The Secret Child (DI Amy Winter #2)(28)

He watched her, his eyes narrowed, his thoughts dark. Would she survive what lay ahead? Would he? Taking Ellen was meant to change things. She stirred, crying for her mummy in her sleep. Perhaps death would be a blessing and save her from a lifetime of pain.





CHAPTER NINETEEN

Suppressing a yawn, Amy chastised herself for burning the candle at both ends. Sleep had evaded her and the dark rings under her eyes made her look like death warmed up.

‘You’re in early,’ she said, catching sight of Paddy hunched over his desk. ‘Did my sister kick you out of bed?’ Sally-Ann was a good influence on him. Lately he had not been late for work once.

Opening the office blinds, Amy cleared away some takeaway cartons from the night before. The place stank of curry and the cleaners were late. A stickler for time-keeping, Amy accepted that not everyone shared her enthusiasm for arriving at work when they should.

‘Sally-Ann’s on a late shift today, sends her regards,’ Paddy replied, gathering up empty mugs in preparation for the morning tea round. ‘Feck, it’s cold out there.’ He shuddered in response to the window Amy had flung open.

‘Nonsense. You’re spoilt, driving to work with heated seats warming your backside. A lungful of fresh air is just what you need to brush the cobwebs away.’ Amy had walked to work this morning, as Malcolm had given her a lift home from the pub last night.

Satisfied she had cleared the room of the sour curry smell, she pulled the window in a notch. Bustling through the door, a small grey-haired Italian woman apologised for her tardiness. She was dragging a Henry Hoover, and Paddy helped her find a socket. Given the length of time the detectives spent there, every spare socket was taken up with iPhone and Samsung phone chargers.

By the time the cleaner had finished, the rest of the team had filtered in. They followed Amy into the briefing room. The early start was necessary in order to deal with the day’s headlines and the fallout which would ultimately follow. It was D-Day for Ellen, Amy could feel it in her bones.

It all depended on Adam, who had texted in the early hours to say that elements of Luka’s letter would appear in this morning’s edition. Calling him for confirmation was futile. He had not yet arrived at work and his mobile went straight to voicemail. That was not a good sign.

She checked her watch, her stomach lurching as she realised the time.

‘I’ll nip to the front counter, see if anything’s come in,’ Molly said, catching her worried gaze. The sooner Amy saw the headlines, the sooner she could breathe again. But as Molly returned with the London Echo in hand, her expression relayed that something was very wrong.

Passing it over, she shook her head. ‘It’s not on the front page.’

‘You’re not serious.’ Amy laid the newspaper flat on the table as her colleagues crowded around. She found the story printed on page two in a tiny side column. It was a summary of the situation and not Luka’s letter at all. Her palms pressed against the desk, she groaned. ‘Tell me this isn’t happening. Why has Adam gone back on his word?’

A series of collective murmurs filled the room as her colleagues took stock. The caller’s cooperation hinged on his letter being on the front page. How would he react to this?

‘If we’ve seen it, then you can bet our suspect has too.’ Paddy’s face was grim as he scanned the words printed in black and white.

Amy turned back to the front page. ‘We need to come up with a valid excuse for Luka as to why Brexit took precedence over this case.’ But time was in short supply – and then the desk phone rang. She stiffened, all eyes on her as her hand hovered over the receiver. She pressed the button for the call to go through to speaker and waited until the trace was on.

‘You lied.’ It was the voice of Ellen’s kidnapper. Amy recognised the lilt of his Russian accent immediately.

‘You said I’d be front-page news,’ he continued. ‘You pretty much gave me your word.’

‘I’m as much in the dark about this as you are. The reporter guaranteed me front-page placement. We did our best.’

‘I should have known I couldn’t trust you,’ he murmured, his words sharp spikes under his breath.

Amy’s grip on the phone tightened. Getting into an argument would do neither of them any good. People like him only listened to what they wanted to hear.

‘Tell me where Ellen is and we can run a follow-up tomorrow. The television stations might be interested once they pick it up.’

‘Fuck the television stations!’ the caller roared. ‘Tomorrow is too late. You can go to hell.’

Amy could feel everything slipping away. ‘It’s never too late, but if you’re painted as the villain then nobody will listen. I can give you a voice, but you need to help me in return.’ She skim-read the article as she spoke. The piece mentioned Nicole’s recent poisoning and the fact that police were looking into a former ‘patient’ with regard to his daughter’s kidnapping. There were a couple of sentences about Dr Curtis being a ‘pioneer’ in the field of psychology and some ‘allegations of mistreatment’ being made, but it was unlikely to satisfy Amy’s caller. In fact, Dr Curtis was portrayed as the victim, given the poisoning of his wife and the kidnapping of his child.

Amy knew there were constraints. The police media department had advised her against sharing details of the case, while the newspaper’s lawyers would have been all over Luka’s letter, crossing out anything slanderous. But Adam was a talented journalist. What could have been a vivid and interesting piece appeared dull and washed out. The allegations might be true, but it seemed as if nobody wanted to hear them.