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Chapter 47

‘Look, love, I know you’re Dawn’s sister, but he’s her husband; that puts him in the driving seat as far as I’m concerned. So if Miles says no police, I’m not going over his head.’

She frowned at me in the mirror as she ran a brush through her hair. ‘Maybe you’re not, but I don’t like sitting on my bum with Dawn’s life in danger. It’s not just Miles who cares about her, and you and me. There’s Mum and Dad, and thousands, maybe millions, of other people who’ve seen her on the screen and feel part of her.

‘Those of us who are here don’t just have a duty to Dawn to get this right; we owe it to all of them too.’

I pulled my belt tight, fastening it in the sixth hole; two years earlier, before I started working out with the wrestlers, I could only manage the fourth. ‘Fuck all them,’ I said, bluntly. ‘It’s Dawn I care about. If I thought you were right, then sure, I’d force Miles to call the Old Bill. But Mark Kravitz is our hired gun; he’s the security expert, and he has a personal and professional reputation to protect. I don’t hear him demanding that we bring in the coppers.’

She put down the hairbrush and looked at me, evenly. ‘To borrow your expression, fuck Mark Kravitz.’

‘Don’t do that, please. Not so close to our wedding.’

Not even a trace of a smile crossed her face. ‘Don’t give me reassurance, Oz. I want action; we have to do something.’

I know when to give in to Primavera. It’s one of the secrets of our sucess as a couple. ‘Okay,’ I told her. ‘Let’s talk to Miles.’

We found him alone in the dining room, looking at breakfast with little or no interest. ‘Where is everyone?’ Prim asked.

‘I’ve sent everyone home, or in Kiki Eldon’s case, back to her office. I don’t want any of them around; just you two.’

‘What about Mark?’

‘He’s gone too. We don’t need protection any more; it’s happened already. We know who Oz’s stalker is now, but there’s not a Goddamned thing we can do about it. It’s like a chess game, and he’s captured our Queen.’

I didn’t like his mood; he seemed to be beaten, and all of a sudden I was on Prim’s side of the argument, one hundred per cent.

‘Look,’ I told him. ‘To quote a famous ex-boxer, we may be just prawns in the game of life, but we’re not quite helpless. Even prawns can topple over-confident kings if there are enough of them. We’ve got a rogue knight on our team too. I’m going to call Mike Dylan; he’s been in on this from the start anyway. . come to think of it, it was him who started it.’

‘No,’ Miles protested, weakly. ‘Queen, or Donn, if that’s his real name, said he’d know if we called the cops.’

‘Mike isn’t the cops. He’s Special Branch; he can do things without the rest of the force knowing about it. He has done already. It was him who put me on to the brothers Neames, remember. Stephen Donn was a mystery to us. He was a night person; no one knew anything about him. But now we have an alias, someone else in the same skin. Maybe Dylan can find out something about Stu Queen — like where he lives, for a start.’

‘How? I’ve already called the agency who hired him out to us. They don’t have an address, only a mobile phone number.’ He took a slip of paper from his shirt pocket and pushed it across the table.

‘Okay, that’s a start,’ I said. ‘Let’s give it to Dylan and see what he can come up with. Look behind most mobile phone numbers and you’ll find a direct debit drawn on a bank account. This isn’t the Pope we’re after, Miles. This bastard’s fallible just like the rest of us. Maybe this number will lead us right to his front door.

‘Then there’s the van. We know already that there’s no vehicle registered with the DVLA in Stephen Donn’s name; not this Stephen Donn, anyway. But what about Stu Queen? Maybe he owns a Transit, or a Movano, or something similar, and maybe Mike can trace him through the log book.’

The movie star looked up at me; only a man now; a weak, vulnerable bloke like the rest of us. No way could he have got away with playing a thirty-something that morning. ‘And if we can, what does he do when Dylan’s stormtroopers batter down his door?

‘Oz, Prim. I’ll give this man whatever he wants just to get Dawn back, and our baby.’

Primavera gasped beside me, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw her hand go to her mouth. I hadn’t told her that Dawn was pregnant; that truth held a special sort of pain for me, and I couldn’t bring myself to talk about it, not even to her. Miles didn’t know that, but Prim did; she squeezed my arm in a way that said everything.

‘I know you will, Miles,’ she said, gently. ‘I wouldn’t put Dawn in danger any more than you would. But she’s in danger already; the more we know about the person who’s holding her, the better we’ll be able to deal with him when the time comes. . however we go about it. Now; do you agree that we call Mike?’

Eventually, he nodded, wearily. ‘Do it. But on a mobile phone; if there’s even the slightest chance that Donn has a tap on the line here, you’d better not use it.’

I agreed with that. As always, I had my cellphone hooked on to my belt. I took it out and keyed in Dylan’s direct line number in Pitt Street. He was there.

‘Mike, it’s Oz,’ I began. ‘Listen; is this line secure?’

‘Of course it’s fucking secure, you bammer. This is Special Branch.’

I complimented him on his ever-improving grasp of Glaswegian; and then I told him what had happened. About Dawn’s kidnapping, about the letter, about Stu Queen who was really Stephen Donn, and about his uncle’s part in identifying him.

‘I’ve always said,’ he said, when I was finished, ‘that the secret of good detection is luck. Doesn’t matter whether you’re a seasoned professional like me, or an inept, stumbling amateur, like you or like old Donn.’

‘Luck, mate,’ I told him grimly, unimpressed by his flippancy, ‘will be getting Dawn back alive.’

‘Sure, I know. Sorry.’

‘Can you help us in this, discreetly? Whatever ransom the guy wants, Miles will pay it, but in the meantime, will you find out anything you can about him?’ I read him the mobile number. ‘We think he has a van too. Medium sized.’

‘Big enough to build a hidden compartment inside it? That’s a favourite dodge with kidnappers. There was once a guy who was stopped by the police with a victim inside his Transit. They opened the thing, looked inside, and still they didn’t know.’

‘Big enough for that, I guess.’

‘Mmm, right.’

‘Mike, can you look into this without telling anyone else?’

‘Of course I can. I keep having to tell you. I’m Special Branch; I can do what I fucking like. Leave it to Uncle Michael.’ I could almost see his reassuring smile. ‘What are you lot going to do in the meantime?’ he asked.

‘Miles is going to call his accountant and start liquidating assets.’

‘How much can he raise?’

‘Ten if he has to.’

‘Ten what?’

‘Don’t be gauche, Dylan.’

‘Ten mil, eh,’ he whistled. ‘It makes my scrotum tighten just to think about it.’

‘Think yourself lucky. Young Stephen Donn may not have one of those after Miles and I get hold of him.’

‘Let’s hope Miles has a couple of interesting new paperweights in due course, then. How about you and Springtime — I assume that Prim’s there — what are you going to do?’

‘Wait for the guy to send us another note, telling us what to do next.’

‘Aye, if he writes.’

‘Or for a phone call. .’

‘Aye, if he phones.’

‘Whatever. You just get on with your end as fast as you can. Okay?’

‘Okay. I’ll call you back when I have something.’

‘Call my mobile, okay? Don’t use the land-line, for-’

I heard Dylan sigh ‘-for security reasons. Just don’t insult me by saying it. Honest tae fuck, do you think I sailed up the Clyde on a water biscuit?’

He really has been in Glasgow too long, I thought, as I pushed the red button to end the call.