My Little Pixie

Chapter Thirty-Five - A Midnight Visit

Three nights later, just before midnight, I climbed out of my bedroom window.

I made my way down through the dark garden, sticking to the shadows to one side of the driveway. Thomas was waiting for me in the guardhouse by the main gate and he wordlessly handed me the key to his car which was parked, just out of sight, down the track that led to the wood.

And, half an hour later, I was rolling up into an estate of identikit ostentatious Mac Mansions in the suburbs of the local town - not terribly far from the university where my girls studied. I parked on the next street across from my target, under a streetlight that I had arranged to have put out of action. From here, by hopping over a couple of low fences, I effortlessly made my way into my target's garden.

It was evidently one of the larger plots on the estate but with its permanent barbecue with built-in pizza oven, hot tub and over-the-top garden furniture, it somehow managed to feel crowded.

At least the pizza oven gave me easy access to the conservatory roof and, two minutes later, I was in the master bedroom.

I studied my target and his wife for a few moments by the faint light coming in through the window and everything I saw confirmed Qunicy's report. He was a businessman in his mid forties, running slightly to flab. She was a high maintenance trophy wife in her mid twenties.

When I was satisfied, I flashed on my head torch. It was bright enough to ensure that the two would not be able to make out my face.

Of course the woman tried to scream but I had anticipated that and, before she could make any significant noise, I already had a hand over her mouth. She struggled against me but that was never going to work and I was wearing leather gloves so her attempts to bite me were unsuccessful.

"Silence your wife," I told Bauer.

"Please love..." he tried gently but I was not satisfied with that.

"I told you to silence her or I will dislocate her jaw!"

"Just do as he says," he told her, significantly more forcefully.

At last she stopped struggling and trying to scream.

"Good." I hauled her upright and turned her around in the bed so she was facing him. "Now slap her across the face."

"I'm sorry?"

"You heard me - and I am certain you do not want me to demonstrate."

"I'm sorry, love," he said before delivering the slap. At least he must have appreciated how serious I was because the slap was acceptably firm.

"That's better," I told him. "If she makes another noise without permission, repeat the slap."

He nodded dumbly.

"You are, no doubt, asking yourself who I am," I said to Bauer.

I paused for a moment.

"I am a personal friend of Emily Housegrove who was kidnapped by certain business associates of yours."

He turned completely white.

"I see that you recognise that name. So you doubtless know that I obliterated the gang that was responsible... and you indubitably recall what I did to their leader?"

"You chopped his arms and legs off?" he murmured in something of a daze.

"In fact, I had them fed into an industrial grade wood-chipper whilst they were still attached to his body but the end result was much the same. So, I take it you appreciate that, when I make threats, I am utterly serious."