THIRTY-TWO

4.30 P.M.

‘Will someone please take that pizza out of my sight?’ Stacey begged as a third piece began to wink at her.

When the boss ordered food, she sure knew how to take care of them. There were no supermarket meal deals or fast-food burgers. The pizzas, lasagne and cannelloni delivered by Luigi were all homemade, fresh and delicious.

‘I’ll put it with the rest,’ Penn said, lifting the box from the desk and taking it to the small kitchen area next door.

Thankfully the second segment of footage had arrived from Dudley Zoo while she’d been devouring the margherita.

Now she had a suspicion about who had planted the box, she wanted to get a better angle on what was under the pushchair, and more importantly, get an exact time that the woman had entered the zoo.

If she was honest, the figure she’d seen heading towards the reptile house was not what she’d expected, but if there was one thing this job had taught her, it was that appearances meant nothing. Some of the worst killers they’d come across wouldn’t stand out in a crowd.

She hadn’t yet mentioned her discovery to Penn, as unlike her colleague, she was hanging on to the hope they could save Hiccup before he suffered any more damage. As painful as the torture must have been, there was nothing yet that couldn’t be fixed.

She played the footage and found the exact time that the woman left the entrance lane.

She noted down the details and made another call to the zoo.

Travis, the security guy, answered the direct line he’d given her earlier.

‘Me again,’ Stacey said. ‘And I need more help. Not sure you’re the right person, but you haven’t done me wrong yet.’

‘Shoot,’ he said in the manner of someone who was having a slow day.

‘Got a female coming through the entrance lanes this morning. The exact time was nineteen minutes past ten. She came through kiosk A, and I need to know if she paid by cash or card. I completely understand if you can’t help me with that, but I need the information urgently.’

He hesitated.

‘You could be helping to save someone’s life.’

More hesitation. ‘Hang on,’ he said before the line went silent.

Penn had turned his attention from the clue to her.

She tapped her fingers while she waited.

And waited.

Five minutes later, he came back on the line.

‘Okay, the manager says I’m breaking no data protection laws by telling you that we did have a woman who used a debit card to enter the zoo at that exact time, but all I can give you is the name.’

‘That’s all I need, Travis, that’s all I need.’