Blonde Fury Read Free Page B

couldn’t help feeling that everyone was looking at her and that they knew she was holding a forged passport as well as a real one – which itself was not in her birth name . She felt like a criminal and wasn’t any good at shaking the feeling off. Even the sight of a ponygirl being taken for an evening trot by a man and his wife, couldn’t dampen the sense of relief she felt and the rise in her spirits as they approached her house.
    They were within a few yards of the front door when the door of a parked car opened and a tall man stepped onto the pavement in front of them. He was in his mid-forties, Sophie guessed and was tanned and athletic looking, he was dressed simply in chinos and a sweatshirt.
    “Miss Suarez, m ay I have a word with you ?” he said quietly.
    Sophie’s stomach lurched. He was the police, he had to be! How else would he know that name? She whirled around to see if there was any escape. Another man got out of the other side of the car , and then two more from another car behind the first. They moved towards her quickly then , and suddenly from outside the estate came the wail of sirens and the flicker of blue lights was reflected from the houses of the streets just outside the gates .
    “Run!” Tom yelled but Sophie had already turned and was pounding away , ahead of him, back the way they had come t o get away before they could cut her escape off.
    “Stop!” the men yelled after them and Sophie heard the sounds of their feet on the tarmac as they ran after Tom. She knew there was a footpath that led to playing fields between the backs of the houses just a few yards on and she dived into the darkness, going hard to her left and slamming her right shoulder against the fence on the right as she made the sharp turn , then she was running on grass , her eyes desperately seeking a way forwards under the overhanging tree branches. Behind her Tom swore as he fell, tripping over something in the dark. She stopped for him, she knew the ground better than he did. She ducked as the lights of a police car swept past the entrance to the path. A silhouette of a man was briefly outlined against the glare, it was the man from the car. The police had overrides for all estate gates and so had just driven straight in. A second police car swept in and both stopped outside her house. She knelt down and groped for Tom, putting a hand across his mouth when she found him. At t he entrance to the path, the four men who had hailed them had now all gathered but seemed oddly unsure. They conferred hurriedly, looking back to where the police cars were and then looking along the path towards them. The tall man who had first accosted them seemed frustrated which was odd as his mates had just turned up. But he slammed his fist against a fence panel and then marched back to h is car, followed by the other men and soon Sophie saw the lights come on and watched the cars sweep by , leaving the estate . They exchanged puzzled looks as the lights then came on in Sophie’s house and sounds of a rough search could be heard. Sophie winced at the sound of breaking crockery and glass.
    “Let’s go,” Tom whispered and they crept away into the dark.
     
     
    “The bloody fuzz turned up just as I’d got to them!” Brian Holden said as he handled the car with unnecessary roughness back out onto the North London streets. “They did a runner and if we’d followed them the fuzz might have followed us too , so we thought it best to let them try and get away! Then if they make it we can at least try again. ”
    On the other end of the line Peter Lang was silent for a moment. “Damn!” he said at last. “If they get away we’ll have hell’s own job to find them again. But at le ast Mostyn won’t get her. If he did he’d put her on the open market, and on the open market she’d fetch more than even The Lodge and CSL can afford!”
    “But how many others know who they’re looking for ? That’s what we don’t know!” Brian