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Right. Here goes.
I scramble over the top of the wall and lower myself through the ivy on the other side, before dropping to the ground.
I take stock and decide the best way is to brazen it out, as my dad would have said. I’ll simply march across the lawn and go up to the front door.
I take a deep breath and go for it.
I’ve barely taken three steps before I’m seized from behind and flung to the ground.
What the—?
“Don’t fucking move.” The click of a handgun right beside my ear convinces me to do as I’m told.
My wrists are seized and dragged behind me, then secured tightly. I’m hauled up onto my knees, then the world goes dark when a hood is flung over my head.
“Please, let me go.” My voice shakes. My police training deserts me. I’m terrified, numb with fear.
“Get up,” snarls a voice.
I try but can’t get my balance. Again, I’m grabbed and this time pulled to my feet.
“Move,” the voice instructs me.
I stumble forward, guided by rough hands at each of my elbows. I don’t know how many times I would have landed flat on my face but for my captors keeping me upright.
“Who are you?” I whimper. “What are you going to do with me?”
“We’ll be asking the questions,” is the only response I get.
“Please, you have to let me go. I was just—”
“Trespassing,” comes the curt reply. “We don’t take kindly to uninvited visitors.”
“I…I’ll go,” I offer. “Please, just let me leave. I won’t say anything…”
“No, you fucking won’t.”
I sense the loss of the fresh air, the breeze against my legs. We’re indoors, and going down some stairs. Again I stumble. There’s a muffled oath, then I’m lifted off my feet and slung over someone’s shoulder. I’m bumped painfully down the rest of the stairs.
The sound of a lock grating is the only clue I have. The next moment, I’m dumped unceremoniously on what I assume to be a hard bench. Still swathed in darkness by the heavy hood, I wince at the sound of the door clanging shut.
And I know I’m alone.
Jack
I hit the remote control a couple of hundred metres before I reach the entrance to the mansion. The iron gates swing open, and by the time I round the final bend my way is clear.
The neat little red Mini parked on the roadside opposite the gates is incongruous. It shouldn’t be there. I brake to take a closer look, then dig out my phone.
“Mickey, there’s a car parked out front.”
“I know, boss. I was just on my way to check it over.”
“Do that, and let me know what you find.” The vehicle has to belong to our intruder. How else would they have got all the way out here? Caernbro Ghyll is hardly on a regular bus route. Happy to leave the car for Mickey Markham to deal with, I turn into the entrance to the mansion grounds.
“So, what do we have?” I ask the man closest to me when I jog up the front steps and enter the foyer.
“A girl, boss.” Moses Tremayne beams at me. “We caught her as soon as she scaled the wall.”
