Chapter 15

The following morning Tom informed Clive of the plan he and the other section leaders had come up with. Clive expressed his satisfaction and Tom went back to organise things with Susie.

Clive rubbed his hands together in glee. "Now," he thought, "I can start to make some plans about little Briony. I'm going to make her mine one way or another."

He thought back. The West African trip: there was always the chance that Tom might have a lethal accident, crocodiles, as he had laughingly suggested, or terrorist activity or an affair with Susie, not that that would have been lethal other than to his marriage. The Scottish reconnaissance: Susie again or an accident but neither happened. He had reckoned without Tom and Susie's faithfulness. The second Scottish reconnaissance with Margaret Tennant going along had proved fruitless too. He had realised that at her annual appraisal. His innuendo at Susie's engagement party had fallen flat too. To get near Briony he had to do away with Tom.

That thought sobered him. It would be enormously difficult to achieve. He would have to hire somebody to engineer an accident but he had no idea who to approach or how. In any case, he could well then become the object of blackmail.

"This can go one of two ways," he thought. "She can either come to me willingly or I shall have to force myself on her. I hope it will be the former but I suspect it won't and it will be a one off but, one way or the other, I'm going to have that little girl. I'll give her my usual 'avuncular' phone call on the first Wednesday that Tom's away and invite her to come away with me for the weekend. If she refuses I'll move to Plan B. There's plenty of time to work out the details of that. I'm going to have to be anonymous though."

The next fortnight plus moved on quietly. All the administrative details of the trip fell into place and Tom booked his return flight for the Tuesday. He and Briony decided on a minor car accident that left her unable to look after herself in the short term. No mention would be made of her parents being available to help.

The weekend before Tom's departure both he and Briony were tense. Nevertheless they still played hockey on Saturday and rode on Sunday afternoon. At church on Sunday morning though Briony remained in her pew after the service clinging to Tom's hand as she prayed silently for safety and peace of mind. Tom instinctively knew what her prayers were about and, holding her hand, prayed in similar vein.

On Monday morning, despite herself, Briony was fighting tears when she hugged and kissed him goodbye.

"Don't worry, my darling," whispered Tom. "He's not going to try anything yet and I'll be home before you tomorrow and Brian's keeping an eye on you and him too."

"Yes, my Tom-Tom," she whispered and clutched him convulsively. She released him and pushed him away. "Go now before I lose it completely."

The flight to Scotland, the collection of the vehicles and moving into B & Bs went without a hitch. At nine o'clock the following morning Tom's mobile rang.

"Tom-Tom," said Briony. "I got clipped by a car as I was joining the dual carriageway. My right arm's broken and I'm badly bruised all over. My eyesight's a bit wonky too. They're releasing me and will take me home but I'm not going to be able to look after myself for the next few days."

"Oh, Bri my sweet! Are you in pain?"

"Not much because they've given me pain killers but I'm pretty woozy."

"Can your parents help?"

"No, my love. They don't get back from Spain until sometime on Friday."

"OK, my Bri, I'll fly home today. See you late afternoon or early evening."

"Thanks, darling."

"Love you and look after yourself, my Bri."

All this had been in case someone overheard their conversation at either end. As planned, Tom told Nick and Greg. He nominated Margaret Tennant as temporary head of section. Greg drove him to his B & B where Mrs McGuire was full of sympathy and promised to keep his room open for him. The helicopter they had hired for the fortnight took him back to Glasgow. He was home by four in the afternoon having parked his car in the pub car park. He rang Brian to tell him.

"Won't that draw attention?"

"Double bluff. I wasn't fit to drive on Saturday evening. On Sunday it wouldn't start and I haven't had time to get it sorted."

Brian snorted. "If you're ever out of a job I'll take you on for tall stories," he said.

Briony arrived home just after six and they fell into each other's arms. They neither kissed nor said anything, just holding each other tightly and reassuringly. At length Briony pushed herself away.

"It's such a treat to come home and find you here an hour earlier than usual." She laughed. "I shall have to write Mr Slime a thank you letter when this is all over."

Tom laughed too. "Don't tempt fate my precious."

Briony shook her head. "You haven't kissed me yet," she pouted with smiling eyes.

Tom immediately and lovingly corrected that.

"Early drinks, early sups and early bed," announced Briony.

"I'm all for that," leered Tom earning a gentle biff on the nose.

"You're incorrigible," she smiled. "Lucky I am too."

That led to another kiss but it was a light, laughing one.

Nothing untoward happened that evening but at about seven on Wednesday evening the telephone rang. Briony duly answered it.

"Hello, Briony. It's Clive. Just ringing to make sure everything's OK with you."

She rolled her eyes at Tom. "Yes, fine thanks, Clive."

"Good. I gather you're going to spend the weekend with your parents again."

"Yes, I am."

"Well that's good too. Mind you, I'd like to offer you an alternative which you might find more fun."

"Oh?"

"Yes. There's a delightful hotel in Sussex that Angela and I used to use: very comfortable, excellent food with the Downs and the sea close by. I wondered whether you'd like to come and spend the weekend there with me."

"That's a kind thought but no thank you, Clive." Her voice turned icy. "As a happily married woman I do not go away on dirty weekends. Goodbye."

She slammed the telephone into its cradle and turned sobbing to Tom who was at her side. He held her as she cried her heart out.

At length she looked up. "You got the gist of that."

"Yes, my Bri," answered Tom grimly, "and so will Brian. Evidence when we nail the bastard."

She laid her head against his chest again. "That was the place he took his Polish tart. Ugh!" She shuddered and tightened her grip. Tom continued to hold her gently rubbing her back.

"I think we both need a stiff drink, especially you," he said softly at last.

Briony nodded and loosened her grip on him. "Kiss first."

"Yes, my darling." He did so gently but Briony wanted more than that and kissed him passionately almost frenziedly.

"I love you, my Tom-Tom. I love you so much. You won't let anything happen ... to either of us, will you?"

"No, my Bri. I promise. Now, let's see about that stiff drink."

Clive put his telephone down with almost as much force as Briony.

"Pious little bitch," he snarled. "It won't stop me having you though. If you don't want it gentle you're going to get it rough."

He smiled as he helped himself to a drink. "That actually might be more fun," he thought, "as long as she doesn't mange to get my mask off. I'll have to have injected her with a knockout drop before that happens but I could still spank that sexy little bottom and hear her cry for mercy first. That'll teach her to turn me down."

He pulled a notepad from his briefcase and took a pencil from his pocket and began to jot things down pretty much at random.