of her beauty. If so, he would undo her revulsion with tonight’s business. Here, in the hiring of the assassin, he would prove himself. And, dying, she would realize her error. The thought pleased him. He allowed himself a little smile, which vanished from his face when he felt the car slowing, and glimpsed through the misted window the place the facilitator had brought him to.
A wall of corrugated iron lay before them, its length daubed with graffiti. Beyond it, visible through gaps where the iron had been torn into ragged wings and beaten back, was a junkyard in which caravans were parked. This was apparently their destination.
‘Are you out of your mind?’ he said, leaning forward to take hold of Chant’s shoulder. ‘We’re not safe here.’
‘I promised you the best assassin in England, Mr Estabrook, and he’s here. Trust me, he’s here.’
Estabrook growled in fury and frustration. He’d expected a clandestine rendezvous - curtained windows, locked doors—not a gypsy encampment. This was altogether too public, and too dangerous. Would it not be the perfect irony to be murdered in the middle of an assignation with an assassin? He leaned back against the creaking leather of his seat and said:
‘You’ve let me down.’
‘I promise you this man is a most extraordinary individual,’ Chant said. ‘Nobody in Europe comes remotely close. I’ve worked with him before -’
‘Would you care to name the victims?’
Chant looked round at his employer, and in faintly admonishing tones said:
‘I haven’t presumed upon your privacy, Mr Estabrook. Please don’t presume upon mine.’
Estabrook gave a chastened grunt.
‘Would you prefer we go back to Chelsea?’ Chant went on. ‘I can find somebody else for you. Not as good, perhaps, but in more congenial surroundings.’
Chant’s sarcasm wasn’t lost on Estabrook; nor could he resist the recognition that this was not a game he should have entered if he’d hoped to stay lily-white.
‘No, no,’ he said. ‘We’re here, and I may as well see him. What’s his name?’
‘I only know him as Pie,’ Chant said.
‘Pie? Pie what?’
‘Just Pie.’
Chant got out of the car and opened Estabrook’s door. Icy air swirled in, bearing a few flakes of sleet. Winter was eager this year. Pulling his coat collar up around his nape, and plunging his hands into the minty depths of his pockets, Estabrook followed his guide through the nearest gap in the corrugated wall. The wind carried the tang of burning timber from an almost spent bonfire set amongst the caravans; that, and the smell of rancid fat.
‘Keep close,’ Chant advised. ‘Walk briskly, and don’t show too much interest. These are very private people.’
‘What’s your man doing here?’ Estabrook demanded to know. ‘Is he on the run?’
‘You said you wanted somebody who couldn’t be traced. Invisible was the word you used. Pie’s that man. He’s on no files of any kind. Not the police, not the Social Security. He’s not even registered as born.’
‘I find that unlikely.’
‘I specialize in the unlikely,’ Chant replied.
Until this exchange the violent turn in Chant’s eye had never unsettled Estabrook, but it did now, preventing him as it did from meeting the other man’s gaze directly. This tale he was telling was surely a lie. Who these days got to adulthood without appearing on a file somewhere? But the thought of meeting a man who even believed himself undocumented intrigued Estabrook. He nodded Chant on, and together they headed over the ill-lit and squalid ground.
There was debris dumped every side: the skeletal hulks of rusted vehicles; heaps of rotted household refuse, the stench of which the cold could not subdue; innumerable dead bonfires. The presence of trespassers had attracted some attention. A dog with more breeds in its blood than hairs on its back foamed and yapped at them from the limit of its rope; the curtains of several trailers were drawn back by shadowy witnesses; two girls in early adolescence, both with hair so long and blonde they looked to have been baptized in gold (unlikely beauty, in such a place) rose from beside the fire, one running as if to alert guards, the other watching the newcomers with a smile somewhere between the seraphic and the cretinous on her face.
‘Don’t stare,’ Chant reminded him as he hurried on, but Estabrook couldn’t help himself.
An albino with white dreadlocks had appeared from one of the trailers with the blonde girl in tow. Seeing the strangers he let out a shout, and headed towards them. Two more doors now opened, and others emerged from their trailers, but Estabrook had no chance to either see who they were or whether they were armed because Chant again said:
‘Just walk, don’t look. We’re heading for the caravan with the sun painted on it. See it?’
‘I see it.’
There were twenty yards still to cover. Dreadlocks was delivering a stream of orders now, most of them incoherent, but surely intended to stop them in their tracks. Estabrook glanced across at Chant, who had his gaze fixed on their destination, and his teeth clenched. The sound of footsteps grew louder behind them. A blow on the head or a knife in the ribs couldn’t be far off.
‘We’re not going to make it,’ Estabrook said.
Within ten yards of the caravan - the albino at their shoulders - the door ahead opened, and a woman in a dressing-gown, with a baby in her arms, peered out. She was small, and looked so frail it was a wonder she could hold the child, who began bawling as soon as the cold found it. The ache of its complaint drove their pursuers to action. Dreadlocks took hold of Estabrook’s shoulder and stopped him dead. Chant - wretched coward that he was - didn’t slow his pace by a beat, but strode on towards the caravan as Estabrook was swung round to face the albino. This was his perfect nightmare, to be facing scabby, pock-marked men like these, who had nothing to lose if they gutted him on the spot. While Dreadlocks held him hard another man - gold incisors glinting - stepped in and pulled open Estabrook’s coat, then reached in to empty his pockets with the speed of an illusionist. This was not simply professionalism. They wanted their business done before they were stopped. As the pick-pocket’s hand pulled out his victim’s wallet a voice from the caravan behind Estabrook said:
‘Let the Mister go. He’s real.’
Whatever the latter meant, the order was instantly obeyed, but by that time the thief had whipped Estabrook’s wallet into his own pocket, and had stepped back, hands raised to show them empty. Nor, despite the fact that the speaker - presumably Pie - was extending his protection to his guest, did it seem circumspect to try and reclaim the wallet. Estabrook retreated from the thieves, lighter in step and cash, but glad to be doing so at all.
Turning, he saw Chant at the caravan door, which was open. The woman, the baby and the speaker had already gone back inside.
‘They didn’t hurt you, did they?’ Chant said.
Estabrook glanced back over his shoulder at the thugs, who had gone to the fire, presumably to divide the loot by its light.
‘No,’
