Radio Gaga (16 page)

My mother was waiting for me when I finally returned to my flat.

“What’s going on? What was wrong with Ben? Why wouldn’t he come in?”

I’d debated with Ben about how much I should tell my mother. If I said too much she’d have me over the border and eating haggis before I had time to say “bagpipes”. Too little and potentially I might be putting her, or me at risk.

“He wanted to talk to me privately. Tash was in a car accident. Then someone stole his phone.” I hoped she wouldn’t ask me too many questions. My bed was calling me.

“Hmm, I suppose ‘Ben’ is why you weren’t very nice to Neil when he came to see you.” It was a statement rather than a question.

I set off towards my room. “Mother, I have to be at the radio station at five thirty. I’ve told you what I think of Neil and I’m not discussing Ben with you now.”

I’d almost made it to safety inside my room before she fired her parting salvo. “Mark my words, it’ll end in tears. Neil was a much steadier bet.”

Her words stayed in my head long after I’d closed the door and rolled into bed.

* * *

Ben met me in the lobby of the flats at five the next morning. The dark smudges of fatigue that still lay under his eyes told their own story. My guess was that he’d slept as badly as me, though probably not for the same reasons.

I’d stayed in bed till the last possible minute before scampering under the shower. It was too dark to worry much about my appearance, one of the reasons why I liked working in radio. I tugged a hat on over my still-damp hair and hurried out to my car with Ben accompanying me.

He hunched himself up in the front passenger seat and turned on the car radio. The raucous sound of jazz blasted out at us and he hit the off switch.

“John ‘the Jazzman’ Harris’s show.
He’s on before Cereal with Steph.”

“Who the hell listens to jazz at this time in the morning?” He shook his head.

We drove to the radio station in silence. Ben followed me inside and took a seat in a corner while I started prepping everything ready for the show. I’d run out of taped interviews so I planned to do some live phone and text-in slots to take their place.

Gail produced generously sized mugs of coffee for me and for Ben and I headed into the studio leaving him to wait outside in a small ante-room. I felt really guilty that he’d left a nice warm bed and much-needed sleep just so he could keep an eye on me. To make me feel better I opened the show with one of the Whitney Houston songs from the film The Bodyguard. I’d be in trouble for that later with Merv as it wasn’t on the station playlist for this week.

An enormous bacon-and-egg sandwich arrived in front of me as I switched to the local news.

“Your boyfriend said you’d be hungry.” Gail nodded towards the glass window that divided the inner booth. Ben grinned at me and gave me a thumbs-up sign.

“He’s a keeper,” Gail sighed and left me to my breakfast.

Fortified by bacon and coffee I soon got into my stride. The fun slots went well and I had lots of callers and texts to fill the gaps. I even dedicated a song to Steph and said I hoped she’d be better soon.

I’d just refuelled with more caffeine for the last half hour of the show when Gail showed me a text.

“This one came in a minute ago.” She pointed to one of the messages on the stream of paper that she’d highlighted in yellow.

Luckily, the track I’d put on had a couple of minutes to run so I had time to look at it.

‘U n me will B 2gether soon. I hear the message in yr music and understand.’

“It read like it was a little nuttier that the usual nut job texts we get,” Gail said.

“Has Ben seen it?”

Gail shook her head as I slipped my headset back on.

“Go and show it to him.”

I tried to see what was going on outside the sound booth while I chatted to the listeners and set up the next track. Gail was there with Ben and then he’d gone. Frustration killed me as I carried on with my work and hoped Gail would come back in so I could find out what had happened.

Trapped in my corner of the studio I saw Merv, Gail and Ben all scuttling around. Then I saw two uniformed policemen go by. The last few minutes of the show seemed to take forever as I counted down the time to say goodbye and switch to the news. All the production staff had vanished, which was most unusual.

I tugged off my headset and checked I’d flipped all the switches to 'off' before I raced into the corridor to find Ben. Unfortunately I cannoned straight into Merv.

“Lark, my office.”

I had no choice but to follow him. He opened the door and barged in ahead of me.

“Take a seat.” He waved his hand airily towards the chair in front of his desk.

I perched on the edge while he paced the carpet in front of me. If this was going to be a lecture about not sticking to the playlist I wished he’d get a move on. I wanted to find out where Ben had gone and why the police were in the building.

Merv took a seat on the edge of his desk, facing me. This was a bad move as his crotch was now in my eye line and I had to tilt my head up a little to meet his gaze.

“Lark, there’s no easy way to say this.” Merv paused and my heart rate speeded. I knew that stupid track wasn’t on the playlist but surely it wasn’t a sacking offence.

“The police have taken Ben, your boyfriend away for questioning.”

I gaped at Merv. I couldn’t have heard him correctly. It had sounded like he’d said the police had arrested Ben.

“Pardon?”

Merv sighed. “Look, this stalker stuff is serious. Somebody tampered with Steph’s food. Whoever did it sent her a box of luxury chocolates with some sort of poison inside them. It could have killed her. Your boyfriend had opportunity. Then there was his car being vandalised – that could have been a set up to make you think he was innocent.”

I held up my hand to stop him.
“Woah!
I was with him when that happened!”

“Lark, that last text to the station was sent from his phone.”

“His phone was stolen.” This was madness. Ben wasn’t my stalker.

“The police say it was his credit card that was used to order that lingerie.” Merv’s face was grave. This wasn’t a wind up, he was serious. The police really believed that Ben was involved with the notes and flowers.

“Merv, this is ridiculous. I know Ben has nothing to do with all this. He wouldn’t run over his own sister.” I had to get to the police station and bail Ben out.

“Lark, I knew you’d be upset but he hasn’t been charged. The police are following a line of enquiry, that’s all. If he’s in the clear then they’ll find out.” He folded his arms.

“But I can clear him, if I go down there and…” I was half out of my seat ready to dash to the door.

“Hold it. I realise that you want to get your bloke out of the clink. Very commendable, Lark, but you need to butt out of this one. Let the police run their investigation.”

“Are you telling me I can’t help clear Ben?” I sank back down in my seat.

Merv cleared his throat and I could see pity in his eyes. “I’m saying you need to stay out of it for now. The police will have all your reports including the one on the car damage. If he’s cleared then he’ll be out in no time. They’ll contact you if they think you have information.”

“He came with me this morning to protect me.” I shook my head trying to make sense of it all.

Merv stood up and placed a hand on my shoulder.
“The police say that can be a common thing with this kind of offence.
The culprit wants you to depend on them. They told me what he’d been through in
Afghanistan
. Post traumatic stress disorder can send people over the edge. There was something about it this week in the Daily Mail.”

“It’s not true. I know it’s not true.” Angry tears stung the backs of my eyes and I wanted to scream.

“Go home, Lark. Steph should be back on Monday so you can get back to normal then. I’ve rescheduled the circus school for next week.”

Big whoop.
I’d forgotten all about the wretched clowns. I avoided Gail and Tracey and scooted out of the building. My world was in pieces and I had no idea where to go or what to do. I sent Shelly a long text message explaining what had happened.

The last place I wanted to go was home. My mother would be waiting for me wanting to drag me around bridal shops and interrogate me on my love life. Right now I didn’t think I could face either of those options.

I was still in a daze as I opened my car door and slid in behind the wheel. There had to be something I could do to help Ben. The press would have a field day if this got out. Now Merv knew who Ben really was the cat was probably already out of the bag. He wasn’t exactly known for his tact and discretion. All the careful anonymity Ben had worked to build up would be gone, and in a sense it would be my fault.

The skin on the back of my neck prickled and I glanced back towards the radio station. What I needed right now was sleep and space to try and make sense of everything. Tracey was probably wondering why I was still on the car park when I usually disappeared as soon as I was free to go. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed a familiar figure panting his way towards my car.

There was no way I wanted to stop and chat with Kevin. For all I knew he could be the one who’d set Ben up. Apart from Shelly there was no one I could trust. I started my engine and zipped off the car park ignoring Kevin’s urgent wave for me to stop.

I headed out of town with absolutely no idea where I was going. The street was a quiet side road lined with terraced houses. I slowed and pulled into a space next to the kerb.

“Act normally and don’t move.” The male voice was low in my ear and I swallowed a scream.

Something cold and metallic was pressed against my neck. A man wearing a baseball cap with the brim pulled down low over his face emerged from the rear seat of my car. It couldn’t be Kevin; I’d just escaped from him. Ben was in custody, proving what I already knew, that the police had the wrong man. Imran then, it had to be Imran.

“Do as I tell you and you won’t get hurt.” The voice was oddly familiar but deeper and lower as if whoever it was might be trying to disguise
themselves
. It had to be someone I knew.

I strained slightly in my seat to try and see him in my rear view mirror. Why was no one walking past? Not a soul in sight except some bloke up a ladder at the far end of the street, too far to be of any help. No net curtains twitched at the blank-faced windows, nothing. There was no one to come to my aid even if I sounded the horn.

“Start driving.”

My knees trembled as I pulled away. I tried to place his voice but it was muffled beneath the scarf he wore over the lower part of his face.

“Where am I going?” I squeaked as we approached a junction. If I slowed down enough then perhaps I could jump out. As if he’d read my mind he pressed the metal object harder against my neck. I tried to see what it was through the reflection in the mirror. Maybe it wasn’t a knife. Perhaps it was a pen or something, and then I’d feel stupid. Car-jacked by a nutter armed with a pen.

“Left.”

I couldn’t see and I couldn’t take the chance. Reluctantly I took the left turn and drove deeper into a part of town I didn’t recognise.

My mobile beeped in my bag, making me jump. It was probably Shelly replying to the text I’d sent her earlier. My kidnapper pounced on the bag and took out my phone. My heart skipped a beat. What did he plan to do with it? My fingers itched to snatch it from his grasp. The flicker of my eyes towards the phone alerted him.

“Concentrate on the road. Turn right here.” His voice sounded gruff beneath the scarf as if he were attempting to prevent me from identifying him.

Annoyingly his hands were sheathed inside tight-fitting black leather gloves and I hadn’t caught any glimpse of his face at all. I tried to focus on remembering details of his clothing so I would be able to identify him to the police later, when he let me go. Irrational hysterical laughter burbled in my throat. Suppose he never let me go? What if I ended up being one of those women they found in a cellar having been kept prisoner for twenty years or more? This was the danger the fortune teller had predicted. Not snakes, or the abseil or clowns.

“Where are you taking me?” I tried to remember advice from the dodgy cop-and-robber B movies Neil had used to watch. There had been stuff in there about trying to build a rapport with your captor to gain empathy, or had that been the hostages taken by Somalian pirates?

“Just keep driving.”

I wished I could place his voice. I couldn’t see enough of him to gauge his build. Imran was short and skinny but all I’d seen of my captor was his baseball cap and the black knitted scarf covering his face. It couldn’t be Kevin as I’d left him behind on the car park when I’d driven away.

We’d entered some kind of industrial estate on the edge of town. The narrow road threading through the units was deserted. The whole area appeared rundown and empty. Grey steel shutters covered the doors and the paint on the signs and fascia boards above the units were cracked and faded.

My captor directed me into a cul-de-sac and ordered me to halt in front of a plain navy metal door. He leaned forward and snatched the keys from the ignition.

“Don’t even think about trying to get away. There’s nowhere to run,” he mumbled. He opened his door and grabbed my hair in his fist, tugging at it as he got out of the car. Tiny stars danced in front of my eyes with the unexpected pain.

“Move.”

Wincing with pain I clambered free. He kept hold of my hair as he walked behind me, the knife still at my throat as we approached the door.

“This is stupid. Why are you doing this?” My scalp was sore where he was holding my hair. If he didn’t stop soon I’d have a bald spot instead of a pony tail.

“Shut up and get inside.”

He shoved me through the now open door, mercifully releasing my hair. I stumbled into a tiny dark room which must have served as the office for whatever business had previously occupied the unit. I caught a brief glimpse of my surroundings, an old couch covered with a throw, an upturned crate with a lantern.

For a moment I thought I was hallucinating as I spotted a dark and forbidding familiar figure looming out of the darkness behind the sofa. How the hell had Darth Vader ended up here?

“Neil! Is that you?” I whirled around to confront him only to have the door slammed shut in my face leaving me in total darkness.

Shit! I stood for a moment trying to adjust to the all enveloping blackness. Outside I heard the dull roar of my car engine. The thieving git had taken my car. I remembered seeing a lantern on the upturned crate next to the couch. I tried to stem the rising tide of panic in my gut as I edged my way carefully across the space.

After what seemed like a lifetime my foot made contact with the box. I groped around until I felt the metal and glass of the lamp beneath my fingers. Muttering a prayer I found the switch and slid it across.

A sob of relief escaped me as the lantern burst into life and lit up my prison with a dull yellow glow. At least I wasn’t in the dark anymore. I held up the lamp and peered around the room. Besides the couch, throw, crate and Darth there were two doors. One led to the outside and, as expected, was firmly locked. The other door led to a windowless toilet cubicle. Next to the crate I found a bottle of water and a packet of cookies. Whatever else Neil had planned for me at least I wasn’t about to starve.

I helped myself to a cookie and scouted around to see if there was something I could use to try and lever the door open. There was nothing. On a hook at the back of the toilet door I found a garish set of underwear in scarlet and black similar to the ones that had been delivered to the radio station.

My skin crawled as I fingered the tacky, scratchy nylon. If Neil thought he could coerce me into dressing up for him he had another think coming. When we’d been together he’d always wanted me to dress up. A shiver ran down my spine and I realised it was quite cold in my prison. I wrapped myself up in the throw, sat down to munch another cookie and tried to plan what to do.

It would be useless to try banging on the door to try and attract attention. It had been pretty clear as we’d driven through the long lines of semi-derelict buildings that there was no-one around. I wondered how long it would be before someone missed me.

My spirits plummeted when I remembered that Neil had my phone. He could answer any texts from people looking for me and convince them I was okay. Heaven knows what he had planned. There didn’t seem much point in trying to guess, he’d obviously gone completely crackers.

I ate another cookie and wondered if the police had released Ben yet. Neil had obviously arranged everything so Ben would be out of the way when he kidnapped me. My mother wouldn’t miss me. She’d simply assume I’d gone off in a strop. Shelly would probably keep sending me texts and Neil could fake replies to those. He knew the code to unlock my phone. I should have changed it when he moved out but then again I could never have imagined this kind of situation ever arising.

I contemplated trying to knock Neil out when he came back by hiding behind the door and hitting him with my shoe. Sadly, in my haste this morning to get to work I’d pulled on my canvas pumps. Not much use as a weapon. Note to self, if I ever got kidnapped again I’d ensure I wore better shoes.

The only thing even vaguely suitable as a weapon was the lantern. I picked it up and tried to judge if it was weighty enough to do the job. Typically Neil, he’d bought a cheap-assed plastic job instead of a nice sturdy metal one. It would have to do.

It seemed to take forever before I heard the familiar sound of my car pulling up outside my prison. I’d spent the time pacing the floor thinking of ways I could kill Neil slowly and dispose of his body without getting caught. I’d also repositioned Darth so that when Neil opened the door he’d be taken by surprise. I took up my position by the side of the door, lantern grasped tightly in my hand and waited.

My heart pounded against the wall of my chest as the key turned in the lock. The door cracked open admitting a tiny shaft of light. I held my breath and flattened my body against the wall. My palm was sweaty around the lantern and I tried to control my breathing.

“Chloe?
I’ve a present for you!” Neil called in his wheedling-I-want-something voice.

The plastic handle of the lantern cut into my palm. I didn’t reply, instead I waited for him to open the door wider still and step inside.

“Chloe?”
He opened the door a fraction wider. There was a rustle as if he held a carrier bag or something cellophane. If he didn’t hurry up and get inside I would die from a cardiac arrest my adrenaline levels were running so high.

When I still didn’t answer he pushed the door open wider only for it to hit cardboard Darth. Light flooded in blinding me temporarily. I leapt out from my hiding place beside the door and whacked the lantern down as hard as I could on the top of Neil’s head. The plastic shattered and sharp fragments fell all around us.

I wasn’t aware that I was screaming until Neil stared at me with mad and horrified eyes. There was a fraction of a second where our gaze met, then he slid to his knees and down onto the floor. I skipped backwards before he could land on my feet and stumbled over Darth. Neil lay in a crumpled heap in the entrance of my prison, a crushed bouquet of roses poked out from under his body.

I poked him with the toe of my foot but he didn’t stir. I staggered past him into the cool late afternoon air. Neil groaned and I realised that at least I hadn’t killed him. A dark trickle of blood showed through the patch of thinning hair on the back of his head. Flinching, I crouched down next to him and rummaged through his pockets hunting for my car keys.

“Yes!” My fingers closed around the keys.

Neil suddenly roused and grabbed my wrist, throwing me off balance. I landed on my bum in the dirt next to him and the keys slid off into a clump of stubby grass and brambles at the edge of the car park.

“Bitch!
Look what you did to me.” Neil sprang to his feet as I scrambled backwards on my butt towards where I’d seen the keys land.

I spotted something metallic glinting at me and made a lunge.

“Oof.” Neil grabbed me around my waist and toppled onto me as I reached for my elusive keys. Together, we rolled over in the dirt as I attempted to claw my way free from his grasp.

“You’re mad!
Completely bonkers!”
My words came out in a gasp as I tried to wrestle my way free.

“And you don’t know who you’re taking on.” Neil grabbed my car keys.

Scared that he was about to seize the advantage I did the only thing I could do under the circumstances. I bit him on the wrist. Neil howled and dropped the keys. I kneed him in the nuts for good measure. He rolled forwards into a ball releasing me from his grasp. I struggled free and snatched up the keys.

Panting, I scrambled to my feet and staggered the few short steps to my car. My fingers fumbled as I clicked the fob to open the door. Sobbing with relief I fell inside my car and pressed the locks. Neil got to his feet and lurched towards me.

I squeaked with fright and slid my key into the ignition. I had to get away before he could stop me.

“Chloe, you bitch, open the door.” Neil banged on the side window with his fist. I flinched as his palm smacked down on the glass, inches from my face. Trembling I tried to turn the key praying my car wouldn’t let me down and would start first time.

“Chloe, open the door!” Neil crossed to the front of my car and started pounding on the roof and windscreen. His face, ugly and contorted with rage filled my vision as the car engine roared into life.

“Get off the bonnet!” I revved the engine trying to scare him into moving.

“Slag!
I’ll get you. No one else is going to have you except me!” He grabbed at my wiper blades and spread-eagled himself across the front of the car.

Closing my eyes for a second I muttered another prayer and put my foot to the floor, yanked the steering wheel sharply to the left and roared forward.