Heaven is a Place on Earth Read Free Page B

I've got to go, right now.” He actually looked over his shoulder, as if there might be someone coming for him. “I know you'll wonder where I am and you'll come looking for me. The flat will recognise you when you come and – ” He stopped and shook his head. “What am I saying? Of course, you're already here or you wouldn't be listening to me prattling on like an idiot. Look, the favour is this. Don't open the package. Take it to the address I'm sending you now. Take it by hand. Give it to Gavin. No-one else. Do that and then forget all about it. I'm sorry to be all cloak and dagger, but it's best you don't know what this is all about. The flat will erase all record of you having been here. No-one will ever know unless you tell them.  Anyway, I've got to go. I just want to say goodbye and that I regret that we couldn't have... Yeah, well. Cheers.”
    The recording stopped.
    Ginny put the package in her pocket and left the unit. She felt the need to be out and moving. This was all too strange. If she were home, she would unlatch and visit Della. Della was the most level-headed and sensible friend she had. Something about what had just happened seemed dangerous and the unease Ginny felt was slowly turning to fear. She didn't want to get on the wrong side of the law. Her life was difficult enough without that, but it looked like Cal was on the run, and there was that little package, sitting in her pocket like a lead brick.
    The sun was high and the day was hot. Sweat beaded on her face as she made her way back through the suburbs. The package was probably drugs, she thought. Or smuggled diamonds or something. She should go to the river and throw it in. But what if this Gavin bloke knew she had it? What if Cal was mixed up with gangsters who would come looking for it? If she told them she'd thrown their drugs in the river, what might they do to her? Maybe they were following her right now.
    She stopped walking and looked around. The streets were empty. A few cars and robot delivery trucks went by now and then, and there was a woman out mowing a lawn up ahead. She could see no sign of a tail. Then she remembered the package, invisible on the table until she switched off her aug. Frantically, she shut it all down again. The street really was empty now except for the robot trucks. No cars, no woman mowing. Nobody anywhere. She breathed a sigh of relief, scanning the dilapidated garden fences just in case someone was hiding behind the peeling paint and rotten wood. For a long while she stared at the shabby street before latching again and walking on.

Chapter 2
    Ginny was hot and exhausted when she reached her unit. She had not walked so far in years. Just as exhausting were the questions that had hung around her like flies all the way home. She knew she should take the package to the police, but she felt an irrational loyalty to Cal – a man she hardly knew. Not really. Yet he had trusted her. He had landed himself in some kind of trouble and he had turned to her for help. It was like something from a vid, romantic, in an odd kind of way. And the things he'd said, or rather, left unsaid. If he had been at home when she called, if they had finally met face-to-face, maybe something would have happened.
    He wasn't really her type. The kind of men she usually ended up with were the little-boy-lost types who needed a mummy to look after them. She could never resist the puppy-dog eyes and the little, helpless shrugs. But Cal was different. He had always been so self-assured and confident. He had never seemed to need anything from her, not even her company, although he'd always been happy to spend time with her.
    And now this. A big scary favour, out of the blue. But didn't that mean he must really need her help though? Someone like Cal wouldn't ask if it wasn't incredibly important, would he?
    She was so lost in thought that she didn't see the man standing in the hallway until she had her door open and had taken a step