He moved towards the door to better hear the sounds coming from the other side: gentle music leaking through the wooden panels, mixing with the unfamiliar voices, making him swallow hard as his tiny hand reached for the door handle and began to turn it, first one way and then the other. But the door wouldnt open he was locked in. He pressed his ear to the door and listened harder, trying to focus on the voices. The sudden scream of a distant child made him recoil from the door, his eyes wide and pupils dilated with sudden, unexpected terror. The womans voice was raised now as the mans faded to nothing, then silence for a few seconds before they started talking again, quieter than before, barely audible. The sound of what he believed was a door closing heavily made him run back to the bed and jump under the covers, waiting waiting for the voices to start coming upstairs towards him, ready ready to scream like hed heard the other child scream, his frail little body beginning to shake. He pulled Ellie close to his chest and cuddled her tightly tighter than hed ever held anything in his short life.
Sean sat in his office alone, his ear warm and sore from having the phone pressed to it too long and too hard, his eyes aching from staring at his newly connected computer screen. One minute hed be thinking about the missing boy, his house and family, and the next hed be on the phone to the stores trying to beg, steal or borrow the basics for the office and his team: paper, pens, more chairs and the forms of all kinds they needed for daily policework and to run an investigation. A loud double knock at his open door made him jump and look up as a smiling Featherstone entered without being asked and sat heavily in the one spare chair in the office. Hows it going? he asked.
What? Sean replied. The investigation or the move?
The investigation, Featherstone clarified. You found the missing kid yet?
No, Sean told him.
Shame, Featherstone continued. Would have made life a lot easier if you had.
Why are you here, sir? Youre a long way from Shooters Hill.
ACC wants an update, he admitted. Wants to know how youre getting on.
Weve only just started looking.
I appreciate that, Sean, but you know what assistant commissioners can be like updates, updates, updates.
Then why didnt he just come down here and ask me himself?
Mr Addis likes a chain of command, when it suits him. A buffer-zone, if you know what I mean. It would appear I am that buffer-zone so try not to drop me in it.
Ill do my best, Sean assured him without conviction just as Sally hurried from her office and into Seans, her body language making him sit bolt upright in anticipation. What you got?
Mark McKenzie, Sally began without ceremony, male, IC1, twenty-three years old, last known address in Kentish Town where hes also a fully paid-up member of their Sex Offenders Register. He has previous for residential burglary, some of which he committed at night while the occupants were inside sleeping. And if that wasnt enough, he also has previous for sexual assault on minors.
Sean felt his heart rate suddenly increasing as a picture of McKenzie began to form in his mind climbing the stairs to little Georges bedroom, moving silently past the room where his mother peacefully slept. And ? he hurried Sally.
Sean felt his heart rate suddenly increasing as a picture of McKenzie began to form in his mind climbing the stairs to little Georges bedroom, moving silently past the room where his mother peacefully slept. And ? he hurried Sally.
And, she continued, hes previously used lock-picking as a method of entry.
Jesus, Sean said. How fars Kentish Town from Hampstead?
Not my neck of the woods, Sally answered, but I think its close.
It is, Featherstone joined in. No more than a couple of miles.
Bloody hell, Sean said. Does he come gift-wrapped as well?
Think hes your man? Featherstone asked.
He couldnt fit the profile more if he tried, Sean answered.
If the boy has been taken, Sally warned them. Taken by a stranger.
Youre right, Sean admitted. Youre right. We should keep an open mind, but he looks good he looks really good. Has he been keeping his appointments to sign the Sex Offender Register?
As far as I know, Sally answered.
That doesnt mean hes not your man, Featherstone cautioned.
No, Sean agreed, it does not. No amount of reporting to police stations could stop him entering a house in the middle of the night.
Then I can tell the Assistant Commissioner youre close to getting your man?
Sean had seen Featherstone acting impulsively and impatiently before, but never to this degree. Clearly something or someone had given him an added sense of urgency. I wouldnt tell the Assistant Commissioner anything just yet, he warned Featherstone. If he asks, just give him the generic bullshit and tell him were following a few lines of inquiry.
But this McKenzie character looks good and Addis has been explicit about wanting a quick result. He doesnt strike me as being a good man to fuck with.
Ill do the best I can, but you need to keep him at arms length even if its just for a few days.
A few days I dont know about that. Twenty-four hours maybe, but a few days-
Fine, Sean told him. Ill take it, but Ill need surveillance on McKenzie up and running within a couple of hours. I want to know where hes going, what hes doing, whos he seeing-
Surveillance? Featherstone stopped him. No chance.
Why? Sean snapped. I need this bastard followed.
Sorry, Sean, Featherstone explained, but thereve been too many cases in the media lately of the police acting too slowly following people around while the suspect remains at large and the victims remain missing, only to turn up dead a few days later in the places we should have just charged into and searched from the off. So lets not fuck about here. If you have a viable suspect and you do lets get in there and nick the bastard, spin his gaff and anywhere else hes known to have been. Our priority is to get the boy back alive, preferably.
But if we can follow him for a while, Ill know, Sean argued. Ill know for sure before we even make a move.
Theres nothing to be gained from surveillance, Featherstone reiterated. Act decisively thats the way forward here. Now, you get on with what youve got to do while I go and see the Assistant Commissioner and spin him along for a bit. Hopefully the next time I see him Ill be able to give him the good news, yes?
Maybe, Sean answered sullenly.
Fine. Until then- Featherstone was already springing out of his chair and striding from the office. No one spoke until he disappeared into the corridor.
Whats got him so rattled? Sally asked.
Eighteen months from retirement with Assistant Commissioner Addis all over his back youd be rattled too, Sean told her. Now, get hold of Stan and Tony and lets pay McKenzie a visit.
A few drops of sweat formed on Mark McKenzies forehead as he searched his newly acquired, second-hand laptop for pornography that suited his particular taste. Hard-core child pornography was hard to find on the Internet unless youd had a tip-off from a like-minded friend, but his well-practised fingers danced across the keyboard entering the words that experience had taught him were the quickest way to find what he was after. He wiped the sweat away with the back of his hand and considered turning the heating down in the small, squalid flat he rented above a fried chicken takeaway franchise. But once he found what he was looking for it would be better to be warm for what he had in mind. He felt the old familiar excitement beginning to spread through his body as his testicles coiled and swelled, constant licking making his thin lips appear red and full, as if stained by wine. He lit another cigarette and tried not to let thoughts of the police and what would happen to him if he was caught downloading child pornography spoil his magical moment as he drew ever nearer to his prize.
The very thought of the police, the entire criminal justice system, made him almost laugh out loud as he blew plumes of thick grey smoke at the computers screen. They thought themselves so clever, but so long as he kept signing their pathetic register on time and turning up for their pointless interviews theyd leave him alone alone to do whatever he wanted. Thoughts of the police faded to nothing as he finally found what he was looking for and amateur pictures of young, naked bodies began to fill his screen. This one even had half-decent sound. He took one last, hurried drag on his cigarette before stubbing it out and loosening the belt around his grubby trousers.
Just as he was about to take hold of his penis, the flimsy door to his flat exploded inwards, sending splinters of wood flying almost the full length of the living room. He jumped off his chair in shock, taking temporary refuge under the flimsy table. As soon as he saw the people in raincoats and suits bursting through the hole where the door used to be, he knew they were police and not the local vigilantes even before they started calling into the flat, Police! Police! Stay where you are and stand still. In a millisecond he remembered the laptop sitting on the table above his head and the damning evidence it contained. The fear of it being discovered turned his legs to springs as he rolled from under the table, stood and reached for the computer but before his fingers could touch a single key one of the bastard policemen had crossed the room and knocked him back to the floor with a two-handed push to the chest. By the time he recovered his breath and his senses, the cop was standing over him, holding a warrant card in his face.
DI Corrigan, you little prick. Consider yourself under arrest.
McKenzie coughed violently before speaking, to the point where he almost vomited. I havent done anything, he pleaded, almost out of habit.
Really, Sean snarled. Then what the fuck is this? He grabbed McKenzie by the back of his head and pushed his face close to the screen.
I dont know how that got there, McKenzie stammered, feigning amazement. Swear to God.
Dont lie to me, you miserable little shit. You lie to me, itll only get worse for you.