A DCI Anna Tate Crime Thriller

But by now Chloe would be back home where Anna’s mother would be taking care of her. Without her mother’s help Anna would never have been able to hold down a full-time job, especially one that entailed such unsocial hours.

The drive home was slow and uneventful, and she was relieved when she pulled up outside her terraced house at just before seven. She couldn’t wait to see Chloe, and was glad she’d told her mother to keep her up so that she could read her a bedtime story.

For that reason she expected to see her daughter in her mother’s arms when the door flew open as she approached it. But her mother was alone and had a face like thunder.

‘Why haven’t you answered your bloody phone?’ her mother said. ‘I’ve called and sent you two messages.’

Anna felt her heart miss a beat. Her phone was in her handbag, but she knew without looking what had happened.

‘Oh shit,’ she said. ‘I had a meeting just before I left the office and put it on silent. And because I was in such a hurry to get away I didn’t think to check it.’

‘Well, you should have.’

‘Why mum? What’s wrong? Where’s Chloe?’

‘That’s just it,’ her mother said. ‘You told me that Matthew was supposed to bring her back at three but he hasn’t shown up yet. I’ve tried ringing him but there’s no answer. And quite frankly I’m worried. You know I don’t trust that man.’

CHAPTER TWELVE

Anna’s eyes snapped open to the roar of a helicopter overhead. The flashback to the worst day of her life was thankfully cut short, but Chloe’s face was still there in her head. Her button nose and dimpled chin. The bright, cheeky smile that lit up the lives of all those who came into contact with her.

She would be twelve now, and in three months she’d become a teenager. And yet Anna had no idea where she was or if she was happy. All she had were memories and questions. Lots of questions.

What does she look like now?

Does she ever ask about her mother?

Does she even remember her mother?

Is she being taken care of?

Is she healthy?

Is she alive?

Anna had never given up hope of one day being reunited with her baby. Nine years ago she’d set up a website dedicated to finding her. She’d launched pages on Facebook and Twitter and they now had a combined following of fourteen thousand people.

A month ago she’d marked the tenth anniversary of Chloe’s abduction with a fresh appeal through social media and she’d managed to get one of the popular Sunday supplements to run an interview with her. She’d even got them to publish an age-progression photo of Chloe and her shit of a father. But so far nothing had come of it except for dozens of sympathy messages and some cruel comments from internet trolls.

Anna remained undeterred, though. The search would go on, even though her lone efforts were time-consuming and soul-destroying. She could never imagine herself giving up.

And neither could she ever countenance forgiving her ex-husband. The bastard had shattered her life into a million pieces and changed her forever. She used to be an easy-going and tolerant individual with a positive attitude to life. Now she was short-tempered, impatient, and found it hard to trust people. It was as though losing Chloe had unleashed a darkness that had been lurking inside her.

She swallowed back the lump that had risen in her throat and started to pull her thoughts together. She owed it to the parents of those nine stolen children to stay fully focused. They were depending on her to stop their lives imploding, to save them from the kind of abject misery that she was all too familiar with. She was determined not to let them down.

She had allowed herself to be thrown off-track briefly by what Kenneth Tenant and that reporter had said. But she wasn’t going to let it happen again, even if some other bright spark questioned her ability to lead this investigation.

She pushed herself away from the wall and walked back around to the front of the community centre, where she almost bumped into none other than DI Walker.

‘So there you are, guv,’ he said. ‘I’ve been looking for you, and it just occurred to me that you’d probably sneaked off for a quiet puff.’

‘And you were right,’ she said. ‘Which just goes to show what a great detective you are.’

He smiled as he polished his glistening bald head with the palm of his hand.

‘I heard what happened with the parents,’ he said. ‘Wish I’d been there to put that prick in his place.’

‘It was no big deal, Max. The poor sod is all messed up. And to be fair to him he did apologise.’

‘Not the point,’ Walker said. ‘There was no need to bring it up. He was out of order.’

Walker was one of only a handful of her colleagues who actually encouraged her to continue searching for Chloe. Unlike some of the others, he didn’t regard it as a waste of time. It was probably because he had two daughters of his own aged six and eight and he’d told her that he could never imagine being separated from them.

‘So why were you looking for me, Max?’ Anna said, glancing at her watch. ‘For the record, I slipped around the back only five minutes ago.’

Max pointed towards the mobile incident van. ‘Which is why you weren’t there to greet our esteemed leader when he arrived three minutes ago.’

DCS Nash was standing outside the van speaking to a couple of detectives. He didn’t ordinarily turn up at crime scenes but understandably this one was an exception.

He was a tall, broad-shouldered man with a commanding presence and a short beard that didn’t quite suit him. He’d been Anna’s boss for three years and they got on reasonably well. He was one of those officers who liked to delegate most of the hard work while at the same time taking credit for it.

‘There you are, Anna,’ he said as she approached him. ‘I came straight from the Yard as soon as I realised how serious this is. For obvious reasons, the Commissioner himself is taking a personal interest in the case and I want to make sure that we’re on top of things.’

‘We’re getting there, sir,’ she said. ‘It’s a strange one, though, and as yet I’m not sure what to make of it.’

‘Well, the world’s media is camped out there on the road and we need to stage a formal press conference as soon as possible. In the meantime I’ve said I’ll go and update them after I’ve spoken to you. So talk me through it, Anna. And do it while you show me the crime scene.’

This time they had to don hooded white paper suits and shoe covers to enter the nursery. The SOCOs were busy dusting for prints and searching for clues, but Anna doubted that the kidnappers had left many behind, if any at all. They were quite clearly professionals, who’d had this abduction intricately planned.

She explained to Nash how the men had gained access to the building and what had happened once they were inside. She showed him the storeroom and the Quiet Room. And while in the playroom she drew his attention to the dozens of pictures on the walls that had been drawn or painted by the children. Names were scrawled on the bottom of each one, and Anna spotted works of art by some of those who’d been taken, including Daniel, Liam, Simone, Molly and Grace.

And there were a few group photographs of the kids with the staff. They were gathered in the garden on a sunny day, standing in front of a large Christmas tree and sitting around a table containing a birthday cake with four candles on it.

‘I’m pretty sure that those men knew what to expect before they came in here,’ Anna said to Nash. ‘So the question is, had they been here before to look around? Or did someone provide them with all the information they needed?’

‘So what’s your impression of the owner?’ Nash asked.

‘I haven’t yet formed one,’ she said. ‘But I intend to speak to her again before I get the troops together for a briefing. I want to ask her about an incident last year at one of the Peabody Nurseries. Apparently she was fined three hundred thousand pounds after a child choked to death on a grape.’

‘I can vaguely recall that case,’ he said. ‘But I didn’t realise the nursery involved received such a whopping fine.’

‘Well it could mean that she’s got serious money problems,’ Anna said. ‘So maybe she decided to arrange for the kids to be taken so that she can now hold them to ransom?’

Nash shrugged. ‘It sounds a bit far-fetched to me, Anna.’

‘Perhaps, but we shouldn’t rule it out. After all, this wasn’t a difficult crime to commit. All those blokes had to do was get inside the nursery and she made it bloody easy for them.’

Back at the community centre, Nash said he was satisfied that Anna had everything under control.

‘I’ll bring the Commissioner up to date and make sure you get everything you need,’ he added. ‘But before I go, I want to know that you’re happy to remain at the helm of this one. I know the circumstances are close to your heart and I saw the news clip where the reporter put you on the spot earlier. It won’t surprise me if the press continue to make a big thing of what happened to you. I can see the headlines now – detective whose own daughter was kidnapped by her ex leads hunt for the nursery school kidnappers.’

‘I can live with it, sir,’ Anna said. ‘And I guarantee that it won’t be a distraction.’

Nash gave a stiff nod. ‘And that’s exactly what I intend to tell anyone who asks me if it’s an issue, including those reporters out front. But if it does become one, then you need to tell me, Anna.’

‘You’ll be the first to know, sir, but please don’t hold your breath.’

Nash grinned, showing white, even teeth. ‘Just keep me updated,’ he said. ‘And rest assured that I’ve got your back.’

After Nash went off to speak to the media Anna went to find DI Walker. She told him to round up the team for a full briefing in the hall.

‘I’ll be along as soon as I’ve had another word with Sarah Ramsay,’ she said.

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