discoveredinalj | Discovered In The Fairylights - 16th December

Leaving Home, by Hambel

Previous chapters on

discoveredinalj:
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6

Ray picked up the phone on the third ring. "Hello?"

"Daniel Webster?"

"Who's asking?"

"My name is Ruth Jones, Ray. You used to know me as Ruth Pettifer. No... don't hang up!"

"I'm sorry, you must have me mixed up with someone else –"

"We both know that I haven't. Ray... George Cowley died yesterday evening. The bullet that killed him has been identified as originating from a gun that you used to own. One that CI5 has no record of you ever handing back."

Ray hung up, his pulse racing and mind going over a hundred different scenarios. While Cowley was still alive there had always been a chance their names would be cleared and they could stop living life on the run. With Cowley dead...

Bodie appeared at his elbow. "Trouble?" he asked, looking concerned.

Ray nodded grimly. "I smell another stitch-up." He took a breath and said, "Cowley's dead."

"What? No!" All this time and it was still a shock.

"That was Ruth Pettifer. Apparently Cowley was killed with a gun assigned to me when we were in the Mob."

"You handed everything back... We handed everything back."

"We didn't get receipts. There wasn't time."

"And now they're saying..."

"Exactly."

Bodie swore. "Ok," he said, resignedly, "Who shall we be this time?"

An hour later the car was packed with their belongings and heading south-west down the M5, leaving behind Daniel Webster and Tony Collins.

Ray was beginning to doubt that they would ever be themselves again.

Next chapter.