CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE – BECKETT
I called Mr. Hudson. Told him to come to the house at once. We sat upstairs in my office. It was two pm when he arrived.
“Peter,” I said.
“Yes, sir?”
“I have a problem. I need your help. But first, I need your promise. I need you to swear that you will not tell anyone about what I am asking you to do.”
A thickset, reassuring man with a gravely kind face, Peter shrugged, relaxed. “Client confidentiality, Boss. I already said I wouldn’t tell.”
I let out a sigh of relief. I hadn’t thought of that! He already held secrets of mine—access points, gates—that no one else knew about and that he was basically contracted not to reveal. If he considered this mission a part of that and covered by the same ruling, I was safe.
“Thanks, Peter.” I smiled. “Now, do you know of the Hillcrest Street Gang?”
His eyebrows moved fractionally. His head inclined a fraction more. “I heard of them,” he said guardedly.
“Okay,” I said, pleased. “Now, I have reason to believe—never mind how—that my wife is with them. They have a hideout in the harbor. They are extorting money from me.”
“Oh,” he said quietly.
I felt as if a weight had been pulled out of me into the daylight, where it could dissolve and release me from its burden forever. I had told someone. And that someone could help me put all this to rights for now.
“Well, then,” I said. “We need to get there, get in and get Hayley. Then get out again. D’you think you can do that?”
“Depends,” he said, stroking his chin thoughtfully. I tensed.
“I’ll pay you ten times what I usually do, for this one job. You can retire to Barbados. I’ll be very generous…”
He waved a hand at me. “No, boss. I didn’t mean like that. I meant it depends on if we can do it without endangering your missus.”
I felt like crying. In a world where I had become cynical and embittered, Mr. Hudson brought a ray of sunshine into my life.
“Thanks, Peter,” I said quietly. “I appreciate it. Now. Do you think you can do it?”
He nodded. “I think we can figure out how. But you might need to tell me some more information.”
I felt relief wash through me like a wave. Peter was an ex-military man, someone who knew about undercover operations and would be able to see how to get in and out in the safest manner. He had probably rescued people taken prisoner before. I told him all I knew.
“…so the warehouse is further from the others,” I finished softly. “Not much can be heard from there. And the access from the back is clear. They can’t come around behind us.”
“Good, good,” Peter said. He was chewing his lip thoughtfully, clearly thinking about the strategy. He absentmindedly pulled my Parker pen in as the wharf, the holder becoming the warehouse, while an eraser was our car and a box of staples the hill behind the warehouse. We looked at the scene together. I could see it in my mind’s eye as we discussed our plan together.
That is where Hayley is.
I looked at the box of stapes and the pen-holder, my heart stiff and my throat tight with emotions. I couldn’t be sure, but I knew it. I knew the gang had her, because they hadn’t failed to contact me and let me know that fact. I also knew, very graphically, what would happen to her if I didn’t comply. And I knew they would take her there to keep her captive.
I looked up at Peter, my face tense with worry.
“No worries, Boss,” he said gently as he stood, pushing his chair back from the desk. “We’ll get her out of there.”
“Thank you, Peter,” I said quietly. I knew we had to try and rescue her ourselves. There was no other course of action open to us. There was no option of calling the police on this one. And none of Peter’s men could be trusted. We had to do it ourselves.
“We’ll work well together. And we can do this.”
“Thanks, Peter,” I said gratefully. Paused.
I had wanted to add “I hope so”, but to even allow the possibility that we might not succeed in this was too frightening for me. I couldn’t face that. We would succeed. We had to.
“Now, boss,” Peter said quietly, “we just have to finish off some planning.”
I discussed the plan again with Peter as we stood there in my office, the scent of dusty filing cabinets in my nose and the sound of the garden beyond the windows outside. Then he left.
“I have to get some things,” he said quietly. “See you in about ten minutes, Boss.”
“Thanks, Peter,” I said, gratefully. “Not a word, remember?”
“Sure thing,” he said without even turning around. “I promised, right?”
“Yes,” I acknowledged, seeing him through the door and then turning around, heading back upstairs again. “You did, Peter.”
Upstairs I went to the drawing-room, now converted into a kind of sitting-room, and looked out over the garden. My nerves were shattered, my mind running itself into madness with concern.
What is happening to her out there? Is she okay? If they hurt her, I’ll…
I stopped myself. I was pacing in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, my hands knotted in to fists. I was losing it. I should have called Dr. Brenner. I should have gone on tranquilizers. I’m useless to anyone in the state I’m in…
I sighed and headed into the hallway. That was the least I could do. I should be on medication. And besides, getting the doctor on hand was no bad idea. I didn’t want to think about the fact that the doctor should be here for Hayley, if she needed him when she came out. It was a possibility, though. We were going into a dangerous situation and they had threatened to shoot her if I didn’t comply. I felt my heart thudding in my chest. Yes, I would get Dr. Brenner to wait here for my call. And he should bring a private ambulance and medics too. That would be for the best.
“Dad?”
I turned at the end of the hallway, hearing Estella call me.
“Yes?” I asked.
“What’s happening?” she asked. She looked afraid. Her turquoise-blue eyes were huge and her face was pale with concern. “Where is Hayley? Is she okay?”
I sighed. “Hayley has been abducted,” I said slowly.
“Dad!” Estella covered her mouth with her fingers, her eyes round. “No! She can’t have been!”
“She was. They took her from outside her home sometime this morning,” I explained as I glanced at my watch. It was three-thirty. Damn it! Where was Peter when you needed him?
“Can we do something? Like, phone the police? They’re looking for her, right?” Estella was already taking out her phone. Bless her, I thought. I shook my head slowly.
“It’s okay,” I said raggedly. “Peter Hudson knows where she is. He’s going to get her.”
“Whew.”
Estella swayed backward, visibly relieved. She stood still for a moment, then abruptly slid down and sat on the steps. She looked up at me. “Thank Heavens, Daddy,” she said. “But what can we do? We have to reward him somehow…” she trailed off.
“Don’t worry. I will,” I promised her. I couldn’t imagine what I could do to show him what this meant to me right now, but I was sure something would occur to me. Right now all that mattered was that he got her back.
“When is he going, Daddy?” Estella asked in a small voice. “He went there now? Can I do something?”
I smiled at her. “No, sweetie.” I paused. “Actually, you can do something for me. Can you tell Mrs. Delange to make a big supper? Something that would be easy to eat. And call the doctor for me?” I added.
“The doctor!” she said. Then her face settled into calm. “Sure. I’ll do that. He should come here, right?”
“Yes,” I agreed tiredly. “Ask him to come here and stay here until he is told otherwise.” I bit my lip, thinking about how much it would cost to pay for perhaps his whole day. Dr. Brenner was easily the most expensive person I knew, but I had to be prepared for anything. I headed upstairs.
“Where are you going, Daddy?” she asked suspiciously. “You’re not…please. You can’t go with them!”
“I have to, sweetheart,” I said.
I paused at the top of the steps and looked down at that pale face, her eyes wide and confused and sad. She was the perfect combination of her mother and myself, with eyes that showed her soul and were hers alone. My heart ached with love for her, a physical burning pain. The thought occurred to me that I might never come back. Might never see her again. I had to tell her something while I still could say it.
“I love you.”
She looked up at me.
“I love you too,” she whispered. Then, eyes wet with tears, she turned away and ran down the stairs.
“I’ll call the doctor,” she shouted up to me. “And tell Mrs. Delange to get a dinner ready for you.”
“Thanks, sweetie,” I called. “Remember to stay inside.”
“Yes, Dad.”
I went upstairs. I changed into thick jeans, a dark leather jacket, a cap to cover my hair. I didn’t need anyone to know who I was at that moment. Not that I really cared.
All that mattered was Hayley. And getting her back safely.
I ran downstairs. The house had the air of a besieged building, at least what I imagined one might be like. I passed Estella and Mrs. Delange in the hallway outside the kitchen, talking in low voices. Estella was holding her phone. Mrs. Delange looked tense.
I didn’t say anything, but I nodded to them both on the way past to the front door and the garden.
Estella’s eyes caught mine and our gazes met and held a long moment. It felt as if everything stilled. Nothing existed except us and the possibility I would never see her again. All my memories pressed in, drowning me out with their clamor.
“I love you,” I said. It choked in my throat, a strangled whisper, raw with unshed weeping.
“Be safe,” she said levelly. “I love you. Good luck.”
I felt my chest swell with pride and a little awe. She was so brave, my daughter.
If I don’t get back, please, please let her be okay.
Of all the things that mattered to me in this life, there were three that mattered most. My relationship with my daughter. My relationship with her mother. And my relationship with Hayley.
Nothing else, I realized, as I hailed Mr. Hudson who had just arrived, and opened the card door, swinging in beside him, really mattered at all.
I wished I had learned that sooner. Before it was almost too late. Before I risked losing them all. As I got into the car, I heard the sound I had been dreading the most. The phone rang. I knew the number. It was them.
They wanted me to pay for her life. Or they would shoot her today.
“Pete,” I whispered urgently. “We have to hurry. How fast can this thing go?”
“As fast as we need, Boss,” he said grimly. He put his foot on the pedal and we sped off, shooting toward my worst nightmare. We had to get there as soon as possible. Before it was far, far too late.