‘Well, there might be something in that. Leave it with me, Richard. I’ll make some calls.’
‘Thanks. But we’ll need an answer by the morning. She can’t stay here longer than tonight. We all have to clear out of here as soon as we can.’
‘What a marvellous screenplay this would make.’
‘Yes, Peregrine. Goodnight.’
‘Right.’
Allyson climbed back into the car and looked through the windscreen for a long time, her hands cupped round the cardboard coffee cup, before speaking again.
‘Did you call Richard?’ asked Emma.
‘Yeah. Told him to expect you back. He’s going to take care of you.’
‘What does that mean? Take care of me?’
Allyson shrugged. ‘He’s all right, is Rich. He’ll think of something. Hey, don’t look so …’
She put down the coffee, placed a hand on Emma’s thigh and squeezed it tight.
‘I want to come with you.’
‘You can’t.’
‘When will I see you again?’
‘I don’t know. One fine day. Somewhere over the rainbow. Oh, love, don’t cry.’
‘I don’t want you to go. Come with me. We can both make a run for it. Thelma and Louise.’
‘You’re an old romantic, Em, aren’t you? No, sweetheart. They won’t come after you but they’d come after me. I ain’t got nowhere to hide from McKenna, except prison, and I’ll take that. Prison’s not that bad.’
‘You’ve been there before?’
‘Yeah, didn’t I ever tell you? Problem child, I was. Spent a lot of my teens in and out of the slammer. Girls don’t go as bad as me without a bit of help from their criminal friends. I didn’t just wake up one day and think, I know, I’ll get involved in organised crime. By the time you realise what you’ve let yourself in for, you’re already in it up to your neck.’
‘Is it really too late?’
‘Believe me, darling, if I could turn back the clock … But there’s no use thinking like that. I am what I am. I ain’t proud of myself. But I’m proud of you, and of having a girl like you. I know I’m going to prison and the one thing that’ll make it bearable for me is if I know you’re all right. So be all right, Em. For me.’
‘I love you,’ she whispered, tears raining from her eyes.
‘I know. I love you too.’
The coffee was kicked over in the course of the kiss that followed, soaking the passenger footwell.
When Allyson left the car again, her shoes were wet and squelchy.
‘Go,’ she said, gesturing violently towards the access road to the motorway.
Emma wound down the window.
‘I don’t know if I can,’ she said desperately.
‘Listen, girl.’ Allyson leant in at the window and spoke firmly and deliberately. ‘Next time I see you – and there will be a next time, and it’ll be sooner than you think – I’m going to take your knickers down and give you the spanking of your life. So think about that. Think a
bout it every night, darling. I know I will. Now go, or I’ll drag you in the coffee shop and do it right there.’