The Secret Child (DI Amy Winter #2)(44)

Paddy placed his mug on the table. ‘Mrs Drew was away during the house-to-house inquiries. She called it in late last night.’

‘Do we have a description?’

‘Mrs Drew said she was hoovering her car on the drive when a motorbike pulled up next door. The driver was tall, stocky, wearing full leathers and a tinted helmet. He had a package in his hand which he gave to Nicole on the doorstep, but Alison couldn’t hear what was being said. Then Alison’s phone rang and she went inside. When she went back out a few minutes later the motorbike had gone.’

‘That’s it, then. The courier delivered the package to Nicole.’

‘We checked Nicole’s laptop,’ Steve said. ‘Her history had some shopping sites on it, but no home deliveries due in the last week.’

‘Keep working on it,’ Amy said, ticking boxes in her mind. ‘The motorcyclist might lead us to Ellen. There’s still a chance she’s alive.’

This nugget of information about the courier could change everything. Luka had said he’d given Nicole a choice, one that had almost killed her. Just who had called at her house that day? Amy flicked through the paperwork, her eyes resting on the photograph of the nightdress they had pulled from the rubble. It was laid flat against brown paper, pictured next to a set of rulers to give it scale. Through his tears, Dr Curtis had identified the clothing as the nightdress Ellen had worn. It was of small comfort that there were no big tears in the fabric, no knife marks or obvious injury sites. Her kidnapper was playing the most twisted of games.

To Amy’s frustration, he was still at large, and dangerous. She needed to get inside his mind. Their criminal profiler had drawn up a brief list of things – paranoia, possible former abuse, a socially awkward loner – but she needed more, and there was only one person she knew with that kind of insight.

Amy had received a visiting order to see Lillian in prison. It had been on her mind to bin it. She exhaled a heavy sigh. She sacrificed a little piece of herself every time she was in the same room as her birth mother. But her visits to Lillian helped serve another purpose. They opened her mind to the darkness in others – and, without any viable leads, that was a much-needed attribute.





CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

A set of sharp knuckles tapped the taxi window, jolting Luka from his daydream. As he lowered the window, the scent of exhaust fumes seeped in. He had been parked with the engine running for five minutes, waiting for the child to come out. It seemed extravagant, a taxi driving him to and from school when the bus could take him straight there.

‘Are you here for Toby?’ A woman with a beaded necklace bent to speak to him, her considerable cleavage on show. In the distance, the shrill ring of a bell signalled the activation of an alarm within the school.

‘Uh-huh,’ Luka replied, resting his gloved hands on the steering wheel of the car. His flat cap offered a slight disguise, the wig beneath it itching his scalp.

‘We usually have Jeff.’ The woman regarded him cautiously, the noise from the alarm dragging her attention away.

‘He’s in hospital. Fell off a stepladder while changing a light bulb. I’m filling in.’

‘Oh, I’m sorry to hear that.’ Turning, she beckoned Toby to the car.

Luka’s face fell as a boy in an electric wheelchair broke through the group of children on the lawn. Shit, he thought. He hadn’t known the kid was disabled. When had that happened? His back molars pressed down hard. It was too late to back out now.

‘Can you help me with the ramp?’ The woman stepped to the side as he opened the car door. ‘I need to see to the others. The fire alarm’s gone off. It’s probably a false alarm, but the fire brigade is on its way.’

Within a few minutes Toby and his wheelchair were secure in the back of the specially adapted car.

‘Be careful as you set off, there are lots of children milling about,’ she said to Luka, giving them both a brief wave.

‘Sure.’ Smiling, Luka pictured the semi-conscious Jeff gagged and bound in the boot. Putting the car in gear, he checked his rear-view mirror before pulling away from the kerb. Wouldn’t do to have Jeff call out now, not with so many witnesses around.

‘Who are you?’ Toby piped up from the back.

Luka glanced in the rear-view mirror. Toby was a pale little boy, small for his age. A lock of dark curly hair tumbled down over the bluest of eyes. Guilt bloomed from within. Could he really go through with this? The thought was submerged beneath a sudden pulse of pain behind his skull. It was coming. He could feel it in the distance, a dark and treacherous reminder of the torment burrowing in his brain.

‘I’m Luka, a friend of your dad’s.’ His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed to clear his throat. ‘I’m looking after you until he finishes work.’

Toby chewed on his bottom lip. This was a child who clearly did not like change.

Luka’s mouth widened in his most reassuring smile. ‘We’re going to my place for now. He’s coming over in an hour.’

‘Daddy said I mustn’t talk to strangers,’ Toby replied.

But Luka was prepared for such a statement. ‘Didn’t he mention me keeping you safe? That’s why you’re in a taxi, right?’

Toby’s piercing blue eyes flicked up towards the mirror. ‘I . . . I guess so.’