‘Is that right?’ said Harry.
When the anticipated burst of pain failed to materialise, Trevor slid one eye open to see Harry was holding his palm up to MacFarland, who lowered the gun to his side, his face twisted into a mixture of intense disappointment and unrelieved rage.
Trevor nudged Sandra in the ribs. ‘Tell him, will you?’
The pause that followed seemed interminable, but finally she spoke. ‘I kept back some of the money as a kind of… insurance.’
‘Against what?’ said Harry.
‘Against whatever it was I might walk into here.’ She looked up at MacFarland with a wry grin. ‘Turns out I was right.’
‘So ‘ow did you know it wasn’t just cigs in the packets? I mean, that’s why we got ‘em to put the money in sealed fag packets in the first place. In case prying little eyes like yours got tempted to ‘ave a peek inside the Jiffy bag.’
Sandra laughed. ‘Yeah, like I’m gonna believe you paid me two grand to pick up and deliver half a dozen packets of fags.’
This was turning out to be even more of a nightmare than Trevor had expected. As if it wasn’t bad enough that the Scottish guy already seemed intent on inflicting some serious physical pain, she also had to go and nick a load of their money. What had possessed her to open one of the packets anyway? And when did she have the opportunity to do it without him noticing? Must have been when she’d stopped to let him out for a pee at the side of the road. But where’d she got the replacement pack from?
‘But you ‘ad instructions not to open the Jiffy bag, never mind what was inside it,’ said Harry and looked up at Delia as if for confirmation. Delia nodded.
‘Look,’ said Sandra. ‘My instructions were to pick up a package from a locker and then wait till I was told where to deliver it. Nobody said anything about handing it over to Rob Roy here.’
Harry shot Delia a look. ‘That true?’
‘Covering our options, Harry,’ he said. ‘I reckoned the sooner we had hold of the money, the better. But if that didn’t work out—’
‘As it didn’t.’
‘If that didn’t work out, we’d just revert to Plan A and get her to deliver the package here.’
‘Well,’ said Sandra, ‘if you’d let me in on your little change of plan, I might not have had to do quite so much damage to Mr MacPsycho.’
Trevor wondered if it was such a good idea to antagonise the Scottish guy any more than necessary, and judging by the narrowed eyes and the clenching jaw muscles, he was probably right.
‘Okay, I’m not gonna ask you again,’ said Harry. ‘Where’s the rest of it?’
‘Safe.’
‘In a safe or somewhere safe?’
‘The latter.’
‘Listen, sweetheart, don’t piss me about or my Scotch friend will ‘ave to show you the error of your ways.’
MacFarland smirked, and he tapped the butt of the gun onto the palm of his bandaged hand. He seemed about to repeat the action, but the smirk was instantly transformed into a wince.
‘It’s in my car.’
‘Which is… ?’
‘A Peugeot 206.’
Harry slammed his fist onto the desk. ‘You know bloody well what I mean. Where’s the fucking car?’
‘Outside.’
‘Oh for—’ He turned away and gave an imperious wave of the hand in MacFarland’s general direction. ‘All right, Porridge, get on with it.’
The look of pleasure on MacFarland’s face was even more intense than before. He raised the gun to shoulder height once again and brought the butt crashing down towards an area just behind Sandra’s left ear. But there was no sudden halt, no sound of metal against bone. Instead, the pistol continued on its rapid arc through the air as she threw herself sideways from the bed and onto the floor.
She rolled onto her front and hauled herself up onto her knees. ‘Outside in the street… is what I meant… Hundred yards or so…’ The fall had winded her, and her words came in staccato bursts.
Harry stared into her eyes for several seconds, but Sandra didn’t so much as blink.
‘Okay,’ he said eventually. ‘Kiltboy will keep you company.’
MacFarland rubbed his thigh where the butt of his gun had made enough of a connection to cause a minor bruise. He too was breathing hard, but not as the result of any physical exertion. The rise and fall of his chest were more reminiscent of the rumblings of a volcano just before it erupted.
Sandra got to her feet, and Trevor followed suit.
‘And where d’you think you’re goin’?’ said Harry.
Trevor hadn’t believed for one moment that they would let him go with them but decided it was worth a try, however half-hearted. If the sarcasm in Harry’s tone wasn’t enough, the look on his face left him in no doubt he would be staying exactly where he was for the foreseeable future.