Rules of Vengeance

He stopped at the first corner. As he waited for a car to complete a left-hand turn in front of him, Emma materialized as if out of thin air a hundred meters up the street. On closer examination, he observed that she’d emerged from a boutique. Some instinct or reflex caused him to retreat into a doorway, and at that moment she turned and glanced behind her. He held his position. Waiting, he noticed that he was sweating and that his heart was beating faster than it should.

He counted to five, but before setting out, he shot a look up the street behind him.

One block back, a tan Ford Mondeo idled at the curb. The morning light struck the windshield full on and reflected off the driver’s shiny blue tracksuit. One official bodyguard licensed to carry firearms, according to Emma’s furious description. He caught another figure in the passenger seat and maybe one in the rear. Jonathan’s watchers in the flesh.

They’ll follow you to get to me.

He returned his attention to Emma. She was keeping close to the storefronts, never looking back as she neared the intersection with New Bond Street.

It was then that he made a decision.

Stepping onto the sidewalk, he continued in his wife’s direction. At the next light he waited patiently for the signal to change. It wasn’t necessary to look over his shoulder to check if the Mondeo was there. The sideview mirror of a cab idling next to him did the job astonishingly well. Jonathan was picking up the tools of Emma’s trade.

The signal changed in his favor. He entered the intersection, but halfway across he darted to his right and regained the sidewalk. He looked for a store to duck into, somewhere he might disappear for a minute or two. But the street was lined with private residences. Door after door was locked. He checked behind him. Caught in traffic, the Mondeo hadn’t yet made the turn. Across the street, Jonathan spotted a newsagent’s shop. There might just be time…

He dashed into the oncoming traffic, dodging the fast-moving cars, ignoring the horns and the squeal of brakes. Reaching the far sidewalk, he flung open the door to the newsagent’s, setting a chain of bells tinkling madly. He bent low behind a wall of magazines. A moment later he spied the Mondeo speeding past. Still breathing hard, he watched until it disappeared from sight. Only then did he leave the store.

“Where the hell is he?” shouted Frank Co

“I don’t see him,” said the driver. “Do you, Liam?”

The rangy dark-haired man in the passenger seat shook his head.

“Turn around,” said Co

“I can’t just yet,” said the driver, indicating the steady stream of oncoming traffic.

“Screw the traffic,” retorted Co

“It’ll cause an accident.”

“Just do it. Now! There’s a break!”

The driver whipped the car around, keeping one hand firmly pressed down on the horn. The sudden turn tossed Co

“I told you,” the driver was shouting. “I knew there was no way we could make the turn. Crap!”

“You were too slow,” said Co

“Like hell!”

“Forget about it,” said Co

The man named Liam pointed at Co

Co

Co

It was time to bring in reinforcements.

New Bond Street was a commercial thoroughfare famed for its high-end retail outlets and tony art galleries. At 9:30, pedestrians crowded the sidewalk. Jonathan zigged and zagged through the onslaught of people, searching for his wife’s auburn hair. It’s impossible, he said to himself. There were simply too many people. Oxford Street was two blocks away, and he knew that if he didn’t spot Emma soon, he’d lose her for good.

He started to run, knocking into men and women, slowing only to stand on his tiptoes and gaze ahead. A hundred meters farther on, he pulled up. It was no use. The sidewalks were growing more crowded, not less. He put a foot into the street and stood exposed, canvassing the cascade of bobbing heads and shoulders.

There…

It was Emma. She stood on the far side of the street at the end of the block, one foot in the road like him, a hand raised to hail a taxi.

Jonathan looked to his right. Spotting a cab with its fare light on, he signaled for it to pull over. The cab docked at the curb expertly. Jonathan leaned into the passenger’s side window. “Make a U-turn. I need to follow a cab going in the opposite direction.”

“Can’t turn here, gov. ’Gainst the law, isn’t it?”

Jonathan threw a fifty-pound note onto the seat. “Emergency, isn’t it?”

“Hop in,” said the cabbie. “Which car is it you’d like me to follow?”

“Turn around and I’ll tell you.”

Jonathan hauled himself into the backseat, all the while keeping an eye pi

“That’s the one,” said Jonathan. “And keep your distance.”

They followed Emma’s cab without incident to a home in Hampstead, a well-to-do neighborhood in the northern reaches of London. The driver was born to subterfuge. Effortlessly he maintained a safe distance behind Emma, never going closer than four car lengths. In a city where taxis nearly outnumbered private cars, he was invisible. Taking up position at the rear of a line of parked cars at the end of the block, they watched as Emma paid off her cab and walked to the side of a modest mock-Tudor-styled home, where she entered through a side door. Jonathan checked his watch. It was after ten. Emma had officially missed her flight to Dublin.

He had another concern. He was due back at the hotel in little more than an hour to deliver his keynote address. If he left now, he might just make it back in time, but he would have to shower and shave in record time. Blackburn and his associates had spent a lot of money to fly him to London and put him up in the five-star luxury to which they believed he was entitled. Jonathan didn’t want to disappoint them. And yet he could not make himself leave.

Just then the garage door opened, and all thoughts about rushing back to the Dorchester vanished. Jonathan leaned forward, his eyes trained on the gray BMW sedan pulling out of the garage and turning in their direction.

“Get your fare light on,” he commanded as he flung himself flat onto the rear seat.

“Already done.”

“Is it her?” Jonathan asked, still lying low.

“Bingo, gov. It’s her.”

“Then what are you waiting for? Get moving.”