SEVENTY-TWO

9.50 A.M.

Kim knocked on the door at the end of the row.

It was opened immediately. ‘Is she there?’ Nazeera’s mother demanded.

Kim shook her head as she stepped inside. The property appeared to be a similar layout to her daughter’s home.

‘There’s a perfectly good reason for this,’ Mrs Khan said. ‘She’ll be back any minute.’

She looked around Kim to Bryant. ‘Did you bring Salt and Pepper?’

Kim frowned. Why was she asking if they’d brought condiments?

‘Nazzy’s rescue cats. Bonded pair. She adores them,’ Mrs Khan said, taking a seat. ‘She didn’t bring them round. She does that if she’s going to be gone for a while, so she can’t be far.’

Kim thought of her own arrangement with her neighbour Charlie, who was taking care of Barney for her right now. She looked to Bryant, who turned around and headed back to Nazeera’s house.

‘Probably just gone for a drive. Clear her head. It’s a big day for her today.’

Kim knew that Mrs Khan would have clocked that her daughter’s car was still outside the house but she was choosing to ignore the fact.

‘Or a long walk,’ she said as though reading Kim’s thoughts.

‘You must be very proud of her,’ Kim said gently, allowing the woman a few minutes to come to terms with the fact that all was not well.

The woman beamed. ‘First one in our family to go to university. Her father died just before she finished medical school, and it’s been the two of us ever since. She’s a good girl. She takes care of me,’ Mrs Khan said, waving her hand, indicating the house.

Ahhh, that made sense. Kim had expected a larger, grander property, but Nazeera was responsible for her mother’s home as well as her own.

‘Do you speak to Nazeera every day?’ Kim asked.

Mrs Khan nodded. ‘At least once during the day, and we take turns to cook. She comes to me. I come to her.’

‘And has she mentioned anything about being followed recently?’

‘Where’s to follow? She gets in the car and goes to work. She gets in the car and comes home.’

‘Not much socialising then?’ Kim asked, taking that as a no. She wondered if there was any way she could find out why Nazeera had been targeted in particular. Had she somehow been in contact with their sicko?

Mrs Khan sighed. ‘I wish, but since the divorce, she just works and comes home. Divorce hit her hard, especially coming so soon after the terrible news.’

Kim waited.

‘Nazzy was told that she would never bear children. End of the something.’

‘Endometriosis?’ Kim asked.

Mrs Khan nodded. ‘Amir couldn’t bear the thought of not having children, so he left.’

Kim couldn’t help but wonder what that had done for the woman’s confidence and sense of self-worth. She was a top-class paediatric heart surgeon to some and a baby-making machine to someone else.

Like the woman hadn’t suffered enough, she was now in the hands of a sick bastard who wanted to play a game.

Now that she had a clearer picture of the kind of woman they were looking for, it was up to Kim to help Mrs Khan lift her head out of the sand.

‘Mrs Khan, I need to explain?—’

Kim was interrupted as Bryant stepped into the room with an armful of fur and a couple of scratches on his right hand.

‘Hiding under the bed,’ he said, passing them into Mrs Khan’s outstretched arms.

‘Come here, lovelies. Mummy will be back soon. It’s okay,’ she soothed as they both purred.

Bryant’s expression said they hadn’t been quite so accommodating with him.

‘Nazzy would be devastated if anything happened to her babies.’

Most people wouldn’t be able to understand such a word used in relation to pets, but Kim did.

‘Not nice man across the street died. Family didn’t want them. Were going to have them put to sleep. Nazzy couldn’t stand the thought and took them. Skin and bone and full of worms they were, but she nursed them back to health.’

Obviously Nazeera’s caring trait wasn’t something she only used at work.

‘Mrs Khan, I’m sorry to say that Nazeera has been abducted.’

The woman’s hands stilled on the heads of the cats. ‘Abducted?’

Kim nodded.

‘By who?’ she asked.

‘Someone involved in a case we’re working,’ Kim said.

‘You know who has her?’ Mrs Khan asked, confused.

‘I can’t give you any more details,’ Kim said. ‘But you need to know that she isn’t out taking a long walk.’

‘But why?’ she asked as tears formed in her eyes. ‘Nazzy wouldn’t hurt anyone, and we have no ransom money.’

‘She hasn’t done anything wrong. It’s not even personal. Her captor wants to make a point, and we’re going to stop him,’ Kim said with more confidence than she felt, but Nazeera’s mother appeared to have shrunk before her very eyes.

‘Wherever she is, she’ll be okay. Sh-She is strong,’ Mrs Khan said, fighting back the tears.

Kim reached over and squeezed her hand before standing.

Mrs Khan stood up and hugged her. ‘Inspector, please bring my daughter home.’

Kim assured her she would, stepping hurriedly out of the embrace. As she did so, she spotted a blue Toyota parked across the road.

Fucking Ashworth was not giving up. She had no idea what Sunrise News paid him, but it was obviously worth his while to continue pursuing this case.

‘Bryant, did you call us in?’ she asked as they left Mrs Khan’s property. Bryant always radioed to inform the control room of their attendance at incidents.

‘Of course.’

‘Bastard’s got a scanner,’ she said as his car door opened.

She had to think quickly as he headed their way. She had to get him away from this case. Following her press conference, she had hoped that any lingering press would retreat. With no more updates from Frost and no further communication from the police, it was all going cold. They had a death, they had a body and they didn’t know that their sicko had promised to do more. As far as they knew, the case was being worked like any other murder.

She began walking back towards the car. She had to play this perfectly to get rid of him.

‘Quite the press conference,’ Ashworth said, falling into step beside her. ‘Willing to bet that wasn’t on the briefing sheet.’

‘And I’ve paid the price, so piss off.’

‘They took you off the case?’

‘What do you think?’

How the hell to steer him away without it appearing like she was giving him information?

‘So, who’s in charge of?—’

‘Look,’ she snapped, stopping suddenly so that he almost walked into her. ‘You wanna follow me around while I serve my punishment working burglaries and searching for CCTV, be my guest. You’re gonna be bored, and it won’t make much of an article, but fill your fucking boots.’

She hoped her manufactured rage would convince him that her poor performance and the disastrous press conference had prompted her bosses to remove her from the case and that she was none too happy about it.

He appeared unfazed as he continued to match her speed. She shook her head at Bryant as he tried to intervene.

There was no point making this bigger than it needed to be. The objective was to convince him there was nothing more to see.

‘Oh, don’t worry about me. I’m not here about the Jester. You’re right, that’s old news. I’ve been spending my downtime doing some research.’

Kim carried on walking, even though she didn’t like the feeling starting to form in her stomach. ‘Good for you.’

‘You’re a maverick, Inspector Stone, and mavericks don’t normally last long in the police force.’

‘They do if they’re good at their job,’ she said as they approached the car.

He shook his head. ‘Not good enough. You should still have been turfed out on your ear, and I want to know why you’re not. So like I said, don’t concern yourself with me wasting my time. You’re my story now.’

Kim opened her mouth to tell him there was nothing there to find, but he had already turned away.

‘Bloody idiot,’ Bryant said as they got in the car.

She agreed with her colleague, but it didn’t make the feeling in her stomach go away.