SIXTY-TWO

5.52 A.M.

Bryant approached the train station just as the roads around them were beginning to come alive.

Monday morning. The time Kim should have been out walking Barney before heading to the station. Instead, her body felt she was already three days into the working week.

She pushed the fatigue aside and focussed. Funny how you always knew what the clue meant when you’d solved it.

Now the cryptic words seemed easy to decipher, and she wondered how it had taken them all so long to get it. Not that any of them was working with a clear head.

Although her own head had cleared remarkably once she’d been given a new possible location for Hiccup.

Penn had advised her that he had called the train line and stopped the trains coming through until further notice. Luckily, they had agreed to his request easily.

She had also called the duty sergeant at the station, requesting as many uniforms as he could send.

He’d explained that it was shift changeover time, so she’d told him to send them all. Not a popular request, and one which she was sure would travel all the way back to Woody, but the more resources, the better.

They might not have the threat of the train coming through, but who knew how long Hiccup could last with the volume of blood he’d lost.

Bryant pulled up at the station as a fourth squad car entered the car park, which was now alive with high-vis jackets.

She was pleased to see Inspector Plant heading towards her.

‘I was just coming on so thought I’d take over. What do you need?’

Kim felt instant gratitude towards the white-haired, tanned officer. Throughout the night, it had felt like she and her team were totally alone in trying to save this man’s life. Finally, they had some support.

‘You know what’s going on?’

‘Oh yeah, through the news, and the other news, if you know what I mean.’

She knew he was referring to the various WhatsApp groups set up by colleagues. She could imagine that the merry little dance they were being led was the talk of most of them. And the butt of a great many jokes.

‘We think our guy has been tied to the tracks. We don’t know how far along or in which direction.’

‘Got it. Four teams. Two along each carriageway, one going east, one going west?’

She nodded. ‘We’ll take this side going east. Tell your guys to look out for any blood trails.’

He nodded his understanding as she and Bryant headed into the station.

Old Hill station sat on the Birmingham to Stourbridge line and had opened in 1866. From what Penn had told her, trains came through every thirty minutes.

Checking her watch, she thanked God that the 6.02 wasn’t coming through. It was now two minutes to six, but that didn’t make their search any less urgent.

‘Nothing yet,’ Bryant said as they ran out of platform and were moving along an overgrown grassy verge.

Although the track curved out of sight, they could see a good quarter mile ahead.

She heard officers sprinting across the footbridge to search the line on the opposite side.

Kim knew they had a fifty-fifty chance with the teams working in the opposite direction.

She just hoped that one of them spotted something soon.

It was as they rounded the bend, Kim saw something in the distance. A speck, maybe three quarters of a mile away.

The officers on the other side of the tracks saw it too.

They all started running at the same time.

As she ran, Kim didn’t take her eyes from the speck that was growing in size with every step she took.

What had looked like a bag of rubbish was taking on more form.

Two thousand feet.

It was a person.

Eighteen hundred feet.

It was a man.

Fifteen hundred feet.

It was Hiccup.

Her breath was rasping in her chest. She had left Bryant and the other officers in her wake, but she wasn’t slowing for anyone.

One thousand feet.

Hiccup was moving.

At seven hundred feet, she heard the unmistakeable sound of a train thundering towards them.

A split second later, the train came into view.

She started waving her hands in the air, knowing it was fruitless.

The sound of the brakes being applied filled the air. She knew it took around forty-five seconds to stop the train, but she continued running anyway.

She was three hundred feet away when what was left of Hiccup was splattered across the track.