‘Okay, well it seems a lot of the women on the staff have tried it on with Rajavi, but he never wavered. He was always politely discouraging, and that was fine while he played the “I’m above all that” card. But they feel he let them all down a few months ago.’
‘They knew about his affair?’
‘Exactly. Apparently he tried to deny it, but the woman was publicly very touchy-feely with him. She was in the hospital a lot about three months ago, dealing with a child victim of some pretty horrendous abuse, and much to Ash’s obvious discomfort she seemed to want to make it clear to everyone that he was now hers. He tried to distance himself – told Inéz the woman was delusional – but he was obviously anxious about the whole thing.’
‘Bloody hell! It’s all starting to make sense,’ Tom said. ‘She was there to see a victim, so you must be talking about the forensic psychologist whose name came up on his phone. We discounted it because it was patient related. What was she called?’
‘Ruth Vickery,’ Becky said.
‘Good. We’ve got something to work with. Keith, without alerting anyone else on the team, we need everything we can get on this woman. Find out where she lives and get someone over there now to see if she’s at home. Tell them to be discreet. For now we just want to know if she’s there. Get a search warrant organised in case we need it. Given that Ash told Jo she’s keeping Millie somewhere she believes to be off-grid, we need to hope she’s made some mistakes and we can locate this property. Get all her financials. I’ll get approval for cell-siting on her mobile. Let’s find her. But keep it under the radar.’
Becky heard the door close, presumably as Keith left the room.
‘Give me a minute,’ Tom said.
She heard him speaking on the internal phone, and waited, knowing he wanted to get things moving on tracing Ruth Vickery before Becky filled him in on everything else that had been happening.
‘Sorry about that, Becky, but Philippa’s now on board and I’m getting the firearms team on alert. This is more than a woman who’s had an affair and taken its ending badly. She’s managed to recruit at least four people to carry out the kidnap – presumably all ex-cons who she’s had contact with, and she’s in a perfect position to know who’s capable of what. She’s a bloody forensic psychologist.’
Becky could almost hear the cogs in Tom’s brain working, so she waited.
‘It’s a long shot, but I’m going to pass on her details to Paul Green,’ he said finally. ‘Let’s see if she has any links to organised crime. She’s almost definitely implicated in the execution of Martin Hislop by Barton Bridge, and I’m sure we’re dealing with a very dangerous woman. When will you be back?’
‘Just pulling into the car park.’
As she reversed into the closest space to the building, Becky told Tom about the conversation with Philippa.
‘She’s right,’ he said. ‘We can’t alert whoever’s passing information – not now. It’s a bugger because we could do with all hands on deck.’
‘Philippa said she’d help,’ Becky shouted as she pushed open the main door to the building and set off for the stairs.
‘Christ. I’m not sure if I can cope with that.’
Becky laughed. ‘She’s good, Tom – you can’t doubt that.’
‘I don’t. What else have I missed?’
Becky realised that Tom didn’t know about Ash, so she filled him in on the details as she hurried along the corridor.
‘Sandie Burford is tearing her hair out. Using the tram was a clever move, and now we’ve lost him.’
‘Bollocks. We could have done without that. We need to know who this informant is – and quickly – so we can get back up to full strength.’
‘I know. I’m praying that Ash is wrong and Vickery only told him that to scare him.’
‘Given how long her reach seems to be, I hate to say it, but I suspect it’s true.’
Becky was now panting, and with a last gulp, she pushed open the door to Tom’s office. This should have been such a joyous day for him, with a new baby and his family safe and well, but she could see the strain around his eyes.
‘We’re going to get her, Tom,’ she gasped. ‘Millie’s going to be safely home very soon.’
She wasn’t sure who she was trying to convince.
80
Ash stood still, leaning on the wooden balustrade that surrounded the lookout platform. The lake was still and silent, shadows of broken cloud chasing across its surface. Ruth slowly walked towards him, carefully avoiding the puddles, and reached for his hands. He took a deep breath. Millie’s life depended on how he handled this, and Ruth must not sense how he really felt about her.
She didn’t speak, but he could feel her watching him closely.
‘I’m so sorry about last time,’ he said. ‘I was so confused. I couldn’t see the bigger picture and all I could think about was Millie. But after you left, I would have rushed after you if only my ankle had let me.’ He gave a small self-deprecating smile.
‘Ash,’ she said softly, lifting one of his hands so it rested against her cold cheek. ‘I know you want to get things moving, darling, but it’s not the right time. Not yet.’
‘I had to do something. I couldn’t pretend to Jo any longer. I need to be with you, and Millie. You said you had somewhere safe. Why don’t we go there together and wait until the heat has died down?’
‘Oh, darling. You don’t understand how the police work, do you? They’ll do everything they can to find Millie – but if you go missing too, you’ll have a target on your back and they’ll think you were behind it the whole time. They’ll increase the team on the case, and it will be so much harder to move forward. Trust me, I understand these things.’
‘I can’t believe you’ve done all this for us,’ he said. ‘How did you persuade those people to act as detectives and social workers to take me and Millie in for questioning? That was so clever.’
Ruth laughed. ‘I have a psychological profile of everyone who comes my way. I know who’s capable of what. You see, Ash, most criminals make the mistake of taking on jobs they’re not suited to. Some fancy themselves as armed robbers when they are far better suited temperamentally to trafficking young prostitutes. They make the wrong choices, and that’s why they get caught. I help them to make the right decisions, choose the right line of work.’
Ash felt a sour taste in his mouth and he swallowed. He mustn’t show his disgust.
She squeezed his hands. ‘You think that’s a bad thing, I can see it in your eyes. But it isn’t. People will be found for these jobs, whether I help or not. And mistakes often cost lives. I save people from those errors of judgement. Do you see?’
He didn’t know what to say. If he pretended to applaud her ingenuity, she would see through him. He mustn’t forget that she was a psychologist.
‘I don’t think I can completely get my head round what you’re saying. I guess these people would be criminals anyway – but you know that I don’t move in your world, so it’s going to take a while for me to fully accept what you’re saying.’