Leave Her Hanging: A Noir Thriller

Chapter Fifteen

I panicked for a moment when I came out of the bathroom and found Malcolm’s table empty. I shoved aside a couple of dancers and barrelled through the room, my head on a swivel. No, I can’t lose them.

Then I saw them, or their backs at least, as they made their way through the courtyard, past the bouncer, and back onto the street. I set off in pursuit.

The street hadn’t cleared at all since I’d come into the bar. If anything it seemed busier, mainly due to the increasingly erratic paths the drunken hordes were taking along the footpath. I took a moment to breathe as I came out of the bar, letting my senses readjust to the outside air. Where are they?

There. They were down the street a little way. The woman was getting into the backseat of a taxi, the other two saying their goodbyes. Then the door closed and the taxi drove away. I tried to blend in with the crowd as the taxi drove past me. I expected Malcolm and Gaunt to catch their own cab, but they started walking south along the footpath, moving through the crowd with practised assurance. Maybe I still had a chance. I kept my head down and tailed them, always keeping a few drunks and a couple of dozen metres between me and the two of them.

The crowds thinned the further along the road we went. I slowed down and gave them a longer leash, but I shouldn’t have bothered. Neither of them looked around the whole time I trailed after them. I didn’t have a plan for what the hell I was doing. That’d gone out the window a long time ago. But something weird was going on here, and I wanted to see what I could see.

Malcolm’s envelope never came out again, and from what I could tell from the back of their heads they didn’t look as serious as they had in the Longhouse. The two of them seemed to be talking as they walked, laughing occasionally, just a couple of friends wandering home from a few drinks in town.

I wondered if they’d just parked their car a long way away and were going to retrieve it, but then they approached the end of Ponsonby Road, paused, pressed the button at the lights to trigger the pedestrian crossing, and shook hands. They spoke a few more words as they stood on the corner together. I edged closer, sticking to what shadows I could find. A group of drunks in a taxi yelled out the window as they hooned past. Then the light changed, and Malcolm and Gaunt split up. Malcolm turned right and started down Great North Road, while Gaunt crossed the street with the pedestrian signal and headed onto Karangahape Road, Auckland’s very own red-light district.

I hurried forward, standing at the corner where they’d just been. Malcolm was alone now. It wasn’t going to be a good idea to let him put his paws on me again, not if I wanted to keep my teeth, but maybe I could ambush him, ask him some questions, or just see where he lived for future reference. I took a few steps after him and paused.

I glanced back at Gaunt heading in the opposite direction. Whatever this little club meeting of theirs was, and no matter how he dressed, Gaunt seemed to be their chief. Malcolm was the direct line I had on Ella, but what if this guy was involved as well? And what the hell were they being so secretive about?

I looked back and forth, mind spinning. I had to make a decision now before I lost them both. I shoved my hands in my pockets and prepared to flip a mental coin.

My fingers brushed the paper in my pocket and an idea hit me. I pulled out my phone, fingers slippery on the keys, and punched in the ten digit number I’d found in Ella’s room. Hit the call button. It began to dial. I waited.

Down the end of the street, nearly out of sight, I saw Gaunt reach into his pocket, glance at his phone, and press it to the side of his face.

“Hello?” his voice said in my ear.

I hung up and crossed the road, following Gaunt as he stared at his phone for a moment before returning it to his pocket. He carried on down Karangahape Road. I stuck with him. Catch you next time, Malcolm.