‘See, that's what they do. They take the child to a remote village and leave them with family members where they're fed and play with other kids. Their business is not murdering kids. It's normally to fund an ideal in which they believe.’
‘What happened?’ Kim asked.
‘We were so near to the closing. We knew it and they knew it. Another day and an agreement would have been reached.
‘Miguel took a call while I was out of the room. He changed the plan and made them a final non-negotiable offer.’
‘Why?’
Matt sighed heavily and shrugged. ‘Trying to inject an element of surprise thinking it would unnerve them into giving in; trying to impress the family, save them some money.’
‘What happened?’ Kim asked. The dread had already formed in her stomach.
‘They ended the call and didn't ring back. Ethan's body was found six hours later.’
‘Jesus.’
Matt twirled the empty coffee cup with his left hand. His right hand had formed a fist.
‘How long ago was this?’
‘Four and a half days.’
‘Oh, Matt, I'm—’
‘Don't,’ he said, raising his hand. ‘Keep your sympathy for the poor kid.’
Kim nodded her understanding. ‘Is there ever any effort to catch these gangs?’
‘Sometimes a half-hearted operation to stake out the drop point but twenty-four per cent of the population in Panama lives in poverty. Volume of crime far outweighs the number trying to fight it.’
Kim was silent for a moment. ‘So, what should we expect next?’
‘A prompt. They'll more than likely want to remind the parents of their potential loss, just to get them to dig a little deeper. They may send the voicemail of the scream to the parents or something like a personal plea from the children – that's why they're still alive.’
Kim understood.
‘Once you get that prompt you've living on borrowed time. The girls are no further use. Just like Inga.’ He paused. ‘You know, don't you, that this can't go to the end game? On the day of the drop the girls will already be dead.’
Kim swallowed deeply and nodded.
She knew.
Eighty-Two
Kim stepped back into the dining room and sat at the table, which was still littered with papers from the day’s work.
Matt had stopped off in the kitchen to write notes.
She marvelled at his ability to adapt to a new investigation so quickly. His last case had culminated in the death of a child and here he was, just days later, tuned into another.
She looked at the picture of Charlie and Amy. She wasn't sure she'd be able to adapt quite so soon.
Kim still didn't like the man but there was grudging respect for him that she had to acknowledge, if only to herself.
She stood and stared at the map. This was the key. It had to be.
Everything else they had uncovered meant nothing. The only thing that counted was where they were now.
Negotiation was not going to work. The best she could hope for was a delay, but the only way the girls would live was if she could find out where they were before the day of the drop.
She resolved to freshen up in the downstairs bathroom, make coffee and study it again.
The ting of her mobile sounded from the table. She grabbed it to see one new message, and frowned when she saw it was from Bryant. Her grimace deepened when she saw what it said.
Come outside
It was midnight and not the time to continue their earlier discussion. That would take place once the case was over. So, what the hell did he think he was playing at?
She grabbed her jacket and headed through the hall.
‘All right, Marm?’ Lucas asked from his post.
Kim nodded and opened the door.
Bryant stood twenty feet away, to the right of the water feature. Her gaze travelled to his hand which held a dog lead. Attached to the end was Barney.
Bryant unclipped the lead and Barney hurtled towards her. She dropped to her knees and opened her arms. His warm, furry body bucked and turned within her arms.
‘Hey, boy, how are you doing?’ she asked into his fur.
She grabbed his head in her hands and looked into eyes that were alight and excited. She kissed his head and held him close. ‘It is so good to see you,’ she said, scratching the point on Barney’s back that caused a little growl in his throat.
Bryant had closed the gap between them. ‘If you won’t talk to me … talk to him,’ he said, holding the lead towards her.
Kim shook her head. She didn’t need the lead. Her dog never strayed from her side.
She walked around the side of the building with Barney hopping at her heels and nuzzling her dangling hand with his nose. She lowered herself to the ground and sat on the path that ran alongside the house. Immediately the dog was against her, nestled in the crook of her arm.
He turned and deposited one huge lick to the side of her face. She laughed out loud and hugged him close. ‘I’ve missed you too, boy.
‘Check,’ she said, and the dog moved a few inches and sat. She had taught him to sit still on her command. She started at the top of his head and used her hands to feel every part of his body. Any weight gain or loss was difficult to assess through his thick, glossy coat. As she went she checked for any areas of matting fur that were inevitable with a border collie.
Barney stared straight ahead as she checked his welfare.
He was rewarded with a head rub. ‘Good boy, you’re fine.’
There was no doubt he was being taken care of.
He snuggled back into position against her torso. Her arm snaked around him. ‘I know, boy, I miss you too.’
For a moment she was barely aware of the cold, hard slab seeping in through her trousers. There was no cold wind biting at her neck. Just Barney and the comfort he brought.
‘He’s right, you know,’ Kim whispered into Barney’s ear. She nodded to where her only human friend waited around the front of the house. ‘I’ll never tell him that but I am scared, boy; terrified I can’t bring these girls home alive.’
A message on the wind whispered that she may already be too late.
And even if she wasn’t, what had these bastards done to those two girls? She knew they were terrified and, even worse, naked. Of all the things they had done, that was one that sent her blood boiling around her veins. The indignity of stripping those children bare to up the damn price. It was a level of depravity that went beyond any case she’d worked.
Kim rested her head back against the wall and closed her eyes. Just for a few minutes she allowed Barney’s warmth and closeness to comfort her, and she could almost feel the despair seeping out of her and into the cold ground. His warmth circulated around her body as her hand stroked rhythmically and then burrowed into his fur.
Kim allowed herself a whole ten minutes of Barney’s healing company. It was ten minutes that she cherished.
She opened her eyes and sat forward, kissing him on the nose. ‘Thank you, my lovely friend.’
She stood and dusted off her behind. Barney walked alongside her to the front of the house where Bryant was pacing around the water feature.
He’d been right to speak to her earlier. She now knew that she had been snapping and shouting at everyone around her, even the parents. Stephen Hanson was one of the most insufferable men she had ever met. But his child was missing and for a moment she had forgotten that and she shouldn’t have. And only Bryant had the balls to tell her.
Barney stood between them, looking from one to the other.
Kim coughed. ‘Listen, about earlier …’
‘You’re welcome, Kim,’ he said with a lopsided smile. ‘Now let me get Prince Barney home and I’ll see you in a few hours.’
Kim smiled and nodded and then watched until her only two friends in the world disappeared from sight.
She re-entered the house feeling more hopeful than she had in days.
&nb
sp; She would get these girls back if it was the last thing she did.
Eighty-Three
‘Ames, you gotta stop doing it. Your arm’s bleeding,’ Charlie said. Amy’s scratch marks were turning into open sores.
‘I can’t help it, Charl. They’re just so itchy all the time. I have to scratch them.’
‘You’ve got to try and help it, though. Those scratches are going to go bad ways.’ It was what Daddy always said to her if she picked a scab or messed with a sore. She’d never seen what ‘bad ways’ was but it didn’t sound nice.
She had tried to occupy Amy’s mind by making her walk around the room with her. Together they had strolled around the tiny space while hanging on to the towel that now smelled as bad as they did. That movement was the only thing that stopped the chattering of their teeth and the cold from biting into their bones.
After their last meal Charlie had scratched an eighth stick into the brick. A stick for each meal. She had noticed that it was taking much longer to do than the first time. Her strokes were not as forceful and she would lose the groove she’d made. Once she had even forgotten what she’d been trying to do, even though the pin was right there in her hand.
But that was nothing compared to the marks on Amy’s arms. Charlie knew she had to be clawing at her skin when they did eventually manage to fall asleep. The faint red lines had turned into deeper red marks that had coloured the whole of her forearm but now the nails were breaking the skin.
Charlie wished that she could stop her friend from hurting herself, but she didn’t know what else to do.
The walk around the room had tired her muscles and what she really wanted was to rest.
‘Charl, are we ever going to get out of here?’
Charlie remembered that one of the days Amy had been so sure that they would. And now she was not.
‘Yeah, Ames, course we are,’ she said, as her friend snuggled against her. Amy’s head fell onto her shoulder and Charlie rested her own head on top of her friend’s.
Charlie felt her body slump with exhaustion. She silently sent out the prayer she did every time she closed her eyes.
I pray that Mummy and Daddy will find us soon and take us home and keep us warm. And please God stop Amy from scratching her arms. Amen.
As her body began to crawl towards sleep the fear began to ebb, just a little, as the peaceful darkness moved towards her. Amy’s rhythmic breathing beside her lulled her own body along the same journey.
A sudden banging on the door brought them both to sitting positions. Amy clutched both her hands tightly. Charlie had no idea if she’d been asleep for hours or if she’d fallen asleep at all. She only knew that the fear was back and it was ripping at her tummy.
‘I just wanted to tell you little girlies, goodnight. I’ve enjoyed our late night chats but this will be our last. I can’t wait to see you both tomorrow.
‘Because then I’m gonna make you scream.’
Amy cried out and Charlie pulled her close, unable to speak. The fear had paralysed her throat because a part of her had realised the truth.
Tomorrow they were going to die.
Eighty-Four
Most of the team filed in one by one. By five fifty-nine there were five of them in the room.
Kim looked behind Stacey. ‘Dawson?’
Stacey shook her head.
Kim checked her phone even though she knew that she would have seen any message. She scrolled down to his number and pressed to call. He was not going to mess her about on a case like this.
The ringing of his mobile phone sounded in the hallway. A second later he appeared at the door. Kim ended the call.
‘Bloody hell,’ Bryant and Stacey said together, staring at his face. Alison and Matt offered no words but their expressions of surprise mirrored her own.
‘What the hell happened to you?’ she asked.
His left eye was dark and swollen, his bottom lip was split at the centre and a bruise was spreading nicely across the right side of his jaw.
He sat down gingerly, which told Kim those were not his only injuries.
‘A few of Kai’s friends weren’t happy to see me.’
‘Can you identify them?’ Kim asked. She’d go and fetch the bastards herself.
He shook his head. ‘Too dark.’ He held up his hand. ‘I’m fine – help came from an unlikely source, which I’ll tell you about another day.’
His expression implored her to move on.
‘Kev, have you been to the—’
‘Guv, honestly. I’m fine.’
Kim knew his eagerness was born of pride. Few men wanted to sit amongst their colleagues and strangers explaining how they got a good kicking but Kim was pretty sure he’d been ridiculously outnumbered.
She would check on him later but for now she would respect his wishes and move on.
‘Okay, folks, let’s get started.’
Stacey peeped out to the right of her computer screen. ‘Guv, before we start I've got some stuff on Inga. Not sure it'll ’elp but the family hails from East Germany. Her father is credited as the last but one person to be shot trying to emigrate to the West; two years before the wall came down. Her mother was half British and the two of ’em came ’ere in ’91.
‘Nothing for a couple of years and then in ’93 Inga Bauer was voluntarily surrendered to the care system when she was eight years old by ’er mom. She remained in the system until she became an adult.’
‘What happened to the mother?’ Kim asked.
Stacey shrugged. ‘I can’t find anything: no marriage certificate, no death certificate and no registered name change.’
‘So, she just left her there?’ Bryant asked. ‘Jeez, that's rough. A kid belongs with its moth—’
‘Okay,’ Kim snapped. ‘Doesn't help us a lot right now … but thanks anyway, Stace.’
Stacey nodded in return.
‘Kev, did you pick up the phone from evidence?’
He shook his head and turned his hand upwards. ‘It’s not there, Guv.’
Her head snapped around. ‘What do you mean, it’s not there?’
‘It’s not even listed on the contents page.’
Kim had to consider that Julia Trueman had lied to her and had never handed the phone over in the first place. Just like Jenny Cotton.
It wasn’t something she could afford to dwell on right now.
Kim continued. ‘Matt feels that there will be some kind of prompt today to up the ante. Once that's been received, the hourglass turns. After that it's only a matter of hours before Charlie and Amy are killed.’
‘Really?’ Stacey asked as Bryant swore under his breath.
Matt sat forward. ‘There comes a point when the girls have served their purpose and they become nothing more than a liability, whatever the outcome.’
Everyone nodded their agreement. They understood.
‘The key is in these maps,’ Kim said, taking over. ‘We don't need to be geographic profilers. We all know the area so we can all use common sense. These maps will help us pinpoint a location. Speaking of which, Emily Trueman ran away last night.’ Kim held up her hands to stem the expressions of concern. ‘It’s okay, she’s safely home now, but while she was waiting for us to get there she is sure she saw the man that abducted her the last time.’
‘Seems a bit of a coincidence, Guv,’ Bryant offered. ‘First time she’s out in thirteen months and she sees the guy that took her?’
Phrased like that, Kim could see his point. She wasn’t convinced herself but Emily had been so sure.
‘Just consider the possibility while you’re looking for clues in the dots,’ she advised.
‘Guv, do the points from the previous case confuse matters ’cos there's nothing to suggest they'd use the same location again?’ Dawson asked.
‘And there's nothing to suggest they wouldn't. Especially as they were never caught. Stace, you got anything to help with what prompted the end of the incident last time?’
‘Guv, all I got w
as an RTA on the Kidderminster expressway, a traffic light outage on the Thorns road and the grand opening of a new supermarket.’
‘Okay, we'll just have to worry about that later. For now, focus on the maps. The answer is there. Put yourself in the mind of the kidnapper.’
They all nodded and looked at the printouts.
Kim could honestly look at the dots no more. She reached for the percolator which had been emptied with their arrival drinks and nudged Bryant as she passed behind. He coughed. Yeah, he knew that was her way of saying thanks for what he’d done the night before.
‘Kev,’ she said, looking towards the door.
Dawson put down the sheet and followed her.
‘So, how’s it really going with the Dewain Wright case?’
He looked troubled. ‘Didn’t get much sleep last night.’
She put the percolator on the side and leaned against the sink. ‘Tell me about it.’
Kim stood and listened while he told her the details of each of the interviews he’d carried out. She didn’t interrupt and by the time he finished she heard the first movements from upstairs.
‘I just don’t know where to take it next. What do you think?’
Kim had listened to every word and she knew exactly who she’d be talking to next but that wasn’t what this had been about.
‘I think you should give it a little space. Stop scratching at it, trying to force the answer because it’s just burrowing further under your skin.’ She tapped her forehead. ‘Let it germinate in here for a while. It’ll come.’
‘You sure?’ he asked, looking younger than his years.
She nodded. ‘I’m sure.’
‘You know, Guv, I did something once. I’m not proud …’
‘Kev, we’ve all done stuff,’ she said.
He sighed. ‘I won’t say what it was but I did it to fit in. I get why these kids end up in a gang. I hate it but I get it. Even the kids themselves know all the clever recruitment techniques but they still do it anyway. They just want to be part of a crew.’
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