Ugley Business Read online

  “Harvard,” Luke said. “What the hell are you doing here?”

  “I see you all know each other,” Karen said.

  “We’ve met,” Harvey said shortly. He and Luke had locked eyes and I was very glad I wasn’t standing between them. “Joint initiative,” he said. “I have some information that could be useful to you. And I think there’s something you could tell me, too.”

  “Lots of things. Like, you spell ‘kidnapped’ with two Ps,” Luke said.

  “Depends on how cheap your dictionary is,” Harvey replied, and I rolled my eyes.

  “I’ll shoot the first one of you to mention Dr. Johnson,” I said, and they both stared at me. “Samuel Johnson? The lexicographer? Wrote the first dictionary?”

  “I’m impressed,” Harvey said.

  “You know the word ‘lexicographer’?” Luke said, and I scowled at him.

  “Don’t we have work to do?” I said.

  “You know those words too,” Luke murmured, still sounding amazed, and I nearly hit him.

  Karen Hanson was smiling. “We do indeed have work. Why do you think Janulevic is involved with the Winters?”

  “Because he sent Petr to kidnap me,” I said, daring Luke to make a comment about the spelling. “And when I asked if it had to do with Angel or her parents, he— Well, he said no, but I’m pretty sure he was lying.”

  “Angel’s parents—wait, Angel’s parents are IC and Greg Winter?” Harvey said, his hazel eyes nearly rolling out of his head.

  “He’s smart,” Luke said, and I wondered if he’d always been this sarcastic, or if it was me bringing it out in him.

  “Smarter than you,” I said. “Yes, Harvey. That’s what I was going to tell you. That’s the connection.”

  “You know, there was always a rumour at the Agency that IC was a secret agent for the British government,” Harvey said, smiling, apparently trying to break the tension.

  “No rumour,” I said, and for the second time in a minute Harvey’s eyes nearly popped out. “IC and Greg were both agents.”

  “Recently we discovered that Greg’s death was not the accident it seemed,” Karen said. “It appears he was murdered.”

  “And no one knew until now? He died fifteen years ago!”

  “The files were sealed,” I said. “We had to do a lot of begging to get access. Well, Maria did.”

  “Who’s Maria?”

  “Another agent. You’d like her.”

  Karen Hanson was frowning. “I’m still not sure what any of this has to do with anything. I don’t understand how this artefact and the Winters are connected.”

  “Angel’s stalker said she had something he wanted,” I said. “Maybe that’s it. Maybe he thinks she has this Xe La thing.”

  Eyes met all around the room and we all piled into Karen’s Saab and rushed to Angel’s chapel. I found myself sitting in the back with Luke. The air was thick here too, but not so cold. It was like the air before a summer storm—hot, heavy, charged and crackling.

  I kept my eyes on the door trim and my legs turned away from him, but I was aware of him with every cell I had.

  “This is awesome,” Harvey said as we pulled up at the church. I winced, knowing Luke would be sending Harvey a scathing look. “She lives in a church?”

  “IC bought it a couple of years before she died and had it renovated,” I said. “Angel inherited it when she was eighteen.” I got out of the car, grateful to be away from Luke because I could hardly breathe when he was so close, but as Harvey and Karen went up to the church doors, Luke dashed round the car and grabbed my arm.

  “We need to talk,” he said.

  “No, I don’t think we do.” I wrenched my arm away from him, glaring at the finger marks.

  “What the hell is Harvard doing here?”

  I relaxed a little. “I ran into him last night. He was after Petr.”

  “Who?”

  “In the cells. The Russian.”

  “Thought he was Czech?”

  “No.”

  “I wish you’d said something, Sophie, I speak Russian.”

  Of course he did.

  “Well, you won’t get anything out of him. Harvey speaks Russian too. All he’d say was that this Janulevic guy sent him to get me. He wouldn’t say why.”

  “Did it occur to you that Harvard could be in league with him?”

  “You said that last time, and Harvey ended up saving my life—”

  “Hey, I had a hand in that too—”

  “Only because he went to get you.”

  “Because he couldn’t handle it on his own. Because,” Luke took a step closer, so we were nearly touching, “he knew you needed me.”

  God, it was tempting. He was so close, and I knew just how good he’d feel. My eyes flickered over to Docherty’s Vanquish and closed in memory. Luke skimmed his hands up my bare arms, a millimetre from the skin, and his lips brushed mine.

  “Stop it,” I whispered, floundering for self-control.

  “Come on, Soph, this is stupid,” Luke said, running a finger up my jawline, making me shiver.

  “You’re right,” I stepped back, away from temptation. “It’s really stupid. Over means over, Luke. Don’t make me get my gun out.”

  His eyes darkened sexily, and I took another step back.

  “If I scream, Harvey will come running,” I said. “And if he sees you attacking me, he’ll shoot you.”

  Luke looked appalled. “I wasn’t going to attack you. Jesus, Sophie, did you think—?”

  “I don’t know,” I stamped my foot, frustrated. “Just—just stop it. We have work to do.”

  “Just work?” Luke said.

  “Yes, just work. Forget everything else. It was fun,” I said firmly, “but this is more important.”

  I strode over to the door, feeling very assertive, and knocked, feeling Luke standing there on the gravel, ten feet behind me. He radiated heat and I pulsed, hot and helpless, praying Angel would open the door before my resolve broke and I ripped all my clothes off and threw myself at Luke’s feet.

  The hidden camera in the gargoyle flashed and the door opened and Docherty stood there, looking mysterious, running his gaze over me. My cheeks were flaming and my breath was coming fast.

  “Are you okay?” he asked.

  “I’m fine,” I lied transparently.

  “Luke’s not been harassing you?”

  Yes, and I want him to carry on harassing me. “No. We just needed to talk about something.”

  Since talking was all we’d had time for, Docherty accepted this for the semi-truth it was and opened the door to let me in. Luke followed silently, precisely three and a half feet behind me. I felt his proximity like I had parking sensors. Hot man at five o’clock.

  Luke went over to Angel and Karen, and Docherty touched my shoulder, holding me back.

  “What’s going on?”

  “Someone tried to kidnap me last night and he’s working for a Czech guy who’s been killing academics because he doesn’t want anyone to know he’s after some Mongol artefact which he thinks Angel has. I think.”

  Docherty nodded. “I didn’t mean that.”

  “What did you—?”

  “You. Luke. Last night you were messing with the suspension on my car, and today you’re not looking at each other.”

  I didn’t have to look at him. My Luke radar told me exactly where he was.

  “Change of plan,” I said. “Your car is safe.”

  Docherty gave me an indecipherable look, his eyes dark. “Is that so?”

  “Absolutely. And it will be safe for a long time.”

  “Right,” Docherty said softly. He glanced at Harvey. “Who’s he?”

  “CIA. He’s after the Czech guy who’s after the Mongol thing.”

  “What’s the Mongol thing called?”

  “The Xe La.”

  “Spell it.”

  I did, and Docherty frowned. “Never heard of it.”

  I wasn’t going to ask how many Mong
ol artefacts he’d heard of. I wouldn’t really be surprised at all if it turned out that he was an authority on ancient Mongol artefacts.

  “He’s not the reason my car is safe?”

  “Harvey? No,” I smiled. “He’s got a thing for Angel. Only he’s never met her.”

  “Did it occur to you that he could be her stalker?”

  Why does everyone have it in for Harvey? “No. You sound just like Luke.”

  “Do I now?” Docherty said, sounding amused, watching Angel as she detached herself from the group and came over to us.

  “You’re involved with the CIA now?”

  “We’re helping each other out,” I said. “Angel, do you possess a Mongol artefact called the Xe La?”

  She shrugged and shook her head. “I don’t possess any Mongol artefacts.”

  “Have you had any more letters or e-mails lately?”

  She shook her head again. “Nothing. I think Docherty scared them off.”

  Docherty raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. Angel took my arm and tugged me away towards the bedroom. When the door was shut, she lowered her voice and said, “What’s going on with you and Luke?”

  Argh, did I have a beacon up or something? Talk to me about my boyfriend problems!

  I threw myself at the bed. “You know how I said he’s not my boyfriend?”

  “Yes…”

  “Well, he’s not.”

  The best thing about a best friend is her ability to be endlessly changeable and utterly supportive when it comes to your love life. When you’re going out with someone she’s happy for you, jealous of you, thinks he’s fab, wants one just like him. When you break up she’s right there to tell you he’s a bastard, she never liked him anyway, you can do so much better.

  She even got me some chocolate. Bless.

  Eventually Luke knocked on the screen and opened the door.

  “We need to talk to this Petr guy,” he said, while Angel glowered loyally at him. “See if we can get a handle on who he’s working for.”

  “It’s Janulevic,” I said. “Harvey—”

  “I need to hear it myself,” Luke said evenly. “Are you coming?”

  I looked at Angel. She bit her lip. “I think you should go and find out what you can,” she said, and I nodded reluctantly and heaved myself off the bed.

  Karen drove us all back up to the airport business park and went back into her pot-planted office while Harvey, Luke and I went down to the lab. I was standing between them and I felt like the Christians in the Colosseum must have done when the lions came out for lunch.

  Luke rolled back the shutters and switched on the intercom to talk to Petr, who was huddled in a corner, sweating and shaking. Luke said a few things to him, and he sweated and shook even more.

  “Are you terrorising him?” I said.

  “I’m confirming things.” He rolled off another question and the answer came back, a miserable “Dmitri Janulevic”.

  “See?” Harvey muttered under his breath, and Luke ignored him. He asked Petr another question, but Petr shrugged nervously.

  “What?” I asked.

  “He doesn’t know why Janulevic wanted you.”

  “Because I’m friends with Angel?”

  “Don’t feed him anything,” Luke said. “Let him answer.” He asked Petr again what Janulevic wanted, but got no reply.

  I sighed. I’d seen enough films to know how this worked.

  “Luke, will you open the door, please?” I said.

  “The cell door? Why?”

  “I want to show him something.”

  Luke and Harvey exchanged glances, then Luke swiped the cell door open and I got out my gun and pressed it against Petr’s temple.

  “Sophie, what the hell—” Luke started, but I cut him off.

  “Ask him again.”

  Luke paused, then repeated the question. Petr trembled up at me, then he mumbled something very quietly.

  “What did he say?” I asked.

  “He said it’s because of who you’re friends with.”

  “Does he have a name?”

  The answer came back. “No, but he’s seen her. A little blonde girl.”

  Angel. “What was he trying to do? Threaten her by taking me? Ransom me? Did he want information?”

  Luke asked, and Petr shook his head, looking terrified.

  “He doesn’t know, Soph. He’s just a henchman.”

  “He knows,” I said, pressing the gun harder against Petr’s temple, and he started genuflecting.

  “Sophie,” Luke said quietly, but his tone was firm. “He doesn’t know. Put the gun away.”

  I felt patronised, and I hated that. But more than anything I knew Luke was right, and I hated that too.

  I lowered the gun, and Petr started breathing again. He mumbled something that made Luke scowl and Harvey laugh.

  “What?” I said, stepping out of the cage.

  “He said Luke’s boss is scary.” Harvey pointed at me. “I think that might have been a compliment.”

  “Just a statement of fact,” Luke said, swiping the door shut again and stepping away as Harvey took over the intercom. He and Petr spoke rapidly in Russian for a few minutes, and then he and Luke nodded at each other.

  “Sophie’s car,” Luke said. “It’s best off-road.”

  “Damn straight,” I said. “Where are we going?”

  “Where Petr was supposed to have taken you yesterday.”

  We locked Petr away in the dark again and went back upstairs. Karen was browsing through some files in the outer office. “I’m trying to find what Greg Winter was working on when he died,” she said. “The record says he was off duty, but I’m not sure I believe that. Did you get anything?”

  “An address,” Luke said.

  “For Janulevic? Do you all have body armour?”

  Luke and Harvey nodded and looked at me.

  “In my wardrobe,” I said meekly, and they both rolled their eyes. Harvey went back to his B&B to shower and change from yesterday’s clothes, and Luke followed me back to my flat and stood there looking moody while I tried to remember what I’d done with my Kevlar vest. He inspected the scooter Harvey and I had brought inside last night, but apparently found nothing of interest on it, so went back to watching me as I got hotter and more flustered trying to find my damned vest.

  Tammy appeared through the electronic cat flap Luke insisted I had put in for security, and rubbed up against his legs. Poor Tammy was just like me—saw the face and not what was inside.

  No, that was mean. Luke was a good guy. He just wasn’t someone I needed to be personally involved with.

  I finally found the Kevlar, loaded up my gun and we went off to pick Harvey up. His little hotel was on the road where I used to live with my parents. I lived there for ten years. Now I hardly recognised it.

  “Okay, where’re we going?”

  Harvey frowned. “Well, he said something about an ugly place…”

  “He said ‘Go to Ugley’.” Luke rolled his eyes, and I put the car in gear, smiling.

  “What’s Ugley?” Harvey asked, confused.

  “Next village over. Where Angel lives— Well, officially. She’s right on the outskirts.”

  “She lives in a place called Ugley?”

  “Yep.”

  “Jesus. You English are insane.”

  Luke flicked his eyes at me, and I knew he was going to start an argument.

  “Don’t.”

  “What, I was just going to say that last time I went to America I drove through the towns of Eighty-Eight, Kentucky; Nameless, Tennessee; and Scratch Ankle, Alabama.”

  “Now I know you’re making that up,” I told him.

  “No, it’s true,” he protested.

  “I once met a girl from a town called Maggie’s Nipples in Wyoming,” Harvey volunteered, and I gave in.

  “There’s a village not far from here called Matching Tye,” I said. “I always wanted to have a house there called ‘Shirt’.”

>   “All the villages around here have names like PG Wodehouse characters,” Luke said. “Chipping Ongar, Biggleswade, Wendens Ambo.”

  “Saffron Walden, Wimblington, Trumpington,” I said. “I think there’s a place up by Peterborough called Eye.”

  “Just north of Cambridge there’s a place called Waterbeach,” Luke volunteered.

  “What’s funny about that?” Harvey asked.

  “It’s a hundred miles inland.”

  By the time we pulled up the farm track Petr had described, Luke and Harvey had my road atlas out and were picking up on stupid names. Blo Norton, Hellions Bumpstead, Devil’s Dyke, Shellow Bowells. Hatfield Peverell. Stocking Pelham. We wondered if there was a castle at Castle Acre in Norfolk, or what kind of calendar confusion they had in March. Harvey wanted to know what made Great Chesterford quite so great and for the life of me, I couldn’t remember.

  “How do these places get their names?” he asked in bewilderment.

  “Corruptions of Old English, Celtic and Norman words,” I said.

  “I’m impressed,” Luke said.

  “Stansted Mountfitchet is Anglo Saxon and Norman,” I said. “The ground is full of stones, we’re at the edge of where the Ice Age glacier came to, so Stansted means ‘stony ground’, and Mountfitchet is a corruption of the Norman Baron de Montfichet who was awarded the land by William the Conqueror.”

  There was a silence (well, as much silence as you can get with a diesel engine wobbling over dried ruts of mud) from the back of the car.

  Then, “I’m very impressed,” Luke said.

  “Not just a pretty face,” Harvey agreed, and I blushed.

  We came to a gate in the hedge at the edge of the field and I backed up a few feet, put Ted into first and patted the dash. “This will only hurt for a second,” I said, and rammed him at the gate.

  Harvey and Luke ducked, but Ted rolled on majestically, bits of wood falling gracefully back to earth. I patted the dash again. “Good boy.”

  “You talk to your car a lot?” Harvey asked.

  “She talks to it more than me,” Luke said.

  “That’s because I like it more than you,” I replied, and instantly felt horrible for being so mean.

  Luke was silent the rest of the journey.

  Harvey pointed out a crumbling concrete pillbox in the corner of the barley field, half-hidden by the trees of a small wood, and we decided to park up out of sight and make our way through the trees. I personally doubted that Janulevic would still be there—Ted’s a wonderful car but he’s not what you’d call subtle—but I drew my SIG and checked the fastenings on my Kevlar and crept after Harvey, Luke following behind me.