O’CONNOR LOOKED ALL AROUND HIM, TAKING IN everything he saw, everything he could hear, knowing it was like looking for a needle in a haystack. If this was it, he would have to send in the tracker dogs, even though it risked alerting Cronly to their presence. He divided the SWAT teams up further, spreading out the search area, putting the tracker teams on alert. Ellie was standing beside him, quiet and watchful.
He looked up to the sky. The light was fading fast. This would become almost impossible once they were working in darkness. Where are you, Kate?
It was then that he heard it, the first noise. It sounded like an animal in the undergrowth, branches breaking, scuffling. He looked sharply in the direction from where the noise was coming. He felt Ellie’s body tense up beside him, she had heard it too.
Then it came – a scream from deep in the woodlands. Above him, the jackdaws took flight from the trees.
He heard someone call out. A man’s voice. The man was roaring in a rage, ‘Kate. Kate. Kate.’
O’Connor gave the signal and the teams moved immediately and in unison, closing the net on the area. As they worked forward, there was a flash of colour through the trees. The noise of scampering increased – like a fox running away from a pack of hounds. The teams raised their weapons, at the ready.
‘Hold fire. Wait. Hold back,’ O’Connor called.
Then he saw her: it was Kate, crashing down through a pathway in the woods, her hair streaming behind her, her eyes wild, her son clutched across her chest. She wasn’t thinking, wasn’t looking – she was just running blindly, running for her life.
O’Connor moved quickly, Kate and her son were still a good way down, a steep drop separated them. He ran towards the incline, closing the gap, leaving Ellie behind him. When he saw Cronly emerging from the trees, he could see he was gaining pace on her. O’Connor saw the blood coming from his neck. He had a bloodied knife in his right hand, holding it up high, his face a mask of anger and hatred.
O’Connor bellowed into the walkie-talkie. ‘Suspect armed with knife. Cronly’s injured.’
O’Connor jumped down to the ledge and Kate finally saw him. Her eyes registered disbelief before her face clamped down with a determined look – she ran even faster, straight towards him.
He shouted to his teams again. ‘Victims close. Get ready to make your move.’
‘O’Connor,’ she screamed. Cronly was almost in touching distance of her.
O’Connor lunged for her, pushing her to one side and throwing himself on top of her and the boy. He roared into the walkie-talkie. ‘I have them. Get him. Now!’
≈
O’Connor let DI Carey carry out the arrest of William Cronly, once they had taken him back to where the cars were parked by the amusement arcade. As far as O’Connor was concerned, he wanted to put as much distance as he could between him and the man he had wanted to track down from the moment they discovered Caroline Devine’s tiny body. His concern now was Kate, Kate and her son.
‘You two okay?’
Kate was bent over Charlie’s rigid body, cradling him like a baby, a broken silver chain with a crucifix discarded at her side. She looked completely done in. Gently, she removed the duct tape from Charlie’s mouth and massaged his face, whispering to him all the while. O’Connor stood awkwardly beside them, watching. Slowly, the boy’s body relaxed somewhat and he fell against his mother, holding her hand tightly and crying into her shoulder.
‘Now, now, there’s a good boy. It’s all over. The man is gone. The police have him. It’s okay.’
O’Connor knelt down beside them. ‘Charlie,’ he said, rubbing the boy’s arm, ‘I’m Detective Inspector O’Connor.’ The boy sniffed and looked at him. ‘I’m the policeman who was in charge of catching that bad man. He’s safely in the back of the squad car now – you know, the one with the blue flashing light. He’s going straight to jail, Charlie. He can’t get at you or your mum ever again. Okay?’
Kate smiled gratefully at him. Her heart was still pounding, but she attempted to speak as normally as possible – for Charlie’s sake.
‘What was that thing you did back there, some kind of combat manoeuvre?’
O’Connor smiled at her. He wanted to touch her face, but he didn’t let himself. ‘I needed to get you both down quickly.’
Her smile faltered. ‘I know you did. Thanks.’ She pulled Charlie’s face in close to her chest. ‘Can I borrow your phone, O’Connor?’
‘Sure.’
O’Connor issued instructions to the tech team that was examining the hideaway. ‘Take your time down there, guys, we can’t miss a beat on this one.’
Declan’s phone rang once before he answered it.
‘It’s Kate … Yes, we’re fine. Don’t worry, we’re okay. We’re both here. Charlie is right here with me.’
O’Connor turned away.
‘I know,’ Kate continued. ‘We love you, too.’ She handed the phone to Charlie. ‘It’s Daddy.’
O’Connor turned back to them. He saw the tears streaming down Kate’s face as she knelt beside her son, still holding him close to her. O’Connor nodded to himself; things like this make people stronger as a family.
He looked away again and snapped into the walkie-talkie, ‘Carey, have you got him in the car?’
The cracking sound of gunfire blocked out Carey’s response.
Ellie