The Toy Taker

by Delaney, Luke

  ‘I won’t be going to work today,’ she told him, her usually smiling face as serious as he’d seen it.

  ‘Oh. How come?’

  ‘I have to go and see a family,’ she explained. ‘The children need me. I’ll see you later.’ She opened the door and moved to step outside.

  ‘Not even a kiss?’ he called after her, stopping her in her tracks. Her lips broke into a faint smile as she waited for him to come to her and they quickly kissed before she stepped over the threshold and was gone.

  Once she was outside she moved quickly away from her block, her chest fluttering with anxiety in case she was seen by a work colleague, her planned lie about being sick aborted before birth. The worrying thought intensified the morning chill, prompting her to pull her collar up around her neck and lower her face. Her new shoes clicked and clacked on the hard pavement as she headed towards Camden Town and beyond – to the address where she knew the children would be waiting for her.

  His fitful sleep was punctuated by confusing, irrational dreams – images, memories and people from his past and present knitted together in a bizarre patchwork of events: the missing children for some reason in his own home, playing with his own children, but being cared for by his mother, not Kate – Anna waiting for him upstairs, in the bed that he shared with his wife. He watched himself climbing the stairs, his heart pounding as he avoided the creaky floorboards, just as the taker had. This was his own home, yet still he moved stealthily towards the bedroom and Anna, pushing the door slowly open and seeing him – seeing him on top of her, forcing himself on her. He walked as if walking through quicksand to the bed, Anna’s pain and humiliation bringing tears to his own eyes as he reached out to the man on top of her, grabbing him by the back of the head and twisting his face away from Anna’s and towards himself, the laughing, mocking face of his father staring into his own. He looked down at Anna, pleading with him to help her, her lips moving, but no words coming out as his father’s laughter drowned out all sound. ‘Help me,’ her silent lips pleaded. ‘Help me.’ But he couldn’t, and he ran from the room, fleeing back down the stairs to the children and his mother. Only she was gone and once more it was his father who waited for him, standing behind the four children who kneeled in front of him, laughter still pouring from his black mouth and blood-red lips. The children’s eyes begged him to rescue them – their silent mouths mimed words almost identical to those Anna had mouthed: ‘Help us. Help us.’ But he couldn’t move; no matter how much he struggled, he couldn’t move. Suddenly his entire world began to shake as sounds from the real world penetrated his nightmare.

  ‘Guv’nor,’ the voice of DC Tony Summers tried to reach him. ‘Guv’nor.’ His conscious mind began to stir as he eyes flickered open and reminded him where he was and what he was doing.

  ‘Fuck,’ he grumbled. He tried to work the stiffness out of his neck after sleeping sitting upright in the front of the unmarked car for several hours. ‘Jesus. What time is it?’

  ‘About quarter-past-seven, boss,’ Summers answered, his voice quiet, despite their safe distance from the address they’d been watching since two a.m. ‘The target’s at her front door.’

  Sean rubbed his eyes then blinked as he tried to focus on the front door of the ground-floor flat little more than fifty metres away. ‘Looks like she’s dressed for work,’ Summers offered.

  ‘Maybe,’ Sean answered, less convinced. ‘A bit early for nursery school though, don’t you think?’

  ‘They start early these days, boss. Pressures of the modern world and all that,’ Summers explained in his Lancashire accent.

  ‘Or she’s going somewhere else.’ Sean grabbed his radio before Summers could answer, speaking informally on the private channel: ‘You seeing this?’

  ‘Yes,’ came the reply from Sally in one of the other two unmarked cars.

  ‘Wait a second,’ Sean stalled her as the shape of a man, naked but for a towel around his waist, came into view. He watched the couple briefly kiss before parting, the target turning her coat up against the cold. Is that the new man in your life? Sean thought to himself. Is he the one you’ve been waiting for? He pressed the radio to transmit. ‘She’s on foot. Doesn’t look like she’s going for a vehicle. Sally, Tessa and I will follow her on foot. Everyone else run parallels with the cars and try to stay close.’

  ‘Received,’ Sally’s voice answered. ‘Received,’ DC Tessa Carlisle echoed.

  ‘All foot units use mobiles to stay in touch. Leave the radios with the cars.’

  ‘Received,’ Sally and Carlisle both acknowledged.

  Sean tossed the radio to Summers and slipped out of the car and on to the pavement, quietly pressing the door shut before following Hannah Richmond’s footsteps, always staying at least fifty metres behind her and as far out of her eyeline as possible. He walked in line with any trees or bus-shelters so he could conceal himself with a quick swerve if she turned. Pulling his mobile from his coat pocket, he called Sally, speaking as quietly as he could as he tailed the target along the road that was deserted but for them.

  ‘Sean?’

  ‘Are you with me?’

  ‘Yeah – about thirty metres back, on the other side of the road. I can see you, but not the target. Tess is about another twenty metres back on your side.’

  ‘Good, but we need to get closer,’ he told her. ‘She’ll be in central Camden in a couple of minutes. She could lose us easy.’

  ‘Understood,’ Sally agreed and hung up. Sean slipped his mobile into his outside coat pocket, leaving his hand resting on it in case a call caused it to vibrate, and quickened his pace, closing the distance on Hannah Richmond before she made it to central Camden.

  As she approached the end of Agar Road he could see she was about to enter St Pancras Way, where the pedestrian traffic was already growing dense. He rushed to close the distance, but quickly had to move behind a thick oak tree when she suddenly slowed and looked back. After a few seconds he peeked around the trunk and saw she’d moved on. She seemed far more nervous than a normal person on their way to work. He continued his pursuit, calling Sally as he walked – just another businessman who couldn’t wait until he reached his office before beginning the day’s calls.

  ‘Problem?’ Sally asked.

  ‘She’s looking for something,’ he warned her. ‘She’s done one check behind her already and keeps looking around.’

  ‘Did she see you?’

  ‘I don’t think so. She’s just crossed St Pancras Way into Camden Road and is heading towards the tube station.’

  ‘Let me take the lead,’ Sally told him, ‘to be safe.’

  ‘No,’ he argued. ‘There’s no time. Just stay close.’ He hung up and continued the chase, glad to be in a wide, busy street; mingling among so many other people in suits and coats was his best possible disguise. He’d closed the gap between them to ten metres, but still she periodically twisted her head from side to side, as if constantly checking for danger. She walked past Camden tube station and into Chalk Farm Road, where she stopped at a bus shelter, pulling her collar as far as she could over her face, standing behind the advertising boards, concealing herself from the view of the passing traffic. Sean had no choice – he stopped at the same bus stop, waiting to feel her eyes burning into the back of his head. He pulled his phone free again when he was as happy as he could be she was paying him no heed and quickly typed a text message:

  @ bus shelter, west side, chalk farm rd. T is held. All bus routes north west – AWAY from her work. where going??

  As soon as the message was sent he flicked the phone on to silent mode and slid it back into his pocket and waited for its vibrating to go through his hand like an electric shock. Seconds later he received Sally’s reply:

  Tess and I will join you at stop with T. OK?

  He tapped in his reply:

  Ok.

  As he slipped the phone out of sight he saw Sally approaching the bus stop, halting a few feet short of the shelter, pulling her coat tight aga
inst the chill, moving from foot to foot, just another office worker trying to keep her feet from freezing. Next DC Carlisle appeared from behind a couple she been using as cover, walking straight into the shelter without looking around, sitting on one of the unoccupied bench-bar seats and immediately pulling a worn paperback from her small handbag. All the time Hannah Richmond continued to glance about her, yet failed to notice the three cops.

  Sean risked a sideways glance as he pretended to be looking for the bus, sensing the target’s agitation as soon as he saw her in the corner of his eye. But whatever she was looking for – whatever she was expecting − it wasn’t them. What are you up to? Sean asked himself. Where are you going and what are you afraid of – us? The police? You look for us, but you don’t see us. Is that what I’m doing with this case – looking but not seeing? An approaching bus broke his thoughts, its front sign stating it was heading towards Hampstead High Street and then on to Golders Green, the wrong side of the heath for Small Fry Nursery. All three detectives held their ground, waiting for the target to make her move or not. If there had been more of them following a surveillance-aware target then maybe one or two would have got on the bus anyway, just to keep the target disorientated, but working in a team of three they couldn’t do that even if they thought it necessary.

  As soon as the doors of the bus were fully open, Hannah shuffled across the pavement and stepped on board, swiping her Oyster Card and heading up the stairs and to the back of the bus. Any lingering doubt that she might be headed for work was dispelled. The detectives waited until the other passengers from the stop boarded before quickly following them on to the bus, each giving the driver a flash of their warrant cards held concealed in the palms of their hands. The bemused driver was used to having the occasional cop on his bus, but three in a row made him look up and follow their progress on his onboard security cameras, watching them climb the stairs and fan out on the top deck – Sally taking the front near the stairs, Sean the middle section and Tessa the rear, sitting just one behind the target on the opposite side.

  Sean allowed himself to relax for a while, happy the target was secure and well covered, feeling a sense of growing excitement as he considered Richmond’s behaviour and direction of travel, her potential as a prime suspect growing with every passing minute. The niggling thought that this could simply be her day off prompted him to try and remember what her employment record had said, but he couldn’t recall anything about her having days off in the middle of the week. He momentarily considered having Donnelly call the nursery and check, but decided against it – for now.

  As the bus continued its journey Sean tried to imagine Hannah Richmond leading him straight to the missing children. Would she try to justify her actions, or would she turn out to be another delusional case, motivated by some twisted logic or ideology that could only ever make sense to herself? His thoughts projected forward to the inevitable search of her flat and no doubt the arrest of her partner and conspirator, each turning on the other in desperate attempts to save their own skins – love quickly replaced by betrayal. What types of drugs and medication would he find in her bathroom cabinet? Anti-depressants? Anti-anxiety drugs? Sleeping pills? He expected to find them all, the profile of the woman sitting only a few feet away forming and solidifying in his mind, and with it his plan of how to interview her – how to break her. His phone vibrated as it received a text and made him jump a little before he realized what it was. He looked down at the screen he’d been cradling in his hand and read the message from Tess:

  She’s getting off.

  He felt a little flutter in his chest as he realized the chase would soon be back on. A few seconds later the target passed him in the aisle while he pretended to be looking out of the window, his eyes straining to catch her in his peripheral vision as she walked to the top of the stairs and disappeared down them, glancing back along the bus just before she did so. As the target descended, Carlisle quickly got to her feet and followed. Sean was behind her, but held at the top of the stairs where he was briefly met by Sally, who whispered, ‘Short bus ride.’

  ‘Where to now?’ Sean wondered, waiting for a few other passengers to disembark before he and Sally skipped quietly down the stairs, through the folding doors as they were shutting and out on to the pavement and into the cold air. Carlisle was a clear twenty metres ahead of them, no more than ten metres behind the target, who was heading north along Haverstock Hill, approaching Belsize Park underground station. But before she reached it she turned left into Belsize Grove, a quiet residential street of small townhouses for the very well-heeled, shining four-wheel drives crammed into every available parking space. He was extremely glad she hadn’t descended into the underground system, where she could have been too easily lost, but the peaceful quietness of the street made her difficult to follow without making themselves conspicuous. He and Sally had no choice but to hang back, leaving Carlisle on point, though if the target was looking for her she wouldn’t be able to continue for much longer and not be spotted.

  His phone vibrated in his hand. He pressed answer without checking the caller ID. ‘I’m listening.’

  ‘She’s turned right into Primrose Gardens,’ Carlisle’s voice told him quietly. ‘I need to go straight on or I’ll show out,’ she continued. ‘Sorry, guv.’

  ‘Do it,’ Sean agreed. ‘I’ll take over.’ He hung up and stuffed the phone in his pocket. ‘Let’s go,’ he told Sally as he broke into a fast jog, Sally keeping up with him until they reached the junction with Primrose Gardens. ‘I’ll go,’ Sean said. ‘Hang well back and keep out of sight. If she makes it to the next junction I’ll call you. You can pick her up from there, all right?’

  ‘Fine,’ Sally agreed. ‘Good luck.’

  Sean took off into Primrose Gardens, easily picking up the target in the empty street, but she was getting too far ahead. He had no choice but to increase his speed until it was unnaturally fast. He risked drawing attention, but he had to close the distance or lose her, especially if she ducked into one of the many houses lining the street. He used what street furniture he could to disguise his approach, noticing she was now on her mobile phone. Taking instructions? ‘Come on,’ he encouraged her with a whisper. ‘Come on, Hannah. Take me to them. End this thing.’

  Still she talked on her phone, although she seemed to be listening more than talking, looking increasingly agitated and uneasy, as if she was receiving troubling news. Finally she stopped dead, looking all about the street, clearly searching for something. Sean ducked into the recessed entrance to a house so he could continue to watch her without being seen, peeking around the corner and praying the occupant didn’t appear and make a noisy scene. He tugged his warrant card from his inside jacket pocket so he’d have it ready just in case they did, but nobody appeared. Hannah finally ended her conversation and slowly replaced her mobile in her handbag, but still she looked unhappy and on edge, checking up and down the street before she started to cross the road, heading for a house directly in front of her.

  ‘Come on, come on,’ Sean almost begged, his heart pounding, his mind occupied by one thing and one thing only – find the children.

  From his vantage point he saw her climb the few stairs leading to the front door of a townhouse that was as smart as all the others. She paused at the door, fumbling inside her handbag for something unseen – keys, he assumed. This has to be it, he told himself. This has to be it. He sprang from his hideout and moved fast and silently across the road and along the line of the railings in front of the buildings, the angle tight enough to keep him concealed from the target until he was almost upon her, his chest sore from breathing the freezing cold air, feeling the sort of excitement that few people doing normal jobs would ever feel. Excitement that could become an addictive need to be on the edge.

  He closed the space between them quickly now, her back still turned to the street as she struggled with unfamiliar keys in unfamiliar locks. When he was still a few metres away he saw her body jolt forward as if
she was falling through a suddenly open door. His mind was already made up: the only option was to act without delay – no sitting back, watching the address. Either it was her or it wasn’t. Either the missing children were inside or they weren’t. No amount of surveillance was going to change that now.

  Before she could close the door, Sean was on her, grabbing her arm hard around the bicep and bundling her into the hallway of the townhouse, her eyes wide with terror, her mouth locked open in a silent scream as children appeared at the far end of the hallway, little more than silhouettes, except for their eyes – staring in fear and disbelief as Sean pushed Hannah Richmond against the wall, moving his hand from her arm to her chest, just below her neck. ‘Don’t move,’ he told her, blinking as he looked along the hallway, trying to grow used to the dimness, trying to focus on the children who stood frozen, side by side, eventually realizing he was looking at three children, not two.

  ‘Don’t hurt me,’ Richmond pleaded. ‘Please, God, don’t hurt the children. I’ll do anything you want – just don’t hurt the children.’

  Sean heard her clearly enough, but her words didn’t fit the scene – didn’t fit her – the prime suspect. ‘What?’ he asked, staring into her terrified face.

  ‘The children,’ she repeated, calmer now, resigned to her fate. ‘Please don’t hurt the children.’

  It took him a second before he realized she had no idea who he was. He felt the warrant card in his hand and quickly held it up for her to see, all the while keeping her pinned to the wall, the sounds of sniffling, crying children growing ever louder, disorientating him as the situation began to feel less and less like a rescue scenario. ‘Police,’ he told her loudly, just as Sally burst through the open door, her eyes wide and wild as she tried to assess the scene before her.