The Last Temptation. Val McDermid

back by the toilets. You hand over the package and he’ll give you a wad. You bring the cash back here to me. That clear?’

      ‘How will I know it’s the right guy? I mean, what if he can’t get that table.’

      Gary rolled his eyes. ‘He’ll be reading Q magazine. And he smokes Gitanes. That enough? Or do you want his inside leg measurement?’

      ‘A description would help.’

      ‘Dream on.’

      ‘Or a name?’

      Gary’s grin was crooked, revealing even teeth stained ivory. ‘Yeah, right, that’ll happen. Look, just do it, huh? I’ll be expecting you back here by two.’

      Carol tucked the drugs away in her shoulder bag, placing the package between the folds of the denim leggings then rubbing the surface clean through the cloth. She didn’t care if Gary saw her. It wouldn’t hurt to have a witness to her prudence if he was, as she suspected, one of Morgan’s watchers. ‘See you later, then,’ she said, trying not to show the antagonism she felt. After all, there was no point. He was almost certainly someone like her, a cop thrust into an alien role for some purpose neither of them was allowed to know.

      She returned to the street and shivered as a chill gust of wind cut through her thin clothes. The quickest way to Soho would mean turning left and heading back to the main road where she could pick up a bus. Which would be what they were expecting her to do. So she turned right and walked briskly towards the end of the street. From her earlier reconnaissance, Carol knew she could cut through the warren of back streets to a short alley between some shops that would bring her out on the other side of Stoke Newington, from where she could catch a train. They wouldn’t be expecting that, she reckoned.

      At the corner, she quickened her pace to a trot, hoping to make the next corner before whoever was on her tail could catch up with her. She crossed into the next street, pulling the kagoule out of her bag as she went. Her next turning was almost upon her, and she swung quickly into a gateway, pulling the kagoule over her head and jamming the baseball cap over her blonde hair. Then she walked back into the street, this time adopting a slow, swaggering walk, as if she had all the time in the world.

      When she reached the junction, she glanced over her shoulder. Nobody in sight apart from an elderly man clutching a supermarket carrier bag and shuffling down the opposite side of the street. Which meant nothing, she knew. She couldn’t allow herself to act as if she’d shaken off her pursuit.

      Now the entrance to the alley was in sight. It was a narrow passage between high brick walls, easy to miss if you didn’t know it was there. With the adrenaline surge of relief, Carol turned into its gloomy mouth.

      She was about a third of the way down when she realized she’d made a bad mistake. Heading towards her were two young men. There wasn’t quite enough room for them to walk side by side, but they were so close together she couldn’t possibly pass them. They looked like thugs; but these days, most men in their late teens and early twenties did. Carol found herself wondering, idiotically, when exactly it had become fashionable for respectable lads to look like potential muggers. This pair fit the identikit mould perfectly. Heads shaved to stubble, waterproof Nike jackets over football shirts, chinos and Doc Martens. There was nothing to distinguish them from thousands of others. Maybe that’s the point, she thought as they approached inexorably.

      She desperately wanted to look behind her, to check her avenue of escape, but knew that would instantly be seen as a sign of weakness. The gap between her and the two men closed by the second and she could see their gait change almost imperceptibly. Now they were moving more cautiously on the balls of their feet, a pair of predators sizing up the prey. She had to assume they were part of the game. Which meant they’d stop short of doing her serious damage. To think otherwise was too disturbing. Carol was far too accustomed to being a woman in control of her environment to contemplate how easily she’d turned herself into a potential victim.

      Suddenly they were upon her, jostling her from either side, backing her into the wall. ‘What have we got here, then?’ the taller of the two said, his voice a guttural North London taunt.

      ‘Yeah, what’s your name, darlin’?’ the other leered.

      Carol chanced a look at the far end of the alley. It was clear. There were only the two of them.

      Her moment’s inattention had given them their chance. The taller one grabbed at her bag. ‘Give it up,’ he demanded. ‘Save yourself a beating.’

      Carol clung on grimly, leaning against the wall and adjusting her weight. Her left leg shot out in a savage kick, catching him on the inside of the kneecap. He howled in pain and rage, stumbling back and away from her, releasing the bag strap to grab his knee as he crumpled to the ground.

      ‘Fucking cunt,’ the other one said in a low voice that was far more frightening than a shout. He sprang towards her, right arm pulling back for a punch. Carol saw it all with slow-motion clarity. As he brought his fist towards her, she let herself drop and his momentum carried him forward into the wall.

      It gave her a couple of precious seconds to grab the gas canister from her bag. As her first assailant scrambled to his feet, she let him have the CS gas straight in the face. Now he was really howling, screaming like an animal in a trap.

      His mate swung round, ready for a second attack. When he saw her grinning like a madwoman, the spray can at arm’s length, pointing straight at him, he raised both hands, palms facing her, in the universal gesture of surrender. ‘Fucking take it easy, bitch,’ he shouted.

      ‘Get out of my fucking way,’ Carol snarled.

      Obediently, he flattened himself against the wall. She edged past him, careful to keep the spray pointing at him all the time. His friend was still yelling, his eyes streaming and his mouth contorted in pain. Carol walked backwards in the direction of the street, never taking her eyes off them. The one who had punched the wall had his arm round the other now, and they were staggering towards the far end of the alley, all the bravado knocked out of them like the air from a punctured balloon. She allowed herself a small, private smile. If that was the best Morgan could throw at her, she was going to come out of this with flying colours.

      She turned her back on her assailants and walked out into the busy street. It was hard to believe that only a matter of yards from this mid-morning bustle of shoppers and strollers she’d stared physical danger in the face. As the adrenaline surge receded, she became aware of the state she was in. Her upper body was drenched, the double skin of the vinyl jacket and the kagoule acting like a sweatbox on her skin. Her hair under the baseball cap felt plastered to her head. And she was starving. If she was going to complete this mission, she’d be crazy to ignore her body’s messages.

      Up ahead, she saw the golden arches of a McDonald’s. She could get something to eat then use the toilet to clean herself up and switch from the skirt into her denim leggings. With luck it would have a functioning hot-air hand drier. She could maybe even alter her hairstyle, thanks to the sweat of panic.

      Twenty minutes later, Carol was back on the street. Her hair was off her face, slicked back with a smear of hair wax. The aviator frames subtly altered the shape of her face. The jacket was zipped up, hiding the T-shirt underneath. She looked different enough from the woman who had rung Gary’s doorbell to confuse most casual observers. She knew it wasn’t enough to fool the sort of scrutiny she expected to be under, but it might be sufficient to buy her a few extra seconds when it counted.

      She took her time getting to the station, browsing shop windows as if she was just another idle shopper wondering what to buy for dinner. But once there, she trotted up the steps to the platform just in time to catch the train. Good thing I checked out the timetable, she congratulated herself as she slumped into a corner seat in a carriage that smelled of dust. It was a breathing space. Time to figure out what came next.

12

      Petra walked into