Chapter 21
After half an hour of fitful catnapping, Jake opened his eyes as the plane began its descent into Inverness airport.
The scheduled flight landed on time at just before three in the afternoon. It taxied to a standstill.
The seatbelt sign remained on. A voice came over the tannoy.
‘This is your captain speaking. May I request that all passengers remain in their seats until the seatbelt sign is switched off. May I take this opportunity to thank you for flying with us today. I hope you had a pleasant flight.’
‘Very pleasant, thank you,’ commented Jake.
The seatbelt sign remained on.
A low murmur developed in the cabin as people waited.
Jake looked around as the cabin door opened. Two uniformed police officers stepped into view. Jake watched them walk up the aisle and disappear into first class. Passengers exchanged nervous glances. Jake smiled to himself.
They reappeared with Marcus leading the way and the flight attendant bringing up the rear.
As they approached, Jake tried to keep a straight face – everything was going according to plan. The look on Marcus’s face said he was feeling completely humiliated, being escorted from the plane in front of all these people like he was some kind of criminal. Perhaps the cabin crew had searched his luggage, or they’d just taken Jake at his word. Either way, speaking to the flight attendant had had the desired effect – although Jake had assumed Marcus might be stopped and searched, and arrested in the airport terminal; he hadn’t expected the police to actually board the flight on arrival.
Jake was finding it all highly entertaining. The handcuffs only added to his enjoyment.
‘Jake, what’s going on?’ Marcus demanded, attempting to stop in the aisle next to Jake’s seat.
Jake shrugged innocently. He noted that the officers carried firearms, which in the pre-terror climate would have been almost unheard of at British airports.
‘I know you had something to do with this!’
Marcus was manhandled towards the exit.
‘Where are you taking me? Are you arresting me for something?’ Marcus moaned at his captors.
Jake turned around in his seat to watch Marcus being escorted out of the plane; there was a hush, as other passengers were doing the same. Jake wanted Marcus to make a scene, but he didn’t. Marcus hesitated before he stepped out of the cabin, glancing back at Jake with a bewildered help me expression on his shocked face. Jake offered him a wide grin. ‘See ya!’ he said under his breath, as he waved goodbye.
Ding . The seatbelt sign clicked off and the cabin snapped back into life. The murmur rose as bodies packed the aisle, fighting to retrieve their hand luggage from the overhead compartments.
Jake, still seated, calmly looked out of the window and watched Marcus being escorted to a waiting police van. Jake’s smug smile slipped. He couldn’t shrug off an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach. He tried to put it down to the fact that he was back in Scotland – a place he had vowed he’d never return to after losing Eleanor. But what was really on his mind was that he hadn’t considered the repercussions not only for Marcus, but for William’s reputation, and that of the Ross Corporation, if Marcus did have something highly illegal in his possession, and word got out.
He followed the queue of passengers waiting in the aisle to exit the plane. Then he found the car rental desk and waited in another queue for what seemed like a long time. While he waited, he made a call. To his relief, she answered.
‘Faye?’
‘Jake! Where are you?’
He frowned. She knew where he was – he’d left countless messages saying he was going to Scotland, but he’d be back very soon.
‘Are you still in Inverness?’
Jake sighed and looked at the queue. It was now almost three thirty in the afternoon, and at this rate he wouldn’t be heading out of the airport until four. ‘Yes, I’m still at the airport, waiting in a queue to pick up a hire car. Look, the reason I …’
‘Thank goodness,’ the relief in her voice was unmistakable. ‘What did you think you were playing at?’
‘What?’ said Jake, surprised by her cutting tone.
‘Marcus just phoned me,’ she said stiffly.
‘He phoned you?’ Jake said in surprise.
‘He phoned me from a police station in Inverness!’
Damn . Why had he phoned her ?
‘Is it true – you said something on the flight that got him arrested?’
‘Look, he was following me, all right? He thought he could just come on holiday with me when I’d expressly told him he couldn’t.’
She didn’t respond.
He had it on the tip of his tongue to mention the drugs – even though he wasn’t one hundred per cent sure Marcus had brought any on the flight with him. ‘I do not want him accompanying me, Faye. He reminds me …’
‘So, you had him arrested?’ said Faye incredulously.
On the flight, Jake had Googled what might happen to Marcus after his arrest. Assuming he had been found in possession of drugs for personal use, there were various possible outcomes. He was unlikely to receive a prison sentence. He might be cautioned as a first-time offender, or told to attend some sort of drugs-related education programme. Either way, if he was taking recreational drugs – and Jake suspected he was – Jake thought he was doing him a favour. This would be a wake-up call to stop.
Jake felt he had no choice but to explain. ‘I think he may have brought something illegal on the flight. I’m just being a good citizen.’ He winced, wondering if he should have said that. ‘I imagine that if he is being charged, he’ll just get released on bail.’ By which time, I’ll be long gone , thought Jake. Scotland was a big country. Marcus wouldn’t find out where he was going this time.
‘You need to go and get him.’
‘Once he is released, he can just make his way wherever he …’ Although he was still feeling a bit groggy after last night’s solo expedition to the land of binge-drinking oblivion, Jake finally caught up with Faye. ‘What did you just say?’
‘He told me they’re keeping him in overnight. Apparently, his luggage has gone missing, and the police want to search that before they decide whether to charge him.’
Jake sighed. So, either they’d found something on him, and wanted to check how much of the stuff he’d brought with him, in case he was dealing too. Or they hadn’t found anything, but needed to check his luggage first before they decided whether there was any evidence to charge him. Either way, Jake didn’t see what that had to do with him.
‘So, in the morning you need to go and pick him up.’
‘Are you serious?’ Jake said. I’ll do no such thing , he thought as he took a step closer in the queue to the car rental desk. ‘The next thing you’ll be asking me to do is apologise,’ he added.
The line went quiet.
‘Is that what you’re asking me to do? Me, apologise, to him? Oh, I don’t think so. If you knew …’
‘Knew what?’ said Faye harshly.
Jake caught his breath. He breathed out calmly, before he said, ‘He’s going to spend a night in a prison cell – so what? He’ll get over it, it’s no big deal.’
Silence.
‘Faye?’
‘Jake, go get him in the morning. Then tell me it’s no big deal.’
‘Why? Did something happen?’