Catch Your Death (32 page)

Vernon shook his head. ‘You never used to be like this. You’ve changed, Kate.’

She didn’t look at him. Paul was walking back from the petrol station, his face downcast. He must have sensed that she was looking at him and he glanced up and smiled: the kind of small smile that says, ‘I know I shouldn’t be feeling any happiness right now but I can’t help it’. And she felt a little jolt of love. She could still feel Paul’s imprint on her, from when they had last made love.

‘
You’re right, Vernon,’ she said. ‘I have changed.’

Paul got into the car and Kate leaned across and kissed him, not caring about the sensation of Vernon’s eyes burning into them.

‘
Let’s get on,’ she said after pulling away.

They drove back onto the motorway. The minutes passed: Kate watched them on the dashboard display, watched the speedometer, obsessed over the mileage on the signs they passed. London 50 miles, 40 miles, 30 miles. They left the M40 and hit the M25. Still no sign of accidents or hold-ups. Paul put the radio on to check the travel news and everything seemed unnervingly normal.

This is all a dream, thought Kate. But when I wake up, where am I going to be? In Boston, still married to Vernon with him grumbling in his sleep beside me? Or in a London hotel, sweating with the anxiety of being caught?

Or back in 1990, at the flat she shared with Stephen? She’d wake up and find he was watching her as she slumbered, as he sometimes did, and he’d kiss her before she said, ‘I had the strangest dream.’

CHAPTER 39

They rolled into the small Sussex village of Mayfield with half an hour to spare, passing through silent country lanes, the headlights illuminating the trees that lined the road, eerie in the darkness. Not really knowing where to stop, Paul followed a gentle hill up to what appeared to be the main street. They parked outside a church with a graveyard stretching downhill beyond its wonky stone walls. There was no-one around, no lights in any windows. The village could be deserted, apart from them, and when Kate spoke she found herself whispering.

‘
So what do you think we do now?’

‘
Wait for the call,’ Paul replied.

All three of them stared at the phone on the dashboard. Kate picked it up and pressed a button, waking it up and making the screen shine. Paul reached across and rubbed Kate’s shoulder, which made her start and pull away.

‘
Sorry. I’m so on edge.’

‘
Why don’t we call this asshole ourselves?’ Vernon suggested.

Kate didn’t bother turning to look at him. ‘Because he told us not to.’ She almost added, ‘Stupid’, but she was sick of squabbling with Vernon. He really wasn’t worth it. Not any more. He’d never been worth it – it was just that she’d taken a long time to realise it. It saddened her to think of all those wasted years, young years, when she could have been free, or with someone who would make her happy. Jack was the only good thing that had come from their marriage.

Jack. A wave of nausea and exhaustion swept over her as she pushed the door open, ready to be sick, wondering faintly if it was sinful to throw up in the grounds of a church, when the mobile rang, its jaunty tune ridiculously inappropriate.

Paul went to pick it up but she shoved his hand away, grabbed the phone and said, ‘Yes? We’re here. Where is he?’

‘
I knew you wouldn’t let the boy down.’ Sampson’s voice was, as ever, cold and flat like an Arctic landscape.

‘
His name’s Jack, you bastard.’

‘
You sound…emotional.’ He said the final word as if he were curious as to exactly what it meant. ‘There’s no need to be like that, Kate. This is a simple transaction. You give us what we want and we’ll give you what you want.’

‘
But I don’t even know what you want!’ Kate felt like banging the phone against her forehead. Or better, smashing it against Sampson’s skull. She realised with a cool clarity that she would kill him if it would save Jack. Hatred boiled inside her veins, making her feel more powerful but, at the same time, still weak and helpless because this was so out of her control. All she could do was to follow his instructions ‘Who’s in the car with you?’ Sampson asked.

‘
Just…’

‘
Don’t lie, Kate. That would be your worst mistake.’

‘
I’m with Paul. And Vernon.’

‘
Your boyfriend and your ex-husband. You’re very popular. Doesn’t this Wilson care that you fucked his brother?’

Kate held her breath.

‘
Stephen Wilson was weak, when it came to the crunch. I expect his brother is no better. An old woman saved his life last time. He wouldn’t be so lucky again…

‘
Here are your instructions. Drive out of Mayfield towards Tunbridge Wells. You’ll pass a garage, then go straight across the roundabout. After that, you’ll see a pub standing on its own to the left, with a car park behind it. Go into that car park.’

‘
Are you there now? With Jack?’

But he had already cut her off.

Kate relayed the instructions to Paul and Vernon. ‘He said something about Stephen, too. It sounded like he knew what had happened. Like he was there.’

Paul’s knuckles paled as he gripped the steering wheel. He executed a hasty three point turn and roared out of the village.

‘
What did Stephen’s letter say again?’

Paul recited it from memory, where it had been seared for years: “Tell her she was right. And tell her to forgive me.”

‘
Stephen must have known what was going on.’

‘
And Sampson found out that he knew.’

‘
But we still don’t know what he wanted me to forgive him for.’ A sickening thought crept into her head. ‘Oh Paul, you don’t think he was involved in some way, do you?’

Paul didn’t answer. Kate assumed it was because he was concentrating on the road, but then he blurted: ‘I have a gun.’

Kate’s hand flew to her mouth. ‘What?’

‘
In the boot of the car – there’s a gun. A shotgun. I took it from Andrew and Penny’s house in Cannock Chase.’

‘
Paul… How could you? With your past and everything – I thought you would do anything to avoid guns.’

But Vernon said, ‘No, this is good news.’

‘
Do you know how to use a gun?’ Paul demanded.

‘
Uh-huh. My father used to take me out hunting when I was young. I’m a pretty good shot.’

Kate knew this, as she and Vernon had argued about the tradition being passed on to Jack. Kate abhorred the thought of it, of her son killing a helpless animal; Vernon insisted the blood rite would make him a man.

‘
You’re not suggesting that we stage some kind of shoot-out with Sampson, are you? You’re insane. Sampson is almost certainly better with a gun than either of you, and if Jack’s going to be there I don’t want guns going off, bullets going astray. Look what happened to Mrs Bainbridge. I really can’t believe you would consider it.’ At the same time she said all this, she pictured herself blowing a hole in Sampson’s chest.

‘
I’m just saying it’s an option,’ Paul said.

‘
I think we should do it,’ said Vernon. ‘He won’t be expecting us to have a gun. No-one in this stupid country has guns, normally, do they? Let’s take him unawares.’

Kate slapped the dashboard. ‘No! It’s too dangerous. We have to do what they say. All I want is for Jack to be safe – and he won’t be safe if you two have a fucking shotgun pointed in his direction.’

Paul and Vernon exchanged a look, the kind of glance that passes between men when the word ‘women’ sounds in their heads.

‘
Okay,’ Paul said. ‘You’re right, I suppose.’

They drove on in silence for a couple of miles.

‘
Royal Tunbridge Wells,’ Vernon said, reading a road sign. ‘Does the Queen live there or something?’

‘
I think this must be it,’ said Kate, as they went over the roundabout that corresponded with Sampson’s directions. A minute later, they spotted the pub, and its car park.

They pulled in, slowly, all three of them stiff with tension. Kate glanced at her shaking hands. But she felt one hundred per cent focused and alert. She felt like this was a moment she had been heading towards for a long time. She was here to reclaim her baby.

There was a single car parked in the car park: Kate recognised the menacing silhouette of Sampson’s Audi, but with only moonlight to see by, it was too dark to make out much inside, though she was sure she could see the shape of a boy in the back seat. Her heart pounded. She watched the door of the Audi open, and the orange glow of a cigarette tip (Sampson had been smoking in the car with Jack! Her baby’s poor lungs!) that sent out a shower of quickly-dying sparks as Sampson flicked it away.

He stopped in front of his car and called out. ‘I only want Kate and Wilson to get out of the car.’

Kate whispered to Vernon: ‘Don’t do anything stupid. Okay?’

‘
Okay, okay, I hear you.’

She wondered why she’d said it - he was too much of a coward to try to act the hero. To Paul, she said, ‘We’re going to do whatever he says.’

She and Paul pushed open their doors and got out. The two of them walked slowly towards Sampson, their bodies close but not touching. It was silent in the car park and, over the sound of her heart thudding in her chest, Kate could hear grasshoppers chirruping in the grass beyond.

Sampson lit up another cigarette, the flame of his lighter casting a flickering shadow on his face. In his other hand he held a gun, which he casually lifted and pointed towards them.

‘
This is what’s going to happen next: I’m going to let the boy out of the car. You and Wilson are going to get into the car in his place, and we’re going to leave.’

‘
No way,’ said Paul.

‘
This is not a negotiation,’ Sampson said, his voice low. ‘You do what I say.’

‘
Yes,’ said Kate. ‘We’ll do it.’

‘
Kate…’ Paul protested, but she shook her head.

‘
Jack can go with Vernon. He’ll be safe then. That’s what matters.’

‘
But he'll kill us.’

There were tears in her eyes. To Paul she said, ‘Maybe one day you’ll be a parent, and then you’ll understand.’

‘
Actually, it’s extremely unlikely you ever will be a parent, Wilson, but you should still do as I say,’ Sampson said, almost conversationally, pointing the gun at Paul’s chest.

Throwing down his cigarette, Sampson took a few backward steps to the car and opened the back door. Jack jumped out and ran straight into Kate’s arms. She lifted him up, hugging him tighter than she’d ever hugged him before. He smelled so good, felt so warm in her arms, and she cried against his soft hair as he said, ‘Mummy, that man was smoking. And he hurt daddy.’

‘
Daddy’s here, sweetheart. You’re going to go with him.’

Jack tried to wriggle away. ‘Where are you going?’

‘
I’m just going for a drive.’

‘
With that man? I hate him! Him and the doctor.’

‘
What doctor?’

Sampson spoke up. ‘That’s enough. Put him down and come with me. Now.’

‘
Mummy!’ Jack tried to cling to her, but she had to push him away, every instinct making her want to hold on to him, feeling his distress bore into her.

He started to cry, sniffing back tears and making that awful, keening noise he made when he was upset. Or maybe she was making the noise. She couldn’t tell. But this was the only way. He would be safe with Vernon. This was, in fact, better than she had hoped for. She had thought Sampson would try to kill them all, but she didn’t try to understand what was going on. There would be time for that, she hoped.

Or she might be dead in a minute. This might be the last time she ever saw her son.

Putting Jack down and walking away from him was the hardest thing she had ever had to do.

She got into Sampson’s car, in the back seat, and Paul got in beside her. Sampson climbed into the driver’s seat and sped away, leaving Jack standing in the car park, sobbing. In the rear view mirror, Kate saw Vernon get out of the car and run over to him. He was safe. That was all that mattered.

‘
Where are we going?’ she asked, in the calmest voice she could manage.

But Sampson didn’t reply. He just watched her in the mirror, until she had to look away. Paul tried to take her hand, but she didn’t want him to touch her. Not right now. At this moment, she felt like she didn’t ever want anyone to touch her again.

Ten minutes later, after driving down a long, dark lane, they pulled up outside a large white house.

This is where it ends, Kate thought.

CHAPTER 40

It was 1.25a.m, according to the clock on the dashboard. Kate remembered nights, before Jack was born, when she could often still be found at her lab bench at this time, and into the night, until she would look up from her work and see the sun rising outside, the sky a delicate pink and the city quiet beyond the sheltered realm of the university. That world, and the dawn, seemed a very long way away now.

Sampson switched off the engine and turned to look at her and Paul. He seemed tense, and at first Kate wondered why this was; why his mood had changed since the start of the journey. Then it struck her that this was more than odd: it was the first time she’d ever noticed him display any hint of emotion.