Dani hurtled down, was already on the second-to-last stair when Easton bounded out from the back of the house into the hallway.
‘What?’
‘Someone’s spying on us.’
Dani reached the door first, was about to fling it open when she paused. The watcher hadn’t spotted her. Had he? So what was the point in charging out there and scaring him off?
She took a deep breath.
‘There’s an alley about five houses down,’ Dani said. ‘Some guy, all dark clothes, hood over his head, hiding at the edge.’
She looked over at Easton. She knew well his doubtful face. Did he not believe that she’d seen the watcher at all?
‘I thought you’d found a bloody bomb or something.’
‘We’ll go out calmly, as if we’re heading for the car.’
‘And then what?’
Dani ignored him. She opened the door and a blast of fresh icy air smacked her in the face and her eyes watered. She took a step out onto the powdery snow and cast her gaze across the road. She didn’t have a good view of the alley at all, beyond the parked cars, and could see nothing of the man now.
Easton banged the door shut and Dani stuck her hands in her pockets and casually walked towards the road. At least as casually as she could with her legs twitching with surging adrenaline.
Another problem was that her car was parked in the opposite direction to the alley. Surely the lurker would know as soon as Dani turned right, rather than left onto the road, that she wasn’t heading back to the car, but for them.
Nothing she could do about that. She moved out onto the pavement, headed straight between two parked cars and looked left and right up the road to make sure it was clear before crossing to the other side. A quick glance told her Easton was a few yards behind her. Hardly subtle, the way he was lagging.
Dani reached the pavement on the other side of the road and could now see the head of the alley, though no sign of the person who’d been there. Had they slunk further down, or already scarpered?
Dani picked up her pace a little. Her boots slid on the snowy surface, previous foot traffic having compacted parts of it to thick and glossy ice. Every step she took brought another sliver of the alley into view. Still no sign of the watcher.
Dani pushed her legs a little harder still, not far from a jog now. She reached the edge of the alley, her brain already filling with embarrassment at the thought of how she’d explain not just her jitteriness to Easton, but the fact she was perhaps seeing things too.
No. As she stood at the head of the alley and stared down, there he was. Twenty yards further on. Head down, hands in pockets, steadily walking away. Judging by the clothes, his large frame, and gait, Dani was sure it was a man. And he was just about to turn out of sight. The alley intersected two back-to-back rows of terraces, providing an entrance to the otherwise blocked-off backyards and the man was just reaching the next parallel street.
As he turned off to the right, he glanced back up towards Dani.
Then he ran.
‘Easton, go around that way!’ Dani shouted, pointing off to her right as she rushed forwards into the alley.
She moved into a sprint, though every other step her foot failed to gain traction and she skidded about, trying to stay on her feet. Rather than falling flat on her face, she pulled back a little, only adding to her frustration as she reached the end of the alley. Her eyes darted across the street she’d come out onto – an almost carbon copy of the one she’d just come from. The guy was thirty yards ahead now, almost at the main road just a few yards further ahead.
Dani had no choice. She gave it everything she’d got. Sprinted as fast as she could. As she passed the next road on her right there was Easton, almost in line with her. She’d hoped they’d be able to intercept the target, but no such luck, and they were soon running side by side down the middle of the road where at least the passing traffic had done a good job of clearing the snow, with two parallel grooves providing snow and ice-free tarmac to tread on.
‘This is… nuts,’ Easton said through laboured breaths.
Dani said nothing. She just wanted to catch up with this guy. Why was he spying on them at Liam Dunne’s house? Could it even be Dunne himself?
They soon reached the intersection with the main road where traffic blasted in both directions. Rows of shops and takeaways and other small businesses lined both sides of the street, and the pavements were dotted with pedestrians.
Dani couldn’t see the man anywhere. But there was another side street ten yards down.
‘This way,’ Dani said.
Picking her moment she darted across the road to the other side and turned into the street and stared down. There he was. Moving more casually again. He thought he’d lost them.
‘You go that side,’ Dani said, pointing across the street.
Easton nodded and moved to the opposite side of the road and Dani continued right behind the man.
He might have stopped running, but he was still clearly edgy, and it was only a few seconds later when he glanced over his shoulder and spotted Dani who was too slow in her attempt to duck behind a parked van. As soon as the man spotted her he jumped into action again, darting to his left, in between parked cars.
‘Easton, he’s coming to your side!’
Dani did the same, squeezing between two parked vans. The man was out of sight to her, and as she came into the road she stared down. Couldn’t see him at all. Easton was there, the other side of the road, looking similarly bemused.
‘You see him?’ she said.
Easton shook his head.
‘Keep going,’ Dani told him.
She carried on along the middle of the road, now moving at a steady pace, though her body was primed and tense, ready to spring into action.
She was sure the man had moved in front of the blue Transit van a few vehicles in front. Was he hiding there?
‘Anything?’ she mouthed to Easton. Another shake of his head.
She reached the back end of the van and took cautious steps towards the front. Easton was still on the other side of the road, looking up and down.
Dani jumped out past the van’s bonnet.
No one there.
‘Dani, behind you!’
She swivelled and crouched but had no time to raise a defence as the dark blur rushed towards her. The object – a frozen plank? – smacked into the side of her head. The impact, together with her own momentum, sent her sprawling into the slush.
There was shouting and thudding as Easton raced over to her aid.
Dani shook her head and pulled herself onto her haunches. The man was racing away, back to the main street, Easton right behind him. The man darted left onto the busy road, just as a bus flashed past. Then came a cacophony of horns and tyres screeching and skidding on frozen ground. The man was already out of sight as a car slid into view, swerving viciously… right for Easton.
He jumped back but couldn’t move quickly enough and the rear end of the car swiped Easton off his feet and knocked him flat on the ground.
‘Easton!’ Dani screamed as she hauled herself on to her feet.
The next couple of seconds passed agonisingly slowly as Easton lay unmoving on the ground, Dani hobbling towards him.
Then he flinched and raised his arm in the air. Gingerly, he propped himself up.
‘I’m fine,’ he groaned as pedestrians and bemused drivers closed in to check on him. ‘I’m OK,’ he said again as Dani reached him.
Although he didn’t sound it, and his face was screwed-up in pain. And even if there was some doubt about Easton, Dani was absolutely sure about one thing: the man was gone.