by Beth Abbott
“Sure, no problem, Douglas.” JT again tapped the screen. “I’ll give the phone to the Chief Constable, but we can all still hear you.”
“Excellent.” There was a short pause. “Aah, there you are Chief Constable. I hope now that you’ll believe that I actually am Douglas Winston. For the life of me, I can’t imagine why you think someone would want to pretend to be me for the purposes of this phone call.”
“No, Prime Minister. I mean, yes, Prime Minister.” Burridge stuttered. “Of course, I believe that you’re you. I mean, you’re the Prime Minister.”
“Excellent.” Douglas Winston nodded. “Then I hope you’ll humour me and listen to what I have to say.”
“Of course, sir.” Burridge nodded enthusiastically.
“Good.” The Prime Minister continued. “I understand that Alpha Company have already made some progress in trying to track down the whereabouts of Suzy Johnson and the other unfortunate young lady. I don’t want that hindered in any way, and I’d like you to offer them any support they need. Is that clear, Chief Constable? Any support they need. Alpha Company have my full backing and confidence, based on my personal knowledge of their personnel and their skills. Do you understand?”
“Yes, sir. But…” Burridge wasn’t giving up.
“Now, obviously in the interests of full disclosure, I really should point out that my son-in-law happens to be one of the directors of Alpha Company, albeit that he’s not actually involved in this matter.” Douglas explained. “But more importantly, Suzy Johnson is what I would describe as a close family friend, and an especially dear friend to my daughter, so it goes without saying that I want the very best people working on rescuing her. In my opinion, and that of my trusted advisers, there are no better people in this country for this sort of operation than the people in the room with you now.”
“Yes, sir.”
Hannah watched the policeman grind his teeth as the words came out.
“Glad we’re on the same page. I trust you’ll give them any assistance they require, Chief Constable.” Douglas was obviously pressing home the point.
“Of course.” Burridge nodded. “Anything they require.”
“Excellent.” Douglas nodded. “No doubt JT or Luke will be providing me with updates until this whole nasty situation is resolved. I look forward to hearing how co-operative your officers have been, when they send me those reports.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Matt? You’ll be in my thoughts, son.” Douglas’ voice turned serious. “I look forward to receiving good news in the coming hours.”
“Thank you, Douglas.” Matt acknowledged Sara’s father. “Your help is very much appreciated.”
“My pleasure.” Douglas reassured him. “I’ll talk to you later, JT. Keep me updated.”
There was a faint click, and the connection was lost.
“Ok, so shall we start this conversation over again?” Hannah suggested. “We need manpower to go out visiting some of our possible locations and rule them out. Then we’ll probably need armed officers to back up our team when we’ve drilled it down to the most likely locations. I trust you can help us with that?”
The words were sticking in Burridge’s throat so badly, he looked like he’d swallowed a canary!
“How many officers do you need?”
Chapter 55 – Megan
Megan sat on the floor, leaning against the wall as the door opened again. It was starting to get dark outside, and the temperature had dipped with the sunset.
She didn’t know whether to be relieved or not that the man carrying the bags was wearing a Robbie Williams mask. Did that make him a different guy, or just one of the men who’d groped her earlier but with a different mask?
“There’s water, snacks, and the bandages and antiseptic wipes you asked for.” He dropped a couple of Tesco carrier bags at her feet. “No blankets, but there’s two new sleeping bags. Make yourselves comfortable. You might be here a while.”
Megan didn’t recognise the voice, so she breathed slightly easier.
“This woman needs proper medical care.” She said quietly. “I’m a nurse, not a neuro-surgeon.”
“Whether she lives or dies really isn’t your problem, is it?” He shrugged. “We’ll get a ransom for her anyway, even if she’s dead by the time they get her back. You just focus on causing us no trouble, and hopefully you’ll get home alive.”
“Your friends were threatening to rape me.” She pointed out.
“And I still might let them.” The man stared at her. “But the less bother you cause us, the less reason they’ll have to come down here, and the fewer opportunities they’ll have to carry out their threat. Understand?”
Megan nodded. Yeah, she understood what he was saying.
He wasn’t reassuring her it wouldn’t happen, just passing the buck, telling her not to bring it on herself.
Megan sat staring at the bags.
“I’ll be back later to do a ‘proof of life’ video.” He walked over to the door. “Make sure you do exactly what I say, or my men will have an excuse to follow through on their threat.”
Megan held her breath until she heard the click of the door lock.
“So, he’s the boss?” Suzy whispered. “I thought he sounded younger than the other guys.”
“He had the same blue eyes as one of the others.” Megan glanced around as Suzy pulled herself into a sitting position. “Probably related. Brothers, maybe?”
“He sounded a little more civilized, but not by much.” Suzy noted. “Maybe he’s the one who was talking to the woman yesterday?”
“I don’t know, but if he thinks we should be grateful because he brought us some crisps and water, I think he’s gonna be disappointed.” Megan rummaged in the bags.
“Maybe not, but those sleeping bags are looking good right now.” Suzy admitted. “My ass is almost frozen to the floor, and my feet are like blocks of ice.”
“Ok, then let’s get some strapping on that ankle, and get you inside a sleeping bag to warm up. Use some of these antiseptic wipes on your cheek, so the grazes don’t get infected.” Megan handed over the wipes and pulled a gauze bandage out of the bag before checking Suzy’s ankle again. “He’s bought a few of these bandages, so I’m going to cover your whole foot completely, as well as giving your ankle some support. Once the bandage is on, you won’t be able to get your shoe back on, so if we do manage to get away, at least you won’t be running over rough ground partially barefoot.”
“How about wrapping it in plastic from the carrier bag first?” Suzy suggested. “That will keep it dry as well.”
Megan stared at Suzy’s swollen foot.
“I think I’d like a bandage next to your skin, because without it, if the outer layer was to get wet, your foot would be freezing cold within seconds.” She looked up at Suzy for approval. “I’ll do a bandage, then a bag, then more bandages.”
“Sounds good to me.” Suzy smiled.
Megan quickly bandaged Suzy’s ankle to give it good support, and then continued down until her whole foot was wrapped up warmly. She covered it with the plastic bag, securing it around Suzy’s ankle.
“Hold onto your foot.” She instructed as she turned to rummage in her bag.
When she found some tape, she turned back to Suzy and taped up the bag, so it was all but waterproof.
When she’d secured the second bandage, Suzy grinned at her.
“Not only is it a hell of a lot warmer, it actually doesn’t throb as much.” She tested her movement gingerly.
“Do you think you can walk on it?” Megan asked.
“Only one way to find out.” Suzy shrugged. “Stand by the door and listen for them coming back.”
Megan hurried to the door and checked for any noise.
“It’s all quiet out there.” She nodded.
Suzy rolled onto her knees, and using the wall to help her, managed to stagger to her feet. She took a few steps, and Megan noticed her wince and suck in a deep breath.<
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“It hurts like hell.” Suzy admitted. “But if I have to, I can grit my teeth long enough to get us out of here.”
Megan was just about to go and help Suzy sit back down, when a flicker of reflected light from the window caught her eye.
The sun was obviously going down somewhere in the distance, and the reflection off a window in the next building was lighting up the room they were in.
“Look at this.” Megan’s attention had been caught by the lock on the door. “The lock is secured behind a metal plate, but the screws to hold it in place are on this side.”
“You’re kidding me!” Suzy gasped. “Do you have anything to unscrew them with?”
Megan rushed back to Suzy and grabbed her bag.
“I’ve got a nail kit in one of the pockets.” She murmured. “There are tweezers in there, as well as a metal nail file. One of those should do the trick.”
Megan pulled out the nail kit and rushed back to the door.
She slotted the file into the head of the screw and applied pressure until it started to turn.
“Wait!” Suzy hissed. “They could be coming back at any time to film the proof of life video. We need to wait until they’ve done that and gone, before we try and make a break for it. We’ll probably have more undisturbed time after they’ve done the video, because they won’t have much reason to come back and check on us after that. I can’t see them demanding an exchange tonight, so, depending on how long they give our families to come up with the money, they might not even check on us until morning.”
Megan stopped what she was doing.
“They threatened to rape me later.” She whispered. “Am I supposed to wait for them to do that before we escape?”
“We could go now, and they could come back in two minutes and catch us before we got twenty metres. God knows what they’d do to us if they caught us escaping.” Suzy reasoned. “Or we could take a chance that they wouldn’t touch you immediately after the video was made, and possibly get away with our lives. It’s unlikely they’d dare touch you before they get the ransom money.”
Megan could see the logic in what Suzy was saying, but the thought of being raped wasn’t exactly a pleasant one.
“When they come back, I’ll pretend to have woken up, and we’ll stay huddled together.” Suzy suggested. “They’re less likely to pick on one of us if both of us are awake.”
Megan sighed. Everything Suzy was saying was true, and if they were going to have a proper chance at escaping, they were gonna need more time. Suzy was never going to be able to run, so they had to factor how fast she could hobble into the equation.
“I’ll just loosen each screw a little so they’re easier to take out once it’s dark.” She agreed. “We don’t want it too loose, so they notice it when they come back in.”
When all the screws had been loosened, Megan slipped the nail file into her jeans pocket and returned the nail kit to her bag.
“Come on, let’s get these sleeping bags out, and have something to eat while we wait.” Suzy suggested, and Megan was happy to help her climb into a sleeping bag, so she could start to warm up.
She handed Suzy the bag of snacks while she shook out her own sleeping bag and climbed inside, keeping her boots on as she did.
“Pies, sausage rolls, or crisps?” Suzy offered.
“Crisps, please.” Megan shrugged. “I don’t need pastry heartburn to add to my misery.”
They sat and munched on some snacks for a few minutes, and Megan tried to figure out how they’d get out of this damned building.
“You said before that you’d toured these sites when you were in university.” She glanced at Suzy. “Did you tour this building?”
Suzy frowned.
“I don’t remember to be quite honest, but I’ve toured a few of the others and they’re all the same.” She shrugged. “They were purpose built early in the war, to pretty much the exact same blueprint.”
“So, you’d know how to get out then?” Megan wondered.
“Well, obviously it would be nice if we could skip up the stairs and out of the front door.” Suzy chuckled. “But assuming that’s off the table, then yeah, I know another way out.”
Megan watched Suzy take a swig of water.
“Oh, you want me to tell you how?” Suzy snorted, realising Megan was hanging on her every word. “Well, when you leave this room, turn left and go down the next flight of stairs. At the end of the hallway there will either be a door facing you, or one on your left that leads to another long hallway. There are three parallel buildings, and from here, I can’t tell if we’re in the one on the right, or the one in the middle. We just have to follow that hallway until we get to the end, maybe fifty or a hundred metres, ignoring all the other doors, and then take the last door on the left. That should bring us up in the building furthest left, and from there we should be able to get out into the grounds. There are woods all around, so we should be able to hide in the trees until we can get some help.”
“Who can we call for help?” Megan wondered. “The police? Or maybe your team?”
“We’ll call everyone whose phone number we can remember, until we finally get hold of someone who can come and get us.” Suzy grinned.
“So, left to the end, take the last door on the left or in front, go to the end of the corridor and take the last door on the left.” Megan repeated. “That shouldn’t be too difficult to remember.”
“Yeah, there’s just one thing you’ve forgotten.” Suzy’s smile faded. “We’re gonna be doing this at night, in complete darkness, and I can hardly walk. Oh, and we have a bunch of assholes upstairs who could come after us at any minute.”
“You kept saying the last door on the left.” Megan pointed out. “Does that mean there are other rooms on either side of the corridor?”
“Yeah, lots.” Suzy nodded. “So, there will be plenty of places to hide if they do come after us. But I would be amazed if those guys knew their way around these buildings as well as I do. Once they find us missing, they’ll assume we’ve gone up the stairs and somehow crept past them.”
“And they’ll go looking for us outside?” Megan suggested.
“Exactly.” Suzy nodded,
“Wy does it sound too good to be true?” Megan frowned.
“Because we’ve still got to get through the proof of life video first, and hope they leave us alone afterwards.” Suzy guessed.
“Yeah, that.” Megan closed her eyes.
Just a minor inconvenience, really, in the big scheme of things.
Chapter 56 – Evan
Evan watched the activity in the Hub and felt a kind of impotence he hadn’t felt since he’d left the military.
The feeling was easily recognisable, that yearning to be doing something productive, something helpful, but being held back by constrictions beyond your control.
Back then he’d always felt the need to help people, whether it was the Afghan villagers, the kids with no food, no education, and little chance of a decent life, or the African girls who’d been kidnapped by the local militia, who they could easily have rescued by force, but who spent weeks being raped, mutilated and murdered, while ‘diplomatic negotiations’ were held to arrange for their release.
At least for now it wasn’t the red tape and bureaucracy that was holding them back. It was simply that they didn’t know where Megan and Suzy were.
They’d finished going through the maps to find locations where the women might have been taken over an hour ago, but they’d come up with so many possibilities that Hannah and Abbey were still going through them.
As Evan looked out of the window for the first time in hours, he noticed how dark it had gotten.
He glanced at his watch, and realised it was already gone nine o’clock.
Why hadn’t they had any contact from the kidnappers?
Apart from the very first call to Suzy’s mum, and the message on Robbie’s phone, nobody had heard a single word from anyone. Why? It just didn’t make a
ny sense.
“Hey, buddy.” Evan felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to find Hollywood and Kellen behind him. “How’re you doing?”
“I’m good.” Evan nodded. “Just trying to help Robbie get through all this shit.”
“It must be tough having your sister kidnapped and not being able to do anything to get her back.” Hollywood nodded in sympathy. “Almost as bad as having someone take your wife.”
Evan sighed. He should have guessed Logan would have told them. They were all team-mates after all.
“Ex-wife.” He corrected Hollywood.
“Ex-wife?” Kellen frowned. “Since when did Matt and Suzy get a divorce?”
Evan glanced between the two Americans, and realised he’d jumped to the wrong conclusion. Shit!
“They didn’t.” He sighed. “I wasn’t talking about them.”
Hollywood and Kellen glanced at each other, obviously trying to establish whether either of them knew what he was talking about. From the blank looks, it was apparent they were both still in the dark.
“I was talking about Megan.” He shrugged. “She’s my ex-wife.”
“What?” Kellen took half a step backwards. “I thought you were a confirmed bachelor!”
“Technically, I suppose you could say I’m a confirmed divorcé.” Evan shrugged. “Megan and I were childhood sweethearts and got married very young. But when the reality of army life, and more especially army injuries and army death sunk in, I decided I didn’t want her to be an army widow or an army carer, so we divorced.”
“You decided.” Hollywood echoed. “And she just went along with it?”
“Not exactly.” Evan shook his head. “Instead of telling her the truth, I told her I was seeing someone else, and that I wanted a divorce.”
“You lied to her, you mean.” Kellen frowned.
“Yeah, I lied.” Evan shrugged. “I know I was an asshole, so you don’t have to spell it out. I fully appreciate how wrong I was, but I’d already been through some shit on my first tour by the time I made my mind up, and I probably wasn’t in a good place when I made the decision.”
“And yet you’ve been looking after Robbie for weeks. Didn’t he object to having someone on his team who’d obviously hurt his sister badly?” Hollywood glanced around to where Robbie was sitting with his agent.