The Half Truth(34)

‘I had a tip off that the Russians knew I had been speaking to you. Apparently, Pavel himself has been asking after me. I don’t know who’s talking, John, but someone knows.’ He looked up at Martin.

‘Hey, don’t look at me,’ said Martin. ‘Why would I grass you up?’

‘Someone must have seen you in the café with us,’ said John. ‘Anyway, it’s academic now.’

‘Too bloody right. The Porboski lot want to know where Pavel is and if one of their scouts has wound up dead, it doesn’t take a genius to work out who did it. I’m not hanging around waiting for either of them to come looking for me,’ said Baz.

‘What are you planning on doing, hiding forever?’ asked Martin.

Baz patted his jacket pocket. ‘Got me passport. I’m off to visit my cousins in Ireland. I can easily get lost out there. The Paddies have got plenty of experience avoiding detection.’

‘You want to have a wash first,’ said Martin. ‘They’ll be able to sniff you out a mile off otherwise.’

‘Does he have to be here?’ said Baz to John. ‘He’s some sort of …’

‘Yeah, all right, Baz. Leave it there,’ interrupted John. The last thing he needed was a spat between the two men. ‘What did you want to tell me?’

‘Take a walk, there’s a good lad,’ said Baz to Martin. ‘This is between me and John.’

Martin gave Baz a derogatory glare before acceding to John’s nod of confirmation to be left alone.

‘What’s this all about, then?’ said John, once Martin had closed the door behind him.

‘I’m only telling you this because we go back a long way,’ said Baz. He leaned towards John, beckoning him to do the same. His voice was low as he spoke.

It was a good day weather-wise and the weekend shoppers were out in force. The café was more busy than usual and Tina was glad she had come in to help out Fay.

‘You’re an angel for coming in,’ said Fay as the swell of customers began to ebb. ‘I didn’t fancy the thought of Old Grumpy and his wife coming in instead.’

Tina laughed. ‘No, I can imagine.’

‘The afternoon tea rush is over with now, by the look of it. I can’t believe it’s gone four already.’ Fay turned her back on the café to face Tina. ‘Don’t look straight away, but see those two in the corner. They keep staring over here. I wish they would hurry up and go.’

Tina made a fuss of rearranging the cake trays and took a glance at the two customers. Sure enough, as she did so, she met the gaze of the stocky, shaven-headed man. She looked away, adjusting the napkins on the counter that didn’t need adjusting.

‘I see what you mean,’ she said. ‘I’ll go over and see if there’s anything else they want. Maybe that will give them the hint to go.’

Picking up her order pad and pen, she pasted on her best customer-service smile and headed over to the table.

As she approached the two men, she was aware that as the first man was watching her, the second man remained looking at his phone. He had longish dark hair, which looked like it could do with a good brush.

‘Shall I take these for you?’ said Tina, picking up the two empty coffee cups. ‘Is there anything else you would like?’ The man on the phone paused with his texting. Tina could see tattoos showing from under the cuff of his jacket. Three black dots were tattooed at the ‘v’ between his thumb and first finger. His nails were short and his hands looked as though they had seen a lot of manual labour. His knuckles looked scarred and misshapen.

At first she wasn’t sure if either of the men were going to answer, but finally the first man spoke.

‘No. Thank you … err,’ he looked at her name badge, ‘… Tina.’ He gave a smile, which revealed a missing tooth at the side.

Something about the two men felt wrong. Tina couldn’t put her finger on it. The man who spoke sounded English, but there was the faintest of accents. One she couldn’t quite place from just the few words he spoke.

‘We’re closing soon,’ she said. ‘I’ll fetch you your bill.’

She hurried off back to Fay at the counter. Old Grumpy would have a fit if he knew she was hustling customers to leave, but those two were odd. Her mind flitted to John and she wished he was here.

‘You all right?’ said Fay. ‘What did those two weirdoes say?’

‘Nothing. Have you got their bill? I told them we were closing. Hopefully that will get rid of them.’

The slam of a hand on the counter made both women jump. Tina spun round to see the first man standing there. He gave her another smile, one that wasn’t at all welcoming and slid his hand across the counter. Tina looked down. There was a five pound note.