Cold Revenge (Willis/Carter #6)(96)

Carter needed a moment. He couldn’t believe this was happening but at the same time he knew he couldn’t lose his head. He was stuck where he was with no choice but to see their plan through. And in any case he knew if anyone would find Archie, Willis would. He pushed back the feelings of panic and fury that threatened to throw him off balance.

‘I heard you, Eb. If it can’t be me there, then you are the next best thing for Archie. You think with your head, not with your heart. The heart is never going to win in a fight with Douglas or his disciples. If the worst thing happens, and Archie is dying when you get there, you tell him how much I love him. Okay?’ His voice faltered slightly despite his attempts to keep his emotions under control.

‘You know I will.’

Davies was out of the vehicle. When Carter finished the call he walked away to clear his head for a few minutes before he came back and filled her in.

‘They’ve taken my son. He’s been abducted and Willis is sure that it was ordered by Douglas, carried out by his disciples. The Mafia must be putting on the squeeze.’

‘It shows you how desperate they are for us to back off,’ said Hector. ‘What do you want from us, Dan?’

‘There is nothing we can do but what we came here to do and that’s get Yvonne back alive. I have faith in my team. Willis loves Archie like her own, which is why they chose him, why Douglas ordered it. I am the closest thing to family Willis has. She will do what she has to do.’

‘I am sorry,’ said Maxwell. ‘I pushed for this to go further.’

Carter shook his head. ‘Don’t be sorry for being good at your job, Chris. Now, let’s get this done.’

Davies nodded. ‘We go in twos here,’ she said. ‘Two of us get back into the vehicle and drive it and block off the escape route on the lane and walk on foot to the entrance to Stony Field. The other two join my team and make their way up the field. Carter, your call?’

‘I’ll take Hector with me.’ Carter left Maxwell with Davies, and got back into the car with Hector.

‘Remember,’ said Davies, leaning in at the window, ‘you wait for our signal before you go in at the entrance to the field. We must have a good view, we are climbing uphill, we need to get halfway up the field to get a good shot.’

‘Understood.’

Carter and Hector drove to the top of the lane, and set their car across the road, blocking it. Carter radioed in that they were about to start walking. They strode silently up the lane, along the side of the hedge. As the hedge came to an end they could see the gate to Stony Field. The old cattle shed was roofless and falling down, but the container was there, its top just visible through a break in the hedge. It was grey and solid with bracken growing around its edges – it was being absorbed by nature.

‘We’re on our way,’ said Davies.

‘We have the gate in our sights. I can see Heathcote’s van.’

‘Count to fifty, then go, not before,’ said Davies.

Carter stopped and looked at Hector. From inside the container they could hear noises. He unfastened his holster and Hector did the same. A chain was looped around the gate, but it wasn’t locked. They walked past Gavin’s van and pushed the gate a little to step just inside. Carter looked down the field and saw a glimpse of movement as Stephanie Davies and her colleagues made their way up the field towards them.

Back at Fletcher House a missing child took priority over everything else.

‘I am going to be the SIO,’ said Bowie, as he addressed them all in the inquiry team office. ‘We will be running this operation with MIT 19. I am overall in charge of the four units in this building and I exercise my rights to oversee this. I don’t care what it costs. Get everything we have into the air and look for him. Who do you think would have done this?’ he asked Willis.

‘It was ordered by Douglas,’ said Willis. ‘Cathy Dwyer more than likely carried it out. We know she’s trying to placate her backers. She may not have had their help in abducting Archie but she will be able to call on it if she needs it and then we won’t see Archie again. We have to get him now while she may be thinking what to do.’

‘Has Cabrina received a call for ransom?’

‘No,’ answered Willis. ‘I don’t think we will hear from them. They want us to get out there and tell the world’s press the case is done with and that Douglas is coming out, that we have others facing charges. They won’t care who we have to fit up, they just want their restaurants to open. It’s all about money. We should consider putting out a statement if we don’t find him in the first twenty-four hours,’ Willis went on, unable to look at Tucker whilst she said the words. ‘It should say that the investigation into Douglas and the new graves at Lambs Farm is being called off, just to give us time.’

‘No,’ said Bowie, ‘we can’t do that; you know we can’t. They will roast us for that and we can’t play by the Mafia’s rules or by Douglas’s. We are not Mafia-owned and we can’t save Archie by those means. He lives or dies by our ability to find him.’

Laptop read his report on intelligence so far. ‘We know this van was a newly bought fifteen-year-old Transit van and we have not been able to get a lot of information on the owners. However, the CCTV has been analysed, and it’s believed that the person driving it in the picture could be Cathy Dwyer. We are still collecting CCTV footage from various locations during the afternoon, still hoping to get better images of the van.’