Devil's Game Read Free Page A

said she was going to work and didn’t,’ Nasreem said. Bastable scowled and clenched his fists, a baffled bull, but said nothing.
    ‘I’ll complete a missing person report for her,’ Nasreemwent on quickly. ‘And I’ll log in the details of the car. That’s really all we can do for now.’
    ‘Well, it’s not enough, is it?’ Bastable said angrily. ‘You’re not taking it bloody seriously.’
    ‘I’m sorry, Mr Bastable,’ Nasreem said. ‘If you’re unhappy about the procedure you can always come down to the station and talk to my sergeant. But you’ll get the same answer, I’m afraid.’
    ‘You’ve not got enough time for folk like us now, all the hours you’re putting in tracking effing terrorists and illegals and God knows who in this country,’ Bastable shouted, jumping to his feet so suddenly that Nasreem flinched. She stood up herself and deliberately turned her back on the angry man although her heart was thudding as she walked to the door. She turned briefly, her hand on the handle.
    ‘I’m sorry, Mr Bastable. I’ll do what I can. Let me know if she comes home, will you? That’s the most likely outcome, you know. Honestly it is.’
    ‘Paki cow,’ Bastable spat as she closed the front door behind her.
     
    Karen tried to move but she had been secured too tightly for that. She was still wearing the thin clothing she had stripped down to in the forest clearing as she moved back to her car as the meet in the forest began to disperse. She was surprised when a man she had not noticed before, with a scarf pulled up over the lower half of his face, approached her just as she was reaching for her coat.
    ‘Do you feel like another quick turn?’ he had asked, his voice muffled by the scarf, and when she had hesitated, he had suddenly seized her from behind pushing her head down, andbefore she could scream or attract anyone’s attention, he had pulled a heavy bag over her head. She had seen pictures of hooded prisoners on television and had never imagined just how suffocatingly disorienting the procedure could be. She had struggled for breath and drawn in only dust and fibres and found herself choking helplessly within seconds. Even as she tried to fight him off, she felt her arms being strapped to her side, and soon knew that she was being bundled into the boot of a car. She tried to scream, but the thick material around her face muffled her cries and she was dimly aware the noise of departing vehicles was fading away. There was nobody left to hear her.
    She had no idea how long the journey had lasted but eventually the car stopped and there was complete silence. How long she lay there she had no way of telling. She thought she fell asleep at one point, but could not be sure. She groaned occasionally as her limbs cramped, and she felt freezing cold. And then at last she glimpsed a dim light even through the thick fabric across her face and realised that the boot was being opened and she could see it was already daylight. She had been in the boot all night, she thought, trying to get a good look at the man who was gazing down at her, but he tugged her blindfold down lower so that she could only glimpse him from the waist down.
    ‘You bastard,’ she stuttered, through the thick fabric. ‘What the hell are you doing?’ But he did not respond and she was shivering so convulsively now in the sharp morning air that however much she wriggled and tried to struggle she could not resist the strong arms which took hold of her and dragged her out of the boot and along the ground so violently that she cried out in pain. Eventually she managed to lash out with herfeet and catch her attacker so sharply that he too cried out.
    ‘Bitch,’ he said, flinging her to the ground in frustration. ‘Bloody whore.’ She tried shouting and screaming again but the sound seemed to get lost without even penetrating the suffocating mask, and eventually she simply accepted that there was no one to hear her anyway, just as