Chapter 32

SAM & HEIDI COLE

If Sam had been able to switch off his monitor so that he didn’t have to see or hear Sofia, he would have.

His anger towards his own hijacking was compounded by her stupidity.

He was sick of hearing the deluded actress continually grasping the wrong end of the stick while no one saw fit to correct her. Finally, he could hold his tongue no longer. But after delivering the truth and witnessing the actress’s crestfallen face, he began to question himself. Perhaps being naïve to their dire circumstances was better than facing reality.

Meanwhile, from her car, Heidi was willing her husband to bring an end to his rant. ‘Sam, please stop,’ she said through gritted teeth. ‘She’s an elderly woman and you’re bullying her.’

‘We’ve been told we’re about to die and she’s begging for her bloody agent!’ he replied. ‘I tell you, if she manages to find a way out of this just because she’s famous, then I’ll drive this car into her myself.’

‘Sam …’

‘No, stop trying to silence me. She won support from one of the jurors just because she’s on the telly. How is that fair? She’s had her life; we are the ones with children who need us and what do I get? Nothing. If they hadn’t killed that Asian woman, what would’ve happened to me?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘Yes, you do; we both do. You’d be watching me burning to death in this car.’

‘Don’t say that.’

‘It’s the truth, isn’t it? Did any of the jurors stick their necks out and choose me?’ Heidi didn’t say anything. ‘Exactly,’ Sam continued and folded his arms.

‘If the kids are watching this, they don’t need to be reminded of the threat we’re under, do they?’ added Heidi. Sam shook his head.

The last thirty minutes had seen a switch in the mindsets of husband and wife. Heidi was beginning to put her police training to use and talked herself into a calmer state of mind. And learning she had the support of at least one juror gave her belief that perhaps with a little more time, she could win more over. To survive this ordeal for the sake of her children, she must toughen up. The only person she could rely on was herself; it was a lesson she had been forced to learn weeks earlier.

As her and Sam’s tenth anniversary had loomed, Heidi had known it was the last one she would spend as his wife. Unbeknownst to her husband, she had twice met with a local solicitor to discuss how to separate and the implications it would bring. She was determined to keep the family home and would offer to share custody of the children, not that he deserved them.

As much as she had longed to make him suffer, she would not do it by using James and Beccy.

For years, the family had survived mainly upon her wages as Sam established and grew his construction and refurbishment business. She had paid for so much, from foreign family holidays to new furniture. And throughout that time, she had also been both mother and father to their kids while he had worked away for several days each week.

Today was supposed to be the day that everything changed, when all that had been so wrong in their marriage was to come out into the open.

Only the Hacker put paid to that. Now she would need Sam on side.

Meanwhile Sam was now convinced he wasn’t to blame for the mess they’d found themselves caught up in. There was no evidence that his lies were responsible for their predicament. Shabana’s murder, while unfortunate, was a brief reprieve, offering husband and wife a stay of execution. It meant a juror was free to help him whether they favoured him or not. Quietly he hoped that Shabana wouldn’t be the last to die before the planned collision.

But it also released inside him something he had not anticipated – a bitterness towards Heidi. Why was she favoured above him?

‘We don’t know that we’re about to die,’ Heidi continued. ‘We don’t know anything right now.’

‘Didn’t you hear what the Hacker said?’ he replied. ‘And what if the kids are in one of those schools with the bombs inside?’

‘Sam, you need to take a breath and think about this. The odds of that happening are remote. I’m sure the kids will be okay.’

The more Sam pictured their faces when they discovered what was happening to their parents, the more he began to sweat. ‘What are they going to think when they see us on TV? They’ll be terrified.’

‘They might not know yet.’

‘You said earlier they probably knew! Every kid of their age is on social media. Even if they haven’t seen it, their friends will have told them by now. Sometimes I don’t think you want to admit to what’s going on around you.’

Heidi felt her muscles knot and she opened her mouth ready to attack, then thought better of it. With just a few words, she knew she could cut her husband down to size. Not now, she told herself. Wait until you really need to fire that bullet. Then a darker thought rose to the surface. Or perhaps you should let him continue ranting and wait until he buries himself? She shook her head. She was cool and collected but that wasn’t her style.

The nickname Elsa the Ice Queen from her workmates hadn’t bothered Heidi. She didn’t know many police officers without an epithet, or who hadn’t had their surname shortened, extended or had a ‘y’ tacked on to the end. Before she joined the police, she had volunteered as a Community Support Officer in her spare time, patrolling the neglected council estate in which she was born and raised. Unafraid of the threats made to her by gangs and drug dealers, her high citizens’ arrest rate and fearless approach to the job brought her to the attention of her bosses who encouraged her to apply for a full-time position. Once she’d settled into the Criminal Investigations Department, they too appreciated her ability to remain composed even in the most testing of investigations. And with her long, blonde hair and delicate features, they awarded her the new nickname Elsa, inspired by the Disney cartoon Frozen.

If they were watching her now, they might struggle to recognise the woman before them. This Elsa was wracked with fear. The threat of being blown up or in a collision would do that to anyone, she thought. And for the

first time in as long as she could remember, she longed to have Sam’s hand to hold for comfort.

This isn’t you, she told herself. Whatever the hell is happening here, this is not how you respond. Calm yourself down – and you don’t need Sam to do that for you.

However, there was a decision that needed to be made. She would rather Sam came to the conclusion himself than have viewers see her bringing it up and risk appearing mercenary. But time was running out and she couldn’t wait any longer to broach the subject.

‘There’s something we need to talk about,’ she said carefully. ‘Only one person is going to survive this. Because the public and the jurors aren’t being asked to vote for us as a married couple, the kids aren’t going to get both of us back. So we need to start thinking about how we’re going to play this.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘I mean that it makes sense if one of us takes ourselves out of the running to give the other a fighting chance.’

‘You mean sacrifice our own life?’

‘If it comes to that, then yes. If we both start getting votes, we risk cancelling one another out.’

Sam paused as he processed her suggestion. You heartless bitch, he thought. She assumed it was unlikely he would garner much support so she had written him off already. He ran his hands through his hair then pushed down upon his anxious leg to try and stop his foot from bouncing up and down again. Heidi was right – they both couldn’t survive until the end of the morning. However, there was one thing she hadn’t considered – he didn’t want to die.

Because Sam’s life wasn’t just about Heidi and their children. There was much more to him than that, which she was not party to. And the more he considered her proposal, the more he was sure of what needed to be done. He would have to convince the jury and the public that Heidi should die, not him.