A Room Full of Killers - Michael Wood (motivational books to read txt) 📗

‘I’m really sorry, ma’am. I had no idea you had a dad,’ Rory said, driving as fast as he was able through the treacherous conditions.

‘Of course I have a dad. How did you think I got here? Trust me, my mother was no Virgin Mary.’

‘No. I just meant, I’d never thought of your dad as—’

‘What? Being still alive? How old do you think I am, Rory? Don’t answer that.’

Matilda looked out of the window as Rory drove the police Land Rover towards the outskirts of Sheffield and Starling House. Drains at the edges of the road were already overflowing because the torrent of rain was too much for them to cope with. Abbeydale Road was, thankfully, empty of traffic as it was so early in the morning. However, it was flooded and impassable. Rory took the side roads, which were on a slight incline. In the distance, there were blue flashing lights from a fire engine heading in their direction.

‘This is worse than 2007,’ Matilda said to herself as she looked up at the dark sky.

The rain continued to fall, and the windscreen wipers were useless. Driving down Ecclesall Road South, once past the houses, Matilda looked at the fields submerged under water. Rory turned into Limb Lane and immediately slammed on the brakes. Up ahead was a similar police Land Rover. DI Christian Brady was outside talking loudly to another officer. Both were in thick waterproofs. Matilda jumped out.

‘Christian, what’s going on?’ she had to shout over the noise of the rain.

‘We can’t get through. The road’s flooded.’

Matilda looked round the front of the car. Water from the saturated farmland to the right of the lane was pouring through the gaps in the drystone wall. The whole of Limb Lane was cut off by a deep pool of dirty water.

‘Is there another way to get to Starling House?’ she shouted.

‘No. This is the only road in.’

‘Can’t we risk driving through?’

‘It’ll flood the engine.’

‘What about SY99? Can’t they fly us closer to the building?’

‘I’ve just got off the phone to HQ, ma’am,’ Scott Andrews said, who had been talking to DI Brady when Matilda joined them. ‘It’s too windy for them to take off.’

‘What are we going to do? We can’t just stand here.’

‘We can walk across the field, ma’am,’ Rory said, pointing through the trees to Starling House in the distance.

‘The fields are saturated. It’s not safe,’ Christian said.

‘We don’t have much choice. Jacob Brown is missing. He’s an escaped killer. He could be anywhere.’

‘In this?’ Christian looked up at the sky. ‘I doubt he’ll be wearing waterproofs and wellies. If he has escaped, he’ll be hiding somewhere waiting for all this to die down.’

‘What do you mean by “if”?’

‘We don’t know he’s escaped. We’ve only got Kate Moloney’s word for it. He could still be in there somewhere. We need to search the house before we put any officers at risk searching in this weather.’

‘All the more reason for us to get there as soon as possible. Christian, there’s no alternative. We’ll have to walk.’

Rory helped Matilda over the drystone wall. Together, the four of them set off through the squelching field to Starling House.

‘Kate, it’s DCI Darke,’ Matilda shouted into her mobile phone. She was surprised it was still working as it had been floating around in a puddle of water in her pocket. ‘We can’t get to you by car; we’re walking across the field. Can you make sure the gates are open for us?’

‘Of course. Jacob’s escaped. I don’t know how or what or … this is a nightmare,’ she broke down.

‘Kate, I can’t hear you very well because of the weather. Just have the gates open for us, and a few towels would be great too.’ Matilda disconnected the call before Kate could reply.

‘You should have asked her to put the kettle on,’ Rory said.

After turning onto Limb Lane, the drive to Starling House should take less than three minutes. On foot it would probably take about seven. Crossing a flooded field in darkness in a gale-force wind took Matilda, Christian, Rory and Scott more than twenty minutes. By the time they arrived at the front door they were freezing cold and soaking wet.

They stood in the foyer and removed their wellington boots and waterproof coats. Kate handed them each a towel and told them Rebecca Childs was making tea and coffee for them all, which put a smile on Rory’s face.

‘Kate, what happened?’ Matilda asked.

‘I was in bed, asleep. I was woken by the sound of the alarm going off. By the time I was downstairs Peter and Rebecca were already at the recreation room. That’s where the alarm was coming from. The windows in the patio doors had been smashed.’

‘Smashed? I thought they had bars on them,’ she said.

‘It’s supposed to be toughened glass. The security company who fitted the doors said we didn’t need bars.’

Matilda rolled her eyes. ‘What did you do then?’

‘We all went up to A corridor to check on the inmates. As soon as we went onto the corridor we saw one of the doors was open.’

‘Jacob Brown’s?’

‘That’s right.’

‘Had the door been forced?’

‘No. It had been unlocked.’

‘And they can’t be unlocked from the inside, can they?’ Matilda asked, double-checking what she already knew.

‘No.’ Kate shook her head and looked down. The weight of the situation was hanging around her shoulders. Matilda felt a great deal of sympathy for her. She was suffering from the collective guilt of everything that happened here, just like Matilda did with the collapse of the Carl Meagan case.

‘Right. Who’s on duty tonight?’

‘Peter McFly and Rebecca Childs.’

Matilda turned to Rory. ‘Were they interviewed?’

‘Rebecca was but Peter wasn’t. He’d worked a long night shift and was sleeping.’

Matilda gave him an annoyed look. They were investigating the murder of a convicted killer in a youth prison and Rory didn’t want to interview one of the guards because he was sleeping. Typical. ‘Get Rebecca and Peter isolated. I’ll interview them myself. Christian, you and Scott