Hayden’s head was now too heavy to hold up. It slid to one side, and he felt his cheek against the cold of the window, and he had that melting feeling again, like it was going through the glass. Tom reached over and gently ruffled Hayden’s hair. Then he grabbed a handful and pulled him upright, pushing his head back against the headrest. “Sit up straight.”
Tom checked the mirror, signaled, and took an exit off the motorway. The sign was a blur of letters. Once they were off the brightly lit motorway, the dark country road seemed to swallow the car, and Hayden saw the edges of fields and trees lit up in the beam of the headlights. He could hear a far-off voice in the back of his head, shouting at him, Open the door; jump out of the car! But he couldn’t move.
Tom pulled off the country road and parked in a lay-by. He switched off the headlights, plunging the inside of the car into darkness. There was just the dim glow on the horizon from the motorway. He unclipped his seat belt and took a pair of latex gloves from his pocket and pulled them on. He leaned over Hayden, searching the pockets of his jeans, taking out his mobile phone. The screen saver activated, lighting up the inside of the car. Tom put the phone on the lid of the leather icebox. He found the small plastic wallet where Hayden kept his bank cash card and a ten-pound note, and then he found the little plastic bag of white powder.
Hayden opened his mouth to explain, but his tongue was too thick, and just a groan came out.
“You evil little bastard. The rumors I’d heard about you were true,” said Tom, holding up the bag of powder. The phone screen saver went dark. Hayden heard a crackling sound, and his eyes adjusted to the dim glow coming off the motorway. Tom opened the seal on the bag, and pinching Hayden’s cheeks to open his mouth, he tipped out the contents onto his tongue. Hayden tasted how bitter it was as Tom closed his mouth.
“Swallow,” he said. “Swallow it!” Hayden felt Tom’s hand on his throat, squeezing, and he swallowed involuntarily, wincing at the bitterness.
Tom leaned over the controls on the driver’s side, and Hayden felt his chair start to recline and tip back. The view of the glowing horizon disappeared, and he was lying horizontally. There was another whir as Tom used the controls to recline the driver’s seat. Tom slid back onto the back seat behind Hayden. He hooked his hands under Hayden’s limp body and dragged him into the back of the car. The back seat seemed huge, and then Hayden worked out why. Tom had reclined the back seats so he could pull him into the boot of the car.
Tom rolled Hayden onto his left side, and he felt pressure on his wrists as they were fastened behind his back with tape. Tom did the same with his ankles, pulling up the bottom of his jeans. The tape felt cold on his skin.
Tom rolled Hayden onto his back, and he felt the pain of lying on his bound wrists. There was a rustling sound, and Tom appeared above him in the dim light, holding up something long and curved. Hayden thought with alarm that it was a sex toy, but then he saw it was a small plastic tube with a rounded ending. It was an oropharyngeal airway, used by paramedics to keep a patient’s airway free.
“I don’t want you choking to death on me,” said Tom as he pushed the curved plastic tube between Hayden’s lips. Hayden gagged as the long tube of the oropharyngeal airway pushed down on his tongue and came to rest at the back of his throat. It protruded from his mouth and over his lips like a pacifier. A square of gaffer tape was pressed over his mouth, and then he felt a violent burst of dizziness as Tom pulled him farther back into the car boot, and then everything went dark as he was covered with a blanket.
Tom ignored the muffled moans from Hayden as he crawled back into the driver’s seat. He righted all the car seats. The back seat was now empty. He’d been able to move Hayden to the car boot without getting out of the car, and he’d done it in pitch darkness.
He worked quickly with Hayden’s mobile phone, switching it off, removing the SIM card, and snapping it in half. He placed the phone, SIM, and wallet in a clear plastic bag and sealed it shut.
He peeled off the white T-shirt he was wearing and put on a dark-blue shirt, which he left open at the collar. He lifted off the backward baseball cap, pulled out six hairpins, and carefully lifted the dark wig they were holding in place. He reached into his mouth and unclipped the top set of dentures, which were larger and whiter than his own teeth, and put them in a bag. Finally, he took a small contact lens holder from the glove compartment and carefully peeled the brown contacts out of each eye and placed them in the solution. It took only a few subtle changes to completely alter his appearance. Tom wasn’t his real name, and this was his favorite disguise, with the long hair and baseball cap. He was sad that he would now have to retire it. It gave him an all-American look, like a hunky lumberjack. He switched his headlights back on, then pulled out of the lay-by and started driving across country along the B roads, vanishing into the darkness.