Killing the Beasts

Chapter 3

May 2002

The following Monday Tom got the call from head office in London. With all the rush of chasing business before the Games began, he'd failed to notice how much Ian was away from the office. Now it turned out his meetings were with a prospective employer — 'The Giant Poster People', their biggest competitor. The conflict of interest meant Ian had to leave It's A Wrap immediately.

The director from the London office asked him to pop down to Ian's office and make sure that he wasn't in. Shocked, Tom did as he was told. It was obvious Ian had been in over the weekend; all of his personal effects had disappeared, even down to the 'Head Honcho' placard from the door. Tom went over to the filing cabinets. The keys were all in the locks. He pulled drawers open and looked over the clients' files inside. They all seemed in order. He sat down at Ian's bare desk and had a quick peek in the drawers: a couple of biros and Post-it pads. He'd even taken hole punches, staplers and the big calculator with built-in clock and alarm. Tom picked up the phone and let the London office know that Ian was well and truly gone.

Next he was put through to the IT department and asked to turn on his former boss's PC. Once it was booted up, the person at the other end of the phone gave him Ian's logging on details, Tom wincing as he had to type the word 'WINNER' into the password field. He was asked if the computer's desktop appeared especially empty, as if things had been deleted. Tom thought that nothing looked amiss. An inner box then appeared on the screen, asking him if he would let jim.morrel@itsawrap.info remotely access the computer. The person asked him to click on the 'Yes' button and as soon as he did the cursor began to move of its own accord with bewildering speed. The IT specialist shot through Ian's directory, opening up files and asking Tom if everything appeared in order. As far as he could tell, it seemed to be. The cursor carried on its quest, taking Tom deep into the machine's hard drive, rummaging through deleted files while the voice in the phone's earpiece supplied an emotionless commentary. The only stuff Ian had wiped was of a personal nature — emails to his wife, downloads from BBC Sport on anything to do with Chelsea football club and bookings for hotels round Manchester with lastminute.com.

Finally the voice said nothing to do with any clients appeared to have been deleted, though an unusually large number of files had been accessed over the course of the previous week. He was passed back to one of the directors. After a bit of a talk that included the phrases 'rudderless ship', 'crucial period', 'man with local expertise' and 'exceeding targets', Tom was offered Ian's old job.

Sitting back, he stalled for time. He would have to talk it through with his wife, Tom replied. Launching into a few plans Charlotte knew nothing about, Tom explained they were thinking of starting a family, possibly moving house. Finally he added that he had a week's holiday booked, starting from that Thursday.

With a soothing tone to his voice, the director said he fully understood. He appreciated that stepping into Ian's shoes in the circumstances was a 'big ask' but, he added, it would be a move accompanied by a 'commensurate pay rise and profit-related bonus'.

Knowing the extra money would bring the move to Cornwall within his reach, Tom thanked him for his offer and requested a little time to come back with an answer. The director instantly agreed, adding, with a hint of regret in his voice, that he would need an answer in twenty-four hours.

Pushing his front door shut behind him eight hours later, he flung the keys to his Audi TT on the hallway table. 'Honey, I'm home,' he called out in a fake American accent, placing his briefcase on the oak plank floor and shrugging off his Paul Smith suit jacket.

'In here,' called a voice off to his side. Passing the doorways leading into the living room and dining room, he paused to glance in the mirror on the wall at the end of the corridor. Then he stepped into the kitchen, poured a glass of red wine from a newly opened bottle and sauntered back into the front room. His wife was sitting on the leather sofa, long legs curled up under her and strands of blonde hair swirling over the cushions behind her head. Spread out on the coffee table before her was a mess of holiday brochures: Greek Villas, Tapestry Travel, Ionian Idylls. None looked remotely mass market.

Slumping down next to her, Tom cocked his head to the side. 'Snaff, snaff, snaff, what have we here then?' he announced in a creaky voice, but their age difference meant his Professor Yaffle impersonation was lost on her.

She folded open the brochure across her lap and looked at him with heavily lidded eyes. 'Darling, it's got to be Greece; look at these properties. Private beaches, their own olive groves, pools. This one even has a rooftop garden and barbecue area.'

Tom smiled, wondering how to start telling Charlotte about his day. After the conversation with the director in London, Tom had logged on to the Cornwall tourism web site, clicking through the 'businesses for sale' section. The small cafe on Harbour Road overlooking Towan Beach was still for sale. It was going for a London price, but then so would his house in Didsbury if he sold it.

Tom knew he was at a crossroads in his life: either pack in his job now and avoid the stress of the coming months, or see it through until after the Games and reap the financial rewards. The part of him that always sought compromise was already urging him to put off the move to Cornwall for a while longer. The only question nagging at the back of his mind was whether he could cope with all the added responsibility of taking over Ian's job.

'So, you like the idea of your own private beach, then?' he asked, the Cornish coastline in his mind's eye.

Charlotte smiled at him. 'Well, it would beat the sunbeds at the gym.'

Tom took a breath. 'Ian's left. Buggered off to our biggest competitor. Really left us in the shit. I got a call from one of the directors down at the London office.'

Charlotte raised herself up, turning to face her husband, her mind working through the implications. 'And?'

'Well,' said Tom, feeling like he was blundering into a pool of quicksand. 'They were sounding me out about taking over. But,' he carried on swiftly, before she could interrupt again,' it's going to be mayhem in there over the next few weeks.' Voice trailing off weakly, already knowing how things would turn out.

Sure enough, Charlotte leaned towards him and took his hand in both of hers. 'They've offered you Ian's job?' she said slowly.

'Yes.'

She screeched with delight and flung herself on to him. The wine in his hand came dangerously close to sloshing over the carpet and he had to lean forward to quickly place it on the table.

'Oh Tom, Tom, Tom. I'm so proud of you,' she said, face pressed against his chest. Slowly he was forced backwards by her weight until he was lying diagonally across the sofa.

The decision had been made. Tom told himself that, as long as he packed the job in once the Games were over, he could get through it.

Having pinned him beneath her, Charlotte raised her chin, wisps of fine hair hanging over her face, a wild and mischievous look in her eyes. 'They'll have to up your pay bigtime,' she said, grinning.

Tom nodded, thinking of the work and pressure.

'And didn't Ian drive a bright yellow Porsche Boxter?'

He nodded again, knowing everything would be resting on his shoulders.

A strangled 'Yes!' escaped her lips and she banged her fists up and down on his sternum. He felt like a heart-attack victim.

'Bollocks to Greece. I know where we deserve to go!' she squealed. She launched herself off him and ran across the room towards the computer in the corner. 'I'll check for flights now. Oh, I can't believe this!'

From his ungainly position on the sofa Tom watched as his wife pushed the chair towards the terminal. Her tight buttocks quivered under white cotton tracksuit trousers with each step and his chest clenched with desire. Twenty-two and she hasn't got a clue, he thought with a smile.

Later that night, as they lay naked and asleep, an empty bottle of champagne and a mirror speckled with dots of white on their bedside table, a dark-blue Ford passed their driveway and pulled up in a space under the trees further down the street. The passenger door clicked quietly open and a man got out, straggly ginger hair briefly lit by the car's inner light. Treading carefully, he walked back up the road and turned confidently through Tom's open gates.

The metallic grey paint of the Audi TT reflected back with a liquid shine what little moonlight was breaking through the cloud layer above. The man's eyes lingered on its shimmering form as he passed the vehicle. Cutting across the small patch of grass at the side of the garage, he stepped noiselessly up to Tom's front door and crouched down.

With the tiniest of creaks, the letterbox slowly opened and a second later a thin torch beam probed the dark hallway. The spot of bright light slid across the floor, crept up a wooden leg and then eased on to the surface of the small table just inside the front door. A polished coconut shell full of loose change. A mobile phone. A packet of extra strong mints. A tube of lipstick. A couple of unopened letters. And a set of car keys.

Next the man hung a square of felt-like material through the letterbox. The flap lowered, then opened again as a garden cane with a hook on the end was fed through, the quivering length of wood extending out into the darkness like the tremulous tendril of a plant seeking sunlight. The hooked tip finally made it to the end of the table but stopped short of the keyring itself. The man strained against the other side of the door, trying to increase the reach of his implement by a few millimetres, but it was no good. He drew the length of metal and flap of material back through the letterbox and the circle of light moved to the edge of the table, jumping suddenly to the far wall and briefly dazzling him as the beam was reflected back by a mirror. The torch clicked off and the letterbox was lowered back down.

The man walked back down the driveway, the forefinger of one gloved hand lightly tracing the length of the vehicle as he did so.

Back in the car the driver looked at him. 'Hey Sly, not like you to come back empty-handed.'

Sly shot him a sour look. 'I'll get them next time,' he murmured.

They drove on towards Altrincham, coming off the M56 at junction six, moving along Altrincham Road and ignoring the first houses they passed: the driveways were too long and the gates too high. Instead they headed towards the centre of the village, searching for houses that directly bordered the road with driveways only fractionally longer than the cars parked on them. Soon after passing the fire station they spotted a black BMW A5 parked outside a 1930s semi-detached house. The men glanced at each other and the driver pulled over in the first available space.

Sly got out and went to the house, automatically noting the absence of a burglar alarm. Seconds later the letterbox was pushed open and the torch shone through the gap. Immediately it revealed an art deco lamp on a small shelf just inside the doorway. Holding up the globe-shaped lampshade was a coppery green female nude and from the outstretched fingers of her free hand hung a set of car keys.

'Bingo,' he whispered, hanging his flap of thick material through the letterbox. Next he fed the garden cane through, angling the hook at the end upwards towards the lamp. Breathing in deeply, he made an effort to steady his hand, then, focusing on the keyring itself, he expertly threaded the hook through it. Gripping the implement as tightly as he could, he joggled the thin length of wood up and down until the keys were dislodged from the statue's fingers. Their weight transferred to the hook and the cane bent slightly, but he was ready for that. He slid everything out, the keys brushing silently against the flap of soft material.

He turned the torch off, placed it at his feet, then grasped the set of keys and slipped them off the end of the garden cane. After extracting the flap of cloth, he turned his attention to his prize. On the fob was a photo of a young boy, the sort given to grandparents. The key to the BMW was obvious enough, as was the key to the front door itself. Thinking about the lamp in the hallway, he walked to the end of the drive and held up a thumb. The Ford's engine started up and the car pulled quietly away.

Knowing he wasn't meant to take anything else from the houses, he returned to the front door and slid the key into the lock. The door opened with hardly a sound. Stepping into the hall, he looked at the collection of photos of the same young boy crowding the little windowsill to the side of the door. Definitely a grandparent's house, he decided. Reaching round the back of the lamp, he found its cord with his fingers and traced it back to the plug in the wall. Just as he pulled it out he heard a footstep on the landing above. He froze, head bowed. A faint pull of breath came from the top of the stairs. Perhaps it was the absence of a male voice telling him to get out, but he somehow knew that it was a woman. All the advantage was his. She was up there, disoriented with sleep, in her nightclothes, probably alone and without a phone.

He pulled a Stanley knife from his coat pocket, held it against one of the photos and slowly dragged it down the glass. A thin rasping noise filled the silent house.

He heard a sharper intake of breath and then a wavering voice said, 'Leave this house immediately. I'm calling the police.'

From the dark hallway below her Sly leered, 'And how will you do that, Grandma? You won't be able to speak if I come up there and kill you.'

She let out a gasp of fright and he heard bare feet running away from the top of the stairs. A door slammed shut and a key turned in a lock.

He climbed halfway up the stairs and announced in a menacingly low voice, 'If this key doesn't work for that Beemer out there, I'm coming back inside for you.'

Then, laughing to himself, he slid the blade back into the stubby handle and returned the knife to his pocket. After wrapping the cord round the figure, he walked calmly from the house, held the key fob towards the vehicle and pressed the button. The vehicle's security system beeped as all the doors simultaneously unlocked. Minutes later he was driving back towards the motorway, heading towards the Russian's garage on the industrial estate in Belle Vue. After the car had been dropped off, its registration plates would be changed and documents prepared for the agent to ship it out to the Russian's contacts in Moscow.