Stephen Leather - Tango One

When Robbie had finished, Donovan told him not to worry, that everything would be all right, that he'd take care of it.

"Dad, you have to come home. Now."

"I will, Robbie. I promise."

"Now," Robbie repeated.

"A day or two, Robbie. I've got to get a flight and stuff. Where are you?"

Robbie sniffed.

"I don't know," he said.

"What do you mean, you don't know?"

"I'm near school. I ran away. But I don't know where to go."

"Call your Auntie Laura. Right now. She'll pick you up."

"I don't want to go home, Dad."

"You don't have to. You can stay with your aunt until I get there."

Robbie said nothing and for a moment Donovan thought that he'd lost the connection.

"Robbie, are you there?"

"Yeah, I can hear you," said Robbie. There was another long silence, with Donovan listening to nothing but the crackle of static.

"Dad?" said Robbie eventually.

"Yes?"

"Are you going to kill them?"

"Don't be silly, Robbie," said Donovan.

"Look, hang up and call Aunty Laura. Tell her what's happened and that I'll call her."

"Okay, Dad."

"I love you, Robbie."

"I love you too, Dad."

The line went dead. Donovan threw back his head and screamed obscenities into the wind.

"Kill them?" he yelled.

"I'll rip them limb from fucking limb when I get my hands on them!"

Stewart Sharkey put his hand on Vicky's shoulders.

"It'll be okay," he said.

Vicky shook her head fiercely.

"How the fuck's it going to be okay?

Tears trickled down her cheeks. Sharkey tried to brush them away, but Vicky threw up her hands and forced him back.

"Leave me alone!" she shouted.

"This is all your fault."

Sharkey looked hurt by her outburst.

"That's not fair, Vicky," he said.

"Fair! Den's not going to care what's fucking fair!" she hissed.

Sharkey reached out a hand to hold her arm but Vicky took a step back.

"Look, maybe Robbie won't say anything," he said.

"He's got a mobile. He'll call Den."

"We can say he's confused."

"Oh, grow up, will you, Stewart? He saw us in bed. Where the fuck's the confusion?" She slammed her hand against the wall.

"You shouldn't have come around. I always said never here, didn't I?

Your place or hotels, that's what we agreed. I said never here, didn't I? But you had to do it in the bed. Den's bed. Like a dog pissing on another's territory."

Sharkey sat down on the stairs.

"It takes two, Vicky," he said quietly.

She whirled around and raised her hand as if to slap him, but then she shuddered and began to cry, great heaving sobs that wracked her slim body. Sharkey stood up and held her and this time she didn't try to push him away. He stroked her hair.

"I'm sorry, love," he said.

"He'll kill us," she sobbed.

"Stewart, you know what he's like. Oh God, how could I have been so stupid?"

"We want to be together, you know we do. He was going to have to know some time."

"But not like this. Not with Robbie…" She started to cry again.

Sharkey rested his cheek against the top of her head and closed his eyes. He knew that she was right. He more than anyone knew what Den Donovan was capable of.

"We've got time," he said.

"Time?"

"To move. To make plans. For a new life."

"What about Robbie? We have to take Robbie with us."

"Later," said Stewart.

"He's my son," protested Vicky.

"Of course he is," said Sharkey.

"But he's Den's son, too. He'll lead Den to us."

Vicky looked up at him, her cheeks wet with tears.

"I can't leave him," she said.

"He hurt himself when he fell down stairs."

"He was fine, Vicky. He ran out of here like a bat out of hell."

"But I don't even know where he is."

"He'll go around to a friend's house," said Sharkey.

"Or he'll call Den's sister. And he'll be on the phone to his father.

Don't worry about Robbie, Vicky. Worry about yourself "I want to be sure that he's okay."

"We don't have time, love," said Sharkey.

"We're going to have to go now."

"Go where?"

"I've got an idea," said Sharkey, smoothing her hair with the flat of his hand.

"Just trust me."

Vicky began to sob again and Sharkey held her tightly.

Donovan called his sister from a call box close to a beachfront cafe.

Barry Doyle stood by the car looking uncomfortable. Laura answered on the fifth ring.

"Den, thank God. I can't believe this," she said.

"Have you got Robbie there?"

"He's watching TV with my kids," she said.

"He's in a right state, Den."

"Let me talk to him, yeah?"

Laura called Robbie to the phone and handed the receiver to him.

"You okay, Robbie?"

"When are you coming home, Dad?"

"Soon, Robbie. Don't worry. You can stay with Aunty Laura until I get there, okay?"

"I guess. What about school? Do I still have to go?"

"Of course you do."

"But it's miles away."

"Aunty Laura'll drive you. Just be a good boy for her, yeah, until I get things sorted."

"What are you going to do, Dad?"

"I'm gonna get a ticket and then I'll come and see you."

"I meant about Mum. And him."

"I'll get it sorted, Robbie, don't you worry. You can stay with me, I'll take care of you. Chin up, yeah?"

"Okay, Dad."

"Put your aunty on, will you?"

Robbie handed the phone to Laura.

"Thanks, Laura."

"Anything I can do, Den, you know that. Can't believe what the stupid cow's gone and done."

"Yeah, you and me both. I need a favour, Laura."

"Anything."

"Can you go around to the house? Robbie's passport's in the safe in the study. You got a pen?" Donovan gave her the combination of the safe.

"Get the passport, and there's cash there, too. And a manila envelope, a biggish one. In fact, clear everything out, will you?"

"What if she's there, Den?"

"It's my house, and Robbie's my son. I don't want her doing a runner with him. I said Robbie could go to school but I'm having second thoughts."

"You can't keep him off school Den. There's laws about that."

Donovan rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"Yeah, you're right. Can you run him there and pick him up? Make sure he gets inside. And have a word with the headmistress. Vicky's not to go near him."

"She's his mother, Den, they won't…"

"Just do as you're fucking told, will you!" Donovan shouted, and immediately regretted the outburst.

"I'm sorry, Laura. I didn't mean that."

"It's okay, Den. I'll talk to the school, explain the situation to them. But you're going to have to come back and talk to them yourself.

You're his dad, I'm just his aunt."

"I'll be back, don't worry about that. Are you okay looking after him for a while?"

"You don't have to ask, Den. You know that."

Donovan cut the connection and dialled again. A man answered. Donovan didn't identify himself, but told the man to get to a clean phone and call him back. Donovan gave him the St. Kitts number. The man began to complain that he didn't have enough coins to make an international call from a phone box.

"Buy a fucking phone card, you cheap bastard," said Donovan, and hung up.

Donovan paced up and down as he waited for the man to ring back.

Laura's husband, Mark, drove her over to Donovan's house. She'd asked a neighbour to sit in with the children, who were so engrossed in the Cartoon Channel that they didn't even ask where Laura and Mark were going.

"We've met this Sharkey guy, haven't we?" asked Mark, accelerating through the evening traffic.

"Yeah. That barbecue last time Den was over. He's an accountant or something."

"And she was in bed with him?"

That's what Robbie said."

"Stupid bitch."

"Yeah."

"Fancy doing it in her own bed."