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television. It reminded him to remain cautious.
    Through the grey light of dusk, Crane saw the outline of a huge barn, sited some twenty metres away from the rear of the house. The front of the building was covered by a wide dull-grey steel-ribbed shutter, with a small Judas door set in one corner. The Judas door lay partially open. He walked towards it, peered through the opening and saw that the inside was pitch black. Standing by the entrance, he groped in his jacket pocket and pulled out a small pencil beam torch; its shaft of light stabbed into the darkness. He turned his wrist and the narrow beam revealed several car-sized dust covers. He was about to move further into the barn when a bat flickered erratically into the ray of torchlight; its wings flapping audibly as it flew across the barn. But, another sound made him freeze. It was the unmistakable hollow metallic sound of a shotgun’s barrels snapping shut against the stock and the menacing, barely audible click of the safety catch being released.

Chapter Six
    A shrill continuous noise resounded throughout the house. It was the doorbell. The hand pressing it was impatient; irritable. There was some delay in getting to the door, because Penny had just put a very tired Andrew to bed. She scampered breathlessly down the stairs and caught sight of the perpetrator of the noise through the wide frosted-glass panel and a stab of fear shot through her body. It was Bradley; his tall lean frame was rocking up and down on his heels. As Penny opened the door, he shouldered roughly past her and went straight into the lounge, then stood by the fireplace until Penny had caught up with him. Pushing back a mop of brown hair with one hand, Bradley got straight to the point, ‘Perhaps you can tell me what the fuck is going on.’
    Although feeling tense and nervous, she tried to keep her feelings under control and replied calmly, ‘What do you mean?’
    Bradley glared threateningly, ‘Don’t bullshit me! Tell me about this guy Crane.’
    Penny knew she had to give him something. ‘He… he threatened me.’ She stammered.
    â€˜Go on.’
    â€˜He was in a white van passing by when he saw his car being loaded into the transporter van. Apparently he followed it and took it back. Then he called here and started pushing me around.’
    Bradley eyed her with scepticism. ‘What is he?’
    â€˜He does gardening – so he says. Anyway, I received all sorts of threats from him unless I told him about the next job. Maybe he wants some of the action. I told him to meet me in the car park and then someone tried to kidnap Andrew; so he followed them and brought Andrew back; and that’s the last I’ve heard of him.’
    Bradley, fully aware of her acting skills, was still not quite convinced. ‘Why didn’t you tell me about this before now? He could have ruined everything and if he had, it would not have been too good for you.’
    Penny was feeling more confident now as she replied, ‘How would you feel? I’m getting threatened from both sides. He said if I mentioned it to anyone, I would get a damn good beating.’
    Bradley decided to leave it at that and as he walked towards the front door said, ‘You had better tell me if and when you hear from this Mr Crane in future.’ As he stepped outside he paused then suddenly spun round on his heels, and taking a step towards her, pushed his face close up to hers and with a snarl emphasised, ‘Got it?’
    Penny nodded mechanically, and breathed a sigh of relief as he walked down the path got in his car and left.

    *

    Crane turned around slowly. A bright lamp made him screw up his eyes and squint. The silhouette of a man holding a powerful torch stood a few paces away and barked, ‘What do you think you are doing here?’
    Crane surmised that he had, at some stage, been observed on CCTV monitors and, sounding as innocently as possible said,