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  Baldwin offered her a dead stare in response to her question. A warning to keep her mouth closed.

  She stared back. ‘Well, only one child came back, so what went wrong?’

  ‘I don't think the details—’

  ‘Sir, why am I here?’ she asked, turning back to Woody. This was a double abduction. This was a matter for force CID, not local. The management of a case like this would be divided into many different sections. There would be the search for clues, background, door to door, CCTV and press. Woody would never put her in charge of press.

  Woody and Baldwin exchanged a look.

  She sensed that she was not going to like the answer. Her first guess was that her team was being seconded to assist. Forget the current workload of sexual assaults, domestic violence, fraud and attempted murder cases they were working as well as the finalising of statements for Dewain Wright.

  ‘You want my team on the search—’

  ‘There is no search, Stone,’ Woody said. ‘We're issuing a media blackout.’

  ‘Sir?’

  This was virtually unheard of in an abduction case. The press normally got hold of it in minutes.

  ‘Nothing has been transmitted via the radio frequency and at the moment the parents are not saying a word.’

  Kim nodded her understanding. If she recalled correctly the same had been attempted the last time but the news had broken by day three. Later that day the surviving child had been found wandering along the roadside and the other had not been found at all.

  ‘I'm still a little confused as to what …’

  ‘You've been requested to head this case, Stone.’

  Ten seconds passed, during which she waited for the punchline. None came.

  ‘Sir?’

  ‘Of course, that's impossible,’ Baldwin said. ‘You are certainly not qualified to head an investigation of this magnitude.’

  Although Kim didn't disagree she was tempted to mention the Crestwood case where she and her team had captured the killer of four teenage girls.

  She turned in her seat so she faced only Woody.

  ‘Requested by?’

  ‘One of the parents. She's asked for you specifically and won't even speak to anyone else. We need you to take the initial details whilst we assemble a team. You'll report back here immediately and hand over to the Officer in Charge.’

  Kim nodded her understanding of the process, but he still hadn't fully answered her question.

  ‘Sir, can I have the names of the girls and the name of the parent?’

  ‘Charlie Timmins and Amy Hanson are the girls. It’s the mother of Charlie that has requested your involvement. Her name is Karen, says she’s a friend of yours?’

  Kim shook her head blankly. That was impossible. She knew no Karen Timmins and she definitely had no friends.

  Woody consulted a sheet of paper on his desk.

  ‘Apologies, Stone. You might know this woman better under her maiden name. Her name was Karen Holt.’

  Kim felt her back stiffen. The name lived safely in her past; a place she rarely visited.

  ‘Stone, your expression says you do indeed know this woman.’

  Kim stood and aimed her gaze only at Woody.

  ‘Sir, I will go and carry out the initial questioning to hand over to the appropriate Officer in Charge, but I assure you this woman is no friend of mine.’

  Three

  Kim steered the Ninja through a line of traffic to the front of the queue. As the amber light promised to illuminate she spurred the machine into life and roared across the intersection.

  At the next island her knee air-kissed the tarmac at forty miles an hour.

  As she travelled south she left the heart of the Black Country, named due to the thirty feet of thick iron ore and coal seam outcrops in various places.

  Historically, many people in the area had held an agricultural smallholding but supplemented their income by working as nailers or smiths. By the 1620s there were twenty thousand smiths within ten miles of Dudley Castle.

  The address she'd been given was a surprise to Kim. She hadn't envisioned Karen Holt living in one of the finer parts of the Black Country. In fact, she was marginally surprised the woman was still alive at all.

  As she headed through Pedmore, the properties began to recede from the road. The plots grew longer, the trees higher and the houses further apart.

  The area had originally been a village in the Worcestershire countryside but had merged into Stourbridge following extensive house building during the interwar years.

  She pulled off Redlake Road into a driveway that crunched beneath the tyres of the bike. She rolled up to the property and whistled in her head.

  The detached house was double-fronted and Victorian, perfect in its symmetry. The white brick looked recently painted.

  Kim stopped the bike at an ornate portico entrance supporting a balustraded balcony above. Bay windows protruded on both sides.

  It was the kind of house that said you'd made it. And Kim had to wonder what the hell Karen Holt had done to get here. If Bryant had been with her they’d have played their usual game of ‘guess the house value’ and her opening bid would have been no less than one and a half million.

  Parked beside a silver Range Rover was an unmarked Vauxhall Cavalier. A brief assessment confirmed the house was not overlooked from any direction. As she went, she made mental notes to pass on to whomever Woody nominated as Officer in Charge.

  The front door was opened by a constable Kim recognised from a previous case. She stepped into a reception hall boasting a Minton tiled floor. The centre of the space was dominated by a round oak table supporting the tallest vase of flowers she had ever seen. A reception room lay on either side of the hallway.

  ‘Where is she?’ Kim asked the officer.

  ‘Kitchen, Marm. The mother of the other child is here as well.’

  Kim nodded and headed past the sweeping staircase. A woman met her halfway. The recognition took some time to register on Kim's behalf but was instantaneous on the face of the woman before her.

  Karen Timmins bore little resemblance to Karen Holt.

  The slashed jeans that had once melded to every available curve had been replaced by a stylish pair of slim-leg trousers. The low, tight tops that had barely contained her breasts had been replaced with a V-neck jumper that whispered at the body beneath instead of screaming it out loud.

  The dyed blonde hair had been allowed to return to its natural chestnut and was cut stylishly around a face that was attractive but not striking.

  There had been surgery. Not a lot but enough to significantly change her face. Kim guessed at a nose job. Karen had always hated her nose and there'd been a lot there to hate.

  ‘Kim, thank God. Thank you for coming. Thank you.’

  Kim allowed her hand to be clutched for a whole three seconds before she took it back.

  A second woman appeared beside Karen. The terror in her eyes gave way to hope.

  Karen stepped aside. ‘Kim, this is Elizabeth, Amy's mum.’

  Kim nodded to the woman whose eyes were blackened with smudged mascara. Her hair was a sleek bobbed helmet of auburn. She carried a few more pounds than Karen and was dressed in cream chinos and a cerise jumper.

  ‘And you are Charlie’s mum?’ Kim asked.

  Karen nodded eagerly.

  ‘Have you found them?’ Elizabeth asked, breathlessly.

  Kim shook her head as she ushered them back into the kitchen.

  ‘I'm here to collect the initial details for the …’

  ‘You're not going to help us find …’

  ‘No, Karen, a team is currently being assembled. I'm only here to take the initial details.’

  Karen opened her mouth to argue but Kim held up her hand and offered a reassuring smile.

  ‘I can promise you that the very best officers will be assigned to work with you with far more experience in this kind of case. The sooner you give me some details, the quicker I can pass them a
long and get your children back home safely.’

  Elizabeth nodded her understanding but Karen narrowed her eyes. Oh yes, that was a look she recognised.

  And just as she had when they were teenagers, Kim ignored it.

  ‘You were sent messages?’ she asked.

  They both thrust their phones towards her. She took Karen's first and read the cold, black words.

  There is no need to rush. Charlotte will not be home today. This is not a hoax. I have your daughter.

  Kim handed the phone back to Karen and took Elizabeth's.

  Amy will not be home today. This is not a hoax. I have your daughter.

  ‘Okay, tell me exactly what happened,’ she said, handing it back.

  The two women sat at the breakfast bar. Karen took a sip of coffee then spoke. ‘I dropped them off at the leisure centre this morning—’

  ‘What time?’

  ‘Ten fifteen. The class starts at ten thirty and ends at twelve fifteen. I'm always there to collect them at half past.’

  Kim could hear the emotion in her voice as she fought back the tears. Elizabeth covered Karen's free hand and urged her to continue.

  Karen swallowed. ‘Right on time, I left the house to pick them up. They always wait in the reception area until I get there. My car wouldn't start – and then I got the message.’

  ‘Do you have any CCTV on your house?’ Kim asked. She had to assume that the car trouble was deliberate and had been achieved by access to the property.

  Karen shook her head. ‘Why would we?’

  ‘Don't touch the car again,’ Kim ordered. ‘Forensics might be able to lift something.’ It was possible but not probable. ‘The kidnappers knew your routine well.’

  Elizabeth lifted her head. ‘More than one?’

  Kim nodded. ‘I would think so. Your girls are nine years old. Not easy to handle together. A struggle would have been difficult to contain with one adult and two children. There would have been noise.’

  Elizabeth made a small sound but Kim couldn't help that. Crying would not get their children back. If it would, she'd summon a few tears herself.

  ‘Have either of you noticed anything strange recently? Familiar faces or cars turning up; perhaps the feeling of being watched?’

  Both women shook their heads.

  ‘Have your girls mentioned anything different, perhaps being approached by a stranger?’

  ‘No,’ they said together.

  ‘The girls' fathers?’

  ‘On their way back from golf. We managed to contact them just before you arrived.’

  That answered all her questions. Clearly both fathers were in the picture so any kind of custody battle was unlikely. It also told her that the two families were very close.

  ‘Please be honest with me. Have you contacted anyone else, friends, relatives?’

  They both shook their heads but Karen spoke. ‘The officer we spoke to told us not to until someone had been in touch.’

  It had been good advice, and given because the snatch was confirmed. They were not missing. They’d been taken.

  ‘What should we do, Inspector?’ Elizabeth asked.

  Kim knew that their natural instincts would prompt them to be searching, moving, walking, acting, doing. The girls had been gone for around an hour and a half. And it was going to get a whole lot worse than this.

  She shook her head. ‘Nothing. We can now assume this is a planned kidnap by people who know what they're doing. They know your routines and have watched you closely. The girls will most likely have been lured away from the entrance of the leisure centre in one of three ways. The first is by a person they know. The second is by a person they perceive to be trustworthy and the third is with a promise.’

  ‘A promise?’ Karen asked.

  Kim nodded. ‘Your girls are too old to be persuaded by sweets, so more likely a puppy or a kitten.’

  ‘Oh, Lord,’ Elizabeth breathed. ‘Amy has been begging me for a kitten for months.’

  ‘There are few kids that can resist the temptation,’ Kim offered. ‘That's why it works.’ She took a deep breath. ‘Listen, there's going to be a media blackout on this.’

  At this point they didn't need to know why. The less they knew about the previous case the better.

  Kim continued. ‘So, there'll be no search. There's no point. We're not going to find them in a manhunt. The crime has been planned and they've already made contact. Your girls are not in a field somewhere waiting to be found.’

  ‘But what do they want?’ Karen asked.

  ‘I'm sure they'll let you know but until they do you have to keep quiet. Not even family members are to be told. There are no exceptions. If the press get hold of this it will make a difference to the investigation. Hundreds of people scouring the area is not going to get your girls back.’

  Kim could see the indecision on their faces and that would be someone else's fight soon but for now she had to urge them to remain silent. At least until she got back to the station and it became someone else’s problem.

  ‘It may be your natural reaction to want everyone you know on the lookout, just as you'd like to be out there searching yourselves, but it won't do any good.’ Kim stood. ‘The Officer in Charge will be here soon. You should take that time to make lists of people you might need to contact over the next few days to explain the absence of your children or yourselves.’

  Karen looked stunned. ‘But I want … can't you—?’

  Kim shook her head. ‘You need someone with more experience in abduction cases.’

  ‘But I want—’

  Right on cue a child started crying from the next room. Elizabeth pushed her chair back. Kim followed, heading for the front door.

  Karen grabbed at her forearm. ‘Please, Kim–’

  ‘Karen, I can't take the case. I don't have the experience. I'm sorry but I promise you that the assigned officer will do everything possible—’

  ‘Is this because you hated me back then?’

  Kim was stunned. The words were not untrue but Kim would not let that influence her when the lives of two girls were at risk.

  Kim felt the frustration grow at her inability to help the desperate woman but her superiors had made her position perfectly clear.

  ‘Why, Karen, why me?’

  Karen offered a half-smile. ‘Do you remember when we were placed with the Price family and Mandy's trainers wore into holes? You asked Diane for a new pair and she said no.’

  Mandy had been a shy, quiet child who rarely spoke. The soles of her feet had been grazed and sore with a hint of gravel rash.

  ‘Of course I remember,’ Kim said. For her it had been foster family number seven. Her last.

  ‘I remember what you did. You found out how much they were paid each month to take care of us. You then wrote down what they spent on grocery, bills and rent.’

  Yes, Kim had watched what they unloaded each Saturday morning and then walked around the supermarket totting it all up. She'd stayed up late one night and gone through the household bills.

  ‘And after a month you presented them with a sheet of paper you were going to post to social services.’

  The family had been career carers and had always taken the older kids for the highest pay rate.

  ‘I still remember what happened after you confronted them,’ Karen said, with a smile that didn't even come close to her eyes. ‘It was new trainers all around.’ She shook her head. ‘We knew nothing about you, back then, Kim. You wouldn’t speak to a soul about your past – in fact you rarely spoke at all – but there was a determination in you.’

  Kim offered her a brief smile. ‘So you want me to head this case because I got you a new pair of trainers?’

  ‘No, Kim. I want you to head this case because I know that if you decide to help us, I will see my daughter again.’

  Four

  Woody was alone when Kim knocked and entered twenty minutes later.

  ‘Sir, I want it,’ she said.

  ‘Wan
t what, Stone?’ he asked, sitting back in his chair.

  ‘The case. I want to be the OIC.’

  He rubbed his chin. ‘Did you not hear the superintendent when he said—’

  ‘Yes, I heard loud and clear but he's wrong. I will bring those children home, so if you just tell me whose arse I need to kiss to—’

  ‘That won't be necessary,’ he said, reaching for the stress ball.

  Damn it, she'd already lost and she hadn't even started her sales pitch. But she had clutched victory from the jaws of defeat in the past.

  ‘Sir, I am tenacious, determined, driven …’

  He sat back and tilted his head.

  ‘I am persistent, stubborn …’

  ‘Oh yes, you're that, Stone,’ he offered.

  ‘I will not eat, sleep or drink until …’

  ‘Okay, Stone. It's yours.’

  ‘No one will work harder than … umm, what?’

  He sat forward and let go of the stress ball. ‘The superintendent and I had quite a conversation after you left. I used many of those words. Amongst others. I assured him that if anyone can bring these girls home, you can.’

  ‘Sir, I …’

  ‘But both of our necks are on the line for this one, Stone. The superintendent will not be held accountable for any failure. Especially after the last time. There is no leeway on this case. One wrong step and we are both out. Do you understand me?’

  Kim appreciated the level of faith that Woody had placed in her ability and she would not let him down. She tried to picture the conversation that had taken place between her boss and the superintendent. The man before her must have presented passionately to win over Baldwin.

  ‘What do you need?’ he asked, reaching for his pen.

  She took a deep breath. ‘The complete files from the last case. That'll tell me everything I need to know about how the investigation was conducted.’

  ‘Already in progress. Next?’

  ‘I want the FLO assigned last time.’

  This request he wrote down, and would be tricky but to her it was imperative. The family liaison officer would have been with the families the whole time and would be able to offer an insight into events and advise her on any similarities.