Ruthless - [48]

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.

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.

44

‘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 hear that? Those are wise words. No police. We don’t ever mention what happened last night to the police, you got that?’

‘But the car-’

‘The car, that’s OK. They’ll trace it to me, and I’ll handle it. No sweat.’

‘Someone died-’

‘The bastard who was planting the bomb! Good riddance!’ Maybe that would be an end to it. Maybe the bomber was Redmond, and it would all be over now? But deep down Annie wasn’t convinced. Bombs didn’t seem like Redmond’s style.

‘They’ll find it odd that you left the scene, won’t they?’

‘I panicked,’ said Annie.

‘You? I don’t think so.’ Layla folded her arms across her chest, hugging herself as if she were cold.

‘Look, here’s what’ll happen: you’ll stay off work-’

‘No, I-’

‘You’re staying off work,’ repeated Annie more firmly. ‘Until we know what we’re dealing with, you’re going to a safer place with secur-’

‘No!’ said Layla.

‘I don’t want any arguments about this.’

Layla was silent a moment, brooding. Her mother was repeating the same old patterns that had dogged her all through childhood. All Annie had ever done was send her away. She was an adult now, but nothing had changed: she was sending her away again.

‘The police will come soon, won’t they?’ said Layla. She doubted her own ability to front this out as her mother could. She was afraid she would crumble and confess everything.

‘You won’t be here when they do. Which is another good reason for placing you elsewhere.’

Annie was right. Layla could see that.

‘Get some stuff together, Tony will drive you, and I’ll get one of the boys to stay with you. And you don’t tell anyone, not even your closest friend, where you’re going. OK?’

‘I don’t know where I’m going.’

‘You know what I mean.’

Layla stood up. She didn’t have any close friends. All she had were work colleagues. When she’d been a child, it hadn’t taken long before the parents of other kids in her class got wind of the fact that the Carters’ wealth came from disreputable sources. Inevitably the rumours would begin circulate as the respectable parents – doctors, lawyers, academics – dug deeper. The gang rumours. The brothel rumours. So they’d steer their children away from Layla. This had gone on, all through school, through college, even into work.