Ready or Not (36 page)

             
Neil crossed the room and crouched down in front of his sister-in-law. He held Claire’s face in his hands. Claire winced at his touch, in exactly the way Kate had reacted. This woman that Kate had felt so much contempt towards just yesterday had suddenly far more in common with her than she could ever have imagined. They had both been taken in by this man; both lured and fooled and made to pay the consequences.

             
Neil put a finger to the cut on Claire’s face and pushed her head upright, making her grimace in pain.

             
‘She’ll live,’ he said, dropping her head callously. ‘Just needs to sleep it off.’

             
Kate looked quickly to Matthew. Matthew shrugged nonchalantly, but there was a glimmer of something behind his eyes; something that looked distinctly uneasy. It was clear who was pulling his strings. That scene back in the car was bravado and panic, Kate was sure of it. He’d been put up to it, goaded into it; for whatever reason, he had something to prove. But what could he possibly have to prove to this man, this monster? Surely if he’d felt he had something to prove it would have been to Chris, and to her, Kate thought?

             
Perhaps with a bit of persuasion, Matthew could be steered away from Neil’s control. He was just a puppet; just the same gangly, clumsy boy she’d watched battling with the broken coffee machine days earlier. 

             
‘Matthew,’ Kate said, trying to keep her voice even and calm. ‘Don’t do this. You don’t have to do this. Claire needs help. If anything happens to her, you’ll be implicated. You’ll be an accomplice, Matthew. You understand what that means don’t you? It doesn’t have to be like this.’

             
Matthew hesitated and looked at the gun in his hands. For an awful moment time stood still. Kate thought he was going to lift it to point at her yet again, but instead he simply stared at the cold piece of metal in his hand.

             
He doesn’t know what he’s doing, Kate thought.

             
‘For fucks sake.’ Neil crossed the room to Matthew and impatiently snatched the gun from his accomplice’s hand. ‘Whose side are you on, Matthew?’ he asked angrily, squaring up to him, although Matthew was a good few inches taller.

             
Matthew cleared his throat uneasily. ‘Yours,’ he said quietly.

             
Neil held his stare. ‘Remember it then,’ he warned him.

             
Claire’s head was resting on her chest now, her loose hair cascading around her shoulders and obscuring her face. Sophie, despite her contempt for her aunt, watched her with concern. She wriggled in her chair and tried to push herself closer to Claire.

             
‘Right!’ Neil said suddenly. ‘Let’s get this party started.’

             
He grabbed the back of Sophie’s chair and dragged it across the warehouse floor, pulling her away from Claire as though his daughter was weightless.

             
‘She was always the problem child,’ he said, giving his daughter a wink. ‘Weren’t you, Soph?’

             
Sophie twisted her neck around to glare again at her father. The thick black make up around her eyes made her look even more furious and, if she was frightened, she was doing a good job at hiding it. 

             
Certain that she was too far away from Claire to make any further attempts to get close to her, Neil returned to Kate, stood beside her and looked at his children: one petrified; the other, furious.

             
‘How rude of me,’ Neil said, placing a hand on the small of Kate’s back. She squirmed at his touch, arching her back to try and escape his fingers. ‘I haven’t told you how lovely you look. Well, besides the blood on your top,’ he said, gesturing to her chest. ‘We are, after all, on a date. I hope you don’t mind, but I thought I’d combine it with a little family reunion.’

             
He moved his arm around her waist and pulled her closer to him. Kate cringed, biting her lower lip to keep herself from an outburst. ‘You were going to have to meet my kids at some point,’ he said. ‘No time like the present.’

             
Neil stepped away from Kate, theatrically waving the gun in his right hand.

             
‘Ben,’ he said, walking to his son and putting a hand on the boy’s hunched, terrified shoulder. ‘You were looking for him I believe, Detective, but it would seem I have saved you the trouble. Sophie,’ he continued, waving to his daughter, who now refused to meet his eye. ‘I’d like you to meet Kate. Sorry, silly me…you two have already met, haven’t you?’

             
He moved from behind Ben’s chair and walked back to Kate, smiling madly. He stood behind her and returned his hand to her back. She felt his fingers slip beneath her coat, turning her skin cold.

             
‘Kate,’ he said, leaning in towards her. ‘I hope you didn’t have any plans for the rest of the day. We’ve all got so much to catch up on. I’d like you to meet your niece and nephew. Now. Isn’t this cosy?’

Fifty One

Chris returned to the station with Superintendent Clayton, still with no idea where his own car was. He had tried Matthew’s mobile but, like Kate’s, it had been turned off. It only confirmed what Chris had feared: that they were both in danger and both cut off from calling for back up. Without communication between them, and with no track on the car, they had little chance of finding out where either Kate or Matthew was.

             
Time meant everything now, and with every half hour that slipped away Chris’ fear became more prominent.

             
‘What the hell do you think has happened?’ Clayton asked, tightening his grip on the steering wheel. He shook his greying head angrily; frustrated that events hadn’t gone to plan and worried about Kate Kelly. She was headstrong and impulsive at times, he knew, but she was also a bloody good detective. She wouldn’t have done anything to sabotage what had been planned.

             
‘I don’t know,’ Chris admitted. ‘It was all worked out, it was simple. They should have been there.’

             
Clayton’s moustache wriggled furiously as though trying to make a break from his face. ‘What happened between those two?’ he asked quietly.

             
Chris had been waiting for the question, but had still not prepared anything that came close to an answer that wouldn’t incriminate her. He was Kate’s friend, but he was also her boss and she had put him in a very difficult position by getting involved with Neil Davies. Hours ago his sympathy for her hadn’t stretched too far, but now… He shook himself and tried not to think the worst.

             
Unfortunately, Chris could understand Clayton’s concerns. Kate sometimes made poor decisions. She was brilliant at her job because she was passionate about it, but it was this passion and her inability to separate her heart and head that too often led her into doing impulsive, sometimes irrational, things.

             
‘How do you mean?’ he asked, although he knew exactly what Clayton was implying.

             
‘Don’t bullshit me, Chris, please,’ Clayton said. ‘I might be senile, but I’m not an idiot.’

             
Chris sighed. ‘As far as I know, nothing went on.’

             
‘As far as you know?’

             
‘Look,’ Chris said, being as honest as he could. ‘I’m dead certain nothing happened between them. Nothing like that. Kate’s a lot of things, but she’s not a liar. She wouldn’t lie to me. She told me nothing happened, so nothing happened.’

             
He wondered if he was trying to convince Clayton or himself.

             
‘You want to hope that’s true,’ Clayton said, turning to him. For a moment Chris was unsure what had been implied by the comment. He looked away. They were pulling into the station car park; another group of officers had arrived back just before them and were now getting from their cars, baffled expressions on their faces.

             
‘What if she’s gone alone?’ Clayton asked, pulling the car into his parking space.

             
Chris turned back to him. ‘To meet Neil?’ He shook his head. ‘No way. Not a chance.’

             
‘How do you know?’ Clayton turned off the engine. ‘You know her better than most. We both know she’s impulsive, she’s headstrong and she rarely listens to authority. Unfair of me to say?’

             
‘No,’ Chris admitted. ‘But if she did go alone, where’s Matthew Curtis? Why hasn’t he been in touch with us?’

             
‘Buggered if I know,’ Clayton said. ‘Kate’s got a lot to prove. To me and to you. In different ways, I’d imagine.’

             
Chris resented the comment. Whatever Clayton was suggesting, now was neither the time nor the place.

             
‘Look…’ he began.

             
Clayton raised a hand to stop him. ‘Think about it,’ he said, his tone easing. ‘She pulls this off, she proves herself to us both. It wouldn’t exactly be out of character for her to decide to take matters into her own hands.’

             
Chris shook his head vehemently. ‘You’re wrong,’ he said, unfastening his seatbelt. ‘Kate knows how dangerous Neil Davies is. She would never be stupid enough to put herself in that kind of danger. She’s a lot of things, but stupid isn’t one of them.’

             
‘And Matthew?’ Clayton said.

             
‘Exactly. She wouldn’t put Matthew in that kind of danger either. Are you going to help me find them, or am I going to have to do it myself?’

             
Clayton stepped out of the car; Chris did the same.

             
‘You miss my point, Chris,’ Clayton said, walking around to the front of the car. ‘Kate may not be stupid enough to play hero on her own, but what about Matthew?’

             
If he hadn’t been so worried, Chris may have laughed. ‘Matthew?’ he repeated incredulously. ‘No chance. Have you spent much time with him? The boy’s afraid of his own shadow. I don’t know what the hell he’s doing in the job.’

             
They entered the station and made their way to the first floor. Plain clothes officers swarmed the corridors like frenzied ants and the tide of whispers that swirled around them as Chris and Clayton left the stairwell ebbed into a hush as the two men made their way to the room where the briefing had been held just a short time earlier.

             
‘Right,’ Clayton addressed the team, who had gathered back in the briefing room.

             
Already there were rumours floating amongst them. Everyone wanted to be the first to work out what had happened to Kate and Matthew whilst en route to the park, but if what Chris had heard was anything to go by then they were all way off the mark. It was amazing how Kate’s own colleagues, people she should have been able to rely on and trust, were so quick to cast judgment on her. Rather than fearing for her safety, most seemed to think she had purposely buggered up the agenda to play the hero.

             
Superintendent Clayton set about organising his team. ‘I want you to find Chris’ car,’ he instructed one of the PCs. ‘You,’ he said, gesturing another uniformed officer, ‘get tracing the call Kate made to Chris’ phone at twelve fifteen. Try Matthew’s as well. I want two of you out in the car. Wait for further instruction from me - in the meantime just look.’

             
Clayton’s composure was failing him. He was getting flustered and a tell-tale red flush was forming at the base of his throat. The moustache had died on his top lip, lying still as if frightened to move. Kate Kelly wound the hell out of him sometimes, but in many ways she was like a daughter. He didn’t always agree with the things she did, but he worried about her all the same and he had her best interests at heart. She was like a wayward teenager that he couldn’t control nor could bear to be without.

             
He certainly wasn’t going to allow others to bad mouth her when there was a strong possibility that her life was in real danger.

             
‘One last thing,’ Clayton added. ‘You’re working as a team. Teams don’t gossip about each other like little girls in a playground.’ He stopped and looked at two of the younger female officers he’d heard talking about Kate when he and Chris had entered the floor. Both women squirmed awkwardly beneath his gaze. Chris glanced at him gratefully.

             
‘Now,’ he continued. ‘Contrary to what you may have heard or been responsible for saying, two of the team are in danger. Real danger. Can we please remember what we are dealing with? Get going – the longer we sit here talking, the bigger the danger becomes.’