‘So for once in his life Drake was telling us the truth,’ Bliss said. ‘He genuinely had no idea about Dark Desires. Since our visit he must have put the word out and discovered it was Parkinson raking in the money without cutting him in.’
Chandler failed to stem the grin spreading across her face. ‘Karma works quickly these days. I wouldn’t want to be in her skanky shoes, with that mad bastard wanting her head on a pike.’
Bliss shrugged. ‘She deserves everything she gets. I’ve half a mind to forget we ever heard about it and let natural justice take its course.’
DCI Warburton had been working alongside her team, and now she stepped forward to offer her own view. ‘In the short time I’ve been at Thorpe Wood, I’ve had the misfortune to encounter that odious creature on only two occasions. I don’t think I’ve felt genuinely clean since. I’m inclined to agree with you, Jimmy, except for one thing: collateral damage. If we could guarantee it was that bitch Parkinson being taken out in some dark alley with no one else around, I’d say we have more important matters to focus on than saving her scrawny arse. But these things can get messy, and I’d hate to think that innocent bystanders might get caught up in a bloodbath.’
Bliss nodded. He’d not been entirely serious himself, and neither he nor any member of his team would turn their backs on a murder threat simply because they disliked the intended victim. It was a perfectly natural instinct to think of someone like Nicola Parkinson as surplus to requirements in respect of the human race. But, despicable or not, she was currently a citizen in need of their protection. That thought led him to another.
‘Did your snout mention anyone else on Drake’s shit list?’ he asked Chandler.
She shook her head, but lines deepened on her forehead. ‘No. Are you thinking about her son and daughter?’
‘Yeah. Because even if they’re not involved – and I’m willing to bet my house on both of them being in it up to their horrible necks – they could be snatched up to be used as leverage once whoever has the contract finds out Nicola has done a runner.’
Bishop reacted before Bliss could turn to him. He jabbed a finger at Ansari. ‘Make sure this Zen broadband provider knows who to get hold of and how. Then I want you to locate the home address for Parkinson and her offspring and get yourself over there right away. Take Glen and Phil with you. Also, let’s have uniform taking the doors off all their known knocking shops. We have to find all three of them before anybody else does.’ He switched his attention. ‘Jimmy, Pen – you want to look into these kennels? I can tell you from experience there are a good twenty or more in the area, and most are in places you might consider ideal if you were going to abduct young women and keep them under lock and key for a couple of weeks. John and I can help you with them.’
‘Just a thought, boss,’ Ansari said, piping up. ‘A number of those kennels may be either temporarily closed or have gone out of business altogether in recent times. If you run a Google search, they usually say whether they’re open or not.’
‘It’s a good thought. We can start with the ones that are closed, because nobody’s going to be keeping someone against their will at a functioning one.’
Bliss couldn’t help but wonder if they were missing something that would help narrow their search further, but agreed with Bishop: splitting the team covered both emergency situations. He cared about his task more than the other – in that he’d not spare a second thought for Nicola Parkinson’s plight. In his opinion, whatever lay in store for her was long overdue.
Chandler had already pulled up a view of the kennels in the wider Peterborough area. Eighteen red droplets freckled the map like blood spatter. Shaking her head, she looked up and said, ‘Good for them, bad for us. This lot seem to have made it through. But we’re looking as far north as Deeping, to the west around Elton, and on the other side we’re looking at Coates and Turves.’
‘We don’t know how much time we have,’ Bliss said, looking up at Bishop. ‘But it’s going to take us the rest of today to hit this lot. We need traffic and uniform on it with us.’
Bishop nodded immediately. ‘Absolutely. I’m sure our favourite DCI’s charms will do the trick there.’
Warburton rolled her eyes. ‘Why is it always me?’
‘You have the rank, boss. I’m only acting. Plus, like I said, you’ve got the charm. And you’re going to need it when people kick off about budgets.’
‘Hmm. I’ll let that go this time, Bish. But we may need to have words later. Perhaps a nice new training course for you to attend.’
Bishop groaned but laughed it off. He turned back to Chandler. ‘We’d best start divvying some of these up. I’m thinking we take the kennels closest to HQ, leave the others to uniform and traffic. Sound good?’
‘Yes, boss. On closer inspection, four of the eighteen appear to be for cats only, even though they feature in the search for kennels. I say we leave them out altogether. That leaves us with fourteen. We could take eight, leave the remaining six for other teams.’
‘Okay. I’ll take four with John, you and Jimmy visit the other four.’
It
