‘No, no, no, no, no…’
Phil stared at his phone, tried to call Marina back. Nothing.
‘Phil?’ It was Anni. ‘What happened?’
‘The line went dead. She…’ He sighed, ran his fingers through his hair, turned backwards and forwards as if looking for a way out. ‘It went dead. While she was talking.’
‘You think someone got to it?’
‘Ben. Or Grant. Or whoever he’s calling himself.’ Phil nodded. ‘Yeah. Him. Shit…’ He paced once more, feeling that familiar tightening in his chest. Not now… I don’t have time for it now…
He kept hearing Marina’s voice, over and over in his head. He replayed the conversation, went back over everything. Tried to pick out something – anything – he could use to find her.
‘The club,’ he said aloud. ‘That’s where she must be. It’s the obvious place for him to take them. That’s where we look first.’
‘We?’ said Anni. ‘I’m off my patch here and you need to stand down.’
He stopped pacing, turned and stared at her. ‘What?’
‘I said, you need to stand down.’ She swallowed. ‘Boss.’
‘Why? This bastard’s got my wife.’
‘Conflict of interest, that’s why,’ she said. ‘You know the rules.’
Phil did know the rules. If an officer had a personal involvement in a case for whatever reason, he had to stand aside and let someone impartial take over. He turned to Anni, nodded. ‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘You’re right. I should.’
He still had his phone in his hand. He called Cotter.
‘Situation’s changed,’ he said when she picked up. ‘You know how you hoped whoever ran this club would pack up and leave to become someone else’s problem? Well, two things. That person is Grant Parsons, Ron Parsons’s son and he’s taken two hostages and holed up in there.’
Silence on the line. Phil held his breath. After what seemed like an eternity, Cotter spoke.
‘I’ll get the helicopter in the air.’
Phil let out a sigh of relief. ‘Thank you.’
He brought her up to speed. ‘One of the hostages is Maddy Mingella. She’s a student who had the misfortune to get involved with both Gwilym and Grant Parsons. I don’t know who the other one is.’ He turned away from Anni so he couldn’t see her silent remonstration with him.
‘Make sure the helicopter’s got the thermal imaging equipment going,’ he added. ‘We’ll need Firearms in their ARVs and we need the operational support unit for numbers.’ He hung up, looked at Anni. ‘We’re good to go.’
‘I’ll deal with this one.’ Anni jerked a thumb at Gwilym. ‘What you doing? Go.’
‘I will,’ said Phil, keying numbers into his phone. ‘One more call. If I’m going in there to get them, I need someone with me I can trust.’