Alice hit him from the other side, the pair of us ladies making a sandwich filling of Tempest’s Indian friend.
See this guy,’ he pointed to a name: Toby Carter. ‘I mean, it could be coincidence - I don’t have a photograph for comparison, but the names are the same. Is this the sort of thing you were looking for?’
The question was aimed at me and though it was too early to get excited, I could already feel my pulse beginning to race.
‘This is exactly the sort of thing I was hoping to find.’ I was staring at the name, feeling it etch itself indelibly into my brain. ‘We need to focus on him now, find out if he pops up again anywhere else. Can I leave you doing that, Jagjit?’
‘Sure, I’ll stay on it,’ he promised me, sounding equally excited though he was probably picking up on the emotion coming from me.
Alice asked, ‘What do you need me to do?’
I started toward the door. ‘You and I are going to trawl the internet for Toby Carters, and we are going to find this guy.’
Hurrying after me, Alice questioned, ‘Won’t there be hundreds of them? That doesn’t sound like a rare name.’
I agreed. ‘Probably, but we know his rough age and we know he is local. Unless we are unlucky, we will eliminate all but one or two in just a few minutes. You tackle social media, I’ll go on LinkedIn. He has to show up somewhere.’
Alice jogged back to the reception desk to work on the computer there and I placed a call to Simon and Steven in the crime lab.
Simon answered. ‘Ah, Amanda. I was just about to call you.’
‘You have identified the fingerprint?’ I was literally holding my breath.
Simon cleared his throat. ‘I have, yes.’
I waited a beat, expecting him to say a name or tell me he was just emailing over a file. When I got nothing, I blurted, ‘Well, who is it, Simon?’
I could hear Steven chuckling in the background when Simon said, ‘My colleague advises me to hold the name to ransom until doughnut payment is made.’
I closed my eyes and tried to stay calm. ‘Simon, I cannot express how urgently I need that information. I’ll pay you double. I’ll pay you triple. Heck, I’ll buy out the doughnut store if I need to, but I have to have that name and I need it now!’ By the time I finished ranting, my calm had dissolved, and my voice was close to a shout.
Simon said, ‘Whoa! Okay, Amanda.’
I needed them far more than they needed me, and I was leveraging their good nature to get them to do things that might get them in trouble.
‘I’m sorry, Simon. I just really need that name and whatever else you have on the person. One of my friends has been kidnapped and I think the fingerprint comes from the person responsible.’
Desperately hoping he would say, ‘Toby Carter,’ it felt like a punch to the gut when he said, ‘Ramsey Mitchell. Aged sixty-three. He was booked for shoplifting in 1974. Nothing since. I’ll send you over the file. Usual email address, yes?’
‘Yes, please,’ I sagged, wishing I hadn’t shouted at him. ‘I’m sorry I shouted.’
‘Don’t worry about it. I should have known you would need it urgently. You wouldn’t trouble us otherwise. I’m sending it over now,’ he assured me.
‘I’ll bring the doughnuts by as soon as I can.’
‘That’s okay,’ he laughed. ‘My wife says I am getting fat. I don’t dare tell her I have a young, blonde woman buying me sweet treats. You can have this one for free. There’s already enough sugar in my house to sink a ship. Have a good Christmas.’
I heard Steven in the background echoing his work partner’s sentiments, thanked them profusely, and got off the phone. Rushing to my desk, I found the email waiting for me.
Before I could read it, Jagjit called out, ‘I found another one.’
Tempest. Defeated. Friday, December 23rd 1942hrs
The call from Big Ben interrupted me before I could get to the point where I started begging Karen to see sense. She was terrified to do anything other than hide in her friends’ house. That didn’t work for me, but I didn’t feel that physically dragging her with me was a move I could allow myself to make.
She was looking at me with accusing eyes as if I were the one threatening her life, and Marion had called Buck to come back to the kitchen. I was terrorising their guest and they were going to ask me to leave.
Hilary was keeping quiet, wishing he’d stayed at the office probably.
Trying to figure out something I could say that might make her change her mind, or to come up with a way to make this work without her leaving the house, I lifted my phone to my ear.
Buck was getting hastily whispered instructions from Marion, but I turned away and put Hilary between us so he couldn’t so easily speak to me.
To Big Ben I said, ‘What have you got?’
Bluntly he replied, ‘Jan Van Doorn has been kidnapped.’ He fell silent, expecting me to say something no doubt but my mind was swirling like a hurricane just blew through it. ‘Are you there?’ he questioned.
‘Yup,’ I muttered. ‘How sure are you?’
‘It’s a guess,’ he admitted. ‘His place is trashed though, and it looks like a fight, not a burglary. My guess is the Sandman got here first. Jan’s phone is on the couch, so I think it’s unlikely he went out and this happened afterward.’
Hilary was frowning at me, wanting to know what was causing my brow to furrow so.
‘The Sandman,’ I repeated for Hilary to hear. I was staring into nothing and beginning
