somewhere inconspicuous to hang out, shivering, until after dark wasn’t very enticing, but it didn’t sound like I had much choice.
“No, wait,” Hel said slowly. “The girls… that could work.”
“What do you mean? I meet you at the school? I really don’t think—”
“Not the school, but… maybe the shopping center? The one on the main road, where the cinema is. We quite often stop in there to go to the loo on the way home or get a snack, and there are loads of entrances and exits.”
“I don’t know, Hel.” I tried to keep the worry out of my voice, but it crept in anyway. “I don’t like the idea of the girls being mixed up in this. What if something goes wrong? How are you going to make sure you’re not being followed if you’ve got two four-year-olds in tow?”
“None of us have a playbook for this, Jack.” Hel sounded testy, but below it I could hear her concern. “This is the first time I’ve done this too. But I feel like sticking to my routine is probably the safest, don’t you? If I am under surveillance, then the police will be on red alert for anything out of character. Whereas picking up the girls, walking them home, going to the toilet… all of that is what I do every day.”
“Okay,” I said slowly. “So… what’s the plan, then?”
“There’s a public toilet on the ground floor, next to Urban Outfitters. It’s got two entrances, one into the cinema and one into the main shopping center.”
“Okay. We’ll meet in there. What time?”
“Say… three thirty? It might be a few minutes after if the girls are tired, but I’ll do my best.”
“Okay,” I said again. I glanced up and down the street. “Hel, I’m going to have to dump this phone, do you mind?”
“I expect the girls will be crushed at losing their progress on Pretty Pawz,” Hel said, with a kind of grim humor. “But they’ll live. Now, go. And don’t get caught.”
