Nick continued along the road, still 20 or so metres behind Lee and Billy. His footsteps seemed to him to ring out, as if he was wearing metal-heeled shoes. Neither of the two men walking in front of him turned round to look though. Nick kept close to the line of trees that dotted the pavement edge, preferring the reassurance of some semblance of cover, just in case he suddenly found that he urgently needed to avoid being seen.
The road dipped gently at first as they walked, and then went more steeply into a downward gradient. There were some shops on the other side of the road, which Lee and Billy walked past. It was quiet – unnaturally so, it seemed to Nick. Had he lived here and just been on his way home from work, he guessed he probably wouldn’t even have thought about it. But he didn
