Author's Message
First of all I would like to say a huge thank you to all of you who accepted my invitation to vote on which option you would like to see me choose to progress the current storyline from where I left it last. Also, many thanks indeed to those of you who have told me how pleased you were that I had decided to carry on with this story. Your support is much appreciated, believe me! That is a large part of the reason why I decided in the end to continue with the story after having taken a short break away from it. You clicked on to the last 'chapter' in record numbers (for me, that is!) not knowing it wasn't going to be a proper story update so I'm delighted to be able to bring you a genuinely new chapter of the story to read this time.
After having reviewed all the comments it appears that options 1 & 3 were the most popular, with option 2 close behind. I have therefore come up with an overall scenario which I hope will satisfy supporters of all these options. This should become clear as the sequence of events gradually unfolds over the next few chapters.
I hope you enjoy the start of the 'new series' of this story and I would love to hear any opinions and thoughts you may have on the forthcoming chapters. THANKS ONCE AGAIN FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
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Naomi was doing her utmost to concentrate on what the kidnapper was saying even though she was shaking like a leaf and her heart was thumping so hard that she thought it was going to burst through her chest like something out of an alien movie.
She was barely conscious of the words of comfort and the questions that the people around her were coming out with, despite the vague feeling in the back of her fucked up consciousness that there was a familiar voice in amongst all the confused jumble of voices around her. The entire focus of her attention was the guy on the other end of the line who was continuing to speak to her in cold, clinical, controlled tones.
'She won't get hurt provided you do exactly what I tell you. Do you understand?'
'Yes!' Naomi almost screamed down the phone. 'Just tell me what to do and I'll do it! Just don't hurt Emily!'
'We know you have the key to the locker where the money is. Go to the station, open up the locker, take out the bag and close the locker. Then leave the station immediately and wait outside the front until I call you again, Keep your phone switched on – if you want to see your girlfriend again.'
His last sentence provoked a fresh outpouring of tears and Naomi felt an unbearable pain in her chest which almost made her collapse on the spot. She willed herself to hold it together for just a few more seconds until she was done with talking to the heartless bastard.
'OK, I understand. But I haven't got the key on me, it's at home.' She prayed that the guy wouldn't think she was lying to buy herself some more time.
'Well, you'd better go straight home and get it, hadn't you?' He obviously believed her but his voice didn't betray any sympathy or understanding. 'One final word of warning, Miss Campbell. Don't even think of calling the police, will you. That'll be the surest way to ensure you'll never see your friend alive again.'
The most chilling and terrifying of threats are often delivered in the softest and quietest of tones and this was definitely a case in point. The man couldn't have put the fear of God into Naomi any more if he had shouted the warning down the phone in the most blood-curdling voice imaginable. Naomi's tears were streaming down her cheeks as she promised desperately that she wouldn't involve the police and that she was going straight home to get the key. Suddenly the line went dead as the guy rang off, leaving a stunned Naomi feeling terribly alone with her misery and fear despite now being surrounded by about a dozen people, all trying to comfort the poor girl.
She collected her scrambled senses just long enough to realise that if she wanted to see Emily again she had no time to lose. The first step was to go back home and retrieve the key which mercifully, she thought, was still in its hiding place after the break-in. It was an indication of how just what a complete whirl her head was in that she failed to make any connection between the break-in at her house and what had just happened to Emily. A more fully compos mentis Naomi might have worked out that if the key had been found by the intruders then Emily would never have been snatched.
She broke through the crowd around her without a word of explanation or thanks for their concern and started running as fast as her legs would carry her for home. She couldn't remember the last time she had gone anywhere on foot at such breakneck speed but then she had never had the life of someone she totally adored solely in her hands before. Fortunately she was in pretty good shape with all her cycling so although she was out of breath by the time she reached the house, she wasn't feeling like she was about to die with the agony of unaccustomed violent exercise. At one point during her race back home her mobile rang but when she looked at it she saw that it was Freddie calling and she ignored it. There was only one call she was interested in taking and it was certainly not Freddie's.
She flew into the house and made immediately for the kitchen, where her mother was busy doing some washing-up and cleaning. Without a word of greeting she rushed across to one of the kitchen cupboards, opened it and took out the jar of marmite in which she had hidden the key. A minute later, still ignoring her mother's puzzled questions about why on earth had she buried a key in a jar of her favourite sandwich spread, she had extracted the sticky, gooey key from the depths of the jar, washed it frantically under the tap to get all the marmite off it and then taken off out of the house, leaving a bemused and open-mouthed Gina wondering what the hell could have prompted her daughter to have carried out such inexplicably bizarre behaviour.
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Freddie sighed in exasperation and switched his mobile off. Why the hell wasn't Naomi answering her phone, he asked himself, more than a touch irritated? The conversation he had just had with his sister had almost left him speechless with disbelief and he had wanted to speak to Naomi to get confirmation that it was all a sick joke or that his sister had got completely the wrong end of the stick about what she claimed she had just witnessed.
The likelihood of Emily having been forcibly adducted in broad daylight in the middle of a busy street by being snatched, bundled into a car and driven away seemed ludicrous in the extreme, to put it mildly. But Karen was adamant that was what she had just seen happen and he couldn't see for the life of him why she would make up something like that.
He pondered for a moment what to do and, as he usually did in so many situations where prompt, decisive action was called upon, took the easy option of turning to Cook for advice. His friend may have had a habit of impulsively rushing into things, all guns blazing, without first exploring all the options or examining all the evidence with careful consideration, but at least he always did something. You could never accuse Cook of inertia, indecision or procrastination.
'Cook? Have you got a moment? Something incredible has just happened, according to Karen. She says she's just seen Emily being abducted by some guys and driven away in a car.'
'What? Are you fucking joking?'
'I know it sounds ridiculous but Karen swears it's true. Naomi was with Emily when it happened. Karen said Naomi was in a dreadful state. She didn't even recognise Karen when she ran over to her after it happened. She was talking on the phone with someone after Emily was snatched and then she just took off without a word.'
'Have you tried to speak to Naomi?'
'Yeah, of course, but she didn't pick up my call. What the fuck should we do, Cook?'
There was silence at the other end for a few seconds which presumably meant that Cook was giving the matter an unusually large amount of thought for him before springing into action.
'You ring Naomi's Mum and find out if she's spoken to her or seen her since then. I'll contact Katie and find out if she's heard from Naomi at all. Get hold of Karen and I'll meet you both outside the pub in ten minutes, okay? We'll talk more then. Don't say anything about Emily being abducted, Freds. It might all be bullshit but if it is true we don't want to be freaking anyone out just yet. Not until we know what the fuck's going on.'
As usual Cook was making decisions and taking charge, directing his troops and leading from the front. At times like these Freddie wished he possessed even a fraction of Cook's dynamism and decisiveness. But he knew he was by nature a ditherer and a procrastinator, happier at being led than leading others. He felt more comfortable being a faithful and trusted lieutenant than the person taking responsibility for the success or failure of a mission. That was his role in life, he acknowledged sadly to himself as he searched for Naomi's home number on his phone whilst making his way over to the agreed rendezvous at Cook's uncle's pub.
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Naomi was pedalling her bike furiously like there was no tomorrow which, as far as she was concerned, there wasn't if she didn't get Emily back in one piece. Nothing else mattered to her - certainly not the money about which she still hadn't come to any firm decision before Emily was abducted. Right now all that cash, so bizarrely presented to her gift-wrapped by her late father, seemed like the most unimportant thing in the world compared to Emily's safe return home.
Amidst all these very private, personal thoughts that a frightened, tear stricken and very confused Naomi quite understandably had flying around in her head, came suddenly to the forefront one realisation which immediately began to weigh very heavily upon her conscience. She hadn't thought for a second to get in touch with Katie to tell her the dreadful news of her twin sister's abduction.
Of course a part of her didn't want Katie to know what had happened. She just instinctively knew that after the inevitable, initial, panic-stricken shock reaction at hearing the news, Katie was bound to try to blame her in some way for what had happened. She could so easily picture the bitch from hell screaming abuse at her, saying that this would never have happened if her sister wasn't gay and had been going out with some big, strong, macho guy built like a brick shithouse instead of this useless blonde girl who was too weak and feeble to protect Emily and stop something like that from happening!
Naomi almost literally shuddered at the thought of what Emily's mother would come out with if she got to hear how Naomi had singularly failed to protect her younger daughter from a brutal abduction. Whatever it was it would make Katie's predictable, foul-mouthed, illogical, bile-filled tirade of blame and condemnation come across as a mere minor strop or pointless rant by comparison.
No, she would dearly love to avoid Katie or Emily's parents finding out what had happened, purely for her own selfish reasons of self-preservation and pride. But at the same time she recognised that it would be utterly cowardly, mean and heartless not to tell them all that Emily's life was now in danger. She would have never forgiven them if it had happened when they were with Emily at the time and they hadn't contacted her to break the awful news to her. As painful and difficult as it was bound to be, she simply had to break the news to them and fast before, God forbid, they heard the news from somebody other than her. She would never be forgiven for letting that happen!
She turned into the main street which led down to the station and could see it in the distance when she slowed down and pulled in to the side of the road. She had to make the dreaded call now, she reasoned. She couldn't afford to put it off any longer because as soon as she had the holdall outside the station she would be waiting for a call from one of the kidnappers. She dialled Katie's number – better off speaking to her than Emily's mother, she thought, Katie being marginally the lesser of two evils – and waited with a rapidly increasing heart rate and unnaturally heavy breathing as she tried to compose herself and calm down in anticipation of the full scale storm that would soon be blowing.
'Naomi? What do you want?' asked a surprised Katie. It was a very rare event indeed for Naomi to be calling her without warning. She was immediately on her guard.
'Katie, I need you to listen to me very carefully. What I'm going to tell you is NOT a joke, okay? It's fucking deadly serious. Emily's just been abducted by a car full of men while we were out walking.'
'WHAT?!!!' Katie screamed down the phone. 'Please tell me you're fucking joking, you cow!'
'I'm not joking,' cried Naomi, bursting into tears all over again as the vivid memories of the devastating incident came flooding back to her. 'But I'm dealing with it, okay. They've told me what I have to do to get her back and I'm doing it right now, alright? I promise you I'll get her back safe and sound in no time.'
Naomi could hear the sound of Katie crying hysterically on the other end of the phone and waited with a sick feeling in her stomach for the inevitable volcanic explosion to erupt.
'Why? Why would anyone want to take her?' the older twin sobbed in disbelief. Naomi couldn't face telling her the long story of her Dad and the money right then , particularly when she had Emily's safe return entrusted in her hands She had to calm Katie down and then stall her as best she could for a while longer..
'Listen to me, Katie, please! You mustn't tell the police. Not one word, right. The men who took Emily made that absolutely clear, okay? We tell the police and we won't see Ems again.'
'But…….how do we……..what have they...'Katie was clearly struggling to keep a tight grip on the reality of the situation, this patently absurd reality that had seen her much adored but ordinary, unremarkable twin sister become the most unlikely target for a bunch of kidnappers in the middle of Bristol. You couldn't write a more ridiculous script to have to convince someone of the truth of the story, it occurred to Naomi incongruously in the middle of all these tears and total bewilderment.
'Look, I can't go into any more detail. I'm on my way to meeting up with the guys who took her to give them what they want. When I've given them that they'll release Ems and she'll be back with us again, safe and sound. I promise you, Katie! You know I wouldn't let anything bad happen to her!' As soon as she said those last words Naomi knew with a sinking feeling what would be thrown right back in her face
'It already has!! How come you weren't with her when it happened? And what do you mean, when you've given them what they want? What could you have that they want?'
It was time for Naomi to cut short this excruciatingly painful and increasingly dishonest conversation. She couldn't waste any more time. She had to get to the station and retrieve the bag of money and await her instructions. She knew it would seem dreadfully callous and brutal for her to ring off but she had no option. It was in all their best interests.
'Katie! I've got to go now. Please don't tell the police, I beg you. And don't tell your Mum and Dad, not just yet. I should have Emily back really soon. I promise to call you again the minute I've got her back, honest.'
With that Naomi abruptly cut Katie off, put her mobile back in her pocket, remounted her bike and pedalled the remaining hundred yards or so down the slight incline to the station. But as soon as she got near enough to see the front of it clearly she was met by a sight that made her blood run cold and her heart stop beating momentarily. For while she would have expected to see a reasonable number of people milling around outside the station at this time of day, people entering or leaving the building, queuing up for taxis, hanging around saying hello or goodbye to friends or family, she certainly wasn't remotely prepared for the dramatic scene which instantly met her eyes.
The whole of the forecourt in front of the station had been cordoned off and hundreds of people were milling around on the other side of the rope, ordinary members of the public, presumably the vast majority being would-be passengers, railway staff and officials, security men and above all, most conspicuously of all from Naomi's point of view in her current unenviable situation, dozens of police officers and police cars.
The uniformed police officers were clearly in charge of keeping the public and the railway staff back from the entrance to the station. Naomi could hear megaphones being used to communicate to the people who were lined up all around the station forecourt, but a suitable distance away from the entrance, sufficiently far enough away to satisfy the police so it appeared.
There was an unmistakeable yet indistinct crescendo of noise, the muffled and garbled murmurings of a large crowd of people talking and shouting to each other as everyone's attention was fixed on the station entrance. It was almost as if they were awaiting the arrival of some long lost, much adored celebrity who they knew would be walking out of the station building to tumultuous applause and wild cheering at any second.
Now this was a very striking and dramatic scene and ordinarily enough, on an average day, Naomi might be vaguely curious to find out what all this was about. But on this precise afternoon, at this very moment, all Naomi could think of, with abject horror and consternation, was how the fuck was she going to get the holdall out of the locker to give to the kidnappers. After all, the station had, to all intents and purposes, been sealed off for god knows how long, for fuck knows what reason, by the Bristol Constabulary.
As she stood next to her bike, a good thirty yards or so away from all the commotion, surveying the chaotic scene unfolding in front of her eyes, wondering what the hell to do next, the tears started to stream down her face again as she was unable to hold back huge sobs of despair at the realisation that she would be unable to keep her end of the deal. She could see her chances of ever seeing Emily again alive and well receding by the minute as fate appeared to have cruelly conspired against her at the very moment when she desperately needed it to be looking down on her kindly and taking pity on her in her hour of need.
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