The inevitable happened. The car blew up, taking the homeless guy with it.
Boom!
That bitch must have nine lives, like a cat.
Worse, there was still no sign of Orla.
If anything goes wrong, we meet at the farm.
He clung to the hope that she was following the plan, that when her hit failed she’d hot-footed it back to Ireland. Part of him wanted to race to the farm, to see for himself that she was OK. Part of him was terrified to go there in case it would confirm his worst fears.
Either way, he was determined not to leave London until he’d finished the job she started. When Annie Carter was dead, then he would head home.
‘The police are going to come calling over the car, for sure,’ said Tony when they were sitting in the drawing room.
‘So? I tell them the truth. It’s all legal, as far as I’m concerned,’ said Annie.
‘Yeah, but someone bombed it out. They’re going to wonder.’
‘They can wonder. They’ve been wondering for years. So what?’
Tony was silent for a while. She’d just filled him in on the news about Orla, and about Layla nearly getting herself abducted in the park. Layla was chewing a fingernail, saying nothing.
Annie started ticking off items on her fingers. So long as she kept thinking, trying to reason all this out, then she wasn’t panicking, she wasn’t losing it – and losing it was only a heartbeat, only a single moment of lapsed concentration, away.
‘Three things: Layla in the park. Orla in here last night. The car bomb today.’
‘For God’s sake, how can you be so damned casual about it?’ Layla slammed her hand down on the armrest.
‘What do you want me to do? Run around screaming?’
‘At least that would prove you’re not totally made of wood,’ snapped Layla.
Though obviously uncomfortable about the bickering, Tony kept quiet. It wasn’t his place to interfere in Carter family business.
‘Layla, honey,’ said Annie more reasonably, ‘we have to keep thinking here. Someone’s trying to get to us. The minute we cave in, we’re done for.’
‘Well, I’m caving in,’ Layla cried. ‘I should be in work today, doing VAT returns, and instead I’m sitting here discussing the fact that I’ve murdered someone, and that someone else has just tried to murder you. It’s insane.’
‘Insane or not, hard to take in or not, it’s happening,’ said Annie. ‘So we have to deal with it.’
‘We? This isn’t the sort of thing I deal with. I wish I’d gone ahead and called the police last night, like I wanted to. Let them deal with it.’
‘That would be a bad move,’ said Tony.
‘Hear that?’ Annie pointed a finger at Tony while staring at her daughter. ‘Do you