‘He put you on that trolley and made me walk next to you. He put on a bedside manner. If anyone had overheard him it would have sounded as if he was taking you to casualty and reassuring me about your condition. He wheeled you all the way to his car.’
‘The injection -what was it? How long have I been asleep?’
‘I don’t know. Some sort of sedative or anaesthetic. I’m afraid I’ve lost all sense of time. How do you feel?’
‘Terrible.’ I lifted my hand to my nose, touched it gingerly, the pain made my eyes water.
‘Do you think it’s broken?’
‘I don’t know. Oh, I hope not. I don’t want to look like a prize-fighter. I’m so thirsty. What about you?’
‘I ache a bit,’ she smiled.
‘Where is he? Is he out there?’
‘Yes,’ she kept her voice low, ‘at least I haven’t heard his car drive away. Earlier on I could hear him pacing up and down but it’s been quiet for a while.’
I listened. The silence was profound.
‘Did he say anything?’
‘No. I asked him, when we got here, what he was going to do with us.’ Her voice swerved. ‘He didn’t like me asking. He hurt me.’
‘Oh, Agnes,’ I scanned her face for bruises, ‘are you all right? What did he do?’
‘He slapped me, then he kicked me. I expect I’ve got some pretty colourful bruises but I’m still in one piece.’
‘He probably hasn’t got a clue what to do with us. He’s dug a hole for himself and now he’s stuck.’
‘If he was going to kill us,’ Agnes said, ‘he’d have done it by now, wouldn’t he?’
At that moment I had total recall of several murder cases where the victims had been held for some time before being killed.
‘Hostages,’ I said.
‘What?’
‘Hostages. If we can persuade him that we’re more use alive than dead, gives us a chance to build up some relationship with him. But we need to talk to him first.’ I made my way quietly over to the door. Peered through the keyhole. It was hard to focus, the pain in my head was pulsing. The space beyond was practically dark. I thought I could make out a figure huddled at the far side but I couldn’t be sure. I called his name, banged on the door.
‘Dr Goulden, we need to talk. We can work something out.’ I watched through the keyhole. The figure moved. ‘The longer this goes on the worse it will be. If you let us go, they’ll take that into account.’
‘No.’ He sounded as though he were in pain too.
‘If we can just talk about it…’ I carried on. ‘After all, it wasn’t just you, was it? Simcock played his part, and
Montgomery, they ought to take some responsibility too. It just got out of hand, didn’t it? The search for a cure?’
‘Shut up,’ he shouted. ‘There’s nothing to say. You can’t trick me. I’m not stupid.’ Suddenly his tone changed, the emotion replaced by a distant practicality. ‘It won’t hurt. I’m not a cruel man, I get no pleasure from violence. But I need to be careful.’ I could hear his footsteps coming closer. ‘They have such clever ways these days, don’t they, of catching people. But they don’t catch all of them. And without evidence, especially without a body, it would be very hard to prove anything.’