Blood Ties (27 page)

‘Get in the bloody car, or so help me I will kill her.' Gavin's voice cracked and Naomi cursed inwardly. She heard the car door open. ‘Driver's side,' Gavin barked. ‘And you, in the back, and I swear, so help me, you try anything again and one of you is dead. I don't need both.'

He pushed Naomi forward, twisting her arm painfully behind her back. There was a second when the pressure from the knife released as he reached the car door handle, but it wasn't long enough for Naomi to act. He pushed her inside on to the back seat and slammed the door shut. Naomi curled there for a moment, shocked and angry; she heard the front passenger door slam and Gavin snap at Susan to drive. She guessed the blade would now be threatening the other woman. She struggled into sitting position and felt for the door handle, only to find that Gavin had the child locks on. The handle wouldn't move.

Susan stalled twice before they managed to drive away, Gavin's mounting fury destroying what was left of her capacity to think. Somehow, she managed to get it moving on the third attempt and they lurched out of the car park. Hopefully, she'd be stopped for dangerous driving, Naomi thought bleakly. What do we do now? she wondered. Correction, what did
she
do?

Her bag, her mobile, everything was still in the back of Susan's car. She felt around on the back seat but found nothing that might be of use. She worried about Napoleon, also in the back of Susan's car, grateful that at least it wasn't hot weather, but even so; they never left him alone in the car. He'd be distraught. No, he wouldn't, she corrected herself, he'd go to sleep. Wouldn't he?

When would Alec get back with DI Blezzard? Would he come looking for her? Of course he would, but how on earth could she let him know where they were going when she didn't even know?

‘Where are you taking us?' she asked as calmly as she could.

‘Just drive,' Gavin said. ‘And you, keep quiet.'

He doesn't know either, Naomi thought. He really is making this up as he goes along. He's abducted us but now he has no idea where to go.

A call came through to DI Blezzard from Sergeant Dean just as they came off the motorway and turned right towards Bridgewater at the large island.

‘Find somewhere to spin us round,' Blezzard instructed. ‘We need to be heading back the other way.'

‘What happened?'

‘A disturbance at the flats where Susan Rawlins lives. A man with dark-brown hair was seen forcing two women into a red hatchback. Susan's car is in the car park; your wife's dog is still inside.'

‘Gavin.' Alec spotted the entrance to a factory unit, dived in and U-turned. ‘How much of a head start does he have?'

‘Fifteen minutes at most. Dean's got the CCTV people involved; we'll pick them up.'

‘Not if they head into the countryside, you won't.'

‘No, but there aren't many places to hide out on the Levels. You know how flat it is.' Blezzard tried to sound confident. ‘You want me to drive?'

‘No, I can manage, just don't expect me to keep to the speed limit.'

Blezzard said nothing. Alec put his foot down. Fifteen minutes was a long time at seventy miles an hour, even at fifty. Who was driving, he wondered. Gavin or Susan? Probably Susan; it's hard to keep control of someone when you've got your hands full with steering wheel and gear changes.

‘Alec, you're doing eighty. Slow it down; there's a stack of sharp bends ahead.'

Alec slowed to seventy. Took the bends and then accelerated again as the road straightened and rose steeply.

‘Alec! We end up wrapped round a tree, that won't help anyone. Slow it down!'

Reluctantly, Alec saw sense. Blezzard was on the phone again speaking to Dean. He was at the flats.

Napoleon, recognizing Dean as familiar, if nothing else, was making a fuss of him, Blezzard reported, and Naomi's bag was still in the car, as was Susan's. Witnesses said the man had a knife, that one of the women struggled with him and the other started to run but then got into the car. She, the blonde one, was driving the car.

Alec nodded. Turning into High Street, past the shopping village and into the town centre. The flats, another quarter of a mile on, were wedged in-between older buildings, their approach a narrow entrance that widened into a car park in front of the modern, purpose built apartments. Alec saw Susan's car parked in a numbered parking bay. Visitors' spaces had been set aside on the opposite wall. Gavin must have parked there.

Getting out of the car and glancing around, Alec noticed security cameras above the door. He pointed. ‘Do we have access?'

Dean appeared at the entrance door and beckoned. Napoleon thrust his large head out beside his knee and woofed happily. Alec fussed him.

‘The building supervisor arrived a few minutes ago. He's sorting out the CCTV. We've picked them up heading out of High Street and again on the CCTV near the supermarket. One camera just catches them. After that, of course . . .'

‘We're out in open country.'

‘I've got six cars out; there's only so many ways they could have gone. He'll be looking for somewhere to hole up.'

‘Eddy's place?'

‘I've got someone there, and the scientific support won't have finished yet either.'

‘Pull them out, fast,' Blezzard instructed. ‘Get everyone out of sight, now. He doesn't know the area, so we've just got to hope he heads for somewhere familiar. Where do you think you're going?' Blezzard demanded as Alec started back towards the car.

‘Eddy's cottage.'

‘Oh, no, you don't. Look, see sense. I've just pulled our lot back so we don't spook him. If he goes there we'll soon know. If not then you'll be running round the Levels like some headless chicken and if I need you in a hurry . . . First we look at the tapes, see what we can glean from that. Once we know what we're dealing with we act on it, you understand? You'll do no good chasing shadows out there.'

Alec clenched both fists and then relaxed them, consciously, trying to regain some level of control. He nodded, not trusting himself to speak. Blezzard was right, of course, even though Alec's every instinct to protect, every desire, told him he should be out there looking. The one compensation in all of this was that Gavin didn't know the Levels well. He had a limited choice of where to go and how to get there.

‘What if he heads for Bristol, for his dad's place?'

‘Then he'll have to head back towards the motorway and we'll pick him up.'

‘What if he changes cars?'

‘Not easy with two women to control.'

Especially not if one of them is Naomi, Alec added silently. She would not take any of this kindly. He wasn't at this point sure if that was a good thing or not.

‘OK,' he agreed reluctantly.

Dean led them through to the office and the supervisor, who was already searching through the digital tapes. It didn't take long for him to pinpoint the incident they wanted. Gavin had waited for almost an hour before the women had arrived. Parked in the visitors' space, he had clearly been settled in for as long as it took.

Alec watched in silence as Gavin's car pulled up and blocked Susan's in, as he dragged Naomi from the car, as she fought back, and then Susan's indecision.

‘He's been here before, I think,' the building supervisor said. ‘We had complaints about someone in a red car hogging the space. Mrs Rawlins' ex has been here too. She took out a restraining order against him some time ago, so the downstairs neighbour, Mrs Richards, she took it upon herself to make a note if he ever came around. She told me the other day he'd been here.'

‘Dean, go and see if she can pinpoint when,' Blezzard said.

‘She's the lady who called us,' Dean said.

‘Oh, she'll know,' the supervisor told them. ‘She'll have a record of the date and time and duration of stay, if I know her. She's a one-woman neighbourhood watch, is Mrs Richards. Bless her, she's on her own and doesn't have a lot else to keep her interested.'

Alec ran the recording again, trying to discern more about Naomi's state of mind and that of Gavin. It was easy to see how Susan was coping.

‘He looks nervous,' Alec said. ‘Can we zoom in on the knife?'

The supervisor fiddled with something and focussed in on the hand holding the blade. ‘Looks like one from the cottage,' Alec said. ‘I noticed them because the handles are unusual. Sort of pierced metal. His hand is shaking,' he added. He took a deep breath.

‘We'll get to them,' Blezzard said. ‘Alec, she'll be all right.'

Dean reappeared with a list in his hand. ‘Last Tuesday at about eleven thirty,' he said. ‘And Thursday at ten in the morning. Mrs Richards is sure she's seen Gavin Symonds here before too. She's almost certain it was on the Thursday morning and he was talking to Susan's ex.'

They soon pinpointed the dates and times she had specified on the CCTV. Brian, uncharred and still living, walking across the car park. Susan giving him the cold shoulder. Brian again; Susan shorter with him this time. A glimpse of the red car in the background. Then Gavin walking over to Brian as he stood by the car. The two of them leaving a short time after and, as Brian's car left the car park, Gavin's pulling away just ahead.

‘So, you were right,' Blezzard said to Alec. ‘They did know one another.' His mobile rang and he stepped away to take the call.

‘What is it?' Alec demanded, when the call was finished.

Before he could reply, Blezzard's phone rang again. He held up a hand to silence an impatient Alec and listened, then thanked the caller. ‘They've been spotted at Eddy's place,' he said. ‘I've told everyone to hold back. We'll get the negotiators in.' He nodded to Dean, who went to make the call.

Alec grimaced; he knew from experience that they would take their time getting there. Negotiating teams had to be called, mobilized, briefed, and got to the scene, often from a good distance away. Like tactical firearms units, they were always around but not always where you wanted them.

‘And the other phone call?'

‘The post-mortem on Brian Rawlins won't be done until tomorrow, probably, but the preliminary examination shows that the fire was not the cause of death.'

‘He'd been stabbed,' Alec said.

‘Once. Just below the ribs.'

With the knife Gavin was still using, Alec thought.

THIRTY

‘
G
et out of the car,' Gavin said.

Naomi complied. They had driven out into the countryside; she knew that from the way the road surface had changed and the number of bends had increased. It was very quiet now, just birds singing and that faint susurration, born on a fresh wind, that she associated with the Levels.

‘We're at Eddy's house,' she guessed.

‘So what if we are? Get inside.'

‘I can't see,' Naomi reminded him. ‘You'll have to show me the way.'

‘You, help her,' he snapped at Susan, and Naomi heard the other woman move around the car, felt her take hold of her sleeve.

‘Are you all right?' Naomi asked.

‘Not really. No, I'm sorry, I couldn't run, I—'

‘Shut up,' Gavin said, ‘and get inside.'

Naomi could imagine him anxiously looking around. She'd have expected the CSI to still be here now that the cottage was a major crime scene. Yes, it was possible they could already have left, but someone would have been keeping an eye on the place, surely. She heard Gavin opening the door. ‘Did you see anyone on the road when we came in?' he snapped.

‘What? No, no one.' Susan sounded too distracted to have noticed, anyway.

Naomi tried to imagine what may have been happening. With luck, someone would have seen Gavin taking them away, would have called the police. Someone would have guessed where Gavin would take them, would have officers watching. They would be found, they would be safe. With luck.

Of course, it could be that no one saw, no one acted, that the forensic officers had simply finished and left and Alec would be cross because she wasn't answering her phone.

She preferred the first option, Naomi decided.

‘Get in there,' Gavin demanded, and Susan turned to the left of the hall and led Naomi into what she remembered had been Eddy's office. ‘Sit down over there.'

Susan led her to the couch in the corner of the room and they both sat down.

‘Now, shut up and stay put.'

She heard him leave and the door close, heard something being dragged in front of it. Didn't he realize that the door opened inwards?

She didn't actually think he was aware of anything much any more, not in any logical way, which was worrying in that he may no longer see the logic even in keeping them alive.

‘What will he do with us?'

‘Nothing,' Naomi told her. ‘We're his insurance.'

‘You think so?'

‘Yes. Are there windows in this room?'

‘One, why?'

‘So we can get out.'

‘Are you crazy? He'll hear us. Where would we go?'

If she was right, then someone would see them getting out and rescue would not be far away. But was she right? ‘Is it big enough to get out of?'

‘It's small, but I suppose so.'

‘See if you can get it open. Just open it and then come back over here. Do it fast.'

‘What?' Susan was squeaking with fear now.

Naomi turned to her and reached to grasp her by the shoulders. ‘Look,' she said, ‘if I could do it I would, but you're the only one in the room with all five senses intact at the moment, so it's up to you. Go and see if we can get out through there.'