‘She’s pacing at the moment,’ Stacey said. ‘I wish I could reach in and reassure her that everything is going to be okay, that she’s being watched by the good guys now.’
He nodded. He felt the same way.
‘I just have this awful feeling that we’ve missed him, that he’s on his way and—’
‘Stace, stop it. Just focus on the fact that right now we can see her and she’s safe.’
He had the same feeling, and although he kept telling himself that by using the M5 and M42 Alvechurch was only about twenty-five minutes away, it felt a long way the boss was travelling right about now.
‘What happened when you called his phone?’ Penn asked.
Before they’d left, Stacey had tried to make contact with Butler, to ask him a couple more questions to gauge if he was in the car or somewhere other than the office.
‘The first time it rang out until it cut off, and second time it went straight to voicemail.’
He really didn’t want to speak to them right now.
‘What about the landline to the business?’
‘Answerphone.’
‘Bloody hell,’ Penn said, wishing the car would eat up the miles to Quinton a bit quicker.
Stacey put Grace on her lap as she reached for her own ringing phone.
‘Go ahead, boss,’ she said after putting it on loudspeaker.
‘You got him yet?’
‘Not quite, boss – we’re just a mile or two away.’
‘Is Grace okay?’
‘Fine at the minute, boss. How far out are you?’
‘About ten minutes. Less if Bryant would—’
‘Hang on, boss,’ Stacey said urgently.
‘What?’
‘Let me just refresh the link to Grace.’
‘What?’ Penn asked, looking to his left.
‘Stace, what’s going on?’ the boss asked.
‘The camera. The link to Grace. It’s gone. I’m reloading the link but it’s gone. Network coverage is fine but it’s like…’
‘Like what, Stace?’
‘It’s like someone has cut the power.’
‘Shit. Okay, get Butler’s location as soon as possible.’
‘Just pulling up now, boss,’ Penn said.
‘Call me as quickly as you can,’ she said before ending the call.
‘Bugger, it’s totally gone,’ Stacey said, trying again to access the link to the camera.
‘Stace, we can’t do anything right now,’ he said, getting out of the car. ‘Come on – let’s go and find out where he is.’
Penn opened the door to the reception.
Both he and Stacey showed their identification. ‘We need to speak to Mr Butler. Right now.’
The woman looked stunned by their urgency but recovered quickly.
‘I’m sorry but Mr Butler isn’t available to—’
‘Okay, thank you,’ Penn said, walking around to her side of the desk to access the archway behind. ‘But it’s imperative that we speak to him.’
Stacey had followed and was now between them.
‘You can’t just—’
‘What I can’t do is stand here and argue,’ he said, moving out of the reception and into the inner workings of the property.
He continued forward and passed a glass box that appeared to be a conference room. It was empty.
He moved forward into a general office area. Seven or eight pairs of eyes were upon him.
‘Mr Butler’s office please?’ he called out.
Three hands pointed over to the corner.
He took a breath and entered, unprepared for what he was about to see.
Eighty-Three
Kim tapped her phone as they turned into the lane that led to the farmhouse at the end.
‘National speed limit, Bryant – step on it,’ she said.
He growled in response as he positioned the tyres either side of the grass column that had grown in the middle of the road. The increase in speed caught every pothole on the poorly maintained strip of tarmac that was more like a dirt road, but she didn’t mind being bounced from pillar to post. Every second counted.
Her heart rate had been steadily rising ever since they’d lost visual contact with Grace.
She was praying desperately that her colleagues had Butler and that there had been some kind of rural power cut in this neck of the woods.
‘Bryant, I swear, if you don’t—’
‘There’s bends, guv,’ he argued. ‘Trust me, I want to get that little girl safely home more than anyone, but who’s coming to get her if we get hit by something coming the other way?’
‘And anyone we might meet will be coming from the farmhouse, so feel free to speed it up a bit.’
He did as she asked.
‘Come on, Penn. Come on.’
As if on cue the phone rang, just as they approached the farmhouse.
A blue Jaguar XF was already parked.
‘Oh shit. He’s already here,’ she said by way of a greeting to Penn as she got out of the car.
‘He really isn’t,’ Penn said. ‘He’s here in his office. I’m looking right at him.’
‘What the…?’
Kim stopped speaking as everything she’d learned throughout the week stormed into her head. Removing Butler from the equation had cleared her mind like a sliding door to reveal the truth standing behind it. Everything fell into place as she finally understood who and what they were dealing with.
How the hell had she missed what had been staring her in the face all week?
‘Oh shit,’ she said again as she ran towards the door.
Eighty-Four
The door was flung open, and for a second Kim was disoriented by entering the physical area of a space she’d been watching virtually.
Surveying the scene before her, she had no time to waste. Adult hands were clamped around Grace’s throat.
She threw herself forward and grabbed the woman by the hair.
‘Loose her, Kate,’ Kim screamed as the lawyer’s hands released from around Grace’s neck.
They landed in a heap on the ground.
‘Or should I call you Melody?’ she asked, pinning the woman with her legs.
‘Get off me,’ Swift cried out, but Kim wasn’t going anywhere.
She turned to see Bryant comforting a coughing, spluttering Grace, who looked terrified, but she was alive.
‘It’s okay, Grace – we’ve got you now,’ he said gently.
Just another couple of minutes and they would have been too late.
Swift writhed beneath her. Kim tensed her thigh muscles to hold her still.
‘Bryant, get Grace out of here and lock the door,’ Kim instructed.
‘Guv…’
‘Just do it.’
Grace was crying hysterically. The tears were rolling over her cheeks. The child didn’t need to see any more.
‘It’s okay, Grace. We’re the police,’ she heard Bryant say. ‘We’re not going to let anyone hurt you.’
The girl sobbed loudly.
‘Get Claire on the phone. Let Grace speak to her mother,’ she called over her shoulder as the door closed and locked.