“What? Why?”
“’Cos he’s crazy, that’s why,” said Neil, snapping himself out of his stupor with a shake of his head. “He’s got it into his messed up head that I had something to do with Ethan’s abduction.”
Susan face twisted into an expression caught between suspicion and fear. “Why would he think that?”
“Because I tried to phone my shift manager.”
A look of confusion took over Susan’s features. “I don’t understand.”
“That makes two of us then.”
“Kane!” shouted Harlan.
“Harlan, will you tell me just what the hell’s going on here,” Susan demanded to know as the boy came thundering downstairs.
In answer, Harlan took out Neil’s phone. Kane pulled up abruptly, sucking his breath in at the sight of Neil. Harlan scrolled through the phone to the missed call list and found the number. Then he pulled out the knife and held it to Neil’s throat. “Jesus,” gasped Susan. “What are you doing?”
“I told you he’s crazy,” said Neil, his tone curiously flat for someone with a blade at their jugular.
He knows he’s caught, thought Harlan. Pressing the blade’s edge into Neil’s flesh, Harlan breathed in his ear, “Say one more fucking word and I swear to God I’ll cut your throat. In fact…” His gaze scanned the room, coming to rest on the coat hooks by the door. He pointed to a scarf. “Pass me that, will you?”
Susan hesitated, uncertainty clouding her haggard face.
“Do it,” snapped Harlan. “There’s no time for explanations now.”
Susan passed the scarf to Harlan. He snatched up a handful of missing-person flyers and stuffed them into Neil’s mouth, before gagging him with the scarf. Neil struggled for breath, expelling black plugs of congealed blood from his nostrils. Harlan’s features softened as he looked at Kane. “Come closer. You need to hear this.”
Kane remained motionless, eyes shining like those of a wild animal ready to fight or flee.
“Don’t worry. No one’s going to hurt you or your mum.”
Kane’s gaze flicked to Susan. When she gave him a nod, he warily approached the sofa. Harlan raised a finger to his lips, then pressed the dial button. He put the phone on speaker mode. With each of the phone’s rings, Neil flinched slightly, causing a thin line of blood to trickle down his throat. He closed his eyes as a gravelly male voice answered the phone. “What you calling me on your moby for? I thought we agreed to use landlines only.”
Harlan watched for Kane’s reaction, mouthing silently, “Is it him?” The boy didn’t shake his head or nod, but he didn’t need to. His ashen face with its expression of paralysed fear told Harlan everything he needed to know.
“Neil, you there?” said the man. “Neil-” Harlan hung up.
Susan’s eyes widened as the penny suddenly dropped. “That was him, wasn’t it?” she hissed. “That was the bastard who took Ethan.”
Kane nodded mutely.
Harlan tore away Neil’s gag. “Where’s-” he started to say but before he could finish, Susan flew at Neil, her fists and nails flailing, drawing livid red lines across his face. He made no attempt to defend himself.
“It was you!” she screamed. “It was you all along! How could you do this?”
Neil’s reedy voice quivered in reply. “I did it for us.”
Harlan caught Susan’s wrists as she swung at Neil again. “There’s no time for this, Susan!” His mind reeled with pain as she strained against his hold, trying to twist her arms free.
“Where’s my boy? Where’s Ethan?”
“He’s not far away,” said Neil.
“Is he alive?”
Neil screwed up his face in horror at the suggestion that Ethan might not be. “Of course he is. I told you, I’d never hurt the kids.”
Susan stopped struggling. A shudder passed through her. Tears swelled in her eyes. Her lips twitched, unable to express the pain and joy she felt. Harlan knew there was no time for the luxury of emotion. There was no time for anything except getting to Ethan. Right this moment, Yates would be wondering what was going on. He might be starting to panic. Maybe he’d even be thinking about disposing of the evidence. Harlan gestured at Kane. The boy blinked as if emerging from a trance, before quickly moving to take hold of his mother’s wrist and draw her away from Harlan.
Harlan hauled Neil to his feet. “You’re gonna take me to Ethan right now.” His voice was as deadly sharp as the blade at Neil’s throat. He pushed him towards the door.
Neil twisted to look at Susan, heedless of the way his Adam’s apple dragged over the knife. “I did it for us,” he said again, with a tremor of pitifully desperate love in his voice. “Because I wanted us to have a life together.”
Susan looked at Neil with a hate in her eyes even more toxic than his love.
Crushed by what he saw, Neil’s body sagged and his head drooped. As Harlan thrust him into the street, Susan broke away from Kane and ran after them. “I’m coming with you.”
“No way,” said Harlan. “It’s too dangerous.”
“I don’t give a fuck! I’m coming!”
Kane grabbed Susan’s wrist again. “Please, Mum, I don’t want you to go.”
“Let go, Kane.” She tried to shake him off, but he clung on like a limpet.
Turning quickly away from them, Harlan put his hand on Neil’s head and none too gently guided him to the driver’s seat. “Don’t you fucking go without me,” shrieked Susan, as he rushed around to the other side of the car. He just had time to reach across Neil and press the central-locking button, before Susan yanked at the passenger door. She hammered on the window. “Open this bastard door!”
Harlan thrust the ignition key into Neil’s hand. “Go! Go!”
With trembling fingers, Neil fumbled the key into the ignition. As they accelerated away, Harlan hissed in his ear, “Remember what I said, if you fuck with me…” He trailed off, letting the threat hang between them.
“I won’t.” Neil’s voice matched his ghastly grey face, as he watched Susan recede in the rearview mirror.
Chapter 22
“Where are we going?” asked Harlan.
“Spital Street.”
Harlan had been called out to Spital Street numerous times during his years on the force. It traversed the lowermost edge of a rundown estate of maisonettes and flats perched on a hillside just north-east of the city centre. “What address?”
“I know where it is, but I dunno the exact address. It’s a second floor flat.”
“Who lives there?”
“No one. It’s empty. That’s why Martin took Ethan there.”
“Is he the only other person involved in this?”
A slight hesitation, then, “No. His girlfriend’s in on it too. Her name’s Paula. I dunno her surname. She lives in the flat below the one where we’re keeping Ethan.”
Harlan took out his phone and dialled Jim. “Have you got a name for me then?” his ex-partner asked, on answering the phone.
“I’ve got a lot more than that. Nash didn’t abduct Ethan. Neil Price did.”
Jim released an exhausted breath. “Make up your mind, Harlan. First you tell me this nameless roofer did it, now you-”
“Shut up and listen, Jim,” Harlan interrupted. “They both did it. The roofer — his name’s Martin Yates — him and Price are in it together, along with Yate’s girlfriend.”
An instant’s stunned silence followed, then Jim said, “How do you know this?”
“Price told me himself. I’m in the car with him now, on my way to where they’re holding Ethan.”
“You mean the boy’s alive.”
“Yes.”
“Where?” There was no relief in Jim’s voice. Within seconds, icy professionalism had overcome his initial surprise. Like Harlan, he knew they hadn’t won the game yet, and the clock was running down fast.
“Spital Street. It’s an empty second floor flat.”
“But we searched all the unoccupied flats around there,” said Jim. “How did we miss him?”
The answer was obvious to Harlan: Ethan had been kept elsewhere — and that elsewhere was almost certainly Yates’s girlfriend’s place — until after the police were done searching. But there was no time for explanations. “We’re in Eve’s Toyota. I’ll make sure we park directly outside the flat. You need to get some units over there fast. Yates might be onto me.”