Chapter Thirty-One
Unravelling
“Now I’m really pissed!” Julia said as she stood in the empty hallway of her house.
Rawlston was coming down the stairs after searching the bedrooms. “There’s no one here, Julia!” he said angrily in a raised voice. “They never even came here!”
“I know! I know!” Julia shouted back. “I should have realised when the car wasn’t here! They must have gone to Sandra’s house! It’s the only other place I know they could go to! Come on!”
Julia stormed out of the house. Rawlston followed her.
“You better be right this time!” he said. “God knows what Ben Watkins is thinking!”
Ben Watkins was back at MedTec, and the two security guards had already explained to him what had happened. Now he stood in Matthew’s empty laboratory. He was thinking about taking the next flight out of Manchester Airport. Any flight. And the further the better. Because if he was right about Rosanna Casarotto, that she had somebody working for her on the inside at MedTec, then she would probably already know about this disaster. In fact, she was probably already on her way here.
He nodded silently to himself. Yes, it would be the best solution. Just catch a plane and disappear. If Tyler wanted to try and save the project, then good luck to him. Ben was going to disappear. Fast.
Ben Watkins went straight to the airport. He didn’t stop to do anything else. He just got in his car and drove straight there. He didn’t even go home to retrieve his passport. He didn’t need it anymore. Ben had created a false identity for himself a long time ago. Periodically he would change it, but he always made a habit of keeping the false passport and credit cards in his pocket. Just in case.
Ben’s haste was more than justified. By the time he reached the turn off for the airport on the M56 motorway, a black Mercedes had pulled up to the front of the MedTec building. Three people got out of the car. Two were men in gray suits. They got out first. One of them went to the main entrance and knocked on the glass door, beckoning to the security guards inside, while the second man opened the back door of the car and stood waiting.
Rosanna Casarotto swung her long legs out of the car and walked gracefully into the MedTec building. She was wearing a bright red suit, the skirt of which stopped just above the knee. Her jacket allowed a lot of cleavage to be on show, along with a tantalizing view of black lace. She wore very high heels, and they tapped loudly on the tiled floor as she walked into reception.
Both the security men stood up when she came in.
“Is Mr Watkins in?” she asked with a slightly South American accent.
“No Miss. He left about twenty minutes ago,” one of the security guards replied.
“And Mr Rawlston?”
“He went after Matthew Hall and the woman who had been in a coma.”
“I see. Do you have the logging in book?”
The security guard nodded and handed it to her. As she browsed through the pages, Rosanna turned her back on the two security men and said, casually, “I see that there is no one else in the building. Good. These two gentlemen are Mr Williams and Mr Smith. Introduce yourselves, please.”
As the two security guards raised their hands to greet the two men standing on either side of Rosanna Casarotto, Williams and Smith both drew automatics with silencers attached to them from under their gray jackets. There was the simultaneous sound of two soft thuds, and both security men fell dead.
Without turning around, Rosanna said, “Mr Smith, kindly escort me back to the car while Mr Williams clears up.”
As Smith did as she asked, Williams took a small incendiary device from his pocket and headed for the plant room. By the time he returned to the car, Rosanna Casarotto was already sitting cross-legged in the back seat, MedTec’s logging in book by her side.
“They had a lot of visitors over the last three weeks,” Rosanna Casarotto said in a soft voice. “We will have a lot of work to do over the next few days. But first, contact our office in New Jersey. Get them to do a search on the computers of all the flights out of Manchester Airport today. Get them to look for a Mr Willard Jenkins.”
Williams nodded and got on the carphone.
Rosanna then tapped Smith on the shoulder, and he immediately started the car and drove towards Exchange Quay.
At that moment, Ben Watkins was at the check in desk for a Qantas flight to Sydney in Australia. He was out of breath as he had to run to get there before the desk closed.
“You’ve only just made it, Sir! You better hurry!” the flight attendant said as she took his ticket.
“I know! Lucky, aren’t I?” Ben replied, and hurried down the gangway to the plane.
“Have a good trip, Mr Jenkins!” the attendant called after him with a smile.