Liz turned left at the corner and started to walk down the gently sloping street towards the Stratford Road. Hearing footsteps behind her, she turned and saw two young Asian men about thirty feet away, walking fast so as to catch up with her. They were both bearded, and neatly dressed in pressed jeans and T-shirts. One of them, the taller of the pair, was wearing a New York Yankees baseball cap. He grinned at her, and Liz smiled back then continued walking.
‘Are you Fontana’s girlfriend?’ one of them called out.
Liz stopped and turned around to face the two men. The taller one was grinning again; his sidekick, short but stocky, wasn’t smiling at all – his expression was grim and tight-lipped.
‘Or are you a cop too?’ the tall one in the cap said. They were only a few feet away now, and both stood still, watching Liz.
‘What do you want?’ she asked sharply. She gave a quick look round, but the street was empty.
‘What do you want is more like it. What are you and the cop doing checking out the mosque?’
‘What I’m doing is none of your business.’ Liz turned on her heel and started walking again. Ahead she could see the traffic on the Stratford Road, but it was several hundred yards away. There was still no one else on the street, and no passing cars.
She sensed the men move behind her, and then suddenly there was one on either side of her. Keep calm, she told herself as she kept walking.
‘I don’t think you’re a cop,’ offered the tall one, only now he wasn’t smiling. ‘I think you’re from MI5. Am I right?’
‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ said Liz, hoping that by answering she could buy herself some time. There was an unmistakable sense of menace in the way the men were crowding in on either side of her. Then the shorter, heavy-set man on the street side of the pavement put his hand around her left wrist.
‘Don’t touch me,’ she said, her voice rising sharply. She twisted out of his grasp, but suddenly the man in the baseball cap man grabbed her other arm and twisted it sharply up behind her back. His grip was like steel.
To slow the men down she stumbled deliberately, hoping to break the iron grip on her arm. She tilted her head up to one side, and shouted as loud as she could: ‘Help!’
The shorter man grabbed her hair and jerked hard, pulling her head back. The pain was excruciating. She tried to dig her heels in, but now they were half-pushing, half-towing her by both arms. Ahead, a narrow alley led off the street and she suddenly felt sure they were planning to force her up it, out of sight of any passersby, and then she’d be completely at their mercy. They reached the entrance to the alley, the men still holding tightly on to her, and as they turned, pulling her with them, Liz suddenly tripped over a pile of rubble and fell to one side, dragging the man in the cap down with her. He let go of her wrist for a moment but the shorter man crowded in from her left, reaching for her arm to pull her up.
It was then Liz made her move. Standing up, she spread the first two fingers of her freed right hand and jabbed them viciously into the eyes of the smaller man. As he began to howl in pain she swung her elbow back ferociously into the groin of the tall man in the Yankees cap, who was still off balance. Then she turned away and ran into the street, where a car was driving slowly along from the direction of the Stratford Road. She stood in front of the oncoming vehicle, hands held up to force it to stop. She saw the startled face of the driver, a middle-aged Sikh in a turban, as he hit the brakes. His little car skidded once, twice, then stopped with a squeal of its tyres about three inches from Liz.
‘Help!’ she shouted, running round to the driver’s window. ‘I’ve been attacked by those two men. Call the police! Quick… before they get away.’
The Sikh held up both hands and his expression of concern turned to one of bafflement. ‘If you wish I will call, young lady. But what two men?’
And when Liz looked around, breathing hard, she saw that her attackers had disappeared. The alley was empty. At the end of it the green-painted door of a garage hung open, gently swinging.