We had been remiss in leaving the doors open, but it had yielded us a result. All our efforts to break this guy down, our hopes to find him before he killed Jane were all for naught because the Sandman wanted to tell us where he was.
‘You know this is a trap, right?’ asked Amanda in a completely rhetorical way.
I nodded. ‘Of course it is. What choice do we have though? If there is even a slim chance we can save any of them, then we have to do it.’
Amanda faced me with a grim expression. ‘He’s luring us there so he can kill us. The police are all over him. We need to get a tactical unit involved right now.’
Big Ben chipped in, ‘She’s not wrong, Tempest. If Jagjit is right about this guy having money, then he could be about to pull a vanishing act. If he does that, he can set up some place new and start killing all over again. He wants us, either as punishment for interfering, or because he thinks he is tying up a loose end. Whichever it is, when we go in, we need to have a plan.’
Amanda snorted her disbelief. ‘What? When we go in? You just said I was right about needing the police. Armed, trained officers, that’s what this situation needs.’
‘Babe, I am armed,’ said Big Ben, lifting each bicep to his lips in turn so he could kiss them.
Ignoring the giant doofus, I blew out a steadying breath and gathered my thoughts.
‘He’s been ahead of us the whole time. Everything we have done in the last twenty-four hours is because he did something to make us do it. He had a man waiting for us at the hospital – that’s got to be where I picked up the tracker. He had men waiting at Jane’s gran’s house. He sent someone to deliver this package. If we so much as speak to the police, he will know. I believe we have one shot at getting Jane back and I plan to save her, Jan, and Karen at the same time. I don’t know how yet, but it starts with working out where he is and then outthinking him.’
No one said anything for several seconds until I added, ‘I’m fine to go alone.’
That created havoc in the office as Amanda started ranting at me and Big Ben got all outraged that I should for one second think he wasn’t coming too.
I tapped Jagjit’s arm to get his attention. ‘I need to see where that grid reference is.’
Jane. Hard Choices. Saturday, December 24th 1424hrs
Just like before, I awoke disorientated and alone in the dark with a dry mouth. This time the dry mouth was due to lack of liquid in the last however many hours I had been held captive. Thankful I didn’t have a gag to wrestle with, I nevertheless found my ankles and wrists bound again.
A small sob escaped me. It had taken so long to get out of my bindings and then the cell last time, I wasn’t sure I had the energy to do it again. My stomach felt like I hadn’t eaten in two days and I wondered if it had actually been that long now. It was long enough that I was becoming weak from lack of food to give me energy.
The fight in the corridor outside came back to me in a flash that had me contort myself around to feel my right leg. The thing I dropped into my boot was still there.
Crunching my aching abs to pull my legs upward, I raised them into the air and wiggled my legs until the thing started moving. It fell from my boot to land on the bed next to me.
Wrestling with two or three or however many of those goons in black robes it was, my right hand came to rest on a pocket. Who knew monk’s robes had pockets? I grabbed the object because my brain told me what it was, but there had been no time to do anything with it.
When the Sandman came towards me with a syringe in his hands, it took less than a startled second to comprehend who he was and where I knew him from. It was Karen’s neighbour. For the life of me, I could not remember his name, but I remembered tackling him to the carpet believing I had caught her stalker.
That I had been right but let him go stung like vinegar in an open wound.
In that second, when I accepted I was about to go back to sleep, I dropped the thing in my hand down my leg. That it fell into the open top of my boot was blind luck even though it was my aim to do so. Nine times out of ten I would have missed; I’m just not that well-coordinated.
Though my hands were tied together, I could still operate it, thanking my stars that I had something in my arsenal finally as I pushed the catch to release the two-inch blade.
I had a knife. The type that folds into its handle. It wasn’t much but it would make short work of my bindings this time.
The lights in the room flashed on, blinding me instantly and burning my eyes through my tightly shut eyelids. Terrified someone was about to come in, I folded the knife under my hands, cutting myself in the process and praying I could keep it hidden.
The door remained resolutely shut, but the speaker boomed into life.
‘Ah, Jane, I see you are awake again. You have served your purpose well, my dear, but your usefulness is about to come to an end. I had planned to sing you to sleep myself, but my followers have been not only loyal but deserving of the gift I intend
