by M A Comley
“Yes or no?” she asked with a wink.
“Cocoa would be nice. Thanks, Mum.”
Lorne stood up and leaned over to kiss her daughter on the forehead. “I love you, sweetheart. Keep strong. We’ll get Onyx and her family back soon.”
“I love you too, Mum. Let’s hope so.”
Lorne returned to the kitchen, turned on the kettle, then bent down to cuddle Henry. “I’m so glad you were in the house today, boy. If you’d got out, I would have been beside myself. I’d be lost without my little buddy hanging around.”
Henry licked her face then rested his chin on her shoulder, sensing her need for a cuddle from her best mate.
Tony joined them, sporting a sympathetic smile on his face. “Good job he didn’t get let out today, eh?”
“I just had that conversation with him. Do you think he would have run off?”
“Nah, he knows when he’s on to a good thing. He’d be just as lost without you as you would be without him. I’ll make the drinks. Coffees all round, is it?”
“Nope, Charlie wants one of her mum’s special cups of cocoa.”
“Oh, right. Well, I better leave that to you then. How about ringing the station, see if they’ve got any news on Metcalfe?”
“You read my mind.” Lorne kissed Henry then made her way into the lounge to use the phone. “Hi, it’s Lorne Warner. Any news for me?”
“I was in the process of chasing that up for you, ma’am. Hold the line.” Lorne tapped her foot while she waited for the desk sergeant to return. “I’m back. Right, we’ve had a sighting of his vehicle down by the river in Guildford, about twenty minutes from his home.”
“That’s strange. Has anyone investigated the area?”
“No, not yet, ma’am. The team which called it in caught a glimpse of the car while attending another crime scene. I’m sorry it’s not better news for you.”
“It’s a start. I’ll just note down the location, and Tony and I will take a gander tomorrow.”
The desk sergeant told her the address, and she hung up. Lorne waved the piece of paper as she re-entered the kitchen. “We just might have a new area to search tomorrow or…”
Tony shook his head in despair. “Like that’s going to wait until tomorrow. Is it far?”
Lorne sniggered. “We’ll have our drinks and take a drive out there. It’s about thirty minutes from here.”
• • •
Tony volunteered to drive as Lorne was too wound up. “Down here, according to the map.”
“If he’s still at the scene, let me handle it, okay? There’s no telling what stunt the idiot will try to pull off.”
“Yes, boss,” Lorne agreed.
Tony cut the engine, and the car glided to a halt near the river. Looking around, Lorne saw several possible hiding places. Thankfully, the area seemed clear of any sign of Metcalfe, and the likelihood of him returning at this hour seemed remote.
“You take that side, and I’ll start from that end. We’ll meet in the middle. Make sure you listen carefully. If you scratch the door, the pups will probably start to whimper. Any noise, call me straight away.”
“Yes, dear.” Tony shook his head and marched off to the far end of the row of garden sheds. Lorne suspected they were in some kind of allotment. Metcalfe would have been careless to leave the dogs in such a place, given the frequency folks visited the garden patches.
Lorne scratched the door of the first shed and used her torch to peer through the window, but heard and saw nothing of interest, so she moved on to the next one and received the same negative result. She looked up to see Tony waving frantically at her. She ran at full speed to reach him. “Is she in there?”
“It certainly sounds like it to me. Listen.” He stepped back so that she could place her ear to the slight crack in the door.
“Me, too. Oh, Tony, we’ve found her.”
“That’s a pretty hefty lock on the door. Let me see what tools I have in the back of the car.” Tony hobbled back to the car, favouring his prosthetic leg. He returned a few moments later with a set of bolt cutters. “I picked them up a few months back at the market. We’ll soon find out how good they are. Stand back.”
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing, arsehole?” a voice boomed out behind them, its owner hidden by the darkness.
Tony turned and raised the bolt cutters above his head, ready to retaliate if the man attacked him.
“You should have known you wouldn’t get away with this, Metcalfe. Open the door and return the dogs to us, or I’ll arrest you on the spot.”
“Ha, arrest me, my arse. Who the fuck do you think you are, wannabe heroes?”
“You’re an idiot. You’ve messed with the wrong people.” Lorne reached into her jacket pocket and showed him her warrant card. “DS Warner, at your service. You’re nicked.”
The man turned and took off in his best impression of Usain Bolt running in one of his world-record-setting races. Lorne knew Tony would never be able to catch the man if his leg was bothering him, but Tony launched the bolt cutters at Metcalfe’s back with all his might, hitting him between the shoulder blades and knocking him off balance. Tony set off and pounced on Metcalfe before he could get to his feet again. Metcalfe threw a left and right hook, but Tony managed to avoid the man’s fists. Tony threw one of his own and connected with Metcalfe’s chin, sending him reeling backwards. Lorne yanked on the man’s hair, and Tony flipped the man over while Lorne slapped on the cuffs. She high-fived Tony.
“Just like old times.” Tony laughed and yanked Metcalfe to his feet. He searched the man’s pockets and gave Lorne the key to the shed.
Lorne ran to open the shed while Tony placed the man in the back of their car.
“Oh, Onyx, you dear sweet dog. You and your babies are safe.” Lorne was upset to see the dog cowering. As Onyx turned away from her, Lorne knew all the progress they’d made over the previous few weeks had gone to pot within hours. Confusion lit the dog’s eyes when Lorne gathered her in her arms and placed her gently in the back of the rescue van. Then she returned to the shed to retrieve the dog bed and the four pups, who were still sound asleep. She stroked and kissed them one by one and nestled them beside their mother. Onyx licked the pups’ heads and eyed Lorne as she deposited each one. Once the fury family was loaded, Lorne jumped in the passenger seat.
“You won’t get away with this. I’m going to do you for assault,” Metcalfe shouted from the backseat.
“Yeah, I’d like to see you try. I think the charges against you will far outweigh the one you tag us with, mate. Now, shut up and enjoy your ride to the nick. Hopefully, your last bout of freedom.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Lorne still had the following day off work, and she wanted to spend as much time with Onyx as possible so she could regain the dog’s trust once again. By mid-afternoon, she had succeeded in sitting next to the dog in the kennel without her flinching every five minutes. Charlie watched her mother deal with the dog, wearing a smile and shedding a few tears of her own. “She’s responding finally, Mum.”
“She is, love. Compassion and giving her time is all that was needed to make a difference in her life.”
“It doesn’t cost anything to treat an animal with kindness. If only more people understood that, the world would be a much better place to live in.”
Out of the mouths of babes, she thought. If only all teenagers were as grown-up and caring as Charlie.
A car drew up outside, and Charlie ran to see who it was. Lorne followed her daughter into the yard as a woman in her early forties stepped out of the car and looked around.
“Hello. Can I help you?” Lorne approached the woman warily.
“Yes, I saw your business advertised on TV the other night and thought I’d drop by to see if you have a dog for me.”
“Advertised? Oh, you mean the interview I did regarding Onyx and her pups. We do have a few dogs looking for good homes at the moment. Were you on the lookout for a speci
fic breed?”
Charlie stood alongside Lorne, within nudging distance.
“This is my daughter, Charlie. She actually runs the place.”
“How lovely. You’re so young, too.”
Lorne smiled. “Yes, young but with a very grown-up head on her shoulders. She treats all the dogs the same as if they were our own. If you tell her what you had in mind, she’ll do all the necessary paperwork. You are aware that you can’t take a dog with you today? We need to carry out a home visit before we let any of our dogs go to new owners. It’s our responsibility to make sure the dogs will be cared for properly once they leave here.”
“Oh, I see. I was hoping to have a dog by the weekend.”
Lorne shook her head. “No can do. Sorry. Was it for a specific reason? Only we don’t believe in giving dogs as gifts for birthdays or Christmas presents.”
“Oh, no. It was for me. I want it for a guard dog, you see.”
“No, I don’t, I’m afraid. If you need a dog for a specific reason such as that, then I wouldn’t recommend you seek out any rescue dog. They can be very confused creatures. Most of them have come from abusive homes. Therefore, our aim is to restore their faith in humans and ensure they’re placed in loving homes, hence the home visits. They’re an integral part of the process.”
“I see. Well, I won’t take up any more of your time in that case.”
They all turned as another car pulled into the driveway. Carol got out of her car and joined them. She kissed Lorne then Charlie on the cheek. “Hello. Sorry, am I interrupting something?”
“Not at all. Miss…?”
“Randolph,” the woman filled in the blank for Lorne.
“Miss Randolph was after a guard dog.” Lorne watched Carol. She’d never witnessed the psychic openly eyeing someone with distaste before. “I’ll leave you to bid Miss Randolph farewell, Charlie. Come on, Carol. I have something of interest to show you inside.” She linked arms and steered the psychic towards the back door of the house. “What in God’s name is wrong with you? Christ, if looks could kill, that woman would be struck down by lightning by now.”
“Never, never in all my days as a medium have I felt such a negative energy emanating from someone. Do not give that woman a dog, Lorne, ever!”
“What are you picking up, Carol? Maybe I should stick around and see her off the property myself.”
“No, she’ll be fine with Charlie. There’s something evil about her, though, Lorne. Damn, I’m too pumped up to see anything from the spirit guides. Let’s have a drink, and I’ll try and figure it out.”
Carol was trembling. Lorne had never seen her friend so affected by someone’s energy before, not someone living, anyway. Tony was sitting at the kitchen table when they went inside.
“Hello, Carol. What do we owe the pleasure?”
“To be honest, I don’t know why I’m here.” Carol eyed the stranger standing in the courtyard through the kitchen window. “My guess is that it has something to do with your guest, who is now, thankfully, leaving.”
“I’ve never seen you as jumpy as this, Carol. Is she that bad? Is that what you’re picking up?”
“I really don’t know. Maybe I should’ve shaken hands with her. I can tell a lot about the vibrations travelling through a person’s body.”
Lorne ran to the window to see if the woman was still talking to Charlie. “Damn, she’s just leaving the drive now.”
“I’ll go into the lounge. Leave me for a second or two. Let’s see what I can come up with.”
Lorne joined Tony at the table. She leaned forward and whispered. “That was totally weird. Carol homed in on the woman right away. I’ve never seen her react like that with anyone, ever. She had a run-in with Pete once, but she still didn’t look at him the way she glared at that woman.”
“That’s strange. And you never picked up anything from the woman. Your people radar is usually shit hot, love.”
“Nope, I can’t say I did. Maybe my people radar is off kilter with all the hassle going on around here. She seemed nice enough.”
“Maybe Carol’s wrong about her then.”
At that moment, Carol came back into the room, her face drained of colour.
Lorne encouraged her to take a seat. “What on earth is wrong, Carol?”
Carol sat down heavily, placed her head in her hands for a second or two then looked Lorne in the eye. “She’s definitely trouble. That won’t be the last time you two meet, Lorne. Mark my words on that one.”
“Really? In what context? Can you tell me that?”
“Nothing definite as yet, but your paths will cross again in the near future, under very unpleasant circumstances. All I’m picking up is that woman is pure evil.”
“I’ll run a check on her name when I get into work tomorrow.”
Suddenly, Carol closed her eyes and began to rock back and forth in her chair. “Jordan.”
Lorne frowned and glanced at Tony. Her husband shrugged, and Lorne could tell by the twinkle in his eye that he wanted to respond with a funny retort. She widened her eyes, warning him to keep his mouth shut.
“Stocks. Fingers. Teeth,” Carol said.
None of it made sense to Lorne. Experience told her that Carol would keep firing out words, and Lorne would have to piece them all together. She jotted the words on scrap paper, her pen poised ready for more.
“Pain. Men.” Carol opened her eyes and flopped back in her chair in exhaustion. “That’s it. Make of it what you will, love. All I know is that woman is bad news.”
“Thanks, Carol. I’ll chase up her details tomorrow and try to make some kind of sense of what you’ve told me.”
“Don’t be lax on this one. She’s an important player in something that will show up on your radar in the next few days or weeks.”
• • •
Armed with what Carol had given her about Miss Randolph, Lorne arrived at work to find the other members of her team chattering noisily and looking perplexed.
“Something wrong?”
“Maybe, maybe not,” AJ said. “I used my initiative to get in touch with the missing persons hotline, asked them to contact me if any men went missing in a certain area.”
“And have they?” Lorne perched on the edge of the nearest desk, the scrap piece of paper from the previous night in her hand.
“Two men. A Lee Carney and Paul Dollins. Both men disappeared the day before yesterday during their shifts at work.”
“Did any of their colleagues see anything? Someone hanging around who shouldn’t be there, et cetera?” Lorne asked.
“Not as far as I can tell. I’m just going to start looking into their backgrounds now. Don’t you think it’s odd, though? Two men the other day, Jordan and David, and now these two men? If we were looking at cases of women going missing, wouldn’t we be treating it as a serial abduction case by now? Just thinking out loud, really,” AJ said, booting up his computer.
“I suppose so. Do the usual, AJ—check for CCTV footage.” Lorne waved the piece of paper. “I have some checking up of my own to do.”
“Oh, what’s that about?” Katy came through the outer office door and asked. “Morning, all, by the way.”
“We had a strange situation occur at the rescue centre while Carol was there. I’d rather check things out and tell you what I find, if that’s okay?”
“Sure. Anything else to report overnight?” Katy walked towards her office.
“We found Onyx and arrested her owner last night, so that’s a big relief off our minds. Nasty piece of work, he was. I hope they lock him up and throw away the key.”
“Huh, you know that ain’t gonna happen, Lorne. I’m glad you found her, though. Poor little mite must have been scared out of her mind. Are the pups all right, too?”
“Yeah, all safe and sound. I’ll tell you about the weird experience we had with Carol later. Let me do some research first.”
Katy continued walking. “You know where I’ll be. You can rescu
e me anytime you like.”
Lorne switched on her computer and did a general search on Felicity Randolph’s name. Nothing showed up. She tried a similar search in the vehicle registration files and hit on Felicity Randolph’s address. “Jesus!” Lorne scrambled to her feet and marched over to the case notes written on the board.
AJ left his chair and stood beside her. “What is it?”
“I think I’ve stumbled across a connection to our case. Do me a favour and call Katy.”
He took off and returned with their boss in tow.
“What have you found, Lorne?”
“Yesterday, a woman came to the centre looking for a guard dog. I sent her off with a flea in her ear but not before Carol met the woman. Carol picked up on some extremely negative vibes from her. She obtained certain information from the spirits that she expected me to piece together.” Lorne waved the piece of paper. “You know how she works, Katy. Anyway, I’ll read out what she said slowly and see if you two come to the same conclusion I have. ‘Jordan. Men. Pain. Stocks. Fingers. Teeth.’” Lorne glanced at her puzzled-looking colleagues, whose expressions told her they hadn’t recognised what she had. “Don’t you see? Jordan.” Lorne picked up the marker pen and placed a tick by the man’s name.
Katy shook her head. “Okay, that much I can make the connection with; as to everything else you’ve mentioned, I’m sorry, I’m just not connecting the dots. Are you sure you’re onto something, Lorne?”
She raised a finger. “Bear with me on this for a second longer. Jordan, men, stocks. Didn’t we already speculate that we could be dealing with an S&M issue here?”
“Okay, I’ll give you that, even the pain fits your suggestion, but what about teeth and fingers?” Katy asked.
“Let’s forget about that side of things for a moment. Here’s the interesting part, and I’m sorry for being so slow on the uptake regarding this. It should have occurred to me the second I saw it.”
