The first thing Boonzie needed to do was sort himself out some wheels. He went back to the utility room with the broken window and looked again at the camper van parked in Ewan’s back yard. It was old and dirty and neglected-looking, but ideal for his purposes. He didn’t want to stay in the house. If he’d thought the men who had ransacked it might return, he’d have felt differently and wanted to lie in wait for them, but he knew they wouldn’t be coming back here. The camper van would give him a mobile base from which to pursue his objective, wherever it led him.

Boonzie was a man of many talents, even if a lot of them were underused these days. Among the skills he’d learned in the regiment was fixing old vehicles, the kind that soldiers making their way deep behind enemy lines might have to commandeer. He found the camper keys on a hook in the hallway and went out to inspect it.

A quick look around the vehicle confirmed his first impressions. The camper was equipped with two berths, sleeping bag and blankets, a stove, heater, and even a tiny washroom with a chemical cassette toilet. A little travel-stained and threadbare, but not too grotty and sheer bloody luxury compared to some of the places he’d been forced to make camp in his life. The engine wouldn’t start at first, but an hour later he had the corroded battery connections fixed up as good as new and the diesel glow plugs switched for a new set he found in the house, and the old girl coughed into life at the first twist of the key. He left the engine running to put charge into the battery, and returned to the house.

It was mid-afternoon and the light was already beginning to fade. After living in Italy so long he’d almost forgotten how early the winter evenings fell, this far north. Back in the house he worked through the plan that was coming together in his mind. Certain additional items were required in order to put it into action. He dug a copy of the Yellow Pages out of the wreckage of Ewan’s living room and soon found what he was looking for. The place he had to go next was more than an hour’s drive away, but he would make it.

Boonzie locked up the house, climbed aboard the camper and drove out of the yard and into the street. By nightfall, he’d have the things he needed.

Then he’d be ready to go hunting.

Chapter 11

While Boonzie was making his preparations, another phone conversation was going on between the same two individuals as before.

The underling reported, ‘There’s been another development, chief.’

His superior replied, quite irritably, ‘What kind of development?’

‘Someone else is on the scene. An old guy. A relative of McCulloch’s.’