The news that there was still a price on my head rocked me sideways, backwards and finally a somersault that ended with me landing flat on his face.

“So basically, I’m fucked? Up shit creek without a paddle?”

Heather smiled.

“In your current state, yes you are up shit creek.”

“Current state?”

“As Tony.”

I understood what she meant. I was not going to like the next thing.

“Does he know that you are with me?”

Heather thought for a moment.

“Only if that copper who visited us describes me to someone from Jonjo’s crew who knows me. I don’t know how many from the Glasgow days are still with him or if that copper is bent.”

“Oh, he’s bent all right. Not bent towards Jonjo though.”

“Really?”

"Oh yeah. Not big time bent, but more of the scratch my back, I'll scratch yours sort of bent. For example, he looked the other way regarding some furniture I err… came by in return for a tip about some people traffickers. He got the collar and the kudos, and I made about ten grand on a deal."

She grinned.

“I get it.”

“Speaking of money, how much do you have?”

“A few hundred Euros. Why?”

“That won’t get you very far,” I replied as I reached for my briefcase.

I pulled out the plastic bag that I’d retrieved from my safe deposit box.

I opened it and gave her a pile of euro notes. They were mostly fifties but a few twenties thrown in for good measure.

“That’s your cut.”

“Cut?”

“This is what I retrieved from my safe deposit box. I’m giving you half. We will need plenty of cash to do whatever we need to keep safe from you know who.”

“I can’t take this.”

“Yes, you can. If you want to disappear into the night, then there is around fifty grand there. That should get you somewhere where Jonjo won’t find you.”

Heather looked surprised and sad at the same time.

“Why? Why are you doing this?”

“I’m giving you an out. A chance for you to head off into the sunset and start afresh without me.”

Still looking sad, she asked,
“Do you want me to go?”

I smiled back at her.
“No, I don’t. But I'm trying to be realistic, and we both know Jonjo, if it does not end well, then don't blame me."

“I understand.”

There was silence between us.

“I don’t want to go,” said Heather slightly reluctantly.

“That’s good then.”

She pushed the money back towards me.

“No, it is yours. Take it.”

“But is it most of what you have?”

He laughed.

“No, it isn’t most, but it is part of my emergency stash.”

“You have more?”

“Well, yes I do.”

Then I took a deep breath and then said,

“I think you need to know who you are hooking up with.”

“I know. I read your file before accepting the assignment.”

“You don’t know shit, forgive me my language. All you know is a few facts about a few of the jobs I did. Even when we were talking in the evenings during my rehab, I never told you anything that was not public knowledge. Am I right, or am I right?”

Heather didn’t show any emotion.

“Och, you are right. Now what?”

“I tell you about myself, and then you can decide if you want to stay. Deal?”

“Deal.”

“I survived in my line of work by being as you said, rather canny. You knew that, but canny means different things to different people. I never felt the need to flash the cash. I lived within my means. By that, I declared an income to the taxman and lived within that amount. Any audit that was done on me would show that. Everything else went into the bank, or rather a safe place that no one would ever find. I kept a deliberately low profile, which was the reason I lasted so long. I drove a twelve-year-old Golf, for heaven’s sake. Almost all of my clothes were from the likes of Primark and Matalan. I didn't win my home at poker as I said, but was bought at auction at well below market price. The Poker story was what I spread about to keep nosy parkers out of my life and was part of keeping my head down and not making enemies. Unless you dig down really deep, it appeared that I had a totally legal life.”

“You could be from my part of the world. You seem to be very canny with your money?”

“As I said, if you flash the cash in my business then other people in my line of work would take note and get envious. That leads to them wanting part of your business, and then all of it. That usually leads to you meeting a sticky end if you are lucky. By appearing to be just making a few quid, I survived and prospered. I never screwed the people I worked with and kept my ‘fee’ down to a manageable size. That’s how I managed to get this sort of money over the years.”

My eyes went down to the table.

“In the end, the temptation to make one last big killing got the better of me. You know the rest. Yes, I was about to quit the game before it all went pear-shaped.”

Heather said nothing for a bit.

"I detect that there is a lot more you aren't saying. Am I right, or am I right?" she said smiling.

Tony laughed.

“Touché!”

Then with a straight face, he said,
“Yes, there is. I began to put plans in place for my retirement a few years ago, and this place is my get-out of England bolt hole. That’s why I knew how to get here from Oostende without looking at a map or anything. I have… well sufficient resources available to me, but… as I said earlier we are shit creek without a paddle. Money isn’t everything unless I can trust… trust you with my life.”

I looked at her hoping for an answer. None was forthcoming.

“Are you really done with the spooks?”

Then I realised that I’d been flitting about all over the place.

"Sorry, Heather. I'm not making much sense."

She smiled.

“It does not matter. That is just you being you when you get nervous. I saw it the first time I gave you a massage. You said all sorts of things that made no sense until you sorted them out.”

“Sorry for that.”

"It is ok. You are on edge. That is natural. Here we are in your safe house, but because I'm here is not so safe anymore, and your mind is going off at all sorts of tangents at the speed of light."

“Can I try to summarise what you have said?”

“Please…”

“I’ve done with the ‘spooks’ as you call them. I tossed the mobile phone into a bin at Koln Bahnhof, so I have no idea where it is.”

She took a deep breath.

“I’m not going anywhere. For starters, the last text I received before we sailed told me that I’ve pretty well burned my bridges with my family. They put two and two together and guessed that I'd helped take Jonjo down. They don't like Jonjo, but there is an unwritten rule that you don't go against anyone in your family, no matter how bad they are. Then the remnants of his crew will be gunning for me probably just as much as they are for you."

“Then we should go our own separate ways then?” suggested Tony.

Heather shook her head.
"The people I worked for think that I'm on my own. The Polis also think that. I made sure that when talking to my friends, I never talked about 'us'. I told my handler that I would be going my own way once we reached Berlin, which was a lie, but they weren't to know that. I'm sure that information may well make its way to Jonjo in a few days. That tells me that we should stay together, but we have to change our appearance."

I knew what she had in mind for him.

“So, I become a woman. What about you?”

Heather smiled.

“It is more than that. You have a new identity. I don't so I'll need to get one as well as change my appearance. Then we have to appear as normal people."

“Normal?” he replied with a bit of a laugh in his voice.
“To a lot of people, two women living together isn’t normal.”

She shook her head.

"No, I mean having bank accounts, paying taxes and having jobs. That is sort of normal. That way you don’t bring any suspicion to you and your lifestyle.”

"Yeah, and a cottage with roses around the door?"

We both laughed yet we both knew that it would not be easy.

Then I said,
“You seem to have all this worked out, don’t you?”

Heather smiled back at me.
“Just the general idea. Driving down the length of England through the night gave me plenty of time to think.”

“And there I was thinking that you were sleeping…?”

“On the subject of sleep? I only see one bedroom and just one bed.”

I let out a huge sigh.

“To be honest, I never expected to have company when I eventually had to use the place.”

Heather sighed but not as deep as mine.

“Left, or right?”

“Eh?”

“Which side do you want to sleep on?”

“Oh?...”

"Look, Tony, we both need some sleep. We should get some food in and go from there. I think we are sufficiently off the beaten track to be safe for a while."

“We are going to need more than a while if you think that it is going to be easy to turn me into a woman,” I said with more than a touch of defeatism in his voice.

“Now Laddie! That’s not the way forward. Think positive.”

“Yeah. Things have hardly been positive for me since I saved that kid from being mown down.”

---

The dawn of a new day didn't bring any solutions to their problems. A more urgent need was to get some food for them to eat. There was nothing apart from some Instant Coffee that was well past its 'use by' date.

“I’ll go and get some messages,” said Heather.
“Where is the best place to shop?”

“There is a Lidl about half a mile from here. Turn left out of the front door and take the second right. You can’t miss it.”

Then I added,
“Why don’t I come too?”

Heather gave him her ‘look… I’m in charge here’ stare.
"When I get back, and we have some food inside us, we need to decide what we do next. Not the grand plan but the next step in the plan.”

I knew exactly what Heather had in mind. I knew that it was just about the only option.

“Ok, I’ll start thinking about it.”

“Good... you do that. Do you have any shopping bags?”

After being shown where they were kept in the kitchen, Heather disappeared promising not to be long.

The next hour was about the longest I’d ever spent. I kept wondering if Heather was going to or already had done a runner. I paced around the apartment looking for something to do, but failed to come up with any inspiration whatsoever.

The relief I felt when he heard the door to the apartment was palpable. I went to greet Heather and got a bit of a surprise.

She was carrying four carrier bags that were filled with groceries.

“Have you bought the whole shop?”

She smiled.

"Not quite, but there is nothing here. Not even any salt and pepper. That meant that I had to start from scratch. Much of this lot are the basics but it will keep us going for a while.”

I just grunted.

Then I said,
“I’ve been thinking.”

It was Heather’s turn to groan.

I ignored her, and she carried on putting the groceries and other stuff away.

“As I said, I’ve been thinking about what you said about Jonjo going to the ends of the earth to settle a score.”

“That’s how he ensures loyalty.”

"I know that so I'm left with little choice but to hide, which Is not a viable option in the long term… or change how I look totally."

My last words stopped Heather dead.

She turned to look at me.

“What are you saying?”

“You had better come with me.”

He held up his hand for her. She took it but was unsure where things were going.

I led Heather into the hallway of the apartment. On one side there were several cupboards. Tony took a key and unlocked one of the three similarly sized doors.

Heather gave a shriek of surprise when she saw the contents.

“Whose clothes, are they?”

"Whose do you think they are? Jonjo’s? They are mine.”

Heather tried and failed to suppress a giggle.

“How… How long…”
Then she giggled again.

“Ever since I was about eight or nine.”

There was a silence between us that went on for some time.

“This place… Well, it is owned by Steffi Muller. That’s my alter ego.”

A smile spread over Heather’s face.

“Fuck it, Tony, you are a sly bugger, aren't you? Why didn't you just leave me back in Kendal if you had this place all lined up and ready to go?"

“Oh, believe me, I nearly did. I was waiting for a connecting train at Preston when…”

“Preston? What the heck were you doing in Preston?”

"I was changing trains after I’d been to Manchester to see someone that I know that I can trust. I gave him a little package of information. It contained everything I had on Jonjo and a bunch of corrupt politicians, city officials and police that are on the take."

“But you didn’t keep on going? You could have left me waiting for you?”

“I didn’t. What brought it home was that I saw one of JonJo’s Brummy crew on a Glasgow bound Train. It pulled into Preston just before mine pulled out. As bad luck would have it, his bit of the train stopped right opposite where I was sitting. He saw me, and after a big double take, he pointed his finger gun style at me and smiled. That did it for me. You had put yourself on the line for me, so I figured that we were in this together. Believe me, I almost fled right there and then, but I stood my ground. I returned a cutthroat sign to him. He just laughed. Then my train pulled out of the station, and we went off to our separate destinations.”

“And you didn’t think to tell me about all this before?”

“That’s the hard bit. Everyone here has only ever seen me as Steffi. I wasn't sure how you would take the idea of me becoming a woman full-time.”

Tony let that sink in for a few seconds.

“Oh shit!” said Heather.

“I’m sorry for dragging you over here on false pretences, but we both know that you had to get out of the UK and away from JonJo’s crew. This was always going to be my bolt-hole when things went sour. When I set this place up, I had an exit bag all ready to go at my flat. The tossing of it, and the destruction of those paintings were a real bummer. Thankfully, my Steffi Passport, and other bits of ID were kept in my safe deposit box."

"What was so special about those paintings? If I remember correctly, you said to the Inspector that they were reproductions. They were real, weren’t they?”

I nodded.

“Only about two to three grand each, but that’s not the point. They were the first things I bought just for me. I was over in Cambridge delivering some… well lets’ just say, some fairly dodgy goods and I was early for the drop off so I parked up at the Railway Station and went for a walk. Those paintings just shouted ‘buy me’ from the gallery window. Anyway, I went back a few days later and bought them. They represented my first few deals after I left home. That was seven… no eight years ago now.”

“Can I see Steffi?”

I laughed.

"Yes of course you can, but let me warn you, I'm not very accomplished when it comes to applying makeup. I enjoyed letting you do my eyes before we did that runner from Cheshire."

It was Heather’s turn to go a bit red in the face. Then she laughed.

“Looking back at it, I realise that you didn’t put up much of a fight when I suggested wearing the Hijab.”

“You had a job to do that was time critical, and I let you do it. Besides, it gave me time to think. I was still undecided about going with you anywhere other than away from the place where I did my rehab. Seeing that man on the train made my mind up for me.”

There was an uneasy silence between us.

Then Heather said,
“Do you want to fuck me?”

I just froze on the spot.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said it.”

I managed a small smile.

"To be honest, Heather, I didn't want to bring up the subject of 'us' as in being a couple. I did get serious with one woman a few years ago. I thought that we were set for life so I told her about my other side. She laughed in my face. She was only with me because I took her to pretty decent places to eat and the like, and I was able to satisfy her sexually. One night after one last bit of sex, she walked out of my life. We both knew that it was over between us. Since then as you observed, I didn’t have anyone in my life.”

"Until me, that is?"

I looked at Heather through rather sad eyes.

"If we are going to make a go of it then we need to be a couple, but at this point in my life, having sex with you is not high on my list of things to do."

Heather laughed.

"Then it is exactly the right time. If we don't do it now, then at some point, it will come between us.”

She took my hand and led me into the bedroom.

[to be continued]