“Well Nikolas isn’t fucking hard to guess, is it?”
“No.Aleksey.I used Aleksey…”
They were silent for a moment until Squeezy ventured the obvious hesitantly, “He’s got his memory back?”
Nikolas didn’t reply immediately.He licked his lips.“He was cold.When he came back from his run!”Nikolas suddenly took off, Squeezy not far behind.
They crashed into the garage.It was empty.Ben’s bike was gone.
Lying in the centre of the space, neatly placed, was Ben’s watch—the tracker Nikolas had bought him and had him wear.
Nikolas swore again and picked it up almost reverently.
Squeezy joined him in the cursing, only in English.“Where’s he fucking gone?”
Nikolas didn’t even want to think about possible answers to that question.An event that had caused Ben to completely lose his memory—his mind—had come back to him suddenly.What might it cause him to do this time?
Premorbid tendencies.
They went back into the house, Nikolas phoning the rest of the team to let them know what had happened.He sat at the computer and checked the history.Squeezy was perched on the edge of the desk.
“I shouldn’t have mentioned a fucking funeral.Depressing bloody things at the best of times.”
“He was looking for Atwell.”
“Well, duh.He won’t find him that way.We’ve tried.Katie’s tried, and if she can’t…Fuck, Diesel liked the daughter.I remember now.What was she called?Some posh bloody name.Pippa?Posy?Right looker.Not at a funeral, course.”
“Shut up.”
“Yeah, right you are.Sorry.Only McConaughey was a—”
Nikolas jerked his head up at the name.
* * *
Squeezy told him the story of the retired Adjutant General and the accident on a quad bike.Nikolas remembered an intense ex-major and a message scrawled on a bedroom wall:I will leave darkness behind me.
He frowned back at the computer.Ben had moved on from Atwell to…gay porn?
Squeezy sniggered then saw Nikolas’s expression as he cursed, “That fucking film!”
“What?”
“He’s going to track Atwell using the film company.I forgot!That pretentious fucker was the executive producer on some dumb shit film.Call Kate.Tell her to meet us at the house.”
* * *
It was only as they were halfway to London that Nikolas realised his huge error.
He told Squeezy to pull over, and he did at the next service station.
He sent the other man for coffee.
He sat in the car, the engine ticking quietly.
Had he read this all wrong?
What was Ben thinking?
