Severed (37 page)

'Please don't let it be you,' she whispered, staring at the phone. Because she knew if that
was the case, then she was now totally on her own.

Another hour passed, and as the clock ticked towards midnight with still no word from him, her doubts grew stronger. It crossed her mind more than once to call the police, but the people she was dealing with were ruthless, and clearly well-organized, and they'd already told her what would happen to Emma if she did. Andrea didn't have much faith in the forces of law and order. She'd had too much experience of them for that.

No, she needed someone she could trust. Someone who'd know what to do.

There was one person who could help. She might not have spoken to him for more than a decade but she was still sure he would respond in this, her hour of need. The problem was, if she brought him back, she might also be unleashing forces outside her control.

But what choice did she really have? She couldn't do this alone.

There was a grandfather clock in the hallway, bought from an Islington antique dealer at an exorbitant price several years earlier, and which had always looked out of place. Something about its relentless ticking tended to soothe her, though, and when it chimed midnight she stubbed her latest cigarette in the ashtray and
made her decision.

Retrieving a small black address book from her handbag on the kitchen top, she found the number she wanted in the back, with no name next to it. She turned on the overhead light to dial, stopping at the last second. Thinking. They might have bugged the landline, and if they heard her . . . She couldn't risk it. Instead, she fed the digits into her mobile, and stepped out into the back garden.

The night was silent as she walked to the pear trees at the end, thirty yards from the house, and stopped. She looked round, listening, remembering what the kidnapper had said:
We're watching you
. But they couldn't see her from the back of the garden, she was sure of it.

So, taking a deep breath, she pressed the call button on the mobile.

And took her situation to a whole new level.

Read the complete book - coming from
Corgi Books in July 2008