“Surprise me,” I replied, throwing a twenty at him and turning to climb the stairs after her.
NINE
JAKE
She was looking out of the window when I got to the top of the stairs. That suited me perfectly. I was about to grab her when the bus set off. Changing my plans, I walked past her and moved to the back, sitting in the middle of the back row with a perfect view down the aisle. If she moved, I’d see. Better not make a scene unless I had to.
If she turned and spotted me and made a run for it when we stopped, I could be on her in a few steps. I’d already clocked who else was on the upper deck. Nine people, none of them a threat though one caught my eye twice. He turned to look at me from the seat behind Isabel and he looked at me for a moment too long though I pretended I was staring into the middle distance so he didn’t spot me watching him.
A few minutes after we’d set off, I was watching him again because he’d shuffled across to the edge of the seat near the aisle. He leant forwards, his head on the back of the seat in front of him and then I knew what he was doing before he did it. I let him though, I didn’t want to make a scene while we were moving, better to wait until we stopped.
Without his head coming up, his left hand reached along the edge of the seat and found her handbag which was on the corner of her seat as she continued to stare out of the window. He was good but he wasn’t that good. He was doing it too slowly, all she had to do was turn and she’d see him.
If it had been me, I’d have the job done by now but he was still dipping his hand into the bag. When he finally brought her purse out, he moved faster, jamming it into his coat pocket before leaning back on his seat and acting for all the world as if he was asleep.
The bus moved out of the village and I caught sight of what she was watching for outside. We passed by the campsite I’d seen in the postcard. Only when we’d rolled past did she turn away from the window, pulling the handbag onto her lap and slumping slightly in her seat. Look down, I told her silently, look down and notice.
She didn’t and when we reached the first stop forty minutes later, she was oblivious to the thief walking past her with her purse in his pocket. I was torn. Did I stick with her or get her purse back? The job meant I should stay with her but after last night I felt a vague sense of something, like I wanted to protect her, though I still had no real idea why.
Perhaps it was just because she was so innocent and in my line of work, no one was innocent. It didn’t square with the other thoughts I kept having about her though, thoughts that I’d always switched off while at work before.
“Five minutes,” the driver called out. “Five minute stop. Toilet stop only.”
Five minutes was long enough. I got to my feet and followed the thief down the stairs, making sure I didn’t look back at her in case she recognised me. I got off the bus and found myself in a grubby car park. The thief was walking towards a battered old Cortina in the corner and I picked up the pace, not wanting him to drive off before I reached him.
He was just climbing into the driver’s seat when I got to the car. “What do you want?” he asked as I grabbed the door and leant down towards him.
“I’m curious,” I replied, taking the keys from the ignition. “See how fast I did that?”
“Give me my keys back!”
“You were too slow,” I said, spinning the keyring on my finger. “Like on the bus when you took that purse.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said, lunging for the keys.
I shoved him back in his seat, holding him in place with a grip just tight enough to press into the flesh of his shoulder. “Give me the purse and I’ll give you your keys back.”
“Fuck you, you’re mental,” he said, his arms flailing towards me again.
“Maybe I am,” I replied. “But a deal’s a deal. The purse.”
“I haven’t got any fucking purse.”
“If I reach into your pocket now, I won’t find anything that shouldn’t be there?”
“Fuck off, get your hands off me.”
I leant past him, sliding my hand into his coat pocket and bringing her purse out. “Well, would you look at that? What a surprise.”
I threw the keys at him. “Go on, off you go.”
“Give me my purse back.”
“You either leave now or I smash your face into that steering wheel so hard, you might never wake up.
“You’re a psycho,” he said, gunning the engine and racing away.
I turned round in time to see the bus pulling out of the car park. “No!” I called out, running after it as it drove off leaving me alone. I leant back against a wall behind me and swore loudly. It would be a long walk back to my car.