The Call
Harry closed her eyes as she tried to stay calm. She knew the caller wasn't just a perverted heavy breather hoping to get his kicks by scaring someone. She waited a second.
"Hello."
"Harry, it's me."
"Dempsey! Where the Hell are you?" She knew she sounded angry but she didn't care. She had been terrified that he was dead.
"I'm sorry. I am so sorry. Please listen. I don't have long. Col"
"Col?" Harry pressed the record button on the answerphone in front of her, hoping that she could get something useful out of her fiancé. She knew he was in trouble and somehow he was able to contact her and ask for help. She knew him well enough to know that wouldn't be easy for him. She heard him sigh heavily.
"I didn't mean to run out on you Princess. Please believe me."
"I do."
"It looks like this has all gone wrong. I'm paying for stuff you know nothing about. This train isn't selling return tickets."
"James? What." She heard a click on the other end of the line. A gunshot rang out before the call ended. Almost catatonic with shock she knew she had heard someone fire a gun. She just prayed it wasn't Dempsey who was injured. Grabbing her keys and the tape from the answerphone she ran from her home to the little white car outside.
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"I thought I had sent you home." Spikings snapped as he saw Harry walk towards him. She raised an eyebrow. "Not that I expect you to follow orders. Not now." He raised his hand waving her into his office where Chas was already sat.
"He called." She handed him the tape. "I think Coltrane has him."
"Coltrane is dead." Chas raised an eyebrow. He looked as tired as Harry felt. Neither of them had slept more than a few minutes at a time since Dempsey had been missing. She knew he was as worried as she was.
"Yeah, but he had friends. Look, I thought he was talking nonsense." Harry watched as Spikings put the tape into a recorder. "He talks about not having much time to Col. Not call, col. The train he is on? The train? Could be a clue to where he is being kept. A disused train station."
Spikings kept his eyes on the desk as he played the tape, anger welled up inside as he listened to his junior officer try to give them as many clues as he could. He knew Dempsey would never run out on Harry, not unless it was the only way to protect her. Even then, he would try to get help before he had to go. Maybe he just hadn't the time to do that. Now it seemed he was giving it one last go. The sound of the gunshot reverberated around the office as Chas swore. Harry's face hardened. She knew what the men in the room thought, she had to assume the worst too.
"You think he was shot."
"A shot was certainly fired. He says himself, he hadn't much time." Spikings' voice was low, barely contained anger. "I have lost one officer this year, I refuse to accept another is gone until I see his body on a slab."
Harry closed her eyes, feeling sick at the thought her worst nightmare was very likely going to play out in front of her.
"Sir?"
"Yes."
"Can I make a suggestion?"
"Go on." He waved his hand as Chas got to his feet. Harry paused.
"Don't contact his mother and sister in New York. Not yet. Not until I have seen his dead body. Then I will call them, tell them myself."
"We don't know."
"I think we do. He was being held hostage." Harry took a deep breath. "One of Coltrane's men found out where he was living and decided to get revenge for his death. Somehow Dempsey stopped them killing me in our bed. They clearly caught him calling me and decided enough was enough."
"Harry, don't give up. Not yet." Chas frowned as Harry shrugged.
"Well, that's what they want us to think."
"If he is at a train station then I think we can safely assume its disused. Chas, get a map of all the decommissioned train lines in the country. I've had BOLOs put on every port and airport for Dempsey so we know he is still somewhere in the UK. And the call confirms that. There was no pips on the line first?"
"No." Harry watched as Spikings smiled slightly, feeling rather pleased with himself.
"Get the tape down to forensics. See if any of the science bods can work out where he might be. Ambient sounds and all that malarky."
"All the decommissioned lines? Since the Beeching Report? Twenty odd years ago?"
"Aye, well don't just stand there!" Spikings snapped as Chas left the room. Spikings rested a hand on Harry's arm preventing her from leaving.
"Harry."
"I."
"I know you are trying to work this case like any other. But it isn't like any other case."
"He would be like me. I dare say he was, when I was missing." She looked away as Spikings shook his head, remembering how Dempsey had behaved when Swabey junior had abducted her.
"He never entertained the possibility you would not be by his side again. He refused to accept the possibility, even with other women dead because of that monster. He was focused on you and only you. Same as we all were. I don't know what you are going through or what he did but I know what I would be like if it was my Kate. Don't give up, this is Dempsey after all."
Tears filled Harry's eyes as she nodded once. "I know."
"Good girl." Spikings stepped away, ushering her ahead of him out of the office. He prayed to a God he had long thought had given up on them that they'd find him before anything really did happen.
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