A Dangerous Affair Chapter 35

A Chapter by Repgreece

A shock for Tom

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. He scanned the hotel lobby then, searching her out through the groups of people. She must have gone to the ladies room, he thought, 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 won’t allow vigilantes on my turf!” As he watched Tom go, he doubted that Tom would heed his words and so 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 realized 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, trying 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 dialed 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.

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