by Adam Croft
‘Why would he have been sending roses to Amie Tanner every year since her dad died?’
Caroline sighed. ‘I don’t know. Presumably for the same reason he got her the job at Allure in the first place. And the reason why the email from Gavin Tanner to Martin Forbes saying he hadn’t turned up had been deleted at Martin’s end, but not Gavin’s. Because Tom had access to Martin’s computers and accounts.’
‘Christ. Where are you? Did you find the car?’
‘Yeah. We’re in Uppingham. Tom didn’t turn up for work today. He called in at about nine o’clock and said he’d be working from home, but there’s no way that’s where he is. It’s him who’s taken Amie. I know it is. Think about it. She willingly got into someone’s car, so it must’ve been someone she knew. I bet you any money he’s made damn sure he was driving behind her and has flashed her over and told her he’s spotted something wrong with her car. “Jump in with me, we’re going the same way anyway”. I can see it now. Aidan, can we get an emergency trace on Tom’s phone please?’
‘Alright. I’ll go to the Chief Super now.’
‘Cheers. Please be as quick as you can.’
They sat in silence for a minute or two, listening to the sound of the occasional passing car.
‘Want to place a bet?’ Caroline said.
Dexter shrugged. ‘Wouldn’t like to guess. I doubt he’ll have gone into Uppingham. Not if he wanted to get away and take her somewhere. We know he’s not taken her to work, so it’d be too risky going that way. If he took the A47, he’s heading towards either Leicester or Peterborough. I don’t think he’ll be going to either city, but there’re a thousand places along that corridor where he could’ve turned off. Thing is, the second he doesn’t go straight over that Uppingham roundabout, Amie’s spooked. As far as she knows, her colleague’s giving her a lift to work.’
‘Shortcut? Petrol en route?’
‘More like a longcut. And the petrol station’s in the centre of Uppingham. They’d literally drive straight past it on the normal route in. My money’s on the A47. The only question then is how he managed to get away with it. He’s either come up with a cracking excuse, threatened her or incapacitated her.’
‘Last one’s difficult while driving,’ Caroline replied, leaving them both to think for a few moments longer. ‘I just feel like we should be doing something other than sitting here,’ she said eventually.
‘Got to sit tight. Can’t risk flying off in the wrong direction. Phone trace won’t take long.’
Moments later, Dexter’s phone rang. It was a response from the control room. He listened and jotted down a couple of details, then ended the call.
‘Right. Tom’s phone’s been off since six this morning. Last place it was online was at his home. Amie’s, on the other hand, was on until a few minutes before nine. It goes off on the A47, east of the Uppingham roundabout.’
‘Okay,’ Caroline said, piecing the puzzle together in her mind. ‘South from Preston to the Uppingham roundabout, left onto the A47 heading east. Peterborough direction. Train station? Unlikely. CCTV, too many people. Too much of a risk of his car being spotted. His phone’s been off for hours, so he’s keen not to be seen or found. He’s planned this. He’ll be going far away from it all.’ She pulled her phone out of her pocket and opened Google Maps. She ran her finger along the A47 corridor, looking for possible places Tom might have gone. Her heart jumped in her chest as she saw the green area just south of the junction with the A43. ‘Fineshade Wood. Where do I know that name, Dex?’
‘Isn’t that the place he was talking about when we first met him? I thought he said he camps out there sometimes. Yeah. Yeah, he did. He said you should get one of those Swedish huts.’
‘Danish shelters.’
‘Same thing.’
‘We can’t go in heavy. What if he’s armed?’
Dexter’s eyes narrowed. ‘Tom Mackintosh? What’s he armed with, a floppy disk?’
Caroline started the car. ‘He’s a keen survivalist. He’ll have hunting knives. We’re going to need armed response.’
As Caroline pulled out onto the road, Dexter nodded and made the call.
49
As Caroline drove, Dexter had put the call out for extra officers to attend the scene. Although it was just over the border in Northamptonshire, county boundaries were largely irrelevant, especially when the crime had been committed within their jurisdiction of Rutland.
With Fineshade Wood covering well over one thousand acres, it would be almost impossible to find Tom and Amie without a huge number of reinforcements. With Tom’s mindset and intentions still unknown, they couldn’t risk spooking him and potentially endangering Amie.
A little over ten minutes later, they arrived at the entrance road to Fineshade Wood, a narrow, single-track road with passing places scattered along the length of it — not that Caroline had any intention of letting anyone pass. The sun would soon be starting to set, and as they crossed over the River Welland, she wondered if this was the route Tom and Amie had taken, wondered if she’d been right. She knew in her gut she was, but her gut had been wrong before.
They reached the Forestry Commission’s Welcome sign and forked left, towards the main car park.
‘I think the shelters are over that way,’ Dexter said, pointing to their left. He’d brought up a map of Fineshade on his phone.
‘Okay. We can’t go muscling in,’ Caroline replied. ‘We need to know if he’s been here first. Where’s the reception?’
Dexter looked at her, trying to work out if she was serious. It quickly became clear she was. ‘Reception? For the woods?’
‘Well I don’t know how these things work, do I? There must be something somewhere. We need to speak to someone.’
‘There’s a building over there where we came in,’ Dexter said. ‘Think the sign says café. But I doubt they’ll be sitting in there sipping a couple of chai lattes and talking about last night’s Eastenders. You okay?’ he asked as Caroline bit into the skin at the side of her fingernail.
‘I’m fine. How long til the cavalry arrives?’
‘No idea. Didn’t say.’
‘It’ll be getting dark soon. We can’t go flashing torches around in the woods. He’ll spot us a mile off.’
‘What do you suggest?’ Dexter asked, the light levels starting to drop, and another bitter night beginning to set in.
Caroline thought for a moment. She knew what was expected. She knew what the rulebook said. But she also knew what was right in this situation.
‘He knows us,’ she said, finally. ‘We’ve met. We’ve spoken. Surely we’ve got a better chance at talking him round than armed response have wading in with guns.’
Dexter made a non-committal murmur. ‘It’s a huge risk. We’re potentially putting ourselves and Amie in danger.’
‘I dunno, Dex. I think going in mob-handed is riskier here. He doesn’t want to hurt Amie. It doesn’t sit right. The roses on Valentine’s Day, getting her a job, killing Martin Forbes and trying to frame her husband. He’s been wooing her in his own weird way for years. He wants to be with her.’
Dexter narrowed his eyes. ‘What, in a freezing cold hut?’
‘Danish shelter. And yes. He can’t exactly take her back to his place, can he? That’s the first place we’d look.’
‘Yeah, because he knows the net’s closing in and we’re onto him. If he’s getting desperate, he could do anything.’
‘Exactly,’ Caroline said, staring through the windscreen towards the trees. ‘And that’s why we need to act now.’
50
‘This is ridiculous. I can’t see a bloody thing,’ Caroline said a short while later, as she and Dexter stepped off the footpath and started to walk towards the area of the woods that housed the Danish shelters.
‘Permission to say I told you so?’ Dexter replied.
‘Absolutely not.’
‘It shouldn’t be too much further. We should probably start to keep our voices down. The
re we are, look. Can you see the campfire?’
Caroline cursed as she stumbled slightly, almost twisting her ankle. ‘Would he really take her somewhere like this, Dex? From the way he was talking, I presumed it was right in the middle of nowhere. We’re barely a few yards from the main path here.’
‘Easy in, easy out. Plus he knows the area like the back of his hand. He could head out deeper if he needed to, but why wouldn’t you take advantage of a hut when the weather’s like this? And don’t say it. I know what they’re called.’
Caroline let go of a breath she didn’t realise she’d been holding. Her whole body was tense, and the cold wasn’t helping any. She stretched her arms out straight, feeling the tightness ease on the insides of her elbows. ‘It’s almost hiding in plain sight,’ she said. ‘I think we can safely assume he hasn’t drugged her or knocked her out. There’d be no way he could drag her over there, or that someone wouldn’t see her and report it.’
‘That means he’s almost certainly threatened her with a weapon of some sort,’ Dexter replied. ‘You sure it was a good idea to call off armed response?’
Caroline thought for a moment, more as a matter of courtesy than anything else. She knew the risks. She knew it went against conventional protocol. But she also felt she knew how Tom Mackintosh operated. It had all started to make a lot of sense. If it went wrong, Derek Arnold would have her strung up. He’d been strangely loyal and willing to put his neck on the line for her up until now, but even he would have his limits. There was no way she’d be able to get away with making a reckless mistake that cost Tom or Amie their lives.
Tom had thought many things through carefully. He’d clearly been infatuated with Amie for years. But he’d also been impulsive. He’d leapt on Gavin’s request to meet Martin Forbes and used it to frame him for murder. And it had worked, for a time. He’d acted quickly to kidnap Amie when the net started closing in. Caroline felt she knew his mind, and it was clear to her that it needed calming. No rash moves, no gangs of police officers, no weapons.
‘Yeah, I’m sure,’ she said. ‘Let’s go in.’
51
As they neared the clearing, they took in the scene in front of them. A large campfire roared in the middle of the clearing, with a series of wooden structures surrounding it. Each was almost completely enclosed, but open on the side closest to the fire, like a huge wooden trough turned on its side. Caroline could see how these could be cosy, given the right conditions.
She’d been about to turn to Dexter and tell him she didn’t think anyone was there, when she noticed movement. It was the unmistakeable gangly figure of Tom, the bright orange glow of the fire flickering across his face as he stoked it.
Before she could convince herself otherwise, she stepped forward and into the clearing.
It took a moment before Tom spotted her, but his reaction didn’t surprise her. It was as she thought: a young man who’d always wanted, always tried, to do the right thing but who’d got in well over his neck.
‘It’s okay, Tom,’ she said. ‘We just wanted to check you and Amie are okay.’
‘How did you find us?’ Tom replied, his voice hesitant, slightly shaky.
‘It’s our job. Amie’s family reported her missing. They’re worried about her.’
Tom shifted his weight to the other foot. ‘She’s fine,’ he said. ‘She’s a lot safer with me than she is with them, that’s for sure.’ There was a hint of venom in his reply which made Caroline uneasy. The light was difficult at best, and she didn’t know if it was because she was expecting something, but she felt sure he had something in his hand. Some sort of weapon, perhaps. Either way, she couldn’t take any chances.
‘Does she think that too?’ she asked him.
‘She doesn’t know what’s best for her. Not yet. But she will do.’
‘Are you sure? It’s bitter out here, Tom. She could be frightened. Scared. She’s got a family who are worried for her. Why don’t we do what’s best for her, eh?’
Tom’s eyes narrowed. ‘You don’t know what’s best for her. No-one does.’
‘How about you let me see her and ask her, then? I just want to make sure she’s okay,’ Caroline replied, her heart beating heavily in her chest. She hoped her nerves weren’t showing. She needed to maintain control of the situation. Tom looked at her, and she could almost see the cogs turning in his mind as he tried to suss out her intentions. ‘We just want to make sure she’s safe.’
Tom raised his arms slightly, and Caroline got her first sure glimpse of what was in his hand. It was almost certainly a camping knife. ‘Alright,’ he said, far more casually than she’d expected. ‘Come and have a look.’
‘Will you put the knife down first, please, Tom?’
‘Nope.’
‘I really think it’d be safer,’ Caroline replied.
‘I don’t.’
Caroline turned her head towards Dexter, who gave her the slightest, almost imperceptible nod. I’ve got your back were the unspoken words. She stepped forward and watched as Tom turned slightly, opening his body towards one of the shelters. As she got closer, she began to make out Amie’s form inside it, the flickering campfire light occasionally giving her better glimpses. She saw the light playing on Amie’s eyes, looking back at her. They were wide, watery. Scared.
As Caroline stepped closer, she could see Amie’s mouth had been bound with tape, her hands still underneath a woollen blanket. Caroline wouldn’t have been surprised if they were tied together. She wanted to ask Amie if she was okay, but she could clearly see she wasn’t. In any case, the last thing they needed was for her to become a live wire and send the situation spiralling out of control. Caroline needed to keep things calm and level. If they could get the knife from Tom, they’d be ahead. Right now, though, they were far from it.
‘That’ll do. No closer,’ Tom said.
Caroline’s heart sank. She’d been hoping Dexter might manage to somehow outflank Tom, but he was doing all-too-good a job of keeping everyone well within his sights. Now she was between Tom and Amie. On the face of it, she was in a position to protect her, but in reality she knew it was more akin to getting between a lion and its prey.
Amie was trying to mumble or murmur something, but it was inaudible beneath the tape that bound her mouth. She looked more angry than scared now, having seemingly grown in confidence since Caroline and Dexter had arrived, and Caroline suspected it might be best for the tape to stay on, lest Amie say the wrong thing and send the situation spiralling.
‘What’s this all about, Tom? What’s the end game?’ Caroline asked.
‘I’m keeping her safe. Protected,’ Tom replied.
‘She doesn’t look like she feels safe, Tom. She looks scared. Upset. Is that what you want?’
Tom looked towards his quarry, and Caroline noticed a poignant look cross his face. It was the first time she’d seen him contemplate something outside of his own head. It looked almost like empathy.
‘She’ll be fine. She doesn’t know it now, but this is what’s best for her.’
‘She has a husband and kids, Tom. They miss her.’
Tom scoffed. ‘He doesn’t care about Amie. All he’s ever wanted is a trophy wife. You should see how he behaves around them. She deserves better. So much better. She always has.’
Tom’s voice was tinged with emotion, and Caroline thought she saw a way in. ‘You’ve always loved her, haven’t you?’ she said, her voice soft and genuine.
Tom nodded a little, his eyes glistening. ‘Always,’ he croaked.
‘It must be hard. I can’t imagine how difficult it must be watching the person you love go through life without you.’
As she spoke, thoughts of Mark filled her head. She’d been pushing him away. She knew she had. But at the same time there had been nothing she could do to stop herself. She’d spent so long wrapped up in her own head, she’d failed to see the small, simple ways in which she could have made things better for both of them.
‘You hav
e no idea,’ Tom said. ‘No idea at all what it’s been like.’
Caroline let out a small sigh. ‘I think I’ve come closer than I’ve realised. If you love her, Tom, you need to do what’s best for her. She’s scared. She’s upset. She wants to be at home.’
Tom shook his head vigorously, and spoke between desperate breaths. ‘No. That’s not best for her. I know what’s best for her. I’ve known her longer than anyone.’
‘Tom, can I ask you something?’ Caroline asked calmly.
Tom nodded.
‘Did you kill Martin Forbes and make it look like Gavin had done it?’
Tom looked at Amie, holding eye contact with her for a few moments. Caroline could almost see the burden weighing down on him as he began to try to explain.
‘Martin wasn’t a good man,’ he said, shaking his head. There was almost a childish quality about the way he spoke. ‘Nuh-uh. Most people saw one side of him, but some saw a different one. Women, mostly. Amie,’ he said, looking at her. ‘I saw the way he was towards her. I always notice the way people are towards her. She’s my world. Always has been. He couldn’t take it that she wasn’t interested. He’d always had his way with women, but not with Amie. Amie’s too strong. She’s too good. She didn’t give in. But it didn’t make him stop. I saw the way he was towards her at work. He victimised her. Everything was her fault. He picked holes in every little thing, tried to make her life hell. All because she wouldn’t sleep with him. Because she’s good. She’s a good girl. A good little girl.’
Caroline looked at Amie, whose face told a story that was anything but. She seemed to be growing ever more furious, buoyed with a new confidence now she and Dexter were here and fighting her corner. Caroline knew she had to keep Amie calm, too — possibly even calmer than Tom, as otherwise she was likely to provide the tinderbox that’d blow the whole situation apart.
The quietude of the woods was pierced by the shrill ringing of Caroline’s mobile phone. Instinctively, she took it out of her coat pocket. It was Mark. Ringing to say dinner was on the table, no doubt, complaining that she was late home again without bothering to tell him.
