My Heart Belongs To You: A Psycho Thriller (33 page)

‘
Come on
,
Tom
,
’
soothed Hanson
,
reaching do
w
n for his friend.

‘
G
…g
ive me your gun
,
’
gasped Tom
,
fighting the pain.

‘
Not a good idea
.
You
would probably shoot yourself in the foot
.’

‘
He… h
e has to pay
,
John, he has to pay
.’

‘He will, I promise you
.’

Ha
n
son
helped
his friend
up
and carried him out to the
J
aguar
.
Inside
the blower was working well and the temperature was doing wonders for Karen.
‘
Tom said you would come
.’

‘
Tom was right
,
’
winked Hanson
.
‘
Now
you two sit tight
.’

‘
Where are you going
?’
asked Tom
,
studying his friend.

Hanson’s eyes narrowed and his jaw lifted slightly,
‘
T
here
are a couple of things
that
need t
y
ing up inside
.’ 
No one else seeing the slight change in Hanson’s features would
read too much into it.
Tom was not just
anyone
;
he had served with his friend in some of the worst hell holes on earth.
He had seen that change of expression many
times
;
i
t always ended badly for someone.
Tom knew today was going to be no different.

Hanson
re-entered the hanger,
Cupid who had man
a
ged to prop himself against one of the walls.
  ‘
I’ll
…
I’ll plead insanity
,
’
hissed the wounded man.
‘
I’l
l end up in a plushy hospital
.
I…I
can afford the best barristers available
,
’
he
grimaced
,
the pain distorting his features.

Hanson grabbed the man by the
shirtfront
, lifted him and slammed him onto the table
,
occupied just a short while ago by Tom.
Strapping the man down
,
he ignored the screams
as he straightened his legs, pulling tight the ankle straps that were still sticky with Tom’s blood
.

Hanson leaned down
,
locking eyes with Cupid.

‘
You
’
r
e
not going to end up in
a
plushy hospital
.’

‘
Go
…
go to hell
,
’
spat Cupid in defiance.

Hanson
’s
eyes narrowed as
he
reached over his shoulder and pulled out his
V
enom knife
.
‘
Y
ou
first
,
’
he hissed.

Tom wrapped his arms tightly around Karen
as she
buri
ed
her head deep within his embrace
.
Even
with the heater at full blast
and
with the windows closed
,
the screams from within the
hanger
were clear
.
They went on for less than twenty seconds.
John Hanson walked
out
minutes later, opened the Jag door and leaned in
,
‘
I’m going to get the people carrier
, and
then I’m taking you two to
the
hospital
.’

Tom nodded,
‘
W
hat
about Cupid?
’

Hanson gave his friend a rock steady stare,
‘Cupid t
urned over a new leaf
. It
seems he had a change of heart
.’

Hanson closed the door and went for the people carrier.
On reaching it
,
he opened the boot and quickly changed his clothes with a spare set
that
he always carried
,
placing the ones he was wearing into a plastic bag
.
They
would be destroyed
later;
the stains would never come out completely.

Ten minutes later
,
Hanson had Tom and Karen in the back of the people carrier
,
he
ading away from the airfield,
and
away from
C
upid
,
just as
a stream of police cars came wailing down the track.  Richard
Turner
was in the lead car and after a brief conversation with Hanson
, he
led his officers back towards the airfield gates.
John called HQ and gave them the news that he had Tom and Karen safe and
he
was on his way to hospital to have them checked out.

Blue
E
agle called through and asked to speak to Tom.
Hanson switched to
loudspeaker
.
  ‘
Hey Tom, I hear you’ve had a couple of days rest and relaxation
.’

‘
Yeah, just been l
yi
ng around all day
,
S
ir
.’

‘
Well
,
I hope John’s not going to go soft and pay you for those two days
.
I sure as hell wouldn’t.’

Tom shook his head and chuckled.
This is what he wanted, normality.

‘Tom?’

‘
Sir?
’

‘Good to have you back.’

‘
Thank you
,
Sir
.’

A beep indicated the line had closed.

‘
Was I imagining things
,
John
,
or was Blue Eagle being nice to me
?’

‘
Don’t get used to it, it won’t last
.’

Tom caught his friend
’
s eye in the rearview mirror,
‘
T
hanks
for coming for us
,
John
.’

Hanson shrugged,
‘
I had nothing else to do.
Oh and Blue Eagle was right, I’m not paying you for those two days
.’

Tom
’
s laughter was what Hanson wanted to he
a
r
.
It’s
what he craved during the past two days, something he thought he had lost forever
,
but John Hanson was a man who didn’t give up his friends eas
i
ly.
Death
’s
jaws had come up light this day
.
Tom and Karen
were
both plucked from them at the thirteenth hour.
Hanson had stared into those jaws many times and would, he was confident, stare into them many more
times
in the future
,
but on this particular occasion, on this particular day, they had been cheated.

Well, almost.

Epilog
u
e

‘My heart belongs to you.’

The day following Tom and Karen’s rescue
,
John Hanson had a meeting with Richard
Turner
that completely changed his opinion of the man
.  I
t would lay down the foundations of a friendship
which
would span many years where their paths would cr
i
sscross many times both socially and within their fields of work.
Hanson smiled often as he remembered that meeting
.
The
details of which would never be
re
peated
to another soul.

‘Thanks for coming in
,
John
.
How
are Tom and Karen?’

‘All things considered
,
pretty good
.
Physically
the
y’
re a bit battered
,
but I reckon they will be fit again in a week or two.
Mentally, well that’s another story
.
’

Turner
nodded, he had seen the
psychological
damage
that
victims had suffered in post crime trauma,
and
it was an ugly thing.
‘
They seem
to be
a strong couple
.’

‘
They are and they have good support from friends and family
,
so we remain hopeful
.’

‘
I spoke briefly with
them yesterday.
They seem to be suffering from memory
laps
es
on what took place at the airfield
.’

Hanson shrugged,
‘
H
appens
.’ 
He noticed a shift in
Turner
’s expression as he came to the real point of
th
e
meeting.

‘
Could we
,
um
…
could we go through the events yesterday, after you arrived at the airfield
?’

Ha
nson settled himself
in the chair on the visitor
’
s side of
Turner
’s desk and simply nodded.
He knew the
re
were massive holes in the brief scenario
that
he had given over to
Turner
when he arrived at the airfield yesterday
,
so was prepared for some tough questions.

‘
You told me yesterday that you believe James Holt and Adam Black had some sort of disagreement and that Black killed Holt
. 
Subsequently
,
when you arrived
,
Black attacked you and you killed Black in self
-
defence?
’

‘
That’s pretty much it
,
’
agreed Hanson
,
studying
Turner
carefully.

‘
Can we start with the question of the gun Black used to shoot Holt with John
?’

Hanson made no comment
.
He
knew this would come up, how could it not.
He was not about to leave his gun on site
,
so the lack of a
firearm
at the scene was alw
ays going to come back to bite him
.

Turner
opened a drawer and took out a small
handgun
,
which he placed onto the
desktop
.  ‘
Would you be prepared to swear that this was the gun you saw at the scene
?’