‘You know it’s closed?’ the driver asked as Charlie handed over three hundred bucks and told him to keep the change. ‘Sure to have zombies out here.’

‘I’m good,’ Charlie said. ‘I’m meeting someone around the corner.’

Charlie could have got the taxi to drop her in front of the mall, but she wanted to be sure no one was eyeballing the Porsche. After jogging up six flights, Charlie strode on to the rooftop deck of a parking lot. The only cars up here belonged to dead people who’d lived in an adjoining apartment block. A few were burnt out, while the rest had been ransacked.

She kept her handbag’s flap open so she could grab the gun. When she reached the middle of the parking structure, she could see Harry’s orange Porsche at ground level.

The stationery and pet stores at the back of the mall had gone bust, but the street-level parking was moderately busy, serving a food market, a discount designer-clothing store and a recently opened branch of Leo’s Quarantine Supplies.

From the far end of the parking structure, Charlie got a vista down a line of parking bays running past the mall’s shuttered cinema. In the first row was a camel-coloured BMW with a plastic spoiler, like the one Gwen had described.

The discovery was annoying, but at the same time Charlie was pleased to have outsmarted him. Whoever he was …

The BMW was several hundred feet away and reflections on the windshield made it impossible to see inside. But Charlie reckoned the spot had been carefully chosen, enabling the driver to see anyone getting into the Porsche, and easily pull out on to the exit road to follow.

At least I’m not paranoid. He didn’t follow the taxi so he must have known where I was going. I could jump in another taxi and arrange for Harry to pick me up somewhere, but I should try finding out who he is while I have the upper hand …

The deserted multistorey parking lot gave Charlie a view of the outdoor mall’s layout. She was glad she’d switched to comfy sneakers as she took a lengthy detour in the afternoon heat back round the stationery store, switching to a jog when she spotted a trio of zombies living out of a camper behind the pet store.

A right turn by the supermarket took her into the alleyway with the boarded-up cinema in front. Charlie now approached the parked BMW from the rear, shielding behind a couple of strength-modded construction workers walking the same way.

The BMW was old, with a dented rear fender. The bright red child seat visible through the back window jarred with Charlie’s mental image of a bad guy, but a few steps later she recognised the woman in the passenger seat, and things fell into place.