The Land Rover suddenly indicated for the off ramp at Ringwood. Alice, four cars behind, had been in the process of overtaking a caravan when the manoeuvre happened, and but for the last-minute glance at the turning she would have been oblivious to the fact that they’d left the road. It was too late for her to replicate their move and now she desperately hunted for somewhere she could come off and retrace her steps.
The whole time she’d been working on the assumption that they were headed to Bournemouth, but unless they were taking a scenic route to the town, they were headed elsewhere. With the Land Rover now out of sight, she had no way of knowing where it was they were going.
Thumping the steering wheel in frustration, Alice bit her tongue to stop herself cursing, conscious of Isabella dozing gently in the seat behind her. To have come so far and now lost them all because of that bloody caravan was hugely frustrating. Now she’d never know for certain why they’d suddenly rushed here or what they were planning.
Spotting the exit for Verwood and Matchams, Alice made the decision to get off the road and end the pursuit. There was no point in continuing driving west, especially when even her own stomach was starting to grumble. Following the exit road around and underneath the A31, they were soon on the eastbound side of the road.
‘We’ll stop for food in a bit,’ Alice said apologetically. ‘You still want that milkshake?’
Isabella nodded, half-asleep, but the earlier excitement had waned.
Alice had a vague memory that there was a McDonald’s at one of the service stops on the way back. She tried calling Ben’s phone via the Bluetooth, but as Hazelton had said, it went straight to voicemail, which meant he’d switched it off. That in itself was an odd thing for him to do. Ben was one of those people who had his phone at his side at all times, never far from social media and calls from the office. She could only think of one reason why he might have switched it off: because he didn’t want to be traced. Trying Dave’s phone as well, that too went straight to voicemail.
She tried to ignore the rising dread in the pit of her stomach.
Pulling off the road as the services loomed, she drove past the petrol station, alarmed to see half a dozen sets of blue flashing lights blocking the entrance to the restaurant. An officer was stationed by the line of cars, speaking to the long line of drivers ahead of them. Each time the officer would ask the driver to lower their window, talk for a few seconds and then the car would pull away and rejoin the main road.
As Alice lowered her window, the officer in a bright yellow, high-vis vest offered an empathetic nod. ‘I’m sorry, we’ve had to close the services due to a major incident. If you continue along the road, the next services is in about fifteen miles.’ He straightened to indicate the conversation was over.
‘I’m sorry,’ Alice called out through the window. ‘Can you tell me what’s happened?’
He bent forward again, clearly conscious of the queue building behind her, with other hungry drivers waiting to be delivered the bad news.
‘Just a local incident, madam, nothing for you to be alarmed about. We anticipate reopening the services in the next few hours.’
He straightened again, leaving Alice with no option but to do as instructed.
‘What’s going on?’ Isabella asked in a disappointed tone. ‘Does this mean we’re not getting food?’
‘No, sweetie, it just means we can’t eat here. I’m sorry, but it won’t be long until we get to the next one, and then we can eat.’
Releasing the handbrake, Alice couldn’t help but glance through the line of police cars, to try and see what could have possibly caused such activity. That’s when she spotted Dave’s Land Rover parked in one of the bays towards the rear of the small car park.
If Dave was there, she had no doubt that the police presence had something to do with him, and her heart dropped as she realized that Ben would also then be in trouble. She wanted to stop, to know for certain, but it wouldn’t be fair on Isabella – she would just have to wait for the inevitable phone call. If only she’d seen them pulling off at Ringwood sooner, maybe she could have prevented whatever had occurred.
With that thought still in her mind, she pulled onto the slip road down to the A31, but was alarmed to see a dark figure suddenly emerge from the trees, waving frantically. Drawing closer, she was even more alarmed when she realized the figure in black was Ben.