Page 63 of A Merry Little Christmas
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He drove fast, miles into the countryside, constantly checking his rear-view mirror.
I knew now wasn’t the time to speak but the silence was tense... almost unbearable. We would talk when we got there – wherever Caleb decided that would be...
As the darkness and the shadowy, ghostly trees sped past, I sat rigidly in my seat, and at last Caleb slowed the car and turned right into some woods. We travelled along a bumpy track for what must have been a mile, and then Caleb stopped the car andswitched off the headlights, and we were plunged into almost total darkness.
In the silence, he reached over and took my hand in his. ‘I’m so sorry, Katja. I never wanted you involved in any of this.’
I swallowed. ‘Is this really necessary? Being here?’ My eyes were growing accustomed to the lack of light. We were surrounded by thick forest. I took a quick glance around us, almost expecting to see a dark-coloured car bearing down on us.
Caleb gave a heavy sigh. ‘I feel as if I’m looking over my shoulder all the time these days. I don’t know what they’re capable of. And I have to protect you at all costs. I thought that’s what I was doing by distancing myself from you. But apparently I didn’t do a good enough job because they even managed to track you down to Penny’s.’
‘But who’s “they”?’ I stared at him in the darkness. ‘Please just tell me what’s going on, Caleb.’
‘Okay. So basically, I witnessed an accident at a petrol station. At least, I thought it was an accident. I helped the guy and called for an ambulance, and he seemed as if he was going to be okay so I thought no more about it.’
‘You told me about that. A guy got run over?’
He nodded. ‘Except it wasn’t an accident as I originally thought. The police investigated and it turned out it was deliberate.’
I gasped.
‘That’s not the worst of it. The guy died later in hospital. So then the police were investigating a murder.’
‘Right... but you were just an innocent bystander. You helped the victim, which of course you would. So how do we have people apparently on our tail. Why did someone try to run me over outside my own flat? Or at least do a good job of scaring me half to death?’
‘I saw the car as it drove away from the scene at the petrol station. I saw the man who was driving it.’ He shrugged. ‘Turns out I’m the only witness to what happened.’
‘But surely there were security cameras?’
‘They’d been disabled. Apparently the “hit-and-run” had been planned in detail and I just happened to get in the way. The guy who was killed was involved in a local drugs war and the police need my evidence to put the ringleader away, hopefully for a very long time.’
I was silent for a while, absorbing all of this. It didn’t seem real, somehow. ‘But I still don’t understand why someone’s trying to scare me,’ I said at last. ‘If you’re giving evidence against the drugs boss, wouldn’t they be trying to intimidateyouinto changing your statement?’
Caleb nodded. ‘They were. It started with silent phone calls a few weeks ago, all from an unknown number. I’d answer and there would just be the sound of breathing at the other end. I suspected it was a form of intimidation in relation to the court case but I didn’t have any proof to take to the police. I certainly wasn’t going to do what they wanted and change my statement. But then they escalated the pressure on me by breaking into the site office and turning it over. And they left a note saying if I didn’t do what they wanted, they’d silence me for good.’
‘Oh, my God! Was that the night I arrived at the site office and you and Amanda were there?’
‘Yes. They must have ransacked the place earlier in the day, and then I called in to check something and found the place in a mess. I’d already told Amanda about the silent phone calls, so I phoned her and she came over and she was helping me get everything straight when you arrived.’
‘But why tell Amanda about the silent phone calls and not me? Do you know how hurt I’ve been feeling, knowing you were keeping things from me?’
Caleb sighed. ‘I didn’t want to involve you in my mess, Katja. It was up to me to sort it out. But there’s another reason I decided to confide in Amanda about what was happening. She was in the police force for ten years before she came to work for me, so I knew she’d be the best person to give me advice.’
‘I saw her in the pub with her former colleagues.’ I frowned as I recalled that night in the Swan Hotel bar, Amanda talking about them being on ‘lates’ or ‘earlies’, and the guy staggering around imitating someone he’d presumably caught drink-driving. ‘Of course. I should have guessed by their chat that they were police.’
‘Amanda’s been great. She wanted me to report what was happening to the police, and I was all ready to do that.’
‘So what stopped you?’
‘The night I found the office had been ransacked as a warning, and the threatening note, I also realised they knew about you. They turned the photo of you on my desk face down and placed the note on top, implying that they were prepared to hurt you to get to me.’ He shook his head in despair. ‘I don’t scare easily, Katja, but seriously, that absolutely terrified me – the idea that you might end up an innocent casualty in all of this. It was also made clear in the note that if I got the police involved, there would be “consequences”. So at that stage, I decided I couldn’t risk reporting it – not when your life could be at stake as well as my own.’
‘They sent you that photo of me outside the supermarket,’ I said suddenly. ‘The one you threw in the fire that time I arrived at your place to find Amanda just leaving?’
He nodded. ‘I was so hung-over that morning. Amanda had come over late the previous evening. She was worried about me and she tried to talk me into going to the police. We were up half the night, talking it over. And then I found that photo ofyou in an envelope lying on the doormat. Hand-delivered and obviously designed to ramp up the pressure on me.’
‘I saw the whisky glasses. It must have been a long night.’
