To Catch A Storm (22 page)

“So you broke into my house in Barcelona?”

“Took me a while to find the letter tucked away in that book though. Anyway, I’d love to chat more but I’m going to take this now.” His hand was on the painting. She said nothing.

“Then what you going to do with it?” She said half trying to stall for time. In the back of her mind though, even if Charlie got here now, there would be nothing he could do from the shore. If she was going to do anything, she was going to be doing it alone. And she needed to do it soon. “Do you even know what it is?”

“Of course I know what it is. Do you think I’d have followed you here from Barcelona just for the fun of it?” He picked up the painting by the rope that held the package together and looked to his boat but it had drifted a little now. “Move to the side Janet.” He put the painting back down.

She shook her head.

“I know you and your accomplice just killed a man on that yacht, but to be honest it seemed like you had luck on your side. When I last killed. It was something I did on purpose. I planned it. I almost enjoyed it. But I’m not planning on murdering you Janet, but if you get in my way, I can’t promise that I won’t.”

She sat to the side of the driver’s seat. Reaper sat in the driver’s seat and pushed gently on the throttle to move the boat closer to his. As it got close, he turned the wheel back and it gently nudged up side by side against his boat. Reaper jumped up, grabbed the rope on the painting and stepped effortlessly to the other speed boat.

“I actually came to you because of the cash I assume you stole from Carl and his little sidekick Dan, but I’m happy to leave you with that. I’m pretty fair like that. A fair trade.”

“You’d be better off with the money. I’m not so sure you’d be able to get anywhere near the value that painting is worth. It’s not something you can sell on down the pub like a mobile phone you nicked.” Janet spat at him

“I think you under estimate me love. You know nothing about me. You don’t know who I know. I have contacts.”

“Sure you do.”

“Anyway, I’d love to chat more, but I’m off now. Oh, final word of advice for you. Carl and his little buddy - Dan have your address in Barcelona, so I imagine they’ll be paying you a visit soon once they get over the very sad loss of their pooches. I wouldn’t stick around to see them. They’re scum. Just saying.” He set off. He looked back briefly.

Janet sat for a second. Thinking about options. She was not prepared to accept this state of affairs but she wasn’t really sure what she could do. She shifted back over to the driver’s seat and pushed forward once again on the throttle, then turned the wheel and aimed for the other speed boat. She suspected as her engine was much larger than his that his boat was not as powerful. She caught him quickly. He looked around at the noise and she hit his boat at an angle on the side. His boat lurched to the left and he was knocked off into the water. She looked back to see him bobbing about and looking in her direction.

She half expected that his speed boat would just stop, but it just carried on its way. It speeded up. She had turned it slightly so it was now facing the beach head at the end of the airport runway. Another aeroplane was coming in to land overhead. She felt she could almost touch the underside of it. Feel the heat from the jets. She slowed her boat a little as the boat closed in on the beach. The other boat kept up its speed and hit the rocky beach, abruptly coming to a stop. The stranger had forced her hand now and she jumped out of the boat into knee deep water and grabbed the painting from the beached boat. Its propellor was grinding against the rocks. Spinning but getting no further. She started in the direction of the Promenade des Anglais scrabbling over the rocks while trying to check on the whereabouts of the stranger. He was swimming toward the shore. She reached the road as he was getting out of the water. The painting was starting to weigh heavy in her arms now. There was no sign of Charlie in her car. She started heading back along the road in the direction of the port end of Nice where he would be coming from. She was aware she was on the wrong side of the road too but it was a wide and busy dual carriageway at this point. There was a crossing up ahead. The stranger was now out of the sea and close to the road. He was moving quickly even with his wet clothing. She couldn’t wait for the crossing and had to get over. She waited for a gap in the traffic and set off across. Cars flew past blasting their horns in anger at her stupidness. The road was divided into a dual carriage way by greenery and palm trees. At half way across, she looked back and saw that the stranger was still gaining on her. She was at a terrible disadvantage with the painting which seemed to be growing in size and weight as she became more tired. She panicked and decided to try to get all the way over. A car clipped the corner of the painting and once again, she was blasted with the horns of several cars and trucks. She tried to run faster but it was like a sprinter taking on a tired marathon runner. She couldn’t focus but heard a horn beeping up ahead. Without slowing down, she tried to focus again on where the noise was coming from and then she saw her Porsche. Charlie pulled up with the hazard lights on. More horns blasted as they swerved around her car.

As she got to the car, the door flew open and she pushed the picture into the back seat.

“Drive!” She shouted at him whilst pointing up ahead to the stranger. “Get past that fucker!”

Charlie saw the stranger up ahead in the middle of the road under the palms. He hit the accelerator and they were off. The stranger stood in the middle of the road with his hands on his hips shaking his head at them as they flew past.

“You okay? What the hell happened?”

“Just get going. I’ll tell you later. I take it that was my stalker?” she asked.

“Yup. That’s the fella. You don’t know him then? Where we going Janet?”

“Road trip to Barcelona?”

“You sure? Your stalker knows where you live. As does Carl.”

She shut her eyes momentarily. “Okay, guess not then. I’m running out of places I can go. Any suggestions?”

Charlie thought for a while as he drove in no particular direction. “Okay, how about London via the tunnel? And a stop over in Paris?” he raised his eyebrows. “London is somewhere we can shift that.” He motioned back to the painting with his head. “Paris, because we’ll need to break up the journey.”

She pushed her head back into the seat, breathed deeply and forced a smile.
“Okay. Paris. That will give you some time to talk me around Charlie.”

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