A Stranger Death (Ch 16)

appent (41)in #fiction • 6 years ago

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Chapter 16

And so it was that the late evening saw both of them back at Spikes' house. Darren hid his car in a stand of trees just off the road, and they approached the house as quietly as they could. They were both dressed head to toe in black and that made them very difficult to spot in the darkness of the evening.

Darren spoke to Sarah in a hushed voice. "Stay just behind me Sarah so that I know where you are. We'll be within sight of the house in a minute, and I want to make certain that Spikes has gone out before we look for a way in."

Within minutes, they were within easy reach of the house. It appeared to be in complete darkness, but Darren still wasn't taking any chances. "Stay here for a couple of minutes while I take a quick look around to make sure that it's safe to approach the house."

Darren crept away and within seconds was lost to sight. The time he was away seemed to drag on and on, and Sarah was starting to imagine all sorts of things that could have gone wrong. However, when she checked her watch he had only been gone for about five minutes when he suddenly appeared in front of her again, making her jump with surprise.

"I'm pretty sure that the house is empty. I made a complete circuit but couldn't see any signs of life anywhere, so I expect Spikes has gone out as planned. There is a door around the back with a cat flap. I couldn't quite get my arm all the way through, but I could get it far enough just to touch a bunch of keys dangling from the keyhole. With any luck, you can get your arm through further than me and unlock the door. It's worth a try because the only alternative I could see would be to break a window, and I would rather that Spikes remained totally unaware of our visit tonight."

So saying they both crept around to the back of the house to the door that Darren had spoken about. Sarah got down on her knees to position her shoulder at the same level as the cat flap. When she was in the right position, she put her arm through and reached upwards. She could feel the bunch of keys that Darren had found. By forcing her arm through as far as it would go, she just managed to get a hold on the key that was inserted in the lock and turn it. With a soft click the door unlocked and they were able to enter into the kitchen.

Sarah's heart was beating so hard that she felt sure that it would burst out of her chest at any minute. They stayed perfectly still and quiet for a minute or two to make sure that there was no-one in the house that could have heard them enter. Only when they were certain it was safe to do so did they move stealthily through the hallway and into the study that they had been in earlier in the day.

Darren remembered two places from earlier on that he thought would be favourite to search for any evidence. The first was the laptop computer sat on the desk and the second was the filing cabinet in the corner. As the laptop was already turned on, almost as if it was inviting them, Darren got Sarah to look at it to see what she could find out while he looked through the filing cabinet.

"Drat!" said Darren, "this filing cabinet is locked. I wonder…" As he spoke, he moved over to the desk beside Sarah and started opening the drawers. Sure enough, in the second drawer down, he found the key that would unlock the filing cabinet.

Once he had the filing cabinet open, Darren started going through the files one by one. Many of them just contained normal family and business correspondence that appeared quite innocent. Eventually, he came across a file that was headed 'Life Insurance' but actually contained details of shipments of diamonds that Spikes had received from overseas. It was obvious from the details given that the diamonds had entered the country illegally instead of through normally accepted channels.

"Got you!" said Darren. He took a single sheet of paper out of the file to show the police and gave it to Sarah to put in her pocket for safekeeping.

In the meantime, Sarah had been searching through the computer paying special attention to the email program. She had uncovered several emails that gave details of the landing points and the rendezvous times for shipments of diamonds. One of these she printed out and added it to the document that Darren had given her. Once this was completed Darren re-locked the filing cabinet, putting the key back where he had found it.

"OK Sarah, job done. Let's get out of here before Spikes returns."

"That sounds like the best idea you've had all day," replied Sarah. "I can't get over how easy that all was. Either Spikes has complete confidence that no-one even suspects what he is up to, or he is more stupid than he looks."

As Sarah finished what she was saying the light in the study suddenly came on, and they could see Spikes and another man standing just inside the doorway. Spikes was holding a small gun that he had trained on Sarah.

"I'm afraid you're wrong on both counts my dear," said Spikes. "But what I do have is a very clever silent alarm that sends a message to my mobile phone to warn me as soon as it senses anyone inside the house."

Turning to the man standing beside him, Spikes issued his instructions. "Go to the kitchen and get half a dozen of those short cable ties. We need to makes sure that these two don't give us any further trouble tonight."

With a gun trained on Sarah, Darren was powerless to do anything about their situation despite the fact that Spikes was on his own for a couple of minutes while his lackey carried out his bidding. When the man returned, he put one of the cable ties around each of Sarah's wrists, using a third one to tie the two together behind her back, making a very effective set of handcuffs. Only when these actions had been repeated on Darren did Spikes lower the gun and put it back in his pocket.

"Unfortunately I have to go back out again to complete the business that dealing with you two interrupted, but I will be back later and will decide what to do with you two then."

Turning once again to his colleague he instructed him to put Sarah and Darren in the basement. "It has no windows and a very stout door that you will find impossible to break out of, so you will be quite safe in there until I return to deal with you."