school children.
They took the stairs, two at a time, and reached the third floor, which opened out in four directions from the bottom of the stairs.
âIâll take straight ahead,â Mickey said, taking control. âYou go left, Tommy; Tara go right; Lucy check the shops. TSU will catch up.â Then he set off before anyone could argue.
The first shop to her left was the book store, Eason. Lucy ran in then stood on tiptoe to better scan the shoppers. She couldnât see Kay and left, moving towards the next shop. The neighbouring units were all similarly clear. The last store was a larger department store, and Tommy had headed in there. She cut across and began checking the shops along the opposite wall. She was just coming out of a clothes shop when she spotted Kay, his coat off now and hanging over his arm, as he walked out of the O 2 shop. The central portion of level three had actually been cut away, allowing those on the level to look down to the one beneath. The shop from which Kay had come was on the opposite side of the gap from where she stood, meaning Lucy would need to move around it to get to Kay. He would undoubtedly see her approach. In fact, even now, he was glancing around, obviously looking to see where the police were.
âHeâs here,â Lucy said.
âTSU are on the level now. Whatâs your location?â Burns snapped.
âHeâs outside the O 2 shop,â Lucy said, âmoving towards the lower escalator.â
Kay must have spotted the two uniforms coming up the escalator he was about to take for he turned suddenly. Then he saw Lucy too, stood, holding her gaze, the space between them the ten-foot opening in the floor, surrounded by guard rails, giving way to a drop of about twenty feet down to level two. At the centre of the space below, a small water feature twinkled beneath the fluorescent centre lights.
Kay glanced to his left, where the two TSU officers were approaching, then to his right, where a team from above was likewise fanning out as they approached him.
He stared across at Lucy, placing both his hands on the rail, as if to brace himself for a jump.
Lucy shook her head.
Donât
, she mouthed.
Kay paused a second, then lifted his leg and began clambering over the guard rail.
âHeâs going to jump,â Lucy shouted. Glancing down, she saw Mickey and Tommy arrive beneath them.
Instead, the man pulled his phone from his pocket and flung it to the floor below. Looking down, Lucy could only watch as it shattered off the side of the tiled water feature below and slid beneath the water to rest on a bed of winking good luck pennies.
Chapter Eighteen
L ucy and Tom Fleming were sent to Kayâs house first to search for evidence that might connect him with Karen Hughes. There was no doubt that, like all abusers, Kay would have a collection of material somewhere in the house, most likely stored on his PC. The difficulty with abusersâ collections, however, was that they were not always obviously related to the abuse that had been carried out. Any officer would pick up a box containing obscene photographs straight away; a box of seemingly innocuous souvenirs might not be noticed. Burns reasoned that Fleming and Lucy would have a better sense of what to look for than CID.
When they entered the living room, however, the first thing Lucy noticed was the space on the table where the computer had been.
âPCâs gone,â she said to Fleming.
âWeâll keep an eye out for it,â Fleming commented. âYou do the upstairs rooms, Iâll do down here.â
There were three rooms upstairs. The first, a bathroom, was almost bare. The walls were blue, the paint bubbling and blistered in places behind the sink. A scum-ringed glass on the windowsill. Toothbrush, razor, a rolled tube of paste. A few bottles of cheap aftershave on the windowsill next to that, and a bottle of talc. There were no obvious hiding places. Lucy
They took the stairs, two at a time, and reached the third floor, which opened out in four directions from the bottom of the stairs.
âIâll take straight ahead,â Mickey said, taking control. âYou go left, Tommy; Tara go right; Lucy check the shops. TSU will catch up.â Then he set off before anyone could argue.
The first shop to her left was the book store, Eason. Lucy ran in then stood on tiptoe to better scan the shoppers. She couldnât see Kay and left, moving towards the next shop. The neighbouring units were all similarly clear. The last store was a larger department store, and Tommy had headed in there. She cut across and began checking the shops along the opposite wall. She was just coming out of a clothes shop when she spotted Kay, his coat off now and hanging over his arm, as he walked out of the O 2 shop. The central portion of level three had actually been cut away, allowing those on the level to look down to the one beneath. The shop from which Kay had come was on the opposite side of the gap from where she stood, meaning Lucy would need to move around it to get to Kay. He would undoubtedly see her approach. In fact, even now, he was glancing around, obviously looking to see where the police were.
âHeâs here,â Lucy said.
âTSU are on the level now. Whatâs your location?â Burns snapped.
âHeâs outside the O 2 shop,â Lucy said, âmoving towards the lower escalator.â
Kay must have spotted the two uniforms coming up the escalator he was about to take for he turned suddenly. Then he saw Lucy too, stood, holding her gaze, the space between them the ten-foot opening in the floor, surrounded by guard rails, giving way to a drop of about twenty feet down to level two. At the centre of the space below, a small water feature twinkled beneath the fluorescent centre lights.
Kay glanced to his left, where the two TSU officers were approaching, then to his right, where a team from above was likewise fanning out as they approached him.
He stared across at Lucy, placing both his hands on the rail, as if to brace himself for a jump.
Lucy shook her head.
Donât
, she mouthed.
Kay paused a second, then lifted his leg and began clambering over the guard rail.
âHeâs going to jump,â Lucy shouted. Glancing down, she saw Mickey and Tommy arrive beneath them.
Instead, the man pulled his phone from his pocket and flung it to the floor below. Looking down, Lucy could only watch as it shattered off the side of the tiled water feature below and slid beneath the water to rest on a bed of winking good luck pennies.
Chapter Eighteen
L ucy and Tom Fleming were sent to Kayâs house first to search for evidence that might connect him with Karen Hughes. There was no doubt that, like all abusers, Kay would have a collection of material somewhere in the house, most likely stored on his PC. The difficulty with abusersâ collections, however, was that they were not always obviously related to the abuse that had been carried out. Any officer would pick up a box containing obscene photographs straight away; a box of seemingly innocuous souvenirs might not be noticed. Burns reasoned that Fleming and Lucy would have a better sense of what to look for than CID.
When they entered the living room, however, the first thing Lucy noticed was the space on the table where the computer had been.
âPCâs gone,â she said to Fleming.
âWeâll keep an eye out for it,â Fleming commented. âYou do the upstairs rooms, Iâll do down here.â
There were three rooms upstairs. The first, a bathroom, was almost bare. The walls were blue, the paint bubbling and blistered in places behind the sink. A scum-ringed glass on the windowsill. Toothbrush, razor, a rolled tube of paste. A few bottles of cheap aftershave on the windowsill next to that, and a bottle of talc. There were no obvious hiding places. Lucy
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