Page 100 of Stolen Ones

The task he’d been given had allowed him to immerse himself in work and push aside his fears about Jasper. He knew that Stacey and Alison thought he should loosen the reins a little bit, but that was harder than they could imagine. The text message from his brother had remained unanswered.

As the older brother it had always been Penn’s job to protect Jasper from the cruel comments and curious looks. It was ingrained in him to shield the boy from anything that might hurt him. At Billy’s he was safe, playing Xbox and eating pizza. Out in the big wide world he was vulnerable. Jasper loved everyone and felt that everyone loved him. He wouldn’t understand if a gang of yobs decided to torment and abuse him. Just the thought of it made him sick to his stomach – Jasper’s sweet, innocent nature having to accept that the world wasn’t the bouncy castle he thought it was.

Their late mother had spent years preparing him how to take care of his little brother. She just hadn’t versed him on how and when to let him go.

Maybe Stacey was right about his own personal life. He’d set up two different dates to meet up with Lynne, just for a drink and a chat, and both times he’d had to cancel because of work. They hadn’t spoken for a while, and he missed her.

‘Is Butler too clean?’ Alison asked, bringing him back into work mode.

Penn shrugged. ‘Not even a hint of impropriety. He’s been married for twenty-seven years, has two grown sons who appear to be responsible and respectable. One is training to be a geologist, and the other is finishing med school. His wife volunteers at a group for disadvantaged kids and, before you ask, there’s no record of any involvement from Butler himself. No parking tickets, no speeding fines. Nothing.’

‘He’s in his fifties,’ Alison observed. ‘Surely there’s something.’

Penn shook his head.

‘Doesn’t that make you think he’s being extra careful so as not to attract any police attention to himself?’ Alison asked.

‘He’s created one hell of a safety blanket,’ Stacey said.

‘Agreed, but it doesn’t help us get a warrant,’ Penn answered. ‘Don’t think any judge is going to accept “cos we think he’s a bad egg” as justification for turning his life upside down.’

‘I sure would like to get a look in Butler’s computer to check for indecent images,’ Stacey said as her phone rang.

‘Hey, Paddy,’ she said, putting him on speakerphone. She’d left a message for the lead cyber techie to give her a call.

‘It’s booby trapped,’ he said, knowing exactly what she’d been calling about.

‘He’s booby trapped his phone?’

‘Yep, we got around the facial recognition, but behind it was a password screen.’

‘And you can’t bypass it?’ Stacey asked.

‘Not come up with a way yet. There’s some kind of app on there that kicks in if you try to access the information through the back door. Wipes the whole bloody thing. There’s no app this tight on the market.’

‘He writes them,’ Stacey offered.

‘Aah, that explains it. I’ll keep trying, but if I can’t get that password, I risk losing everything.’

‘Don’t do that,’ Penn called across the room. With the absence of any hard drive or computer, this could be the only link to Grace they had. His fierce guarding of the phone with the self-destruct app screamed that there was something on there to find.

‘How many characters?’ Penn asked.

‘Eleven,’ Paddy called out louder, realising he was talking to someone on the other side of the room.

‘Okay, leave it with me,’ Penn said.

‘So, we done on the matching up or what?’ Stacey asked Penn after ending the call from Paddy.

Penn passed over his printed sheets of Butler’s projects.

‘If you go any further before we get the results back from Wyley Court, we could have the boss digging up half the West Midlands before you know it.’

‘Yeah, but—’

‘No, you’re right, Stace, but I need to get back to Harte’s timeline. We’re not gonna get Grace’s location from the phone. I need to narrow it down.’

Harte’s phone records had shown no activity on his phone from when he’d pinged a tower close to his home at 8a.m. Monday, and then pinged another three miles away from the station ten minutes before he’d walked through the door.