Susie Follows Orders
Page 19
Sirens!
Sirens and many vehicles approaching the house up the long gravel drive at a rapid pace. Raoul jumped to his feet, took a couple of strides towards the door, stopped; flustered; panicking. Triumph rose in Susie’s heart as she watched him floundering. The sheikh, suddenly aware that something was gravely amiss, was obviously torn between the delights of Sophie’s bewitching mouth and the need to react to the imminent emergency.
‘What the - ?’ Raoul blurted, and then he saw the mobile phone lying innocently on the occasional-table, and understanding dawned on his face. He looked at his revered guest, cursed quietly, and then looked at Susie, his expression one of resignation and admiration.
‘What a shame,’ he said. ‘I had big plans for you.’
The alarm was raised by the newsroom immediately after receiving Susie’s hushed and urgent telephone call, and the police operation to storm the house was launched within minutes. The surprised occupants were rounded up, and Raoul and his dark-suited cronies were led away in handcuffs, Raoul smiling enigmatically the whole time, even as, outside on the drive, he was manhandled into a secure van.
Savage threw Susie a vicious look as she also disappeared inside the bowels of the van, and Susie shuddered to think what perverted acts had awaited her at the hands of that loathsome woman had she not thwarted them just in time.
Interpol was contacted and Raoul’s identity had been swiftly established. ‘Just a Colombian freelancer,’ the police superintendent had called him, explaining how he’d fallen out with the boss of his cartel after being caught ravishing his two daughters, and escaped punishment by managing to flee to Britain.
‘But he was still well connected in South America,’ the officer went on, ‘hence the ready supply of drugs. He’s a nasty piece of work, and no mistake. It’s a good job we have him.’
Seeing the admiring gaze of the policemen and her editor, Susie had swelled with pride, though it counted for nothing compared to the safe return of her sister. And evidently any praise only lasted momentarily as far as the editor was concerned, because very soon there would be another Sunday edition to fill, and he made it extremely clear that it was Susie’s job to help fill it.
‘So, tell me again where we’re going?’ asked Sophie, as she settled back in the seat of Susie’s old car. It was mid-morning the following day, and they’d been driving for almost an hour.
‘It’s a little place called Kingscombe,’ replied Susie. ‘There’s a man there I have to go and see. And I want you to meet him.’ Susie remembered the greedy look in the vicar’s eyes when she’d mentioned lusting after another female.
‘He’s the local vicar,’ she explained. ‘But don’t let that put you off. I think you’ll like him... and I know he’ll just love you.’ She smiled happily, feeling beautifully relaxed now the recent traumas were behind them. ‘And after we’ve sorted him out,’ she continued, ‘we’ll go back home, let mum spoil us rotten, and take care of Hugh.’
She patted Sophie gently on the thigh. More gently and at greater length than a sister really should, but then, they weren’t strictly sisters at all, she thought to herself, and let her hand inch a little higher as she scanned the winding country lane for a nicely secluded lay-by...
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