‘I can’t take the credit for that,’ Ms Harkness said. ‘The time was right. How do you feel now?’
Mo inhaled a long breath, giving the question some thought. ‘Like I’ve been to the dentist and had a set of rotten teeth pulled. My gums hurt like hell, but it’s an improvement on before.’
‘Well, that’s a start. Will you book in a new course of therapy?’
‘I need time to recover from this one first.’ Mo picked her bag up from the floor before rising from her chair. ‘We’ll see.’
‘Can we say goodbye to Mo? That’s an important step forward for you.’
‘I think I have to. And Jacob too, at least until I can reconcile myself.’ She stood before her therapist, feeling grateful to the woman. It was a novel emotion and she felt strangely warm inside.
‘You’ve still got another half an hour.’ Her therapist tilted her head.
Mo turned to look at her, her hand on the door. ‘I think that’s enough for one day. Thank you, Ms Harkness.’
‘Goodbye, Lillian,’ her therapist said, watching her leave.
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
‘We have a case on the go that needs your expert attention.’ The voice on the other end of Amy’s phone was forthright in his request. Superintendent Jones needed them back in Notting Hill and he had been backed by the command team.
‘Yes, gov,’ Amy said, staring at the plethora of paperwork laid out on her desk. CCTV reports, witness accounts and the automatic number plate recognition reports she had requested had yet to be read. She was at the sharp end of the investigation, and the clock was ticking down. ‘We’re very close,’ Amy continued. ‘And it’s hard to walk away, given this latest death.’
‘CID can handle it,’ Jones replied. ‘It’s a bunch of teenagers fighting back, from what I’ve heard.’ He exhaled a breath down the phone. It sounded like he was smoking a cigarette, so she gathered he was outside. ‘We need you back here, pronto.’
Amy didn’t doubt it. High-profile criminals did not put their activities on hold just because she had left. ‘I need more time.’ She nibbled on her bottom lip. ‘It would be a shame to give Clacton all the glory when it’s so close to being solved.’ Amy was appealing to her super’s vanity. She didn’t care about glory like he did, but she did care about getting results. These kids deserved the best from her. She could not hand back an unsolved investigation when they were so close to the truth.
‘Very well, Winter. Twenty-four hours and not a minute more. Don’t disappoint me.’
Amy checked her watch as the call came to an end. Pulling her planner from her desk, she wrote ‘24 hours’ in big letters. Every minute would need to be accounted for. In Clacton, officers were out in force, patrolling the pier, beaches and buildings. Drones, dogs and the force helicopter had been involved. But such resources were costly, and their budget was running low. All fingers pointed to the group of kids Molly had encountered beneath the pier. They had motive, were in each area and possibly left a calling card of a graffiti tag. Height-wise they fitted the bill, and had access to needles and the drugs needed to weaken their victims prior to each kill. The investigation had taken hundreds of man-hours, with CCTV from each of the murder locations being integral to their enquiries. Matty and April’s image had been picked up on shop CCTV in Brighton, Blackpool and Clacton, along with others in their group. But their pick-pocketing was a cover for something sinister. These teenagers were not determining their own fate. There was a puppeteer at work, and Amy’s team was closing in. Which is why she had arranged for another meeting with children’s social care.
They had forwarded Carla’s email enquiries. They had been sent from Carla’s secure police national network email address, which was needed for a response from social care. But Carla had covered her tracks and deleted everything she sent. It was a matter Amy would be discussing with DCI Donovan. Carla was hardly the ‘golden child’ he made her out to be.
But first, she had to put Sally-Ann out of her misery. There would never be a good time to break the news that she had a daughter, and she had overloaded her team with taskings which would keep them busy while she was gone. She knew deep down that no good would come from this meeting. But she could never turn her back on the sister who willingly sacrificed her own life to save hers.
Amy flanked Sally-Ann as they strode past the daytime shoppers and holidaymakers that flooded the streets at this time of year. A bus rumbled past on the one-way street, belching out a plume of smoke. Today, Sally-Ann would come to recognise the devastation her mother had caused. Lillian had known the truth about Sally-Ann’s offspring all along. She had tried to ease her conscience by telling Amy. It was a surprise to discover she had a conscience at all.
‘Someone’s exhaust needs replacing,’ Amy said, flapping smoke from her face as they walked. But Sally-Ann was too engrossed in her thoughts to hear her. Amy would never understand how her sister had made peace with Lillian, the one woman in the world whose job it was to protect her.
Amy had remained the only family member who could not be swayed. For a narcissistic psychopath like Lillian, that must have been a bitter pill to swallow. Lillian had fought back the best way she knew by keeping the truth to herself – until now. Despite the odds, Lillian had given her the name of Sally-Ann’s daughter, who had been right under her nose.
Amy had been astonished to discover her identity. It seemed like more than a coincidence that they had already met. Perhaps fate had given them a helping hand after all. Raised in Clacton, Sally-Ann’s biological daughter had travelled throughout the UK. But
