Page 116 of Deadly Cry

‘He’s in the kid’s section. The police have been—’

‘Okay, thank you,’ Kim said, walking through the staff area and into the rear of the store.

The shop had been closed ready for the book signing; only people purchasing the book would be allowed in to present it to the celebrity.

As she walked through the centre of the store, Kim spied the boy sitting on a beanbag in the kiddie’s corner beside a staff member and a police officer on the other side.

Her heart settled as a sense of relief washed over her. It was Archie, and other than his tear-stained cheeks, he appeared to be doing fine.

‘Go check on him while I track down our celeb,’ she instructed her colleague. ‘Get one of the security officers with him and put in a call to Robyn. She needs to know he’s safe. Once you’ve done that, get centre security to start checking CCTV to see how he got into the service corridor.’

Bryant nodded and headed over to the child.

Although her heart had slowed down, her mind still raced ahead. It was obvious that whoever murdered Louise Webb-Harvey at Stevens Park had hung on to Archie. She had to believe that person was Noah – the person who had asked for her help – because the boy was still alive. He had listened.

If that was true, then some part of him did not want to kill again. She had to make sure no one else lost their life.

She spotted Kate Sewell at the front of the store amongst a few more staff members, but she couldn’t see Tyra Brooks anywhere.

Kim was ten feet away from the crowd when her phone rang.

It was Stacey, calling from the home of their prime suspect, Ella Nock.

‘Stace?’

‘Yeah, boss, we got a problem here.’

Her heart thumped harder until she remembered that Archie was safe and well. Perhaps they’d found evidence that Archie had been there at some stage. ‘Go on.’

‘Ella Nock’s just got back from Asda, and she is not very happy at all with the hole where her door used to be.’

What the hell was going on?Kim wondered as her thoughts went into overdrive. Their prime suspect was at home with her weekly groceries.

‘Stace, tell her to put a cardigan on and get yourself and Penn over to The Book Store in Halesowen. There’s all kinds of shit kicking off.’

‘Kid’s fine,’ Bryant said, appearing beside her. ‘One of Chris’s guys is with him, and centre security are already looking at footage.’

Kim ended the call from her colleague as the spinning in her head grew worse.

‘Noah’s not Ella,’ Kim said, continuing her journey to the crowd of staff at the door.

Her mouth dried as she got closer and realised the celebrity was missing.

Her eyes fixed on Kate, the woman’s agent. How had the woman lost her client?

‘Kate, what the hell is going on here?’

The woman’s face coloured and was quickly accompanied by a guilty expression.

‘What are you?—’

‘You haven’t realised you’re missing someone?’ Kim snapped. ‘Where the hell is Tyra Brooks?’

Kate looked at her as though Kim had truly lost her mind.

‘Tyra’s out there walking the crowd. She insisted despite my—’

‘Let me see,’ Kim said, stepping to the front of the group.