Page 77 of Stolen Ones

She pushed the other feelings aside and held on to the anger. That bloody woman always managed to stir something up inside her. She had known any mention of her father would lead right back to thoughts of Mikey, her one vulnerability, her one weakness that Alex was fully aware of. And that was what made her dangerous.

‘I swear, Barney, that woman—’

She stopped speaking as her phone rang.

Barney jumped back onto the passenger seat as she fished in her back pocket to retrieve it.

She frowned as she answered it.

‘Hey, Keats, you forget where you live or something?’

‘Just clearing up after the Macedonian tornado swept through.’

She smiled at the apt description. Both brilliant minds but completely different ways of working. There were times that she needed both, and much as she liked to bait Keats, he’d spent the day surrounded by the bones of a child.

‘I was just checking my emails before I left. I’ve received the dental records for Melody Jones. I haven’t had a good look yet, but I thought I’d let you know they were in.’

‘Keats, have you lost your mind?’

He’d called her to tell her he’d received an email.

‘I can’t forward it to you right now, as I’ve closed down my computer and have an early meeting tomorrow morning, which means I probably won’t get around to sending it until, say, teno’clock.’

‘Keats, what the hell are you trying to tell…?’

Her words trailed away as she realised exactly what he was trying to say, without actually saying it and getting them both into trouble.

She thanked him and ended the call.

What she’d just learned was not going to help them one little bit.

Forty-Three

‘Okay, guys, look lively, no time to waste,’ Kim said at exactly 7.01a.m. Her team appeared rested and alert. Good – they needed to be. This morning they were going to have to hit the ground running.

‘We have to prepare for the fact that it might not be Melody Jones we’ve found at Hawne Park.’

Four expressions of surprise rested on her.

‘Why would we do that, boss?’ Penn asked. ‘The timeline of her disappearance fits with the date of the construction works.’

‘Only if he kept her longer than the others or stored her body elsewhere before burying her there. Melody was taken in 1996 and the works were carried out in 1999. That’s a three-year gap. Plenty of time to stick to his one-year schedule of abduct and release or kill. We need to be sure it’s her, and we need to do it by teno’clock.’

‘Why’s that, boss?’ Stacey asked, raising an eyebrow. ‘We have Harte until 3p.m. before we need the extension.’

Not if he’s been arrested for the wrong girl, she thought, which she was sure was the reason for Keats’s late-night call. Without stating the words, he had been telling her the dental records were not a match for Melody Jones and had given her time to do something about it. She wasn’t the girl in the grave, but it was the crime for which Steven Harte was being held.

Right now, she could claim deniability. She hadn’t actually been told. Because once she knew for sure she would have to action it. It was a grey area and she wouldn’t pass that on to her team. Keats had given her until teno’clock to make something happen.

‘Just work with me, Stace,’ she said to the detective constable. She took a breath and then a sip of coffee.

Stacey nodded.

‘Harte’s lawyer will be in some time this morning and they’ll want a good chat, so we’ve got a few hours. Stace, I need you to identify any other victims that might be our girl in the ground. Once you’ve done that, I want dental records for every one of them.’

Stacey made a note and began tapping.

‘Penn, I want you coming at it from the other angle. If Melody isn’t the victim at Hawne Park, where is she buried?’