There was something that sounded like, ‘Are you okay?’
Slater took the phone away from her ear and killed the call.
Kerr said, ‘Where are we going?’
King said, ‘Hood her.’
Violetta shrugged her suit jacket off and passed it over to Slater. He put the gun between his feet, trusting his ability to neutralise Kerr if she got ambitious, then wrapped the jacket around her face and tied it tight behind her head, blinding her.
They drove in silence back to the estate. King looped all over the place to ensure Kerr stayed in the dark, even if she knew the streets like the back of her hand. When they finally arrived at the Ridges, King drove the BMW straight into the garage and lowered the roller door with a key fob.
They all piled out.
Slater led Kerr straight to a spare room — empty, windowless, with thin carpet on the floor — and used two full rolls of electrical tape to cocoon her arms to her sides and her legs together. He left the jacket on her face. She could breathe, which was more than she deserved. She wasn’t going anywhere. She was mummified.
He rendezvoused with King and Violetta around the kitchen island.
Violetta said, ‘I know you’re angry.’
‘Her daughter,’ Slater said. ‘What the hell is this?’
‘You’ve seen worse,’ King said.
Slater’s past flashed before his eyes in a split-second kaleidoscope. All the horrors he’d witnessed, all the depravity he’d eradicated. He said, ‘Yeah, I have. But still…’
‘We’ll deal with her in due course,’ Violetta said. ‘There’s a bigger problem right now.’
Slater knew full well.
He’d been trying not to think about it until Kerr was properly subdued, but now it consumed him. The emptiness of the driveway. The lack of contact.
He said, ‘Alexis is compromised.’
His guts twisted into a knot.
King said, ‘She hasn’t hit the button. There’s a chance she’s fine.’
Violetta shook her head. ‘She won’t have been able to.’
Slater put his elbows on the countertop and hunched over.
‘She called you,’ Violetta said. ‘Before she went radio silent. What’d she say?’
His eyes inches from the surface, he said, ‘She seduced a junior officer. That’s what she told me. He told her everything about Ray and Gates.’
‘So she got snatched by someone after that?’
‘Unless the cop got hinky,’ Slater said. ‘Unless Ray’s got an unofficial system in place. Like, “You hear my name, you let me know.”’
‘Are you tracking her phone?’ King said.
Violetta already had her laptop in front of her. She said, ‘It’s on Blue Diamond Road. It’s not moving.’
Slater’s heart sank.
She seemed to notice. ‘It’s a busy road, Will. They wouldn’t dump her body there. They threw her phone out the window.’
‘The panic button,’ Slater said. ‘You can track that, right?’
‘Not until she activates it. Then the GPS in the fob goes live.’
‘What sort of shitty setup is that?’
‘The system is stock-standard,’ Violetta said. ‘I only store-bought them recently. I haven’t had time to customise the software.’
He exhaled.
Violetta said, ‘The button isn’t exactly discreet. They would have thrown it out with the phone.’
King said, ‘So we take things up a notch.’
Violetta stared at him.
So did Slater.
King said, ‘We get Kerr to make calls.’
Violetta said, ‘She won’t do that willingly. We might have to use … methods.’
Slater said, ‘I volunteer.’
A poignant silence consumed the house. It was a dark road, but Slater had walked down it many times before, and he’d do anything to get Alexis back.
Anything.
A phone started ringing.
Not King’s, not Slater’s, not Violetta’s.
Slater’s gaze snapped to the left. He spotted the source. King’s burner phone from the night before, thrown to the side of the kitchen island, resting near the edge. It vibrated against the marble.
Which meant it could only be one number.
King went to it.
He picked it up and looked at the screen.
He said, ‘It’s Gates.’
38
‘I’ve got it recorded!’ Ward blurted.
It cut through the quiet like a knife.
Alexis thought, Oh, shit.
Ray let everything go quiet again.
It sure kept Ward talking.
‘It’s on my body-cam,’ he babbled. ‘I turned it off, but before I did she asked me about you. It’s right there on tape. I’ll prove she’s lying. There’s no way I’d bring you up to a nobody like her. Or to anyone, for that matter.’
‘Why did you turn your body-cam off?’
Ward covered for himself nicely. ‘I assumed you didn’t want any mention of yourself on file. As soon as she mentioned you I shut it down, but I still have the video. You can see her tell the drink anecdote, and then ask about you, and then it goes to black. I did the right thing, Keith.’
Ray stared at him. ‘You’re telling the truth. I can tell.’
‘I know I am,’ Ward said. ‘The footage is out in my car.’
Ward’s voice shook, but a little colour had returned to his face. He was steadily realising how narrowly he’d avoided getting beaten to death for his supposed betrayal.
Ray turned to her. ‘Which means you’re lying.’
Alexis thought, That’s it.
I’m done.
She’d squandered what little goodwill she had with Ward, and now she was alone in this horrid place. Destined to suffer and die as the lies she spun unravelled. It was inevitable. Ray would break her. He probably wouldn’t even need to touch her. If he chained her to a radiator for a few hours and left her to think about how painful things might get, she’d wilt under the pressure. She was objective enough to know her limitations.
She couldn’t withstand pain like King and Slater.
No one could.
She remembered the panic button.
She shot a sideways glance at Ward, but he was still fixated on Ray. The fear still hadn’t left his face. He looked like he’d seen a ghost. But as soon as he calmed down, he’d recall what he’d done for her, and he’d yank that lifeline away as fast as he could.
Because she’d almost gotten him killed for something he didn’t do.
She went for her pocket.
Ward and Ray were still simmering, cooling off from the heated exchange, dissipating the tension. It
