Page 77 of A Merry Little Christmas
I nodded, terrified as I watched him make his way to the entrance. I put my arm around Will and whispered, ‘It’s going to be fine,’ and with the other hand I tried to call the police.
There was no signal!
I let out a cry of exasperation. And now we could hear footsteps rustling through the overgrown foliage on the lawn, getting ever nearer to where we were hiding out...
I held my breath and beside me, I felt Will brace himself.
What horrors had he already faced at the hands of that cold-hearted kidnapper?
It didn’t bear thinking about.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
A face appeared at the open door of the air raid shelter.
‘Hello? Is everything all right in there?’
Caleb stepped forward, into the light of a torch’s beam, and I felt relief surging through every sinew in my body.
It was the police.
Everything was going to be all right . . .
*****
It was the lovely neighbour, Harriet, who’d phoned for help, and the same pair of police constables had returned.
As we all sat at the table in her cosy kitchen drinking mugs of hot tea, she explained that she’d been really worried, knowing about the kidnapping, and she’d talked to her husband about it.
‘Larry and I had the same thought as you obviously did – that maybe your nephew was being held in the old air raid shelter. You get a good view of next-door’s back garden from our upstairs windows, and we saw you both go out there.’
Larry nodded. ‘That’s when we decided to phone the police. We couldn’t risk the scumbag grandson returning and finding you there.’
‘Yes. Goodness knows what would have happened if he had,’ added Harriet with a worried glance out of the window.
Caleb had phoned Penny with the joyful news and I heard her gasps of overwhelming relief at knowing her precious son was alive and well. Caleb reassured her that as soon as we could leave, we’d be bringing Will back home to her.
More police had arrived at the scene five minutes earlier and were now guarding the bungalow next-door and presumably talking to Eileen about her grandson’s whereabouts.
I only hoped they would be able to find him.
He was likely a lowly pawn in the killer’s plan to escape a guilty verdict in court. But finding who took Will would lead to further police investigations and hopefully an even longer sentence when masterminding a kidnapping was added to the list of charges...
The police talked to Will and we listened to his frightening account of being threatened with a knife before being bundled into the boot of the car and driven away at speed and then being hurried out of the boot and imprisoned in what he called ‘the cellar’.
‘The man was wearing a balaclava so I could only see his eyes,’ he said. ‘He tied me to a chair and put a scarf thing around my mouth so I could hardly breathe. I suppose that was to stop people hearing me if I shouted for help.’
The police asked if he’d recognise the man if he saw him again, and Will bravely said he probably would. ‘It was dark but I remember his thick eyebrows were sort of all one line, and he had a tattoo of a cross on the back of his hand.’
It had been such a harrowing time for Will and I knew he must be exhausted and desperate to see his mum. So it was a relief when the police finally thanked him for giving them such invaluable information and said that we could be on our way. They would contact Caleb when they had more information.
In the car on the way home, Will was silent. I turned at one point, thinking maybe he’d fallen asleep, but he was wide awake and staring out of the window.
‘You okay?’ I asked him gently.
‘Yes, thank you.’
‘Your mum’s desperate to see you.’
