38

Roman walked the length of the Dixon’s living room as he commenced his summary of events. Sophie and Paige sat with Carolyn and Tyrone, listening with keen attention. Polly, having given her statement to Roman, was asleep in her room, still recovering.

“Polly had been well looked after, relatively, but she was kept sedated for a lot of the time she was there. She never saw her captor but is certain it was a man. He wore a mask and weird, baggy kind of industrial overalls each time she saw him. He left her water and snacks and returned every few days to give her a proper cooked meal. The night she was taken, she can’t remember anything except waking up there. She knew she was somewhere near the water, but nothing else. Polly told us that while her laptop was password protected, her phone was not, so it would’ve been easy for him to access her Facebook and post on her behalf. Because of the mask and the overalls she couldn’t provide any specific details regarding his physical description.”

“So basically nothing useful,” Paige said loudly. Sophie elbowed her. “Ow.”

“What about Jason?” Carolyn said. “Any news?”

“I have a nationwide alert on him. Checking the airports, intercity buses, etc. We’re getting a credit card trace at the moment. His phone is off.”

“What did he want with her?” Carolyn asked, her features strained. “If he just kept her sedated, mostly, what was his plan?”

Roman shook his head. “I really don’t know. We’ll have to wait until we find him.”

Tyrone stood up. “Thank you, Detective. You’ve been great. Good work.” He leaned forward to shake Roman’s hand just as his phone rang. “Sorry, I have to take this… we’re waiting to hear that the papers have been signed,” he said.

Sophie watched him take the call.

“Oh, good, thank God.” Relief coursed over Tyrone’s face and his shoulders dropped.

“It’s gone through?” Carolyn called across to her husband.

Tyrone beamed and nodded, still with the phone clamped to his ear.

“It’s the Titan deal he’s been working on for the last couple of months,” Carolyn explained. “It was supposed to be signed today, and he’s been very stressed. And on top of the Polly situation…” She shook her head and took a sip of tea.

Sophie could almost hear Carolyn changing her internal narrative to account for Tyrone’s behaviour over the last few weeks. Their cheating husband surveillance would be never spoken of again, she knew, because Carolyn would not be confronting her husband after this ordeal.

“Tyrone was involved in the Titan Industries manufacturing deal?” Roman said, conversationally. “I read about it in the paper. A massive factory in the industrial complex in South Auckland?”

As Carolyn nodded, Sophie sat up straighter in her seat. After a moment of thought she pulled out her phone and opened Facebook.

Tyrone hung up and ran his hands through his hair. “Yes. Yes,” he repeated to himself, clenching his fist and smiling as he walked over to the kitchen bench. He leaned against it, visibly relaxing.

Sophie watched him.

Paige nudged Sophie. “What’s up?” she whispered. Sophie shook her head at Paige to indicate “not now”, then stood and walked across to where Tyrone was standing. He straightened to full height when he realised Sophie was standing right in front of him, less than two feet away. Closer than social convention usually permitted.

“Excuse me, sorry, can I use your toilet?” Sophie smiled at him.

“Uh, yes, of course, it’s down the hall… last door on the left.”

But Sophie didn’t move, instead continuing to stand too close to Tyrone. He cast a glance at his wife who was now frowning at them. He took a step backward, shuffled a bit farther away from Sophie, then gave up and walked straight over to where Carolyn stood with Roman. He put his arm around her and Carolyn stiffened at first, but then relaxed into the embrace.

Sophie turned and stepped out of the room confident that Tyrone hadn’t noticed that she’d picked up his phone.

WHEN SOPHIE RETURNED a few minutes later, she surreptitiously replaced the phone from where she’d taken it and sat down next to Paige.

“What’s going on?” Paige whispered. The Dixons continued to speak with Roman.

“I needed to make a call,” Sophie whispered back.

“What’s wrong with your own phone?”

“You saw that, huh?”

“Yeah, but don’t worry, no one else did. So, what’s happening?”

“I have a theory,” Sophie said. “I’ve got Leo working on something. He’s going to call back in a minute.”

“I think we need to compare notes,” Paige said. She stood up and said to the others, “We’re just going to step outside for a moment.” She yanked Sophie to her feet and dragged her outside. “Let’s get Leo back on the phone.”

THIS WAS QUITE exciting, Leo thought, already working on the task Sophie had set him.

What he needed was a headset, to keep his hands free while he took calls. Urgent calls, coming in from his two field agents while he worked behind the scenes, the real mastermind of the operation. Leo’s eyes lit up at this delicious embellishment.

Another call came in. Leo wiped his sweaty palms and picked up the phone. Yes, he would purchase a headset ASAP.

“Go for Leo,” he said loudly, trying to emulate a Wall Street Dude-slash-air traffic controller combo.

“Stop mucking around, Leo,” Paige said. “I need you to do something else for us. Fast.”