‘Shall I sing your favourite song again?’ Lisa whispered in Emily’s ear.
When Emily didn’t answer, Lisa pretended she had.
‘Yes all right, Em, I will.’
And she started humming the tune, though by now she’d forgotten all the words.
50
Tom’s phone pinged at the same time as Sarah’s. He read the message from Grant.
Riley dead. No intel on the children.
Tom felt like his chest might explode. It was all down to him and Sarah. Nine? What could it mean? What did it mean?
Within their search area, there were four streets with houses numbered ninety and above and they’d already covered two of them. Tom met Sarah’s hazel eyes.
‘Oh shit, it’s down to us,’ he said.
Sarah was calm. ‘We check the last two and then we regroup,’ she said. ‘Follow me.’
Tom was glad to be working with her. She knew how to keep her head when the pressure was on. She’d made no errors navigating around the back streets, dodging easily from one residential road to the next. It had saved them masses of time. She was fit too so they’d been able to keep a fast pace.
As they rounded the corner and jogged along the next row of houses, Tom’s eyes drifted to a car parked halfway down. It had a logo of a blue cat painted on the side and a slogan – Nine Lives Insurance.
‘Nine Lives! Sarah, look!’
It was parked outside number seventy-five which was in the middle of a long terrace. When Tom banged on the front door, he could feel his heart hammering. The woman who answered had hair dyed bright pink and gelled up in spikes.
‘Can I help you?’ she said.
Tom showed his identification. ‘Is this your car?’
‘It is. Why are you interested?’
‘We need to question you in connection with the missing Glover children,’ Tom said. ‘May we come in please.’
Olwen Vickers, with the spiked hair, was very co-operative. They searched the two floors of her house and found nothing. Then they quizzed her about the name of her business.
‘I’m a financial consultant,’ Olwen said. ‘I work a lot from home and I interview most of my clients via the internet. The car is part of my advertising.’
Tom showed a picture of Emily and Lisa. ‘Have you seen these children? Or any suspicious activity in the street recently? Any strangers coming and going?’
‘I’ve seen those two little ones all over the news and if I’d spotted them I’d have contacted the police straight away. I’m sorry, I don’t think I can help you. As for strangers, well, in this area there’s a pretty high turnover. A lot of these places are let out and people come and go all the time.’
Sarah brought up a picture of Riley and of Maria Fernandez. ‘What about these two? Do they look familiar?’
Olwen hesitated. ‘The girl definitely not and he looks like any ordinary bloke doesn’t he, though with those ears… I dunno, I suppose it could be the tosser who took my parking space. He had the cheek to plonk his bloody van right outside my house. I had to ask him to move and he had a hoodie on and his ears were hidden but I kinda got the idea they stuck out.’
‘I saw the disabled parking bay. You’ve got a dedicated space,’ Sarah said.
‘The council gave it and it’s legit.’
‘What colour was this van?’ Tom asked.
‘White.’
A common colour, yet the same as the van seen leaving the lock-ups in Himlands Heath. Could it be the same one? Tom found it hard not to spring to his feet. ‘And do you know where the owner lives?’
‘Oh yes he moved in two doors down earlier this year. I remember because that’s when he took my spot. Number seventy-one.’
They didn’t have a positive identification on Riley. They had the number nine and a white van. It was sufficient. It gave them power of entry to save life and limb.
Tom was covered in sweat. He banged on the door of number seventy-one. There was no answer.
‘We’re going in,’ Tom said.
Sarah nodded.
They checked the windows and there was no sign of movement inside. Tom didn’t have time to go around the back. Emily was dying. She might already be dead. He found a brick by the neighbour’s wall and used it to break the front window.
It took seconds to clear away the dangerous shards. Sarah was right behind him as he climbed in.
They quickly searched the downstairs where it smelled of stale takeaways and manky carpets.
‘Look at this,’ Sarah said. ‘Drug paraphernalia. And plenty of booze.’
Tom was already on his way up the stairs. He found the room with new locks outside. ‘They’re here,’ he shouted. ‘Stand back. And call an ambulance.’
A few solid kicks and the door was down. Inside, Lisa lay on the floor and she blinked as Tom knelt by her side though she was not able to speak. Emily was on her back with her eyes closed. Her body was covered with purple splotches and Tom couldn’t find a pulse.
51
Grant and McGowan reached Diane at the same time.
‘Get a paramedic up here,’ Grant shouted. He placed his hands over the wound.
Riley had jumped from the roof, which Grant was pretty sure had been Riley’s intention in the first place.
By rushing forward, McGowan had endangered Diane’s life. It would have been easy for Riley to take her down with him and McGowan had deliberately disobeyed a direct order. The question was, why? Grant wasn’t ready to face the answer.
Two paramedics came running. Down below, officers were attending to Riley and it wasn’t long before Billingham sent Grant a confirmation.
Riley is stone cold dead.
Diane was placed on a stretcher.
‘We’re taking her now, sir,’ one of the paramedics said.
Grant bent to Diane’s ear. ‘I’ll be checking on you,’ he said. ‘Hang on in there.’
He hated the
