Vienna, arriving 6.06 p.m. Austrian time.
He sensed a presence in the doorway and spun round quickly.
It was Sabrina. She was wrapped in a bathrobe with a towel round her hair and another one round her shoulders. Her eyes looked a lot brighter, and there was a flush of pink in her cheeks that hadn’t been there before.
‘I thought you’d gone.’ She studied him curiously for a moment. ‘You saved me,’ she said softly. ‘Thank you.’
‘How do you feel?’
She gave a shaky chuckle. ‘I’ll live. Thanks to you. I don’t even know your name.’
‘It’s Ben,’ he said.
‘Glad you showed up when you did, Ben.’
‘You’re probably wondering what I’m doing here.’ She tried to smile. ‘Right now, everything is so screwed up, nothing seems that strange to me.’
‘Is Adam your husband, Sabrina?’
She shook her head. ‘He’s my brother. Are you a friend of his?’
‘I just want to ask him some questions. Where is he?’
‘He’s away on business.’
‘In Austria?’
She frowned. ‘Scotland. At least, that’s what he said. But Rory’s gone.’
Ben guessed that she was talking about the boy in the picture. ‘What do you mean, he’s gone?’
‘He was kidnapped,’ she blurted. ‘I wasn’t sure it was true, but now I know something’s going on. I should have called the cops.’ She looked at him as though a sudden thought had come to her. ‘Are you—’
‘No, I’m not the police. Nothing like that.’
‘Then what are you? Just some guy who knows how to break necks and shoot guns?’
‘I’ll explain everything to you. But not here. We need to leave.’
She stared at him. ‘Leave?’
‘Your visitors seem to have found what they were looking for, but they might want to pay a return visit to tie up loose ends.’
Realisation crept into her eyes. ‘You mean me?’
He didn’t reply.
‘Guess I don’t have a lot of choice. Where are we going?’
‘To the nearest pub.’
‘Good. I need a drink.’
‘Not to drink. To talk. Get some clothes on. My car’s outside.’
Sabrina glanced up and down his body. ‘You’re soaked. You need to change. Try Adam’s wardrobe.’
As she got dressed in the bathroom, he took her advice and found a change of clothes in the master bedroom. He gratefully stripped off his wet things, towelled himself down, and quickly pulled on the warm, dry clothes. The trousers were a thirty-six-inch waist, and he had to cinch the belt up tight to make them fit.
A couple of miles from the house was a small village with an inn. Ben parked up the Audi, left the Colt in his bag on the back seat and led Sabrina into the lounge bar. The fire was crackling in the chimney and the atmosphere was cheery with a lot of chatter and clinking of glasses. Irish folk music was playing for the benefit of the tourists, and shamrocks and Guinness logos lined the walls.
‘Welcome home,’ Ben said, looking around.
Sabrina shot him a curious glance.
‘I used to live here in Ireland. Out west, Galway Bay.’ He bought them each a double Bushmills and carried the drinks towards a little cubby-hole with a candlelit table for two.
Sabrina sat opposite him. Brushed the hair away from her face, sniffed and cupped her whiskey in trembling fingers.
‘Let’s talk,’ he said.
Sabrina told him everything. About who she was, about her week’s holiday in Ireland to be with her brother and nephew. About Adam’s peculiar behaviour, the tennis camp and the Edinburgh conference and the strange phone call from Rory. ‘The rest is pretty self-explanatory,’ she finished. ‘You saw what happened.’ As she said it, her eyes clouded.
‘I don’t believe Adam’s in Edinburgh,’ Ben said. ‘I’m pretty sure he took a plane to Austria. He’d been checking flight times before he left.’
‘Why Austria?’
‘Maybe to meet with the kidnappers and talk terms. Maybe that’s where they’re holding Rory. Maybe they’ve sent him on some kind of errand. Or else he’s gone there looking for help, which could be a foolish move.’
Sabrina lowered her head against her hands. When she raised it and looked at him, her face was streaked with tears. ‘Kidnappers. So you really think they’ve taken him?’
‘I’m afraid that’s what it looks like, Sabrina. I’m sorry.’
‘But
‘You don’t have to be rich to be targeted by kidnappers,’ Ben said. ‘People will do anything to get their loved ones back.’ He paused. ‘But this isn’t about money, I don’t think.’
‘Then what?’
‘Information. I think they’re using Adam for something, and Rory is their insurance policy.’
‘My brother’s a house designer. What information could he have that was so important?’
Ben asked, ‘Did he ever mention the name Kammler to you?’
She looked blank, thought for a moment, then shook her head. ‘Not that I can remember. Who’s Kammler?’
‘Your brother was involved in some kind of scientific research. He had some computer files on disc in his study safe. Those people took them. I think whatever is on those discs is what they were looking for.’
Sabrina was quiet for a moment, biting her lip in agitation. Then she reached for her bag and started rummaging in it.
‘What are you doing?’
She found her phone. ‘What I should have done days ago. I’m calling the cops. They’ll know how to handle this.’
He shook his head and leaned across to grab her hand. ‘That’s not a good idea.’
‘For Chrissakes, if he’s in fucking Austria that’s a lead, isn’t it? Surely things can be done? Don’t they have, like, Interpol and stuff for situations like this?’
‘Look at me, Sabrina.’
She was quiet and looked at him.
‘If you call the police, you’re signing your nephew’s death warrant.’
She went white. ‘How can you know that?’
‘Because Adam is under orders,’ he said. ‘That much is obvious. It’s the reason he was acting strangely before he went away, the reason why he made up that cover story about the tennis camp and going to Edinburgh for business. The kidnappers will have made it clear to him that if he breathes a word of this to anyone, they’ll harm Rory. The last thing anyone needs to do right now is start stirring things up.’
She didn’t reply, looked down at the table.
‘Now, imagine what you’re going to put in motion if you involve the authorities in this. With all the best will in the world, it’ll leak out. There’s always someone willing to take a backhander in return for a juicy story. Television. Radio. Newspapers. A whole media circus, with the kidnappers watching every move. You might as well hold the gun to Rory’s head yourself and pull the trigger.’
Alarm lit up her eyes. ‘How come you know so much about all this stuff?’
‘Because it was my job to deal with situations like this, and now I’m looking for someone who’s been missing for a long time. I think that person is in deep trouble, and I have a strong feeling it’s connected to the trouble your brother and nephew are in. Beyond that, right now I really can’t say any more.’
She sighed. ‘So what happens now?’
