[Author's note: After learning that his wife, Rosa, is probably being held at Sanctuary Point, Aidan has made up his mind to rescue her. Eve has decided to help, against Adam's advice.]
---
THE CAVALRY
Aidan turned the key in the lock. The front door clicked open and he pushed it, revealing an empty hallway. He crossed the threshold, alert for any sound within the apartment, but there was only silence. Eve followed behind him, and he turned.
"Do you mind waiting here?" he asked.
"Sure, no problem," Eve nodded.
Aidan's gaze roamed the walls. He settled on the kitchen and strode towards it.
It looked the same as it always had, even down to the positioning of the salt and pepper by the knife block. Everything was neat. He went over to the refrigerator and opened it, cataloguing the contents. There was a carton of milk in the door and he took it out and opened it. His nose wrinkled at the sour smell. Checking the side, he found that the date had expired. It was still half full.
Aidan closed the door, sweeping the room again. There were glasses upturned on the drying rack; the sunlight making them sparkle. He crossed the hallway into the living room, finding the same scene. The cushions were plumped, the coffee table cleared, everything left neat and tidy, revealing nothing.
The bathroom was the same, but her toothbrush was missing. The milk came back to his mind, the expiry date, how full it was. The apartment had been empty for a while. He opened the storage cupboard, noting two suitcases there. He pushed one and found that it was full. At last, he came to the bedroom. Standing at the closed door, he halted, his hand on the knob. Aidan gritted his teeth and opened it.
The bedroom was different to how he remembered it. The bedsheets were new, pure white and expensive looking. The items on the bedside tables were different too, there were things he didn't recognise, but only on her side. Aidan's side of the bed was bare. On a whim he opened the drawers but found nothing in there. He looked in the wardrobe, then in the tall chest of drawers, finding nothing. She had removed everything he'd left behind. He thought back to the two suitcases, and suddenly the vigour drained from him: she had packed him up and stored him away. He could just take the suitcase and leave, and it would be like he'd never lived here.
He found himself staring at her clothes, hung up in the wardrobe. There was the sleeve of a summer top, and suddenly he was back in the car, years ago, in the warm sun with the windows down singing as the wind whipped Rosa's luscious, long, dark hair around her face. He remembered the look in her eyes, as if it was a moment ago, the way she had smiled at him, her excitement as they hurtled through the countryside.
His view rippled and he blinked rapidly, brushing the moisture away from his cheeks. But, he couldn't stop remembering the way they had felt, the two of them together facing the future. The silence of the apartment enveloped him, the cold present impinging on the past: a rolling, surging tidal wave of emptiness that threatened to drown him. It had been so perfect.
He began to move, lurching forward, out the door and down the hallway. He could see Eve, still waiting outside.
---
Eve watched Aidan disappear into his apartment, and then she called Adam.
"Hey," she said when he answered.
"Hi," the voice replied, "What's news?"
"Just thought I'd check in, see how your day was."
"Fine. You?"
Eve hesitated, "Yeah, look, good so far."
"So far?"
There was a note of suspicion in Adam's voice.
"Yeah. Well, I'm standing outside Aidan's apartment at the moment."
Another pause, longer this time.
"You still there?" Eve asked.
"Yeah," Adam replied, "Still here. Uh, why?"
"Why am I here?"
"Yeah."
Eve cast a glance down the hall, watching Aidan moving from room to room.
"Aidan needed to check it out, and he doesn't have transport."
"I'm sure he's got friends, Eve. Why are you the one helping him?"
Eve wrinkled her nose.
"Because he needs help. You know me, you know that's what I do."
"He doesn't need your help, Eve."
"Are you saying I just leave him to it?"
"Pretty much. It's nothing to do with you."
Eve paused, frowning. When she spoke, there was an edge to her voice.
"You heard him, the other night. You saw the look on his face."
"I did, and I realised that there are some things I shouldn't get involved in."
"Just wait," Eve replied, more forcefully now, "What if his wife's there at Sanctuary Point? She sure as hell isn't home. This place looks deserted."
"What if she's taken her new boyfriend's offer to have time away? What if he's making her feel better with spa treatments on the house? Eve, really, if you were in her shoes, with an ex turning up out of the blue and stalking you, wouldn't you jump at the chance?"
Eve's words died on her lips; Adam was making sense. The talk of Richard Scott and blackmail recordings and secret rooms had appealed to her professional curiosity, casting the events in a particular light. But Adam's view was equally plausible. There was a chance that Davey didn't have his father's recordings, that the blackmail was being continued for other reasons by other associates of his father.
"Adam," she mumbled, "I guess. But what if you're wrong? What if she's in trouble?"
There was a sigh on the other end of the line, then, "Don't go to Sanctuary Point, Eve. Promise me you won't go on some wild goose chase."
"I...."
"You're a cop, right?"
"I know, and that's why...."
"He's got a restraining order. What if Davis is there? What are you going to do then? Aren't you aiding and abetting?"
"No."
"You sure?"
Aidan was coming down the hallway towards her now, his face dark and brooding.
"Look, hey, I gotta go," she blurted.
"Eve, don't do anything foolish."
"I won't. Look, I'll call you."
There was a brief pause, then Adam said, "I love you."
Eve nodded as Aidan approached her.
"Me too," she said and ended the call.
She looked up at Aidan brightly. "Find what you wanted?" she asked as he stepped back into the corridor.
"I think so."
"Was it a weapon?"
Aidan gave her a sharp look, but could see that she was teasing.
"Let's go," he replied.
"Where?"
"You know where. Sanctuary Point."
Aidan closed the door behind him, but made no move to walk away, his hand still on the handle.
"You can't go there Aidan. The restraining order, remember?"
"Where else could she be?" he rumbled, "She's there. Davey's got her."
Suddenly he was in motion, pacing towards the elevators. "Let's go," he called over his shoulder, "You drive."
Eve stared at his retreating back, unsure. What if Adam was right? What if he was wrong? What did her gut say? Putting her head down, she followed Aidan to the elevators.
---
The conversation died before they'd got out of the city, and Eve drove the rest of the way to Sanctuary Point in silence. Aidan had a simple plan. He'd booked a spa treatment under a false name and was going to spend the day there; all Eve had to do was drop him off. It seemed straightforward, allowing Aidan to wander the facility until he located his wife. His reasoning was sound enough: she needed to eat, she would want to use the facilities, it wasn't a large place. He'd see her soon enough if she was there.
After that point, his plan became fuzzy, which was giving Eve cause for concern. He seemed to think that appearing in front of her and confessing his love would be enough, that she would see the truth at last. He was prepared to risk everything to win her back. But what if Adam was right? Instead of helping a friend in pain, what if she was aiding a stalker to locate his victim? She confessed to herself that she was playing a hunch. There was a little gut instinct that told her to go along with him.
Sweeping up the hill on the gravel road, Aidan became animated again.
"Just there," he said, "Can you see it? There's a carpark in front."
"Yeah, okay."
"Just drop me, I can take it from there."
"You sure?"
"Positive."
They crested the hill and swept down to a collection of low sandstone buildings. Eve parked the car and turned off the engine. She hesitated for a moment, and then unbuckled her seatbelt.
"What're you doing?" Aidan asked.
"I'm coming."
"Why? I'll be fine."
"I'll just go with you to the reception. That's all. Okay?"
Aidan paused, his hand on the door handle, then nodded.
"Okay. Sounds like a plan," he said, and got out.
Eve cursed herself silently. If Davis was in the building, this was a breach of Aidan's restraining order, and his goose would be cooked. There were too many variables. Reluctantly, she picked up her purse and her phone and got out of the car.
Standing in the middle of the gravel carpark, she scanned the buildings. The warm, amber sandstone yielded a large single door in a richly polished dark wood. Other than that, there were no obvious features of the building. The grass sloped away down the hill, revealing other structures nestled in the landscape in close proximity. The location was exposed, set high above the vast expanse of a lake below that glittered in the morning sun.
Aidan hadn't moved. He was looking up into the sky above the building, his eyes fixed on a single dark speck dancing high in the cloudless blue. It was a single swallow, darting and weaving in the air above Sanctuary Point. Aidan smiled.
"Cheers, Hardy," he murmured to himself, "Thanks for the help."
Eve frowned. "What?" she asked.
Aidan was suddenly in motion, approaching the sturdy wooden door.
