Fifty Fifty (Detective Harriet Blue #2)(40)

‘This is a bit of a weird place for a two-on-one,’ Sandy smirked uneasily, looking around the car park. ‘Are we getting out of here, or …?’

‘Oh no, we’ll play our game right here,’ Tox said. He checked his watch. There was a strange, tight pause as the man simply stood there, smiling at the girl’s face. Whitt opened his mouth to ask what was going on, but before he could Tox lunged at the girl, grabbing her by both arms, yanking her towards him.

‘You’re coming with me, girly!’ Tox snarled.

‘ Whoa!’ Whitt stumbled backwards. ‘Whoa! Whoa!’

‘What are you doing?’ Sandy screamed. ‘What are you doing! Help! Help!’

The girl in Tox’s arms suddenly sprang to life, bucking and twisting in his grip. The two of them fell into the side of a parked car.

Whitt launched himself forwards, trying to wrestle the girl from Tox’s grip as he dragged her towards the van. Her screaming was so loud up close that his eardrums pulsed.

‘Please! Stop! Help me!’

‘Stop, Tox! Let her go!’

Tox threw his weight sideways, knocking Whitt into another car, sending his glasses skidding across the asphalt. Sandy twisted in Tox’s arms, bashed at his head with her forearms. He stopped and adjusted his grip, hugged her to him like a child and loped in the direction of the van with her howling against his chest.

‘In you go!’ he laughed triumphantly, placing Sandy in the cabin of the van and slamming the door. Sandy was screaming, beating on the door with her fists. Whitt limped towards Tox, his lower back aching from slamming into the side mirror of a nearby Toyota.

‘What the hell is wrong with you? Let her out of there!’

‘Fifty seconds,’ Tox said, glancing at his watch. He pushed the door of the van open and Sandy got out. She slapped Tox hard across the side of the head.

‘You arsehole!’ she panted. ‘What the fuck is wrong with you?’

‘It was just a game, sweetheart.’ Tox reached out and took her shoulders in his big, calloused hands, smoothed her arms. ‘That’s all. No need to get your pretty feathers all ruffled.’

‘ You’re crazy,’ Sandy huffed and tried to assess the damage the struggle had done to her artificial hair. ‘You’ve always been a crazy fuck.’ She slapped him again, hard, across the face.

Tox peeled a couple of hundreds off of a roll he produced from his pocket. Sandy snatched the bills and tucked them into her bra, held her hand out for more. Tox sighed and peeled again. Sandy frowned at Whitt.

‘Great load of help you were,’ she snapped, jutting her chin at Whitt. ‘Was this your idea? You some kinda freak who likes to watch abductions?’

‘No, no,’ Whitt protested. ‘I really –’

‘What the hell was that all for?’

‘I needed a screamer,’ Tox said. ‘A real screamer. Not someone faking it. We’re being scientists today, darling.’

Sandy looked unconvinced. A man in a grey uniform was running up the slope towards them, his hand on his belt.

‘What’s going on?’ He wiped at a sweaty head of black hair. ‘Who’s in trouble?’

‘You are,’ Tox said.





Chapter 55


‘I’M DETECTIVE INSPECTOR Tate Barnes and this is Detective Inspector Edward Whittacker.’ Tox paused when he got to Sandy. ‘And this is … our associate. We’re investigating the abduction of Caitlyn McBeal.’

‘Oh,’ the man said. He brushed at the front of his grey uniform, fiddled with a name badge that read Bill Perkins: Security.

‘William Perkins. You’re the security guard who gave police a statement about that day, aren’t you?’ Tox folded his arms.

‘Yes.’

‘Interesting.’ Tox glanced at the sunshine streaming in through the side of the lot. ‘Same day of the week. Same hour of the day that Caitlyn was apparently abducted. Wind direction seems to be more or less the same. You hear the screams of a woman, screams that last fifty seconds and you come running.’

‘Yes.’ Bill shifted uncomfortably.

‘You were down there in your little security guard’s hut on the first floor just now, were you?’

‘ Uh-huh.’ Bill cleared his throat.

‘That’s where you said you were at the time of Caitlyn’s alleged abduction.’

‘Yep.’

‘So all the variables are the same as they were on that day. But you said in your statement that you didn’t hear any screams,’ Tox said. ‘You said you heard no screams, no scuffle on the third floor. You said you didn’t see a white van exit the driveway anywhere around that time.’

The security guard looked intently at Sandy. She was the safe place to look. Whitt and Tox’s eyes bored into the man’s face, assessing every muscle twitch.

‘Were you where you were supposed to be on that day, Mr Perkins?’

‘Yes.’ Bill straightened. ‘I was.’

‘Really?’ Whitt raised an eyebrow.

‘Yes.’

‘What if, for example …’ Tox mused. ‘What if I took your head, Bill Perkins, and I put it in the gap of the sliding door of my van here.’ He gestured to the van. ‘And I slammed the door closed, over and over?’