Vogel’s heart seemed to do somersault inside his chest. He could barely breathe. He waited. There was only silence.
‘Go on,’ he said again.
‘I need no help from you, not any of you. Alone, I am enough. I need only for you to clear a passage for my journey and not to stand in my way. You may well spot me, on the road or elsewhere, as I begin my journey. You may well spot me as I board an aircraft or a ship or a train. Yet you will not apprehend me. You will do nothing to hinder my passage.’
The last two sentences were shouted at the top of the caller’s voice. It was filled with menace. Then Willis continued, softer, quieter and even more threateningly.
‘If you hinder my progress in any way, you and your people will never see Saslow alive again. I have her safe, but you will never find her without me and, if you hinder me, I will never tell you where she is. But if you allow my safe passage to another place and another life, then I will contact you. Only when I know that I am free again, will I tell you where she is.’
‘Look, Willis, I will do everything in my power to assist you, you must know that…’ Vogel began.
‘I am Aeolus,’ the voice boomed. ‘Willis is my servant. Willis is nothing, Aeolus is everything, all-seeing and all-powerful. All you have to do is obey the orders of Aeolus. If you do not do so, then Dawn Saslow will die and it will be a terrible death. A death decreed by the Gods. So you will obey. You must obey. Aeolus has spoken.’
Vogel’s heart now felt as if was no longer ticking. This was his worst nightmare.
An all out operation was launched to search for Saslow and Willis, with a warning that Willis, must not on any account be approached, apprehended or alerted in any way. The CCTV team pulled out all the stops. They scoured, as a matter of urgency, footage within a five-mile radius of the cul-de-sac where Saslow’s phone had been found. One camera had picked up Willis’s vehicle proceeding north up the B4057 along King’s Weston Road. The shot was such that it was unclear whether or not there was a passenger in the car.
It was Hemmings, who knew Bristol like the back of his hand, who spotted something Vogel never would have done.
‘Hang on a minute, doesn’t Willis live out that way?’ he asked.
Vogel had Willis’s address to hand. A team had already been sent to the detective sergeant’s home, as a matter of routine.
‘Henbury, BS10,’ said Vogel, who had little idea exactly where that was.
‘And his vehicle hasn’t been picked up since?’
‘Not yet, boss,’ said Vogel.
‘The bastard was heading home!’ said Hemmings. ‘If he plans to leave the country, whether we do his bidding or not, he needs a passport, doesn’t he? Does he carry his passport? I don’t know. Most of us don’t, not that he’s most of us. He probably has a selection of passports, I shouldn’t wonder, one for each of his many identities. Well, whatever identity he has chosen for his great escape he’ll need a passport and money. We already know he has at least two bank accounts, his own, and one in the name of Richard Perry. He quite likely has more. If he’s capable of murder as he appears to be so casually then he’s surely capable of embezzlement and theft on a massive scale. He told you he had a master plan, Vogel, and no doubt he does. It makes sense that he headed home to sort himself out, before taking off.’
‘It makes total sense sir,’ said Vogel. ‘But the team already at his house have found no sign of him or Saslow. They’re searching the place as we speak, but so far they’ve discovered nothing untoward.’
‘When did they get there?’
‘About five minutes ago,’
‘So Willis would have had time to do whatever he wanted to do there and leave.’
‘Yes, but what’s he done with Saslow? He said he’d hidden her somewhere we’d never find her. Surely not at his home?’
‘Just make sure the place is torn apart, Vogel.’
‘I will, boss.’
‘And keep checking Willis out. I want to know how we’ve missed this. It just doesn’t seem possible.’
No, thought Vogel, but we damned well have missed it. We’ve been working alongside a crazed murderer for years and we didn’t have a clue.
Aeolus
I knew exactly what would be happening within MCIT. I had specialist knowledge of similar investigations. Nothing on this scale, of course, nothing like the havoc I, Aeolus, have wreaked. But I knew I could second-guess the lot of them.
There would already be a call out for Willis’s vehicle. They had probably already spotted me at least once or twice. Sooner or later, they would pick up on the direction in which I was now travelling. They would have already sent a team to search Willis’s home.
That didn’t matter. They would find nothing there that would lead them to be able to apprehend me. Nothing which would shed any light on what I had done in order to protect myself. I was Aeolus and I could not be harmed. I must not be harmed. I still had another life awaiting me in another land.
Perhaps they would work it out in the end, but that’s probably giving them too much credit. Anyway, by then, I would be clean away. After all, how would they dare stop me, when my freedom was the price they must pay to allow poor, little Dawn Saslow the chance to survive?
Not that the chance was all that great, fifty-fifty probably. Sure, I’d left her food and drink, but she probably needed medical attention from the blows I dealt her.
I wouldn’t expect her to last long. Her only real hope for surviving was if nobody got in my way and I reached my destination safely and quickly. Otherwise, she would die.
I felt no animosity towards Saslow. Indeed, she had been probably the least annoying of my alleged colleagues within the Avon and Somerset Constabulary.
But neither did I feel anything else for her. No affection. Not even professional regard. It is impossible to feel such things, when her abilities were so much more inferior than mine.
I wished her no harm. But if she died, then she died. I did not care. I was Aeolus. I had to protect myself.
Thirty-One
Vogel was on his way back to his office when Willis’s ex-wife arrived. So much had happened since his phone conversation with her, that he’d practically forgotten that Vera Court had agreed to come in.
Vogel had never met Vera. He’d transferred to the Avon and Somerset only relatively recently, long after Willis and his wife had parted. In any case, he doubted that Willis would have ever included his wife much in his working life. Vogel, being a private man himself, hadn’t even considered that there was anything odd in Willis’s reticence concerning anything personal. He kicked himself now. Willis was right, he thought, he was supposed to be so damned clever and yet he’d spotted nothing amiss. He chastised himself. Another, more outgoing officer might have been so much more aware. Although, of course, Willis had somehow or other kept up his front within the force for many years. And nobody came close to guessing what lay beneath his calm exterior.
Vera Court was a surprise. Vogel didn’t know why she should be, but she was.
She was tall and thin, with spiky blonde hair. She was dressed young and streetwise, sporting stonewashed jeans, boots and a funky, leather jacket. She appeared to be neither mumsy nor downtrodden ex — nothing like the rather cliché-ridden image he had imagined.
She and Vogel walked together through the incident room, en route to his office. Vogel could see her looking around at the photographs and charts lining the walls. She no doubt watched the news on TV and read newspapers. Vera Court had already made it clear on the phone that she was no fool.