‘We don’t know what’s going on here, Maddie.’ Harry’s retort was instant and it was strong. The car was still slowing but its direction was still towards the café and away from the lights she had seen. It seemed they were rolling to a complete stop. The urgent flashes of blue visible through the windows amounted to perverse mockery. She felt like she might implode with the frustration.
‘Please, Harry. I don’t think Michelle was lying. I think he’s out here with Rhiannon. And even if it’s half-truths or she’s luring us somewhere else, there are three of us here and a whole lot more going on to the café. We can handle it.’
‘We can’t just go blundering into the countryside because we’ve been told to. We need to be more measured.’
‘You mean like I did? Like I went blundering into the café?’
‘People make mistakes, Maddie. That’s not an issue. It becomes an issue if we don’t learn from them.’
‘That stings, Harry.’ She had been leaning forward again but she pushed herself back. The car had practically stopped. ‘So we should just sit here then, should we? Is that what you’re saying?’ her voice was laden with menace. She felt for the phone in her pocket. Her radio was in her bag, too. She’d put it on silent when Vince had turned up the volume on the car set. She made a snap decision. She would get out here. The radio was full of excited chatter from officers making their way to the area. It wouldn’t take much to call up and have one pick her up. Then she’d go after her lights. She pushed the door open and swung her legs out, her radio gripped tightly in her spare hand. The car jolted suddenly to a complete stop.
‘Maddie! What the hell are you doing?’ Harry’s voice barely contained his rage.
‘I’ll get a lift. You carry on to the café.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous!’
She stepped away from the car and immediately she felt the chill of raindrops. Harry’s window slid down.
‘Get back in the car, Maddie. There are updates from others. They’re at the café. They know to hold back — it’s a huge perimeter. I can’t spare anyone coming out here to look for you in the dark. We take five minutes to chase your lights. But you remember this was your decision.’
Maddie held firm. She considered her options and lifted her eyes to the dark horizon. All around her the leaves of the trees beat the rhythm of the rain. She got back in the car. Vince’s eyes fill the rear-view mirror. She could just make out where the cheeks beneath were creased, where he was smiling broadly at her. Now it wasn’t just the flicker of the lights that felt urgent.
Chapter 31
‘Straight on here!’ Maddie called out as she looked up from her phone.
‘Did you see more lights?’ Vince called back.
‘Yes. Straight on.’
‘What lights?’ Harry said. ‘I didn’t see anything! We need to take this next right — back to the A20. We’re wasting our time out here. Even if you did see a lorry, it could be anywhere. The café is our best shot.’
‘Go straight on here — there’s a right just a little further up. I’ve got my mapping open on my phone. Just prove me wrong and take the next right.’
‘Boss?’ Vince said again. Maddie wanted to vent at him, to tell him to trust her, to get a backbone of his own. She bit her tongue; it would achieve nothing.
‘Straight on,’ Harry said. ‘But we take the next right.’
Maddie was back to leaning forward. Vince had killed the blue lights when they had turned off the main road. They would be seen for miles around in this darkness. It was difficult enough to find anything out here, let alone someone who could see you coming. There were only the headlamps of the car to pick anything out. So far, it was just slick, muddy banks and branches hanging down over the road dripping thick globules of water. The rain was heavier still, the windscreen wipers now working on full. Ahead, Maddie could see more road rising over a steep hill.
‘Harry, I know where we are! Jarod Logan . . . we found him here. Not far from here.’
‘We did.’ Harry ’s voice was lower. He didn’t turn to look back at her. She could feel the panic rising again. She knew what that meant. She reckoned he did, too. ‘Vince, pick up the speed will you,’ he said.
She felt the car surge. She was focussed forward now, hardly daring to breathe. They swept up the hill, Harry pushed a dash-mounted button to update control with their location. His voice had a slight shake — he was tense. When they reached the crest of the hill, they must all have seen the red lights at the same time. They were bright, fifty metres in front, and there was no doubt they were attached to the back of a lorry. And they were stationary. Vince jerked the patrol car to a stop and Maddie felt herself pushed forward. Nobody said anything and time seemed to almost stop. Then there was movement: Vince reaching for the panel that activated the lights.
‘No, Vince!’ Harry snapped.
It was too late: the vivid blue strobes sliced up the darkness. The reaction was almost immediate. The red lights on the vehicle in front flickered, then bright, white lights reached out from the front. The light illuminating the rear number plate came on, too. Maddie could see it clearly.
‘E.K.O.!’ she shouted. ‘That’s it!’ She heard the roar of a powerful diesel engine and the lights over E.K.O. shuddered as it surged forward. Vince revved the patrol car hard. It was quicker and the gap between them closed.
‘There’s someone in the back!’ Vince shouted. His lights flooded the rear of the truck where Maddie could see someone squatting down. They were in dark clothing with an arm raised to repel the bright lights of the patrol car on full beam. The figure stumbled and reached out to grab the side of the lorry, almost toppling out. The arm dropped to get hold of the side. Maddie saw a man’s face under a hood. Wide eyes peered out. He looked young — and terrified. He made it to the back of the truck and his hands dropped below the truck’s tailgate. Maddie couldn’t see what he was doing.
The tailgate dropped away. Even from the back of the car, Maddie heard the loud bang as it came down. Now the beams of the patrol car flooded the whole of the rear. The man in the back was kneeling next to what looked like bunched-up plastic. Maddie felt the air leave her lungs with such force that she felt she might never be able to breathe again. The soles of bare feet faced towards her from beneath the plastic. A rope trailed from under them that dipped down beside the number plate and looked to be tied off around the tow bar.
‘DROP BACK!’ Harry bellowed. The car slowed a little and the truck pulled away.
‘WHAT ARE YOU DOING?’ Maddie shouted. Her voice was a dry rasp, her chest so tight she was fighting for breath. She got no answer. The figure in the back of the truck was still battling to stay upright on his knees. He moved close to the plastic and reached under it with both his arms. He heaved, every movement looking like an unnatural jerk as it was caught in the blue strobes. The plastic turned and he fell onto his side as the truck lurched into a corner.
‘DO SOMETHING!’ Maddie screamed. Vince was back to keeping pace, the car’s lights still flooding the rear.
Harry reached out and jabbed the panel and the blues stopped. ‘DROP BACK!’ he shouted again. The car slowed a little more.
‘Harry! We need to get up to it! We need to stop it!’
Harry spun in his seat, his wide eyes fixed on her. ‘We can’t!’ His head shook, his eyes glazed then ripped away from her as he faced back front. ‘You need to look away, Maddie. You don’t need to see this.’ His voice was softer, drifting over her. Her hand pushed over her mouth. She couldn’t look away. The figure was still on his knees and he heaved again. The roll of plastic was on the edge of the flatbed. The man lifted his head. His whole face was flared white by the headlights and he was still for an instant. Then his head dropped and his arms pushed out.
The plastic rolled then dropped. Maddie heard the thud as it hit the road, even over Vince’s shout. She screamed as the rope tightened almost instantly and the clump of tarpaulin twitched and skipped after the van. The patrol
car slowed more. The truck pushed into the distance, the darkness starting to consume it.
‘Stay with it, Vince.’ Harry’s voice was strained and trembling with shock. ‘Maddie, tell me you’re looking away.’ His face was still forward.
Maddie couldn’t respond. She had nothing. The truck took a bend and the dark clump of plastic flicked out behind. It collided with a steep bank, spun and jerked back out into the middle of the road. The patrol car made up ground on the bend and now they were close enough to see the figure in the back. He had moved to lie on his front, his arm reaching down with a sawing movement.
‘VINCE, STOP!’ Maddie screamed. She didn’t need to. The car was already skidding. Vince must have seen it at the same time she had and stood on the brake pedal. Maddie was pinned to the back of the front seats by her forward momentum. When she was able to look ahead again, she saw the rope give. The clump of plastic still moved forward but its motion was different now, a roll rather than a slide. It collided with the bank for one last time and rebounded into the middle of the road, where it came finally to rest. The lorry that had shed it moved off into the distance. Maddie pushed her car door open and her feet were on the ground while they were still moving. It made her stumble. The road was narrow here and dropped away sharply at the sides. Her left foot slid down a greasy bank into standing water. She pushed past where Harry’s door was opening. A fallen branch banged against her shins as she lunged forward to where the bundle of plastic was still in the middle of the road. The bright lights of the car picked out a slim leg sticking out from the plastic bundle. It looked shockingly pale. There was no movement and no sound. She’d been praying for screams or cries — any signs of life at all —
but as she fell to her knees, she heard only the sound of the patrol car’s idling engine and the falling rain.
Chapter 32
Harry pushed his door open hard but it came straight back as Maddie flashed past. It must have collided with her shoulder. She didn’t seem to notice. By the time he got out of the car she had already sunk to her knees and was tearing at the rolled plastic. Vince moved across him and made his way over to help her. Harry took a moment. Beyond the frantic movement of his colleagues in the middle of the muddy road, he could see the lorry. It had come to a stop in the distance; the headlamps of their patrol car reached out far enough to brush the back of it, enough to see the unmoving silhouette of a tall, stocky man with his hood up standing in the centre of the truck’s flatbed. It was too dark and too far for details, but it was a different outline to the man who had been struggling to stay upright in the back. Harry squinted at what looked to be movement in the man’s upper body. Suddenly a small, white light was pointed directly at him. It disappeared for an instant and then returned as a flash. A photograph? Harry took a step forward. His capacity to stay calm, to take a moment to assess the situation, was quickly diminishing as rage flooded his veins. The gall of someone to do what he had just done and then stop to take a photograph! As he stepped beyond his colleagues, he could hear Maddie’s high-pitched tones and Vince’s low rumble. He wasn’t sure if they were talking to him and he didn’t look back. Instead, he quickened his pace, his attention still on the man in the truck.
The small white light reappeared. This time the subsequent flash was angled down, towards the ground at the rear of the truck. Harry could make out something there, but little more than a shadow. He moved faster. The silhouette moved to the right and clambered down to the ground. He was moving towards the driver’s door. Now he was closer, Harry could see it hanging open and could hear the engine ticking over. He broke into a sprint. He still had fifteen metres to make up. The truck’s engine revved hard and there was the sound of churning gravel as the wheels dug in for grip. They found it and the truck lurched forward. There was the scrape of steel on steel when the gear was changed. He slowed to a jog. The truck was gone and the darkness closed in.
He turned back to where Vince or Maddie must have moved to block the headlights from reaching him. He took out his phone and activated the torch function. It wasn’t a great light but it would pick out anything obvious. He ran it over the ground as he moved towards where the truck had stopped. A few more steps and his light found a surface to reflect back from. It was a pair of eyes, wide and morose.
Harry dropped to his knees close to a young man’s face. He lifted his torch to run the light down his body. His feet were at the opposite end. He had bare knees and his trousers looked to be pulled down to just below them. Harry didn’t think he had been dragged, the rest of him looked too well preserved. He leant forward so his cheek was just an inch or two from the young man’s pursed lips to feel for his breath. There was nothing. The young man wore a big coat and his legs were pulled up so that it covered his thighs. Harry moved alongside him. The light was still poor.
‘Hello!’ Harry said instinctively. He shook the man from the shoulders — muscle memory perhaps, the response to a collapsed person he had been taught a hundred times in his career. He grabbed the wrist closest to him to feel for a pulse. The hand attached to it was wrapped in a tight bandage. There was nothing. He moved to the neck, which he knew to be a more reliable point. He pushed two fingers in hard, hard enough to detect even a slightest beat. Still nothing. He needed to start working on him. The man was lying on his side and Harry pushed him onto his back. He scrabbled over the zip on his jacket and tugged it down. He pulled the jacket open to expose the chest so he could try to massage the heart and keep the blood flowing around his body until someone came to help. He stopped dead in his tracks. For that to work, there would need to be some blood left in the first place. He was pretty sure there wasn’t.
The puddle under the man’s side was deep and still spreading, mainly around the hip area. The inside of his jacket was soaked with it and it was also on the man’s chest and the underside of his chin. The gash causing the blood loss was clear and it explained why both thighs were exposed. His underwear was pulled down from the waistband and something incredibly sharp had sliced through it. It had sliced through the skin underneath too, deep enough to sever the femoral artery that fed blood to the legs. Harry had seen it happen before: a road traffic accident where a motorcyclist had collided with an Armco. The attending paramedic had told Harry that someone would bleed out completely in under two minutes from such an arterial wound. The biker had never stood a chance. This man hadn’t either.
Harry rocked back on his haunches. All he could see was blood now. It was all over the road, stretching back the way Harry had come, but it seemed to be in clumps rather than from the spurt you would expect from an arterial bleed. Harry guessed that the young man’s coat had caught the worst of it and that he was on his feet when he had been cut.
‘HARRY!’ He turned to the voice. It was Maddie and she was shrieking. He cast one more glance down at those morose eyes and made his way back towards the car. There was nothing he could do for him now. He broke into a jog. Maddie was still kneeling down. She stood up as Harry approached. Vince was doing chest compressions.
‘How is she?’ Harry asked, despite already knowing the answer.
‘It’s not her! It’s not Rhiannon! It’s a girl. The girl we saw. But it’s not Rhiannon! We have to go. I’ve called it in. Patrols are on the way. We have to go after that truck!’
‘The girl we saw? What girl?’
‘The missing girl! We got pictures sent from her online stuff — Alyssa!’
‘Alyssa? Of course!’ He pictured those morose eyes now concealed by the darkness. ‘Jack Knight!’
‘We need to go after that truck!’ Maddie screamed.
Harry shook his head. ‘How? We can’t get past her. And there’s another body up there — Jack Knight, the boyfriend. He’s bled out. He’s dead.’
Maddie seemed to hesitate for a second. She shook her head gently like she was clearing her thoughts. ‘We can drag her out of the way — him too and get after him! We know what he’ll do. We have to stop him!’
‘NO!’
Harry gripped her by the arms. They were side on to the headlights of the patrol car and the light was so bright that he struggled to make out her expression. She jerked her hands back and Harry let her go. He had stained her sleeves with blood.
‘We have to try!’
‘We get someone here first then we go. He could be anywhere by now and we can’t move her, you know that. We need to think. We need to be careful.’
‘There’s no time! We need to be doing something.’ Maddie suddenly snatched away to the sound of a distant siren. It was getting closer and the lights soon broke the treeline. Maddie moved towards it.
‘You okay, Vince?’ Harry said. The moment Vince looked up Harry could see he was weary.
‘She’s right, boss. We need to get after him.’
Harry turned back to the slamming of car doors then the sound of running footsteps. Two officers came into view in front of the headlights. Another car announced its arrival with a burst of noise and lights behind the row of cars. Harry addressed the first two officers.
‘Take over with the compressions. I need you and the other patrol to do what you can to guide the ambulance in. I can’t spare any more patrols. There’s another body further up the road. I’ll sort a road closure the other end. There’s nothing you can do for him. Work on her. Okay?’
Two sets of wide eyes nodded back. One of them snatched the radio that hung from her chest and announced that she had arrived on scene. She checked on the status of the ambulance and was told that no ambulance had been requested. Harry shrugged.
‘There’s been a lot going on. Get it here.’ He got more nods. The other officer was already knelt beside Vince. The handover was seamless.
‘Are we going after him?’ Vince spoke the instant he was freed from his work on the ground. Harry could detect an edge to his words despite his breathlessness. This was a question Vince had already answered for himself.
‘Yes,’ Harry said. Two more uniform officers paced up to him.
HE WILL FIND YOU an absolutely gripping crime thriller with a massive twist Page 30
