kiddie’s corner beside a staff member and a police officer on the other side.
Her heart settled as a sense of relief washed over her. It was Archie, and other than his tear-stained cheeks, he appeared to be doing fine.
‘Go check on him while I track down our celeb,’ she instructed her colleague. ‘Get one of the security officers with him and put in a call to Robyn. She needs to know he’s safe. Once you’ve done that, get centre security to start checking CCTV to see how he got into the service corridor.’
Bryant nodded and headed over to the child.
Although her heart had slowed down, her mind still raced ahead. It was obvious that whoever murdered Louise Webb-Harvey at Stevens Park had hung on to Archie. She had to believe that person was Noah – the person who had asked for her help – because the boy was still alive. He had listened.
If that was true, then some part of him did not want to kill again. She had to make sure no one else lost their life.
She spotted Kate Sewell at the front of the store amongst a few more staff members, but she couldn’t see Tyra Brooks anywhere.
Kim was ten feet away from the crowd when her phone rang.
It was Stacey, calling from the home of their prime suspect, Ella Nock.
‘Stace?’
‘Yeah, boss, we got a problem here.’
Her heart thumped harder until she remembered that Archie was safe and well. Perhaps they’d found evidence that Archie had been there at some stage. ‘Go on.’
‘Ella Nock’s just got back from Asda, and she is not very happy at all with the hole where her door used to be.’
What the hell was going on? Kim wondered as her thoughts went into overdrive. Their prime suspect was at home with her weekly groceries.
‘Stace, tell her to put a cardigan on and get yourself and Penn over to The Book Store in Halesowen. There’s all kinds of shit kicking off.’
‘Kid’s fine,’ Bryant said, appearing beside her. ‘One of Chris’s guys is with him, and centre security are already looking at footage.’
Kim ended the call from her colleague as the spinning in her head grew worse.
‘Noah’s not Ella,’ Kim said, continuing her journey to the crowd of staff at the door.
Her mouth dried as she got closer and realised the celebrity was missing.
Her eyes fixed on Kate, the woman’s agent. How had the woman lost her client?
‘Kate, what the hell is going on here?’
The woman’s face coloured and was quickly accompanied by a guilty expression.
‘What are you?—’
‘You haven’t realised you’re missing someone?’ Kim snapped. ‘Where the hell is Tyra Brooks?’
Kate looked at her as though Kim had truly lost her mind.
‘Tyra’s out there walking the crowd. She insisted despite my—’
‘Let me see,’ Kim said, stepping to the front of the group.
And there she was: about forty metres away, walking the long line of customers, shaking hands and smiling.
Suddenly, the girl disappeared into the line and the line lost form. It coiled like a snake around the spot where Tyra had last been standing.
‘Shit, guv, she’s been pulled into the crowd,’ Bryant shouted, running out of the store.
She didn’t bother to answer as a few things fell into place. She looked around and assessed the situation before she turned and ran in the opposite direction.
Ninety-Nine
Kim headed away from the commotion taking place at the front of the store because her gut was telling her that the real problem was going on elsewhere.
She did a quick visual check on Archie as she headed back out the way she had come in. She was pleased to see him sucking on a lollipop and reading a book with the shop assistant, with a security officer just three feet away.
She considered stopping to ask him questions, but her mind was telling her to forge ahead. None of the other murders had been lingered over and drawn out and she had no reason to think this would be any different. If she didn’t find Noah soon, another person was going to die.
The second she’d seen Tyra amongst the crowds, she’d felt their entire theory crash down around her ears.
And then she’d looked around to see who was missing, and she’d thought about the escalation.
Their killer wasn’t interested in a kiss-and-tell celebrity. Yes, she was current, unlike the ex-soap star, but she wasn’t the most attractive target. Who better than someone who had been in the public eye and also held a senior, responsible position in the police force?
Kim raced through