Nine Lives by Anita Waller (best english books to read .txt) 📗

come as visitors, maybe bring you the odd beefburger. Lock up when you go out, and nobody will make off with your stuff. I’m going to work now. Don’t forget, ring if you’ve any problems, or if you see that car.’ He took out his wallet and handed Adam a twenty-pound note. ‘And don’t be hungry.’

He bent to lift the door, and straightened into a squally rain. ‘You’ll not be busking today. Bye, Adam.’

‘Bye, Sam. And that car… first garage as you come on to this site. But she’ll not be there yet, she usually only takes it out evening time.’

Sam waited in the car park at the station until Mike arrived, then spoke to him before they walked upstairs to join the other members of the team. Sam couldn’t see any way around involving Adam, and he knew Adam had recognised that when he had given him the location of the car.

‘I come from an area where we don’t trust the police,’ had been his simple explanation, ‘but you brought me all this to make sure I was warm and safe. You didn’t need to do that. That bird has helped me as well, the one who owns that car. She brought me the blanket, sleeping bag and pillow, and she always brings me some food when she comes for the car.’

And so the eight o’clock briefing went by without any input of any significance from Mike and Sam. They merely confirmed they had used a lot of petrol driving around the garage sites, with no sighting or information about the car.

Flick talked through her day, explained she would be meeting the waitress for a chat, using her new status as author to get the girl talking, and would try to bring in the issue of any women who visited the café, and made themselves friendly with the other female customers. She said she would give it one more day to try to get the information they needed. She confirmed she had photographs of all females who had been in the café the previous day.

Mike and Sam followed Erica to her office and asked to speak to her. She liked these two officers, had observed how well they worked together, yet had recognised a certain amount of reticence as they had given their report in the briefing. She waited, knowing the little mystery was about to be solved.

Sam took the lead, explaining how they had met Adam in the first place, their subsequent revisit to show him the picture of the car and to leave their telephone numbers, alongside feeding the lad.

‘And he is safe?’ she asked.

‘He is,’ Sam confirmed. ‘I wrecked our loft last night and took him some stuff and a bacon sandwich to make life more bearable this morning. He suddenly seemed to find some trust, possibly because we didn’t hassle him about anything, and told him to ring us if he was in trouble. He’s a nice lad, boss, but happier living in an empty garage than living at home with his mum and…’ Sam stopped himself from continuing.

‘His mum and?’

Sam sighed. ‘Wanker the boyfriend. Adam’s name for him, not ours.’

‘Okay. Is that all?’

‘No! I gave him a padlock to make sure he could lock his stuff in the garage, and told him I’d keep one key in case he was ever taken ill. I kind of feel responsible for him. It seemed to open him up, and he said the car we were looking for was inside the first garage on the site.’

Erica stood. ‘Did you check?’

‘We checked all the garages yesterday, boss,’ Mike said. ‘It’s how we found Adam. He wasn’t there when we checked. But it was obvious somebody homeless was using it, so we went back later to see if they were anywhere about. He was. But when we were first there we found Adam’s place unlocked, two other garages with damaged doors that we could see into, and the other five were secure and solid. We showed Adam the picture of the car, and asked him to keep his eyes peeled for it, to ring one of us if he saw it. It was only Sam taking him his breakfast and the other stuff he’s taken that made him realise we were the good guys, I think, and he said where the car was.’

Erica sat, deep in thought. ‘Sit down, lads. We have to think this one through.’

They sat and waited.

A few minutes later Erica picked up her phone, looked at it, then replaced the receiver. Then she picked it up again. Replaced it again.

‘Look,’ she said. ‘We have a problem.’

‘That’s what we thought,’ Sam said. ‘I think your problem is the one I thought about before haring off down to that garage when Adam gave me the information. If we send Forensics in, or even a lowly copper single-handed, and she sees us, we’ve blown it.’

‘You didn’t go near it?’

‘No, didn’t even look at it when I drove past. I did tell Adam not to go near it, as well. However, he did say that she only goes in the evening. Anytime from five onwards, he said. And not every night. Whenever she does, she takes him some food. I didn’t say anything out there in the briefing because I hadn’t had chance to tell you, didn’t want to second-guess how you would act.’

She nodded. ‘I realise that. The truth is I don’t know what to do. I need to see the place for myself, but again if she turns up… can we get surveillance there?’

‘Not easily. It’s an access road of hard-packed earth, surrounded by trees and grass. Nowhere to hide, no convenient buildings we could wait in – except for Adam’s garage. I think he trusts us now, but…’

‘I don’t want to use his place,’ she said quickly. ‘I want everything to appear normal to her until she gets in that car. I don’t want any slip-ups when we catch this evil bitch. I want her firmly