Leah said, You hired Abbotts to find Tess?
With her familys permission of course.
The detective who was following Tess passed news back to Mr Abbott, who kept you informed.
Correct.
Who was in the loop?
I don’t follow.
Its all a matter of timing. Before investigating your friend, the child molester, did you absent-mindedly or carelessly or viciously pass on to him any information from the detective following Tess?
I don’t like your tone. As soon as
Leah wouldn’t let her finish. Vale had a very good reason for wanting to get rid of Tess before anyone else found her. He feared exposure, and needed her dead. He almost succeeded.
Dr Heyward went white. I don’t know what you’re talking about.
Vale hired a hitman. All the hitman had to do was follow the detective, all the way to Tess. He killed the detective. Tess and I were next, only we got lucky.
What nonsense. Get out. If you have Tess, I should like to see her at once.
If you don’t believe me, check with Mr Abbott, Tess said. He has a dead agent and a live killer on his hands, and would welcome some answers from you.
Dr Heyward regained her composure. Brian Vale was never in the loop, as you put it. He had no way of knowing anything about the search for Tess. No access to me, my office, my phone. In fact, I suspended him immediately.
Leah swallowed. Had she got it all wrong? If Vale had no access to information, then who had hired the killer?
It might interest you to know, Dr Heyward went on, that the police found evidence on Brians laptop that he belongs to a paedophile ring. As a result, theyve been through the entire school, confiscating computers, interviewing staff and students. Its been hell.
Leah went cold. Maybe the members of Vales paedophile ringsome of them wealthy, all of them secretive and in constant contact with each other via the Netwere behind this. But how had they got their information?
Dr Heyward was staring at her with mingled compassion and triumph. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to—
Who else? Leah demanded. Who else knew where Tess was at any given moment?
Why, her family, of course.
What, you just kept phoning and e-mailing India?
Dr Heyward gestured in faint embarrassment. Well, not exactly. We contacted the High Commission as soon as it was apparent that Tess had run away, and some time later got a return call from Tess’s mother who, it turns out, is in Paris. Apparently she has left her husband. She said she didn’t want the police involved and asked us to hire Abbotts to find Tess. Dr Heyward shook her head wearily, a woman obliged to deal politely with the rich, careless parents of indulged and neglected children. I could be charitable and say that Tess’s mother is a tad distracted at the moment. Ive been sending her regular updates by voice mail. Meanwhile her husband is traveling around India on official duties and is content to leave it up to his runaway wife. Dr Heyward shook her head again. That is one seriously dysfunctional family, if you don’t mind my saying so.
Leah nodded. Ain’t that the truth.
Meanwhile the best cooperation we’ve had is from Tess’s half-brother.
Leah froze.
A moment later she sprang out of her seat, and was running before she reached Dr Heywards highly polished door.
chapter 21
It was 4 p.m., and the roads were choked: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. shift workers heading for home, schoolchildren in cars and buses, couriers and delivery drivers making the final run of the day. Leah could see that she stood little chance of catching a taxi. She hurried from the school gates to the nearest shops, where she waited in agitation at the kerb, punching a number into her mobile phone.
Jill, its Leah again.
Hey, thanks, we caught those two bozos in the Range Rover. It was just like you said, shotties, speed, ecstasy, cash…
Jill, this is urgent.
Pause. Yeah? What?
Leah explained. Her ex-colleague listened, and at the end of it said, So you’re saying the half-brother hired a hitman?
Yes.
I don’t know, it all sounds a bit far-fetched. Whats this got to do with those characters in the Range Rover?
Look, Jill, Ill explain later. Meanwhile Tess is with her half-brother right now and
Jill was all business. Address?
Leah gave it. Hes probably got more sense than to try anything so soon but
Well sort it, Jill said, breaking the connection.
Leah waited in a swirl of grit and exhaust fumes and, twenty minutes later, was in a taxi. Progress was slow, jerky, with short, speedy runs followed by long periods of idling in traffic or at lights. She tried to keep still, but felt her body urging the traffic to move.
To distract herself she tried to work it out. Ian’s mother died when he was little and his father married again. He found himself with an indifferent and unloving stepmother and later a little sister. Then his beloved father dies and his stepmother remarries. Hes a damaged kid, like Tess. As he sees it, he has no one. Tess means little to him. But Tess also inherited a trust fund from their father, money that would come to him if she were to die.
But why wasn’t his own half a million dollars enough?
Hed moved back to the family home. Had he been forced to sell his apartment? Was he hiding from creditors? Leah saw a young man who liked to gamble, who might make and lose fortunes and owe money to the wrong people.
Or maybe he was simply greedy. Maybe he didn’t think that Tess was entitled to any of their fathers money.
It was 5.05 when she reached Tess’s home. She paid off the driver at the kerb and hurried in, running swiftly over the lawn to avoid the noisy gravelled drive. The Saab was no longer parked outside.
She paused at the front door. It was ajar. She pushed it gently, then stood with her back hard against the adjacent wall. The door swung open; no one yelled or charged or shot at her. She darted inside and crouched behind a hallstand and listened. The house was silent.
She ventured further into the house and came to the study doorway. She could hear the soft whirring of the computer. Otherwise the room was dark. Someone had closed the curtains, she noticed, as she poked her head around the edge of the door. The only illumination came from the computer monitor. She could smell stale cigarette smoke, stale perspiration, the odours of a man who might spend all of his waking hours cooped up in a cave. Why hadn’t she noticed them before?
And then something sharper, cleaner, fresher. She entered the room, trying to put a name to it. Aftershave, that was it. Something tangy. And just as her mind was processing that information, the door was slammed behind her and the main light was switched on.
Hello, bitch.
Leah swung around. He must have been in one of the other rooms along the hallway, and followed her in. Allynson, Sergeant Allynson, ringleader of the men who’d made her run the gauntlet. Friend of the man who’d committed suicide.
Sergeant, Leah said, automatically and obediently acknowledging his rank.
Allynson laughed harshly. Not any more, he said. Its plain John Allynson now, 7-Eleven proprietor, thanks to you.
Leah reached for the .38 in her jacket but heard a sound to her left, and began to swivel around to meet the new danger. Too late. A strong arm clamped around her windpipe, another around her waist. She struggled to get at the .38 but Allynson, laughing, reached in and snatched it away.
The other man let her go. She turned around. Senior Constable Summers. Or maybe it was plain Rob Summers now, taxi driver or cleaner or… Hed been in the room all along, concealed behind the sofa. Both men wore jeans, trainers and T-shirts—and latex gloves. Both had put on weight. They had the vicious, puffy faces of disappointed men who’d turned to drink.