by Helen Phifer
Browning appeared behind Tom. ‘I’ll take a Taser-trained officer with me and go and sit outside Toppan’s address in a plain car until Task Force can get there. Lucy, you take another and go and sit outside Mattie’s house, then we can coordinate from there.’
‘Oh my god,’ Lucy said, as something else occurred to her. ‘Ellie. Jane knows where she lives.’
Tom sat down in the chair opposite Lucy, rubbing his chest. He turned to Browning. ‘I think I’m going to have a heart attack.’
‘No you’re not, sir. It’s probably indigestion. Now, you know how much she gets on my nerves’ – he pointed to Lucy – ‘but there’s no denying that she is on to something, and I seriously think we need to do what she’s telling us. I’d hate for one of our own to get hurt by some sick psycho bitch.’
Lucy, ignoring them, was busy dialling Ellie’s number. Ellie answered.
‘Where are you, sweetie?’
‘In bed, why?’
‘Just wondered. Can you go and get your dad for me, please?’
‘Why didn’t you ring him instead? I don’t know if he’s back yet; he was taking Rosie out for a meal.’
‘I need you to go and see if he’s back. It’s really important.’
Ellie let out a huge sigh. ‘Yes, Mum.’
Lucy heard her daughter clambering out of bed and walking downstairs. There was some fumbling and then George’s deep voice came on the line.
‘Lucy?’
‘Is Ellie next to you?’
‘Yes.’
‘Give her phone back to her, then can you ring me on my work phone? It’s very important.’
She ended the call and started drumming her fingers on the desk. Browning looked at her.
‘Toppan is Ellie’s key worker,’ Lucy said. ‘What if she decides to go after her?’
‘Why would she?’
‘Because she doesn’t like me and I don’t like her. She might go after her because of me.’
Tom appeared at the door. ‘Browning, get a patrol sent to sit outside Ellie’s house until I tell them they can leave.’
The phone began to ring.
‘It’s late, Lucy,’ George said. ‘What’s wrong?’
‘I think the killer is Ellie’s key worker. Whatever you do, don’t tell Ellie though, I don’t want her frightened until we’ve caught her. I don’t think that you’re in any danger, but I don’t want to risk it. Will you please make sure everywhere is locked up? And do not open the door to anyone until I tell you that it’s safe to do so. There’s a patrol car on its way to sit outside your house, but if anything happens you must ring 999.’
‘Dear god.’
‘I know, and I’m sorry.’
‘Be careful, Lucy,’ George whispered.
* * *
Tom was on his phone, mid-argument with the Task Force sergeant. ‘Yes, I bloody do authorise the overtime. Would I be asking you to get your men together if it wasn’t serious?’ He slammed his phone down. ‘Bloody idiot. Won’t call his team unless I guarantee that they’re all getting paid. Right, what’s next?’
‘Sir, you can run it from here,’ Browning said. ‘We need someone to coordinate who has half a brain.’
‘Yes, I suppose so. Lucy, full protective gear. I don’t care if your body armour creases your shirt, get it on – and don’t go into Mattie’s house until Task Force have been in and cleared it. Do I make myself clear?’
‘Yes, sir.’
Lucy took off down to the locker room to get her body armour – not that she was going to wear it until she had to. Browning followed her. He opened his locker and pulled out a pristine fluorescent yellow vest that had clearly never been worn. Lucy looked across at him to see if he was going to put it on, but he flung it over his arm.
‘Doesn’t fit,’ he said. ‘It never did, and I was too embarrassed to order a bigger size.’
Lucy felt a sudden rush of warmth towards the man. Maybe he wasn’t such an arsehole after all. ‘Neither does mine. I’ve put on weight since it was issued.’
He looked across at her and arched his eyebrow.
‘I swear I have,’ Lucy protested. ‘I used to be able to eat what I wanted. Now all my trousers are too tight. Don’t tell Mattie, though – he’s always trying to get me to go to the gym.’ Pain shot through her heart at the mention of Mattie’s name.
‘You’re getting older,’ Browning said. ‘It happens to the best of us. Come on, let’s go and find Mattie, young whippersnapper that he is, and kick his arse for giving us both heartburn. I hope he realises that I’m missing Gogglebox for him.’
Lucy nodded, feeling her eyes glisten with tears that she had to blink back. Two uniformed officers were waiting for them just outside the locker room. They looked at Lucy and Browning with their vests thrown over their arms, but never said a word. Lucy followed her officer to the waiting unmarked car. Then, turning, she looked at Browning.
‘Thank you.’
He nodded. ‘I’d do the same for you – even though you do get on my last nerve.’ He winked at her and despite the seriousness of the situation, she couldn’t help laughing.
As she climbed into the car and put her seat belt on, she couldn’t stop her hands from shaking. All she wanted was for Mattie to be safe. If it meant he didn’t speak to her ever again, she could live with that, just as long as he was alive.
The car stopped a few doors down from Mattie’s house, which was all in darkness. Lucy looked around the street for his truck, but couldn’t see it. She opened the door, and Scott, the copper behind the wheel, whispered, ‘What are you doing? We have to wait for Task Force.’
‘I’m just going to do a quick check of the perimeter,’ Lucy told him. ‘Make sure there’s no blood or open doors. Don’t you dare radio Control and tell them. This is my best friend we’re looking for. Don’t tell me you wouldn’t do the same if it was yours?’
Scott shrugged, clearly not about to argue with a superior officer, even if she was acting like an idiot. Lucy slipped through Mattie’s wooden gate and ran the short distance to the front door. She pushed at it with the heel of her hand – it didn’t move. She moved across to see if she could see anything through the wooden blinds at the living room window. They were fully closed, with no gap to peer through, so she listened at the window instead. This was the room where Mattie had his sixty-inch television and Xbox. It was too quiet: he wasn’t here.
She got back inside the car, and pointed to the officer’s radio. ‘Ask Control to run ANPR checks on DS Jackson’s number plate to see if it’s been through any of the cameras tonight.’
While Scott did as she asked, Lucy used her radio to contact Browning. He answered on the second ring, out of breath.
‘Jesus, I was just scouting around the outside of her fancy gaff when my bloody radio started ringing. You gave me a heart attack – I had to run back to the car, and I don’t do running, Harwin, so bear that in mind, will you?’
‘Sorry,’ Lucy said. ‘Mattie’s house is all in darkness, and his truck isn’t here.’
‘No sign of life here either. Do you know what kind of car she drives?’
‘A black Merc, pretty new.’
There was a slight pause – Browning was looking around. ‘No Mercs in this street,’ he said.
‘Where the bloody hell are they?’
‘For all we know they might not even be together,’ Browning pointed out. ‘You and I might just be prematurely aging ourselves over nothing.’
‘Yeah well, I’ll take a couple of extra wrinkles as long as he’s OK,’ Lucy said.
‘Speak for yourself – have you seen the state of me lately?’
She couldn’t help but smile. ‘You missed your calling, Browning; you should have been a night club comic.’
‘Funny you should say that…’
‘What, were you a nightclub comic?’
‘It’s a long story, I’ll tell you about it one day.’
They were interrupted by the arrival of the armed re
sponse officers. Lucy ended the call, getting out of the car to walk down the street to speak to Robbo, the sergeant, who climbed out of the van to greet her.
‘What the hell is going on?’ Robbo asked her. ‘Does anybody actually know? Is it true you think that Mattie is with the killer?’
‘Yes, I do, I don’t just think it – it is true. I don’t think there’s anyone in Mattie’s house, though; he normally falls asleep with the television still on.’
Lucy went back to the car – she was only in the way. Robbo would now have to coordinate two teams of officers to enter both premises simultaneously to minimise the risk to Mattie. She felt sick: if they found him inside and it was too late, what would she do?
She watched as the armed officers approached the house, all dressed in black. One of them was carrying the heavy red whammer, ready to put the door through. Robbo knocked on her window and she put it down.
‘Are you sure you don’t know where there’s a door key?’ Robbo asked. ‘It would make life a lot easier.’
Lucy shook her head. How many times had she told him to get a spare key cut in case he lost the main one? ‘No, there’s no spare.’
Seconds later, Robbo gave the orders and Mattie’s front door was put through – while Jane’s was put through at the same time elsewhere. Armed officers flooded into Mattie’s home, and Lucy jumped out of the car, unable to watch any longer. There was a lot of shouting ‘Clear’, and that was it. Minutes later, they came back, out the lead officer shaking his head.
‘Empty. No one’s home.’
‘What about the other address?’ Lucy asked.
The sergeant radioed the other team and shook his head. ‘Empty.’
Lucy took off running. She had to check for herself. What if the team hadn’t looked properly? She pushed past the last officer on his way out of Mattie’s house, and began to check every room. After looking downstairs first, she ran upstairs to Mattie’s bedroom where she threw open the door. It was untidy; his bed was unmade. She lifted the corner of the duvet to look underneath the bed, but there was only one odd shoe and a rolled-up pair of socks. She checked the bathroom and the spare bedroom, feeling more and more panicked that he wasn’t there. All she wanted was to know that he was safe.
She went back outside, where the sergeant was waiting for her.
‘Someone is going to have to wait here for the joiner to come out and make it secure,’ Robbo said. ‘I hope you’re right about him, because he’s going to be pissed off when he comes home and sees the state of that door.’
Lucy bit her tongue to stop herself from telling him to get fucked. She was tired and angry, not to mention beside herself with worry. ‘Well, you’d better get one of your officers to stay until the joiner turns up,’ she said, ‘because there’s still a chance that she could come here with Mattie. So it will need to be an armed officer.’
The look on Robbo’s face made her smile.. Task Force officers seemed to think they were above the day-to-day duties of waiting for joiners to arrive. She walked back to the car and got inside.
‘Take me to the station; I need to see the DCI. Please.’
‘Don’t you want me to wait for the joiner?’ Scott asked.
‘Nope, let one of them do it. I need you to help me tonight.’
He began to chuckle. ‘My pleasure, boss.’
* * *
They congregated back at the station. Lucy was there first. Col had arrived in his Batman pyjamas and was on the computer, frantically typing away. She smiled at him: if anyone could track Lizzy Clements down, it would be him. Tom was in her office on the phone. She walked in and he ended his call.
‘No sign of either of them?’ he asked. ‘Your ANPR request didn’t come back with any hits. Wherever they are, they haven’t passed through any of the cameras.’
Browning walked in as Tom was saying this, slightly out of breath. There was a fine film of perspiration on his brow. He took a tissue from his pocket and dabbed his forehead. ‘Well, that’s technically a good thing, isn’t it?’ he said.
Lucy looked at him. ‘How?’
‘It means that they’re still in the area. The cameras are on all the main roads both in and out of Brooklyn Bay. They can’t have left town. Did Mattie mention if he had any plans tonight?’
‘He didn’t say anything,’ Lucy admitted, ‘because we had a bit of an argument.’
Tom looked at her. ‘Why didn’t you say that before?’
‘Because it’s not particularly relevant, is it? He was angry with me – it didn’t stop him going and meeting her, did it?’
‘Lucy,’ Tom said, ‘please tell me you’re not having us running around on some wild goose chase because you feel bad that you two fell out?’
Anger flooded Lucy’s chest, making it hard to breathe. ‘No, sir,’ she managed. ‘I’m not having you running around because of that.’
Browning stepped between them to defuse the situation. ‘Maybe they went out for a meal? Let’s get checking all the local restaurants and pubs.’
Lucy looked at the clock. ‘I think they shut long ago.’
‘OK, what about hotels? Let’s get a patrol to check all the hotel car parks and see if either of their cars are in one.’
Lucy nodded. ‘That’s a brilliant idea. Much better than sitting here doing nothing.’
‘Let’s hope this works,’ Tom said, ‘because we’re running out of options.’
‘Can we ping his phone now, sir?’
‘We sent the order to do it as soon as the house was checked.’
Tom left and Browning went to make coffee. Lucy sat down at her desk. There wasn’t anything more she could do for the moment. It would take time to contact Mattie’s phone provider. She was so tired. She leant forward, putting her head on her arms and closing her eyes. She just needed five minutes to think.
Lucy opened her eyes as she felt her shoulder being gently shaken. She looked up to see Browning standing there with a mug of coffee in his hand. She felt grateful towards him for the help he was giving her tonight.
‘Anything?’ she asked.
‘No, not yet. Look, you need to drink this, then get yourself home for a shower and a bit of sleep. There’s nothing more you can do here. As hard as it is to accept, it’s out of our hands.’
Lucy knew he was right. Her neck was stiff and she felt like crap. ‘Thanks for the coffee,’ she said. ‘You should go home as well.’
‘Oh, don’t worry about that, I’m going,’ Browning said. ‘I need food and sleep. I get really angry when I’m hungry. Tom’s going to let us know the minute they find him.’
Lucy took a sip of the lukewarm coffee, then stood up.
‘I’m not leaving unless you do,’ she said.
‘I’m ready to go. I stink.’
‘So do I.’
They walked out to the rear yard together. The fresh air hit Lucy, waking her up. She felt a little brighter, but her heart was still aching with the worry of not knowing where Mattie was.
Browning opened his car door and turned to her. ‘Lucy, this isn’t your fault. You know that, don’t you?’
She nodded.
‘Whatever happens, none of this is down to you.’
She tried to smile at him, but couldn’t. Where was Mattie?
50
Lucy went home. Even if she weren’t exhausted, she needed to go back anyway, to check her phone in case Mattie had tried to get hold of her. She’d look a complete idiot if he had and he was OK – but that was a price she was willing to pay.
Her whole body ached, she was so tired. She opened her front door, expecting to see her phone there on the hall table, with its little green light flashing. It wasn’t there. She checked the floor, in case it had fallen off the table as she had rushed back out of the house. It wasn’t on the floor, either.
She’d been so sure that was where she had left it. How strange. She ran back to her car to check whether it had fallen under the seat. It hadn’t. She went back inside the house
, locking the front door behind her, and ran upstairs to check the bathroom. You never went up here though, did you? Warning bells were ringing in her head, but she brushed them to one side. She was so tired she couldn’t spell her name right if she’d been asked. She must have left it somewhere silly and forgotten about it. It would turn up.
She pushed open her bedroom door and let out a small scream: her room had been ransacked. Someone had been in her house. The bed, which she’d made before she left for work this morning, was a mess. The bedside table where she kept her diary had been overturned. The mirror above her chest of drawers was smashed into pieces. Who would do this? The only person she could think of was Ellie – but hadn’t she and Ellie come to some sort of truce this afternoon?
Lucy stepped over the mess to pick the house phone up off the floor. She dialled George, who answered on the second ring. Good old dependable George. Even though he’d left her, he still answered all her calls as if they were still married.
‘Morning, Lucy.’
‘Is Ellie there?’
‘Yes, she’s in bed. We all are. Did you catch your killer?’
Shit. She should have realised that she hadn’t even updated them She was so crap at this being a mother job it was unbelievable.
‘Not yet,’ Lucy said. ‘Has everything been OK?’
‘Yes.’
‘Do you know if Ellie’s been to my house at all yesterday – maybe last night sometime? Whilst I was at work?’
‘No, she was working herself all day, then she came home and didn’t go back out. Why?’
‘Nothing,’ Lucy said. ‘It doesn’t matter.’
‘Well, quite clearly it does. I can tell when you’re upset and right now you sound as if you are.’
‘Someone’s been in my house. They’ve trashed my bedroom and I can’t find my phone.’
‘Well, have you considered calling the police? You might have been burgled.’
Lucy started to laugh. ‘George, I am the police. No, the rest of the house is fine, as far as I know. This seems to be something personal, which is why I thought it might have been Ellie. I know she’s been angry with me, but I thought we’d sorted that out today. I really need my phone in case Mattie has tried to get hold of me.’