She was going to miss her business, and her workers and the clients, but when the time was right she’d start creating the same all over again.
As they circled under the flyover and joined the A4 she was still regularly checking the rear-view mirror, not so much for moving traffic as for anyone who might be following. It wasn’t possible to tell, nor was it possible, surely, for Marcus to have set someone on their tail so soon.
She glanced anxiously at Jasmine, and felt a momentary relief when she received an ironic smile in return.
‘Will you please stop stressing?’ Jasmine scolded with teenage exasperation. ‘You have to let it go, Mum. We’re on our way to a new life and that’s all we should think about. We’re actually pulling it off.’
Claudia followed the traffic and contemplated the truth of those words – we’re pulling it off – although they were hardly ten minutes from what used to be their home, so such optimism was perhaps a little premature. However, everything was going to plan so far. The BMW they were in had been delivered on time late last night; they’d picked up their new phones from a ‘dealer’ a week ago – and most crucially of all, the money from the sale of her business had been successfully transferred from an escrow account into the one she’d opened just after her new passport had come through. Dealing with the bank had been the trickiest part of the operation – did she really look like a money launderer? – but it was done now, thank God, and she’d already managed to draw cash using one of her new cards.
‘So,’ she said, as they finally approached the M4, ‘shall I call you Jas or Jasmine from now on?’
A tilt of a platinum-blonde head, followed by ‘Mm,’ preceded ‘either’s fine. It’s a cool name, don’t you think?’
They’d had this conversation before, several times, so Claudia dutifully said, ‘I do, and it suits you. I wish I’d thought of it when you were born.’
Jasmine glanced over at her mother, her big blue eyes sparkling with mischief. God, she was like her father. ‘Are you OK with Claud?’ she asked cheekily.
Claudia wrinkled her nose. ‘Mum’s better, coming from you.’
Jasmine laughed and pointed to the red light they were approaching too fast.
As they came to a stop, Claudia’s breath caught on another rush of nerves as the reality of their flight descended over her again. To those travelling in the cars around them they must look so ordinary, so unremarkable in their blue estate with nothing on its roof, or sides or anywhere else to alert anyone to what this two-year-old 3 series was actually involved in.
‘How come you’re so relaxed?’ she asked as Jasmine continued downloading apps to her new phone.
Jasmine frowned as she considered the question. ‘Well, I thought one of us ought to be, and as you’re the responsible adult in the car I decided to leave all the negative stuff to you.’
‘So kind.’
They both started as someone blasted a horn behind, urging them on, and at the same instant Jasmine’s new phone rang. Only one person had the number and to their relief they saw it was her.
‘Hey Nana,’ Jasmine sang out as she clicked on, ‘we’re on our way. Hang on, I’m going to put you on speaker so Mum can hear.’
‘Have you left London yet?’ Marcy, her grandmother, asked.
‘We’re just about to join the M4. How’s everything your end?’
‘So far, so good. I’m at the flat and it’s even lovelier than the first time we saw it, probably because the sun’s shining and the shutters are open. Actually, we had some mail delivered this morning. A letter from EDF confirming our new account, and another from the local authority about the council tax.’
‘I’m guessing both were in your name?’ Claudia asked.
‘They were.’
Her mother didn’t have a new identity as such, she’d simply reverted to her maiden name – Kavanagh – which had been a straightforward enough process to arrange, enabling her to rent the flat with references provided by a non-existent ex-employer. Luckily the new landlord hadn’t checked – why would he, when Marcy presented as the world’s most trustworthy individual – so all had gone through quite smoothly.
‘Is our stuff there yet?’ Jasmine wanted to know.
‘It is, and the new furniture is due in about an hour, so the delivery chaps should have been and gone by the time you arrive. I don’t know how we’re going to put it all together, I’m sure, but I suppose we’ll work it out somehow. Oh, and before you ask, yes, I remembered to bring a tool kit.’
‘Super-nan,’ Jasmine cheered.
Surprised again by her daughter’s high spirits, and relieved, Claudia said to her mother, ‘Shall we pick up some groceries on the way?’
‘Don’t worry, I’ll do it, and if I run out of time we can always get pizza delivered.’
And here was another concern, how matter-of-fact her mother was sounding when there was absolutely nothing matter-of-fact about what they were doing.
Was she the only one who was scared out of her mind?
She needed to do as Jasmine said and stop stressing.
‘Have you checked if you’re being followed?’ her mother asked, setting Claudia’s nerves off again.
‘She’s doing it every thirty seconds,’ Jasmine chimed in, ‘but I scoped the whole neighbourhood before we left and I promise you no one was there, so no one watched us leave.’
‘Good girl,’ her grandmother praised. ‘What have you done with your old phones?’
‘We left them at the house,’ Claudia replied, ‘along with our laptops, tablets, and keys. Obviously we made sure there was nothing left on them to give anything away. Do you think it was the right thing to do? Should we have brought them with us?’
‘We discussed it,’ her mother reminded her, ‘and we decided they needed to stay there.’
This was true, but now Claudia wasn’t so sure it had been such a good idea. Great escape-planners they were, but since they’d never done anything remotely like it before they’d had no experience to draw on, only Internet advice which didn’t seem to have let them down yet.
‘I have the replacement iPads and computers here,’ her mother was saying, ‘so we can set them up later.’
‘Did you abandon your old stuff too?’ Jasmine asked.
‘Of course. Actually, I tossed them in the lake – and very freeing it was too.’
Claudia didn’t know whether to be shocked or impressed.The image of her respectable mother, owner of a contacts book to rival a royal’s, driving up to the lake near her home – or rather, old home since she’d left it yesterday – and ending her previous life with a random fling of Apple devices into a wildlife reservoir was hard to get her head around.
Suddenly it was making her laugh. It was hysteria, of course, for there was nothing funny about it, but now she’d started she was finding it difficult to stop.
‘OK, she’s losing it,’ Jasmine declared. ‘I’ll calm her down and we’ll call when we’re about an hour away.’
As the connection ended so did Claudia’s mirth, although the outburst did seem to have soothed her slightly.