“Still waiting on tests,” Reuben confirmed.
“My guess is the perps didn’t spend long on the bus. They stopped the bus. Gathered the girls’ belongings and got them to strip down to their underwear. Then took them off the bus. Maybe the perps had another bus waiting to load the girls into?” Idris said.
“Lenny the lorry driver claims he heard and saw nothing except a guy wearing a ski mask and a hoodie who took control of the heist. Lenny was given an address to go to and drove there. He left the lorry for an hour and it was taken and returned. During that time the bus was removed and dumped in a garage attached to a disused factory. Why Manchester? The kidnapping happened in London and yet they had someone on hand in Manchester to take the lorry.”
“Could there be some connection with the shipping company? Shipping containers move between ports, move to addresses around London and into and out of different ports around the country. London has ports. Manchester has a port.” Eli said.
“Or maybe they knew the bus would be fitted with a tracking device and wanted to simply throw us off the scent,” Idris suggested.
“So, take the girls off the bus, send us on a wild goose chase to Manchester after the bus, and all the while keep the girls in London?”
Eli groaned. “In which case, they’ve probably already been dispersed to wherever they were going. Whether that’s still in London or headed overseas.”
Quinn thrust his hands into his pockets and paused his pacing, to stare blindly out the window. “What’s Li Jian’s connection in all of this? His uncle Li Fa Ping is the CEO of Sino-Anglo Shipping Group. Li Jian uses that shipping company with his car export and import business. The shipping container is owned by SASG. We need to check the ports their ships sail from.
“Secondly, Li calls on Bex Wynter this morning and this afternoon Wynter goes missing. We receive a distressed call from Wynter that mentions Ron Thompson, the caretaker from Fairbridge is dead. Is his death connected with the original crime? Was he killed on Friday during the kidnapping and Wynter just found his body? Or did Wynter stumble upon a crime in action? If so, then that crime couldn’t be related to the kidnapping, because of the time difference. Where did Wynter find his body? And where is Wynter now?”
“Don’t forget Li’s also connected to Isla Standing,” Idris interrupted. “She’s representing him in his extradition dispute. Remember, if he gets a criminal conviction recorded they’re going to rescind his visa and ship him back to Shanghai.”
“Do you think Isla might know something about Li that could be useful to the case?” The other three men looked away from the hope sparking in Eli’s eyes.
Quinn struggled to maintain his casual stance, but inside his pockets his hands fisted. Anxiety gnawed a hole in his gut. How close to Li was Isla?
Eli’s phone trilled and he jumped on it. They remained silent while Eli spoke.
“Aha. And then? Three thirty? Got it. Anywhere else? Okay. No, I’ve got his address. Thanks. I’ll be in touch if we need anything else.” He hung up the phone and his eyes went to Quinn’s. “The APB on Li’s car got called in. They found the driver at a pub and pulled him in for questioning. He confirms he drove Li to Ealing this morning. Li’s driver also took him to Isla’s offices at two o’clock this afternoon and he drove both Li and Isla back to her place in Fitzrovia. He dropped them off there at approximately 3:30 p.m. Li told his driver to go home, that he would call for him later. The driver hasn’t seen him again today.”
Quinn felt his heart pounding. Isla had been cagey about answering his questions this afternoon when he queried her on Li. Was something going on between Li and Isla?
“Idris, call CID. Give them all the intel we have. Dresden wants me to hand the case over to them. Come on, Eli.”
Idris turned his shocked grey eyes towards Quinn, but Quinn refused to acknowledge him.
“Where are you going, Quinn?” Reuben asked.
“I’m going to drop Eli home. We’re officially off this case.”
Chapter 31
Great Portland Street, Fitzrovia
Quinn phoned Isla on his way to the car. His call went directly to her messaging service.
“I’m in no hurry to get back, Quinn. Why don’t you drive past and see if Isla’s home?” Eli said.
Quinn very clearly heard Isla’s voice in his head, telling him her personal business was her own. You have enough on your plate without worrying about my love life, she’d said. So, was dropping by her place unannounced an invasion of privacy? He could claim to be a dutiful police officer checking on the facts. Was that twist in his gut just a bout of jealousy or was it genuine concern?
Maybe Dresden was right and he was drowning, because right now he felt unanchored. He was drifting through the facts without seeing a clear picture. Li had called on Wynter and now she was missing. Li had called on Isla and now Isla wasn’t answering her phone. Was there a connection? Or was he clutching at straws? And did either of these happenings have anything to do with the twenty-two missing girls who had been stolen out of school?
Quinn turned off past Fitzroy Square Garden, overtaking hordes of happily drunk or getting drunk students, tourists and locals bar hopping from one trendy mixology center to another when a call came through.
He handed his phone to Eli to answer as he turned sharply. A horn blared. He ignored it. They were almost in Great Portland Street at Isla’s place.
“The triangulation point’s come through!” Reuben’s voice was loud enough for Quinn to hear without Eli repeating the words.
Quinn pulled the BMW 3 series unmarked car to a halt in front of a Victorian façade. The narrow doorway leading upstairs to the apartments was flanked on one side by a boutique bank and on the other by secondhand clothes store. There was no parking on the narrow street and no provision for car parking in the apartment complex. With six Tube stations within walking distance and bikes for hire, most of the residential population had no need of a vehicle. Quinn had been forced to buy an annual residential ticket from a local parking garage to house his dilapidated car. Isla had urged him to get rid of it. Now he was virtually homeless and living out of his trunk, he was very glad he’d never listened to her.
“Get the details from Reuben,” he ordered Eli, propping the police sign up at the back on the parcel shelf so people wouldn’t complain about him parking on the double yellow lines.
He still had his key to Isla’s flat, something that she had nagged him about several times. When she didn’t answer his knocks, he keyed opened the door.
The inside of the flat was meticulously clean. The ceilings were elegantly high, the bay window overlooking the street generously sized. The pièce de résistance was the Victorian fireplace in the living room. Overall it looked like a showcase spread for Home Beautiful.
Nothing looked disturbed. But her handbag and briefcase looked like they had been dumped at the front door. Isla never went anywhere without those necessities. A quick rummage through her purse showed her phone and wallet were still inside. The hairs on the back of his neck prickled. Something wasn’t right.
He strode through the rooms, calling her name, before giving up and closing the apartment.
* * *
Downstairs, Eli leant on the outside of the car, a cigarette in hand, smoke curling above his head like a ghost leaching from his body, his phone clamped to his ear.
“What the hell are you doing to find our girls?” Sydney’s voice hissed at him.
“You know I can’t work the case, Sydney.” Eli tried to keep the despair out of his tone.
“These are our girls!” Sydney screamed at him. “You’re a useless twat that can’t even save our kids from some depraved monster!”
Eli sucked in a deep breath and held it. Words boiled around inside his head, but he didn’t dare say anything that might spark further recriminations.
“I know it’s hard, Sydney, but just hang tight and trust the police…”
A harsh laugh rattled through hi
s ears. “The police?! It’s because you’re police that the girls are in this mess! This is life, Eli, not a fairy tale. There’s no guaranteed happily ever after for us.”
Sydney was right. There was no guaranteed happily ever after, only craziness tearing his life to pieces. He glanced over the roof of the car to see Quinn striding towards him.
“I have to go,” Eli muttered, stamping out his cigarette. He opened the car door and slotted himself into the passenger seat. “Any luck?” he asked Quinn.
Quinn shook his head. “Those cancer sticks will kill you one day,” he said with a dour look.
“I should be so lucky!” Eli retorted. His hollow eyes clinched on Quinn. “I’m their father. I’m supposed to protect my little girls. I’m supposed to protect my wife from living through this horror. I’m no use to any of them. I know when Sydney looks at me, she’s wishing I was the one that was missing. Not Hannah and Imogen. Why them? They’re totally innocent. They don’t deserve this!”
His chest tightened and he twisted his head away. Shit, I’m losing it! He battled a landslide of scattered emotions and uncontrollable rage.
“Sydney’s just overwrought. Once the girls are home safe and sound, you and the missus can put all this behind you.”
Eli nodded dutifully as the glib words fell from Quinn’s tongue. His jaw clenched. Was it ever possible to truly put the past behind when a relationship was falling apart? Perhaps, if there was a successful resolution to their misery they could get back on track with their lives.
“I’ll get you home to Sydney and then I’ll look for Isla.”
Eli shook his head. “She doesn’t want to see me right now unless I’ve got some news.” He held the laptop out to Quinn. “They’ve pinpointed the area Bex was in when she made that call to Idris. Idris forwarded the details of the phone triangulation to CID. Reuben thought you might like to know as well.”
Quinn flipped open his laptop and pulled the information up on screen. A small section of map was highlighted, boundary lines marking out the location of the phone signal. He zoomed in on the map and details of shops and businesses sprang up, including a large area devoted to a golf course.
“Fairbridge House College is slap in the middle of the triangulation,” he said.
“A coincidence?”
“Bloody big coincidence. Too many damn coincidences between these two cases. Eli, can you grab a cab home? I’m heading out to the school.”
“No need. Bex’s disappearance isn’t the case I’m officially prohibited from investigating. I know that school, Quinn, and that knowledge could come in handy.”
Quinn flung the car into gear. Barely missing a drunken tourist about to step off the sidewalk, the car screeched through a one eighty illegal U-turn. Eli was pressed back in his seat as the car shot forward, sirens blaring.
“Call Trojan,” Quinn ordered. “They must have a firearms crew near Bromley. According to Wynter there are dead bodies and the perp is tooled up. Let’s not take more risks than we have to.”
Chapter 32
Fairbridge House College, Bromley
When he came to, Bex forced Red Eyes to strip down to his skivvies. While he was doing that with a gun pointed at his crotch, she questioned Isla about his comments on the missing schoolgirls. Isla filled her in with what she knew, including the news that two of the girls were Eli’s daughters.
Red Eyes’ comments made her seethe. You’re not a sweet white virgin that the customers will pay huge dollars for.
It seemed obvious the girls were destined for a sex slave market in Shanghai. Was Li Jian behind their kidnapping? Quickly she pieced together the facts she knew.
The girls had been taken from Fairbridge House College on Friday afternoon. Josh had come to the school to meet Reece on the Thursday night prior to that and someone had killed Reece and probably would have done the same to Josh if he hadn’t been so quick. She bet Red Eyes was responsible for that and had more than likely been scouting the area for the crime the following day.
Ron Thompson, the custodian, had been killed sometime today after she spoke to him. Was it because he had returned to the school that morning to do his stock take and Red Eyes didn’t want witnesses around? But witnesses to what? If the girls had been taken from the school on Friday, why was Red Eyes still here the following day?
Bex’s eyes widened as an idea struck home. “Isla, I need to know exactly how Li’s visa crisis affects his residency status here.”
“The unpaid speeding fines have transitioned into a charge which affects his visa standing. No one with outstanding criminal charges can retain an Investor Visa, so Li and his cousin will be shipped out of London, back to Shanghai unless I can get the charges dropped.” Isla’s voice was muffled as her hands supported her aching head. “Right now, he’s in lock down. Prosecution cited him as a flight risk and both he and Xiu Lan had to surrender their passports to immigration. The case should have been finalized on Friday, but, as you know, we had an unexpected hiccup in the proceedings, so the case won’t be resolved until Monday in Li’s favor. Once the criminal charges are dropped, his visa standing will be reinstated and he and his cousin will be able to come and go as they please.”
“Was Li expecting to be charged?”
“He says he had no idea. At least he had no idea what the result would end up being.” There was more than a touch of cynicism in Isla’s voice. “As soon as Immigration contacted him, his uncle was onto my law firm and I got him scheduled in court pronto. Li senior wants his nephew and daughter returning to Shanghai for some family celebration.”
“So, it’s likely that when the kidnapping was planned, Li expected to be able to come and go without hindrance. This court case threw a monkey wrench into his plans to, presumably, take the girls to Shanghai on Friday straight after the kidnapping. So, the question then arises, where do you keep a busload of schoolgirls?”
Bex caught Isla’s look in her direction, still frowning in puzzlement. But then Isla didn’t realize where Red Eyes was holding them. Bex kept her eyes warily trained on the boxer shorts-wearing thug in front of her. He was spread-eagled across the bed, his wrists and ankles ziplock-tied to the bedposts. His hairy chest sloped into a barreled stomach oozing around the elastic waist. His face was a livid scowl, his eyes glaring with malice.
“Now listen to me, asshole, because this is what’s going to happen next. I’m going to ask you some questions and you’re going to answer them. Because if you don’t, just consider where this gun is aimed if you ever want to be able to use your dick again. Got it?”
Red Eyes simply nodded his head in assent. Roughly she removed the sock she’d stuffed into his mouth as a gag. He wore an expression like he wanted to beat her into pulp, but at the same time a cunning look crept into his eyes.
“So, what were you doing at the school on Thursday night when you killed Reece and took a pot shot at his mate?” If she kept this goon alive, Josh would have his alibi and it would confirm his story so that Ingram would have to drop the charges.
At his silence Bex sighted down the gun barrel with a steely eye. “Just give me an excuse, asshole.”
He began talking, growling out words like he was spitting hot chips.
“The boss wanted me to scout around and secure the dormitory area ahead of the kidnapping on Friday. Those two wankers came snooping around, like dogs in heat after a pack of bitches. I don’t think they even realized the dorms were empty because they’re only for sixth form and they packed up weeks ago.”
“You didn’t have to shoot Reece, though, did you?” Bex demanded, fury building inside at the destructive waste of life. “He was just a kid.”
He stared at her, callousness set deep in his eyes. “So what? They’re all just kids. That’s the merch we deal in.”
Rage made Bex’s finger twitch on the trigger. Kids are not merchandise! she wanted to scream at him.
“You okay?” Isla asked.
Bex drew a deep breath, shaking off Isla’s
concern. “What about Ron Thompson? Why did you kill him?”
“He was our man on the inside. He fed us all the info we needed to know about how the school operated. But you spooked him when you called this morning wanting to have a chat. When he told the boss that’s when it was decided we needed to tie up the loose ends.”
She seethed at his pitiless reference to human lives as “loose ends”. But Ron Thompson’s connection explained how they knew she was coming to the school. It also meant they knew the school would be deserted and the dormitories empty.
“So, you have Isla and me trapped in one of the school’s dormitory rooms, right?”
He jerked his head in affirmation.
“I’m guessing the only reason you’re still on the premises is because this is where Li’s holding the girls. Exactly where are they?”
“We’re holding them downstairs in the common dining area. There’s a kitchen there and toilet facilities.”
Bex could imagine that the kidnappers wouldn’t want twenty-two girls in separate rooms. Herded together the girls would be easier to control and easier to cower. One or more would be used as scapegoats to intimidate the others into submission.
“How many of you are there?”
“There’s four of us here, plus Li. When two are on duty the others kip in the dorms on the ground floor.”
His response was glib, so she was inclined to believe he hadn’t taken time to make up an answer, although it would still pay to be careful.
“When are you moving the girls out?”
“It’s all set for Tuesday after the verdict on Li’s visa application is finalized.”
Bex crammed the sock back in his mouth before turning to Isla who was still prone on the bed, nursing her head. The welt across her temple was already darkening into a bruise. “I think we’d better get moving before someone comes searching for this creep. You should take the opportunity to escape.”
Bex Wynter Box Set Page 28