Page 100 of The Black Trilogy

When I took a closer look at the screen, I spotted a new folder she’d set up titled IMPORTANT—For Emmy to read when she comes back. Uh oh. Ninety-seven messages. At least she hadn’t assumed I was dead. On the downside, it looked as if I had some bedtime reading to do.

But it could wait. I ignored the emails for the moment and put my headphones on. The file from Nick had arrived already, and I listened to it twice all the way through before pausing and rewinding the end, replaying the kidnapper’s comments several times over.

The man’s actions bugged me. When I saw him standing over Luke, I could have sworn he was about to pull the trigger. He’d had his finger on it for sure. But Luke was unconscious by that point. What would the guy have achieved by killing him? Any “professional” kidnapper, and by that I mean one after an easy payoff, would have been long gone. Committing murder would complicate affairs to no end.

My gut said the kidnapper had a personal vendetta against Luke, and that was borne out by Luke’s memories. He wanted Luke’s life? What were the main things in it? His work, his sister, a stack of money, and at one time, me. My chest tightened when I thought of what we’d once had.

Emmy, stop it. Concentrate.

The kidnapper almost took three of those pillars, and indeed Luke himself, out of the picture. Oh, how I wished he’d tried for the fourth. I’d relish the day that man came for me.

But he’d escaped, and now we needed to comb through Luke’s life for anyone with a grudge. Nick’s idea of starting with employees was a good one. For the time I’d been with Luke, he’d done nothing but work and hang out with me. Hardly contentious, and he’d always seemed too nice to make enemies. But did he have any dark secrets lurking in his past?

I sat at the back of the room as Nye briefed the team, preferring to delegate the lead role for the time being. Nye certainly had the experience, and although I might have had seniority on paper, my head still wasn’t in the game. But I did add my thoughts at the end.

“We need to look for someone with a personal grudge against Luke. Try work, ex-girlfriends, their boyfriends, previous domestic staff. Everyone.” Everyone but Henry. He’d panned out as a lead—on the night of the ransom drop, he’d passed out in The Coach and Horses after being slapped by the barmaid.

“Family?” Nye asked.

“There’s only his mother and Tia. His mother’s a self-centred cow, but she’d be shooting herself in the foot if she killed the golden goose.”

“What about neighbours?”

“In the time I spent in Lower Foxford, we barely saw them, but check anyway.”

The team drifted off to their stations, ready to start work, and Nye slumped down behind his laptop. Had he slept at all in the last twenty-four hours? Judging by his yawn, I suspected not.

“Nye, you look awful,” I told him. “Get some sleep.”

“Someone needs to supervise the team.”

Yes, but not him. “I’ll do it.”

“You?”

“I think I’m qualified.”

The rest of the guys looked as surprised as Nye when I settled into the top seat in the control room. Hardly surprising—at least three years had passed since I’d spent a whole day in there. So why now? I told myself it would help in the hunt for Tia, but the truth was, I didn’t want to speak to Luke.

Was I being a coward? Totally. I’d rather face the business end of a machine gun than my inner self, any day, and the curious glances of the staff as I called my contacts in the city were easier to deal with than a single moment with Luke. I didn’t enjoy the scrutiny, but after a while, I tuned out the discomfort. They’d get bored with me after a day or two.

Don’t think, don’t feel, just do. Be a robot, Emmy. I missed the simplicity of my life with Luke. Why hadn’t I told him the truth in the first place? What if he’d known my true identity all along? Maybe, just maybe, there was a chance he’d have liked Emmy as well as Ash. Instead, I’d messed up my first serious relationship in years, probably since Nick, in fact, with no chance of salvaging it. I mean, who would choose to continue a relationship based almost entirely on lies?

All I could do now was concentrate my efforts on finding Tia then getting her safely back.

Tia. I missed her too.

She’d been the sunshine in my life lately, making me smile in the evenings while I waited for Luke to get home. Was she keeping herself together? Had the kidnapper hurt her? The thought of her being held prisoner saw me planning ways to make him pay. And believe me, when it came to making lives a misery, my résumé was second to none. Which reminded me… I needed to fit in some target practice.

Mid-morning, the team who’d gone to check on the stolen number plates returned. The registered owner was one Gabir Hassani, an Iraqi refugee now settled in South London, according to Mack.

“He wasn’t there. His sister said he went home to visit their parents,” the operative told me.

“In Iraq?”

“He left over a week ago.”

“Any chance she was lying?”

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