Page 48 of Tell No One
“Yep.”
Delaney went to get one of the thin sheets of wood from the storage area at the end of the room and put it on the roller conveyor. Before they lifted the first guy on, Delaney grabbed a machine from where it hung on the wall, switched it on and waved it over the man’s body, over his chest in particular.
“You think he’s not dead?” Tag gasped.
“He’s definitely dead but if he has a pacemaker, it will explode and wreck the equipment. I’d have to cut it out.”
The machine didn’t react at all.
He and Tag laid one guy over the other, the head of one to the toes of the other, Delaney added the fake beard, hair, hat and coat, and the picnic blanket, then pressed the button to roll everything into the oven.
“Oh fuck,” Tag muttered. “I am so freaked out I can’t even make a joke about them 69ing.”
“We need to get rid of the car. Come on.”
Delaney felt better the further they both drove from the crematorium. He didn’t want to get stopped in the Honda, especially not with two guns in the boot, but the hardest part was done. Not that they’d finished at the crematorium, but if they didn’t go back, it wouldn’t be a disaster. The house needed to be thoroughly cleaned too.
He drove for thirty minutes until he found a car park for a woodland walk and headed for the far end. Tag pulled up behind him. Delaney took the bag with the guns and walked back to him. He dropped the bag in the passenger footwell, opened the boot, took out a container of petrol, then came back to Tag who’d opened the window.
“Drive back to the entrance and switch to the passenger seat.”
When Tag had driven off, Delaney emptied the container of petrol all over the inside of the Honda including inside the boot, then tossed the container in there too. He lit a match, threw it inside and once the first flames whooshed, he ran. The car was ablaze by the time he reached Tag but hadn’t exploded. He drove out of the car park and headed back to the crematorium.
“Do you have a thing about fire?” Tag asked.
“It’s useful.”
“Where are we going?”
“Back to get the ashes.”
“Oh God, why?”
“So that when the staff arrive, they’ll only notice the furnace is hotter than they’d have expected it to be.”
“Do you know who those guys were?”
“No.”
“Any ideas?”
“A few.”
“Do you think they were after you or me or both of us?”
“Probably both of us.” Though Delaney wasn’t sure if they’d known Tag would be there or even how they’d found the house.
“They wanted to kill us?”
“Eventually.”
“Oh fuck. What did they want? How did they know where we were?”
Delaney glanced at him. “They’re the important questions.”
“I don’t know what you got up to before you met me but assuming this relates to post-meeting me, it either has to be the people you work for or those who arranged the play date at Harborne House. I can’t see why the people you work for would come with guns but how would those at Harborne House know where you lived? I assume you gave them some other address.”
“Yes. An address in London. No one should know about this house, not even those I do work for.”
