See How They Run by Tom Bale Page A

dispute that. Her next question was whether they’d taken anything.
    ‘Not as far as we could tell,’ he said.
    ‘They woke you, though, so they must have wanted something. What was it?’
    Harry opened his mouth, then hesitated, turning away from her. The sea today was the rich green of a weathered copper roof; green and churning, its white peaks spitting up to taunt the darting gulls.
    ‘I get it, Harry. You’re not sure if you can trust me. Well, you should know that I’m equally wary of you.’
    The comment startled him. ‘What?’
    ‘I didn’t actually see a break-in. For all I know, you could be in league with them.’
    ‘You seriously think …?’ he spluttered, and went to add: ‘You approached me—’
    She shook her head. ‘My point is, there’s an element of risk here, on both our parts. I need to know what happened. Are you gonna tell me, or not?’
    Harry fumed for a second before relenting.
    ‘They were looking for a man called Renshaw, also known as Grainger or Miller.’ He studied her closely as he said the names, but she gave nothing away. ‘Do you know who he is?’
    ‘I take it you don’t?’
    ‘Never heard of him.’
    ‘But they expected to find him at your house?’
    Harry nodded. ‘It’s a mistake. We’ve been there nearly two years. He wasn’t the previous owner, either.’
    ‘So how did they come by your address?’
    ‘No idea. They said something about a parcel.’
    A spark of interest in her eyes. ‘Go on.’
    ‘They said we’d been sent a parcel – for Renshaw, I mean, although it was addressed to Grainger.’ He sighed. ‘This is like trying to describe a dream. It had a kind of logic at the time, but now it makes no sense at all.’
    Ruth shrugged. ‘So you denied knowing anything. What happened then?’
    ‘They kept insisting the parcel had been sent to us.’
    ‘And had it?’
    ‘No.’ He said it too loudly, attracting the attention of an elderly couple walking past. After waiting a second, he hissed, ‘No, of course not.’
    ‘But you say they were certain about it. Maybe they sent the parcel?’
    ‘Why would they do that?’
    ‘If they’re searching for Renshaw, it could have been a way to flush him out.’
    ‘But I just told you, Renshaw doesn’t live at our address. He never has.’
    ‘Did they say what was in the parcel?’
    ‘No. And we weren’t about to ask.’

    I t was a curt response , and Ruth chose that moment to push off from the railings and start back towards the pier. Assuming he must have offended her, Harry said, ‘Hey, how about answering some of my questions?’
    ‘Not yet. Mine are more important.’ The brusque tone was tempered by a playful smile. She waited till he was alongside her, and said, ‘Is there any chance that you had something through the post? A failed delivery, maybe, where they leave one of those notes?’
    ‘I doubt it. The baby’s only a few weeks old, so Alice – my wife – is at home virtually all day.’
    ‘And was she just as sure about it? No deliveries at all?’
    ‘Yes. No.’ In trying to answer both questions, Harry sounded muddled. He recalled the moment clearly: how Alice had flinched, because the man with the knife had been moving in on Evie.
    ‘No parcel, no failed delivery,’ he said. ‘It was a mistake. As well as Lavinia Street, there’s a Lavinia Drive and Lavinia Crescent in Brighton.’
    ‘And you told them that?’
    He nodded. ‘It occurred to me afterwards, perhaps they went there, too?’
    ‘I’ll check it out.’
    ‘If you know who these men are, isn’t it your duty to report this?’
    She turned towards him, one eyebrow sceptically arched. ‘You had the opportunity to call 999 last night, yet you didn’t. Why was that?’
    Harry swallowed. ‘Because they threatened us. They said our baby’s life was at stake if we went to the police. Rightly or wrongly, we decided to take that threat seriously.’
    ‘Probably a good decision, then. The authorities wouldn’t have