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He shook himself. To be honest, I don t think I can face it. We could stay here at
the airport tonight. I don t know when the next flight is. I can check.
He pulled out his phone, and that was when I had my epiphany. I pushed his hand
down. Stop.
What? Nick, I need to
Wait. I took his phone from him and turned it off, and did the same with mine.
Hold on.
I turned to the officer at the desk, who was frowning at our failing to remove
ourselves from her presence now we had been released. I need to use your phone for
police business.
Sir
Can I speak to Sergeant Canning? It s urgent.
She pursed her lips and called Canning. He told her to let me do what I needed, and
that he was on his way back to the office.
I told Anton to wait for me outside while I made the call to DI Whittaker in an
interview room, and explained to him what I suspected was going on. He told me what I
needed to do, then to make arrangements to stay away from Anton s house for at least
forty-eight hours and give me the contact number at our location when we were set up.
When Canning arrived, I told him that he needed to collect all our electronics,
including Anton s laptop and iPad, and hold them for forensic examination. Anton was
not happy at all. Nick, this is an essential part of my work. I can t let you have it.
You need to. I can t explain here though. Please?
He stared at me, intensely unhappy and distressed by the whole business, before
shoving the laptop bag at me. If this gets lost, I will sue.
Yes, I know.
Canning took it all into custody and wrote out property slips for us. I ll make sure
this gets to DI Whittaker or his representative in person. He took the phones and other
bits away to his own office before returning. Do you need anything else, Nick?
A hotel recommendation?
He gave us a choice of the Sofitel right at the airport, or one in a small village
nearby. I went for the one away from the airport since Anton was too pissed off to take
any part in the proceedings, and after Anton went to the airline desk to check out our
flight options, we took a taxi to the hotel. By then Anton was so angry, he wouldn t speak
to me, so I had to book the room for the night with an option of staying for a second, and
make all the decisions without any input from him. When we finally arrived at our room
and closed the door behind us, he put his hands on his hips. Now tell me what the hell is
going on, he said, without a trace of friendliness.
It was the stalker again. He knew we were flying out today, and where from. How?
He must.... He stopped and thought about it. We were bugged?
One of us was, certainly. Since we just had our luggage and clothes closely
examined, it s not in those. It had to be inside something we carry all the time, like a
phone.
He collapsed onto the bed. Or my computer.
Yes. Anton, the calls came from Milton Keynes.
The OU?
Possibly. If I m right and I don t know if I am yet, but my boss has arranged to
get our gear forensically examined as soon as possible then someone had to have
physical access to the items. Same as your keys. He had to have been in physical contact
with you.
At the university?
Anywhere. But the calls today came from there. I didn t want to explain while you
still had them since I don t know whether it s literally a listening device or something
else.
I understand, he said faintly. I sat next to him and hugged him. But why are we in
this horrible hotel?
It s not horrible.
It s vile.
All right, it s vile. The police have to search your house for bugs. This can take a
while. And while we re here and the bastard doesn t know we re here, we re safe as we
can possibly be.
What about our holiday?
We can still go. I didn t want to make that decision for you. I squeezed him harder
and kissed his ear. I m sorry, Anton.
Don t be bloody ridiculous, Nick. How is any of this your fault?
I m not apologising, I m empathizing.
I did my best to imitate the tone he usually used when he delivered that remark. He
looked at me, still annoyed, then grinned as he got it. Hoist by my own petard.
Something like that. Do you really hate this hotel?
It ll do. I feel itchy without my technology. I don t know now if we should go away
or not. Part of me wants to just get away from it all, and the other part tells me to hang
around and find out what they find.
How about this? We fly to Stockholm tomorrow and go to your friend s stuga. I can
call Phil or Andy in a couple of days to see what they ve found. Then we can either come
back or stay for a few more days. Those tickets are flexible, aren t they?
Yes. They re a lot more expensive but I learned it was worth it for things like this.
Oh, you have a history of crazy stalkers? You never said.
He whacked me lightly on the head. Don t be daft. Do you think this is the
breakthrough?
I hope so.
I ve never been so scared in my life as when those police pointed their guns at me.
They wouldn t tell me what was going on. I still don t know what happened.
The bastard said I was turning up at the airport with a packet of ricin. They had to
take it seriously. He also phoned in bomb alerts on the trains.
Thorough.
Yes. So, shall we fly to Sweden tomorrow, or shall I make do with an ABBA CD
from the airport shop?
ABBA? You really are gay, Nick Guthrie.
You have to like ABBA if you re gay or they take away your toaster.
Ah. I never got mine. Explains a lot.
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