With Deadly Intent

  Alex hadn’t intended to fall asleep, but he’d been awake for nearly two days straight. When he had finally dropped off, Rose had put Roger’s coat over his shoulders and left him where he was. She couldn’t settle though. She’d walked up and down the office so many times she had practically worn a track in the carpet. She’d read the information on the white boards so often that the words were practically embedded in her head. The police ID photo of Reynolds fused into her mind. She was holding it together, but frankly she didn’t know how. That monster had her child; it didn’t matter how old they got, they were always your baby – and he had hers.

  Rose knew if she got her hands on him, she would kill him. Drawing in another shaky breath, she wandered to the kitchen to make yet more coffee. She’d always found it best to keep busy when under stress, and the officers that were manning the phones were appreciative.

  She carried in the coffees, handing them out without speaking, and watched as Alex pulled himself from slumber.

  ‘Here you go, son,’ she said softly, handing over a steaming mug.

  ‘I fell asleep?’ he asked, shaking his head in disbelief.

  ‘You’re exhausted, Alex, it’s understandable. You’ve only had an hour or so, don’t worry. That Chief of yours came in but has gone again. Eckley went with him.’

  Alex put his coffee on the nearby desk, feeling his frustration rise.

  ‘I need to reread the files on Reynolds. There must be something somewhere that gives me a clue where he could be.’

  7th November, 1015 hours - Ryhope Police Station

  Cass felt herself clawing her way back to consciousness once more. The room was silent but for the constant hum of the machines. It was still dark in there, the only light the glow from the machine displays.

  Her shoulders ached from being pulled backwards, and she felt the grooves in her cheeks off the concrete floor. Quietly, she struggled with the bonds, trying to loosen them. Her wrists grew sore and she figured it was probably cable ties or something similar so struggling was futile. Instead she pushed herself over onto her back and tried to have a look around.

  She froze as she spotted the inert form of a man, lying on top of a rug facing the opposite wall. She cocked her head to listen and nodded to herself as she heard him snoring softly.

  Cass manoeuvred herself into a sitting position and shuffled to one of the machines. The edge was rough, and quickly she began moving her hands up and down, using the edge to try and cut the ties to her hands. She gasped as she slipped and felt the metal cut into her wrist, the sharp pain quickly turning to a stinging sensation as she determinedly carried on.

  Suddenly the man grunted, turned over and opened his eyes, staring straight at her. Cass recognised him this time, and watched as he registered what she had been doing. He got to his feet slowly, walked over to her and grabbed her viciously by the hair, yanking her head backwards. Cass yelped at the sharp movement on her neck, and she breathed in and out quickly, trying not to panic. The truth be told she was petrified, but she couldn’t show him her fear. She’d read somewhere that killers fed on fear – it gave them the fix they needed. She’d be damned if she’d give him the satisfaction.

  She braced herself as she watched him raise his fist, and flinched as he punched the side of her face. Cass tasted the metallic tang of blood in her mouth, the burn of the impact on her cheek, and waited for the next one.

  Instead, Reynolds grabbed her face in his meaty hands, pinching her cheeks together hard, and put his face close to hers.

  ‘This is all your fault. Don’t you dare try to escape again. If you hadn’t been such a busy body, interfering in my shows, then you wouldn’t be here. But I killed your stupid dog, and I intend to kill you and send you back to your slave in pieces. This is your fault.’

  She blinked as his spittle landed on her face.

  She felt the lump in her throat threaten to choke her as grief took over. Tears pricked her eyes.

  Ollie’s dead?

  Suddenly, in the midst of her panic, she felt a sense of calm. Cass knew Alex would be looking for her. She knew he would find her. The loss of Ollie she would deal with later, right now though, she had to find a way of letting Alex know where she was.

  She blinked as a bright flash went off in her face. He’d taken a photo of her. He grinned as he stared at the picture. It was perfect. It showed her desolation, her grief, and the streak of blood across her face where he’d hit her.

  Now the bitch is paying.

  Yanking her upright, Frank threw Cass against the back wall, taking her breath away. In the impact, she felt the shape of her mobile phone in her pocket. With a groan to herself, she realised she’d turned it off last night before she took Ollie out. She had to figure out a way to turn it on. The inbuilt GPS would provide a location. And she knew her colleagues would be looking for it.

  She watched as Frank walked towards a glow coming from behind one of the machines. It was out of her view, but she recognised it as the glow of a computer screen in a dark room. Cass stayed still, listening, and heard him tapping away on the keyboard. She didn’t know what he was doing, but he was out of sight. She had to try and get to her phone.

  Chapter Thirty Six

  7th November, 1025 hours - Ryhope Police Station

  Alex glanced at his mobile as it beeped, alerting him to the receipt of an email. It wasn’t from an address he recognised and he almost ignored it, until he saw the heading.

  ‘You want her. I have her. Now find her.’

  He glanced around the room, checking where Eckley was, before pressing the open button.

  ‘I have what you want. She is still alive, for now. But you follow my instructions to the letter or she won’t be for long. I will contact you later. Do not show this email to anyone. I will know.’

  He scrolled down the page and was faced with a picture of Cass. He could see a bruise already forming on her jaw line near her mouth, and there was a streak of blood across her cheek. But her eyes were open, defiant and bright they stared at him.

  She’s alive!

  His composure threatened to break as he stared at the screen, and for a moment was tempted to do as the email said and not show anyone. I have to tell the boss, I can’t not. There was no way Reynolds could know if he had showed anyone else. Nothing he had done thus far indicated a high level of technical knowledge.

  Jumping to his feet, he strode across the office to Eckley and the Chief.

  ‘Just received an email to my work email address. It’s from him. He’s put a photo of Cass on it.’

  Quickly he opened the email on the work computer, showing the image.

  Rose gasped as she saw her daughter on the screen. In shock she grabbed Alex’s arm and he reached his hand across and held hers tightly.

  ‘Emails we can trace. Get on to Tulley in the Digital Forensics Lab, he’ll be able to deal with this,’ said Eckley to one of the sergeants. ‘Is there anything other than Cass in the picture we can use?’

  They all leaned in towards the screen, searching for anything that would help with finding a location.

  ‘Looks like a machine of some kind to her right, but there’s nothing evident to indicate what kind of machine, or where it could be, is there?’ Eckley’s question hung in the air as they all stared at the image again.

  Slowly they all shook their heads.

  Alex pulled back from the PC, his heart full in his chest. For a moment there he had thought this might be what he had needed to find Cass. His disappointment was palpable.

  He was surprised when Eckley put a hand on his shoulder. ‘We’ll find her, Alex. She’s one of our own.’

  7th November, 1130 hours - Ryhope Police Station

  Cass had managed to move the phone in her pocket until it was almost on the verge of falling out. Frank was still sitting at the computer screen and seemed oblivious.

  Knowing it would clatter as it fell to the floor, she knew she had to disguise the sound somehow. Looking around in the dar
k, she saw the outline of a broom leaning against the wall nearby. Carefully, she turned herself around, making sure the pocket with the phone was the closest to the ground.

  She took a deep breath and kicked her legs outwards at the same time as jolting her body. To her, the difference between the two clatters was obvious but she grabbed the phone in her hand and held it tightly as Frank came back around the machine to face her.

  Seeing the broom on the floor, he laughed. His smile passed quickly and he said, ‘I told you not to try and escape. Now you’re going to have to learn that I mean what I say. Just like I told Susan. I told her that we would only last as long as I wanted, and then she started whining and nagging, always wanting more.’

  He chuckled again, momentarily remembering the rush as she had died.

  ‘She didn’t think for one second I would hurt her. You should’ve seen her face, begging me for help, pleading with me. Pathetic. It wasn’t until I hit her that she knew I wouldn’t help. Her scream was like a fox caught in a trap. But my knife made quick work of that, one small slice to her neck. That was all it took. She learned her lesson. And now you’ll have to learn yours. You’re lucky. I don’t want you dead yet.’

  His eyes steeled over, and Cass braced herself against the wall behind her. This was going to hurt.

  Frank lifted one of his size ten boots, and kicked hard into her abdomen. Drawing back, he kicked her a couple more times, smiling with satisfaction as he heard at least one rib snap with a crack that sounded over the hum of the machines. Her breath hitched as she struggled to draw in breath, winded and bruised.

  He bent down. ‘Last chance, Hunt. Do not try to escape again. Do we understand each other?’

  Cass nodded in acceptance, grimacing as he roughly pulled her into a sitting position and returned to the computer.

  She curled her fingers around the phone, ignoring the pins and needles in her arm, and blocking out the searing pain along her stomach and ribs. She manoeuvred it carefully as her fingers felt for the ‘on’ button. She felt the vibration as it powered itself life.

  Cass sighed, resting her head against the wall behind her. Hopefully it wouldn’t be too long now.

  7th November, 1345 hours - Ryhope Police Station

  Alex could feel his concern gnawing at his insides. He’d turned down coffee for the last couple of hours, believing the caffeine to be responsible for the lead-like feeling in the pit of his stomach. But it was more than that. Reynolds had now had Cass for around twelve hours. Alex didn’t know if she was still alive, or whether he had hurt her in some way. He was going nuts. For the first time, he realised how hard it was to be the victim – the person left behind to deal with the police when something happened. It wasn’t pleasant, feeling completely helpless, not having a clue what to do next or where to turn. All he wanted was to find her, to hold her and tell her it would all be OK. But he couldn’t.

  The Chief had advised Rose and Roger to return to their hotel and rest up for a few hours, assuring them they would be welcome back in the incident room later. Rose had only agreed when Alex had promised to ring her the second anything happened. The Chief had then tried to force Alex to go home for some rest, but had been met with a steely determined gaze. There was no way he was leaving the station while Cass was still out there somewhere.

  Eckley and the team were running down every line of enquiry, the uniformed officers still out and about on the streets. All rest days had been cancelled, everyone was helping with the search. The CSIs kept popping up to the office intermittently, all of them concerned for Cass.

  And all Alex could do was pace up and down, staring at the information on the white boards, and pray that Reynolds hadn’t killed her.

  Unable to pace any more, he grabbed Ollie’s leash.

  ‘I’m taking the dog out the back. Won’t be long,’ he said to Eckley as he walked out of the office.

  They went down the stairs, and Ollie dragged him in the direction of the CSI offices, the smell of Cass lingering in the corridor to his highly sensitive nose. He poked his head into her office and then pulled Alex into the one opposite.

  Faith and Deena were inside, sat in silence. They both looked up as he entered, their eyes softening as they saw Ollie.

  ‘Hey, boy, come here,’ said Deena.

  Alex let the leash go, and Ollie went over to Deena, allowing her to pull him close. Alex heard her sniff into the downy fur on Ollie’s ears, and watched as the dog began gently licking the salty tears off Deena’s face.

  He felt his voice turn husky with emotion, ‘We are going to find her, guys. I promise we will get her back.’

  Ollie gave Faith a quick lick too then turned back towards Alex, put his head down and looked so sorrowful that for a moment Alex thought his heart would break.

  ‘Come on, Ollie. Let’s go get some fresh air.’

  When they reached the yard, he let Ollie off his leash. The dog needed to bounce around a little, let off some built-up energy. Ollie put his nose to the ground instantly and started running around the yard, sniffling as he went. Alex watched, losing interest rapidly. Normally he loved the dog’s mad antics, but today he couldn’t focus.

  His face had two days of unshaved stubble causing shadows where usually there was none. He could imagine the dark circles under his eyes and felt the tension in his cheeks and mouth. He felt like he’d aged ten years in the last twenty-four hours. He hung his head, letting his guard down for just a moment, and let the tears well up.

  Where are you Cass? Please come back to me.

  They had to find her.

  What would I do without her?

  Ollie pulled him from his dark thoughts by barking and scrabbling frantically at one of the doors in the yard. It made Alex smile, in a yard full of concrete Ollie could smell a rat, or mouse or whatever the heck had caught his nose.

  Still grinning, Alex grabbed his leash. Ollie fought the pull, twisting his head and woofing loudly. Alex firmly pulled the leash shorter. ‘Come on, Ollie, I think that’s enough fresh air for now.’

  Ollie kept whining, trying to pull Alex back to the door, trying to tell him he knew something.

  But Alex didn’t understand, and led them both back upstairs to the office.

  Chapter Thirty Seven

  7th November, 1400 hours - Ryhope Police Station

  Cass could’ve sworn she heard a dog barking. The machines were loud and clanking, and she was set back from the door, but she was almost certain.

  She sat listening, ignoring the ache in her abdomen and ribs.

  When Frank appeared before her suddenly, she jumped. His eyes were glazed, almost as if he were lost in a trance.

  ‘Too busy looking to see what’s right in front of his eyes. Like Albert. Always sniffing round my mother, Dad didn’t see. Dad couldn’t see. But Mum did. She took care of it. Made sure Dad could never see anything again. Shooed off old Albert too. He knew though. He saw the bruises. He saw and he didn’t do a thing. He could’ve stopped her hurting me. He could have helped. But he chose not to see. Now he doesn’t see any more either.’

  Cass was trying her best to follow his jumbled words. His control had slipped, and the sentences were bouncing all over the place. She thought she understood though. Frank’s mum had beaten him. And she had quite possibly done something to his Dad. Who was Albert though? It took a couple of minutes for her mind to make the link.

  The old guy from the cave, he was called Albert.

  Was this the link Alex had been searching for? Her mind raced as she made the connections while Reynolds’ mutterings continued. ‘He was there, right outside. Stupid mutt telling him but he couldn’t hear. Wouldn’t hear. So close and yet so far. It’ll soon be time for the curtain to start falling. Wouldn’t want to miss the show.’

  His eyes suddenly cleared, the mist of confusion leading the way back to anger.

  That was close, too close for comfort.

  Time to put his plan into action before it was too late. Time to have Ale
x running around like a headless chicken.

  He felt the surge of adrenaline as he made sure Cass was sitting up straight, then brought his fist hard into her nose.

  She didn’t see it coming and the burst of pain was instantaneous as the cartilage gave way with a loud crunch. Stars swam before her eyes and she felt the blood start to pour from her nostrils, dripping steadily onto her top. She felt anger mingle with the fear, as Reynolds’ words flooded her mind.

  Suddenly, she knew. The dog she had heard was Ollie, and Alex had been with him. They had almost found her.

  ‘Smile for the camera,’ ordered Frank as another light flashed in her face, this time capturing the steely determined look in her eyes.

  It was time to help Alex further, before Reynolds completely lost the plot and killed her. Her fingers numb, she felt her way to the number two key and pressed call – she’d plugged Alex in as the second speed dial all the way back when they were dealing with Susan’s murder. She couldn’t hear the ring, couldn’t hear if it had connected, but she hoped it had.

  She didn’t have much time left.

  7th November, 1410 hours - Ryhope Police Station

  Alex looked up as Charlie shouted across the room, ‘Eckley, Tulley’s on the phone, says it’s urgent.’

  Picking up the receiver, Eckley said, ‘OK. He’s what? How? … Thanks, Tulley. I owe you one.’

  He hung up and looked around the room.

  ‘Listen up, people. Reynolds sent the email from his own email address. This we know – but he somehow managed to hijack the signal for the force wireless network – Tulley reckons he is close to one of the stations. Now we all know that’s a fair few stations across the force area, but if we focus on those in Ryhope, and Sunderland city primarily. We know he’s local, we know he had knowledge of the stations he worked for as handyman. Fingers out people, I want every neighbourhood within two hundred yards of the stations checked in detail. Now.’