by D. S. Butler
Kelly swore under her breath and raced back to the apartment. She planned to ask Peter if he knew where his wife was, and if he didn’t, she was going to call DI Tyler straightaway. She was anxious to avoid a repeat performance of the last time Claire had snuck out without her knowledge.
Back inside the apartment, Kelly knocked on the door of Peter Watson’s study. Holding onto the hope that his wife was in there with him.
Peter opened the door with a look of irritation on his face. “Yes?”
“Have you seen Claire? I can’t find her.”
“She went to the gym.”
Kelly shook her head. “She isn’t there. I just checked.”
The look of irritation on Peter Watson’s face was replaced by one of concern. He stepped outside the office and headed to their bedroom. Kelly waited as he checked the en suite bathroom.
He turned around and shook his head. “She isn’t there.” His eyes flashed angrily. “If she has run off and done something on her own again, I will…” He broke off as they both heard the sound of the front door opening.
Peter and Kelly rushed into the open plan living area just as Claire walked into the apartment. Her shoulders were slumped, and she looked defeated.
“Where have you been?” Peter Watson demanded.
Kelly walked up to Claire and put a hand on the woman’s shoulder. “You’re shaking, Claire. Come on, come and sit down.”
“I couldn’t do it,” Claire said and pulled out a small, black mobile phone, setting it down on the coffee table. “I failed.”
* * *
Back at Wood Street Station, the behavioural analyst, Zelda Smith, was talking about Benny Morris to the officers gathered in the briefing room.
“He would be easy to manipulate. Benny has developmental delays caused by his premature birth and wouldn’t be able to hold down a full-time job. It’s likely he doesn’t even possess the life skills required to live alone. It is possible someone has been utilising Benny for his size and his brawn, but certainly not his brain. There’s no reason to think Benny would have wanted to harm the girls.”
DC Webb spoke up, “But if his brother was involved, would Benny be easily led?”
Zelda Smith nodded. “I would say it was highly likely that Rob Morris is manipulating his brother.”
Tyler nodded and spoke up, addressing everyone in the briefing room, “For those of you who haven’t yet read the briefing notes, the man who delivered the flowers to Claire Watson, has been identified as Rob Morris.”
Zelda Smith looked quite put out at being interrupted. She narrowed her eyes and then continued, “Benny craves Rob’s approval, and Rob appears to be very controlling. We know that after their mother’s death, he took Benny from a home where he’d been settled for the past eighteen months. That means Benny is now completely reliant on him.”
Zelda opened her mouth to continue, but DI Tyler cut her off. “An officer has been posted to the hospital to keep watch in case Rob decides to come and check on his brother.”
“To finish the job?” Collins suggested.
Zelda Smith said, “That is highly unlikely. Rob Morris wouldn’t stab his brother. Rob has taken on the role of protector and nurturer.”
“So are you saying we should be looking for a third person behind the abduction?” Tyler asked.
Zelda Smith nodded primly. “I would say there was almost certainly a third person involved.”
Before she could continue, Tyler’s mobile rang. His face tightened as he listened to the caller on the other end of the line. No one in the briefing room spoke. It was obvious from the expression on his face that this was major news.
He hung up and then looked around the room.
“That was Kelly Johnson. Somehow the abductors have managed to get another mobile to Claire Watson, and they have been communicating with her. They told her to go to Bryant Lane primary school and take a child.”
Tyler paused as there were sounds of outrage from people around the room.
He put up his hands. “Thankfully, she couldn’t go through with it. She snuck out of the car park entrance so she wasn’t spotted by surveillance. I am going to go to Drake House and speak to her now. Mackinnon and Collins, I want you to go to the Georges’. I would be willing to bet the abductors have been trying to communicate with them, too. We need to make sure they haven’t done anything stupid.”
Chapter 48
“What do you mean you couldn’t go through with it?” Janice practically growled the words at her husband.
Toby looked down at his shoes, shamefaced.
“I threw acid over a stranger! I should have gone myself. I knew it. I should never have trusted you.”
Toby’s head snapped up. “It was a child, for Christ sakes, Janice. They wanted me to take a child.”
Janice was shocked into silence, and after a moment, there was a knock-on their bedroom door.
“What’s wrong?” Glenn Calvert’s voice called from the hallway.
Janice raised her eyes to the ceiling, but before she could tell Glenn Calvert to mind his own bloody business, the doorbell rang.
When Toby and Janice stepped out into the hallway, Glenn Calvert had already opened the front door. Two detectives stood in the doorway.
Janice looked at them with hatred. What good were they? They kept hanging around here and getting absolutely nowhere. They were supposed to help people, to save poor girls like her Lila, who got into trouble through no fault of their own.
It was down to them to save their daughter, but Toby hadn’t played the game the abductors wanted, and now they had failed.
It was all over.
Janice glared at the two detectives. “You’re too late.”
The tall officer, DS Mackinnon, stepped forward. “What have you done, Janice?”
Toby stuck up for her. “It wasn’t her, it was me. You’d better come in.”
DS Mackinnon and DC Collins entered the flat and followed Glenn Calvert through into the sitting room.
Once they were all sitting down, Toby began to explain how a note was thrown up onto the balcony, telling them they could find a new phone by the rubbish chute. Glenn stared at Toby in disbelief. “You told me you were popping out to get cigarettes!”
“Can we see the phone please, Toby?” DS Mackinnon asked.
He phrased it as a question, but from the look in his eye, Janice knew they weren’t going to be able to refuse.
Toby got to his feet and walked off to the bedroom to retrieve the phone, and DS Mackinnon turned to DC Collins and said, “Get the crime scene guys to come and take a look around the rubbish chute. There’s probably nothing there now, but it’s worth having a look around.”
DC Collins stood up, nodded and reached into his pocket for his mobile phone before stepping out into the hallway.
When Toby returned with the mobile phone, he held it out to DS Mackinnon, who opened a plastic bag and asked Toby to put it inside. He sealed the bag and then looked up at Toby.
“You know you can’t continue to do this. Every time you go off on your own and communicate with the kidnappers without our knowledge, you’re making our job harder and harder.”
Toby raked a hand through his hair. He slumped into an armchair and looked at DS Mackinnon.
“They sent a message saying I had failed. Do you think they’ve killed her?”
Mackinnon shook his head. “There is no evidence to suggest that.”
Janice leaned forward. Her hands gripped her knees. “Do you know if the other family won the task? Did they take a child?”
Mackinnon shook his head. “They didn’t take a child.”
Janice closed her eyes and let out a shaky breath in relief. Then both sets of parents had failed. That meant Lila still had a chance.
* * *
DI Tyler was absolutely fuming.
How was he supposed to run an investigation like this when both sets of parents kept screwing everything up? If he wasn’t convinced he’d be sa
cked, he would keep both sets of parents under lock and key until the investigation was over.
Both Claire Watson and Toby George had managed to get past the surveillance he’d set up. He was fighting a losing battle. The budget only allowed them a certain amount of manpower and it was impossible to track both parents. The officer they had stationed outside the Georges’ block of flats had alerted the team to the fact that Toby had left the flat, but as the family liaison officer had confirmed he was just popping out for a packet of cigarettes, Toby hadn’t been followed.
Claire and Peter Watson sat on the cream sofa opposite him. Peter looked absolutely horrified by his wife’s actions, but Claire had a defiant light in her eyes.
“You don’t understand. It isn’t your daughter they have taken. It’s all right for you, sitting there and scolding me like I’m a child, but you have no idea what this feels like. You don’t know.”
DI Tyler could never be accused of favouring the softly, softly approach. He liked to think he was a compassionate officer, but at times like these, compassion wasn’t what was needed. A good dose of common sense was required.
“I will tell you what I know,” he said. “If you had come to us and told us about this new phone, we could have been there waiting for them. You do realise they would have had someone waiting and watching at the school?”
“I…” Claire’s cheeks flushed red and she stammered over her words.
“If we’d known, we could have set up a sting and had a suspect in custody right now.”
No one spoke. Claire Watson looked to her husband for help, but after a brief pause, he got up and walked away.
Maybe Tyler had been too harsh. Maybe he would get reported, but he was fed up of getting nowhere.
Their only progress so far was Addlestone’s arrest. It didn’t even look like he’d be charged for the images, as the girl in the photographs had just turned eighteen.
This labour-intensive investigation had so far produced little in the way of results. They were no closer to getting the girls home. The only progress they had made had come from Mackinnon’s instincts.
Tyler stared at Ruby Watson’s parents. He could lay into them again, explaining how they’d messed everything up, but he wasn’t sure he was getting through to them. He needed to come at the investigation from a new angle.
As his eyes flickered between Peter Watson, who was now standing by the large windows looking out at the city, and his wife Claire, who was now staring down miserably at her lap, Tyler tried to come up with a fresh focus.
Mackinnon’s instinct had got them Addlestone, and they’d only bumped Addlestone up the interview list after Curtis’ suggestion.
He glanced at Curtis’ closed bedroom door. If Ruby’s brother had known about Addlestone, maybe there was more he could tell them.
He stood up. “I am going to have a word with your son.”
Claire nodded, too upset to talk, and Peter said nothing but continued to stare out of the window.
Tyler stalked past the open plan kitchen where Kelly Johnson was busy tidying away the tea things.
He knocked once on the bedroom door and then opened it.
He stood in the doorway, eyes wide, unable to believe the sight in front of him. Curtis was sitting beside the computer, and when he saw Tyler, he quickly switched off the screen, but he wasn’t fast enough.
Tyler had seen everything.
Chapter 49
Charlotte headed for the London hospital as soon as they got word that Benny was out of surgery. He was still under the effects of anaesthetic and not fully awake, but she had seen his face clearly enough to know that it was definitely Benny Morris.
Who had stabbed him? Had they had a falling out over money or over what they were going to do with the girls?
Although they knew Benny had learning difficulties, Charlotte didn’t know whether Benny was fully involved in planning the abduction or whether he’d just been carried along by the leaders.
The nurse Charlotte had been speaking to sat down at the nurses’ station and pulled the keyboard towards her. “Can you give me his name and address? I’d like to be able to put in a request for his medical records and notify his next-of-kin.”
Charlotte gave her Benny Morris’ name and date of birth as well as his address. “I imagine his next-of-kin is his brother. We’ve been looking for him as well but haven’t been able to track him down yet. If you do manage to get in touch with him, could you give me a heads up? It’s probably best not to mention the police are looking for him, though.”
The nurse gave Charlotte a guarded look. Some members of the medical profession didn’t appreciate playing piggy-in-the-middle with their patients and the police. They preferred to take an impartial view and treat everyone as equals.
Life wasn’t that simple, though. “When do you think he’ll be up to answering questions?”
“I would say at least another hour or so. He’s still very groggy.”
Charlotte nodded. “Just so you know, in case you don’t get his medical records in time, Benny’s got learning difficulties. So he might be a little out of sorts when he wakes up, and he’ll probably be scared.”
The nurse nodded and glanced down the corridor in the direction of Benny’s recovery room. “Do you think he’ll be violent? Should I have more staff on hand?”
Charlotte shook her head. “I don’t think so. He doesn’t have a record of violence, but we are looking at him in connection with a crime, and obviously, he must have experienced a very violent altercation that ended in him getting stabbed. Constable Doyle is on the door, though, if you do need help subduing Benny.”
The nurse raised her eyebrows as though asking for Constable Doyle’s help was the last thing she would consider doing.
“I could sedate him,” she suggested.
“No,” Charlotte said quickly.
That was the last thing she wanted. Then she would have to wait even longer before she could question Benny.
She thanked the nurse and walked back down the corridor towards Constable Doyle, who was sitting on a chair outside the recovery room.
Charlotte sat down on one of the chairs beside him. “I’d like you to let me know as soon as he wakes up. If he can give us any names, this could be the breakthrough we need to bring the girls home.”
Constable Doyle nodded. “I will.”
Charlotte nodded. “I’m going to get myself a coffee. Can I get you anything?”
Constable Doyle said, “No, thanks. I am fine.”
Charlotte let her mind wander as she walked along the hospital corridors. Benny had been left to die, but he had pulled through his operation. He’d been given four units of blood to try and replace the blood he’d lost.
It would have been a scary experience for anybody let alone someone like Benny. As soon as he woke up, Charlotte wanted to be in there, questioning him straightaway. She didn’t want to give him a chance to think up a story. She needed the truth.
It had been over twenty-four hours and the girls still weren’t home. Every minute that passed made it less and less likely both girls would ever return home.
* * *
Rob Morris was clutching at straws.
He hadn’t been able to find Benny anywhere, and he was absolutely terrified that Marlo had hurt him somehow. As a last resort, he’d started to phone around the local hospitals. He got a negative response on every occasion until he called The Royal London.
He’d started off the conversation as he had on each previous occasion, preparing himself for the admissions clerk to tell him there had been nobody admitted by that name, but when she said they did have a Benjamin Morris registered, a gasp of surprise escaped Rob’s lips.
“When was he admitted? Are you sure it was Benjamin Morris?” Rob gave the woman Benny’s date of birth and address so she could cross-check.
“We believe so. He was unconscious when he was brought in, but he’s been identified by the police and…”
“The
police?” Rob felt an overwhelming sense of panic at those words.
“Yes, are you a relative?” I can’t really give you any details out over the phone unless you are.”
Rob tried to force his brain to work. It felt clogged and fuzzy from panic. He couldn’t think straight.
He couldn’t tell them he was Benny’s brother because the police were bound to be looking for him.
“Yes, I am his…father,” Rob blurted out without really thinking things through.
“Oh, then I am very sorry to tell you that Benny was brought in early this morning suffering from a stab wound. He’s been in surgery where they tried to repair the damage. He’s lost a lot of blood, but he made it through surgery and is now in recovery.”
For a moment, Rob couldn’t speak. Stabbed. Benny had been stabbed.
There was only one person Rob could think of who could be responsible and that was Marlo. He kicked out at the wall, clutching his phone tight to his ear.
“Is he going to be okay?” Rob’s voice sounded small and distant, and he barely recognised it.
“He has a very serious injury,” she replied, “but he’s in the best possible hands here. When he wakes up, I will make sure he knows you called.”
“Thank you. I will get there as soon as I can.”
Rob pressed a button to end the call and staggered back to lean against the wall. His legs felt weak.
Benny had been stabbed, and it was all his fault.
Chapter 50
Tyler stepped inside Curtis’ bedroom and shut the door behind him.
“Curtis, why do you have the exact same photographs on your computer as Terence Addlestone has on his MacBook?”
Curtis turned around slowly to face Tyler. He looked younger than his sixteen years as he bit down on his lower lip and then shook his head. His shoulders slumped as he looked down at the floor.
“I didn’t know what to do.”
Tyler folded his arms over his chest and looked down at the boy. “I think you’d better start at the beginning, don’t you?”
