Someone To Save you (29 page)

Sam nodded.

‘I know that Mr Stansfield has explained the situation to you earlier today,’ she continued.

‘He did,’ Sam replied.

Carla Conway picked up a piece of paper from the desk and peered at it from over her glasses. ‘Yesterday evening we received a call from an anonymous individual, who claimed that you had been taking controlled drugs from hospital supplies for your own personal use. We launched an immediate investigation, and found a quantity of controlled drugs – Alprazolam – in your locker. The batch code confirmed that they were from hospital supplies.’

She looked up at Sam and held her gaze, awaiting a response.

‘The drugs aren’t mine,’ Sam stated, trying to erase any emotion from his statement. He needed to stay professional, calm and controlled. ‘Someone must have put them there.’

Carla didn’t flinch, as if she’d already known what he was going to say. ‘So you’re denying that you took the drugs from hospital supplies, for your own personal use?’

‘Yes.’

She glanced down. ‘Then how did the drugs get there?’

Again Sam fought to maintain a professional tone. ‘Like I said, someone put them there – the same person who called you.’

She looked puzzled at that suggestion. ‘You’re saying that another member of the hospital staff has deliberately set you up?’

‘Someone at the hospital must have accessed the controlled drugs stocks.’

‘Who?’ she said, looking far from convinced.

‘I don’t know,’ Sam admitted. ‘But I’m just telling you that it wasn’t me. I don’t take drugs, and I don’t steal from this hospital.’

Carla took off her glasses, leaning towards him across the table. ‘Why would someone do this, Sam? Why would someone who works here do this to you?’

‘I don’t know.’

She sat back. ‘I want to believe you, Sam. I really do. But try and see this from our point of view. The drugs were found in your locker.’

‘Someone put them there.’

‘So they had a key? The locker wasn’t forced open.’

Ed Stansfield hadn’t mentioned that. He resisted the temptation to look over at him for confirmation. ‘They must have had a master key.’

‘So they had a key to your locker and they also had access to the controlled drugs stock?’

‘They must have done.’

‘So you think maybe this person works in security,’ she tried, ‘if they have access to master keys?’

‘Maybe,’ Sam said. ‘I don’t know, but all I do know is that someone put those drugs there, and then called to tell you about it.’ He addressed all eight in turn across the table. ‘I don’t know who, I don’t know why, but that’s all I can come up with.’ He was struggling to keep his anger and frustration in check now. ‘Do you really think I’d throw away my career for this? I love what I do, and you know that, Carla.’

‘Sam is as baffled by this as anyone,’ Ed Stansfield interjected, aware of the need to dampen down the escalating emotional tension. ‘But he is willing to do anything it takes to find out who did this, and offers his full support in the investigation.’

Carla nodded. ‘Sam. You’ve been through a series of traumatic events during the past two weeks. And I must admit, I take some responsibility for increasing the stress which you undoubtedly have been under. I should not have encouraged you to liaise with the media when it was obvious you were not keen.’

Sam waited.

‘And it would be understandable, that, under those extreme circumstances, you might turn to other forms of support…’

‘No,’ Sam interrupted.

‘You have a record that is second to none, Sam. You have a fantastic character reference from Professor Khan, who I must add, is unwavering in his support for you and has been extremely vocal on that score.’

Sam glanced over at Professor Khan, but he was just looking down, in a way that rang alarm bells of what was to come.

‘But even so,’ Carla continued. ‘We have a duty to take this matter extremely seriously.’

‘You’re going to suspend me,’ Sam said.

‘We need a few minutes to deliberate,’ she replied. ‘And then we’ll call you back in to explain our decision. But before I ask you to leave the room for a moment, is there anything else that you wish to say?’

Sam exchanged a look with Ed Stansfield. ‘No.’

32

‘You did the right thing,’ Ed Stansfield said, as they moved a few paces down the corridor, out of earshot from the board room. ‘You kept it simple, to the point.’

‘Carla didn’t look convinced,’ Sam said, musing on what had just happened. He should have expected it to turn out the way it did. They had to go through a process, reserve judgement until the evidence was clear. But the lack of support still hurt, especially from Carla. Even Professor Khan had been noticeably quiet, although he hoped that behind closed doors the Professor had argued Sam’s case. He looked at his watch. Anna’s flight would be landing any moment. Why couldn’t he be there to welcome her home, hold her tight?

‘I’m afraid it looks likely that you will be suspended from duty,’ Ed Stansfield said. ‘But if the investigation is swift, you could be back at work within a matter of weeks.’

‘Assuming they decide I’m innocent,’ Sam replied, still thinking of Anna. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his mobile. It had been on silent during the meeting, but the screen display registered a message. It hit him like a jab to the ribs, knocking him back a pace.

‘My God.’

Ed Stansfield moved towards him. ‘What’s the matter?

‘I’ve got to go,’ Sam replied, already moving towards the lifts, his head reeling from what he had just read.

Ed Stansfield followed, spooked by his client’s behaviour. ‘Sam, don’t leave. If you’re not here when the board calls you back, it could make things much worse.’

Sam reached the lifts and hit the button. He knew this one action was potentially career-ending, but he had no other choice. ‘Tell them I’ve got a family emergency.’

‘What sort of emergency? Is everything okay, Sam? If I can tell them something specific, it would help.’

‘Sorry,’ he said, stepping into the lift and pressing the ground floor button several times. ‘Please, just tell them I had no choice.’

The doors closed on an open-mouthed Ed Stansfield.

Anna Becker leant close to the window and looked down on the patchwork quilt countryside as they approached Heathrow. The plane banked anti-clockwise in a wide circle, waiting its turn to land. It couldn’t come soon enough. The flight had been pleasant, as a long haul flight could be, but had seemed to take forever, so desperate was Anna to get home. This time the homing instinct had been worse than ever, and although she was in some ways disappointed at cutting the visit short, the need to be with Sam was too strong.

Two minutes later the plane straightened up, and touched down with only a gentle kiss of the runway. Anna smiled. It was great to be back. She placed a hand on her stomach as she thought of Sam.

He would be waiting for her in the arrivals hall.

Anna waited for the rest of the passengers to disembark before grabbing her bag and making her way out of the plane and down to the luggage collection area. She waited at the empty conveyor belt along with the rest of the flight, many of whom were obviously people who had visited or were coming to visit relatives. With the baggage yet to arrive, she took the opportunity to check her phone.

But it wasn’t in her pocket, or her bag.

She searched again, but the phone definitely wasn’t there. Thinking it must have fallen out during the flight, or maybe on the way from the plane, she retraced her steps back towards the aircraft. The crew had left, but one of the cleaners accompanied her down to her seat. There was no sign of the phone.

Defeated and annoyed, Anna returned to the luggage collection area. By now the cases had arrived, and she soon spotted her black case with its distinctive red and white trim. Mulling over where the phone could be, she realised the last time she had seen it was just before taking off. It had been on the plane. So maybe one of the crew had already found it.

She would contact the company the next day. One day without the phone would probably be as much of a blessing as an inconvenience. And anyway, Sam was waiting right outside, so she had no need of it right this moment.

But when she emerged into the arrivals hall, Sam wasn’t there. Anna scanned the crowds, but couldn’t see him anywhere. She stopped, turning three hundred and sixty degrees. And then she saw the man with the sign, Anna Becker.

‘Hi, I’m Anna, Anna Becker,’ she explained to the man, who was wearing a chauffeur’s suit. He was young, late twenties probably, with close cropped hair and stubble.

He smiled. ‘Taxi back to Clerkenwell?’

‘Yeah,’ Anna answered, thrown and disappointed by this unexpected welcome –she had been so looking forward to seeing Sam. ‘My husband arranged this?’

He nodded, glancing at his clipboard. ‘Sam Becker.’

Anna nodded. Sam must have been called into work.

The man reached out for her case. ‘Let me take this for you.’

Anna fought the urge to refuse. She didn’t really want to relinquish it for some reason.

‘We’re right outside the door,’ he said, as they walked through the hall and out through the main doors. ‘Over there.’

He pointed towards a white BMW just a few metres away.

While the man loaded Anna’s case into the boot, Anna climbed in the back, still thinking of her lost phone.

Sam tried Anna’s mobile as the lift descended, panic rising as the call went straight to the answer service. Her flight should have landed by now, and she would have switched the phone on, surely. He waited impatiently as the lift made its way down to the second floor. Sam ran through the opening doors and down along to Louisa’s office. She wasn’t there, so he headed for the consultation rooms. This wasn’t time for protocol, so he knocked on the first door and opened it before hearing a response.

Louisa was sat there on her own, crying. The sight threw Sam for a second, as he just stood there, not knowing how to react.

She dabbed her eyes, embarrassed. ‘Sam. How did it go? I didn’t think it would be over so...’

‘I think something terrible might have happened to Anna,’ Sam interrupted. He handed his phone to her. ‘I got this message, sent from your stolen phone.’

I have your wife. She smells sweet. Like your sister. Call the police, she dies too.

Louisa brought a hand to her mouth. ‘Oh my God.’ She looked up at Sam. ‘Could they be making this up?’

Sam shook his head, fighting back the panic. ‘I can’t get through to her, Louisa. Her flight was supposed to have landed twenty minutes ago.’

‘Maybe it’s delayed,’ Louisa said, standing up. ‘Can you check?’

Sam was already moving out of the door. ‘The internet.’

They hurried over to Louisa’s office and logged on to the Heathrow airport website. As Sam tried Anna’s phone again, Louisa pulled up the list of arrivals.

‘It’s there,’ Sam said, pointing at a flight. ‘It landed on time.’

He put a hand to his head, trying to think.

‘This person might still be bluffing,’ Louisa said. ‘Just saying he has Anna to scare you.’

‘The taxi,’ Sam said. He found the company’s number in his contacts list and dialled, hoping to God that they were going to be the ones to banish his growing fears.

‘Hi, my name’s Sam Becker, and I booked a taxi to collect my wife, Anna Becker, from Heathrow Airport. I was just checking that she was picked up okay.’

‘One moment,’ the operator replied. ‘Anna Becker you said.’

‘Yes.’

There was a brief, painful silence. ‘And you booked the taxi, did you say?’

‘Yes,’ Sam said. Please let it be good news. ‘This morning.’

‘We did have your booking, but it was cancelled shortly afterwards.’

Sam’s world turned. ‘What? Who by?’

Louisa looked on.

‘According to our paperwork, you cancelled it.’

‘No,’ Sam stated, the shock hitting him that this wasn’t just a bluff – someone had Anna. ‘I didn’t.’

‘Well, that’s what is down here, I’m afraid.’

Sam exchanged a worried glance with Louisa. ‘So you’re saying that you didn’t send a taxi to collect my wife?’

‘No, I’m afraid not.’

Sam cut the call. His hands, and the phone receiver, were soaked in sweat. He couldn’t believe this was happening. ‘Jesus, Louisa, someone cancelled Anna’s taxi.’

‘Sam, call the police.’

‘I can’t,’ he replied, ‘you saw what the message said, no police.’ He moved to the door.

Louisa pulled Sam back as he went to exit. ‘Where are you going?’

‘To the airport.’

‘But if something has already happened...’