‘I couldn’t help it,’ Saslow stammered, aware that anything she did which offended him, would only make him more dangerous. ‘I told you I needed to go. I couldn’t stop it.’
He stepped towards her again and began to unlock the handcuffs on her wrists.
‘If you try to struggle I shall hit you again,’ he said. ‘And this time I shall not be so gentle. If you want a chance of living, do not resist me. Never resist me.’
He removed the handcuff on her right wrist. The one on her left was still fastened to the chain, which attached to the wall.
‘You are alive only because you are useful to me,’ he said. ‘I am not a common criminal. I do not kill or cause pain unless I have to. I am Aeolus, I am the ruler of the winds. I am honourable. I now seek only safe passage. If I am given it, I shall tell them where you are. If not, I shall never reveal your whereabouts and you will not be found, Dawn Saslow. I am telling you this because I want you to know that, if that is what happens, it will not be my fault. It is not part of my plan that you should die.’
He then fetched a bucket from the far side of the room, which he placed beside her.
‘Your toilet, madam,’ he said. ‘Although it seems you know how to do without one.’ His lips curled with distaste.
He went back to the table and brought to her the box he had been sorting through. In it were some basic supplies: packets of biscuits, tins of meat, baked beans and two more bottles of water.
‘You have provisions here to keep you alive, until they get to you. There’s probably enough for a week or so. I would expect them to get to you before that, long before that. Indeed, if they don’t, I suggest you conserve your rations, because that means they have double-crossed me. If they double-cross me, I shall tell them nothing and your life will end here.’
He leered at her. She made herself try to think. What could she say, what could she ask for that might help her?
‘Why don’t you unchain me and free my legs?’ she asked. ‘The handcuffs are too small for my ankles. My feet have gone numb. After all, you said you didn’t want to cause me unnecessary pain. You said you were honourable. And what am I going to do? I accept what you say. I will never be able to get out of here, once you have gone, unless they come to get me.’
‘I do not take unnecessary risks,’ he said. ‘You will remain cuffed and chained. You will just have to hope that Vogel does not try to be clever, that he does my bidding. Then you will be freed. Then and if.’
She made one last attempt to talk to him. He was Willis after all. The man she had worked alongside for almost six months — or at least that was one part of him. Perhaps, if she appealed to that part of him, she might get through.
‘John,’ she said. ‘C’mon. You and I have always been chums. I would never do anything to harm you. Set me free and I’ll try to help you.’
‘Who is this John?’ he asked. ‘I know no John.’
As he spoke, she realised it was hopeless. He turned and walked to the far side of her prison. She watched him pick up a suitcase, clearly pre-packed. Ready for this eventuality, presumably. She realised he was now going to leave her. He took a small torch from his pocket and turned it on. Then he flicked a switch on the wall. The terrible, little room was plunged into darkness, apart from the narrow beam from his torch.
She lost control again then. She’d done her best to engage him and failed. It was over now, probably for good. She began to scream. She could no longer see his face, but she could hear his voice all right. That awful, hissing apology for a voice, half-pompous and half-threatening, the voice that was not Willis any more. The voice that was Aeolus.
‘Make all the noise you like,’ he said. ‘Scream and scream with all your might. You will not be heard. Nobody will hear you.’
She was lying in her own urine and she could feel her bowels beginning to move. She had no control at all over her body any more. She was aware of him leaving though, and the sound of some sort of very heavy object sliding across the floor. Then he’d gone and there was only darkness.
She was quite alone in her stinking, black prison.
Thirty
As promised, the armed response boys arrived within twenty minutes and concealed themselves strategically, both in the car park and inside the building.
Willis and Saslow had yet to return.
Vogel was beginning to get very nervous indeed. He tried to make use of the waiting time by studying Willis’s file and collating everything he knew about the DS. It wasn’t a lot. Willis had graduated as a mechanical design engineer at a Manchester college and worked briefly in construction, before totally changing tack and moving to Bristol to join the Avon and Somerset Constabulary. Vogel had been vaguely aware that Willis had an engineering background, but he had little knowledge of the DS’s early life. After all, Willis barely talked about it.
It had never occurred to Vogel to question Willis’s career switch. Many officers joined the force from very different walks of life. But, if Willis was Aeolus, why on earth had he decided to become a policeman? Vogel had no idea.
An alert had been put out for Willis’s vehicle, with an instruction that no approach should be made, but any spotting reported at once to MCIT. The region’s CCTV units were also alerted, but results from this source would not be immediate. Footage had to be collated and checked. As the minutes passed, Vogel continued to wait uneasily for the return of Willis and Saslow or news that the vehicle had been spotted. The tech boys were swiftly able to identify the location from which a signal had last been picked up from Saslow’s phone. It was an industrial cul-de-sac just off the Avonmouth Road.
A squad car, already located nearby, was sent to investigate cautiously. They called in within minutes. To Vogel’s dismay, they reported that there was no sign of Willis’s vehicle or either officer believed to have been travelling in it, but they did have some disturbing news.
‘We’ve found a phone,’ said Constable Jamieson. ‘It looks as if it was thrown against a wall. The screen’s smashed and the back’s fallen off. The sim card’s been removed and it’s dead as a Dodo.’
‘Is it an Iphone seven plus, with a blue, sparkly case?’ asked Vogel with trepidation. He and Saslow had the same phone, only hers had that sparkling case on it, and she’d actually once threatened to get the pink version for Vogel. They were both Apple devotees and liked to have the latest technology.
‘Yes, sir. We found a case like that, too.’
That was not what Vogel wanted to hear. Clearly this was Saslow’s phone. He slumped in his chair behind his desk. This was the calm before the storm. There was no point in waiting and hoping any more. Willis and Saslow were not returning. Vogel steeled himself to take control of the situation and be ready for the next course of action.
He stood up and headed for the incident room.
It was then that his mobile rang.
The caller was Willis.
Vogel felt his heart thumping in his chest.
He pushed the green button and spoke, in as level a voice as he could manage.
‘John,’ he said.
The voice which responded didn’t sound like Willis at all.
‘If you do exactly as I say, nobody will be hurt.’
It was the voice of someone who expected to be obeyed. It was confident and clear as an English public schoolboy’s, but with more than a touch of a rarely heard accent. Latin, thought Vogel.
‘Go on,’ he said, struggling to keep his voice level.
‘I need to leave the country,’ Willis continued. ‘I shall not trouble you again. I have a place to go. I have a plan. I always have a plan.’ There was a pause. ‘I am Aeolus. I do what I wish, when I wish.’