by E. Earle
I fell back to sleep, nightmares plaguing me of Sabrina’s laughing face.
The next day as I logged into my emails, Ben shovelled his face into another bowl of whiskers. I had read more disturbing pleas of information from my friends on Facebook about Emily, and that she hadn’t been seen all day since she had set off for her 2nd interview.
I almost dropped my tea at the sight of my emails.
Dear Miss Blackwell,
Your presence is requested at soonest convenience, as a reference to Miss Emily Baker for the position of Administrator.
Regards,
Sabrina Whitehead
Public Relations Officer to Principal
University College of Warwickshire
Oh God, she put me as a reference? Why the hell would she do that?
I pulled out the cards the police officers had given me. One with Jake O’Hara, and the other with Arthur Calloway. They weren’t going to help me. One encouraged me to destroy a vital piece of evidence, and the other was intimidating as hell, and worked in the same department as the first idiot.
“What do you think, Ben?” I asked.
He walked is, licking his paws clean from tuna whiskers. “Mark your territory?”
“Too right.”
I dressed for battle the next day and refused to go and see Sabrina until my lessons were over. I knocked on the door, flicking my phone to record again.
She was dressed in a black suit this time, her eyes narrowed and skin looking dry.
“Please, take a seat,” she said, gesturing the chair before her desk.
I sat in it, surprised.
“We had an interviewee come in the other day, by the name of Emily Baker, and she put you as a reference.”
There was something in her voice that made my skin prickle. Something in her smile that looked sadistic. I looked down at her hands that were twitching across her keyboard. Saw scratches.
“We were very interested in what Emily had to say about your relationship,” she continued. “She led us to believe that you are a very valued friend.”
“And?” I said my voice dry.
“Well, we would take it for granted you would hold Emily in the same regard as she has you.”
I was silent, until I suddenly realised that I wasn’t alone in the room. A man walked out of the Principal’s office, good looking and dark. Intuition told me he was her boyfriend.
“Rino, I take it?” I asked snidely.
Rowena stood, locked the office door and drew the blinds shut.
Panic grabbed me for one second and I stood until heavy hands shoved me back down.
“Make one move, and I’ll rag that pretty hair from your scalp,” he promised sweetly in my ear.
“Get her bag,” Sabrina instructed.
To my dismay, Rino grabbed my handbag and emptied the contents onto her desk, until my lovely phone full of pictures of Rowan fell out.
Sabrina opened a drawer and pulled out a hammer. “Do you think you can fuck with me, you stupid TA?” she sneered in my face.
“Actually, I’m a Sessional Lecturer.”
She scowled at me and whacked the hammer down full force onto my phone, the screen smashing into bits. She then threw it to Rino, who started stamping on it.
“Now you’re going to stay quiet, aren’t you?” she hissed, spitting on my face as she shoved the hammer beneath my chin. “Else each one of your precious friend’s fingers are going to get snapped, crushed and sent back to you.”
“And when are you thinking of letting her go?” I dared to ask, terrified but adrenaline making my tongue stupid. “When you finally retire from here?”
“Our retirement is coming faster than you think!”
“Why don’t we just take her now?” said Rino. “Put her with the other girl?”
Sabrina looked thoughtful, which terrified me most of all. “Well actually, “I said. “If you do decide to do that then you’re fucked either way.”
Rino grabbed my hair and yanked my head back. “What are you on about?”
“Do you think I’m the only person who knows about the recording?” My bullshit meter hit the roof and an Oscar winning actor’s performance sprang forth. “Do you think I would be so stupid to just have it on my phone? I have it on USBs, CDs and have even got it blue-toothed onto my mate’s phone! He knows about this meeting! He was listening all the time on the other end of the phone before you smashed it up- if anything happens to me, he’ll upload the clip to YouTube and spread it faster than a fart at a wedding!”
Sabrina’s face couldn’t have been paler. She nodded to Rino, and he suddenly let me go.
She pointed the hammer at me, hand shaking. “You best get all of those recordings and deliver them to us. If anything gets leaked out, you and your friend are dead. You hear me? Dead!”
I stood up then and was just about hauled to my tiptoes by Rino. “She’s serious, blondie. And so am I.”
I flinched at his whiskey smelling breath and tried to pull away from him.
“You’ve got yourself mucked in with some very bad people, you know that?” he growled. “I know people who will hunt you down and pull apart every member of your family limb by limb.” He grinned then, revealing a gold tooth. “They get off on it sweetheart. And so do I.” He threw me away then as if I was a bag of rubbish.
I had no doubt someone was following me home on the way back. My legs were wobbling with each step I took, my breath ragged in my chest. I wanted to lose them before I got to the flat. My flat wasn’t registered at the U.C.W, but my parents’ house was. I hated the thought of anything happening to them, especially my sister and little Rowan. I needed help.
Ben walked loyally by my side. He knew we were being pursued, and I started following Ben down small lanes and little pathways over bridges and back again. We were leading the man behind us on a goose chase. Soon, it started to snow, and we couldn’t keep it up for much longer.
Ben jumped up into my coat and I cuddled him close to my chest as he meowed directions to me. It started to get dark then and I was truly getting scared.
I chanced looking behind and saw that the one man had turned into two. I knew they were following me for my address. Knew as soon as they found it that was it. I couldn’t see their features because of the weather, just that they were wearing heavy coats. But I noticed they had started to slip and skid in the white that had started to settle.
My boots had been regripped recently and were excellent walking through snow. It started to fall heavier and my feet began to walk faster.
“Time to run, Ellena!” meowed Ben, diving from my chest and leading the way. I broke out into a fast sprint, choosing to run across the grass instead of the pavement, knowing from previous walks that it was packed with ice. I heard a shout, a loud noise and didn’t have to turn around to know one of them had slipped.
I blessed the day Ben was born ginger, as I could just make out the sight of his coat through the white substance falling around me. He darted down an alleyway and I followed, up into an estate, through some trees and down another alleyway.
Adrenaline pumped breath into my lungs as I soon realised we were running up a hill towards the old train tracks. I looked back and could see one looming shadow behind.
“Follow me!” Ben howled. My chest was burning now, the cold air freezing the hot blood pumping into those precious organs.
I looked back again and saw nothing but white.
“They’re gone, Ben!” I rasped, trying to keep up. We ran over a bridge and went under it. I paused then, exhausted and rested my hands on my thighs. “God- I’m so-”
A scream was strangled out of me then when a freezing hand covered my mouth. I fell against a warm body as it dragged me further beneath the tunnel and pinned me against the wall.
Arthur Calloway’s face radiated heat against mine it was so close. He held a finger to his lips, and then pointing upwards.
Confusion raged in my head until I heard two thick accents.
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“She’s gone!”
“Oh, well done, numb nuts!” the other growled. “I can see that!”
“It’s your fault falling over like a fucking idiot.”
“How did I know it was going to snow?” A moaning followed then. “I think I’ve sprained my ankle- come on, let’s just tell the boss and his missus we’ve lost her.”
“We can tell them you lost her if you like!”
“You are a right cheeky git...”
The voices became fainter, and Calloway’s hand warmed against my mouth. It was only when we were surrounded by silence when he finally stepped away. I realised however that he still had not released his hold on my arm.
“I think we need to talk,” he said.
Chapter Six
The inside of Calloway’s car was much welcome when me and Ben got to it.
“No- the cat stays outside,” he said, waving his head and shaking his head.
“If you want to talk to me, you’ll have to talk to my cat as well,” I growled, one foot already in the vehicle. I must have looked like a mad woman, standing there covered in snow with a shivering ginger ball in my arms. The detective scowled and then jutted his head to motion me to get in.
Calloway drove for a while until he was sure no one was following us and pulled into a random country pub car park. The pub was boarded up and forgotten, deserted and destitute. It was a depressing sight.
“You’ve been following me,” I said, rubbing life back into Ben’s cold ears.
“So were those men,” he answered, frowning at the wet moggy in his car. “Any idea why?”
A few, I thought. Should I tell him about everything? I bit my lip. “How do you get on with Jake O’Hara?”
I was rewarded by a surprised blink. “The man’s a cock.”
That was my cue.
I told him everything. Right from the beginning, the recording, the interview with O’Hara, to him urging me to deleting it, to Emily going missing, the threats from Rino and Sabrina to my shoe size, how I liked my tea and my star sign. I told him everything.
“He told you to delete a piece of evidence?” Calloway said, his jaw locking in anger.
“Yeah, I deleted it in front of him. I think he must have connections with the Principle, because Sabrina demanded my phone and smashed it up.”
Calloway paled then and rubbed his forehead. “Are you telling me,” he said in the voice of a man that had spent too much time and energy in searching for me as it is, “that after everything, you deleted the evidence?”
“I’m not stupid!” I snapped. “I have it backed up at my flat on USB, my laptop and on a CD.”
He raised his eyebrows at me, surprised.
“What can I say?” I said with an embarrassed shrug. “I love detective films.” A thought occurred to me then. “Why did you follow me?”
Calloway looked uncomfortable then, as if unsure on how much she should disclose to me. “We’ve had an investigation into Detective O’Hara for a while, of abusing the system. We’ve never had enough evidence to support anything however. When I checked the tapes to watch your interview with him, I saw that there weren’t any. I became suspicious and started digging around.”
“That still doesn’t explain how you found me.”
“Girl with a ginger cat who follows her everywhere? Including walking her to and from work?” he said looking smug. “I think that makes you very easy to track down. Your cat has his own Facebook page.”
“But how did you- he has whaaat-?”
“Your Principal has been done before about scamming the system out of money. Constant trips to Hong Kong to see the school twinned with the U.C.W. Always flies first class. Always goes for a fortnight. Stays in the top hotels.”
My head was buzzing. Ben’s purring brought me back to earth before I had a panic attack.
“So why can’t you just arrest them now and be done with it?”
He shook his head. “O’Hara and the Principal Jennifer Bowers have a lot of friends in high places- especially within the justice system,” he said. “We need to collect so much evidence that they will choke on it. Plus,” he added, “They have your friend Emily. Seems like discretion is in order. One false move-”
That did me there and then. I burst into tears in that car. I don’t know how long I cried for, but I clung onto Ben like a lifeline.
“Oh God,” I sobbed. “Oh God, oh God, oh God!”
“I suppose that means you’re not up for the next part of the plan then?” Calloway said, awkwardly patting me on the back.
“What’s that?” I said, wiping snot from my nose.
“We need you to go back into Sabrina’s office.” He threw a paper in my lap, the front page confirming a sudden fear. I had no choice but to send these bastards down.
Detectives Hunt for Missing Woman.
A picture of Emily’s face smiled on the front, oblivious to the troubles what being my friend could do.
I didn’t dare log onto Facebook when I got home that night. I couldn’t read the pleas of her family and friends when I knew what had happened to her.
I hated to think what they were doing to her- how scared she was. That I was responsible…
“You can sleep on the sofa,” I said to Calloway as he shuffled into my flat.
I don’t think Ben liked him being there, but he didn’t say anything- well, he couldn’t anyway. He just pointedly walked to the kitchen and meowed at his bowl. I rolled my eyes and fed him some Whiskers.
Calloway had insisted on staying the night. I didn’t know if that was protocol- maybe it wasn’t, but I could tell for whatever reason he really wanted O’Hara. I would be lying if I didn’t feel a bit safer knowing that he was in the next room.
“Feel free to use whatever facilities you need,” I said. When he didn’t answer and just nodded at me, I turned away and went into my room. I wasted an hour getting ready for bed, painted my toenails and brushed out Ben’s coat.
“You ok?” I asked him quietly.
“Yes,” he said. “But I don’t like him being here. He smells of dog.”
I raised my eyebrows at him and laughed. Stopping myself suddenly, I stood up and put my ear to the door. I could hear him talking. I opened it slightly and saw him pacing around the living room, hissing on the phone.
“We can’t ask her to do that, it’s too dangerous!” he snarled. “She’s agreed to go into the PR woman’s office and that’s about as far as I’m willing to go with it... I don’t care if it gets results! We have a missing person and another under threat.” He turned then, saw me and quickly shut off his phone.
I opened the door wider, wondering if I could get away with not eavesdropping. “Who was that?” I asked.
“People higher up,” he said simply.
“They want me to do what?”
“It doesn’t matter,” he snapped. “What matters is that we get tomorrow straight.”
“What do you need from Sabrina’s office anyway?”
“Files,” he said. “We believe she may have documents about the Principal’s expenses or her own. Maybe emails between business associates?”
I frowned. “Why can’t you just seize the computers?”
He smiled as if he was talking to a child. “Because if I send a team out there to the college, O’Hara will get wind of it and the documents will be destroyed.” He took a breath and put his hands on his hips. “Unfortunately, even the Justice System is corrupt.”
“Are you?”
He stared at me. “I’m one of the few people you can trust, Ellena.”
His words repeating in my head, I went to bed with an uneasy mind. He wouldn’t tell me what could be done about Emily. That familiar feeling of panic was rising up. I Skyped my dad, and I’m sure Calloway was eavesdropping from the other side of the door to make sure I didn’t give anything away.
Luckily, I had just about the right amount of adrenaline left to talk about Kayleigh’s baby and hopefully coming over to see hi
m in the Summer. My dad told me he was missing my mum and couldn’t wait to see her in the next week or so. My mother was living back at the house with Kayleigh and Ryan coinciding somewhat uncomfortably. They were keen to start their lives together with the baby, and I think they probably didn’t want to bicker in front of my mum, much to her amusement.
I fell asleep exhausted; Ben curled up under the covers with me against my tummy. I don’t know why, but I suddenly felt a sense of peace being there with my oldest friend. Say what you like- but he stood for all of those moments I would sit on the pavement in Tamworth upset, lonely, angry and happy, content to sit on my lap and purr or lie in the sun with me.
He was my childhood lying right next to me.
I was dreaming. My Granddad was sitting in his chair in front of me, Ben in his lap. He was in my Nan’s front room, in his favourite cardigan.
“Granddad?” I forgot then that he was gone. It was all a mistake. He was still here. I could tell the family. They would be so happy.
“Someone’s looking after you here,” he said, tickling the scruff of Ben, who in his half-closed eyed state was in bliss. He looked at me with his pale blue eyes that my Nan would always tell me used to be green.
I was holding his hand. His hands were huge, dotted with freckles and age spots. I loved his hands. Their constant strength.
Then I heard what I have always craved to hear from him. “You’re a good Granddaughter, Ellena.”
“Wake up,” Ben meowed.
“Yes,” my Granddad said, smiling again, giving Ben a squeeze. “Time to wake up.”
A smashing sound woke me up with a bolt, my Granddad sinking from view.
“Granddad?!” I shouted, jumping to my feet.
I then realised where I was, who I was and that I still had a talking cat.
“It’s coming from the lounge!” Ben hissed.
“Stay here!” I whispered, opening the door.
Grunts were coming from the dark with the added sound of something hard hitting flesh.
Instinct told me to grab something, and my hands found something solid.