As Cooper laid me inside the boot, my head spun. And then the world went black.
‘Lauren? Lauren, are you OK?’ It was Madison’s voice. ‘Her eyelids are moving, Jam. I think she’s waking up.’
I struggled to open my eyes, but the effort was too much.
‘Lauren?’ As Jam spoke, I felt a hand on my forehead, stroking the hair off my face.
I tried to speak – at least my mouth was no longer gagged – but all that came out was a splutter of air.
‘It’s OK,’ Jam said. ‘You’re OK. We’re all here. Me, Madison and Shelby.’
‘And we called Mommy too,’ Madison added. ‘That big man let me speak to her . . . he made me make her promise not to go to the police. He said we’d be home by morning. Then he took all our phones away.’
I struggled to speak again, to point out there was no way we could trust anything Cooper Trent promised. This time I managed something that sounded like a cross between a whimper and a moan.
‘D’you think she’s hurt, Jam?’ Madison said anxiously. I felt her small fingers reach for my hand.
‘No.’ Jam’s voice sounded closer than before. ‘No, I think she’s probably trying to tell us that what Cooper says and what he means are two different things.’
I smiled to myself. Jam had always understood me better than anyone. With a horrible jolt, I remembered how he’d been kidnapped earlier because I’d been so selfish and obstinate.
‘Oh, Jam,’ I said, managing a soft whisper.
‘Yeah?’ His voice was right by my ear.
‘I’m so sorry you got taken. It was all my fault.’ Tears pricked at my eyes. I’d been worried before that Jam was only with me because he felt he should be. But now it struck me that no-one could blame him if he did dump me. Not only was I difficult – as he had often pointed out – but I was also a magnet for life-threatening danger.
I opened my eyes. Jam’s face was right next to mine, his hazel eyes soft and smiling.
‘Don’t sweat it, Lazerbrain,’ he said. ‘Feeling sorry for yourself was never your best look.’
‘At least I have a best look.’ I attempted to speak properly as I smiled, but my throat was too dry and it came out as a croak. I was lying on hard, cold ground, though someone had slipped something soft under my head. My head ached a little and I was very thirsty, but otherwise I didn’t feel too bad.
I squeezed Madison’s hand.
‘Lauren?’ Madison’s face loomed over mine, her brown eyes huge and full of concern. I got a whiff of her sweet, strawberry breath.
‘Hey, sweetheart,’ I rasped. It was unbelievably good to see her. ‘Are you all right?’
‘Yes.’ She hugged me.
I looked round. Jam was on my other side. He sat back on his heels. ‘Headache?’
I winced. ‘Yeah.’
‘We’re the same,’ Jam said. ‘Cooper drugged all of us in the car before we drove off.’
I nodded. That made sense. Jam, Madison and Shelby must have already been in the back seat of the car when Cooper bundled me into the boot. I’d been too busy trying to fight him off to have noticed.
I struggled onto my elbows and looked round. We were in a large basement room: bare, white walls, a grubby, threadbare carpet on the floor and no natural light whatsoever. There was no furniture other than a couple of plastic chairs stacked in one corner. A bare electric bulb hung from the ceiling. Jam and Madison were sitting on either side of me. Jam’s jumper was the soft material I’d felt under my head.
I twisted round. Shelby was hunched in the far corner of the room. She stared at me with miserable, angry eyes.
‘Where are we?’ I said, rubbing the back of my head. I still felt groggy, but my head was clearing.
‘No idea,’ Jam said. ‘We all came round in this room, same as you.’
‘At least we’re not tied up any more,’ Madison said, cuddling up next to me.
I put my arm round her. It was true. The plastic strips round my wrists and ankles were gone.
‘I’m thirsty,’ I said.
‘Me too,’ Madison said.
‘Have you tried calling for help?’
Jam made a face. ‘Yeah. The three of us yelled our heads off for about five minutes. Nothing happened.’
‘Except we got thirstier,’ Madison said ruefully.
A lock turned in the door.
I scrambled to my feet, pushing Madison behind me. Jam stood up too. Together, we faced the door as it opened.
Cooper Trent stood, huge and menacing, in the doorway. I hadn’t realised how muscular he was until right now. His biceps bulged under his T-shirt. His hair was wet and slicked back from his face, as if he’d just stepped out of the shower, and the handle of a knife protruded from his jeans pocket.
‘Good, you’re all awake.’ He smiled. ‘You were only out for about twenty minutes, so the headaches shouldn’t last long.’
I glanced at Jam. I knew he was considering the same thing that I was – could we get past Cooper and make a run for it?
But another glance and I realised how hopeless our position was. Cooper was armed, and far, far bigger even than Jam. On top of that, I’d seen on the cliff top how fast the man could move, despite his bulk. I’d also seen how lethal his attacks were – and how ruthless.
‘You killed Rick and the people he was working with,’ I blurted out.
I could feel Jam and Madison stiffen beside me. Of course, they hadn’t seen the cliff top struggle.
Cooper raised an eyebrow. ‘Those amateur losers?’ He gave a dismissive shrug. ‘They got what they deserved. That’s what happens to small fish who try to swim in a big pond.’
‘You being, like, a bigger fish, I suppose?’ I said.
Cooper grinned. ‘There’s always a bigger fish, Lauren.’
‘Why are we here?’ Jam asked.
‘Yeah, you’ve got the two million. What do you want with us?’ I added.
Shelby walked over and stood on Jam’s other side. ‘Where are we anyway?’ she said, trying to look fierce by putting her hands on her hips and jutting out her chin. ‘Who the hell are you?’
Cooper Trent’s smile broadened. ‘So many questions,’ he said. ‘Well, just for your information, I used to work in kidnap and ransom. That part of what Rick told you was true. And I’m ex-army. Special forces. Though I haven’t had what you’d call a conventional job for quite a while. Right now you’re in the basement of my rented house.’
‘What are you going to do with us?’ I asked.
‘You said it was OK to tell our mom we’d be home by morning,’ Madison said.
I put my arm round her and squeezed her shoulder.
‘If all goes according to plan then you will be home by morning,’ Cooper said. He turned to me. ‘It depends on you, Lauren, whether the rest of them turn up there dead or alive.’
Madison gasped.
My guts clenched. ‘What d’you mean it depends on me?’
‘I mean,’ Cooper said, ‘that there’s something I want you to do tonight, Lauren. And everybody else’s lives depend on whether you succeed or fail.’
21
A New Plan
Silence fell in the basement room.
I stared up at Cooper Trent’s rugged, relaxed face. He was smiling at our confusion. Apart from the knife handle poking out of his jeans pocket, he looked more like someone’s slightly wild uncle than a man who had just murdered three people and announced that everyone’s lives depended on me carrying out his orders tonight.
‘What do you want me to do?’ I touched the wooden oval round my neck. Normally this made me feel calmer, but not now.
Nothing was going to calm me down right now.
Cooper leaned against the wall behind him and folded his arms. ‘When Rick first told me – boasted to me – about how he was fooling your mother by pretending to kidnap your sister—’
‘I was kidnapped,’ Madison protested, peering out from behind me. Her voice was defiant, but I could feel
her fists against my back as she gripped my jumper.
Cooper shrugged. ‘Anyway, when Rick and I spoke, he was full of himself for pulling off the whole stunt, making Lauren think the kidnapper was Sonia Holtwood.’
I glared at him, not wanting to admit how easily I had been fooled.
‘Rick said he had your mother wound round his little finger . . .’ Cooper went on. ‘He told me how he’d manipulated the situation so that he was about to get two million pounds. Then he explained about the cock-up with the first exchange and how his stupid girlfriend – that Julianne – had tried, and failed, to raise the stakes by sending you after nonexistent valuables. And I saw that for all his big talk he had no idea what he was doing.’
‘So you thought you’d muscle in and take the money for yourself,’ Jam said in a disgusted voice.
‘At first that was all I planned,’ Cooper admitted. ‘But then I found something . . .’
He drew a piece of folded paper out of his pocket.
‘Recognise this?’ he asked Jam.
I looked at Jam. His eyes widened with shock. He put his hands in his own pockets. But it was obvious his jeans were empty.
With a terrible jolt, I realised that what Cooper held in his hand was Sam’s letter to Shelby. I glanced round at her. She was frowning, clearly confused.
My throat tightened. That letter was a bomb. I didn’t much like Shelby, but I wouldn’t want my worst enemy finding out the truth about her parents like this.
‘Don’t,’ Jam said. ‘Please.’
‘What is that?’ Shelby asked.
Madison shuffled even closer to me. At least the other letter, explaining that she, like me, had been fathered by an anonymous sperm donor, was still safely back at the holiday home.
‘Ah, you don’t know about this, Shelby,’ Cooper said softly. He paused for a second.
‘I know what’s in that letter,’ I said quickly. ‘And you said this was all about something I have to do, so you don’t need to read it to everyone.’
‘Don’t you think Shelby has a right to know what this letter says, Lauren?’ Cooper raised his eyebrows.
I said nothing.
There was nothing I could say.
And then Cooper Trent read the letter out loud.
I stared at the floor, my face burning. I couldn’t look at Jam, I couldn’t look at Shelby.
As Cooper read, the atmosphere in the room grew tense.
‘So you see,’ Cooper said, handing the letter to Shelby, ‘your real father is Simeon Duchovny.’
I glanced round at Shelby. She was staring open-mouthed at the letter. I caught Jam’s eye. He looked as desperate as I felt.
And yet it was my fault that Shelby was finding out this way that her mother had had an affair and Sam wasn’t her birth dad. Jam had wanted to tell her immediately.
I should have listened to him.
Shelby was reading the letter again.
I had read and reread mine. It still hadn’t sunk in that Sam wasn’t my birth father, but at least I knew Annie and Sam had chosen together to use an anonymous sperm donor . . . that I hadn’t been conceived out of mistrust and betrayal.
Shelby looked up at Jam. ‘I can’t believe you’ve been carrying this around,’ she said.
‘I’m sorry.’ Jam stared at the ground.
Shelby shook her head. ‘You’re the most disgusting person I’ve ever met.’
‘That’s not fair.’ I stormed over, forgetting that Cooper Trent was still in the room. ‘Jam wanted to show you. I asked him to wait. I wanted—’
‘Then you’re the most disgusting person I’ve ever met,’ Shelby spat. ‘But I guess I already knew that.’
We glared at each other. My heart was pounding in my chest. How dare Shelby talk to me like that?
‘You stupid—’ I started.
‘Stop it, Lauren,’ Jam said firmly. ‘Shelby’s just upset.’
I turned away, my cheeks burning. Cooper Trent was watching me, an expression of interested amusement on his face.
Shelby retreated to the far corner of the room. I took a deep breath.
‘I don’t get this,’ I said. ‘What’s Shelby’s birth dad – this Simeon Duchovny guy – got to do with me and why we’re here?’
Cooper Trent straightened up, assuming a more businesslike air.
‘Don’t you guys know who Simeon Duchovny is?’ he said.
‘Never heard of him,’ Jam said.
I glanced at Shelby again. She was now looking intently at Cooper. Her face was pale and her expression still bewildered.
‘Simeon Duchovny is one of the richest men in England,’ Cooper said. ‘He made a fortune in the late nineties with some dot.com business, then went into merchant banking. He’s got a fine art collection worth millions. Man, he is worth millions.’
‘I still don’t get it,’ I said. ‘What’s that got to do with me?’
Cooper glanced from me to Shelby and back again.
‘She’s your sister, Lauren,’ he said. ‘Isn’t it obvious?’
The car drew to a crawl as we reached Duchovny’s road. I had no idea where we were – Cooper had blindfolded me for most of the journey – but it was somewhere ultra posh. Each deluxe mansion we passed was bigger than the last. We stopped about twenty metres away from a gate at the end of a long curving driveway.
‘This is Duchovny’s place,’ Cooper said. ‘The house is along the drive.’
I peered past the gate and line of trees, searching for signs of a building . . . and the attendant security guards. Cooper had explained there would be an army of staff waiting on Duchovny’s every need. And I was supposed to march right up to them and demand to see him.
I felt sick as Cooper unlocked the car doors.
‘Ready, Lauren?’
‘I don’t think I can do this,’ I said.
Cooper rolled his eyes. ‘Of course you can. I saw you on that cliff edge. You’re determined, ruthless and resourceful. You’re perfect for the job.’
I shook my head.
‘Anyway, once you’ve found Duchovny it’s going to be plain sailing.’
I wasn’t at all sure that was true. Not that Cooper’s plan wasn’t simple. It was . . . ridiculously simple: he wanted me to meet with Duchovny and ask for a ransom for Shelby.
‘But he may not even know Shelby’s his daughter,’ I’d said.
‘Of course he knows,’ Cooper had chuckled. ‘I spoke to your mother earlier. Forced her to tell me the whole story. Duchovny has been paying maintenance for your sister ever since she was born. Small amounts every month.’ He paused. ‘Now go on, get out of my car and speak to him.’
I walked over to the gate and pressed the buzzer. Moments later a security guard appeared. He was dressed in a dark blue uniform with a walkie-talkie hanging from his belt. As soon as he saw me, he strode over and peered at me through the bars.
‘Yes?’ he said, unsmiling.
I gulped. ‘Please tell Mr Duchovny that I’m here.’
The guard frowned. ‘Is he expecting you?’
‘No,’ I said.
‘Go on, Lauren,’ Cooper’s voice hissed in my ear. ‘Say what I told you to say.’
I looked the guard in the eye. ‘Tell Mr Duchovny I’m here about . . . about Shelby.’
Keeping me in his sights, the guard backed a few paces away. His radio crackled as he picked it up. He spoke into it, passing on my message.
Another crackle.
And the voice through the other end.
Mr Duchovny says bring her round the back. Film room.
‘Over and out.’ The security guard let me through the gate, then took a hand scanner from his belt and waved it up and down my body. It emitted a series of gentle beeps. The guard put the scanner away.
‘This way,’ he said, turning on his heel and striding across the gravel.
Shoving my trembling hands in my pockets, I followed him.
I desperately wished Jam was with me. Not that I was really sure any
more that Jam wanted to be with me. Earlier, at Cooper’s house, there hadn’t been time for intimacies until the moment I left. At that point, Madison had hugged me fiercely, like she always did, but Jam had seemed cooler than usual, just telling me to be careful and giving me a quick kiss.
Maybe he was starting to count all the ways I’d let him down. Shelby’s outburst had been so unfair – especially after how I’d messed up myself. Maybe Jam was starting to wonder why on earth he stayed with me when it led to so much danger and aggravation.
I shook myself. I couldn’t worry about that now.
I followed the security guard round the bend in the drive. An enormous, modern three-storey house made of brick and glass came into view. It was as big as it was intimidating.
For a second, now I was out of Cooper’s eyeline, I was tempted to throw myself on the guard’s mercy and beg him to protect me while I called the police and told them everything. But there was no point. Cooper still had me exactly where he wanted me. The lives of the other three were at stake.
As if to remind me of his presence, Cooper chose that moment to make contact.
‘Nearly there, Lauren?’ He spoke through the earpiece he’d given me. No bigger than a tiny stud earring, this device meant he could both hear what I said and speak privately to me.
The fact that Cooper had such devices so easily to hand seemed, like everything else he’d done so far, to reinforce his own assertion that he was in a different league to Rick and the original kidnappers.
‘I’m right outside,’ I whispered.
‘Get on with it then,’ Cooper said.
I followed the guard towards the house.
22
Simeon Duchovny
‘Over there.’ The guard indicated the rear of the house. I hesitated. Whereas the front of the building was well lit, the back was in shadow. ‘Come on,’ he said.
As I followed him, I realised just how massive the house was. What I’d taken to be the back was, in fact, simply a brick wall marking the end of the main part of the mansion and the start of a long, low extension. The guard led me past the ground lights that ran down the side of the building to a reinforced glass door. Two plant pots stood on either side of it. Even in the dark, everything felt very manicured and expensive.