The woman, blissfully unaware of her role in this unfolding catastrophe, disappeared down the stairs to the Underground.
‘Move!’ Fern yanked Daniel’s wrist, pulling the other suitcase behind her as they hurtled through the station.
‘Can you see her? I’ve lost her,’ said Daniel, scanning the crowd.
‘There she is!’ But the woman was just a little too far ahead. She breezed through the ticket barriers at Euston with the ease of a seasoned commuter whereas Fern fumbled with her Oyster card before she and Daniel practically threw themselves onto the escalator.
‘Which line?’ Daniel gasped as they reached the bottom.
‘She’s heading towards the Victoria Line! Southbound!’
They sprinted to the platform just as the doors were sliding shut. Fern smacked her palm against the glass. ‘NO!’
Daniel groaned. ‘We are officially the worst detectives ever.’
‘Wait! The suitcase– I use it all the time and have an Apple tracker thrown into the zip compartment.’
‘You’re kidding me.’
‘I kid you not.’
Daniel smacked her lips with a kiss. ‘You are a genius!’
Fern whipped out her phone but there wasn’t a single bar. ‘No service! I’m going to have to go to the top of the escalator again. You wait there.’
Waving her phone in front of her as she attempted to get a signal, she rode the escalator back to the top. As soon as it kicked in she loaded up the app. The woman was still southbound and her train was approaching Oxford Circus. Fern raced back down the escalator.
‘Well? Anything?’
‘She’s heading to Oxford Circus!’
They tumbled onto the platform at Oxford Circus a few minutes later, dodging tourists and office workers alike. Mercifully, there was service on the platform and Fern checked the app again. ‘She got off here,’ she exclaimed. ‘She’s up on Regent Street!’
They raced up the escalators to street level, Fern’s eyes barely leaving the moving dot on her phone screen. ‘She’s fast,’ Fern wheezed, her heart pounding as they began to follow the woman’s path down the famous shopping street.
They turned right at a side street and headed deeper into Mayfair, getting closer to the blinking dot with every laboured step.
Daniel stopped to catch his breath as they reached Bond Street. ‘Where is she?’ He spun around, trying to locate the woman in the sea of shoppers and tourists.
Fern glanced at her phone, then pointed. ‘There! She’s getting into a cab!’
Daniel groaned. ‘Oh, come on!’
Fern didn’t hesitate. She grabbed Daniel’s arm and dragged him over to the nearest available taxi. ‘Follow that cab!’ she gasped. ‘I’ve always wanted to say that!’
The driver, a man who looked like he had absolutely seen it all, gave them a bored glance in the rear-view mirror. ‘You serious?’
‘Completely,’ Daniel confirmed, flashing a credit card. ‘There’s a very good tip in it for you if you keep up.’
With a resigned sigh, the cabbie flicked on his indicator and plunged them into London traffic.
Fern looked towards Daniel, who looked hot and flustered. ‘Welcome to London! I bet you didn’t think it was going to be this much fun.’
‘Every day with you is a new adventure.’
They followed the cab for several crowded blocks and watched through the window as it pulled up in front of a grand boutique near the border of Hyde Park.
Fern’s mouth fell open. ‘Can you see what I can see?’
