She covered the entire right side in less than three minutes and reached the lobby. DI Evans stood beside Bryant who was talking on the phone.
‘Want me to conduct the search or take over here?’ Evans asked.
They were equal rank but she was here first. It was her scene.
‘You take over here. I’ll search.’
He pointed to the two officers crouched on the other side of the glass. ‘I’ll try and get Pinky and Perky closer under the cover of the wind. Two might have a chance of pulling him back over the railing. Think this doc is intelligent enough to understand some hand signals?’
‘Oh yes, she’s clever all right.’
Bryant ended the call. ‘We’re looking for a dark-coloured old Montego. Booted. Kid is four years old. Also, Guv, lady with the mobile phone almost had an accident as he was coming onto the car park. She says there was no kid in the car.’
‘Shit.’ Either the child was somewhere else or she was in the boot of the car, with a limited supply of oxygen. ‘Okay, pass the information down. They can take levels one and two, we’ll take level three.’
‘David had Barry’s sister, Lynda, on record as next of kin. She’s here.’
‘Leave her where she is for now. We have nothing for her.’
Kim headed down the stairs to the level beneath. Bryant caught up with her after relaying the information downstairs.
‘I’ll take right, you take left,’ she instructed.
Kim raced along the aisles, passing hatchback after hatchback.
The eerie silence heightened her senses. The child was here somewhere. She knew it. In what state, she had no idea.
As she travelled along the rows she spotted a booted, dark-coloured vehicle in the corner. Her pace quickened. As she got closer she saw it was a Mondeo. But a new one. Shit, she thought she’d found it. There were few cars left on this level.
The car park doors burst open opened and four officers emerged. Two headed towards her and two went the other way.
‘Other levels are only half full, Guv. Nothing,’ Bryant said, appearing beside her.
Damn it, she had to be here somewhere.
‘Start at the lobby and check again,’ she instructed.
‘Marm, over here,’ Hammond shouted.
Kim sprinted to the far right corner of the car park, in the shadows of the ascent ramp.
He stood beside a navy Montego on an X plate. Bingo.
‘Hammond, give me options?’ The officer could get into anything.
He took a lock-picking case from his pocket but ignored it and produced a mini hammer from the other. ‘Accuracy or speed?’
She nodded towards the hammer. ‘Stand back, everybody.’
Two taps and the window smashed, raining crystal shards onto the driver’s seat. Hammond reached inside and opened the door. Within seconds he had ripped off the steering column cover and hotwired the vehicle into life.
He glanced back at her. Kim nodded, and he pressed the button.
The boot lid swung open.
Kim looked into the eyes of a terrified little girl. Her tiny body trembled with fear, curled amongst the debris of a filthy car boot.
Kim let out a long breath. Frightened but alive. She’d take that.
Bryant moved forward. The child let out a whimper. The terror in her eyes moved up a gear.
‘Back off, Bryant. I’ll do it.’
Kim stood over the boot, shielding the child’s view of anything else around. ‘Hi sweetheart. My name’s Kim, what’s yours?’
The child was looking around her, eyes darting, trying to find something safe or familiar on which to anchor herself. Her cheeks were streaked with tear trails.
Kim turned to the two officers and Bryant. She motioned for them to move away. She dropped to her haunches so that her face was level with the girl’s.
Kim smiled and softened her voice to a whisper. ‘Just look at me, sweetie. Everything is all right now. Nobody here is going to hurt you, okay?’
Kim kept eye contact with the child. Some terror left her eyes.
Reaching in, Kim removed a diesel-soaked rag from the child’s hair. The girl didn’t flinch but her eyes followed every movement.
‘Sweetheart, Aunty Lynda is on her way up to get you. Now, you need to tell me if you’re hurt.’ There were no visible signs of trauma but she had to be sure before she even thought about moving her.
There was a slight shake of the head; barely discernible from the trembling, but still communication.
‘Good girl. Can you move all your fingers and toes.? Can you wiggle them for me?’
Kim looked into the boot and saw all her extremities moving.
She resumed eye contact. The terror was fading. ‘Can you tell me your name, sweetie.’
‘Amelia,’ she breathed.
‘Well, Amelia, you are doing a great job. How old are you?’
‘Four and a half.’
At Amelia’s age, the half was crucial.
‘I thought you were at least six. Now, is it okay if I take you out of the car?’ The sight of her lying there amongst oily tools and dirty sponges was offensive to Kim.
Amelia nodded slowly.
Kim reached in and gently placed her hands under the child’s armpits and pulled the small body up and into her own. Amelia instinctively grasped her hands around the back of Kim’s head, her legs encircled around her waist. Her head buried itself in Kim’s neck.
‘It’s all right, Amelia. Everything is going to be okay,’ she soothed into the girl’s hair. And she hoped she was right.
The girl’s tears were wet against her neck. She wondered how much the child had heard.
Kim heard the lobby door unlock. Two police officers, the male from the halfway house and a blonde female rushed towards her.
‘Amelia, I have to go now.’
Amelia held on with the muscles of a boa constrictor.
‘It’s all right, sweetie, Aunty Lynda is here.’
Kim used all her might to extract the sticky four-year-old from her torso and into the waiting arms of the relative.
Kim stroked the blonde hair once.
‘Detective Inspector, thank …’
Kim was already running across the car park. The entire search and rescue had taken less than eleven minutes but it felt like hours.
She took the stairs two at a time. DI Evans was crouched where she had been.
‘Kid okay?’ he whispered.
She nodded. ‘Lower level sorted?’
‘Looks like a fucking garden party. There’s about ten feet at one end not covered. My least useful officers are stood there. They should break his fall.’
‘What’s the doc holding?’
‘Business end of a safety harness. Nugent slid it up the doc’s leg while she was talking. Reckon she knows what to do with it and is either waiting for an opportunity to slap it on him or there’s nothing she can clip it to.’
‘What’s attached to the other end?’
‘Nugent’s belt.’ Evans shrugged. ‘Either he’ll stop the guy from falling or he’ll go over with him.’
‘Correct procedure?’ Kim questioned.
‘Fucking gazebos?’
‘Point taken.’
Sometimes you just had to work with what you’d got. If you got it wrong you faced a disciplinary hearing, and if you got it right you were a hero.
Kim checked her watch. By her reckoning he’d been on the ledge for forty five minutes. ‘He can’t last much longer.’
‘I’ll get back downstairs and serve tea and scones.’
He backed away and Kim took his position. The increase in wind speed meant that she could only make out parts of the conversation between them.
‘What good … jumping … Amelia?’
Kim could no longer hear Barry’s response.
‘Once … explain … judge … understand.’
That would be a cold day in hell, Kim thought.
‘You … Amelia … life … together.’ Suddenly there was a lull in the wind. The silence was broken by the clasp slipping from Alex’s hand and landing on the ground.