Her mood jarred when she noticed a black guy, sitting by the front window with an espresso. He was scruffy, with staring eyes, high cheekbones and plaited hair down his back. Gwen was serving a six-cup order at the drive-thru window, so Charlie had to wait before speaking to her.

‘The guy at table three,’ Charlie said warily. ‘Have you seen him in here before?’

‘Couple of times yesterday,’ Gwen said. ‘I know his eyes look zombieish, but he’s never caused problems.’

‘He looks familiar,’ Charlie said thoughtfully. ‘I’m half convinced I saw him at the Algarve earlier.’

The cops would never use someone so distinctive to tail me, but it could be someone who knows I do modding, looking to shake me down, or rob me.

But that face triggers something further back. Was he at Rock Spring High? Or in the visiting room at White Boulder?

‘I’ve gotta grab something upstairs, then I’m gonna head home,’ Charlie told Gwen. ‘Can you give me a call, and let me know if that guy follows me?’

Gwen seemed alarmed. ‘If you think something’s wrong, I can call the security office. We pay enough money for them.’

‘No need,’ Charlie said firmly.

The face kept gnawing at Charlie’s brain. Was he at OIL? Did he hit on me at a house party? Was he the guy who delivered fertiliser to the house?

‘Where do I know you from?’ Charlie asked herself irritably, seeing him on the CCTV in the office as she unlocked a desk drawer.

She took out an automatic pistol and checked that the clip was loaded before wedging it into her handbag. Then she decided her smart seeing-a-patient shoes weren’t the best option if she had to run and switched to a pair of battered Converse under her desk.

‘I’m off now,’ Charlie told Gwen, straightening her virus mask as she exited the coffee shop.

Charlie glanced over her shoulder as she headed out into blazing Vegas heat. Swapping shoes and grabbing the gun meant she only got to see the 15:15 bus as it rolled away from the stop outside Shoe Right. But there were a couple of taxis on the rank, so she grabbed one of those.

The driver had gone half a mile when Gwen called.

‘He left a minute or so after you,’ she told Charlie. ‘He got into a beige BMW with a black rear spoiler. But I watched him drive out the back of the mall and turn on to the highway, so he can’t have been following you.’

‘Cool beans,’ Charlie said. ‘Sorry to waste your time, Gwen. I’ll see you Friday.’

But I know that face from somewhere. It’s gonna bug me till I work it out …

62 LIVING HIGH

Charlie told the taxi to drop her behind a stationery store at the rear of the mall where she’d parked the Porsche.