A Dangerous Affair

After having searched the entire complex for the woman who Tom had handed the necklace to, and considering that the necklace had now been found, the police moved away from the exits and allowed people to enter and leave the building again. Tom was asked to give a detailed description of the woman to the police and afterwards he turned to suggest that he and Stephanie go home. Behind him Sergeant Benton was chatting to his officers but Stephanie had apparently moved away. Tom had seen Stephanie and the Sergeant talking only minutes before but now she wasn’t there and Tom scanned the hotel lobby then, searching her out through the groups of people. He thought to himself that she must have gone to the ladies room however in the back of his head he had begun to panic. Rushing into the casino, he searched that area too but still he couldn’t see her. Heading back to the lobby again, he took Sergeant Benton aside and asked him where Stephanie had gone. When the Sergeant said that he had no idea where she was Tom felt a sudden fear grip him. He reached into his pocket for his mobile phone and telephoned her number, waiting on tender hooks for a reply. Minutes passed but still there was no reply. He continued to wait for her to pick up his call, strumming his fingers on the reception desk with nervous impatience. Something was wrong. At this point Sergeant Benton had noticed Tom’s frantic movements around the reception area and he approached him.

“What’s the problem?” he asked as Tom hung up.

“Stephanie has disappeared and she’s not answering her phone. I think that she may have been taken! Damn it,” he said, thumping his fist on the desk, “I only turned around for a second and I thought she was talking to you!”

“I was busy sorting all this mess out,” Benton said, running an agitated hand over his face.

“I’m officially informing you that she is missing. I believe that Henry Carlton has taken her,” he said, pacing anxiously around the Sergeant. “He owns a converted theatre on Pickering Street where he is also heavily involved in supplying narcotics. I’m going to look for her.” With that Tom abruptly turned and strode purposely towards the exit.

“Wait for us to deal with this!” Benton shouted after Tom, “I wont allow vigilantes on my turf!” As he watched Tom go he doubted that Tom would heed his words and he decided to bend the rules a little by ordering for some of his men to check out the theatre even though Stephanie had only just seemingly disappeared. Tom obviously wasn’t going to wait and therefore neither could he afford to.

Outside the casino Tom paced the street, hailing down taxis which whizzed past him with passengers already inside. He began to feel the pressure building up inside him as his urgency grew. Finally a taxi stopped, letting out a young couple who entered the casino, and Tom commandeered it. The driver was reluctant to let him in as he already had a pick up to make somewhere else but Tom put his hand in his jacket pocket and pulled out a handful of bank notes. He pressed them into the driver’s hand and urged him to drive as fast as he could to his apartment, at which point he promised that he would pay him more money. The drive was spent with Tom shouting at the driver to speed up and the driver trying to hold on to his patience. Finally they reached Tom’s apartment where he paid the man again, ran into the apartment block, up the stairs and crashed through his front door. He went straight into his bedroom and frantically rummaged in the wardrobe. He found the object he was looking for and before he headed back outside to his car he rammed the gun he had picked up into his belt at the small of his back underneath his jacket.

When Tom reached the theatre Sergeant Benton was already there with two other officers and Tom let himself in through the door which had been broken into to find them searching the premises. As Tom realised that Stephanie didn’t appear to be there he pushed past one of the officers and rushed to the converted office in the back which he and Stephanie had searched before. One look around the office told Tom that Henry was on the run as the drawers had all been emptied and left open and the room had been cleared. Tom stood in the middle of the room and tried to slow down his erratic breathing. He had to stay calm. He had to think. Glancing around the room again a telephone on the desk caught his eye and he had an idea. He picked up the receiver and dialled 1471 last caller, intending to use the information to somehow find out who Henry had last called. He reasoned that if Henry had left in a hurry he could well have phoned somebody who would now know where he was. Fortunately however, when Tom phoned the number he had retrieved he was faced with an answering machine message which indicated the location of his last caller. Tom’s heart pounded as he listened to the answering machine message. It was from an airfield and he was certain then that that was where Henry had taken Stephanie. He must be planning to disappear and he was taking Stephanie with him!

Tom didn’t have time to use the desk phone any longer. He bolted out of the door, through the theatre and back onto the street with the officers calling after him.

“He’s taken her to an airfield. Use redial on the office phone to find the number,” Tom shouted back before unlocking his car, jumping in and speeding off.

He headed for the main road out of town and used his mobile phone on the way to find out the address of the airfield.

It took him forty nail biting minutes to get to the there. He parked and strode around one of the hangars which he noticed was buzzing with activity. There were armed men entering and exiting the building and it was at that point that Tom realised what he would be up against. He reached for his gun. Waiting until there was nobody around, he peered into the hangar. He spotted Henry immediately; he was making his way across the building to a small jet. Tom waited until he had disappeared inside the jet before approaching it.

Voices could be heard inside and he scanned the hangar once more before edging his way up the steps. As he entered the plane he could distinguish Stephanie’s voice, along with Henry’s, but there seemed to be nobody else in there. He planned to take out Henry without using his gun if possible so as not to alert the men outside to his presence. He also assumed that Sergeant Benton would send a unit to the airfield as soon as they had figured out where it was so he just needed to keep them both safe until then. He focused on Henry’s voice.

“Now, I’m going to try this again Stephanie, let’s not have a repeat of last time shall we. I don’t want to have to hurt you.”

Tom frowned. He could just see around the partition as Henry approached Stephanie, gun in hand. To his horror he watched as Henry pulled her to him and kissed her roughly on the mouth. Stephanie pulled away but he forced her head back with the intention of kissing her again.

Tom went to enter the room then, throwing caution to the wind, but he paused when he heard Stephanie speak.

“Listen Henry, I just need a bit of time to get used to this, okay?”

Henry grunted. “Why?”

Stephanie searched for a way to appease him. “Err, it’s been a long time for me…” She trailed off then but she’d got his attention.

Henry backed away from her, holding the gun up between them. “When was the last time you were with a man?”

She looked down. “Look, just give me a bit of time, okay?”

He replied in a purring voice. “I’ll give you your time, we’ve got long enough. Just tell me who was the last person you were with? Not Tom Phillips then eh?”

She struggled to know how to answer him. She was petrified of angering him as it had so far made her situation more precarious. He was hell bent on keeping her for himself; almost as if he saw her like an object, one of his possessions. What she had come to realise though was that he was also obsessed with knowing about all the other men that had been in her life and it was clear that he didn’t like the thought of Tom.

“No not Tom,” she finally said in a small voice.

Henry smiled, apparently pleased. “Ah, so you cheated on him then? I knew that you were a wild one when I first saw you,” he said, reaching out for her again.

Tom went to move then but he felt something hard in his back and heard the click of a gun.

“Drop the weapon,” came a voice in his ear. Tom paused but the pressure of the gun on his back increased. Closing his eyes and cursing himself, he reluctantly dropped the gun. “Move.” The man led him into the plane.

When Henry saw Tom he laughed and turned to his man. “Cuff him,” he ordered. The man pushed Tom to his knees and handcuffed him to the bars of a seat. Tom prayed for the swift arrival of Sergeant Benton, for Stephanie’s sake more than for his own. Henry smiled at the sight of Tom being handcuffed.

“Feel familiar?” he grinned. “ I wondered when you would turn up Mr Phillips. Come to rescue Stephanie here?”

Tom knelt, seething with anger at Henry. “It’s over for you Carlton, the police are on their way here right now. you're not getting out of here quick enough.” Tom grinned back at him. This pushed Henry over the edge and he flew across the plane towards Tom, grabbing him by the collar and putting the gun to his mouth.

“Wait!” Stephanie screamed at Henry, terror coursing through her. She flew towards him, tugging desperately at his arm. He turned to her, the fury still raw in his face.

“You still want him?” He looked at Tom. In the next instant she did the only thing she could think of to stop him, pulling his head away from Tom, she kissed him. Tom went cold with fear for her as he watched Henry react. He pushed her with force against the wall of the plane and moved his leg between hers. Tom hollered, “All right Henry, you want me, come here! What you waiting for?”

Henry turned to look at him then and Stephanie reacted instinctively. She grabbed his arm, twisting it and forcing the gun out of his hesitant hand. Henry’s man reacted, moving towards them, at which point Tom lunged forward, tripping him and sending his gun skidding across the floor. Henry went for it but Stephanie got to it first, picking it up and holding it out at him with shaking hands. Henry was unconvinced that she would or could use the gun but he could hear a commotion outside and was suddenly anxious that Tom really had contacted the police. He backed away from Stephanie and turned to flee. Stephanie looked at Tom for confirmation of what to do next. She didn’t relish the thought of trying to use the gun on Henry but she was still petrified of the idea that they still might be in danger from him. She didn’t have to wait for long however before the police had raided the whole area, arrested Henry and found them in the plane.

As Henry’s men were eventually rounded up, Henry was handcuffed and brought to the waiting police vehicle outside. He was led past Tom who had then been released and he stopped on the way, turning to Tom.

“This isn’t finished you know. I’ll not give up what I want and I’ll come back for Stephanie, right after we’ve ruined her father. And then we’ll come after you so you’d better watch your back Phillips because you’re involved in this now.”

Tom looked daggers at him. “Finished? Now I’m speaking you piece of dirt! Too right I’m involved but the difference between you and me is that if Stephanie is with me I won’t have to force her to be there!” In an instant then Tom had Henry against the car, his arm crushed against his throat. “Oh, and I need to watch my back do I? You so much as look in her direction again and you’ll think that a prison sentence is a picnic in the park compared to what I’ve got in mind for you! Capiche?” He let him go suddenly with a jolt and strode away, leaving Henry gasping for air.

Henry was led away and Tom looked around for Stephanie, catching sight of her slipping through a door at the back of the hangar. She needed to get some air as she felt the events of the last few hours threaten to overwhelm her. Tom eventually caught up with her outside. She was crouched against a wall with her head in her hands. She slowly stood when she sensed Tom’s presence and looked up at him. They stood in front of each other for a couple of moments, searching each other’s faces. Then instinctively they both moved forward, throwing their arms around each other’s bodies. Tom held her head next to his, closing his eyes in relief. She closed her eyes also and a shaky smile spread across her face as tears welled in her eyes.

“All the time I knew you’d find me Tom,” she cried. “I was waiting for you, I knew you’d find me but I didn’t give in to him. I didn’t let him see my fear. I wouldn’t let him get to me.”

He could feel her body shaking against his. “I know Stephie, you did well. I’m only sorry I let him get to you in the first place. Will you forgive me for that?” he asked, wracked with guilt and heartbroken at the thought of her fear.

“I have nothing to forgive Tom. I only want you to know how grateful I am that you’re here, that you came looking for me,” she said, gazing up into his eyes.

He pulled her closer to him again. “Oh god Stephie I’m sorry this happened to you and I’m so relieved that you weren’t hurt.”

He stroked her hair and breathed in her scent and held her so tightly, as though if he let her go he’d die. He felt like he’d been suffocating with fear for her over the last couple of hours, he needed her with him like he needed air to breathe.