Page 2 of Deadly Cry

She turned to follow.

‘Guv…’

‘Police business, Bryant,’ she said, quickening her step.

In her experience, store security would only leave their own premises if someone on the network had called for urgent assistance, normally for a shoplifter getting violent, some other kind of public order offence or something involving children.

Kim followed the security officers into the Shop N Save store nestled between a bank and a Blue Cross charity shop. She navigated the long, narrow aisles filled with bargains and low-priced items, ranging from home furnishings to toys to food products.

A row of tills was located right at the back of the store. She could hear no shouting or any other indication of a scuffle as she approached a small huddle of people.

‘Move aside,’ Kim said to the security guys as Bryant showed his identification.

The bodies moved to reveal a little girl, aged four or five, clutching a small, grey bear that had been taken from a toy rack beside the tills.

‘What’s going on?’ Kim asked, moving to the centre of the crowd.

‘Can’t find her mummy,’ said the store assistant who was kneeling beside the chair on which the little girl was sitting.

The child looked up and viewed her through red-rimmed, frightened eyes. Tear tracks stained her cheeks, but Kim still breathed a sigh of relief. Better to have the child than the parent.

‘How long?’ she asked. Normally parents and children were reunited in a matter of minutes.

‘Almost a quarter of an hour.’

‘Got a description?’ she asked.

‘Jeans and blue jacket,’ she answered as the child hugged the bear closer to her tear-stained cheeks. An occasional sob broke free from the small body.

Another store assistant appeared with a bag of sweets.

The child shook her head and tried to hide her face in the side of the bear. Kim stepped back and motioned for Bryant to do the same. Too many people crowding the little girl.

‘Jimmy’s gone to check the CCTV now,’ one of the shop assistants said, looking behind Kim.

Her face appeared to relax. Kim turned to see two uniformed officers approaching as Bryant answered his phone.

The male officer offered her a quizzical look: what was CID doing attending a lone-child incident?

‘Just passing,’ she explained as a second pair of officers turned up.

Bryant ended his call.

‘Woody wants you back at the station now.’

Kim realised that her boss rarely rang her personally any more to summon her back and rang her steadying colleague instead. Perhaps he’d realised that there was a certain fluidity to her interpretation of ‘right now’, whereas Bryant attached a higher degree of urgency to the request.

She turned to the shop assistant closest to her. ‘Move some of these folks away. The poor kid must be—’

‘Guv…’ he urged, proving her point.

She stepped away from the crowd of shop assistants, security officers and police. There were more than enough people to deal with a displaced parent.

She nodded her agreement to her conscientious colleague and headed for the door.

This was a minor incident that really had nothing to do with her at all.

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