Captive Reaction

by Dawn Marsanne

  **

  Godfrey Clancy arrived at his surgery at 8 a.m. on Monday morning and was greeted cheerfully by the receptionist Margaret.

  ‘Morning, Margaret, all ready for another week?’

  ‘Oh, yes, it looks like it will be hectic as usual. The phones have been ringing non-stop. Kelly and Angie have already booked out most of the appointments for today. We will no doubt have our usual quota of emergency patients waiting at the end of surgery as well.’

  ‘A typical autumn with all these colds and coughs going around,’ added Godfrey. ‘Well, we better make a start. Give me ten minutes and send the first patient through if they’ve arrived.’

  ‘Certainly,’ replied Margaret. ‘Oh, one more thing,’ and she stood up so she could whisper. ‘There was notification from the hospital about one of your patients,’ and she paused. ‘Mrs Hetherington, Eunice.’

  ‘Oh, is she in hospital then?’

  ‘Well, yes, but she died on Saturday afternoon sometime. The relief carer, not her usual one found her about 6 p.m. in her chair. She phoned an ambulance but there was nothing they could do. The ambulance took her to hospital as a formality and they pronounced her dead. There’s a message saying that as you saw her earlier on Saturday would you be willing to sign a death certificate?’

  ‘Of course,’ said Godfrey. ‘It’s the least I can do. Her heart I guess, her ankles were really swollen. Always a sign the heart is on its last legs.’

  ‘Well, the hospital thinks it’s a waste of time doing a post-mortem. The police think it’s natural causes. So there we are. Very sad.’

  ‘Very sad indeed,’ added Godfrey, ‘I was very fond of Mrs Hetherington. Perhaps you could bring a coffee through to me, Margaret, after that sad news?’

  ‘Oh, of course, doctor, I’ll be along in five minutes.’

  **

  Percy Phillpot was taking his dog out for his usual walk shortly after 9 a.m. on Monday morning. He usually took his dog to the small green area not far from his house. He was a responsible owner and always cleared up after his dog, unlike some people. As he walked along the pavement he muttered to himself about the discarded rubbish along his pathway. An empty beer bottle, a polystyrene burger carton and today something quite different. A woman’s black shoe. That made a change. It looked quite new and smart. He tutted to himself, shaking his head. No doubt some drunken girl lost it last night on the way home from the town. What a state these young women got into, he thought. They were putting themselves at risk by drinking to excess. He just hoped that it didn’t mean something awful had happened in the little park last night. Perhaps he would keep his dog Bertie on his lead today.

  Chapter 22

  Brett was working at home on Monday morning. Annabelle’s house was large and spacious and the smallest bedroom was used as an office by both of them when they wanted to concentrate and have some quiet time. It was located at the back of the house and overlooked the garden. The secluded rear garden contained several mature trees which had started to shed their leaves but the remaining ones displayed the beautiful rich orange and reds of autumn. In addition to working on the business plan for PersCure, he was waiting for some workmen to arrive to replace the rotten fencing in the garden which had blown down in a recent gale. There was no sign of them as yet and he was hoping that they would be able to work without disturbing him or bothering him too much. Annabelle had told him to keep an eye on them and check that they were following the exact design and specifications she’d ordered.

  An email pinged into his inbox. It was from Matt regarding the interest they’d had from well-known investment houses and one particular individual about funding for PersCure. Brett read the upbeat message from his colleague and replied quickly that he would look into them carefully and draft responses. He was more than happy to pay personal visits if that helped. He started to scan through the information and realised how this could be quite a catch for them if they were able to get their name known in the city and secure some funding. Word of mouth was always a good way to gain advertising and the managers would no doubt be well connected with other institutions. He started to click on the section describing venture capital when the doorbell rang. He ran downstairs to answer the door to the men from the fence company.

  **

  Lee had slept fitfully after his phone call from Cole. His alarm sounded at 3 p.m. and he groaned as he reached to silence it. There were some texts from Scott reporting that their target was still in place so he would keep to his original schedule. This evening Scott wasn’t required but instead, another associate was on hand who went simply by the initials RB. He quickly typed a text to RB saying to meet him at 5 p.m. and received an almost instantaneous acknowledgement. His administration completed, he needed some coffee to wake him up properly and something to eat. Firstly, he headed to the bathroom and set the shower at the hottest temperature it could manage and stood under the comforting water, hoping and praying that he could execute Step One satisfactorily this evening.

  **

  Jessica was still sobbing when the van stopped. She realised she should have tried to be more observant on the journey, the speed the van was going, whether it made many turns and so on but she’d been so distressed that she hadn’t taken much notice. However, they didn’t seem to have been travelling for all that long, it was minutes rather than hours. Her hands were still bound so she couldn’t see her watch. Between fifteen and thirty minutes was her best estimate for the journey time. That suggested they were still not that far from Persford.

  There was a bang on the side of the van and her travelling companion released the cable ties, put the dirty pillowcase over her head and got hold of her arm roughly. She heard the van doors open and she was dragged outside. She stumbled and scraped her leg on the slide down to the floor outside and collapsed in a heap.

  ‘Get up you clumsy tart,’ said the voice who had asked for instructions.

  She clambered to her feet, realising she was only wearing one shoe. ‘I’ve lost a shoe, is it in the van?’

  ‘Stop fussing and walk this way,’ said another voice. She limped along, one foot feeling cold as it trod in wet puddles and squelchy mess of fallen leaves. She heard a door opening and she was thrust inside.

  ‘Let me go! I’ve not done anything? What do you want with me?

  One of the thugs grabbed her hair and twisted it tightly. ‘I’ve told you before, shut the fuck up! Do not give us trouble or your boyfriend will be in even bigger trouble!’ They took her remaining shoe off her, pulled the belt out from her raincoat and took the watch off her wrist. She heard one of them mutter “very nice” as he took it. The pillowcase was removed and her eyes adjusted to the semi-darkness. As she was looking around she felt a tug at her hair and then heard a snip from some scissors. She turned quickly to see a lock of her hair being slipped into an envelope. Her captor wore a balaclava, he was tall and well-built but other than that she could see no distinguishing features.

  It didn’t take long to peruse her surroundings. Inside the room there was just a sleeping bag on the floor and a bucket in the corner. Due to the stress of the ordeal, she was desperate to empty her bladder. As soon as her captor locked the door she stumbled over to the bucket and squatted down. When she had finished she wandered over to the sleeping bag and slumped down. This was her prison. For how long though? Why was she there? Surely not for a ransom. Dan had no money. Was Dan seriously in debt? Was his drug habit worse than she suspected? Besides, she had offered them money and they had refused. Was she going to be used for prostitution? Surely not, people like her weren’t targetted in that way, it was absurd.

  Her throat felt scratchy. She desperately wanted some water to drink. She was so anxious she didn’t feel hungry but she hoped they would soon take pity on her and bring her some fluid. Once again she curled into a ball, clutching her coat around her and lay down in the gloom. She thought about Dan. Would he even know she was missing? By now he would be in the laboratory. They had no reason to
contact each other today apart from perhaps a few brief messages. But would he think anything ill was afoot if he couldn’t make contact, she wasn’t sure. Her employer was expecting her but they would doubtless phone her mobile. There wouldn’t be any reason for them to contact Dan just because of one day’s absence. Going through these scenarios in her mind she felt even more forlorn. The frightening thing was she could be missing for a whole day before anyone would miss her and she was beginning to dread just how many awful things could happen to her in that time. She could hold back the tears no longer.

  Chapter 23

  Brett had accomplished much less than planned due to the constant interruptions from the fence people and the fact that he had to keep messaging or phoning Annabelle to update her on progress or lack of it. Just when he settled to send some emails or read through some information there was another problem to deal with. They didn’t bring enough fence panels, then they brought the wrong sort of posts, their extension lead for the tools and cement mixer wasn’t long enough to stretch from the garage so they had to plug it in a socket in the utility room and so it went on. Brett had to take his laptop down to the kitchen to work and it was chilly with the window open allowing the electrical lead to pass through to the garden. He had to keep going up and downstairs to fetch paperwork, then to print things off and it was extremely distracting. He went out to ask them to turn off their loud rap music which was blasting away from a speaker in the garden which seemed utterly pointless as they must have had trouble hearing it over their power tools. He was dreading another day supervising them and with the failing light levels, it looked increasingly unlikely they would finish that afternoon.

  However, he’d completed his main job which was to contact the prestigious fund managers in the hope of setting up a face to face meetings with them and with the wealthy individual who had expressed interest. Brett had suggested he go up to London and meet them at their offices in the very near future. Hopefully he might be able to arrange all the meetings on one day. Matt had been happy with his email so hopefully, very soon he would receive replies and be able to firm up a date.

  **

  Nick was feeling quite tired after his first day back in the chemistry laboratory. Mid-afternoon he’d had to take a couple of paracetamols to stave off a headache. It wasn’t that there had been any particularly stressful incidents but it had been a while since he’d concentrated for a full day. He had to find out where all the equipment was stored and he had to keep asking his colleagues all the time when he couldn’t find things. Hannah and Seth were really helpful and didn’t seem to mind being disturbed all the time but he felt he must have impacted on their productivity. He just hoped that once he got started properly it would make up for the inconvenience he was causing.

  Pat had been really supportive of the suggestions he presented in their small team meeting and so he was preparing to put them to the test. He had most things in place to make a proper start the following day. He was looking forward to being able to put on his first reaction and hoped it would be a success.

  Dan had been in the lab most of the day after his nosebleed and didn’t seem to have had any further episodes. He was sullen and quiet though so Nick hadn’t tried to engage him in conversation. Nick noticed that he frequently left the lab to check his mobile phone and a couple of times he left the office area presumably to make a private call. Perhaps he was having some problems in his love-life. He was no less tense than he’d been first thing in the morning.

  Things seemed to come to a head at around 4 p.m. Hannah was at the sink and in the process of placing the glassware on the drying rack it fell to the floor.

  ‘Shit!’ cried Dan, ‘Christ, Hannah, watch what you’re doing! You made me jump!’

  Seth, Nick and Hannah stopped what they were doing, shocked at Dan’s response. Nick was a bit surprised as from experience he knew that breakages in a laboratory weren’t exactly an uncommon occurrence.

  ‘Dan!’ shouted Seth, ‘give her a break! Haven’t you ever dropped anything? What’s the matter with you?’

  ‘It just gave me a shock, OK?’ replied Dan, glaring at Seth.

  Nick felt awkward and cast a comforting glance at Hannah who looked flushed and embarrassed. Seth went to the cupboard to find the dustpan and brush and held the pan whilst Hannah swept up the pieces. Nick carefully picked up the odd piece which had flown in his direction and silence ensued for a while.

  At 5 p.m. Nick decided it was time to leave as he couldn’t do anything else until the morning and said goodbye to the rest of the team. Polly had her Zumba class on Mondays so Nick walked out to his car alone. The light was already fading and in a couple of weeks, he would be arriving at the university in the dark and leaving in the dark. He hated the short days and was looking forward to the arrival of spring.

  Dan found that his day finished just as poorly as it had started. He took some samples from his reaction and the analysis of them was not encouraging. This was bad news as it put them under increasing pressure to maintain supplies of their front-runner compound UP-627-TK. He’d sent off the sample to the external biology team at the end of last week, so the only supply was that which Thierry had made before he left. He was seriously worried that Phil Sweetman would suddenly find another study requiring material and what if there wasn’t enough to fulfil the order?

  He looked at the clock. It was now approaching 6 p.m. and he realised he must hurry. He had agreed to play five-a-side football that evening and he needed to drive over to a sports hall on the other side of Persford, through all the rush hour traffic. He still hadn’t had any messages from Jessica which was very strange. He tried her phone again but once again it went to voicemail. Of course, she might have left her phone at home that was always a possibility. Perhaps he should have phoned the switchboard at her work but he didn’t want to annoy her. After all, it wasn’t really anything important he had to discuss with her, it was just normal for them to send a couple of messages each day and he couldn’t remember whether he’d told her about football in the evening. He checked that all was safe in the laboratory and then went to shut down his laptop and lock his desk drawers. He quickly sent off another text message, that was all he could do for the moment.

  He donned his distinctive jacket, with the Rebel logo and checking he had his keys and phone walked briskly down the corridor. Erin was the only one of the administrative staff still working which was a bit strange as she normally left at 5.30 p.m. on the dot. They weren’t very well paid so he didn’t really blame her. Why should she work extra hours for no pay? She gave him a friendly smile and he said goodbye and continued towards the exit.

  **

  Brett had already opened a bottle of wine by the time Annabelle got home. He wasn’t in the best of moods as the workmen had annoyed him intensely. They had made reasonable progress despite the problems but had damaged a couple of shrubs in the process and the driveway was a mud-bath. They’d made no attempt to brush it down or wash away the mess. He was going to speak to them about it in the morning. However, he’d had some good news late in the afternoon, when just before 5 p.m. an email from a Mr Jake Marsfield arrived. He said he would very much like to meet him at his earliest convenience and suggested a meeting one evening in a wine bar. He went on to explain that he had a full week of appointments and also it might be more relaxed to meet in less formal surroundings. Brett had replied that he could manage any evening this week but was planning to come up to London on Thursday so perhaps that would be convenient. He let Matt know that things seemed to be moving along and decided that there would be no more PerzSolve work until the following day.

  Chapter 24

  Dan left by the main door and followed the path around the biology building as he headed towards one of the outer car parks. As he walked along he was aware of footsteps behind him and the person becoming ever nearer.

  ‘Got a minute, Dan?’ said the voice from the darkness.

  Dan froze. He didn’t recognise the voice, but
someone obviously knew who he was. He was racked with indecision. Should he run? Should he bluff it out? Suddenly the decision was made for him and another person stepped out from behind some bushes and blocked the path with his bulky frame.

  ‘Thought you might like to do a bit of business, Danny boy?’

  ‘Who are you? What sort of business?’

  ‘You know, coke business.’

  ‘I’ve not got any money on me. Why are you here? I didn’t contact anyone for any snow?’

  ‘Think of it as a favour, a special offer. Buy one get one free, that sort of thing.’

  ‘Ha!’ laughed Dan, ‘your sort don’t do favours. What do you want?’

  ‘Well, I’ve got a little proposition for you. It’s quite a good one!’ said the other man.

  ‘I don’t understand?’ replied Dan.

  ‘Well, I can let you have your usual supply for free. Wayne tells me what your usual order is,’ and he paused, ‘in return for a small favour.’

  ‘Really? And why do I think I won’t like the sound of this?’ said Dan.

  ‘It’s easy, well for you, it’s easy. All we want is some of this wonder cancer drug.’

  ‘What? You’re joking. What do you know about our research?’

  ‘More than you think, Danny boy. Don’t think you are the only one interested in science.’