by Elise Noble
I didn’t want to give up that life, and Rune wanted to go home too.
So we’d brainstormed and come up with our rudimentary water collector. It was raining outside—we could hear it hammering against the wooden sides of the house—so we tied my cotton sweater to the bars of the ventilation window with one sleeve trailing in a puddle outside and the other hanging inside over an old metal pail we’d emptied the spiders out of. And now I heard the most glorious sound in the world: the drip, drip, drip of water plopping into the bucket. Which was a whole lot better than what had plopped into the other bucket we’d found yesterday. We’d each had to take it in turns to answer the call of nature while the other turned her back. Old Bethany would have died from embarrassment, but new Bethany realised there were more important things than appearances.
Like staying alive.
And to do that, we needed food. Rune had a packet of glucose tablets with her for emergencies, but they wouldn’t last long.
“What do you suppose is in those old mason jars?” I asked.
We’d spotted them when we explored our prison, stacked on wooden shelves screwed to the wall at the far end of the cellar, filthy, covered in cobwebs, with peeling labels. At that point, I’d still hoped Ridley might bring us something to eat, but two days after we arrived, there was no sign of him. The jars were the only possibility for sustenance.
Rune shuddered. “Either food or body parts. This place feels like a serial killer’s lair.”
As best as we could ascertain, we were in an abandoned house in the middle of nowhere. There was no traffic noise, but the local wildlife seemed particularly active at night. Screams and grunts and cries were commonplace. A bear or a serial killer both seemed very real possibilities, as did Bigfoot. The place was straight out of a horror movie.
I cringed as I reached for a jar, then nearly dropped it when something skittered over my hand. Another spider? A centipede? A cockroach? Yuck. I wiped away some of the grime and held my prize up to the light. Orange blobs floated inside.
Rune stood on tiptoes to read the label. “Peaches. August eighteenth, 1982.”
“Urgh. They’re ancient. Probably full of bacteria.”
“I’m not so sure. Alaric bought me a book on shipwrecks, and I remember scientists testing hundred-year-old canned goods they found underwater and concluding they were edible.”
“Really?”
“The vitamin content had degraded, that’s all.”
In the absence of any other options… “I’d better try them first.”
I popped the top on the jar, flipped it back, and gave the contents a sniff. What do you know? They actually smelled like peaches. I wiped my hands on my jeans and fished one of the slimy little suckers out of its juice.
“Wish me luck.”
It didn’t taste of an awful lot, which I guessed was a good thing under the circumstances. I gave a quiet whoop.
“It’s okay! Can you eat them?”
“As long as I’m careful about the salt and sugar content.”
“Here, try one.”
There were at least fifty jars stacked up, and if even half of them were edible, we could cope for a fortnight. As long as I didn’t succumb to hypothermia without my sweater, that was. At least I’d worn a raincoat on my visit to Riverley—Rune and I could curl up under it at night. Would Alaric be able to narrow down our location? Would Black pay up? Or would Ridley come back and finish us off first?
CHAPTER 46 - EMMY
“WE FOUND HIM once, and we’ll find him again,” Black told Alaric, but fifty hours after Beth and Rune had been taken, we were worryingly short on clues.
We knew for certain that Ridley was our perpetrator, at least. The police hadn’t been convinced at first because what escaped murderer would drive a hundred miles hell-bent on revenge instead of going to ground? A psychopath, that was who. We explained that, but they were still sceptical until we presented them with DNA evidence.
It was Barkley who found it. When we got back to Riverley, the first thing we did was stop to inspect the crime scene, and she’d escaped from the car, bounding around as a dozen people tried to catch her. We’d all been annoyed until she started barking at the ring she’d found in the grass.
Beth’s ring. Alaric had bought it for her before they left London. Sparkling blue sapphires to match her eyes, a sort of pre-engagement ring, he said. Bloody hell. They were that serious?
Alaric had bent to pick it up, only for Black to smack his hand out of the way.
“Don’t touch. It’s evidence.”
“There’s blood on it.” Alaric spoke in a choked whisper. “Beth’s hurt.”
“We don’t know whose blood it is. Somebody get me a pair of gloves and an evidence bag.”
A Rapid DNA test gave us the answer we needed—Beth had injured Ridley. Good on her. I only hoped his retaliation hadn’t been too devastating.
We found Beth’s phone in her handbag and Rune’s smashed beyond the treeline, but what we couldn’t locate anywhere was Rune’s insulin. Alaric insisted she kept a supply with her at all times, and if she still had it intact, that might buy us some time.
Which let’s face it, we desperately needed since we only had two solid clues. Firstly, we knew Ridley had stolen a dark green Toyota sedan back in Norfolk. The woman he’d carjacked was shaken but miraculously unharmed. However, nobody had seen the car since, and thanks to the story being front and centre on every news bulletin, the whole damned country was looking for it.
The second clue? Tennessee. We knew Ridley had been near Sevierville yesterday because that was where he’d sent the ransom note from. He probably thought he was being cute, submitting it via the comment form on Blackwood’s website, but he most likely didn’t realise we’d recorded the IP address of his device. And with that, Mack and her team of happy hackers were able to dig through networks and service providers to work out his phone’s IMEI number. The idiot should have used a VPN. Unfortunately, he was tech-savvy enough to have turned his phone off, so we couldn’t locate him right now, but he’d pinged off cell towers near Sevierville earlier, and that was where we were headed. I was in the helicopter with Black, Ana, and Alaric, and the rest of the team was coming by road.
Had we mentioned this little snippet of information to the police? Not exactly. We’d already gone the semi-legal route with Ridley once and look where it got us. He’d escaped. This time, we’d play for keeps. The cops were using their manpower to stake out the most likely locations as they saw it—anywhere Ridley had lived or had family or known acquaintances. Who was watching the Devane properties? Reporters and sightseers, that was who. Yes, still. Apparently, crime tourism was a growing phenomenon, which meant Ridley would be a fool to go near any of those places.
Of course, we still had the problem of what to do about the ransom request. The note asked for twenty million dollars in Bitcoin to secure the girls’ release and said Ridley would be in touch. He’d wanted me, but when his plan went wrong, he’d adapted on the fly, and now he was using people I cared about as leverage.
Motherfucker.
Black didn’t want to send the money. Not only because it would break Blackwood’s policy and set a dangerous precedent, but because Ridley wouldn’t know honour if it bit him on the ass, and on past form, he’d kill the hostages out of spite. But Black had offered the cash anyway. The final decision was up to Alaric. Whether we sent the funds or not, we’d hunt Ridley to the ends of the fucking earth.
“But will we be too late?” Alaric asked in response to Black’s assurances.
We could be already. I squeezed Alaric’s hand, and for once, Black didn’t seem bothered by that.
“Let’s try to stay positive.”
Alaric looked haggard, hardly surprising since he’d had no sleep since Thursday and barely eaten either. He’d held up a lot better through the Emerald aftermath. I guess it only went to show what was important in Alaric’s world—people, not work or material possessions.
&nb
sp; “If I knew they were alive, I’d pay anything.”
“What if we ask for proof of life?” Ana asked.
Standard procedure in a kidnapping case, but there was a slight hitch, as Alaric already knew.
“How? That motherfucker didn’t give us a way to contact him.”
Black hadn’t said much on the journey. He’d been too busy thinking, and I let him get on with it. Now more than ever, we needed his insights.
“There might be a way,” he said. “If Ridley uses the web form again, we can have Mack set it so any mention of cryptocurrency triggers a pop-up message. No proof of life, no money. If Beth and Rune are still alive, he’ll comply because he needs the funds to run. His finances are in bad shape.” Too much play, not enough work. “And if they’re dead, we’re no worse off.”
“Could you not be so blunt?” I muttered.
“Sorry.”
“Get Mack to do it,” Alaric said. “Tell Ridley we need to hear from both of them. Beth and Rune. If they’re still breathing, we take a chance and send the ransom.”
CHAPTER 47 - BETH
“HE’S COMING!” RUNE hissed.
For the first time in three days, we heard footsteps. Clomp, clomp, clomp on the wooden floor overhead.
“Quick, put the handcuffs back on.”
We’d discussed whether to leave our hands free or not, whether to try and escape by force if Ridley came back. But ultimately, we’d decided against it. Ridley had a gun, and in the confines of the cellar, we’d be sitting ducks. And if we left the cuffs off, he’d no doubt wonder how we’d undone them in the first place. Most likely, he’d search us, confiscate the key, and then put the cuffs back on, which would leave us in an even worse position.
I knew we’d made the right decision when Ridley called out from the other side of the door.
“Stand back, or I’ll kill you.”
We retreated to the corner and waited. Would he notice our rain collection device? Or the empty jars? Hopefully not—my sweater was navy blue, and the food was all at the other end of the cellar.
The door creaked open and Ridley’s silhouette appeared at the top of the wooden stairs, gun in hand.
“Stinks in here.”
“Where else do you expect us to go to the toilet?”
He ignored my words and tossed two bottles of water in our direction. Now he thought hydration might be a good idea?
“Drink that, and then you’re going to make a video.”
“What kind of video?”
He threw a folded newspaper at me too. “Hold that up. You each give your name, the date, and say you’re okay.”
“What is the date?” I asked, just to check we hadn’t somehow lost a day.
“June twenty-fifth. Hurry up—I don’t have time to waste.”
“And what if we refuse?”
“Then I’ve got no further use for you, so I might as well shoot you right now. The girl first. You can watch her bleed to death.”
That was when I understood—Alaric had asked Ridley to prove we were alive before he’d pay a ransom. As long as we played along, he couldn’t kill us, not yet. He might need us again, hence the water. I wasn’t sure whether Alaric would actually pay the ransom or if he was just trying to buy time, but either way, he had a plan, and we had to play our part.
“All right, we’ll do what you want.”
The bottled water tasted like the finest champagne after what we’d been drinking. I offered half of mine to Rune, but she shook her head.
“You finish it.”
“What are you whispering about?” Ridley asked. “Quit stalling.”
I unfolded the newspaper and held it up. The Washington Post. Saudi Arabia was threatening war with Iran, and an experimental rocket promised to usher in a new era of space travel. At the moment, I’d settle for getting out of the damn basement.
Ridley almost blinded us with a torch beam, and I couldn’t keep the tremble out of my voice when I spoke.
“My name is Bethany Stafford-Lyons. It’s the twenty-fifth of June, and I’m okay.”
“My name is Rune Andi Manette-McLain. It’s June twenty-fifth, and I’m okay.”
The light went out, but Ridley kept pointing the gun at us as he backed towards the stairs. I saw it in silhouette.
“Hey, can we have some more water? Food?”
He didn’t answer, just jogged sideways up the stairs and slammed the door. The key turned in the lock with a loud click.
Brilliant.
I slumped against the wall, exhausted, and Rune undid our handcuffs again. We tucked them into our back pockets, ready to be put on again when Ridley came back. If he came back. Maybe we’d been abandoned for good? We’d barely slept, and we’d been rationing the food because we didn’t know how long it would need to last. Rune’s insulin was a bigger worry, though.
“How are you feeling?” I asked.
She managed a faint smile, but I could see it was an effort. “I’m all right.”
“Rune Andi Manette-McLain. That’s a pretty name. Is the Manette part from your mother?”
Rune had barely spoken about her past, although she had told me a little about Thailand and taught me a few Thai phrases to while away the time.
“No, Andi Manette is a character from a book. She and her daughters got kidnapped and imprisoned in a cellar. When Alaric sees that video, he’ll know I’m trying to send him a message, and when he googles who Andi Manette is, he’ll realise where we’re stuck.”
“That’s genius.” For the first time since we got captured, I felt a real flicker of hope. Rune definitely took after her father. “He’ll need to narrow down the locations to search, but he’s smart. He’ll find us.”
“We might not need to wait that long.”
“What do you mean?”
Rune tiptoed over to the stairs. “I didn’t hear Ridley push the bolt across. Did you?”
Honestly? I’d been so frazzled after the video, I couldn’t say either way. But now that I looked, I couldn’t see the telltale shadow across the tiny gap between the door and the frame.
“I don’t suppose you know how to pick a lock?”
“Ravi taught me, but that one looks stiff. There might be an easier way.”
She picked up the newspaper and hurried up the stairs. When she got to the top, she spread the pages wide and slid the whole thing under the door, leaving only a tiny corner on our side. Next, she took one of her syringes and wiggled the capped needle into the lock. I heard the key hit the floor on the other side, and when Rune pulled the paper back towards us, there was the key. Wow.
“Ravi taught you that too?”
Rune nodded. “Should we leave now? Or wait a while?”
I didn’t know why she asked me—Rune was clearly the brighter one out of the two of us.
“Should we leave at all? We’ve sent a clue, and we’ve got enough supplies for another week at least. Longer if it keeps raining.”
“Ridley wants to kill us. If Alaric pays the ransom and doesn’t get to us in time…”
Rune didn’t need to spell it out.
But it was a risk. If we tried to escape and failed, if we got caught, then Ridley would be furious. The man had already murdered his own girlfriend, plus two employees and those people in Syria and Afghanistan, and Alaric said he had a terrible temper.
Could we afford to try escaping? Could we afford not to?
What would Emmy do in this situation? That was an easy one—she’d probably have tunnelled out of there with her bare hands already.
“Let’s listen for a minute or two and see if we hear any more movement.”
There was nothing but the wind outside, the occasional cry of an animal, and the familiar creaks of the old house settling. We had to leave, didn’t we? Rune obviously thought so too. Until then, she’d stayed remarkably calm, but now she was twitchy.
“Stay behind me, okay?”
Rune nodded. At that moment, she looked very much like the child she was
rather than the clever young lady I’d come to admire over the past few days. And I was scared stiff. My heart thudded against my ribcage, and I wondered whether I might die from a coronary rather than at Ridley’s hands.
The door groaned as it opened, and we waited another minute, hardly daring to breathe in case he came back. Finally, we tiptoed out into a dingy hallway.
The house was abandoned—that much was obvious from a glance. Discoloured paper peeled from the walls, replaced by tasteless graffiti, the ceiling was covered in damp patches with the occasional hole, and the few pieces of furniture were dusty and broken. The good news? Half of the windows were either open or smashed, and the front door swung back and forth in the breeze.
Where was Ridley?
And almost as important, where were we?
We bolted out the front door and found ourselves in a clearing. The forest was doing its best to take over, but it hadn’t quite won the battle yet. Which way should we go? There was no obvious path, in fact, no sign of civilisation whatsoever.
“There must be a driveway somewhere,” I said. Ridley had half carried, half dragged us the short distance from the car to the house, but we’d still been wearing the hoods. “Let’s go around the other side.”
With hindsight, we should have taken our chances with the bears.
“What the…?”
Ridley’s eyes widened in surprise when we rounded the corner right in front of him, while I imagined mine held abject horror. I turned to grab Rune, to run, but he reacted first.
“Stay where you are,” he growled.
Instinct made me grab for the gun. It was either that or die. A bullet whizzed past my ear, deafening me, but I’d loosened his grip enough that the gun flew into a patch of stinging nettles.
“Run!” I screamed at Rune.
I was under no illusions that I’d be able to defeat Ridley, but if I could just slow him down enough for her to make a break for it, maybe one of us would survive. If Rune went on to live a long and happy life, that was better than both of us dying in this wretched wilderness.
