‘What’s he doing? Why is he running away?’ Erika kept repeating, almost under her breath.
An old lady was about to cross the road in front of them, laden down with shopping bags, but Erika honked the horn and she stepped back, falling into a thick hedgerow.
Peterson looked back at the old lady who was half-standing, half-lying in the hedge, her bags of shopping pooled around her, and oranges rolling into the road. The traffic lights turned green and Jasper sped off, opening out the gap between them. Erika grabbed the radio off the dashboard.
‘This is DCI Erika Foster 34568, in pursuit of a silver Ford Focus by Blackheath Common. We’re heading south towards the A20. Suspect driving is a Jasper Clark, no “e” white male mid-thirties…’
They crossed the junction and sped onward towards another set of traffic lights. Jasper’s car shot over the junction just as the lights turned red. On either side of the road was the common, but it was built up in places and the grass was uneven.
Erika wasn’t going to wait for backup to take over. She slammed the steering wheel to the right and the car bumped and the engine screamed as she drove past the line of traffic between the tarmac and the common, and rejoined the road with a bump. A lorry driving perpendicular over the crossroad screeched to a halt, and they narrowly missed another car coming from the other direction as they shot over the junction and continued in pursuit of Jasper, who was now close to a third set of traffic lights which were green.
‘We have a squad car in Greenwich, on its way over,’ said the voice at control.
‘If you were trying to escape arrest, where would you go?’ asked Erika. The lights up ahead turned amber. She saw Peterson glance at the needle on the speedometer as it hit a hundred mph as she pushed the car over the junction. When they reached the other side, the tarmac was uneven and dipped down. The wheels left the road for a moment and Erika felt her stomach lurch. Peterson pressed his feet to the floor and arms against the door as they landed back down with a bump. They were gaining on Jasper; his car was now twenty metres away.
‘I’d head for the M20, and down to the south coast. Do you think he has a plan?’ said Peterson, who looked a little spooked by Erika’s driving. The radio crackled on the dashboard. Peterson grabbed it.
‘This is control to 34568. Do you have a number plate on the silver Ford Focus?’
‘No, it’s covered in dirt. I can only make out the first two letters, B for Bravo D for David…’ he said.
They were still hurtling along the road with the needle close to a hundred, and there was something in her face, the grim set of her jaw, that made Peterson think she’d do anything to catch this car.
‘He’s slowing down, look out!’ cried Peterson. The back of the Ford seemed to be hurtling towards them and Erika slammed on the brakes. Jasper turned left into a thin alleyway, and they overshot it. A parade of shops was on their right, and another elderly lady was stepping off the pavement, and jumped back as Erika came screeching to a halt. Their sirens were blaring and pedestrians on the pavement were staring back as Erika put the car in reverse. They lurched back, and turned down into the thin alleyway running between two rows of houses backing onto each other.
Erika could see the Ford was now far down the alley. She ground the gears, swore and they started after it. The high walls either side sped past in a blur.
‘Steady, easy,’ said Peterson, pressing his hands flat against the window and his chair. Erika felt sweat between her shoulder blades. Car chases were much more fun to watch in the comfort of your living room, but she was determined not to lose sight of Jasper.
Why is he running? What’s he done? Erika thought as the wing mirror on Peterson’s side clipped a wheelie bin sitting nestled in an open gate, and as she swerved away the wing mirror on her side broke away with a loud bang and a spray of sparks as it hit the brick wall.
They burst out of the alleyway and were on a wide pedestrian footpath between blocks of council flats.
Peterson picked up the radio and updated control on their position, which was moving through the Forbes Housing Estate. Jasper’s Ford was at the end of the path, where it looked like the land banked down and below was a kids’ play park. Beyond it was the main road with a dual carriageway.
For the first time, Erika got a good close-up look at Jasper Clark when he stuck his head out of the car window. It wasn’t until they drew close that she knew why he’d opened his window to look out. At the end of the pedestrian footpath, there was a set of steep steps leading down to the play park where the path continued, running alongside the grass and the swings, to the dual carriageway on the other side.