Alice and Jagjit exchanged a glance. ‘We hadn’t thought of that,’ Jagjit admitted. ‘Actually, we wondered if she might still be alive.’
I shook my head. ‘Doubtful.’ Moving swiftly on, I said, ‘If you found this, the police will already have it and they will have swooped on his premises hours ago. His assets will be seized, his staff will all be on the run …’
‘He’s rich,’ said Alice.
Amanda hitched an eyebrow. ‘How rich?’
Alice had to shrug. ‘His father owned a small airline. Ramsey grew up in a mansion. The houses he’s bought will be small change to him. He could have millions stashed away somewhere. You said he isn’t anywhere the police are looking so we have to assume he’s got a place that is off the books. If he has that kind of money, he might be able to move his whole operation to a new place and set up again.’
This was not what I wanted to hear.
‘Okay. He’s rich, he’s got a small army of willing thugs, and we still have no idea where he is. He is here somewhere, and the sun is going down again in an hour. There is no way Jane and the others will survive tonight. That’s if they are still alive now. There is something we are missing.’
I wanted to go back to his house and search it again. Of course, the police would have taken everything worth looking at so what I really wanted to do was travel back in time and get a better look yesterday.
A sudden noise jolted me. It wasn’t just me; everyone heard it and every head in the office shot around to look at the back door.
Big Ben was already moving, going around us as he started to run. I went with him, but half a second after we heard someone open the back door, we were all running to investigate.
Big Ben got there first, ripping the door open to peer into the barren corridor that led to the carpark.
There was no one there.
Of course, that just prompted us to run to the back door so we could look outside.
Spilling into the carpark, the cold air of late December reminded us that it was necessary to layer up before venturing outside, though none of us were paying attention to the temperature. We were all looking around to spot who might have been at the door.
There was no one in sight. They hadn’t thrown in a firebomb, as happened with my last office, and they hadn’t left a note.
We hadn’t imagined the sound of the door closing though.
Trying to not make it sound like an accusation, I asked Jagjit, ‘Did you guys make sure the door was shut when you came in?’
Jagjit looked about guiltily. ‘I’m not sure.’
Amanda grabbed my arm. ‘There’s no one here. It might have been the wind. Let’s just get back inside and lock the door.’
We did that, trudging back through to the main part of the office where we were met by a huge surprise.
Tempest. A Note from the Sandman. Saturday, December 24th 1417hrs
On the coffee table sat a nondescript cardboard box. It wasn’t there when we left, so someone came in the front door as we all ran out the back. Apart from Alice, I think we all saw it at about the same time. The first surprised gasp from her triggered everyone else to look.
I wanted to run at it, worried it might be a bomb or worried for what might be inside and hoping to stop anyone from seeing it. All manner of horrors filled my mind as I made stuttering steps toward it. I both wanted to look inside and wished I would never have to at the same time.
Big Ben barged by me, giving my shoulder a deliberate nudge as he said, ‘Pansy.’ He made a big act of being braver than everyone else as he strode right up to it when I hesitated, but once poised above it, the nervousness he felt was easy to see.
‘Go on, Mr Indestructible,’ goaded Amanda, never Big Ben’s greatest fan. ‘Open it. Just give the rest of us a moment to get behind a wall. We’ll all say nice things at your funeral.’
Grimacing because now he had no choice, Big Ben grabbed the box lids, held his breath, and pulled them apart.
Nothing happened.
He’d leaned his head back and turned it away - as if that would make any difference if it were to explode. When it didn’t, he opened one eye, swivelled his head around a little and peered at it cautiously.
Since we didn’t appear to be about to die, we all crowded around.
Jagjit asked, ‘Is it a body part?’ The thought made him gag and he had to step away so he wouldn’t see when Big Ben reached in to retrieve the box’s contents.
‘It’s a note,’ announced Big Ben, pulling a neatly folded piece of writing paper. ‘And an old vinyl single.’ He snagged it with two fingers. ‘Guess what song it is.’
None of us needed to stretch our brains to work out it was Mr Sandman by The Chordettes.
Holding the note aloft, Big Ben read it aloud. ‘You can have Jane back; I don’t want her. If you alert the police, you will never find her or her boyfriend. Then there is a ten-figure reference.’
We crowded around, even Jagjit wanted to see now that he knew there wasn’t a head in the box.
Big Ben handed the note over and went to the front door. I watched him, waiting to see if he would spot something, but after a few seconds of scanning outside, he came back
