Хилари Боннер - Deadly Dance

She was quite alone in her stinking, black prison.

As promised, the armed response boys arrived within twenty minutes and concealed themselves strategically, both in the car park and inside the building.

Willis and Saslow had yet to return.

Vogel was beginning to get very nervous indeed. He tried to make use of the waiting time by studying Willis’s file and collating everything he knew about the DS. It wasn’t a lot. Willis had graduated as a mechanical design engineer at a Manchester college and worked briefly in construction, before totally changing tack and moving to Bristol to join the Avon and Somerset Constabulary. Vogel had been vaguely aware that Willis had an engineering background, but he had little knowledge of the DS’s early life. After all, Willis barely talked about it.

It had never occurred to Vogel to question Willis’s career switch. Many officers joined the force from very different walks of life. But, if Willis was Aeolus, why on earth had he decided to become a policeman? Vogel had no idea.

An alert had been put out for Willis’s vehicle, with an instruction that no approach should be made, but any spotting reported at once to MCIT. The region’s CCTV units were also alerted, but results from this source would not be immediate. Footage had to be collated and checked. As the minutes passed, Vogel continued to wait uneasily for the return of Willis and Saslow or news that the vehicle had been spotted. The tech boys were swiftly able to identify the location from which a signal had last been picked up from Saslow’s phone. It was an industrial cul-de-sac just off the Avonmouth Road.

A squad car, already located nearby, was sent to investigate cautiously. They called in within minutes. To Vogel’s dismay, they reported that there was no sign of Willis’s vehicle or either officer believed to have been travelling in it, but they did have some disturbing news.

‘We’ve found a phone,’ said Constable Jamieson. ‘It looks as if it was thrown against a wall. The screen’s smashed and the back’s fallen off. The sim card’s been removed and it’s dead as a Dodo.’

‘Is it an Iphone seven plus, with a blue, sparkly case?’ asked Vogel with trepidation. He and Saslow had the same phone, only hers had that sparkling case on it, and she’d actually once threatened to get the pink version for Vogel. They were both Apple devotees and liked to have the latest technology.

‘Yes, sir. We found a case like that, too.’

That was not what Vogel wanted to hear. Clearly this was Saslow’s phone. He slumped in his chair behind his desk. This was the calm before the storm. There was no point in waiting and hoping any more. Willis and Saslow were not returning. Vogel steeled himself to take control of the situation and be ready for the next course of action.

He stood up and headed for the incident room.

It was then that his mobile rang.

The caller was Willis.

Vogel felt his heart thumping in his chest.

He pushed the green button and spoke, in as level a voice as he could manage.

‘John,’ he said.

The voice which responded didn’t sound like Willis at all.

‘If you do exactly as I say, nobody will be hurt.’

It was the voice of someone who expected to be obeyed. It was confident and clear as an English public schoolboy’s, but with more than a touch of a rarely heard accent. Latin, thought Vogel.

‘Go on,’ he said, struggling to keep his voice level.

‘I need to leave the country,’ Willis continued. ‘I shall not trouble you again. I have a place to go. I have a plan. I always have a plan.’ There was a pause. ‘I am Aeolus. I do what I wish, when I wish.’

Vogel’s heart seemed to do somersault inside his chest. He could barely breathe. He waited. There was only silence.

‘Go on,’ he said again.

‘I need no help from you, not any of you. Alone, I am enough. I need only for you to clear a passage for my journey and not to stand in my way. You may well spot me, on the road or elsewhere, as I begin my journey. You may well spot me as I board an aircraft or a ship or a train. Yet you will not apprehend me. You will do nothing to hinder my passage. ’

The last two sentences were shouted at the top of the caller’s voice. It was filled with menace. Then Willis continued, softer, quieter and even more threateningly.

‘If you hinder my progress in any way, you and your people will never see Saslow alive again. I have her safe, but you will never find her without me and, if you hinder me, I will never tell you where she is. But if you allow my safe passage to another place and another life, then I will contact you. Only when I know that I am free again, will I tell you where she is.’

‘Look, Willis, I will do everything in my power to assist you, you must know that…’ Vogel began.

‘ I am Aeolus ,’ the voice boomed. ‘Willis is my servant. Willis is nothing, Aeolus is everything, all-seeing and all-powerful. All you have to do is obey the orders of Aeolus. If you do not do so, then Dawn Saslow will die and it will be a terrible death. A death decreed by the Gods. So you will obey. You must obey. Aeolus has spoken.’

Vogel’s heart now felt as if was no longer ticking. This was his worst nightmare.

An all out operation was launched to search for Saslow and Willis, with a warning that Willis, must not on any account be approached, apprehended or alerted in any way. The CCTV team pulled out all the stops. They scoured, as a matter of urgency, footage within a five-mile radius of the cul-de-sac where Saslow’s phone had been found. One camera had picked up Willis’s vehicle proceeding north up the B4057 along King’s Weston Road. The shot was such that it was unclear whether or not there was a passenger in the car.

It was Hemmings, who knew Bristol like the back of his hand, who spotted something Vogel never would have done.

‘Hang on a minute, doesn’t Willis live out that way?’ he asked.

Vogel had Willis’s address to hand. A team had already been sent to the detective sergeant’s home, as a matter of routine.

‘Henbury, BS10,’ said Vogel, who had little idea exactly where that was.

‘And his vehicle hasn’t been picked up since?’

‘Not yet, boss,’ said Vogel.

‘The bastard was heading home!’ said Hemmings. ‘If he plans to leave the country, whether we do his bidding or not, he needs a passport, doesn’t he? Does he carry his passport? I don’t know. Most of us don’t, not that he’s most of us. He probably has a selection of passports, I shouldn’t wonder, one for each of his many identities. Well, whatever identity he has chosen for his great escape he’ll need a passport and money. We already know he has at least two bank accounts, his own, and one in the name of Richard Perry. He quite likely has more. If he’s capable of murder as he appears to be so casually then he’s surely capable of embezzlement and theft on a massive scale. He told you he had a master plan, Vogel, and no doubt he does. It makes sense that he headed home to sort himself out, before taking off.’

‘It makes total sense sir,’ said Vogel. ‘But the team already at his house have found no sign of him or Saslow. They’re searching the place as we speak, but so far they’ve discovered nothing untoward.’

‘When did they get there?’

‘About five minutes ago,’

‘So Willis would have had time to do whatever he wanted to do there and leave.’

‘Yes, but what’s he done with Saslow? He said he’d hidden her somewhere we’d never find her. Surely not at his home?’

‘Just make sure the place is torn apart, Vogel.’

‘I will, boss.’

‘And keep checking Willis out. I want to know how we’ve missed this. It just doesn’t seem possible.’