No Safe Place by Craig Dawson

Author:Craig Dawson [Dawson, Craig]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-02-22T22:00:00+00:00

21

They didn’t say another word to each other until they’d made their way to one of endless cookie-cutter chain coffee shops on the way back from the industrial estate that the soft play centre was on, and back into town, feeling more secure in the crowds and banalities of a Saturday morning. Both gave each other the space to think, to be quiet, to weigh up their own experience of that surreal half hour.

“Special blend?” The barista, wearing a shirt that screamed BARISTA, asked with forced enthusiasm, for the hundredth time that morning.

“Mmm?” was the best Tony could manage, still away from himself.

“Sorry, Sir?” the barista said.

“Oh, oh. Right. No, no you’re fine. Thanks.”

Eleanor had sat down at a table for two, in the window, moving in just as the previous occupants had stood up to leave, with their cups and plates, stirrers and napkins, strewn across the table.

Tony carried two coffees, in comically huge cups, back to the table, and sat down opposite Eleanor. Coffee black, and hot, and chosen absent-mindedly, just for something to do until they felt they could go back to their flat. Tony careered from anger to upset at the thought of how their home had been violated by Stark and his mob.

Eleanor spoke first, “Why soft play? What the fuck was that all about?”

“I don’t know. I’ve been trying to think of the angle. Why show us the kids?”

“I can’t understand it. What was he trying to gain? His grandkids, for God’s sake.”

“The only thing I can think of is either he wants us to know that he doesn’t see us as much of a threat, or he just doesn’t think of as a threat at all.”

“Christ.”

Silence. They each took small sips of their coffee.

“They broke into our flat. He showed me pictures of the flat on his phone. Wanted me to see that he’d been checking up on us, digging around.”

Eleanor took another sip of coffee, weighing up probabilities.

She spoke, unconsciously lowering her voice as a member of staff walked by, “Ok. We can deal with that. Nothing has been taken. I’m pretty sure we would’ve noticed. And I don’t think they found anything that they shouldn’t have done, as we would’ve noticed that too. So, the whole thing this morning was just intimidation. A ‘we can get to you’ warning.”

“A test.”, Tony said, nodding. He had come to the same conclusion himself, but was reassured that Eleanor had reached the same destination.

“Exactly.”

Tony moved onto the next agenda point - “I think he wants me to pass another test. Something about ‘be ready’ and ‘we’ll be in touch’. I don’t like it.”

“Me neither. I think we might need to get out from under this, and soon.”

“That’s not going to be easy, now. It’s obvious we are still being watched, even if it’s off and on. I’m not sure we can risk doing anything obvious until we are 100% sure that we can get away clean.”

“That’s why we have plans, Tone. We always knew we had to consider this.

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