‘Okay,’ Caroline said, piecing the puzzle together in her mind. ‘South from Preston to the Uppingham roundabout, left onto the A47 heading east. Peterborough direction. Train station? Unlikely. CCTV, too many people. Too much of a risk of his car being spotted. His phone’s been off for hours, so he’s keen not to be seen or found. He’s planned this. He’ll be going far away from it all.’ She pulled her phone out of her pocket and opened Google Maps. She ran her finger along the A47 corridor, looking for possible places Tom might have gone. Her heart jumped in her chest as she saw the green area just south of the junction with the A43. ‘Fineshade Wood. Where do I know that name, Dex?’
‘Isn’t that the place he was talking about when we first met him? I thought he said he camps out there sometimes. Yeah. Yeah, he did. He said you should get one of those Swedish huts.’
‘Danish shelters.’
‘Same thing.’
‘We can’t go in heavy. What if he’s armed?’
Dexter’s eyes narrowed. ‘Tom Mackintosh? What’s he armed with, a floppy disk?’
Caroline started the car. ‘He’s a keen survivalist. He’ll have hunting knives. We’re going to need armed response.’
As Caroline pulled out onto the road, Dexter nodded and made the call.
49
As Caroline drove, Dexter had put the call out for extra officers to attend the scene. Although it was just over the border in Northamptonshire, county boundaries were largely irrelevant, especially when the crime had been committed within their jurisdiction of Rutland.
With Fineshade Wood covering well over one thousand acres, it would be almost impossible to find Tom and Amie without a huge number of reinforcements. With Tom’s mindset and intentions still unknown, they couldn’t risk spooking him and potentially endangering Amie.
A little over ten minutes later, they arrived at the entrance road to Fineshade Wood, a narrow, single-track road with passing places scattered along the length of it — not that Caroline had any intention of letting anyone pass. The sun would soon be starting to set, and as they crossed over the River Welland, she wondered if this was the route Tom and Amie had taken, wondered if she’d been right. She knew in her gut she was, but her gut had been wrong before.
They reached the Forestry Commission’s Welcome sign and forked left, towards the main car park.
‘I think the shelters are over that way,’ Dexter said, pointing to their left. He’d brought up a map of Fineshade on his phone.
‘Okay. We can’t go muscling in,’ Caroline replied. ‘We need to know if he’s been here first. Where’s the reception?’
Dexter looked at her, trying to work out if she was serious. It quickly became clear she was. ‘Reception? For the woods?’
‘Well I don’t know how these things work, do I? There must be something somewhere. We need to speak to someone.’
‘There’s a building over there where we came in,’ Dexter said. ‘Think the sign says café. But I doubt they’ll be sitting in there sipping a couple of chai lattes and talking about last night’s Eastenders. You okay?’ he asked as Caroline bit into the skin at the side of her fingernail.
‘I’m fine. How long til the cavalry arrives?’
‘No idea. Didn’t say.’
‘It’ll be getting dark soon. We can’t go flashing torches around in the woods. He’ll spot us a mile off.’
‘What do you suggest?’ Dexter asked, the light levels starting to drop, and another bitter night beginning to set in.
Caroline thought for a moment. She knew what was expected. She knew what the rulebook said. But she also knew what was right in this situation.
‘He knows us,’ she said, finally. ‘We’ve met. We’ve spoken. Surely we’ve got a better chance at talking him round than armed response have wading in with guns.’
Dexter made a non-committal murmur. ‘It’s a huge risk. We’re potentially putting ourselves and Amie in danger.’
‘I dunno, Dex. I think going in mob-handed is riskier here. He doesn’t want to hurt Amie. It doesn’t sit right. The roses on Valentine’s Day, getting her a job, killing Martin Forbes and trying to frame her husband. He’s been wooing her in his own weird way for years. He wants to be with her.’
Dexter narrowed his eyes. ‘What, in a freezing cold hut?’
‘Danish shelter. And yes. He can’t exactly take her back to his place, can he? That’s the first place we’d look.’
‘Yeah, because he knows the net’s closing in and we’re onto him. If he’s getting desperate, he could do anything.’
‘Exactly,’ Caroline said, staring through the windscreen towards the trees. ‘And that’s why we need to act now.’
50
‘This is ridiculous. I can’t see a bloody thing,’ Caroline said a short while later, as she and Dexter stepped off the footpath and started to walk towards the area of the woods that housed the Danish shelters.
‘Permission to say I told you so?’ Dexter replied.
‘Absolutely not.’
‘It shouldn’t be too much further. We should probably start to keep our voices down. There we are, look. Can you see the campfire?’
Caroline cursed as she stumbled slightly, almost twisting her ankle. ‘Would he really take her somewhere like this, Dex? From the way he was talking, I presumed it was right in the middle of nowhere. We’re barely a few yards from the main path here.’
‘Easy in, easy out. Plus he knows the area like the back of his hand. He could head out deeper if he needed to, but why wouldn’t you take advantage of a hut when the weather’s like this? And don’t say it. I know what they’re called.’
Caroline let go of a breath she didn’t realise she’d been holding. Her whole body was tense, and the cold wasn’t helping any. She stretched her arms out straight, feeling the tightness ease on the insides of her elbows. ‘It’s almost hiding
