‘Oh, of course. My bad!’ Holder laughed, shaking his head. ‘It was a team meeting just for two, wasn’t it? I’ll be sure to let everyone know.’ He raised his brow, teasing her now. Lucy was far too easy to wind up. ‘I mean, you know he likes you, right? You can admit it if you have a crush on him. I just don’t know what you see in the bloke. He’s so smarmy.’
‘Smarmy?’ Lucy shrugged, knowing that Holder had taken an instant dislike to the man. Only she still couldn’t work out why. ‘I don’t know what your issue with him is. He seems nice enough.’
‘Nice enough?’ Holder scoffed. ‘Up his own arse, more like. A bit, I don’t know, Pompous.’
‘Whoa! You really don’t like him?’ Lucy said, raising her eyes, trying to work out what had pissed Holder off so much. ‘I mean he can be a bit intense, I guess,’ Lucy said, recalling how he’d kept staring at her throughout their meal. Holder was probably right; maybe he liked her. But Zack wasn’t Lucy’s type. She just didn’t feel the same way. Still, she wasn’t going to put Holder out of his misery anytime soon. ‘Anyway, I just genuinely wanted to hear what he had to say about the case. The psychology behind the profiling is fascinating. Don’t you think? Getting into the mind of a killer. Finding out what makes them do it,’ Lucy said, not admitting to Holder that, in actual fact, she had talked to Zack Lownrey about her mother’s case.
She decided that she would put Holder right eventually, because the last thing she wanted was all her colleagues speculating and gossiping about her.
‘Not only that but if this abduction is linked to the murder and Shelby’s attack, then it’s good to have as much information on the perpetrator’s profile as possible, don’t you think? Zack is on our side. Seriously, I don’t know why you don’t like him.’
‘It’s not that I don’t like him…’ Holder started. His tone was earnest for once as he turned to face Lucy now. About to say something serious. ‘It’s just that… I like—’
‘And bingo! What did I tell you…?’ Lucy said, cutting Holder off and staring out across the park, nodding towards the thick growth of trees. ‘He was hiding out over there. He probably saw the money being dropped off and was making sure that no one was going to come and stake the place out. More fool him, huh!’ Lucy said, cocky now that her prediction had come true.
They hadn’t deterred Jay-Jay Andrews from making the collection. The man had no clue that the park was currently surrounded. They watched as the dark silhouette of a figure made his way towards the children’s playground. Getting nearer now. His head down. Opening the gate, he stepped inside and made a beeline for the bin, before glancing quickly around to make sure no one was watching, then leaning down and retrieving the bag of money.
‘Holy shit!’ Lucy said as she and Holder finally saw the man’s face.
The two officers were rendered silent at the unexpected turn their operation had just taken.
‘That’s Ashley Cooke,’ Holder said finally, just as bewildered as Lucy. ‘What the fuck is he doing bribing Pete for money? Do you think he knows where Riley is?’
‘Well, there’s only one way we’re going to find out,’ Lucy said, thinking about their conversation earlier about the Boland brothers attacking Ashley.
Up until now they had no proof of the Boland brothers being involved in Riley’s abduction. This would get them the evidence they needed to tie the men to the case, if they were indeed involved. Getting on her radio, Lucy told her fellow officers to stand down.
‘If he’s taking the money, then we have to see where he goes next. And pray to God that he leads us straight back to Riley!’
38
Pulling up his Range Rover at the back of Broomwood Road, Pete Baker slipped his black leather gloves on and got out of his car.
‘They’re all still inside?’ Pete asked, nodding curtly at Carl Rangers, who stood on the edge of the pavement, patiently waiting for him, before marching to the boot. Because despite what the police and Janey clearly thought of him, Pete was far from fucking stupid.
And he was never going to simply just hand over a bag full of money to some chancer when his grandson’s life was at stake.
The police were doing their best, but so far, their best hadn’t got Riley home, had it? So Pete was doing things his way now.
He’d ordered Carl to follow the money and whoever collected it, and not let the bastard out of his sight.
And that’s exactly what Carl had done. Only the last thing Pete had expected to hear was that his son-in-law had been the one to do the pickup, and that he’d then made his way here to the Bolands’ place.
He should have known.
Ever the slippery little fucker, Ashley always seemed to get away unscathed. But not this time.
Carl had managed to check out the nightclub’s security footage for clues about Ashley’s attackers, and Pete’s instincts about Ashley being involved with something dodgy had been spot on.
They’d since found out that the Boland brothers had been the ones who attacked Ashley, not kids as he’d tried to have everyone believe.
Only it had taken Shelby finally confiding in her parents today about the trouble Ashley was in with the Boland brothers, for Pete to know the reasons behind the attack.
According to Shelby, Ashley owed these two fuckers a lot of money.
The only good that had come out of it all was that Shelby had come home.
Shelby couldn’t trust Ashley, only it had taken something like this to finally make his daughter see sense.
‘Yeah, Ashley only went in five minutes ago,’ Carl confirmed.
‘And you’re sure that this dump is their place?’ Pete said, turning his nose up at the run-down-looking mid-terrace house. His eyes swept the state of the rickety-looking back
