‘I thought we’d lost you.’ He grinned. ‘Scared the shit out of me, till I saw you standing in the doorway.’
They crossed the hallway and pushed open the door to the gym. It was state-of-the-art, with a mirrored wall and a water cooler, cross-trainers, rowing machines, static cycles and a heavy-duty treadmill – on which Layla, hair pulled back in her usual no-nonsense ponytail, wearing black shorts and beige T-shirt, was pounding furiously away. She saw her mother and Tony in the mirror, and punched a button on the machine. The treadmill slowed, then stopped. Layla unclipped the safety tie.
Breathing heavily, she stepped off, turned down the music. She snatched up a towel, patted her face. ‘Did you want me?’
‘You OK?’ asked Annie.
‘Yeah,’ said Layla.
Annie didn’t think she was. Layla’s eyes were shadowed, haunted. She’d done a dreadful thing last night, and Annie could see that it was tormenting her.
‘What’s up? Has something else happened?’ Layla was glancing from Tony’s face to her mother’s.
‘Somebody blew up my car,’ said Annie.
Layla’s jaw dropped. ‘You what?’
‘It went off too early,’ said Annie. She thought of the bloodstained pavement. ‘Maybe the bomber muffed it.’
‘Thank God for that. Are you OK? The person who set it, were they… were they hurt?’
Annie let out an irritated breath. ‘Was the bomber hurt? Not that I care, but he was blown to fuck. That’s what bombs do to people, as a general rule.’
‘Right.’
Seeing the chastened expression on her daughter’s face, Annie felt guilty.
‘Sorry,’ she said quickly. ‘It was a shock. Get cleaned up and come upstairs, will you? I think we’d better talk about all this stuff that’s been happening.’
Tony was looking at Annie curiously. He held up a shovel-like hand. ‘Wait on. Are you telling me there’s something else, apart from the car?’
Annie heaved a sigh. ‘You don’t know the half of it. Unless Steve’s told you…?’
‘He ain’t told me nothing. Is this to do with Bri being on the door? What’s going on?’
‘Look, let’s go upstairs and I’ll fill in the blanks.’
‘Mum…’ Layla grabbed Annie’s arm. Her eyes were wide with alarm.
‘It’s OK,’ said Annie. ‘Tone’s sound as a pound. We’ll see you up there.’ She’d already decided to dig out the kiyoga Tone had given her years ago. And she had a can of Mace here somewhere.
Yeah, really effective against knives and bombs, she thought.
What the hell. Any protection was better than none.
Rufus couldn’t believe it. He’d stayed to watch, from a distance. This time he wanted to see the Carter woman get what she deserved. Instead some scruffy little tit had come along, trying car doors. And it wasn’t as if he could run over and stop him.