"Don't be stupid Steve, how can you say such a thing? The problem is HIS not yours, you have shown Alice and I what real love is, you have accepted her unconditionally and I believe that you will be a real father to her for the rest of her life. She loves you, not as much as I do!!!" she smiled wanly "You have changed our lives darling, don't think of it as your fault, you tried to warn me about him, and I didn't listen to you, I was convince he had changed, but infact he is more unstable than ever. I love you Steve, please give me the strength to get through this I can't do this without you, I need you here by my side, I need to believe that tomorrow we will be a family again and that Tim and Issy will be here to welcome her home ...... please baby hold me for a while."
We clutched each other for dear life for several minutes until we heard a mobile ringing upstairs ... looking at each other we realised it was Rachel's phone ringing in the bedroom We looked at each other in shock as she raced upstairs to try and reach the phone before it cut to answerphone. She cleared two steps at a time and made it just in time, I almost collided with a sleepy looking police officer, who had obviously been in a very deep sleep as he stumbled onto the landing.
"Alice...are you ok sweety?" Rachel sobbed down the phone.
"Mummy, I got your message, Daddy is acting funny, he bought me some new clothes and he drove us past Swansea all the way to St David's it's really pretty, but he wouldn't let me ring you earlier, he told me you had gone away with Steve for the weekend and you said he could take me away with him on a holiday."
"Do you know exactly where you are sweety?" Rachel almost whispered.
"We are in a cottage overlooking a small beach but I can see a bigger beach on one side under a mountain and caravans on the other. Daddy wouldn't let me go and play down on the beach though, and he kept walking up and down looking out of the kitchen window up the dirt road... Will you come and get me Mummy please.. I'm not having a very nice time, he is really grumpy, I'm so glad he didn't know I had my phone with me. He's asleep in a chair downstairs"
"Alice, I need you to be really grown up, can you see anything that could tell me where your cottage is, if you can I could get there soon and surprise Daddy and we could spend the rest of the weekend together"
The policeman had run down stairs to contact his superiors about the call, and came back smiling saying they had a fix on the signal and to keep her talking as long as possible.
Rachel was shaking as Alice said that they had gone past a big church, but she had told Rachel everything she could think of. Rachel told her that she was a good girl and to hide her phone, and that the fact she had it with her was their little secret. She told her that if she and Daddy went to another place to let us know if she could. Alice said that she needed to go as she thought she could hear Mark moving around downstairs. Rachel tried to sound upbeat as she said goodnight, but the policeman said they had got a fix from where Alice had called. He said that they were in a little cottage overlooking Whitesands Bay, two miles from St David's in Pembrokeshire. I knew this area well having spent many summers there as a child, St David's is the smallest city in Great Britain and is situated on the far south west coast of Wales. Granted city status by Queen Elisabeth I because of the presence of the cathedral St David's is in reality a small attractive village. Situated within the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park St David's is surrounded by spectacular coastal scenery renowned for its beauty and abundance of wildlife. Although, Rachel, was heartened by the news, I knew that we were a long way from getting her back safely as there were so many back roads and lanes that Mark could slip into, if they moved on before the police got there.
It was now 3am and the police were now back at the house asking questions, Rachel and I had dressed and wanted to get going to be with Alice when they rescued her, but we were told that we needed to wait for a little while until they had confirmed the suspected location was correct. Within the hour they had established that the location pin-pointed by the trace from Alice's mobile phone was indeed where Mark had driven to with Alice. They were hiding in a small 1930's cottage situated two miles west of the picturesque city of St David's in Pembrokeshire overlooking Whitesands Bay. St David's is the smallest city in Great Britain and is situated on the far south west coast of Wales. Granted city status by Queen Elisabeth I because of the presence of the cathedral, St David's is in reality a small attractive village. Situated within the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, it is surrounded by spectacular coastal scenery renowned for its beauty and abundance of wildlife. St David's Cathedral has been the dominant presence since the 12th century and was a popular pilgrimage destination throughout the middle ages and indeed remains so to this day attracting thousands of visitors every year. Adjacent to the cathedral stands the magnificent ruins of the medieval Bishops Palace, it was area that I had spent several very happy summers as a child, and an area I knew it would be easy to get lost in as there was hundreds of miles of winding single track lanes which if you needed to disappear meant you never needed to travel by main road if you chose not to. However, the police assured us that they had the element of surprise as there was only one way in and out of the cottage and they promised us that they would be in an out with the minimum of fuss and that they would have Alice safe and sound by the time we arrived.
Rachel looked less than convinced but took heart when the police assured her that Mark had no knowledge of their presence outside the cottage. I rang both Rob and Claire and my own parents to let them know the situation and to inform them that we were travelling down to Pembrokeshire to be there to fetch her. My main worry was all through these moments was that, what if the rescue attempt went wrong? After all I had read the file my staff had compiled about Mark's temper, what happened if he was armed? I know I had handed this information over to the police but I was so worried that the rescue would not be as straightforward as we were being told. By 3.50am we were ready to go, and an unmarked police people carrier came to fetch us and our liaison officer for the 2ΒΌ-hour journey to West Wales, Rachel and I sat together quietly holding hands praying that Alice would be safely returned to us. Our liaison officer had been wonderful, he continued to keep in contact with his superiors to ensure we knew what was going on, the raid was due to take place at 5am, and the special forces were being manoeuvred into position in readiness. There had been total quiet at the cottage with all police vehicles kept out of sight and no sirens or headlights used to keep their presence unknown to the inhabitants. Rachel and I hardly talked throughout the journey, but gave each other the odd little smile or squeeze of the hand every now and again. Our thoughts were totally focussed on what was about to happen, the police were sure that Alice and Mark had not left the cottage during the night as the car was still out side and there seemed to be little evidence of them setting off by foot.
At 4.30am we heard the police radio crackle into life, informing our escorts that the operation was about to commence, Rachel was transfixed with fear as she whispered quietly:
"Look after my baby ...... please look after my baby........."
I held her tightly as the large vehicle sped through the darkness, hoping that Alice would be safe. My heart breaking for the wonderful woman in my arms who had given me so much hope in recent months and who now seemed so alone and frightened. I knew that just being with her now was helping, but I felt so useless, I would have done anything to make it better for her.
At the cottage the police were keeping a very low profile, the cottage was in darkness and although its inhabitants seemed to be still there, the Inspector leading the raid could not be totally sure that Mark had not slipped out under the cover of darkness. Slowly just before 4.40am he gave the signal to advance on the cottage, which infact a square 1930's dormer bungalow which had all rooms leading of a central living space. The were two entrances to the building, the main at the rear which was into a lean to conservatory that led into the central living area and a front entrance via a large picture window that led into the same room. This made it easier to secure from an escape point of view, but harder to enter without being exposed, as the building was originally built to maximise the spectacular views of the bay from the interior. However, using the cover of the darkness and the fact this was a holiday home with relatively low security they were able to enter the building relatively easily and very quietly. However, what was totally unexpected was the fact that at first inspection the cottage appeared empty, however the beds were still warm and there was evidence that they had appeared to leave in a hurry, but if they had already left, the thermal imaging surveillance equipment the police had set up would have picked them up as they left. Therefore they either had to have left previously or were actually still there, the police started to look harder over the little house, they were just about to leave when one of the officers noticed an irregularity in the spacing in the parquet flooring in the central living area. Quietly he alerted his colleagues of his find, and within minutes a portable thermal imaging unit was brought into the room, as soon as it was switched on, it soon became obvious that there was a cellar of some kind beneath the property, almost like a priest hole or smuggler's retreat. Also, the imager picked up two human beings huddled in the western corner of the room, they were here, the next issue was how to into the room with the minimal amount of risk to Alice.
