‘Lockers, please,’ Priest said more assertively than last time. She nodded without speaking, or taking her eyes off him, and pointed to a door in the back. ‘I’m most obliged.’

He stepped over Benny who seemed to be having problems breathing and got to the door before he realised Georgie wasn’t following him. He turned round and saw she was also suffering from the same open-mouthed condition as the blue-haired girl.

‘Are you coming?’ Priest asked.

A second later she nodded and skipped over Benny to follow him through to the locker rooms. Priest shut the door behind him and turned the key on the other side.

‘You think they’ll be back?’ asked Georgie.

‘I suspect one of them might.’

‘I must have missed the kung fu module on my Legal Practice course.’

‘You’d be amazed what universities offer these days, Someday.’

He led Georgie through to a changing room that looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in months and smelt like a weed factory. There was a single bench in the middle of the room, a couple of yellow-stained sinks and a row of lockers on the far wall. Someone had covered the smoke alarm with a plastic bag.

‘Six – it’s here, and the key’s out.’

Georgie was pointing to the last locker on the top row. Priest wasted no time before trying the key. It didn’t seem to fit. Damn!

‘The other way,’ Georgie said, reaching out and turning his hand in hers so the key was the other way up. He turned and she was right next to him, the panic he had seen earlier had drained away.

The latch clicked and the locker swung open.

They peered inside. Priest reached in and removed the locker’s only item.

‘A burner,’ murmured Priest.

There was a loud bang emanating from the door behind them and a cry of rage as the handle was violently shaken from the other side.

‘Best go out the back,’ Priest suggested. ‘Think we’ve outstayed our welcome.’

Chapter 32

Chapter 32

The rear exit to the Budget Gym deposited Priest and Georgie into a tight alleyway that looked as though it hadn’t seen a living soul since the plague, a consideration spoilt only by the wheel-less bicycle frame dumped behind a mound of rubbish on the opposite wall.

Georgie made a small noise as if she had eaten something disagreeable – presumably in response to the smell of the rubbish decomposing outside the gym’s back door.

‘What’s all that?’ she asked, turning her nose up.

‘I don’t know,’ Priest breathed. ‘But if we stand around too long it might try and communicate with us.’ He looked up and down before turning right, away from the rubbish. ‘This’ll get us back to where we’re parked.’