The group disbanded.
‘I spotted CCTV in the beach car park,’ Patel commented as he zipped up his coat. ‘Should be able to confirm if Watkins’ van was here.’
‘Let’s find her first,’ Kate replied, unable to keep the concern from her voice. If they didn’t find Daisy here, there was a chance she would never be found. Not that she needed to tell Patel and Laura this; they both already knew how high the stakes were.
Jogging along the pathway down to the beach, Kate sent Patel to the left where half a dozen huts stood, boarded up and padlocked for the winter. Meanwhile Kate and Laura ducked to the right, with Kate taking the row of huts on the sand, and Laura heading to the row directly behind. Kate’s memory of staying in a beach hut as a child was of a rickety old shack, not much larger than a garden shed. But these huts looked big enough to sleep a couple, were freshly painted and all had power cables leading inside.
Kate’s heart raced as she mounted the stairs and thumped her fist against the wooden boarding, calling out Daisy’s name. Laura’s and Patel’s voices carried on the wind. Pressing her ear against the wood, Kate strained to hear any sound over the crashing of the waves behind her. If they had no luck hearing Daisy’s desperate pleas, they would need to make contact with the owners of the huts and ask for them to be unlocked.
Thirteen days locked in a hut: no light, no fresh air, and no human contact other than with her captor. Even if they managed to find Daisy alive, there was no way of knowing what state she would be in.
They had to keep going.
Moving to the next hut, Kate hammered again. ‘Daisy? Daisy, can you hear me? This is the police, you’re safe now.’
Laura’s words echoed in the distance.
The next hut along, still silence. Kate looked off into the distance. She desperately hoped the uniform units had reached the end and were making their way back. No word on the radios yet.
Onto the next hut. ‘Daisy? Daisy? This is the police. Make a noise if you can hear me.’
And then there was a noise. Faint. Somewhere nearby, but not this hut.
Kate ran to the next hut, and banged again, straining to hear anything else. Was it just her imagination?
Onto the next hut, daring the sound to grow louder, and not certain it wasn’t the racing rhythm of her own heart.
And there it was again: a persistent banging but barely audible over the sound of the water.
‘Ma’am?’ Patel asked breathlessly as he arrived next to her.
She shushed him. ‘Can you hear that?’
He cupped his ears and closed his eyes. ‘I can’t hear anything but the sea.’
Was it just Laura’s feverish banging on the next row over?
Avoiding the next hut, Kate raced up the steps and listened again.
‘I can hear it,’ Patel suddenly declared. ‘It’s coming from just up here.’
Again skipping a hut, Kate suddenly found herself at a hut painted sky blue, with white shutters pulled down and a newly fastened padlock hanging down. Thumping the boarding Kate called out Daisy’s name, and the banging was reciprocated.
‘Daisy? Daisy?’ Kate called excitedly. ‘It’s the police. Knock if you can hear me.’
The banging started again, quicker now. Urgent.
‘Quick,’ Kate demanded. ‘Pass me the bolt cutters.’
Patel obliged, reaching for the padlock. ‘This looks like the same type used at the sports hall.’
Kate recognised it too. Jamming the lock into the tool’s jaws, Kate and Patel worked together until it snapped in satisfaction, dropping to the floor with a crash. Patel yanked open the closed shutters, holding it aloft so Kate could prise the door open, and as she did the shuffling and scraping inside chilled her heart.
Scurrying to the far corner, amongst a carpet of crisp packets and sweet wrappers, a gaunt and timid creature blinked against the bright light flooding through the door; her lips dry and chapped, wrapped in a dirty blanket. Despite the strawberry fresheners stapled to the inside of the door, the smell of stale faeces was overpowering.
Crawling in on her hands and knees, Kate forced the terrified child to make eye contact. ‘Everything is going to be okay, Daisy. My name is Kate and I’m going to take you home.’
The girl didn’t move at first, and for a moment Kate couldn’t believe she was looking at the face of the girl whose every line and dimple she’d memorised. Kate continued to crawl forward ever so slowly. ‘The man who took you is gone now. You have nothing to be afraid of, my darling.’
And as if the spell was broken, the girl rushed forward, wrapping her tiny arms tightly around Kate’s neck, refusing to let go. Kate fought the stinging in her own eyes, knowing she had to stay strong. She had to get Daisy to safety. She’d made that promise.
* * *
Daisy finally released her grip on Kate’s neck when the paramedics gave her a sedative and strapped her into the stretcher.
‘I’ll stay with you,’ Kate promised, as they carried the gurney across the sand. ‘I promise you have nothing else to be scared of.’ Looking back at Patel as SSD’s head, DI Steve Hardy, arrived on scene, Kate instructed, ‘I want every inch of the hut processed. You’re to run point while I’m at the hospital with Daisy. She is in a bad state, and my guess is he was drugging her somehow. Check the water bottles, and I’ll have the hospital run her bloods for cross-examination purposes. Let’s make sure we tie up the loose ends for Daisy, for Petr Nowakowski and Maria Alexandrou.’
Patel nodded, before extending his hand to shake. ‘You found her, ma’am. If ever there was a time to take a pat on the back, this is it.’
Kate shook his hand, but it would be some time before she accepted any credit for her part. Over the coming days her rigorous self-examination would assess whether she could have done more to identify Neil’s and Imelda’s activities sooner, and whether Daisy’s nightmare could have been avoided.
Epilogue
TWO DAYS LATER
Sitting down at her desk, Kate wasn’t surprised to find the incident room empty. After the discovery of Daisy on Thursday, she’d promised the team the weekend off, subject to any major case breaking.
‘Ma’am, what are you doing here?’ Laura asked, as she entered the room and began to unravel her scarf.
‘I thought I’d make an early start on some of the paperwork,’ Kate smiled back. ‘I gave the team the weekend off, why are you here?’
‘Snap,’ Laura said. ‘I was bored at home and figured I might as well do something constructive. I thought you were going to your daughter’s birthday party?’
Kate smiled. ‘I will be, but I have a couple of bits and pieces to sort out first.’
‘Any news on whether the CPS will be pressing charges against Phillips for bribing Imelda Watkins to secure the swimming pool job?’
‘The Fraud team are now handling that, and despite a thorough examination of both Jackson’s and Vardan’s hard drives, no indecent images of children were identified, which is a relief.’
‘And Imelda Watkins?’
‘Is on remand, awaiting a trial date. She’s kept to her word and is chirping like a canary. Hendrix’s team are looking to build a case against Watkins’ silent partners. I guess we’ll just have to watch this space.’ Kate paused. ‘What’s that?’ she asked, pointing at the large box on Laura’s desk.
‘It came for you last night,’ Laura replied, lifting and carrying it over.
Kate’s eyes widened as she saw how neatly it was decorated.
‘Don’t worry,’ Laura teased. ‘I checked inside. Open it and see for yourself.’
Kate stood and tentatively lifted the lid. The perfume from the flowers hit her nose before she’d even spotted the petals inside.
‘Val Emerson dropped them round,’ Laura confirmed. ‘She wanted to personally thank you for finding Daisy, but I said I’d pass on the flowers. They’re in a pot of water, so should last a few days.’