He’d already got rid of his jacket and rolled up his shirt sleeves and Sarah was down to a shirt and suit trousers.
‘What about the uniformed officers? Anything so far from the systematic search?’ Tom asked.
‘Not yet. The uniforms are already well into the search pattern around the chemist. Do you want to join them?’
Think, man, think. If Maria bought a treatment for Emily it meant Maria must have known where Riley was keeping the children.
‘I can’t get over the idea Maria was trying to help us.’
He half expected DI Hunter to laugh.
‘You know the case better than I do,’ she said. ‘If Maria wasn’t a willing accomplice, it’s not a ludicrous idea.’
‘I don’t have anything concrete to support my theory. Look, I know it doesn’t sound logical. You do what you think is best. I’m going to check the number nineties to ninety-nine. There was a second smudge, like she’d started to write something else. Only time is running out and I don’t want to drag you down with me.’
‘You’re not dragging me anywhere. Come on, there are less streets which go up to the higher numbers. It won’t take long to check.’
48
Slowly and deliberately, Grant walked up the fire exit. He wanted Riley to know he was coming because it was important to signal this wasn’t an aggressive move. The last thing Grant wanted was to scare Riley into taking rash action.
Riley had manoeuvred himself into a corner, and like cornered animals, cornered criminals were extremely dangerous. The children were still the priority and Grant needed to find the whereabouts and status of his officer. And he needed to find a way to talk Riley down.
As he pushed open the door leading to the rooftop, Grant called out.
‘My name is Detective Chief Inspector Grant. It’s important we talk.’
He stepped onto a flat concrete roof the size of twenty two-bed apartments. Grant scanned the area. It was rectangular and dotted with obstacles – ventilator shafts, metal housings and brick towers which presumably stored the heating and elevator apparatus. There was a strong wind and hanging cables whipped like something alive.
The door clanged shut behind him. No sign of Riley or Diane.
‘Mr Riley?’
Grant walked slowly forward, his hands held in sight, searching to left and right. Riley was hiding. What he must avoid was giving Riley the opportunity to jump out from behind.
‘The stairwells have been blocked off,’ Grant said. ‘We need to talk.’
‘Got nothin’ to talk about.’
The wind skimmed through Grant’s hair as he carefully pivoted towards the voice. Riley came into view and Grant’s heart went cold. Riley was leaning against a ventilator shaft. One of his arms was crooked around Diane’s neck and he held her against him like a human shield. A horrible red stain had seeped across Diane’s shirt. She was wounded. And it looked serious.
Grant’s gaze flicked to Diane’s eyes and she was looking straight at him. Part of him registered how calm she seemed as his mind raced to work through the permutations and come out with a strategy to save her life. In Riley’s other hand, a blade glinted silver. The bastard had stabbed her.
Grant couldn’t help thinking of Daniel Pearson and his ostomy bag and of Jack Glover fighting for his life in a white bed. Grant blinked hard and concentrated, squeezing all his experience into his next moves.
‘Stay where you are,’ Riley said.
‘Whatever you say.’
Riley sounded strung out. Grant reminded himself this man could be cold or he could be hot. Play for time, was what his hostage negotiation training said, build a link with the perpetrator and get them talking. Yet Grant knew Diane didn’t have much time.
Grant stood still. ‘Please let my officer go.’
Riley wanted a bargaining chip, Grant understood that.
‘Please let her go and I will willingly take her place.’ Grant had to shout against the wind.
‘I don’t think so.’
‘Tell me what you want and I can help you.’
Riley shook his head.
‘What do you want? Where are Emily and Lisa?’
‘Ah. I thought you’d be asking me about those kids sooner rather than later.’ Riley shuffled towards the edge of the roof, dragging Diane with him.
Sweat ran down Grant’s back. ‘Please tell me where to find Emily and Lisa.’
‘You can’t do anything for me.’
‘If you tell me where to find the children it will be in your favour.’
‘I’ve been inside for six years and I’m not going back there. It’s enough to make a man lose his mind.’
If Riley didn’t value his own life then Grant risked losing the children and Diane. They were five floors up and falling to the ground below would be lethal. And there was no way Billingham would have had time to get a sniper on scene. He must try another tactic.
‘Did Jack Glover pay you to scare off Daniel Pearson? Did he give you money and ask you to break into Pearson’s house? Is that the reason you abducted Jack’s children?’
‘The bastard set me up. I wore gloves the whole time. There’s no way my thumbprint could have shown up at Pearson’s except if Glover planted it there. I was sentenced to nine fucking years for it. And six almost killed me.’
‘So abducting Jack’s children is revenge.’
‘Glover used me then he set me up. And he paid me a pittance for the job. One million doesn’t even start to pay back for the lost time. Although taking his kids, well, that might do the trick.’
‘Emily and Lisa didn’t do anything wrong.’
‘Who gives a fuck about those brats.’
‘Please tell me where to find them.’
‘If I tell you then he’s won.’
Grant could not see a way around Riley’s twisted logic.
Riley took a few more steps until he was right at the lip of the edge. ‘Why don’t I set you a little test? Which do you want most, your officer or the children?’
With Riley’s arm choking her windpipe, Diane couldn’t speak. Grant could see her mouthing something at him. He couldn’t make it out except he knew what she was probably saying – ‘the children.’
‘I asked you a question. Answer or I’ll decide for you,’ Riley said.
‘Both. And if that’s not possible, then the children are my priority.’
‘Oh, so this one is disposable?’
Riley was teetering on the edge and there was no way Grant would be able to overpower him without endangering everyone’s life.
‘God, I could do with a final snort.’
‘Then why don’t you have one? You’re not in a rush, are you?’ Grant said. He caught a movement and forced himself not to look. Could it be McGowan scuttling out from behind the elevator shaft, running towards the cover of the ventilator?
Riley laughed. ‘You’re a smart one, aren’t you, Inspector? Don’t think you can trick me because it won’t work.’
‘There’s no trick. I’ll sit down if you like and then you can have a snort in peace. And my name’s David Grant.’
‘Okay. Grant. Keep your hands where I can see them.’
With the amount of blood which had pumped out of Diane it was a miracle she was still conscious. Grant could see she was going limp. Reaching into his pocket, Riley pulled out a small plastic bag.
‘At least you’ve got balls,’ Riley said. ‘Unlike some police fucking officers I could mention.’
Grant immediately picked up on Riley’s tone. ‘What do you mean?’
‘Since we’re having a nice chat and I’m not going to tell you where to find the brats, I might as well pass on something before I go.’
Riley stuck his finger into the bag and scrubbed powder around his gums. Breathing in deeply, he half closed his eyes. Grant saw McGowan crawling towards the nearest cover to Riley. Any closer and McGowan would be within Riley’s eyeline. What was the distance between McGowan and Diane? More than ten met
res by Grant’s judgement. It was too far. By the time Riley saw McGowan coming, he’d have launched himself off the roof taking Diane with him.
‘I’m all ears,’ Grant said.
‘I bet you are. Well get a load of this. I heard a lot of stuff when I was inside. Last person I shared a cell with was Parks. Poor bastard is dead now. Pancreatic cancer.’
Grant knew the name. Parks had been the mastermind behind the jewellery heist Riley had been involved in, though he was much higher up the criminal food chain than Riley.
‘Parks was pissed off with one of your lot and I promised I’d do something about it if I could. Looks like this might be the moment.’
Riley’s eyes were bulging from the cocaine hit. His legs started jittering. ‘Parks hated this bloke called Treadgold who’s some big job at your place. Seems like Parks and Treadgold used to get on, and then Treadgold turned and he made sure Parks got put away.’
Parks and Treadgold used to get on? It could only mean one thing. Treadgold had some deal with Parks in exchange for turning a blind eye to criminal activities. This was proof of Treadgold’s corruption. Proof Grant had not been able to find before. He suddenly felt wary McGowan was overhearing this. Ruby had said McGowan met Treadgold on the stairwell and it happened just after Nick Riley’s name came up in this case.
‘If you want to fulfil your promise to Parks you’ve got to give me something concrete against Treadgold,’ Grant said.
Riley was rubbing a second dose around his mouth. ‘The jewels from the heist,’ he said. ‘They were fenced by a guy called Hector Mason. Treadgold got a cut and Mason will be able to confirm it.’
Bingo. Hector was a known fence, selling on stolen goods and sometimes turning informant if the police leaned on him hard. This would be enough to put Treadgold away. All Grant needed was to get to Mason first.
At that moment, McGowan charged out from his hiding place.
‘No!’ Grant shouted. ‘Stand down, McGowan!’
Riley was taken by surprise but he was close enough to the edge to get there first. Riley took one glance back at Grant and grinned. Then he plummeted from the roof, his arms spread out as if he was flying.
49
Lisa was too tired to cry and she was so thirsty her head and tongue hurt. Her arms and legs felt heavy and she couldn’t lift them. She lay on the floor beside her sister. Emily was cold and she seemed to have fallen asleep and Lisa was not able to wake her.
‘Shall I sing your favourite song again?’ Lisa whispered in Emily’s ear.
When Emily didn’t answer, Lisa pretended she had.
‘Yes all right, Em, I will.’
And she started humming the tune, though by now she’d forgotten all the words.
50
Tom’s phone pinged at the same time as Sarah’s. He read the message from Grant.
Riley dead. No intel on the children.
Tom felt like his chest might explode. It was all down to him and Sarah. Nine? What could it mean? What did it mean?
Within their search area, there were four streets with houses numbered ninety and above and they’d already covered two of them. Tom met Sarah’s hazel eyes.
‘Oh shit, it’s down to us,’ he said.
Sarah was calm. ‘We check the last two and then we regroup,’ she said. ‘Follow me.’
Tom was glad to be working with her. She knew how to keep her head when the pressure was on. She’d made no errors navigating around the back streets, dodging easily from one residential road to the next. It had saved them masses of time. She was fit too so they’d been able to keep a fast pace.
As they rounded the corner and jogged along the next row of houses, Tom’s eyes drifted to a car parked halfway down. It had a logo of a blue cat painted on the side and a slogan – Nine Lives Insurance.
‘Nine Lives! Sarah, look!’
It was parked outside number seventy-five which was in the middle of a long terrace. When Tom banged on the front door, he could feel his heart hammering. The woman who answered had hair dyed bright pink and gelled up in spikes.
‘Can I help you?’ she said.
Tom showed his identification. ‘Is this your car?’
‘It is. Why are you interested?’
‘We need to question you in connection with the missing Glover children,’ Tom said. ‘May we come in please.’
Olwen Vickers, with the spiked hair, was very co-operative. They searched the two floors of her house and found nothing. Then they quizzed her about the name of her business.
‘I’m a financial consultant,’ Olwen said. ‘I work a lot from home and I interview most of my clients via the internet. The car is part of my advertising.’
Tom showed a picture of Emily and Lisa. ‘Have you seen these children? Or any suspicious activity in the street recently? Any strangers coming and going?’
‘I’ve seen those two little ones all over the news and if I’d spotted them I’d have contacted the police straight away. I’m sorry, I don’t think I can help you. As for strangers, well, in this area there’s a pretty high turnover. A lot of these places are let out and people come and go all the time.’
Sarah brought up a picture of Riley and of Maria Fernandez. ‘What about these two? Do they look familiar?’
Olwen hesitated. ‘The girl definitely not and he looks like any ordinary bloke doesn’t he, though with those ears… I dunno, I suppose it could be the tosser who took my parking space. He had the cheek to plonk his bloody van right outside my house. I had to ask him to move and he had a hoodie on and his ears were hidden but I kinda got the idea they stuck out.’
‘I saw the disabled parking bay. You’ve got a dedicated space,’ Sarah said.
‘The council gave it and it’s legit.’
‘What colour was this van?’ Tom asked.
‘White.’
A common colour, yet the same as the van seen leaving the lock-ups in Himlands Heath. Could it be the same one? Tom found it hard not to spring to his feet. ‘And do you know where the owner lives?’
‘Oh yes he moved in two doors down earlier this year. I remember because that’s when he took my spot. Number seventy-one.’
They didn’t have a positive identification on Riley. They had the number nine and a white van. It was sufficient. It gave them power of entry to save life and limb.
Tom was covered in sweat. He banged on the door of number seventy-one. There was no answer.
‘We’re going in,’ Tom said.
Sarah nodded.
They checked the windows and there was no sign of movement inside. Tom didn’t have time to go around the back. Emily was dying. She might already be dead. He found a brick by the neighbour’s wall and used it to break the front window.
It took seconds to clear away the dangerous shards. Sarah was right behind him as he climbed in.
They quickly searched the downstairs where it smelled of stale takeaways and manky carpets.
‘Look at this,’ Sarah said. ‘Drug paraphernalia. And plenty of booze.’
Tom was already on his way up the stairs. He found the room with new locks outside. ‘They’re here,’ he shouted. ‘Stand back. And call an ambulance.’
A few solid kicks and the door was down. Inside, Lisa lay on the floor and she blinked as Tom knelt by her side though she was not able to speak. Emily was on her back with her eyes closed. Her body was covered with purple splotches and Tom couldn’t find a pulse.
51
Grant and McGowan reached Diane at the same time.
‘Get a paramedic up here,’ Grant shouted. He placed his hands over the wound.
Riley had jumped from the roof, which Grant was pretty sure had been Riley’s intention in the first place.
By rushing forward, McGowan had endangered Diane’s life. It would have been easy for Riley to take her down with him and McGowan had deliberately disobeyed a direct order. The question was, why? Grant wasn’t ready to face the answer.
Two paramedics came running. Down b
elow, officers were attending to Riley and it wasn’t long before Billingham sent Grant a confirmation.
Riley is stone cold dead.
Diane was placed on a stretcher.
‘We’re taking her now, sir,’ one of the paramedics said.
Grant bent to Diane’s ear. ‘I’ll be checking on you,’ he said. ‘Hang on in there.’
He hated the helplessness. She was out of his hands now and he had to trust the medics.
‘Take care of her,’ he called after them.
She was carried to the stairs and Grant waited until Billingham was on the roof before he tackled McGowan. It was always good practice to have a reliable witness.
‘Detective Sergeant McGowan you will go straight to the station and report to Detective Chief Superintendent Fox.’
‘What’s wrong, guv?’
It took huge willpower for Grant to rein back his fury. ‘You endangered the abductor’s life and your fellow officer’s. You ignored my command – I told you to stay where you were.’
‘I didn’t hear you because of the wind. I saw a chance with Riley and took it.’
McGowan was a damn liar and now Grant knew it. His phone pinged. Whipping it out of his pocket, Grant read the message from Delaney.
We have Emily and Lisa.
The wave of relief was physical. A second message came through.
Emily in a critical state.
‘They’ve found the children.’
‘Jesus, I thought we’d blown it with Riley out of the picture,’ Billingham said.
‘Me too,’ Grant said, his tone dark.
‘Brilliant work. The chemist tip-off was the right one then?’ Billingham asked.
‘I don’t have details. Lisa and Emily have been taken to hospital and Delaney says Emily is critical.’
‘At least she’s alive, sir. Sounds like Delaney got there just in time,’ McGowan said.
Deadly Lies Page 21