Chapter 17
Jude
“This car,” I said, holding up a picture of the Porsche, “who sold it to you?”
The man looked closely at my phone and then back to me quizzically.
“I can't tell you that, it's confidential.”
I felt my fist curl up at my side, my fingers digging into my palm.
“I don't want to cause a problem here,” I growled, “but if you don't tell me, we're going to have one.”
I looked down on the man sitting behind his desk. He was short and overweight, his hair thinning and his cheeks red. I continued to stare at him as he mumbled a few more words of refusal, my eyes growing more intense.
“Do you know who I am?” I asked him, cutting him off.
He shook his head.
“Do you know the name Logan in this town.”
His eyes widened slightly and he nodded slowly.
“Then you know who I am,” I said. “Now tell me who sold you that car, and I won't cause a scene.”
That did it, it was all I needed to say.
“I do remember the person who sold me that car,” he said, his words shaking slightly, “but they didn't tell me their name.”
“You don't have records?” I asked quickly.
He shook his head. “Not for this one. I paid them in cash, underpaid them really. They wanted a quick sale.”
“So, no name?” I questioned again.
He shook his head.
“What did the man look like? What did he sound like?”
“That I do remember. He was a big man, wore a black suit, black sunglasses.”
“Shaved head? Looked like a marine?” I continued for him.
He nodded.
I felt my face contorting in anger and the salesman retreated slightly at the sight of me. But my anger wasn't directed at him.
“Thank you for your help,” I growled again, “you've been very useful.”
Then I turned and walked out of the shitty office and through the lot, dozens of used cars with cardboard price plaques littering the open space on the side of the road.
So it was O'Brien. He must have found her, taken her car, passed it onto his men to sell. She couldn't contact me because she couldn't contact anyone. She couldn't get to a pay phone, couldn't write a letter. He must have her somewhere, and I was sure I knew the place.
….
It was night time when I sat in a car down the street from Conor O'Brien's mansion. I wouldn't have known the place had he not taken me here before to be interrogated in his dungeon, but now I had a vague recollection of it, a base knowledge of the layout.
I stepped out of the car and onto the street. It was dead of night, not a single light on at any of the large houses lining the road. And silent too, so silent I could hear my heart beating in my chest.
I wore dark clothing now, black pants and a black top, my face covered in a balaclava. This was a secret mission, a silent mission. I couldn't be seen or heard, no one could know I was here.
I moved silently down the street and arched my neck round the corner up the pathway to O'Brien's mansion. I could see the gate just ahead, and a guard sitting lazily inside a small control room to the side. He yawned as he looked down at a magazine, flicking through the pages as he tried to stay awake.
I scanned the space around him. There was no way through, the path blocked by a gate at the front and walls at the side.
F*ck it, I'll never get through this way. He'll be sure to see me.
I turned and looked along the boundary of the property. There was a large wall lining the street, blocking any view or access to the grounds. I crept further down the street, turning a corner and rounding to the back. The wall still stood, tall and imposing, to the rear of the house, right up against a quieter road that winded its way along the back of the property.
It seemed to be further back from the mansion here, away from prying eyes. There were no other houses lining the road, just the wall lining one side and woodland to the other. I could see trees growing high on the other side of the wall too. It looked as though the wall had only been fairly recently built, the brickwork fairly new and unspoilt.
I looked up and down the road and listened intently for any sound. There were no cars, no voices, nothing. I was alone.
Then, suddenly, I heard a mechanical whirr. It drew my attention up to the right where my eyes scanned quickly for the source. I saw it, fixed up against the wall, looking inward towards the mansion. A camera.
It was moving slowly to the left, scanning the landscape beyond for signs of any intruder. I stood close to the wall, in case it turned all the way round to see me, and watched it carefully.
Was it being manually controlled? Had someone seen me?
No, it looked to be on a timer, scanning to the left, stopping a moment, and then scanning back to the right, just like a fan.
I waited for a few minutes, memorizing its movements, before checking further down the wall for other cameras. There was another, 100 feet away, scanning to the left and right just as the first was, covering a different area on this part of the grounds.
Jesus Christ, this place is like a f*cking military complex.
I stood for a moment, considering my options.
I didn't even know whether Amy would be in there or not. And if I got caught, God knows what O'Brien would do to me. Should I call the police, tell them about everything? No, he'd bribe them, pay them off. I had no idea how many cops he had on his own payroll, but I'd imagine they'd be a few. And would they get a warrant to check his house anyway, based on my own biased hunch?
No, I needed to check myself, and I needed to do it now, while I still had the nerve.
I looked again at the wall. It was too tall jump and reach for the top, the bricks smoothly piled together and impossible to grip. I looked along it, searching for a groove, somewhere where I'd be able to stick my toes and push myself up.
There!
I saw a chip, a corner of one of the bricks broken off a few feet off the ground. I thrust at the wall, sticking my toe into it and pushing hard up it. I reached up with my hands, feeling for the top and just clasping the summit with my fingers. I pulled hard, dragging my frame up and reaching over the top with my arms.
I held myself there for a moment, my view of the inside of the grounds now clear in front of me. There were a few trees ahead, mingled in among bushes and other plants and ponds. It looked fairly natural, and untamed in the immediate foreground, but further beyond were landscaped gardens and paths stretching around the main mansion. Over to the left I could see a couple of tennis courts, silhouetted against the night, and several large and small outbuildings separated from the main mansion.
The mansion itself stood like a citadel in the middle of the grounds. I was looking at the back, so couldn't see the pathway at the front or the steps leading up to the main doorway where I'd been taken several months before.
I scanned for movement around the property, my eyes searching for any sign of a guard on patrol, but could see nothing. I looked along the wall to my right to see the first camera I'd noticed only 10 or so feet away, still turning quietly.
Despite the nature of what I was about to do, my heartbeat was slowing now, my nerves settling, my mind set on the task at hand. I had to find out if she was in there. I had to know.
I pulled myself up to the top of the wall and knelt on top of it, before quickly dropping down onto the inside. As I did I made sure to stay back close to the wall, standing almost underneath the camera as it scanned the area ahead.
I looked around in front of me, searching for a blind spot in the camera's view. I saw one – a wide bush, only a few dozen feet in front of me slightly to the left. As the camera turned over to the right, I made my move, darting forward and rushing towards the bush. I slid past it, ducking for cover behind it as the line of the camera began moving back to the left.
I held my breath as I crouched there, waiting for a any movement, any alarms, any sign that I'd been seen. Nothing happened.
Ahead of me now was more open space, followed by landscaped gardens and carefully manicured bushes. I didn't move for a few minutes, giving my eyes all the time they needed to spot another camera or a moving guard ahead.
Then I saw it – a red light, faint against the darkness. It was concealed inside a fountain, gazing out over to the right of the grounds. I trained my eyes to the left and saw another light, on the left. There were cameras hidden inside the fountain.
F*ck.
I glanced back through the bush protecting me and saw the camera at the wall once more turn slowly to the right. It was now or never, I had to try.
I pounced, quick as a cat, out from behind the bush, and darted straight forward. I didn't know if the cameras in the fountain were real or fake. It didn't matter right now.
I kept forward, reaching the fountain and sliding down to the dirt. The red lights were set high, so I kept low, crawling forward so that the base kept me out of sight. I crawled all the way round, and waited once more.
Again, I listened for movement, for noise, but nothing happened. The cameras hadn't seen me, not the ones in the fountain or the ones on the wall. I could now see the house clearly in front of me, dominating my view. Now the real work started. I needed to get inside.
I was now far enough from the camera on the outer wall to be obscured from its view, so moved quickly up towards the mansion. I looked up, wondering which window might be Amy's, whether she was even here. I was still working under my own hunch, unable to be sure whether I was risking my life for absolutely nothing.
But no, something told me she was here. I could feel it inside, like I was being drawn towards her. O'Brien was keeping her somewhere in this mansion, I was sure of it.
I looked up at a balcony above me. She could be in there....it could be Amy's room?
I climbed onto a ground floor window, standing on the ledge, and reached up. The floor of the balcony was just within reach, my fingers gripping to the edge and pulling me up.
I climbed up, as silently as possible, and peered in through the glass doors. They were obscured by curtains, so I couldn't see anything. I listened for any sort of sound inside, but heard nothing.
I wondered how many people even lived here? Was it just O'Brien? Did he have guards and other members of staff living with him? They were questions I couldn't answer.
The outside of the house was littered with these small balconies, all of them set outside rooms, maybe bedrooms. I managed to make my way around, moving from one to the next, looking inside. Sometimes curtains obscured the view, at others they didn't and I was met with empty rooms, no sign of Amy.
Before long I'd made it round the house, my eyes looking upon the front, the long path to the road, and the security gate at the end. I crouched down against the balcony wall for a moment, looking out for movement. This time I saw it, a man walking slowly across the front of the property at the bottom of the steps. I watched for a few minutes as I did with the camera. His movements were almost as rigid as he strolled up and down at the front, keeping his head looking out towards the gate down the path.
When I turned and scanned the windows at the front of the house, however, I felt my heart skip a beat.
There, right there in front of me, was a glass door, locked and bolted, not from the inside, but from the outside!
The lock looked out of place, like it had been added only recently, not originally built with the property. Someone was being kept inside.
I felt my heartbeat rising again as I crept forward, climbing over to the adjoining balcony. I kept my eyes on the guard below as he looked out on the gate, hoping he wouldn't turn and look up. If I made a sound, if he heard anything, the game was up.
I crept as quietly as I could over the balcony and crouched down again, once more out of sight from below. Once more concealed, I turned quickly to look through the glass door. There were curtains, as before, but they weren't fully closed.
I leaned in and peered through the glass to see a large bedroom. There were posters of topless men on the wall, some ripped down and torn. I could see a make up table in the corner, things scattered to the floor below it.
I leaned to the right to get a better look at the other side of the room. There was a bed, a bulge beneath the covers. It was dark inside, save a thin slit of light from the moon, shining through the gap in the curtains. The light landed on the bed, cutting across it and up to the headboard.
My eyes opened wider as I saw a flow of hair running over the covers, a head tucked in underneath. I lost a breath. The hair was red.