Page 82 of Savage Obsession

“Five minutes? Ten?”

“Maybe twenty,” she corrects me.

I do a mental calculation, assuming a top speed of around forty kilometres an hour on the typically narrow Tenerife roads, especially in the less developed north of the island. If Lily’s recollection is accurate, the farmhouse can’t be more than about fifteen kilometres from the hacienda. I relay that additional information to Henio to help narrow his search, then return to my daughter.

“Come on, let’s find you somewhere comfortable to get some sleep.”

She follows me up a short flight of stairs to the offices set on a mezzanine floor overlooking the warehouse floor. One of these has a sofa in it, and I direct her to that.

“You can get your head down there. If you need me, I’ll be downstairs.”

“Daddy, wait.”

I pause by the door. “Did you remember something else?”

“No, but…” She fidgets, her eyes darting to look at the door behind me. “Is anyone else there?”

“They’re all downstairs. Why?”

She digs in the pocket of her jeans and produces a slip of paper. “He said to give you this, but only you have to see it.” She holds out the note.

I take it and unfold the sheet. “Did you read this?”

“It’s in Spanish. I could tell it’s a note from Adan to you.”

I scan the handwritten lines. Llámame a este número. Solo tu. Si le cuentas a alguien más, ella es historia. There’s a mobile phone number jotted beneath the words, and no signature.

I refold the paper. “When did he give you this? I assume it was Adan San Antonio?”

“Yes, Daddy. It was when I was in the car, just before we drove away. He handed it to me through the window and said to give it to you when we were alone. No one else was to see it. And definitely not Mr Kaminski.”

“He actually said that?”

She nods. “Did I do the right thing? He said he’d hurt Mommy if I didn’t do exactly as he said.”

I cup her chin in my hand. “You did well, princess. Now, you get some rest and leave this with me.”

I close the office door softly behind me, then reread the note, translating the brief instructions. Phone me on this number. Only you. Tell anyone else, and your wife is history.

So, Adan San Antonio wants to speak to me privately, and he’s especially keen that Kris shouldn’t know about it. Leaning on the rail overlooking the warehouse floor, I survey the activity down there while I pocket the note and get out my phone.

“What did you tell him?” Kris regards me over the rim of his coffee mug.

“I agreed, naturally.”

Kris smiles. “Right, and did he buy it?”

“I think so.” I slurp my own drink. “He thinks he now has a spy in your camp, someone to feed him information and presumably to sabotage your operations as and when. In return, Julia remains unharmed.”

“Can you trust him?”

“No, but I see no other choice right now. At least until we locate that fucking farmhouse.”

“Well, it would be rude to disappoint him.”

“My thoughts exactly. I need to feed him some intelligence, something accurate to help bolster the illusion.”

“What about the shipment into Los Cristianos tomorrow morning? Might San Antonio be tempted to intercept that?”

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