‘We are still attempting to work that out. We are working on several leads. I can assure you that our officers are highly trained and—’
‘Don’t give me that bullshit! I’m a bloody police officer. I’m your senior bloody officer! So you start giving me some answers.’
Superintendent Paris remained passive and stared at Marsh.
‘Paul, I’m sorry I can’t share specifics with you at this stage.’
‘What do you mean, “Paul”? Didn’t you hear me? I outrank you… I outrank you all. You address me as sir and you bloody well tell me what’s going on!’
‘Paul!’ shouted Marcie, standing unsteadily. ‘These officers are the only hope we have of getting Sophie and Mia back safe. So you can keep a civil tongue in your head. Right now you are not a police officer, you are on the other side.’
There was silence. Marsh broke down and sank into the sofa. Marcie stood and went over to Paris.
‘I know someone who works at the bank, our local branch. We have our account there and Mum’s and Dad’s are there too. We can get this money together as fast as possible…’
‘As I said, I want to try and resolve this without parting with any money,’ said Paris.
‘And if this was one or even two of your children, would you be so bloody calm and confident? Tell me that. Superintendent Paris?’
He was quiet. Marcie went on. ‘So I’m asking you, when you next talk to this... person... you tell them we are ready to pay. And we are serious.’
Paris took Marcie’s hand in his and nodded. ‘He says he will call back in four hours. So you have some time. Keep in contact and let me know when you have it.’
‘Thank you,’ she said. He went to take his hand back, and then Marcie asked: ‘Do you have children?’
‘We had a daughter, but she died when she was nine; she was knocked off her bicycle. It was a long time ago.’
‘I’m sorry,’ said Marcie.
‘Let me know when you have the money,’ he said, and then the officers left to go back to the station.
Chapter Seventy-Three
They walked for almost three hours, laden down with the rucksacks. The two little girls slowed things down as they went across the rough ground, up hills and down slopes, and once or twice they had to negotiate stiles across deserted farmland.
Then a farmhouse appeared on the horizon; it grew larger on the horizon as they walked, and they passed very close, and Nina slowed down, scanning the building which was still far away, trying to work out if anyone lived there. Max carried on walking ahead. She wasn’t sure if he had seen it.
‘There’s a…’ started Mia, pointing at it, and Nina put a hand over her mouth, but it wasn’t fast enough. Max stopped and walked back to them.
‘That farmhouse, you mean?’
‘Yes,’ said Mia, squinting up at him. Sophie shot her a look to be quiet.
‘It’s an empty farmhouse. It’s a haunted house, isn’t it, Nina?’
‘Yes, it is,’ said Nina. Inside, her mind was whirring. She hadn’t remembered it from when they’d walked on Dartmoor with Dean last summer.
Max leaned over to kiss her, and whispered in her ear. ‘Don’t think of doing anything stupid.’
‘’Course,’ she said. When he pulled back, she saw something behind his eyes: the malevolence which scared her.
‘Good, now come on.’
They carried on walking, passing the farmhouse in the distance, and now Max watched her closely. Nina kept hold of the girls’ hands and didn’t glance at it again.
A little while later, they came to a depression in the moor, where the grass dipped down. Nina had to stop and collect herself when she saw it again. The thin path was less green than it had been the previous year and the waterfall seemed to be flowing much faster, and the water was a dirty brown colour. The pool surrounded by large boulders looked the same, but then she saw that the water level was higher, and the rocky platform was now half submerged.
Nina gripped the girls’ hands and closed her eyes. She was taken back to that hot sunny day, the smell of Dean as he bore down on her, and how his blood was so warm she didn’t notice at first that it splattered her naked body.
‘What are you doing?’ shouted Max.
Nina opened her eyes and saw that he was at the bottom of the slope, close to the water’s edge. The girls were now tired and tearful, and she had to drag them down the slope. They followed Max up to where he disappeared into a creased seam in the rock, and then stopped dead.
‘Come on. It’s a place we can shelter,’ said Nina. She could see how grubby their once smart little outfits were, and where their noses were running, dirt had stuck to their skin. Nina took out a tissue and wiped their noses. ‘This is a cave, and it’s very safe,’ she said. ‘We can get warm inside and have some food.’
They followed her inside cautiously.
It was the same as she remembered, very dry inside. The walls were just as smooth, and it was a few degrees warmer than the air outside.
‘I told you if I was ever on the run, this is where I’d hide out,’ said Max.
‘Yeah, I remember.’
He was watching her closely again, cocking his head and staring.
‘What is it, Max?’
He seemed to snap out of it and sloughed off his backpack, and encouraged Nina to do the same. She went to the rocky platform covered in graffiti, and took it off, relishing the feeling of losing the heavy weight.
They unpacked the blankets and sleeping bags. Max opened some tins of beans and heated them up on the tiny stove, and he found the yellow, blue, and red plastic bowls Mariette bought them and the plastic cutlery. He even had a bit of banter with the girls, asking them which bowl they would like their beans in.
‘I want blue,’ said Sophie.
‘I want blue too,’ said Mia.
‘Good job I don’t like blue,’ said Max, and the girls laughed nervously.
Nina was pleased to see them tucking into the food, and that they were warming up, with a little colour spreading across their pale cheeks. As she ate, her mind was racing. Max would shortly head off to make the second phone call, and they would be left alone. She looked at the girls, so young and innocent, eating their food. Could Max be trusted not to hurt them?
‘What are you thinking, Neen?’ said Max.
She jumped and saw he was staring at her again.
‘Nothing.’
‘Didn’t look like nothing.’
‘No, I’m just tired. I’ll try to get some sleep when you go. When are you going?’
‘In about five minutes, if you’ll just let me finish my FUCKING FOOD!’ he shouted, and he threw his bowl of beans against the wall of the cave. The girls jumped and looked up from their food as Max’s bowl clattered in the silence. Nina saw the girls both had a little orange stain around their mouths.
‘Sorry, do you want mine?’ asked Nina.
‘No… I don’t.’ He stood up. ‘You don’t think this is going to work, do you?’
Nina gulped and felt the food in her stomach start to shift. It felt surreal and like it was all getting out of hand.
‘No, I mean, no that’s not true. I do think it’s going to work.’
‘Neen, I’m in control. I’m the guy with the plan, the laptop and the phone; I can run everything, and we’ve planned everything, and if you fuck this up now…’
‘I won’t, I won’t, I promise,’ said Nina, jumping up and going to him, pawing at his arms. Mia and Sophie were now staring at her, a mixture of confusion and fear in their faces. ‘I’m sorry. I’m jittery and hungry and we wouldn’t have this opportunity if it wasn’t for you.’
He shook her off and went to the rucksack, pulling out a phone, a map, and the gun.
‘Now, I’m going back to the second location on Pitman’s Tor to make the second call with the second phone as we planned,’ he said.
‘Yes.’
‘And it will take me a couple of hours. It should buy us some t
ime, confuse them when they try to triangulate the signal. The mobile phone masts are far apart on the moor, and we’re safely tucked away here.’
‘Yes, I know.’
He came close and looked her in the eyes. ‘Because you know there is nowhere to go, Neen. This is a one-way street. A one-way trip. You have to give me your loyalty. I need your loyalty…’ He was breathing hard and shaking.
The girls were sitting up on the rock and staring at him open-mouthed.
‘Max, I’ll be here with the girls, waiting,’ she said, trying to smile, trying to look like everything was easy.
He watched her for a moment and nodded. ‘Okay. Wish me luck.’
‘Good luck,’ she said and kissed him. Nina watched as he made his way out through the slit in the cave. She breathed out and waited for 10 minutes; the girls were quiet. She turned to them.
‘Okay, girls. I want you to keep calm, and in a few minutes, we’re going to walk to that farmhouse and we’re going to see if anyone is…’ Her voice trailed off. Both Mia and Sophie were looking to the gap in the cave behind her. Nina turned. Max was standing in the gap holding the gun.
‘Nina…’ he said. He looked shocked, almost devastated.
‘Max, I was just going to get some…’ started Nina, but words failed her, she couldn’t think of a lie quickly enough. She took a step back towards the girls.
‘I actually trusted you,’ he said, shaking his head. ‘I had this niggling voice inside that I tried to ignore…’
‘Please, Max. Just let us go. We’ll start walking. I won’t tell anyone anything. I just can’t do this. I love you, you know that…’
His eyes narrowed and he suddenly pointed the gun at her left leg and shot her in the thigh. The bang was deafening in the small cave and it echoed and reverberated, drowning out the girls’ screams. He took a step closer and aimed the gun at her chest and squeezed off two more deafening shots.
The twins screamed and they moved to Nina’s side as she lay there, eyes wide with shock, blood seeping through her trousers and in two spots on her chest. She stared up at Max in utter shock.
‘Nina, Nina,’ said Mia, her tiny hands cupping Nina’s cheek. Sophie turned her head and looked at Max as he moved over to one of the rucksacks and pulled out the small black case he’d used when he posed as the engineer from the water company. He opened it and took out some cable ties. He came back and yanked the twins away from Nina, pulling them over to the soft ledge of rock with the graffiti. Someone had sunk a metal ring into the rock for tethering an animal. He grabbed their wrists and he quickly bound their hands tight to the ring with the cable ties. They were crouched side by side and crying.
Nina was still lying on the floor, gasping and staring up at Max, and she brought her hand to her chest and blood poured through her fingers. Max took the black case and the rucksack with all the supplies, and came back and stood over her.
‘You won’t be alive when I come back. It should be a quick death,’ he said. The look he gave her was so cold and evil, she let out a huge sob.
Then he left the cave.
Chapter Seventy-Four
Back in the Kidnap Unit’s incident room at Lewisham Row, it had been almost five hours since Superintendent Paris had spoken with Max. Superintendent Hudson had just arrived and was addressing Paris and his team.
‘I’m here to brief you on the ongoing murder investigation and manhunt running in parallel with you here at the Kidnap Unit. We have triangulated a position on the mobile phone used by Max Kirkham this morning.’ She indicated the large map pinned up on the wall. ‘It’s coming from this mast, situated on the north-east corner of Dartmoor National Park.’
‘What’s the radius of the mast signal?’ asked Paris.
‘This mast covers a twelve square mile radius,’ she said, indicating the vast expanse of the Dartmoor National Park, in Devon. ‘The Dartmoor National Park is 368 square miles of rugged terrain, hills, valleys, bogs, and it’s November so visibility is poor. An hour ago I gave the order for an Air Rescue search. We’ve deployed helicopters from London, and they will be working with the Air Operations Unit of Devon and Cornwall Police.’
‘He requested a five-hour interval between phone calls,’ said Paris. ‘The two suspects could have split up, the female…’
‘Nina Hargreaves,’ said Melanie.
‘Nina Hargreaves could be in one location with the girls. That gives Max time to walk. He also has a van,’ said Paris. A phone rang out in the incident room. ‘Right, this could be our man. Stand by, everyone.’
Melanie and the team took their places and pulled on their headsets. Paris answered the call.
‘Do you have my money?’ asked Max without any preamble. They could hear he was once again fighting against the elements.
‘I can confirm that Paul and Marcie Marsh have the £200,000 available for transfer,’ said Paris. ‘Do we still have your guarantee that the girls are safe and will be returned unharmed?’
‘Yes.’
‘OK. Then how can we proceed?’
‘I’m going to give you a code; this is the code for my bitcoin wallet. Before you try and trace it, I’ll tell you that I’m using TORwallet through the Tor network. It’s amazing what a guy can achieve with a mobile phone and a laptop. Here I have you lot at my beck and call, and two hundred grand winging its way to me. Beats working, doesn’t it?’
‘The code, please?’ said Paris, his voice remaining neutral.
Max read out the code and Paris wrote it down.
‘I’ll expect the money in the next three hours. I’ll know I have it in my bitcoin wallet when I receive a text message to say that the money has arrived. Then I will phone you back with the location of Mia and Sophie.’
He hung up. There was silence in the room.
‘I don’t like the sound of this. Who’s to say he won’t just kill the girls?’ said Melanie. ‘I’ve not worked on kidnap cases before, but this isn’t just someone who wants cash…’ Her voice tailed off. ‘I’ve been following this case. I know what Max Kirkham and Nina Hargreaves are capable of. Money isn’t enough. They want to wreak havoc.’
Chapter Seventy-Five
The hum of the whirring blades was deafening as the Metropolitan Police Air Rescue helicopter flew over a thick blanket of cloud. Rain hammered against the large glass doors either side, as Erika and Moss rode in the back with one of the Air Ambulance officers. The space was cramped, with Moss sitting in the middle. On the floor in front of them was the hoist and stretcher which could be lowered out to the ground, and medical supplies were stuffed in around them.
They were all wearing huge black police radio headsets so they could keep in contact with the pilot above the deafening noise. Erika looked over at Moss clutching at her headset, and saw she was a little green.
‘You okay?’ she mouthed.
Moss nodded unconvincingly and gripped the seat as the helicopter started to bank down towards the clouds.
‘We’re heading south at forty knots,’ came the tinny voice of the pilot through their earphones. ‘We’ve now reached the edge of Dartmoor and dropping down to a lower altitude for better visibility.’
Moss reached out and grabbed at Erika’s hand as the blanket of cloud moved towards them, and they plunged through it, the view outside a blur of white, until they bumped and jolted and emerged above the rolling hills and tors.
Erika had been to see Melanie and had explained she was no longer welcome working with the Kidnap Unit, but she had asked to remain an active part of the murder investigation. She didn’t know if Melanie had stuck her in a helicopter to get rid of her or to help.
The helicopter flew low over the vast expanses of green. Over frozen streams and waterways, and fields where cows and sheep dispersed to the four corners at the sound of the helicopter above. But as they flew back and forth, covering the square miles of Dartmoor with six other helicopters, there was nothing to report. No people. Dartmoor, it seemed, was empty.
Cha
pter Seventy-Six
Nina lay back and felt the hard stone floor tip and sway. Her leg was in agony, but her chest felt strange, like she had a dull ache and it was filled with water. She tried to breathe, but all she could manage were tiny sips of air. It was dark and cold, and she couldn’t see very well. She drifted in and out of consciousness several times, but suddenly her mind sharpened and she could hear the sound of the girls sobbing. She tried to say their names, but all that came out was a gurgle, and then she coughed and pain exploded in her chest like a thousand pieces of glass.
‘Nina… Nina are you there?’ said a little voice through the dark. She put out her hands and felt the rock underneath. It was wet, cold and wet. Is that my blood? she thought. Digging in one elbow, she hoisted herself up, unleashing a more intense burst of pain, and she leaned to one side. Blood poured from her mouth and she was able to spit and gasp, and clear her throat,
‘It’s okay… girls. Girls! I’m here,’ she wheezed. She was drenched in sweat, or was it blood? Surely there wasn’t that much blood in her body? She tried to sit up, but the pain was so bad that she almost blacked out again.
‘Nina, we can’t move, and it’s hurting us,’ said a voice. Nina couldn’t tell if it was Mia or Sophie talking.
So much flashed before her eyes. Max had shot her, three times, in the leg and chest. He intended to kill her. Why wasn’t she dead yet?
She wished she could go back; she wished that she’d found a man who just made her laugh. She didn’t need to feel burning passion: a nice boring guy who would look after her, who would slob out on the sofa and watch football, and give her babies. She reached down and put her hand to her chest. Blood was pumping out. She could feel it as her heart thumped, rhythmically pushing the life out of her. Her leg was on fire and she tried to reach down, but she couldn’t.
Cold Blood: A gripping serial killer thriller that will take your breath away (Detective Erika Foster Book 5) Page 28