Bright Air - Barry Maitland [49]
‘Hell.’
‘What’s wrong?’ I hissed.
‘Bloody jeans. I can’t climb in these. I didn’t come prepared for this.’ So she took off her jeans and handed them to me, and set off again. From the top of the racking she took hold of a square metal rainwater downpipe and began hauling herself up. I got a flash of frivolously polka-dotted panties disappearing over the eaves, then I jogged back to the front fence.
From there I could see Anna’s dark shape move along the roof, and I guided her over the phone until she was directly above the office, with its window at which I’d caught that last glimpse of Corcoran’s face.
‘What now?’ I whispered.
‘There’s a skylight …’ She was panting, her breathing harsh in my ear.
I heard a splintering crack, and watched her outline disappear into the dark shadow of the roof. At the same time a blue light started to flash at the front of the building and an alarm began to shriek.
How long would it take? I supposed it would be a matter of luck—there could be a police car cruising on the highway nearby, or a security guard patrolling the industrial estate two minutes up the road. I bit my lip and clenched my fists as the minutes ticked by. What the hell was she doing?
Then I saw headlights on the road, coming fast towards us. When I tried to warn Anna, the noise of the alarm coming through the phone obliterated my words. I shrank back behind a big plastic water tank as the headlights swept across the yard and came to a stop at the gates. Someone moved into the beam. Whoever it was had a key, because the gates swung open and the vehicle, a white ute, lurched forward to the main doors. When the driver got out again the lights caught him, and I recognised the lanky figure of Luce’s father. He transferred something to his left hand, a stick perhaps … no, a gun. I stopped breathing. He was carrying a rifle or a shotgun.
He unlocked the big front door and rolled it partially open, then stepped inside. The alarm abruptly stopped. Ears ringing still, I spoke softly into the phone. ‘Anna, can you hear me? Corcoran’s arrived. He’s in the building. He’s got a gun.’
I didn’t know if she’d heard because she didn’t answer, but I did see the office window swing open, and the thin grey lines of a rope snake down the wall. Anna followed, giving me palpitations as she struggled through the tight opening, then slid down the rope. She tugged one end of it and it fell to her feet, where she scooped it up and started running towards me at the gap in the fence. A dog I hadn’t noticed before in the back of Corcoran’s ute began barking furiously, and Anna half turned her head towards it, and at the same time her belt with its load of tools slid down her hips and became tangled with her legs, and she crashed to the ground. Behind her I saw Corcoran reappear at the main door, and I raced over to Anna, grabbed her and the belt and hauled them both towards the fence. There was a shout as we tumbled through, and then a loud bang. Shredded leaves and twigs pattered down on us as we reached the car and hurtled off into the night.
‘Wow,’ I finally said, as darkness enveloped us. ‘You all right?’
‘Yes.’ She was panting, vibrating like a plucked string. ‘I couldn’t find it at first. He’d hidden it behind the filing cabinet.’
‘But you got it?’
‘Yes.’
‘What else?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘What else did you take?’
‘Nothing, I’m not a thief.’
I took a deep breath. ‘So somebody made a forced entry into his building and ran off with his daughter’s electronic notebook, and nothing else? The same notebook he’d refused to give to two visitors