Page 115 of Deadly Cry

And so one night I stop myself from sleeping. I blink away my drooping eyelids and try to stop my body trembling in the dark. I have to make it better myself. I have to make it stop.

I know the door will open when everyone has gone to sleep.

It does and I am ready.

I know it is time to fight back.

Ninety-Eight

‘There are supposed to be two people here,’ Kim said as they approached the barrier to the service yard. The security officer was manning it alone.

‘Where’s the police officer?’ she asked, opening her window. It was her understanding that the constable who accompanied Lena Wiley would remain at the barrier to support the security officer.

He shrugged. ‘Got called away. Ran down into the building.’

‘Shit, let us through,’ Kim demanded.

Already, something was kicking off.

‘I’m under instruction—’

‘Mate, for your own safety, press that fucking button,’ she snarled.

He did so and the barrier started to rise.

‘Listen, I ain’t taking the blame for—’

Bryant cut off the security officer’s words as he drove underneath the barrier before it reached the upright position.

‘You trying to write off this car already?’ Kim asked, getting a closer look at the red and white striped pole than she would have liked.

He ignored her and pulled up behind the West Mercia squad car that was parked right behind the car of Kate Sewell, Tyra Brooks’s agent. Damn, she’d been hoping that Tyra and her agent were running a few minutes late, but she guessed that Lena Wiley was pretty adept at keeping everyone on track.

‘You’re alone too?’ she asked the officer at the entrance to the service corridor. Both of these points were supposed to have been double manned. Leaving people alone to manage potentially dangerous situations went against every operational order she’d ever seen, both by the police and private security companies and was not what had been discussed and agreed at the INEPT meetings.

Unless there was some kind of dire emergency.

‘Yeah, Darren got called away by the boss. Something to do with an abandoned kid found wandering the service corridors.’

‘Boy or girl?’ she asked, holding her breath.

‘Err… little boy, I think.’

Kim glanced at Bryant who looked as confused as she felt.

‘Did you get a name?’

He shook his head. ‘Just heard that a cleaner had found a little boy wandering around the corridors and everyone went running.’

‘Some kind of diversion, guv?’ Bryant asked as they entered the building and headed for the stairs.

‘Fucked if I know what’s going on,’ she answered. The thoughts were flying around her mind as they headed up the stairs. Had their killer held Archie to use as some kind of distraction? Was that why he’d been kept alive?

Her heart was thumping as she knocked hard on the back door of the bookshop.

The door was opened by a frazzled-looking shop assistant, anxiously clutching the lanyard around her neck.

‘Where’s the boy?’ Kim asked, showing her ID. She had many things to think about, but her overriding priority right now was identifying Archie and ensuring he was unharmed and safe.