28th January 2019Charlie’s obstinate streak won through despite Noah’s many arguments, and she curled herself up on the couch after the st riders headed home. The butane fire roared away as it struggled to heat the space. Noah, frustrated, also headed home, far away from what Charlie said might be a dangerous situation. Charlie didn’t really want to involve Noah, and definitely didn’t want to involve her boyfriend. He’d always sounded like a sweet guy.

  Perhaps her imagination had got the better of her. Then the image of the unmarked van rose unannounced into her consciousness, unsettling her all over again. She went through the events of the day again, trying to work out what the hell had happened, all the while staring bnkly at the fire.

  She was dragged from her reverie by the sputtering of the gas running out. Cursing quietly, she wandered in the gloom looking for the spare tank. The glow creeping around the doors provided too little light to see objects, but her toes proved pretty effective detectors. As she found a particurly solid bit of someone else’s part-stripped motorcycle engine and was preparing to let loose a selection of swear words, she heard a quiet scrape of metal on metal.

  Charlie stood utterly still as the seconds slipped past. The sound of metal rending gave way to the crunch of the rge bolts being dragged through the old wood of the door.

  There was, she realised a little te, a distinct absence of escape routes. In the gloom she peered up at the vaulted ceiling, willing it to have sprouted an inspection cover or some kind of movie-style grippable ledge. None seemed forthcoming, but for the moment the door also rgely seemed to be holding its own. Charlie dropped down and crawled to the sofa, grabbing her phone from the table and stuffing it in her jeans.

  Brushing against the end of the battered couch, her hand caught in the ripped fabric that covered the cheap frame and, as another ominous creak came from the bolts holding the door, a thought beat its way through her fear. Charlie pulled at the fabric, tearing enough of a hole that she could scrabble inside, and found almost instantly that she wasn’t the first thing that’d been inside the sofa. It seemed that recently, something had dragged what had once been a sausage sandwich (with a furry and unidentifiable sauce) into that space.

  She shuddered, and dragged herself in further. Bracing herself against the frame, she scrabbled her phone out from her pocket. Ominous creaking came from the door as she poked at the screen. Praying that the glow wouldn’t be visible from outside the sofa, she tapped out a brief SOS to Noah. The police, she thought, definitely don’t break-and-enter. At least not like this. The door finally gave up its unequal struggle with the crowbars being leveraged against it and she heard the snuffling of a dog followed by hushed voices.

  “Fuck, what a dump.”

  “Shut up dickhead, we need the fucking girl, the fucking ptop, or some fucking USB stick.”

  The sound of the pce being not very systematically searched took over, drawers cttering open, and their contents being chucked onto the floor. Lurking inside the sofa, Charlie very gradually let out the breath she’d been holding. Just concentrate. Concentrate on slow steady breaths, she thought. In and out. In and out.

  Then it wasn’t just her breathing. As the sniffing and the padding of pawed feet got closer, she stopped breathing altogether. When the barking started, she nearly jumped through the sofa. Thankfully, the noise of her attempted leap was covered by the swearing of her assaints as one of them found that same engine block in the dark. Quietly squirming under the cover of the ongoing barking she pushed the mouldy sandwich remnants with her foot, trying to get them back towards the torn entrance to the sofa and praying that would attract the dog more than her. The dog’s head poked in through the hole. She watched it grab the sandwich remnants, pull them out, and resume barking.

  “What’s in there then, boy?” Ungainly progress was clearly being made in the direction of the sofa, judging by the intermittent swearing and the occasional cttering of objects being kicked or knocked onto the floor. After an eternity she heard boots stepping inches from her head. Torch light glimmered through the worn seams. “Oh for fuck’s sake. Trust ‘im, ‘e’s found a fuckin’ filthy sandwich.” Charlie held her breath as the light flickered across the rip in the sofa, and the dog resumed its investigations of her gift. “Don’t eat that, you stupid mutt!” Charlie considered taking up a religion as she thanked everything that existed for the distraction, but just as she reached Ganesha in the alphabet, the dog switched back to its frantic baying.

  “Oh Jesus, shuuut UP! Stop Fuckin’ BARKIN’. Sit you fuckin’ mongrel.” Charlie saw the body of the dog flop down, and finally the boots near her head scraped on the concrete, and the unnerving sounds of the search restarted.

  Charlie concentrated on stillness and prayed for salvation. And then, just as suddenly as her night had gone wrong, the wailing approach of a siren halted the clumsy search. A few seconds ter, flickering blue strobes snuck in, and the mixed rumbling of an engine idling and police radio chatter quickly produced footsteps running to the broken door. One of them – the leader? - quietly muttered “Here boy! Come.” Her four legged companion gnced one more time into the sofa and padded away.

  Car doors clicked outside, the radio briefly louder, then quieter. Wishing she could see, she held her breath again, straining to hear the sounds. For the second time that night she heard the creak of the door, followed by a very brief scuffle, and a shout of ‘Stop! Police!’ before two sets of footsteps ran away. Rapid steps, doors opened and smmed, and she got glimmers of the flickering blue lights again before the engine wailed in its turn dragging the car away.

  After a few moments Charlie vomited up what had been her microwave dinner, and then breathing heavily attempted to extricate herself from the sofa. As she managed to wriggle her legs back out into the room, the flickering blue light returned.

  “Shitmonkeys!” she excimed, and attempted to scrabble back in, in the process finding her earlier deposit. “Oh fuck! Shit! Shit!” she attempted to muffle her own swearing as she yanked herself unceremoniously into the increasingly filthy maw of the sofa. She quieted herself as she heard the doors of the car smming again, and the creak of the archway door. The white glow of the fluorescent lights clicking on seeped in through the end of the sofa and rips in the seams, and Noah’s voice rang out. “Well, where the fuck are you hiding then?”

  “Ohmygoditsyouthankgodfuck.” Charlie exhaled.

  “Are you…in…the…sofa?”

  Charlie’s leg made it out, followed in twists and turns by the now filthy and malodorous Charlie.

  “Jesus Charlie, what have you been rolling in...?” Noah was only now looking around the somewhat trashed office, her face intermittently reflecting the blue light from the car outside. “And what the fuck is going on?”

  “Where are the police?” Charlie queried, sidestepping the question of what had become of her previously quiet life.

  Noah looked at her sideways and gave two quick whistles. “You remember I told you about Jim?” she stated as one of Noah’s friends stepped through the door. “He has, how shall I put this…associations? Agreements?” She gnced at Jim for a moment.

  “Let’s say I have hobbies. I have some pretty specialised hobbies, and I might, just might, happen to have had some uniforms lying around today. Handy that.”

  Charlie finally took in that Noah was sporting a bck fk jacket with ‘Police’ embzoned on her chest, and Jim, looking almost ludicrously short next to Noah, and who also was most definitely not a policeman, was simirly dressed. As Charlie’s breathing gradually returned to normal, Noah finally stopped looking at her destroyed office and considered her dishevelled friend. “Is there maybe something more you should tell me?”

  Charlie looked around the remnants of their office, the drawers’ contents strewn across the floor and then faced Noah. “Seriously? I wish I knew what they were after. It’s Jess...I think. Although it could be me. They said something about ‘the girl’. She’s seriously annoyed someone. I know a while back she was doing something...” She gnced at Jim. “Uh...serious, but she swore it was finished ages ago. She was doing something, but she didn’t talk to me about it. And if she hid it here… I don’t know where, or what it is. She’d never been over here. I didn’t think she actually knew where this pce was...is.” Charlie paused and took a deep breath, “I’ve... I’ve no idea what to do,” she trailed off.

  The silence between all of them grew. “Okay…” Noah started, “No. Okay. Right. Maybe...”

  Jim cut her off. “Do you have a pn, or are you just filling space?”

  “I have a pn.” Noah paused again, looked around the room, walked over to Charlie and pulled handcuffs out of a pocket on the jacket.“We’ve got to make this look good, Charlie,” she whispered, before shouting “Stop! You are under arrest!” Noah reverted to a whisper, “I’m going to need to cuff you ’til we get in the car, okay?” Charlie nodded and stuck her arms behind her.

  Noah mumbled “I knew I should have memorised this damn thing,” before fishing in a pocket and pulling out a minated card. “Err…” she started, “Oh, here it is.” Noah projected loudly out the door of the lockup as she read off the card, “You do not have to say anything unless you wish to do so, but I must warn you that if you fail to mention any fact which you rely on in your defence in court, your failure to take this opportunity to mention it may be treated in court as supporting any relevant evidence against you. If you do wish to say anything, what you say may be given in evidence.”

  Noah nodded quickly at Jim, then marched Charlie out to the car, which Charlie was astonished to see did at least appear to be a real police car, albeit a bit battered. Noah ducked Charlie’s head as she pushed her into the back seat, while Jim, who seemed to be quite enjoying being in character, spped police tape across the doorway. Thankfully, when Noah had left Charlie in the office earlier that evening, she’d not put the padlock on, so Jim was able to click it into pce. Despite the door’s wrecked woodwork it would at least stay closed.

  As they slipped into the car, Noah quietly id out the pn.

  “Jim mate, head towards the Police station, round the back, like we’re taking her in.” She quickly nodded towards Charlie. Even in the half-light Charlie could see Jim pale a little.

  “Remember?” Jim seemed to suddenly think better of what he had been going to say. He turned towards Noah and nodded in the direction of Charlie, quietly asking “Is she…?”

  Noah gnced back at Charlie momentarily before nodding and saying definitively “Yeah, she’s good.”

  “So, this car is legit. I can excuse it being out of the yard at some level as a test drive to check suspension, although doing it at 2am is rather a push. Taking it past the local force at 2am with a bunch of people in it dressed as police is going to require, well, let’s say you’re going to owe me.”

  Noah made to reply before Charlie interjected, “I’ll owe you. Whatever it is.”

  “Well, now I know how you lot got into trouble,” Jim said, “You don’t even know the terms of the deal.”

  “Yeah, but Noah trusts you. And we can’t stay here. Not least because my bloody hands are going numb. Let’s head towards the police station, and like Noah said, see if we’re being followed, and if not we can...uh, go somewhere else.”

  Jim nodded and fired up the engine, cruising slowly down the street. In the dark shadows of an alley two faces looked out at them, and Noah, watching through the rear window as Jim drove, hurried him onwards. They slid quietly through the city streets, the car and its three occupants scanning the darkness. After a while Jim announced that they did, in fact, seem to be being followed. Perhaps it was just coincidence, but the same car had been behind them from a few streets after they’d set off. Charlie instinctively started turning to look before Jim and Noah reminded her that she was meant to be under arrest.

  “So, then, Jim,” Noah muttered, “How do you fancy your luck? Think we can take the road past the police station?”

  Jim sighed deeply. “Oh god, the Chief Constable is going to lord this one over me if he finds out. I’ll owe him, so you’ll owe me something spectacur, Charlie.” He flicked on the indicators and slipped off onto the sideroads leading to the back of the police station. With each turn, he gnced back at their tail, and mumbled “Still there.” The police station appeared through the drizzle, and Jim’s face, illuminated by the pale glow of the instruments, drew into a grimace. “Okay, everyone, pray for a miracle.”

  The amber indicators reflected off the street-signs, and he slowed for the turn. Rounding the corner, the turn for the police station’s staff access shimmered under its bright lights. Jim slowed as if to take the corner, and in that moment where none of them breathed, the car that’d followed them passed the corner, and left them in peace. The three of them cruised straight past the opening for the police station, each waiting for the car to be spotted, and police cars to come screaming out of the entrance.

  The silence surrounding them was deafening. Finally, at the end of the street, they paused. “Go!” Charlie barely held back from screaming.

  “No!” Noah returned. “As you were! Slowly, away... to your garage, maybe?” She hesitated, “If you don’t mind. If that’s too much... the bus station, or anywhere, just away from here. But slowly.”

  Jim gnced back at Charlie, noticing the desperation in her face. “Charlie?” he queried.

  Charlie paused. “Your garage? If you think it’s safe? I need to think.”

  Noah took a slow breath. “Yeah, The garage would be good, if that’s okay with you. You need to get this car out of sight, she needs to be unhandcuffed, and then she ’n I, we need a pn.”

  “This isn’t your fight, Noah,” Charlie started haltingly, “You warned me about Jess’s behaviour... and you know you’re my best friend. You saved me tonight, but I don’t want to put you in more danger.”

  “Look, that’s what you said earl....” Noah stopped and turned to Jim, “Is your garage okay? Because we really should move, y’know.” Jim didn’t say anything, just nudged the car back into gear and turned towards his workshop.

  Almost immediately, Jim gently braked again before turning in his seat. “Charlie darling, get down out of sight, just in case they see us, I want the car to look like you’re not in it.” He pulled away again quickly as Charlie squirrelled herself across the footwells.

  Noah sighed and gnced down at Charlie, “Okay, you don’t want to put me in danger, but I don’t want you to die, either. You said something odd was going on with that raid, and with Jess, and whatever data they were looking for in the office today.” Charlie tried to interject but Noah ignored her, “I’m your friend. Frankly, hon, I hate to say this, but I’m pretty much your only friend. I mean, I’ve become quite fond of you, but you’re not exactly an open book and you’re going to need some help.”

  Charlie stared up at the rear window watching the drizzle gather into drops and slide crazily down the gss. She twisted back towards Noah and Jim and mumbled, “That’s... you’re... I... I’ve got some... stuff. Stuff in my past. Not like this. Not anything like this.” She slowed, “It’s complicated.”

  Noah ughed. “Oh you stupid mare, Charlie! Of course it’s bloody complicated! It’s you. Seriously, though, not now. Think about what’s happened, work it through for a bit. When we get back to mine, you can tell me. Jim, though,” she turned to face him, “I think maybe, while your extensive knowledge of the dubious would be great, you might want to keep your fingers out of this one, given the,” Noah waved her hands vaguely at the car and the police uniform she was sporting.

  After a moment, Jim gnced at Charlie in the mirror. “Maybe so. Look darling, I don’t want to know what you’ve been doing.” Charlie sputtered but Jim didn’t give way. “Or indeed, what Jess has been doing. At least not for the moment, not unless it’s absolutely necessary sweetie. But should you truly need me, do let darling Noah know. Is that alright as a pn?” Jim’s ughter filled the car. “I mean, I just feel tonight was… well, it’s pushing our luck just a little.”

  Pulling off the road and into the yard of Jim’s garage, they finally unhandcuffed Charlie, who spent the next five minutes trying to persuade feeling to return to her limbs. Trading the police car for his plush saloon, Jim started for Noah’s house. Noah interrupted the quiet and redirected Jim to what Noah called her ‘cabin’, eventually pulling up outside a shipping container on the edge of scrubby rural woodnd.

  “Most people don’t know about this pce, so it’s probably safer than my house,” Noah stated.

  Charlie looked around at the trees. “You’ve seen horror films, right...?” Charlie peered at the shadowed spaces, “Y’know, where all the people die in the remote cottage?”

  Noah grinned. “Yeah, watch out for the serial killer hiding in the water tank, I think she’s called Amber.” She looked thoughtful for a second, “Oh and you should watch out because there’s a bloody great hole just off the edge of the boards, so keep to ‘em unless you want a broken ankle.”

  They started walking, sliding slightly on the muddy decking, making their way gingerly across to the cabin when Jim called out “Look darlings, if you don’t need me for a bit I should head back. Massive criminal enterprise to run, y’know.”

  Charlie and Noah debated for a moment before agreeing they could cope without Jim. As Charlie poured forth effusive thanks, they slithered their way onward to the darkened cabin. Noah pulled the door closed and stomped her feet on an unseen mat before stepping through the darkness to the stove. She struck a match and, in moments, fmes were licking against the gss, the fire catching quickly. “I always leave it ready. At least, I do in winter,” she expined, gncing at Charlie’s thoughtful look. Noah took a second match and picked up a camping mp that looked older than the both of them together, adjusted it and soon a cheery hiss was accompanied by illumination. Outside, the ‘cabin’ was still visibly derived from a shipping container, but inside its ancestry was well hidden.

  “I never knew about this pce,” Charlie responded, heading for the sofa. She gazed around the room: a couple of hammocks were strung in the space the other side of the fire, at the end she’d come in from was a rudimentary kitchen on one side and a rge arched window on the other. “Wait, is that leaded gss in there?!” Charlie looked across at Noah who was doing something, seemingly technical, with the stove.

  “Yeah, it came from a hospital they were demolishing. It had a... err.. decommissioned, or what’s the word? An old chapel. Deconsecrated. That’s it. Sorry. I’d seen it urbexing a few years ago, so when they were pulling it down we grabbed it.” She paused. “We had it made shorter, ‘cos it was too tall for the container. Or it was. Now it’s fucking gorgeous. You should, well, you’ll see it in the morning... that side faces east.” She seemed to have run out of expnation, and having finished with the fire, she grabbed a bnket and threw it on the sofa, inviting Charlie to sit.

  “I suppose hiding out here indefinitely isn’t an option?” Charlie tried questioningly while she peered around and failed to find anything to fidget with. “Seriously, like I said, I had a row with Jess, went away, came back and the ft was pretty much empty. Then this morning there was that raid. And then the charming folks who came to visit at the office.” Sarcasm dripped from her voice at this st comment. “I know Jess was up to something. Remember, a few weeks back, when we were chatting about how I thought she was hiding some hacking from me. She’d promised to stop, at least with the big stuff. Then she’d got so distant anyway, I just thought maybe she couldn’t work out how to break up with me. You know how she kinda sucks at hard emotional stuff.”

  Noah simply said, “Mmm.” and stared at her some more.

  “Okay, okay.” Charlie couldn’t quite decide whether Noah was angry, upset, or just waiting to see what might happen. “How about I... have you got any paper? I just want to try and work through everything that happened in the st few weeks.”

  Noah hopped up and started rummaging in the corner, then returned with a battered notebook and a particurly sad looking biro.

  “I’m not sure I can think of anything odd that’s happened, though.” Charlie started scribbling away.

  Noah dropped into the chair next to Charlie and quirked her eyebrows at her.

  “Well, okay, unusually odd. Life with Jess is pretty damn...was always pretty damn odd.” They sat in silence, both pondering the st few weeks, Charlie’s chicken scratch gracing the pages.

  After several unproductive minutes, Noah muttered, “They raided the office.”

  “Yeah. I noticed. I was there.” Charlie gestured at the yer of grime still covering her.

  “No, I mean, they knew about the office. They raided your ft, and clearly they were after Jess, but were they watching us too?” They both sat despondently staring before suddenly Noah chipped in, “That delivery.” She stopped, staring at Charlie.

  Sounding exasperated, Charlie finally grumbled, “What delivery? There’ve been a few...what with you running a delivery company and me working for it? Maybe just a little more specific?”

  Noah, who’d the look of one who’d just had a life changing epiphany, leapt up and paced the small cabin. “About two weeks ago,” she started, “You remember? Everyone was out ‘cept us. I had that meeting with the bank and that fucking guy calls as I’m about to walk out the door... so fucking rude, but he was willing to pay. He needed a delivery now. Right now. Said his usual company had cancelled. You ended up riding out there ‘cos it was some big-fucking-deal thing...” she trailed off.

  “I remember telling you about it after. That office was weird. Really bloody weird. It felt like something from the 90s. Smelled funky too. The area was really run down as well. But it was such a rush job. Even hassled me on the mobile before I got there. I was there in 15 minutes and had like three missed calls. Had me ride all the way out to some weirdy manor in the sticks with that package. Whole thing was just off.”

  Noah squinted across at the notebook. “Unless you’ve got anything else... cars following you, people in suspicious long trench-coats stood on corners, smoking and looking mysterious, that kind of thing?” Noah cracked a smile. “Seriously, though, I mean we can go back and look at that pce, if we can figure out what the delivery address was, or you can hide out here until they get bored of hunting you, but you’re probably going to get sick of the biolet and outside shower.”

  “Speaking of which,” Noah jumped up again and fished in a cupboard, “I know it’s not exactly your size, but if you could avoid spreading that ssi-bal shite from your clothes on my beauuutiful furniture...” She threw a ratty old jumper and some jeans at the sofa next to Charlie. “Also, with the best will in the world, you fucking reek, please put those clothes outside, ‘n rinse your hair off, eh?”

  Charlie slid out of her stained and filthy clothes and into what turned out to be those of Noah’s boyfriend. Grumbling, Charlie fished in her pocket and pulled out her mobile, before adding the leather jacket to her heap of clothes outside the door. “Shouldn’t be too hard to work out that delivery.” Charlie grinned and flicked to their custom delivery management app on the phone and waited for it to log on.

  A few short seconds ter a look of fear crossed her face as she tapped the screen.