mother?’
‘That she was too young. That she loved him, but wanted to give him a better life than she could provide. But he wouldn’t believe us. And he was right. The truth is, she was a prostitute. And mentally ill. She used to self- administer electric shocks to her own head. Using a car battery.’
‘So you lied to him.’
‘What choice did we have? Lie to him or tell the truth and break his heart? Which would you have chosen?’
Howie’s phone vibrates with an incoming text.
She reaches for it.
‘Apparently it’s not uncommon,’ Jan says. ‘Troubled adoptees try to provoke rejection. They’re trying to make their adoptive parents prove their love by behaving more and more unacceptably. And that was Henry to a T. We completely lost control of him. There was animal cruelty. Shoplifting. More burglary. Sexual misconduct.’
Luther reaches for his notebook, flips it open. He pats down his pockets, looking for a pen. ‘What kind of misconduct?’
‘He exposed himself,’ says Jan Madsen. ‘To some very young girls.’
Howie checks her phone.
She sees the incoming text is from Luther’s phone:
Henry Madsen is here.
Parents house
15 Cavalry Close. Finchley.
Madsen upstairs — father poss hostage
Mia Dalton upstairs? Possible hostage
Please assist ASAP.
Howie stares at the phone for six or seven long seconds. She reads the message half a dozen times.
Her eyes flick from the message to Luther and back again. Luther gives no indication.
He just sits there, scribbling a note as Jan talks.
Scary Mary Lally leads Search Team Two to a vacant residential property on a quiet street in Muswell Hill.
The house is in the early stages of renovation. There is a skip outside. The house is full of the previous resident’s furniture. Gypsum board, plaster, paint cans and drop sheets.
In the garage in the rear of the property they find the deceased owner’s car and boxes of personal effects.
While searching the garden, the dogs become agitated.
Lally follows the dog handler into the house, where the dogs become progressively more excited.
DS Lally calls DCI Reed.
‘Mia’s definitely been here,’ she says. ‘Her smell’s all over the place. We found hair dye in the sink upstairs.’
‘So he’s dyed her hair? He’s disguising her?’
‘Looks like it, Guv.’
Reed thanks her. He says, ‘Post somebody to keep an eye on the place. Make sure he doesn’t come back.’
Reed is still on the phone to Lally when a text message arrives. It’s from Luther.
Reed skims it, then stands so abruptly he kicks his chair over. His neck spasms. He grabs it. He says, ‘Look, Mary. Something’s come up. Keep looking and let me know.’
He hangs up the desk phone and turns to face Benny.
Benny is slowly looking up from his own phone.
‘Holy shit,’ Reed says.
Clutching his neck, he runs out the door and sprints across the bullpen. He bursts into Teller’s office.
She’s already putting on her coat.
‘Right,’ she says. ‘Let’s have it.’ She strides away, on her radio.
Reed follows, thumbing out a hasty reply: sit tite! on our way.
Howie pockets her phone and waits for Luther’s next move.
He glances over his notebook and says, ‘So when was the last time you actually saw Henry?’
‘When he came out of prison.’
‘This is when he was, what? Twenty-one, twenty-two?’
‘Yes. He came to see us.’
‘And what did he say?’
‘That he hated us. That he never wanted to see us again. And,’ she looks Luther in the eye, ‘that he was going to start his own family. A big family. Five sons. Five daughters. They were going to live on a farm. Raise animals. Pedigree animals. Rare breeds. He was going to love them all. The animals and the children. He was going to give them all the love in the world. But as far as he was concerned, Jeremy and I were dead.’
‘And he hasn’t been in contact since?’
She shakes her head, frowning. ‘There are times the phone goes and nobody’s there. And I wonder. And sometimes when I’m locking up at night, you forget to close the curtains. You glance outside and you do think — there’s someone out there, in the darkness at the end of the garden. Do you think that may have been him?’
‘No,’ Luther lies. Then he rips the top sheet off his notebook and passes it to her.
Is he here?
She reads it. Her eyes well. She looks into Luther’s eyes and nods.
Luther is very calm. He mouths the words: Keep talking. He passes her another note.
Young girl with him?
Jan shakes her head vigorously, gestures for his notepad.
NO! HE BURIED LITTLE GIRL
Luther mouths the word, Buried?
‘He was a very troubled young man,’ Luther says, passing her the notepad. ‘None of this was your fault.’
Jan scribbles on the notepad.
Little girl on phone, not Henry.
She hands him the notepad.
Luther writes:
Mia?!!
Passes her the notepad. She reads it. Nods. Yes, Mia.
Then she writes:
Mia read out a message
Henry will bury her.
Enough air for 2 hours.
Henry will give us Mia… if we give him money.
Her eyes go to the computer, and Luther understands. The Madsens were in the middle of transferring money to Henry’s bank account when Luther and Howie showed up.
If we call police or Henry arrested, Jan writes, Mia dies. No-one ever finds her.
Luther takes the note, scans it, passes it to Howie.
He stands, pockets his notebook.
Jan Madsen begins to cry.
‘DS Howie,’ Luther says, ‘why don’t you take Mrs Madsen into the garden for some fresh air? Mrs Madsen, I’m sorry this has been so difficult.’
Then he walks into the hallway.
He looks up the stairs.
He says, ‘So did you hear all that, Henry?’
Multiple police units vector in on the address in Finchley. Among them are three Armed Response Vehicles. A Jankel armoured Guardian Tactical Intervention Vehicle, which is a large 4x4 with bullet-proof windscreen and blast-proof flooring. It contains eight CO19 Specialist Firearms Officers in dark blue Nomex fire-resistant overalls
