You Are Dead

8

Thursday 11 December

Jamie Ball, normally a careful driver, tore like a man possessed along Edward Street, peering through the windscreen blurred by the pelting rain, weaving in and out of the heavy rush-hour traffic, flashing his lights and hooting, and ignoring the angry horns and waved fists that came back at him. His entire body was pulsing with fear.

A speed camera flashed him and he didn’t care. He was oblivious to everything but the desperate need to get home, to make sure Logan was OK. He turned sharp left, the car skidding on the wet surface, the tyres juddering for traction as he accelerated up the hill, then made a right into their street. Ahead he saw a police patrol car parked close to the entrance to their apartment block.

He pressed the clicker, waited impatiently for the electronic gates to swing open, then started to drive down the ramp. Almost straight away he was stopped by a uniformed police officer who ran up out of the car park. He identified himself and was directed into an empty bay.

Immediately he jumped out of the car, leaving the door open, and to his immense relief saw her little white Fiat neatly parked in its usual space. She was OK! Thank God, thank God! Then he turned to the police officer and asked, ‘Where’s Logan, my fiancée, what’s happened? Is she OK?’

‘I think it would be best if you go and speak to my colleague who’s gone up with the caretaker.’

He felt a sudden chill of fear. ‘Why? What’s happened?’

‘They’ll be able to update you upstairs, sir.’

Jamie raced along to the lift, and rode it up to the ninth floor. As the doors opened he stepped out, and saw a uniformed police officer, accompanied by Mark, the caretaker, emerging from their flat.

‘Hi!’ he called out. ‘Is everything OK?’

‘Hello Jamie!’ the caretaker greeted him.

‘Logan? Is she OK, Mark? She phoned me — she said she saw an intruder in the car park.’

‘I haven’t seen her,’ Mark said. ‘She’s not home yet, Jamie.’

‘Yes she is, her car’s downstairs!’ He looked at the police officer, ignored her quizzical stare and eased his way past her and into the flat. He strode down the hallway, past their mountain bikes leaning against the wall, turned left into the small anteroom which they had lined floor-to-ceiling with bookshelves, housing his entire collection of Lee Child novels and many of their other favourite crime, horror and sci-fi writers, and into the large, untidy, square living/dining room. No sign of her.

‘Logan!’ he called, hurrying back into the hallway. He checked their bedroom, the boot Logan had tripped over earlier still lying by the bed, the en-suite bathroom, the tiny guest bedroom, the kitchen, the guest loo and shower room. He went back into the living/dining room and opened the door to the small balcony. Sometimes she went out there for a cigarette, despite his attempts at getting her to quit. But the two plastic chairs and little white table sat there, forlornly drenched in the rain, the soggy stub of a cigarette lying in the ashtray in a pool of water.

He stepped back into the living room and closed the door against the elements. The police officer had returned, with the caretaker standing behind her. ‘I’m PC Holliday,’ she said. ‘My colleague and I attended at the underground car park of this building following your call, earlier. So far we haven’t found anything suspicious — Logan’s Fiat is parked and locked in its allocated space downstairs, and there’s no sign of any disturbance in your flat.’

‘She phoned me from the car park as she drove in. Then she screamed, and her phone went dead.’

‘Have you tried her again, sir?’

‘Yes, I’ve been calling her constantly all my way here.’ He tugged his phone out of his trouser pocket and dialled her number again. Six rings and it went to voicemail. ‘Darling,’ he said. ‘Call me, please, as soon as you pick this up, I’m really worried.’ He ended the call and looked back at Susi Holliday. ‘She always calls me back within minutes. It doesn’t matter what she’s doing — she always calls me back — and I always call her back.’

‘She definitely drove to work herself, sir? She didn’t get a lift from a colleague, which could explain why her car is here?’

‘No, for God’s sake! She called me from her car, down in the car park. She said she’d seen a man down there and screamed. It was a terrible sound. It wasn’t like her. Can we go back down to the car park and take a look?’ Jamie pleaded.

The officer’s radio crackled. Jamie heard a disembodied female voice say something he couldn’t discern.

‘Charlie Romeo Four,’ Susi Holliday answered. ‘We’re still attending at Chesham Gate.’

‘Thank you, Charlie Romeo Four. Let me know when you stand down.’

‘Yes, yes,’ she replied. Then she turned to Jamie Ball.

‘Did you and your fiancée have any kind of an argument today, sir?’ Susi Holliday asked.

‘Argument? No, why?’

‘I noticed blood on the bottom of your bathroom door, earlier.’

‘Oh, that. She tripped getting out of bed and gashed her toe on it. She was going to go to the hospital this morning to get it looked at.’

‘The hospital would be able to verify that, would they, sir?’

‘Yes, of course.’ Then Jamie Ball hesitated and stared at the officer. ‘Oh God, you think I did something to her? For Christ’s sake!’

‘I’m afraid we have to ask these questions, sir.’

Jamie grabbed the spare keys to Logan’s car and then they took the lift back down to the car park to join Kyrke, and the three of them headed over to the Fiat.

‘One thing I should add,’ Ball said, ‘is that Logan’s diabetic. She’s Type-2 — needs to keep her sugar levels up, otherwise she can risk a hypo.’

The officer nodded. ‘Where do you work, Mr Ball?’

‘In Croydon, Condor pet foods.’

‘We’ve got two Rhodesian Ridgebacks,’ PC Kyrke said, walking over and joining them. ‘The wife swears by Condor — Condor Vitalife.’

‘Good to hear that,’ Jamie said, without enthusiasm. ‘It’s an excellent product.’

‘Better than raw meat?’

He shrugged. ‘From what I know it’s more of a balanced diet than raw meat.’

They reached the Fiat.

‘She was down here when she called you?’ PC Holliday asked. She held up her iPhone. ‘It’s a very poor signal.’

Jamie nodded. He pulled out his phone again. The signal veered from one dot, to zero, to two. He dialled Logan’s number again, and moments later heard it ringing. Very faintly.

They all could.

For an instant, the caretaker and two officers looked at him. Frowning, he fumbled with the key then opened the car door. Instantly the ringing was louder.

Her phone was lying in the footwell almost under the passenger seat.

He started to lean across to pick it up, but was held back by PC Holliday, who reached past him with a gloved hand. The ringing stopped. Holliday knew that recovered phones were normally retained for forensic digital evidence, but as a life was potentially at risk she decided to check the phone immediately. She held it up and asked him for the code, which he gave her. She tapped it in and stared at the display, and saw nine missed calls from ‘Jamie Mob’. She asked if it was him and he confirmed it was.

He looked at the two police officers. ‘She’d never — she’d never leave her phone. She wouldn’t go anywhere without it.’

But although he could see sympathy in their expressions, he could also see they were a tad sceptical.

‘I’m afraid all of us leave our phones behind sometimes,’ PC Holliday said. ‘Done it myself.’

‘Me too,’ the caretaker chipped in. ‘I couldn’t find the thing for two days.’

‘Something’s happened to her. Please believe me. Something’s happened. I heard her scream, for God’s sake!’

Their radios crackled again and once more he heard a female voice.

‘Charlie Romeo Four,’ PC Kyrke said, tilting his head and speaking down into the radio clipped to the left of his chest.

‘Serious RTC at the A23–A27 junction. RPU need some assistance. Can you advise me when you’re free to attend, Charlie Romeo Four?’

‘Yes, yes,’ Kyrke said. ‘But I think we’re going to be a while.’ Then he turned to Jamie Ball. ‘Excuse me being personal, sir, but was everything all right between you and your fiancée? No arguments or anything like that?’

‘Nothing. We’ve bickered like every couple, but we’ve never had a real argument in all the time we’ve been together. We love each other so much.’

Susi Holliday stepped away from the others, feeling increasingly concerned about what she had heard. She radioed Control and requested that the Duty Inspector attend urgently.