Double Blind (23 page)

“Just coffee please,” I said.

We carried white mugs of steaming coffee to a table for two in the corner. The wooden surface was scratched and dinged, but was immaculately clean. No one took any notice of us, but I was glad to have people around after the dismal emptiness of the warehouse. I wrapped my hands around the hot cup to warm them and to stop them shaking. An electrical storm was raging in my head. The man who could see auras. Signs that Anita had been in the warehouse, signs that she’d been drugged.

“That man…” I started. “Anita.”

“Listen, we didn’t find Anita, but at least we know she’s still alive,” Josh said. “And next time, we’ll be early, and we’ll have police back-up. You should call Parry to let him know what happened.”

I made the call and got Parry’s voicemail again. “He never answers his goddamned phone,” I complained while I waited for the beep. I left a message before taking a swallow of coffee. It was surprisingly good.

“We’ll call in the locals if we have to,” Josh said.

As if divining that he was about to be superseded by the Slough police force, Detective Parry called back right at that moment. Quickly explaining what had happened, I told him we were waiting for further instructions from the kidnapper.

“Sit tight and let me know the minute you hear from him,” he said. “Give me the warehouse address. I’ll get a team out there to take a look. Maybe we can get some fingerprints.”

“That’s a surprise,” I said to Josh, when Parry rang off. “He’s actually going to do something useful this time.”

For the next five minutes, I stared at the phone screen, willing it to flash another message.

“Why did the kidnappers leave so quickly?” I wondered out loud.

“The homeless man probably scared them off,” Josh said. He looked at me over the rim of his cup. “That was weird, huh? Him being able to see auras?”

“Very,” I said. “I wish I could have talked with him about it. He was crazy though. What did he mean about one of the kidnappers being a lizard?”

Josh shrugged, signaled to the man behind the counter to bring more coffee.

“I just realized something,” I said, when I felt the caffeine hit my tired brain. “Most of those businesses we walked past were medical. One was surgical devices, and another was imaging. Does that seem like a coincidence or do you think there’s a connection? I mean, given that Anita is a doctor, and someone wants to get hold of patient records?”

Josh nodded. “Yeah, I was thinking about that too.”

I kept checking the phone to make sure it was on and the volume was up, but it remained maddeningly silent. After a while Josh yawned, pushing his metal chair back on the scuffed linoleum floor so that he could stretch out his legs.

“I’m sorry, I know you have to get to work tomorrow,” I said, feeling guilty that I still had a few more days off before returning to the office. “Why don’t you try and nap, and I’ll wake you if I hear anything.”

“I’ll be all right,” he said, but within a couple of minutes he was asleep. The cafe was quiet now that most of the customers had left. The bald man came out from behind the counter with a tray and a tea towel. He wiped down the tables and stacked mugs and plates on the tray. I followed him and leaned on the counter while he piled the dishes in a sink.

“Not from around here, are you?” he said, over the gurgle of water from the tap.

“No, we’re meeting someone here,” I said. “Do you know anything about the warehouses on Spring Meadow Road?” I asked. “Are they all derelict?”

“Yeah, most of them. There were some problems with water drainage out there, foundations all started rotting out and the tenants all gave up their leases one by one. Developers came in and built a new industrial estate on higher ground. Full of medical companies so there’s lots of money going around. At night we serve the janitors and security guards, and the office folks come at lunchtime. We’re famous for our rhubarb pie. Do you want a piece?”

“No, thank you. I’m not hungry. But can I get a bottle of mineral water please?”

“So, what, you interested in buying them warehouses?” he asked, turning to take a chilled bottle from a glass-fronted refrigerator.

I laughed. “No, just wondering that’s all.”

He gave me the bottle and a glass. I went back to the table and took my scarf off, folding it and tucking it under Josh’s neck so he wouldn’t be too uncomfortable when he woke up. Every few seconds I looked at my phone, but there was no message.

Sipping water from the bottle, I thought about the homeless man. I’d never met anyone else who could see auras like I could. But then I didn’t exactly go around publicly announcing my ability, so maybe there were many others, who saw and kept quiet, or who saw but never understood the significance of what they observed. To acknowledge the auras meant accepting that the universe is infinitely more complicated and mysterious than we humans would like to believe. It’s terrifying.

Terrifying enough to drive someone mad? I thought so. The homeless veteran could have lost his mind when he started seeing the auras. Or perhaps losing his senses was a natural result of the horrors he experienced in the war. Either way, I doubted he had anything implanted in his head.

Suddenly the phone buzzed and Josh jumped at the noise.

“What?” he asked before realizing where he was and coming fully awake.

I snatched the phone from the table and stared at the screen. There was a short message from the blocked number. “Wait for instructions.”

I showed it to Josh.

“Well, that’s good,” he said. “As long as we are hearing from them, that means Anita is okay, and they still want to make a deal.”

I didn’t want to think about what Anita was going through. She had to be scared and uncomfortable. She might even be unconscious if the syringe had been used to sedate her.

“What’s the time?” Josh asked.

It was just after three in the morning. He took a sip of my water. “Let’s call Parry again, warn him that we’re going to need some help when the instructions come through from the kidnapper.”

I called Parry and left a message. He rang back fifteen minutes later, sounding as though he’d been asleep, which was a perfectly normal thing to be doing at three a.m.

“I’m sending a team to meet you,” he said. “Give me a few minutes and I’ll get back to you with more information.”

It was hard to sit still. I was impatient for the phone to buzz again, desperate to get moving, to find Anita. Josh leaned over, took my phone and tapped on some keys. When he gave it back to me, the screen showed a sudoku puzzle. “Give your brain something else to think about,” he said.

I’d solved two puzzles by the time Parry called back. “Officers Grey and Ibori will meet you at the cafe in about thirty minutes. Do exactly what they tell you. They’re experienced officers.”

The door opened, letting in a rush of cold air. Four men walked in, all in overalls and boots. They were loud, making jokes, yelling their orders to the owner. I was glad of the distraction. They’d almost finished their middle of the night breakfast when the door opened again. A young man in jeans and a parka came in, scanned the cafe and nodded when he saw us. He came over to our table. “Kate Benedict?” he asked. “I’m Officer Alex Grey.”

I’d just introduced Josh when another man entered. He was black, muscular and wearing chinos and a cream-colored turtleneck, which seemed a little underdressed for the arctic night. “Steven Ibori,” he said, shaking our hands. The two officers sat down, signaling to the man behind the bar that they wanted coffee.

“Tell us everything you know,” Grey said. “Then we’ll be ready when the kidnapper gets in touch.”

I talked while they drank their coffee and had their mugs refilled. When Ibori had finished his second cup, he got to his feet and went outside.

“Sneaking a fag,” Grey said. “I keep telling him to give it up.”

Ibori came back in, trailing cold air and the smell of smoke, and rejoined us at the table. He raised an eyebrow at Grey, who shook his head. “Nothing yet,” he said. The two of them checked their watches.

“I thought that only happened in movies,” I said.

“Synchronizing watches?” Ibori grinned. “We do it all the time. Makes us feel important.”

Grey’s mobile rang. He went outside to take the call. When he came back in, he told us that Parry had sent a team out to check the warehouse. There was no one there, apart from the homeless man. I felt sad for him. He’d fought in a war and now he was sleeping in an abandoned warehouse. When this was all over, I’d go back and talk to him. For now, all my attention was on finding Anita.

I picked my phone up from the table where it lay, a useless chunk of anodized aluminium, the empty screen like a black hole, sucking in all my energy. “Say something,” I said to it. After a minute or two, Grey took it from me and stared at it, as though willing it to burst into life with a new text. There was nothing.

We waited until just after five in the morning, when a new round of customers poured in, ordering their full English breakfasts and pots of tea.

“We need to get back to the station,” Grey said. “My advice is that you two go home, get some rest. Do you need a lift somewhere?”

I looked at Josh, feeling helpless. We couldn’t stay in the cafe indefinitely, but leaving felt as though I was abandoning Anita.

“You’re right,” Josh said. “Can you take us to the train station?”

We all piled into their blue Mondeo for the drive and I napped on Josh’s shoulder, but only for twenty minutes. When Grey opened the back door to let us out, the cold jolted me awake. The street was empty apart from a road sweeper and a bus with its windows so fogged with condensation that I couldn’t tell if anyone was inside or not.

“Good luck,” Grey said. “Don’t forget. Let me know when you hear something. We’re on duty for another couple of hours. We’ll get right on it.”

“What if I don’t hear anything?” I said, concentrating on keeping my voice down even though I wanted to scream. “What if he gives up and just kills Anita?”

“He won’t do that. He needs something from you, which means he’ll try again.”

After Grey and Ibori drove away, Josh pushed my hair back from my face and stroked my cheek. “The kidnapper will be in touch, Kate. It’ll be fine.”

I nodded, trying to focus on the fact that Anita was alive while I followed Josh to the platform. The early morning light was dull and flat, threatening another wintry day. I shivered in the icy blast that swept along the tracks.

Josh tackled the ticket machine, succeeding in printing out two one-way tickets just seconds before the train rolled into the station. We jumped on, happy to find that it was early enough for there to be plenty of seats. Even better, we were right next to the buffet car, where we found bacon sandwiches and fresh tea. Fortified by our breakfast, I scrolled through the news on my mobile to pass the time until we reached London Paddington. The breaking news was about a gas explosion in Portsmouth. Josh found it on his phone at the same time.

“Did you read this?” he asked, showing me the headline. I nodded, wondering why he was interested. Clicking on a link, I streamed live coverage from the BBC site. A studio announcer was talking about the explosion. “It’s not clear at this time what the cause of the explosion was, but it appears to have been a gas main. At least one person is dead and there are a number of casualties who are receiving aid from early responders. We’ll bring you more on this story as we receive information. In other news, the stock market—”

I clicked my phone off, but Josh carried on looking at his.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I must be jumpy, but I thought there was a connection somehow to you, to us.”

His jaw was set firm and I could see the muscles flexing in his cheeks. It was so unlike him to react that way that I shivered. If Josh thought there was something wrong, there probably was. But it was a gas explosion in Portsmouth, which was more than fifty miles away on the south coast. This couldn’t have anything to do with Anita.

“Scott?” I said.

“Maybe,” Josh said. “Although they’re not saying that.”

The ticket inspector came past to check our tickets. He was chatty, sharing his opinion about whether we’d get sleet or snow later in the day. As soon as he’d gone, I checked the news again. This time, the headline reported a bomb detonation in a parking garage. The next line made my heart jump around. “The whereabouts of Opposition Leader Simon Scott are not clear at this time.”

Remembering the schedule I’d found during my research at Colin Butler’s office, I pulled up my notes to check. There it was, an early morning speech at a convention center in Portsmouth.

Josh looked over at me. “Are you all right? You’ve gone white as a sheet.”

“Simon Scott is in Portsmouth. And now the news is describing the explosion as a bomb.”

My fingers trembled as I tried to find Detective Clarke’s phone number in my contacts list.

“Clarke,” he said when he picked up.

“It’s Kate. I heard the news. Do you know if Scott is safe?”

“Not yet,” he said. “The explosion happened in the underground garage where his car and driver were waiting for him.”

My stomach lurched. “Is he all right? The news said someone was dead.”

“I don’t have any more details yet, I’m sorry.”

“Will you call me when you know more?”

There was a pause. “If I have time.” He rang off.

I tuned back into the news station that was broadcasting interviews with people who’d heard the blast. The lack of information was maddening. My frustration compounded by the lack of contact from the kidnapper, I found it hard to sit still and kept shifting in my seat.

My phone rang. It was Colin Butler. “I expect you’ve heard?” he said without introducing himself.

“Yes,” I said. “Is Scott safe?”

“Yep. He was late getting to his car because he stopped to talk with a couple of campaign volunteers. Those few minutes probably saved him.”

“What about Kevin Lewis?”

“He’s okay too. He and Scott were together. Their driver was killed, and half a dozen others were injured. It’s a shambles down there.”