Chapter 28
Siopa - Shopping
Lucy
The buzz of the intercom rouses me from the press release I’m drafting. I catch the time on the bottom of the screen – it’s already been an hour since Rhys abandoned me.
I close my laptop, grab the jacket I slung onto the back of my chair earlier, and stride towards the front door. The buzzer sounds again, and since nobody else is in a rush to answer it, I’m the first one to the screen.
‘Car for Misses Pritchett and Taylor,’ a disjointed voice says when I finally accept the call.
‘Yep. Well, I’m here, but Bethan…’
As if summoned by her name, she hurries down the stairs, pulling a coat on. She untucks the ends of her long auburn hair from under the collar then beams at me.
‘Never mind,’ I continue, ‘we’re ready. Can I see your ID before we leave, please?’ Maybe Rhys’ worrying earlier has rubbed off on me.
The driver on the other end raises a card to the camera. ‘M’name’s Jake Carlson. Just in case you can’t read it. D’ya need to see my clearance, too? M’boss said he emailed it yesterday, but I’ve got it here if ya want.’
Everything matches what I was sent yesterday. I told Rhys he was stressing over nothing.
‘No, that’s fine. Thank you. I’ll buzz you in now.’
I lead Bethan out of the house, double-checking the door’s locked behind us. A sleek black town car pulls onto the top of the drive, meeting us at the step. As soon as it stops, a tall, pale man dressed in a black suit steps out and hurries around to the passenger side door.
Familiarity hits me, deepening when he lifts his head to smile at me. But I deal with so many people that I can’t place where I’ve seen him before. I might not have ever met him; he may just look like the countless faces I’ve spoken to or worked with over the past six weeks.
‘Do I know you?’ I ask as he takes my bag from me so I can wrestle myself into my seat. I might have gotten good at working with one healthy hand, but some tasks are still downright difficult. Five more days, and I’ll get the cast removed and have the best scratch I’ve ever had.
‘Nah. New to the job, I am. Have only been here a few weeks. Just got one of them faces.’
I fasten my belt, still scouring his face for features that’ll place where I know him. But he passes me my bag and closes the door with a smile.
Once the driver’s back in his seat, he turns to look at us through the divider. ‘IKEA first, isit?’
‘Yes,’ Bethan replies. ‘Then we have an appointment at one. Is there enough time?’
‘Plenty. No traffic this morning. Checked all our routes before I left. Leave it with me, ladies, and I’ll get ya everywhere ya need to be safely.
’ The car falls into silence as he pulls out of the drive, probably concentrating on not hitting the paparazzi as they flash their cameras at our car – just in case we’re Cai.
It’s not until the gate has shut behind us that he speaks again. ‘Big concert tonight, then?’
‘Yep.’
Yeah, Rhys has gotten into my head. I don’t want to divulge anything else about our plans, even if I am looking forward to the week.
Cai, Bethan and Rhys blabbed about it all the way home yesterday.
Five nights in Cardiff – the longest run the stadium has ever seen – and a massive party afterwards.
I’ve booked a big hotel down the bay for it.
Although I’m not the biggest partier, I’m sure Rhys will drag me through it.
And if not, I might have reserved us a deluxe room as a little treat.
A short nap, or a quick fumble together, might be enough to get me through the early hours.
‘Not a fan of Cai’s music, truth be told. Hope ya don’t mind me saying. Heard he’s a good man, though.’
‘He’s a brilliant guy,’ Bethan replies.
‘Yeah. That’s nice. Only twenty minutes to IKEA, ladies. I’ll let ya be.’ He flicks the radio on then puts the divider up to give us privacy.
We sit in comfortable silence for a while, the scenery out the window building from urban sprawl to towering skyscrapers.
Bethan sighs. ‘I do miss living here.’
‘When do you hear about the Welsh squad?’
‘Another six months, at least. Cai’s offered to move me back to Cardiff, pay for someone to ship me back and forth along the M4 for work, but that would be a nightmare.’
‘Nice of him, though.’
‘He’s a good egg. Selfish. But good deep down.’ Her smile disappears and she leans across me, peering out of my window. ‘Oh.’
‘What’s wrong?’ I ask.
‘This isn’t the way.’
‘Perhaps there’s a detour?’
‘I didn’t see any signs. We should be on the Central Link Road by now, heading west towards the Bay, but I swear we’re going the opposite way.’
‘I’m sure there’s a good enough explanation.’ I tap on the divider to get Jake’s attention. ‘Hello, is this the right way?’
‘A small detour.’ He inches down the divider so he can use the rearview mirror to glance back at us. ‘We’ll still make it on time.’
‘Are you sure? Because my friend said we’re going in the opposite direction to where we need to be.’
‘You’ll soon find out.’
He presses a button on his door, and the locks click shut. At the same time, the sat nav on his dashboard goes blank.
I frown at Bethan who shrugs at me. The divider is still only a gap, so I lean back towards it, stretching as far as my seatbelt will let me. ‘Why did you do that?’
‘As I said – you’ll soon find out.’
He shuts the divider and when I try the intercom, he doesn’t reply. I try my phone and a glance to my right shows Bethan doing the same.
‘No signal,’ she tells me, holding the device out as proof.
‘Nor me.’ We’re in a huge city, surrounded by 5G towers. I’ve never struggled to make a connection. I press the button for the divider again, and the low hum of the electronics trying to click but not finding purchase vibrates down my arm and through my bones.
‘What the fuck?’ Bethan pounds on the plastic, but a sharp turn throws us back in our seats. My heart thumps, irregular and chaotic. I stretch my fingers across to loop with hers, needing any sort of comfort I can get.
Jake was right – the traffic is practically non-existent. We stop at a set of traffic lights, but the blacked out windows mean nobody pays a blind bit of notice to the two girls in the back of the car, trying to get their attention. I try to roll down the window, but the switch is dead.
Jake takes lefts and rights at what feels like random, and we soon lose track of where we are.
This has gone on for too long. I have to call Rhys. We must have gotten signal somewhere along the road. I hold my phone in my good hand, press the speed dial number for him, but it doesn’t connect.
‘I wouldn’t bother,’ Jake says over the tinny intercom. ‘The same device that switched off the tracker on the car blocked your mobile signal too. Nobody can trace you now.’
This is ridiculous. Devices like that don’t even exist. I tap out a quick text to Rhys instead. If nothing else, when we get out of the car, the phone will connect long enough for it to send.
‘Turn it off.’
I press send, then swipe across the phone, pretending to turn my mobile off. There’s no way he can tell from his seat at the front whether it’s on or off. I place it face down in my lap, in case something does send or Rhys tries to get in touch. My phone is our only lifeline.
Then I tighten my grip on Bethan’s fingers. I wipe the sweat off my forehead, and try to come up with a plan.
Our journey doesn’t last much longer. I try to track the street names, the directions he turns, each and every junction, but he’s weaved his way across the city.
He finally pulls up outside a deserted-looking cottage, on a street that doesn’t look any better.
The paint has almost completely peeled off the door, the cream rendering is dirt stained and weathered.
Ivy creeps over the entire front and what looks like a small tree bursts from the roof tiles.
One of the windows on the ground floor is missing all its glass and the frame is rotting.
The garden is overgrown, but the forest of shrubs and bushes doesn’t hide the mattress springs and abandoned trolley that have made their home there.
Jake parks next to a burned out car. ‘Hand over your things.
The divider opens enough for him to shove a plastic bag through it. I grip my bag and phone closer to my chest.
‘No. No way. You can’t do this to us. We’ve done nothing wrong.’
‘Yeah, you have. Now hand them over or I’ll force them out of your hands.’
He shifts in his seat, pulling something out of his pocket before lifting it towards us. The metal catches in the sun, gleaning bright. A knife.
I freeze. My eyes can’t pull away from the shining silver.
I’ve never had a threat made against me like this, had a weapon pulled against me.
I’ve lived my life in privilege. Never been mugged, or followed home on a night out.
Especially not in a career like mine. We’re surrounded by security staff, day after day.
Other PAs talk about it happening to someone they know, once upon a time, but the distance makes it sound like fairytales. Stories made up to keep us on our toes.
There’s no training for this situation. No amount of experience to prepare you.
A small voice in my head, that sounds just like my dad says, ‘Don’t fight it. Give them what they want. Your life is far more important than your stuff.’
I’m not sure how giving Jake my handbag will save us, but I do as I’m told.
‘There. Wasn’t so hard, was it?’ He slides out of the car, but adds, ‘I’ll be right back for ya. Just need to make sure we’re ready.’
‘Ready for wh—’ His door slams shut. The noise kicks Bethan into action.
She lets go of me. Unfastens her seat belt then tries the door.
‘Locked! What the fuck? Maybe I could—’
She shoves her hand through the gap in the divider but can’t reach the locking mechanism on the driver’s side. She stretches. Contorts her body. Pushes harder against the perspex. There’s no hope in hell I’ll fit through that sliver, but I give it a good try anyway.
‘It’s no good, Beth.’
‘There has to be something.’
Her hands scramble along the edge of the plastic, searching for purchase, anything to push it down, create more space for her to squeeze through. With nothing else to do, I join her, my fingernails clacking.
It’s stuck solid.
With a loud, feral growl, Bethan turns in her seat, wriggling as far back against me as she can. She kicks at the window on the door, but it doesn’t crack. She kicks and kicks and kicks, relentless in her attempt to break the glass.
I try too. Perhaps with more weight behind it, I can have some success.
With every failed attempt to get out, my heart pounds harder in my chest. It builds a drum and bass soundtrack to the millions of questions racing through my head.
I search harder through my catalogue of faces and names, trying to place Jake and connect him with everything else that has happened while we’ve been on tour. Because they have to be linked.
Jake must have taken us to get to Cai. Why else would he? There’s no benefit to kidnapping an assistant or a physiotherapist. Neither of us has money, or our own followings, or anything material worth keeping.
We’re for Jake to trade.
I won’t be used as currency for some pervert’s crimes.
My legs burn with the effort of kicking, so I turn to yelling as loud as I can. It’s hopeless. There isn’t a soul out on the street.
Someone leaves the house, looking faintly like Jake but also not like him at all.
His black suit is gone, replaced with a checked shirt and dirty jeans.
Sandy-brown hair instead of white-blond.
His face has more colour. But he still has the same grubby-looking glasses. The same hooked nose. The angular jaw.
My heart stops.
‘Aled?’ Bethan asks before I can. Two other men follow him down the steps. ‘What the fuck’s going on?’
He smirks at us as he approaches the car, looking exactly the same as the day I met him. He pulls Bethan’s door open first.
‘Out,’ he commands, jabbing the knife towards her.
She sags out of the car, compliant, her face empty of all the fight she had moments before. But as soon as her feet touch the ground, she lashes out, kicking at him before dipping under the knife as he jabs it at her.
Then she runs, her backward glance at me telling me she’ll get help.
Despite the slow way they react, one of Aled’s friends chases her. When he catches up to her, he grabs her and throws her to the floor before securing her arms behind her.
I have to move, before someone comes back for me. The car is unlocked. But before I can shift, the door I was leaning against opens and I fall.
There’s blinding pain as my head hits the concrete.
Then nothing.