48 Hours - A City of London Thriller (30 page)

Chapter 6
3

High Road, Tottenham, North London. 8pm.

Lavender had stopped crying. Dave the safecracker was sitting
next to her. He felt rather sorry for the girl and rather wished he
hadn’t been so aggressive when he’d taken her. “Come with me or die
where you sit” had sounded dramatic when he practiced it in head,
but he knew that he would never harm anyone. She, however,
didn’t.

Johnny was driving the SUV.

“
Those flashing blue lights worked a treat, bro; you’re a bit
of a genius on the side, aren’t you?”

Dave enjoyed the praise, especially coming from Johnny who was
a full timer in the organisation, whereas Dave had a real job and
was only called on from time to time. If Dave’s employers at the
engine assembly plant knew he was so adept with explosives, they
might be nervous. Dave had promised himself he would never use
explosives to hurt anyone. That would make him no better than a
terrorist, and he’d seen enough of those in Afghanistan.

Lavender was wearing a blindfold, the kind commonly handed out
by airlines to those who want to sleep during a flight. It wasn’t
entirely lightproof, but her kidnappers just wanted her
disoriented.

“
Look at that. The floodlights are all blazing away and they
didn’t even play at home today,” Johnny commented as they passed
White Hart Lane.

“
They only managed a draw. They’ll have to do better than that
on Wednesday night or Harry’ll have their guts for
garters.”

They decided to change the subject before Lavender could work
out where they were. Johnny’s mobile phone rang. He answered at
once.

“
Yes, we have the package, and no, there were no problems.
Why? What happened?” Johnny listened to the reply and a smile
crossed his face. “OK, we’ll be there in two minutes.” He hung
up.

“
Dave, this’ll make you laugh. Three of them went off to
Greenwich and only managed to find the girlfriend.”

“
Are they bringing her, then?”

“
Yes, but the funny part is that she beat two of them up. One
had a broken nose and the other thinks he has concussion. England
one, Netherlands nil, I think.”

They both laughed as Johnny turned in to Commercial Road and
manoeuvred to turn right again into the Tottenham Press car
park.

Chapter 6
4

Ashburnham Mews, Greenwich, London. 8.00pm.

I struggled with my key as the hot take away food burned my
arm. As soon as I had the front door open I ran up the stairs. I
had some unzipping to do.

At first I thought that Dee had left the door open for me, but
then I noticed the big black boot print on the door, and the broken
lock. It didn’t cross my mind in that moment that I might be in
danger if I went inside, and to be honest, even if it had I would
still have gone to Dee’s aid. But Dee wasn’t there, and the
furniture in front of the TV was out of place.

I remembered that I was holding the take away food and so I
went into the kitchen and set it down. I was in a daze. What I was
seeing could not be real. I wasn’t thinking clearly and so I shook
my head. It made no difference. I splashed cold water on my face
and walked around the flat.

Only the lounge was not as I had left it. On TV the detectives
could always tell that there had been a struggle; there would be
broken lamps, pictures askew, furniture on its side. But here there
was nothing of note. The footstool was out of place and the rug had
a corner turned over, but nothing seemed wrong otherwise. Yet there
was clearly something wrong. Dee wasn’t here, and there seemed to
be an atmosphere of danger hanging in the air. The door had
obviously been forced open, I had seen that much. My heart started
to race as the likelihood of what had taken place began to distil
on my senses like dew. I let the thought hang there a moment, still
not entirely ready to believe it, and then I pulled myself together
and called a number from my speed dial.

“
Tom Vastrick.” The voice was strong, bold and comforting.
Mine was shaking.

“
Tom, I think Dee has been kidnapped from my flat. What should
I do?”

For a split second there was silence at the other end as he,
too, digested the information, but then his voice reached me,
sounding calm and decisive.“Do nothing Josh, I’ll be there in
twenty minutes with help.”

***

Tom Vastrick hadn’t been exaggerating. Twenty minutes later
two Metropolitan Police squad cars were parked outside, blue lights
flashing, and a Scene of Crime van was parked beside them. Curtains
twitched as the neighbours looked out at them, obviously wondering
what was going on.

A policewoman was sitting in the kitchen with me, having made
me some tea. I sat sipping the tea, the aroma from the cooling take
away making me hungry, although I no longer had the appetite to eat
it.

A policeman came into the kitchen carrying my BlackBerry. “You
might want to take this call; it’s the City of London
Police.”

I took the phone and held it to my ear. “Hello,” I said
weakly.

“
Josh, this is Inspector Boniface. I’ve just heard about what
happened. Don’t you worry, we’ve got two police forces and Vastrick
on this. We’ll get her back, even if I have to pull Hickstead’s
toenails out myself.”

“
Thanks,” I heard myself saying. “It’s been one hell of a
shock, but I want to do whatever I can to help find
her.”

The real shock was how deeply I felt the loss. I couldn’t live
with the thought that Dee might be hurt, or perhaps worse. The
shock did bring with it a sudden realisation; I loved Dee Conrad
and would give my life to get her back.

“
Josh, you may get a call from Don Fisher,” Boniface
added.

“
Why?” I was puzzled.

“
Lavender has been taken too!”

***

Tom Vastrick arrived fifteen minutes later than he had
promised in a car that cost almost as much as my flat. Since
receiving my call, he had been busy talking on the phone with two
police forces and his own investigative staff. One of their own was
missing.

When he came into the room I offered my hand but he ignored
it, choosing instead to crush me in a bear hug.

“
Josh, Dee is family as far as we’re concerned, and that makes
you family, too. Every resource we have will be made available. I
should tell you that Dee is also trained for this kind of
eventuality, and she will most probably come up with plans of her
own to remedy her situation, so try not to worry too much. She’s a
very capable girl, as I’m sure you’re aware. Now, we need to get
ready for the inevitable contact from the kidnappers. I have people
with Don Fisher, too. As soon as these people make contact, we’re
going to use every means available to us to track them down, legal
or illegal.”

Chapter 6
5

Commercial Road, Tottenham, North London. Friday,
9pm.

The journey from Josh’s flat had been uncomfortable, or at
least the part of it she could remember. Dee had woken with a
shocking headache to find herself tied up, hooded and lying in the
footwell in the rear of the car. Not the best of circumstances to
find herself in, she thought, but not irretrievable,
either.

The leader of the kidnapping team was sitting on the seat with
his feet on her back. He felt her move.

“
So Miss Whiplash has woken up. You need to lie still until we
get where we’re going. It won’t be long now. Then I suggest you
don’t give either of my friends here any excuse to punish you,
because they’ve both requested that privilege. However, under the
Geneva Convention we will treat you humanely,” Rik
laughed.

A few minutes later the car stopped and waited as a roller
shutter door rattled open nearby. Dee knew that it was important to
gather as many clues to her whereabouts as possible, and she
concentrated on doing just that. The car moved forward and stopped.
She heard the roller shutter door close behind them.

Dee was taken from the car by Rik, who handed her to Johnny
and said, “Take her upstairs and put her with the other one. We
need to get cleaned up before we move to stage two.”

Johnny smiled because he knew that getting cleaned up was code
for attending to the injuries inflicted on them by a mere
girl.

Dee concentrated and identified a strong smell. She recognised
it, but where from? She was being taken somewhere but the hood was
hampering her efforts to climb up the narrow steel mesh
staircase.

“
I’m going to loosen the hood so you can see your feet, OK?
Don’t do anything silly,” Johnny warned her as he created a gap at
the bottom of the hood that enabled Dee to see her feet and the
area immediately around them. At least she wouldn’t fall
over.

Taking advantage of the narrow strip of vision available to
her, Dee looked to her left and saw that she was in some kind of
factory or warehouse with a grey painted concrete floor. She pushed
her luck and moved her head a little more, but this earned her a
sharp poke in her ribs. By the time she reached the top of the
stairs she had been able to work out that they were in an
industrial unit, with dust proof floor coatings and some boxy
looking machinery. It was at that point she remembered where she
had come across that smell before.

***

Dee had her hands untied before being guided to a chair. A
hand pressed down on her shoulder, so she sat. She could hear
sniffling from close by. Her captor took each hand separately and
applied handcuffs. Once she was secure he lifted the hood from her
head. Squinting in the harsh fluorescent light, she glanced around
quickly and saw that she was in a small windowless room with a
distraught young woman.

“
I’ll leave you two to get acquainted,” Johnny laughed as he
left the room, closing the door behind him. They both heard the key
turning in the lock.

“
Lavender Fisher, I presume,” Dee said as she took in her
surroundings. She was sitting on the long side of a rectangular
metal framed table with a wood effect laminated chipboard top, and
Lavender was directly opposite. The table was screwed to the floor
and the chains attached to their handcuffs passed through a hole in
the middle of the desk, probably intended for computer cables, to
be padlocked onto the legs. The chain allowed only a few inches of
movement in any direction. Dee was already trying to come up with a
way out of this.

Lavender’s face was smeared with mascara, and she looked
miserable and scared, which was hardly surprising. Dee wanted to
take advantage of their time alone. Firstly she introduced herself
to Lavender, trying to keep her voice calm and steady.

“
Lavender, as you can see we’re both in the same boat here. My
name’s Dee. I know your Dad and I intend to get you back to him
safe and sound, but I’ll need your help. Do you
understand?”

“
Yes. Yes, I understand. I’ll help you if I can. Just tell me
what to do.”

Lavender had almost broken down at the mention of her father,
but she had managed to hold herself together. She didn’t feel quite
so terrified now, knowing that she was not in this alone. Whoever
Dee was, she seemed to know what to do. At least, Lavender hoped
so.

“
All right, Lavender, I believe that this building is a
commercial printing press. I think we’re in an industrial unit,
possibly on an estate of similar units. There’s a motorised roller
shutter door at the front of the building, but there are bound to
be emergency exits as well.”

“
How do you know all that?” Lavender asked. “They had you
blindfolded.”

“
I’m a trained investigator. I was taught by the best, over in
the USA. Also I recognised the smell of printing ink from when I
picked up our company brochures a couple of weeks ago. What I don’t
know is where we are geographically, and you can help with
that.”

“
I don’t think I can. I was blindfolded like you all the
time,” Lavender wailed, afraid that she was being
negative.

“
Lavender, please just stay calm. Listen carefully to my
questions and answer them as best you can, OK?”

The young woman nodded, and actually managed a brief
smile.

“
Where exactly were you kidnapped?”

“
About a mile and a half from Elephant and Castle, on Lambeth
Road.”

Dee absorbed the information and asked another question. “From
being kidnapped, how long did it take to get here?”

“
About thirty five minutes,” Lavender said with some
certainty.

“
Are you sure?”

“
Yes. They didn’t take my watch. I was taken just after half
past seven, and I was in this room being chained up at ten past
eight.”

Dee smiled back at her encouragingly. “Excellent. Now,
concentrate. Was the car moving quickly most of the time, or did it
stop and start in traffic?”

“
I guess we spent about five minutes at traffic lights and
such, but most of the time the car was in fourth gear. It’s amazing
what you hear when your eyes are covered up and all you have is
your ears.”