The Lightning Rod (The DI Jimmy Bliss Crime Series Book 10) by Tony J Forder

Author:Tony J Forder [J Forder, Tony]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-12-06T16:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-EIGHT

If anybody suspected or even sensed Bliss was being uncooperative, they didn’t let it show. He thought he’d done a good job of convincing them, and they seemed to buy his story in its entirety.

His captors were masked when he was attacked. He was forced to wear a hood at all times. Only two of them spoke, and then on just the one occasion. They told him this was proof he could be reached, could be whisked away whenever they decided to, perhaps next time never to be seen again. They uttered no specific warnings on behalf of anybody else, nor were any demands made of him in other ways. After a single night of captivity, he was released at an industrial estate on the edge of the city.

‘What about when the van first approached you in the car park?’ Fletcher asked. ‘You must have got a clear look at the driver then.’

‘I didn’t,’ he said, feigning regret. ‘The window was tinted and partially wound down. I could see only the top of his head, plus he wore a peaked cap and sunglasses. The others, as you’ll have seen on the security footage, they had masks on when they rushed at me out of the van. After the hood went on it didn’t come off again until they dropped me off.’

‘That makes no sense,’ Chandler said, clearly bewildered.

Bliss didn’t think she was questioning his story, more the point of the actions taken against him. ‘I know, I know. If they’re going to all the trouble of beating me and snatching me up, you’d think they’d continue their scare tactics afterwards. Or at the very least, ask me questions and make specific demands. For all I know, they might have had something else planned for me but were forced to change their minds. Either that or they were just trying to put a fright into me by making me doubt my own security.’

‘Did you get the impression they’d be back? That what happened yesterday was only a taster?’

‘No. Not from anything they said or did. But I can’t rule it out. I can’t rule anything out.’

‘Could it be something to do with this woman you’ve been seeing?’

He and Pam had discussed different versions of the same essential story. She’d apologised on several occasions for her father’s behaviour, pleading with him to keep his name out of it. Her ex-husband’s, too. He assured her that by the time he contacted the office, his team would know who she was. From there it was only a short haul to discovering who she’d once been married to and who her father was.

He had no choice but to ignore the huge coincidence – if indeed that’s what it was – of her appearing not only in his city, but right there in the pub he’d chosen on a whim, at the same time as her ex-husband featured high on their list of possible suspects. He was unable to raise these concerns with her because he couldn’t afford to let her know the police were on Marty Reid’s trail.

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