Amy turned the walkie-talkie off and clipped it onto her belt. She turned around to check if she was being followed, relieved to see that the canal path behind her was empty. She turned back and wiped at the tears which lay on her cheeks before shoving her hands back into her coat pockets.
She’d let Kerry down. When she’d walked around the corner and seen Claudia standing behind Kerry, she’d frozen. There was nothing she could have done, but still she felt guilt streaming through her. Kerry had been arrested. She was probably on her way to a cold prison cell somewhere, and it was simply because she knew Amy. Because Amy had made a stupid decision to run rather than to stop and seek help.
Although Amy was pretty certain that her decision was still the right one, if only because she had no idea who to trust. Clearly they had been set up. By whom and to what extent, she didn’t know. And without that information she’d decided to Mulder it and trust no one.
She’d watched from behind a pillar as Claudia spoke with Kerry. She could see the terror in Kerry’s eyes but was relieved to see Claudia was being calm and collected. She’d even taken the time to talk to Alice. Amy didn’t want anyone to get caught, but if they had to be, then she had to admit that she was thankful that it was Claudia doing the catching.
But now she was alone, and her bravery had suddenly left her. Kerry was her best friend, and Amy always felt like she could do anything if Kerry was with her. Alone, she felt useless and silly. She had no idea how she was going to get to Aberdeen. A difficult journey had grown utterly impossible.
“Is everything okay, dear?”
She looked up to see a woman in her seventies. She was standing on the canal path with a small watering can, having been watering the plants that hung on the side of a narrowboat. The woman looked at her in concern. “Has something happened?”
Amy let out a bitter laugh. “Yeah, kinda.”
“Well, you tell me all about it. I’ll see what I can do to help.”
Amy took a deep breath. She wasn’t in the mood to come up with a reasonable lie. Everything felt like it was crashing down around her ears.
“I’m on the run from the police. I was with my friend, but my friend was just caught and now I’m on my own and I don’t know what to do.”
The woman walked towards her and looked sympathetic. “Well, why don’t you come on board and have a cup of tea? I’m sure we can figure it out together.”
Amy looked at the friendly face and slowly nodded. This had been her experience the whole time; everyone was so kind and helpful. She was pretty sure she could say she murdered someone, and people would offer her a digestive and a shoulder to cry on.
“You might get in trouble for harbouring a fugitive, though.” She felt it best to warn her.
The woman laughed. “Well, let’s see them try. I’m Lesley, by the way.”
“Amy.”
“Come on board, Amy, you should meet my husband.”
Amy wiped at the tears on her face before nodding again. Lesley climbed on board the prow of the narrowboat and walked down a few steps into the galley. “Fred? I have a visitor. Put the kettle on.”
Amy followed her down more steps and into the living quarters of the boat. She’d never been in a narrowboat before and was surprised to see it resembled her nan’s bungalow. At the bottom of the steps was a proper sitting room, with two small sofas and an armchair, all in a floral pattern. Separating the sitting room from the dining area was a display cabinet filled with glassware and ornaments. Beyond the dining area she could see a tiny kitchen and a corridor off that that must have led to a bedroom. She looked around with a smile. It was a little house on the water. Everything was miniature, but there was everything you could ever need.
“This is so cute,” she said. “And beautiful,” she added, not wanting to offend her hosts.
“Thank you,” Lesley said. “It’s small, but it suits us, doesn’t it, Fred?”
Fred walked into the living room, drying his hands on a tea towel. “It certainly does.” He smiled at her and held out his hand. “Fred, lovely to meet you.”
Fred looked to be a similar age to Lesley. He had glasses and thin, greying hair. He looked like a typical grandfather, and she instantly felt comforted. She shook his hand. “Amy.”
“Would you like some tea, Amy?” he offered.
“Yes, she’s lost her friend, and she’s running away from the police,” Lesley told him.
Amy held her breath and watched Fred’s wrinkled face. She waited for an argument to begin about harbouring fugitives. She was surprised when he laughed. “I’ll get the biscuits as well, then.”
Amy held the mug in a two-handed grip, appreciating the warmth of her second cup of tea. Lesley and Fred were telling her about their children and grandchildren. Their daughter lived at one end of the country, and their son at the other. Not wanting to play favourites, they bought the narrowboat upon retirement. They’d spend a few weeks moored near one child, before heading off to see the other. They repeated the procedure several times a year, using the travel time between the two as some much-needed respite.
She’d told them about her run-in with the police, about the USB stick, about Cara, and about Claudia. Fred had immediately agreed that she had been set up. He said he’d seen a television program about MI5 and had decided the whole lot of them were useless. He said that it was a miracle that the country hadn’t been bombed to oblivion by the “bad guys”, as he called them. Amy didn’t have the heart to tell him that he’d been watching a drama and not a documentary.
Lesley was about ready to phone the Prime Minster and tell them, in no uncertain terms, that Amy was innocent and that the whole saga was ridiculous. It was only Fred reminding her that Amy was being set up that had stopped her from pacing.
An hour had passed since she had been invited on board, and she was starting to calm down and formulate a plan. She wondered if it was essential to her British DNA to have a cup of tea to instil a sense of calm within her. Or maybe it was the biscuits. She’d eaten a hell of a lot of biscuits.
It was obvious to Amy that she needed to get to Aberdeen, to speak to Jason, and to prove both her and Kerry’s innocence. Kerry wouldn’t tell anyone her plan, so she felt fairly confident that no one would know where she was headed. She just needed to think about the best way to get out of the area and on her way to Aberdeen. Lesley was already looking at a map of canal paths and seeing how long it would take them to get there.
Amy was usually more cautious about telling people her destination, but losing Kerry had changed that. She wasn’t even sure where she was, so finding Aberdeen was going to be impossible without help.
The problem was that narrowboats travelled at a similar pace to the average person walking. And canals didn’t go in straight lines. It would take many days to get anywhere near to Aberdeen via the canals. Not to mention that canals didn’t criss-cross the country like motorways and railway lines. Sometimes they stopped, and you had to travel via another mode of transportation to get to the next canal.
A knock on the door sounded.
This is it, Amy thought. Her heart started to race. She lowered herself down onto the sofa as Fred got up and open the door.
Amy held her breath. She wondered if it would all end on a floral sofa, on a narrowboat, feeling sick because she’d eaten too many ginger nut biscuits.
“Hello, Fred,” a friendly female voice said. “I just wanted to let you know that some woman is asking all of the boat owners if we’ve seen that young girl that you took in a while ago. Of course, I didn’t say anything to her. Not my place. But she’s on George’s boat at the moment, and then she’ll be coming here. Just thought you should know.”
“Right, thank you, Margaret. We better get moving.”
Lesley stood up. “I’ll untie us, you start the engine.”
“Will do,” Fred quickly headed towards the back of the boat. Amy watched him in confusion. She sat up and looked at Lesley. “What are you doing?”
“Performing the slowest high-speed getaway on record,” Lesley explained. “We’re not beaten yet.”