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Jessica heard muffled voices outside then the door opened and someone slid a tray in through the gap. ‘Bucket!’ someone shouted and she went to get the stinking bucket and collect her replacement.
‘Please tell me what’s happening? Why am I here? How much longer,’ she cried.
‘Do as you are told, and read the instructions on the tray,’ said a voice but it was whispered and muffled as though someone was speaking through a scarf.
Her meal was again a packet of sandwiches and some water. This time it was egg and tomato. She looked at the sheet of paper. It was a printed sheet and told her to use the pen provided to write a letter to her boyfriend telling him that she was OK, being well looked after and not to do anything silly. He just had to be patient. If he did anything silly she would be killed. She trembled as she read the words. Things seemed to be getting more and more bizarre. Why on earth was she being held captive and what did they want with Dan? She could only think that he owed money to someone. They’d had that awkward conversation about the money he’d drawn out of the bank the other day. She hadn’t believed his story about lending it to Pat but at the time had decided to let matters lie and see what happened. She loved Dan dearly but she knew that he had a bit of a temper and could lash out, fortunately only verbally, otherwise, she wouldn’t have stayed with him for so long.
This was the reason she wanted to believe but deep down for the last couple of months, another worry had been festering which she’d not had the courage to broach. She knew that one of the reasons people often needed access to ready cash was to buy drugs. The story about paying for another tyre was a lame one. Her courage had wavered and because it was late at night she’d not been able to face challenging him about it. If only she had done so perhaps she wouldn’t be in this mess now. An argument with Dan, however ugly, would have been better than this ordeal. She was pretty certain that if he were using drugs it wasn’t at a serious level. He wasn’t injecting heroin or anything else for that matter as she would have seen the track marks on his arms. Now that she worked in London she occasionally went out socially with her colleagues and she was sure that some of them were snorting cocaine. They all had well-paid jobs and the odd line wouldn’t be too arduous for them to finance. It was a give away when they made excuses to leave the group and head off to the toilets. One girl, Hermione had been careless and had returned with some white powder clearly visible around her nose. She’d spotted a colleague gesturing to her surreptitiously and Hermione had quickly wiped her nostrils with her finger.
When this ordeal came to an end and she sincerely hoped it would, very soon, she would insist that Dan had some help to kick his habit. It wasn’t too late. She picked up the ballpoint pen and paper and began her letter following the instructions. As she began to write she looked at the pen. Could she possibly keep this? Would it be reckless? It wasn’t much of a weapon but it was better than nothing. Perhaps if she caused some sort of diversion at the next meal or bucket delivery it wouldn’t be missed. She finished writing and slipped the pen up her sleeve. She went over to the sleeping back and lay down to mull over her fate.
**
Fortunately, in Nick’s lab, emotions had calmed and work had resumed. Seth returned and told informed everyone that Dan had apologised and they had shaken hands. Hannah looked like she’d been crying as her face looked a bit puffy but they were all knuckling down to their work and had put the radio on at low volume for some company in the background. Nick had messaged Polly to see whether they could lunch together as he was desperate to chat through the angry exchanges and didn’t want to wait until this evening. They had arranged to meet in the coffee bar at around 1 p.m. when it ought to be less busy. It was too soon to tell whether Nick’s reaction was going to be successful but he would be able to run some samples for analysis before he left that afternoon. At least it hadn’t turned a horrible dark colour so that looked encouraging at least.
Dan’s practical efforts that day had been minimal and it looked as though he was sorting out some data for Pat to include in the publications or patent write-ups. Hopefully, by tomorrow a new day would signal a better atmosphere and they could all move on. Dan had finally summoned the courage to phone up Jessica’s workplace to say she was sick. He apologised on her behalf that she’d not phoned yesterday but she had been suffering so badly from the norovirus that she’d forgotten to phone them. He didn’t want Jessica to be disciplined by her work on top of the ordeal she was having to endure. The person he’d spoken to hadn’t sounded entirely convinced but Dan told them that Jessica would be in touch soon.
Nick had received an email from Brett to say that he would be popping by later that afternoon and perhaps they could meet up for a coffee and a chat. Nick had suggested 3 p.m. would be a good time and Brett had confirmed he would meet him in the coffee bar. Nick hoped that his colleagues wouldn’t think he spent all his time in there but he was sure everyone was just hoping the day would pass as quickly as possible as there was still a slight tension hanging around in the air.
**
Brett was coming on to the campus today to run through his plan for his meetings in London which had been arranged for Thursday. Although he wasn’t going to make formal presentations he still wanted to make sure he got all the salient points over in order to secure the necessary funding. He’d decided to book a hotel in London for Thursday night as he didn’t want to be anxious about getting the last train back. It wouldn’t look good if he was constantly looking at his watch. If things went well then they might decide to go for a meal, he would just play it by ear as the saying went. He thought back to his previous trip to London to his alumni dinner and suddenly felt rather sick. What a dreadful chain of events that had unleashed. He would seriously like to get his hands on Giles Wentworth and give him a good beating. He’d not been able to find out from his solicitor, Emma, whether the Crown Prosecution Service was pursuing a case against Giles or whether he’d managed to strike a deal. He kept hoping that he would see some reports of a fraud trial involving the odious Giles. Still, it had all turned out well despite the pain along the way so he should look forwards rather than backwards. The BioQex era was over but new doors had opened and life was looking pretty good now. It was great that there had been so much interest in placing an investment in PersCure.
He couldn’t wait to get out of the house this afternoon after his day supervising the new fences. Fortunately, the men were just finishing off this morning and after a phone call to their offices a foreman had arrived and given the men a stern rebuke for making such a mess of the driveway and the garden. Brett had been secretly eavesdropping the exchange from the front room and it had provided some amusement. The manager had even knocked two hundred pounds off the bill as compensation. He looked out to see the last of their equipment being loaded on to their truck. He would grab a quick sandwich then head off to meet up firstly with Matt and then Nick. It would be good to see Nick again, he was very confident that he would work wonders on the project, he was sure they wouldn’t regret it.
