than being kicked out of CHERUB was the thought of Ewart framing him. And if Ewart had taken one bribe to cover something up, who was to say that the next one wouldn’t lead to the death of a cherub?
‘Hey,’ Dana smiled, when James stepped out of the lift on the ground floor. She looked reassuringly calm and tough.
‘Thanks for this,’ James said, as he broke into a massive grin. There was no way he’d have been able to wade through all the paperwork without Dana’s help and he definitely wouldn’t have had the stomach to go after Ewart.
‘What’s in the backpack?’ he asked, as they walked towards the ground-floor reception.
‘I picked up a few essentials,’ Dana said. ‘Pepper spray, stun guns and listening devices. Plus a few bottles of mineral water and some food in case we get stuck in a car on a long stake-out.’
‘Good thinking,’ James nodded.
There was nobody in reception at this time of the morning, so Dana stepped behind the counter to a cabinet filled with car keys. James grabbed a Biro and a clipboard with forms attached to it.
‘There’s a Mercedes key up there,’ he grinned.
Dana shook her head as she snatched another key. ‘Golf GTI. I’ve driven this one before. It’s fairly discreet, but it goes like stink if you need it to.’
James quickly filled in the pool car sign-out form. He put their destination as London and wrote Ewart Asker in the member of staff authorising use of vehicle box.
The Volkswagen Golf was one of more than a dozen pool cars in the driveway at the front of the main building. It was still dark out and the front and rear screens were covered with frost, which James chipped off while Dana picked a set of magnetic number plates from the collection in the boot and stuck them on.
Dana took the driver’s seat and they both rubbed their hands together to warm up as the heater started running and the lights on the dashboard flickered to life.
‘So,’ James said, as Dana backed out of the space. ‘What’s our plan exactly?’
*
Jason McLoud lived in a suburban street, with semi-detached houses set behind paved driveways. James and Dana arrived at 8:45, parking up in the curved road and walking the final hundred metres to number fifty-seven.
When they reached it, James put his foot on the front wall and pretended to lace up his trainer.
‘Looks like McLoud’s wife has left for work already,’ Dana said, pointing discreetly towards the dry patches on the brick driveway where a car had clearly stood overnight.
James noticed a figure moving behind frosted glass on the first floor. He turned to Dana and raised an eyebrow.
‘I see him,’ Dana nodded. ‘Now let’s get out of here before curtains start twitching.’
They were in a posh neighbourhood and two teenagers not in school uniform and staring into a house were likely to arouse suspicion. Instead of turning back towards the car, they carried on past half a dozen more homes before cutting into an alleyway. It led into a sports ground that backed on to the houses.
They squelched around the perimeter of a rugby pitch, passing by the wooden fences at the end of gardens, stopping when they reached the back of McLoud’s house. There were a couple of people walking their dogs on the opposite side of the pitch, so Dana leaned her back against the fence.
‘Make it look like you’re kissing me,’ she said.
James stepped up close to Dana and kissed her on the neck a couple of times before stopping to take a good look through a gap in the wooden slats.
‘It’s no good,’ he said. ‘It’s lower on that side, like a three-metre drop into rose bushes or something.’
‘We’ll have to go in by the front way then,’ Dana said, as James backed away. ‘Where do you think you’re going?’
Dana tugged James’ jacket and they exchanged a quick open-mouthed kiss. ‘Later,’ Dana whispered tantalisingly, as they broke apart.
James thought about Kerry as they carried on towards an exit on the opposite side of the field. Kerry still gave him a buzz every time he was with her but their relationship had gone stale; whereas everything about Dana felt new and exciting.
They emerged into a side road, and two left turns meant that they’d walked in a complete square back to the car.
‘Nine o’clock,’ Dana said, looking at her watch as they clambered in and shut the doors. ‘We’d better get a move on if we want to find