Trusting a Stranger (11 page)

‘She would be. Don't ever mention the ‘S' word around her,' Ethan said. ‘It's personal assistant or nothing. She used to work for my father. She's a good woman but she still feels somewhat maternal towards me I think.'

‘So you do have someone who cares for you!'

‘Someone I need to escape from would be a more accurate assessment,' Ethan said. They had reached an intersection and he turned onto a smaller road. ‘Elspeth has been warning me about women who are just interested in money since I was about ten years old.'

Hayley nodded. So that was why the woman had sounded so suspicious of her. She did not trust anyone that Ethan might have at his place. The suspicion was probably intensified because Ethan could not have mentioned her to Elspeth before.

‘Here we are,' said Ethan as they pulled up beside another Tuscan style building, this one even larger and more grand than his own.

Hayley opened her door and climbed out from the low seat. She could hear gravel crunching as Ethan walked around to join her.

How odd it felt to be back near a school. Hayley had walked away from her own at the end of her final year with a feeling of relief and gladness that she would never had to go back. She hadn't liked it there, where there were too many people around always telling her what to do. As no doubt happened to the poor girls who lived and studied here.

There were two wide, tall green doors before them, both of them locked. Ethan went up to one and pressed the intercom button beside it before announcing himself.

‘Signor MacDonald!' a voice crackled back at them. It was rich with a heavy Italian accent. ‘I will be right down.'

Ethan stepped back and looked at Hayley. Once again, he was showing all the signs of tension. His shoulders were square and high, his hands clutching a wallet to one side, his mobile phone to the other. More than anything else, she hoped that when the door was opened it would be Katy herself who was there, a happy little girl excited about seeing her Daddy who would come running through and throw herself into his arms.

But when the door opened, it revealed a tall and iron-haired woman in a long green dress. ‘Signor MacDonald,' she said, and then nodded at Hayley. ‘Signora. But you are back very soon. Was something forgotten?'

‘I told you I'd be coming,' Ethan said. His voice betrayed the kind of confusion that Hayley felt. The two of them were quite clearly not expected.

‘You told me someone would come for her,' the woman said. Now she was also looking confused. And not a little worried.

Why was this all taking so long? Hayley wanted to scream at the woman to tell her to hurry up, to explain what was going on. Beside her, the same emotions were radiating from Ethan.

‘And her aunt,' the woman continued, ‘Signora Pearl. She was here to pick her up just half an hour ago. She said you sent her…'

‘What do you mean?' Ethan demanded, stepping forward.

The headmistress took a responding step back. Later, he would think he couldn't blame her for this. He must have looked like he was fit to murder her.

He certainly felt like he was fit to murder her.

‘Someone already came and took Katy away?' asked Hayley, as if it wasn't already all too obvious that this was what was going on.

‘Pearl wasn't operating on your instructions?' asked the headmistress. Her face had gone white.

Ethan shook his head.

‘Step inside. I'll see what else I can find out.'

She turned and walked into a wide, honey-coloured hall. ‘Miss Morris?' she called out, pressing one of a row of buttons beside the hallstand.

A head poked out through the nearest door. ‘Yes, Anna?'

‘Mr MacDonald is here. Katy's father.'

‘Did you forget something?'

‘Mr MacDonald has come to collect Katy.'

‘But she already — Oh!' The woman's face sank into an expression of horror. ‘They've only just left,' she said. ‘It took a while for Katy to pick up her stuff. Their car might still be —'

It was all the invitation and information that Ethan needed. Ethan span on his heel and raced back through the front door. The car park where he had left his sports car was twenty metres away. Even as he watched, he heard an engine revving and an expensive blue car shot forward into view.

‘That's him?' he heard Hayley asking behind him.

‘Yes,' said the second of the teachers. ‘They —'

What she had been about to say was lost to the wind as Ethan took off, running towards his car. He heard Hayley's footsteps as she ran along behind him. He was glad of that, although with Katy's safety being at stake, he would have left without Hayley.

‘Pearl doesn't drive,' he said, between clenched teeth. ‘She must be with someone else.'

It occurred to him now that when they first arrived here, Katy would have been just a few metres away, getting into the other car. Who ever it was who had her must have told her something to make her avert her eyes. She would have recognised Ethan's car the moment she saw it and would have come running towards him as soon as she did. Or at the very least, she would have called out. If she had still been able to call out.

The pain that had gathered in his stomach tightened into an agonising ache.

He threw open his door and landed in his seat at the same time as Hayley landed in hers.

‘They've gone out the gate and turned to the right,' Hayley said. ‘I was watching.'

For the first time it occurred to him that it was better to be doing this with Hayley. Together, they formed some kind of a team. A partnership. That was why police officers always worked together. Hayley was his partner in this. She could be his eyes and ears when there was something going on, something that had already seized his attention and he might miss out on something afterwards.

She was a good passenger too. Ethan had chosen this car because it was known to be both fast and safe and he was soon really testing both qualities as they sped towards the intersection between the driveway and the road.

‘There he is!' called Hayley a moment later.

Ethan had already seen the low-slung blue car and he changed gear, putting further weight onto the accelerator as they sped off in the same direction. Beside him, Hayley was clutching onto the seat at both sides with her hands, but the expression he could see with the corner of his eye was exhilarated, not scared.

‘They're turning left again,' she said.

Although he could see this for himself, he was glad she told him because he was unsure when Tomasi — or whoever he was — might do something that he hadn't noticed.

‘Pearl doesn't drive?' Hayley asked when they had reached a long, straight stretch of road.

Ethan shook his head. The car ahead of them was gaining speed but so was he. At least it was not gaining distance.

‘You need to take out my cell phone and call the police,' he said. ‘Let them know where we are.'

Ethan reached into his pocket and passed his phone to her. He hoped she wasn't going to be the sort of silly woman who made a big fuss about not knowing how to work mechanical things.

Evidently, she wasn't. A moment later he heard her speaking in — as far as he could tell — fairly fluent Italian as she told the phone operator on the other end of the line what they were doing and why they needed help.

Obviously, she didn't know the Italian for kidnapping, because she said that in English, looking across at him.

The police dispatcher seemed to know exactly what she meant anyway. Hayley didn't lose anymore time explaining the situation.

‘How long do you think it will take them to respond?' she asked when she had disconnected the call.

‘Didn't they tell you?'

‘They said ten minutes. Does that sound realistic?'

‘I don't think so. They can't know where we're headed. I mean, I don't know where we're headed for.'

‘Do the Tomasis have property anywhere around here?'

‘The Tomasis have properties just about everywhere,' Ethan told her.

A few minutes later, the car ahead of them took a quick and unsignalled turn and joined up to a major road they had been driving alongside for the past few hundred metres. As Ethan reached the corner behind it, he looked ahead and saw the blue car pull over to the side.

A tall, thin woman emerged from it, looking dazed.

Pearl.

Ethan sped towards her, as the blue car tore away.

‘Is Katy in there with him?' he asked when they were alongside her.

Pearl looked even worse than she had last time they met. She looked like she had taken a hit recently, too. She nodded.

‘And is it Tomasi? Alvaro, I mean. Not one of his henchmen?'

Pearl looked down at her fingers and scratched her ear. She seemed unconvinced that this was a critical situation.

‘Can you give me a lift?' she asked. ‘I'm going to Rome. I think I'm going to Rome. Am I going to Rome? We're in Italy, right?'

‘You can come with me but I'm going to get Katy and then I'm going home,' Ethan said. ‘Decide quickly.'

‘You won't take me to Rome?'

Ethan shook his head. But he knew he couldn't leave her here like this, destitute as she almost certainly was. He reached for his wallet, lying between the two front seats and peeled out two of the notes.

‘Get yourself a hotel room. I'll be back for you later.'

‘How will you know where I am?'

‘I'll call you.'

‘I don't have my phone.'

The expression on her face told him what she had done with it. That it had, of course, been exchanged for drugs as everything she owned of value had been exchanged.

Ethan felt a stir of annoyance. He had given her that phone and had not done so because he wanted to help her score.

He reached into his wallet for another note and for one of his business cards. They had all his contact details on them. He had no choice really. Pearl might use the money for drugs rather than a phone but the blue car was so far ahead of them now that he couldn't afford to spend another moment here chatting with his sister.

‘Buy yourself another one,' he said. ‘Text me your new number.'

Then he sped off.

There was more traffic on the road now. It was nearing the start of the working day and, hence, peak hour. Ethan realised he was fortunate Tomasi had such a recognisable car. A more common vehicle would have melted into the crowd.

The traffic slowed as it thickened. The dull blade of panic slipped inside him, turned slightly.

Hayley reached out and rested her hand on his leg. The pressure was warm and comforting.

‘Tomasi has to slow down as well,' she reminded him.

Oh, she was good for him, there was no doubt about it. Ethan looked down at her and tried to force a smile.

Tomasi took the next turnoff, along a winding country road that led down to Montepulciano. The road was narrow and less busy but just as slow and Ethan was many, many cars behind. Beside him, Hayley reached for her camera and zoomed in on the cars ahead.

It seemed a strange time to be looking for things to do that might be relaxing.

‘In case we need evidence,' she explained when she saw him looking.

That might make sense. The traffic increased in speed a little and he had to concentrate on driving. When they next slowed, the Tuscan town's walls and rose-coloured towers were visible.

The blue car pulled into a car park outside the town walls and slammed to a stop. The driver's door opened and Alvaro Tomasi climbed out. He was wearing his black from head to toe. His dark, shoulder-length hair blew around his face.

‘Everyone I've ever disliked has smoked,' Hayley remarked. ‘I hate how much it reminds me of my mother.'

Ethan settled his shoulders, furious at the very sight of his enemy. Then he turned his eyes towards the other doors. Perhaps the man had not realised he was being followed.

They were almost there now. Almost.

‘Traffic, move,' Ethan found himself saying beneath his breath.

Tomasi was taking a few steps away from his car now. Ethan couldn't understand it.

Was he planning on leaving Katy in there?

They were there. Finally, they had caught up. If Katy was in the car, he could get her out, breaking a window if necessary, and that would be it, the worst minutes of his life behind him.

Ethan pulled to the side of the road and leaped out of his car. This was one of those times in life when an official parking spot really didn't matter.

‘Tomasi!' he yelled at the top of his voice, running towards the other car.

Hayley was beside him. He was glad of that. She was small and their enemy was huge and strong and armed, but she was brave. At the very least, she could turn Katy's eyes away from any violence.

‘Hey!' Ethan repeated when his first yell hadn't attracted the attention he required.

Tomasi froze and turned towards the two of them. The expression on his face was impossible to read.

Ethan sped towards the car before Tomasi could get back there. It had been a mistake to call out, he realised, until he had Katy safely back with him. But he had been too angry. He had not been able to control himself.

Tomasi didn't do what Ethan expected. Surprise continued to be one of the main ways he operated. Instead, he stood at a distance, arms folded across his chest, watching with an expression of sardonic disinterest.

His car had tinted windows but as he reached it, Ethan could tell immediately that there was no one else in the vehicle.

Tomasi barked a cruel laugh when he sensed Ethan's disappointment and pain.

‘I don't understand,' said Hayley, standing beside Ethan and also looking in. ‘Where is she?'

Ethan sprinted towards Tomasi, who had still not moved. Was it possible that he was stunned to see them there? Possible that he hadn't realised he was being tailed?