“He said, “That’s it, mate. I’m off home” and he left.”
“What? Got in his car and drove off?”
“No,” I cut in. “He doesn’t bring his car here. He parks it at Tesco.”
“So he left on foot?”
“I guess so. I wasn’t here.”
The look Dom speared me with should’ve killed me on the spot, as though he knew I’d been fraternising with the enemy while Cash had been trudging back to his car alone. He started towards the Lexus blocking the gate. I followed him. “Where are you going?”
“To look for his car,” Dom tossed over his shoulder. “You coming?”
Nothing on earth could’ve stopped me. I grabbed Sprig. “I’m going with him to look for the car. Get out in the woods and run the route Cash would’ve taken to the cycle path.”
Sprig raised a sceptical eyebrow. “You don’t think there’s a chance he fucked off to his mum’s for the night and didn’t tell no one? Maybe he forgot his phone charger.”
“His mum’s dead, arsehole. Just check, okay?”
Sprig seemed as though he might protest again, but Fletch dragged him away.
“We’ll check, Rae. Let us know if you find his car.”
I shot Fletch a grateful look, then turned on my heel and sprinted the rest of the way to Dom’s car, hurdling the gate.
Dom had already started the engine, and he peeled away the second I shut the door.
My body sank into the plush leather seats of its own accord, but there was no space in my brain to appreciate the luxury of Dom’s flash car as I directed him out of town to the nearest supermarket. “He parks at the back, by the recycling bins.”
“Every time?”
I nodded. “Yeah. He used to park at the shop in the village, but he switched to here when he started coming regularly, so the Goon squad didn’t recognise his car.”
“The what?”
“The heavies the landowner uses to combat sabbing. They put Meg’s car off the road a while ago…totally trashed it.”
Dom tightened his grip on the steering wheel. “Be real with me, Rae. How dangerous are these people? Do we need to call the police?”
Tesco came into view. My stomach turned over. “Let’s see if his car is there first.”
Dom made a sound low in his throat and turned onto the retail park housing the giant Tesco. I swallowed hard and let my mind run away, considering every possibility of what could’ve happened to Cash between him leaving the campaloneand where we were right now. Logic told me his car would be gone, and he’d simply spent the night with someone Dom hadn’t thought of. Cash was an adult with a lifetime he’d lived away from me, and even away from Lucky and Dom. None of us knew everything about him. There had to be something or someone out there that made more sense than the sinister turn my imagination seemed hell bent on taking.
We pulled into the car park. Dom took the long route around, scanning every row, but as we turned the corner by the bins, my hand shot out, unbidden, to grip his elbow.
Cash’s car was still there.
***
We drove back to camp like a storm. Over and over, I called Cash, and over and over, his automated voicemail sent chills down my spine.
Beside me, Dom made several calls of his own, but I was too far gone in my panic to absorb who he was talking to, until we got back to camp to find another top-end car waiting for us.
Lucky was in the passenger seat beside a tall, dark-skinned man who wouldn’t have been out of place inGQmagazine. Black suit, shades, and a phone that looked like something from aBondfilm.
“This is Isha,” Dom said. “My wingman.”
But I barely heard him, lost instead to the real fear in Lucky’s piercing blue gaze as he came up on me and got in my face.
