Deadline

Thirty-eight

It was after five when he and Mo left the convoy and turned into Andrea's street, having been given the all-clear by the surveillance team watching the house. It was the third time in a little over twenty-four hours that he'd been here, and each time Bolt arrived he felt worse than the time before. He couldn't help wondering how he was going to be feeling the next time he came – if there was a next time.

Heaving the bag containing the money out of the boot, he walked to the gate in silence, Mo following behind. Marie the liaison officer buzzed them through. She was wearing a more concerned expression than usual as she opened the door to him.

'Still no word from the kidnappers,' she told him.

'How's Andrea?'

'She's bearing up, but her nerves are shot with all this waiting. I think all of ours are.'

It was the first sign from Marie that she was getting personally involved in the case. Bolt wasn't surprised. Liaison officers might be highly trained but they were still human, and, he noted wryly, someone like Andrea had always been good at tugging on other people's heartstrings.

'They'll be in contact soon enough,' he said, nodding to Matt Turner who'd poked his head round the door of the study. 'Is she upstairs?' he asked Marie.

'She's in the lounge,' she answered quietly. 'She's been there most of the afternoon. She said she wanted to be left alone.'

Andrea was on the same sofa she'd been on yesterday afternoon. Apart from the change of clothes – she was smarter today, in a white blouse and black knee-length skirt – she might as well not have moved. Her haunted, almost hypnotized expression remained the same, and she only gave him the barest of glances as he and Mo entered the room.

Bolt felt a sudden, almost overwhelming urge to take her in his arms, but he fought it back down. He put the holdall on the floor between them and took a seat opposite her. Mo remained standing near the door.

'They haven't called, Mike.'

'I know. But they will. They want the money, Andrea. That's their sole motivation for this.'

She stared into space. 'I can't lose her. I . . . I just don't know what I'd do.'

Bolt leaned forward in the seat, willing her to look at him. 'You've got to be strong, Andrea. Do you understand?'

'OK,' she said quietly in a voice that didn't fill Bolt with confidence. For the first time he wondered if she'd be able to do what they needed her to do.

'For Emma's sake.'

She nodded, a little more decisively this time, and looked down at the holdall.

'Is that the money?'

'Yes. There's a tracking device attached to the lining on the inside. It's so small it'll be almost impossible to find. There are also two further devices, also very tiny, attached to the notes inside.'

'But surely the kidnappers'll find them?'

'Eventually they will, yes, if they know what they're looking for.'

'Which they do, Mike. You know they do.'

'But we're not going to let them run with this money for long. We'll be following you the whole way as you deliver it. There'll be surveillance teams travelling in front of you and behind.

There'll also be helicopter back-up. There's no way you're going to be in any danger.'

'I'm not worried about me, Mike, I'm worried about Emma. We're putting her life in danger here, and I can't stop thinking about it.'

'Look, we'll keep back so we're not noticeable, and you'll be wearing a mike so we can monitor any conversation you have, and a tracking device so we don't lose you either. Mo, can you put them on for Andrea?'

Mo nodded curtly, and attached the devices to Andrea's blouse while Bolt continued.

'When you've delivered the money and withdrawn from the scene, we'll track the money to its destination. The kidnappers may put the money in a different bag but they won't have a chance to check half a million pounds in cash for trackers. We'll then follow them and the money to that destination and arrest them there.'

'But what if Emma isn't there? What if they're hiding her somewhere else?'

It was the big question, one that Bolt really didn't want to think about, because it represented the biggest flaw in their plan.

'The chances are she will be, Andrea. If all the kidnappers are involved in the drop – and given that there are only two of them, three at the most, they probably will be – then they won't want to leave her alone for long, I promise you.'

'It's all chances and likelys though, isn't it, Mike?' she said as Mo moved aside. 'That's the problem. There are no guarantees. They've already killed Jimmy. What if they kill Emma too?'

Bolt could have added that they'd also killed her cleaner, but he didn't. Back at the Glasshouse it had been decided not to tell Andrea about this latest development until after the ransom drop, because of how it might affect her mental state.

'There are no guarantees, Andrea. Not in something like this. But you've got to trust us. We know what we're doing.' He decided to change the subject. 'Have you ever heard of anyone by the name of Scott Ridgers?'

She lit a cigarette with shaking hands, and blew out a thin plume of smoke. 'No. Should I have? Who is he?'

Bolt told her about the possible connection. When he'd finished, she looked shocked.

'You're not saying this has got anything to do with what happened all those years ago, are you?'

'It's possible. We can't find him at the moment.'

'Was it common knowledge that I told you about the robbery, then?' She glanced at Mo as she spoke. 'I swore you to secrecy.'

'And I kept it secret, I promise. It's just a possibility that he's involved.'

'I only ever met a couple of Jimmy's friends, and I don't remember a Scott Ridgers,' she mused.

'Fair enough,' he said, not entirely able to mask the disappointment in his voice. He wasn't totally surprised. Ridgers was a vague lead at best, and now he was beginning to get vaguer.

It was a long shot, but he pulled out of a pocket an A4-sized copy of Scott Ridgers' latest mugshot and unfolded it.

'This is a photo of him.'

The moment she took it, her eyes widened.

'I know him,' she said simply.