I try to pull myself out of the headlock but then comes something cold. A new pressure against my throat and, from the corner of my eye, I see the flash of silver from the blade.
My knees weaken and my attacker spins me around, shoving me into the wall. I sprawl backwards, air pushed from my chest.
Coughing hard, I nurse my throat while he holds the knife to my eye. Three inches of serrated steel.
‘Take it,’ I wheeze, offering up my handbag.
He stares at me. A buzzcut. A narrow face. His features hardening as he runs his pale green eyes over me.
‘Go on, it’s yours,’ I add, throwing my handbag to the ground, its contents spilling out. But I make sure to cling onto the rucksack with my laptop.
His eyes move from me to the handbag and back again.
I grit my teeth. Anger rearing as it always does when I feel threatened.
‘There’s cash in there.’
He stares at me for a long moment.
‘Go on!’
He eyes me suspiciously.
‘What are you waiting for?’ But I hear uncertainty creep into my voice. He doesn’t look much like a mugger in a black roll-neck, bomber jacket and military-style cargo trousers.
Never mind, I prepare for my attack. I’ll distract him and then I’ll lunge. I’ll bring the fucker to his knees. The animal-like ferocity from years growing up in care returns instantly.
He looks away, checking if anyone’s coming. Then his eyes pinch.
‘Don’t want your money, bitch.’ He closes the distance left between us, the smell of him crowding me. Cologne, expensive. The knife returns to my throat. His gaze runs across my face, focusing on my mouth and then sliding down. A glint enters his eye and a lazy smile fills his face.
I feel my insides turn over.
I jerk forward and he pins me against the wall.
‘Get off me!’ I growl.
He smothers my mouth with his hand.
‘Move and I’ll cut you.’
Tears crowd my eyes. No, stop. I can’t let him know I’m scared.
He grins.
Too late. The power he has over me, showing itself.
Air rattles through my nose as I search for a way out. ‘You don’t have to do this,’ I plead, but my words are lost beneath his hand.
This isn’t a mugging. It’s something far worse.
He pulls back a fraction. ‘That’s what you think this is?’ His features twist into a look of disdain.
I shut my eyes, sealing them tight. And count to ten.
‘Look at you.’ He shunts air through his nostrils. ‘You think I want to fuck you?’
Sweat slips between my shoulder blades.
He shoves me. ‘Hey! I’m talking to you.’
‘What do you want?’ I wheeze.
‘To pass on a message.’
‘I can’t help you.’
‘Look at me!’
Slowly, trembling, I peel open my eyes.
‘Martyn Eves.’ He stares at me.
I blink quickly, suddenly winded.
‘Martyn Eves,’ he says through gritted teeth.
‘I . . . don’t know a Marty—’
‘Yes you do.’ He cuts me off. ‘Don’t lie, princess.’ His tone is chilling.
‘I have no idea—’
He shoves me again. My rucksack slips off my shoulder and lands on the ground with a clunk. Shit. That’s my laptop in there.
‘You went to see his mother.’
‘What is this?’
‘A warning. Stop asking questions. And stay away from her.’
‘Who sent you?’ I panic.
He laughs. Then rams me against the hard brick, his forearm driving into my throat.
‘DON’T MAKE ME ASK AGAIN!’ A vein pulses in his temple.
My throat is closing up. Why did I take the shortcut home? Why?
‘I’m warning you!’
Drunken yelling and laughter from the street breaks into the alley and he pulls away. A quick glance sideways; he smacks the wall.
‘You’ve been warned.’
He snatches up my rucksack, slings it over one shoulder, leaving my phone and wallet strewn across the ground. Warning me with his eyes, he slips the knife inside his pocket.
Shoulders rounded, hands thrust inside his jacket, he leaves quickly, disappearing into the night like a spirit. My laptop and the recording of the interview with Martyn’s mother vanish with him.
I drink in the air and then my body rejects it. I hunch over, retching, the thought of what he could have done leaving me all at once.
My legs jelly-like, I stagger the final metres home. Heart thrumming, thoughts pounding with images of the knife, the intent in his eyes. And then, from the bleakness of my mind, she comes into view.
Ariel Rose.