She nodded and slowly he released the grip on her face. “Okay, good, good. Now I want you to be very calm. I’m going to let you go. Please don’t try and run, okay? Just nod.”
She moved her head a small jerk and felt his arms loosen their hold. He kept her encircled but now she was barely contained. It would be possible to duck and run but knew that he would have her again before she made the gate. He spun her to face him.
He looked into her eyes. “Pauline, I need you to come into the house with me now. I need you to be calm and not to be afraid.” She gave another sharp nod and he released his hold totally and stood aside gesturing toward the open door.
She moved past him and took the few steps back to the kitchen. He followed her inside and closed the door.
“Right, now please sit down, just sit at the table. We need to talk.”
She shook her head. If she was seated she couldn’t run and first chance there was she was going to run. “Please don’t hurt me. I haven’t got anything. I haven’t got a bag of diamonds, or a computer memory stick. I don’t have anything! Please don’t hurt me.”
The stranger moved to the other side of the table and to her surprise he dragged out the second chair and turned it to sit astride. He leaned his arms across the back and bent towards her. “I won’t hurt you Pauline. You are safe with me. Please sit down. I just want to talk to you.”
Chapter 33
“Who are you? How do you know my name? What are you doing here?”
The hint of a smile danced across the stranger’s mouth as his heavy brows quirked with amusement. “Where would you like me to start?” He raised a calming hand as anger blazed now from Pauline’s eyes in response to his flippancy.
“I’m Pete. Please.” He gestured to the chair and as she lowered herself to the edge of the seat he let out a breath and leaned a little closer. His eyes were serious now as he looked directly into her face. “You’ve got yourself mixed up in something very dangerous. I know you didn’t mean to. I know you don’t have anything that you shouldn’t; you didn’t steal anything from Jed.” Pauline tipped her head to one side, listening closely. He didn’t frighten her so much, this large, rough looking individual, not the way the other man had done. He had a quiet about him that stilled the nerves and she felt the pounding of her heart slow. Outside the sun dipped into the ocean changing from sapphire to indigo as quiet waves rolled endlessly against the cooling sand, singing the song of evening.
“That’s his name; the motorcyclist. I know you tried to help him and then what he did to you. I’m sorry for that. I made a mistake there. Stupidly I assumed he’d taken you with him and so followed him rather than looking on the headland. I know what happened to him also.” She gasped and her hand flew to her mouth. So, was this to be blackmail? Retribution? Proof that she was a killer? Her stomach flipped as she tensed and moved to rise from the table.
Pete reached a hand across the small space and laid it on top of hers. “It’s okay. He’s dead, but you knew that didn’t you? Please though, don’t be afraid. You don’t need to worry about it.”
“Don’t worry? How can I not worry? How do you know anyway? Who are you? Where is he? Have you got him… are you going to tell the police?”
“I am the police, Pauline. I’m not from around here, that’s why I couldn’t find you. If I’d been able to go to them they may have known about the cave. Although, having watched them searching for the body I’m not sure they do. That’s where he was, for a while. I had to put him somewhere.”
“Why, you should just have showed them, reported it.”
“No. For the moment I don’t want anyone to know he’s dead.”
“But, surely that’s illegal. I mean isn’t that illegal?”
“As I said you’ve got yourself mixed up in something rather nasty. Okay, cards on the table. I am going to trust you. There’s no other way. You’re in danger: the whole thing is a mess and I think it’s only fair that you understand. What I tell can only be between us. You won’t be able to repeat this, do you understand?”
She nodded. Sat now with her hands in her lap, her eyes fixed on his, she waited. Whether she could trust him hadn’t been decided but she would hear him out, give him a chance. What else was there to do?
“I’m undercover. You don’t need to know all the details but the people Jed was working with are particularly nasty.” He stopped and looked at the attractive woman sitting opposite to him, confusion and doubt creasing the skin between those rather lovely blue eyes. “Okay, let’s see. I’m trying to decide how much you really need to know because the more you know the more danger there is.” She nodded, urging him on.
“I have been involved for over a year with a gang of people traffickers. Jed wasn’t very important in the hierarchy. He was just a messenger and a bit of muscle when they needed it. However, he was carrying some very valuable stuff and he was playing a double game.”
“The diamonds?”
“Yes, the diamonds. But also, and more importantly, the computer memory which has information on which, if it falls into the wrong hands – well I guess other wrong hands – will cause big problems for the people I am embedded with.”
“I know you haven’t got it Pauline. I know who has. But that’s another story altogether. The ‘accident’ that you were a witness to was no such thing. I don’t suppose you noticed the amount of blood on the road?” Here she shook her head and pursed her lips. “No, I suppose it was all rather traumatic. But it was too much, way too much for a simple collision. Anyway, to cut a long story short, Jed didn’t hit the sheep. The sheep was killed before he arrived and the blood and guts were spread across the road. There was also a wire; it was the wire that brought him off his bike. I know it’ll haunt me that I couldn’t help him but… in the bigger picture it makes a sort of sense.”
“But… didn’t the police in Yorkshire see that? Did they know about it?”
“No, God no. The thing is though, people are hitting sheep all the time on that road. It wasn’t a puzzle, and though they went through the motions there was no reason for them to suspect anything. The wire was gone – Jed wasn’t supposed to survive but then you coming along just when you did screwed things up somewhat.”
“There was a car. As I was leaving the village there was a car. Was that something to do with it?”
“Yes.” I was in the car. I saw you. I knew it was going to create a problem. I tried to find you but you’d covered your tracks, hadn’t you. You didn’t make it easy for me.”
“No. But I still don’t understand.”
“No, well, it’s complicated. I don’t know that it’s worth going into too much detail. Look, Jed was… well… I suppose you could say he was ambushed by the people I am working with. They spread that poor dead sheep across the road. Then they left a bloke up there to wait and when Jed came off his bike he took the diamonds and the memory stick. He was supposed to finish Jed off but then but you came along and he had to leave him. It was a mess.”
“I didn’t see anyone else. There was nobody there but me and him, in the ditch.”
Pete simply shook his head.
It didn’t make any sense to her but Pauline was trying to understand. “But why don’t you want people to know that he’s dead?”
Pete gave a big sigh, he glanced around the kitchen. “Can I make us some coffee?”
“What? Oh, oh let me do it. I’ll do it now. Look I think I’d better call Dolly, if not she’ll come looking for me.”
“I’ll put the kettle on. You make the call.” He smiled at her, a warm, sweet smile that shone out of the darkness of the last days like sun on the water. He was a good man; she instinctively knew that he would do her no harm and so she relaxed and picked up the phone.