Deep Hurt - Eva Hudson Page 0,84

other call. “Yes?”

“DS Tyson here. We’ve had a number of new sightings. One is particularly interesting. DCI Radcliffe thinks you should come back to the station straight away.”

Ingrid took the right hand turn. “Can you meet me at the entrance out back, in the parking lot? There’s somebody I need to avoid.”

43

When Ingrid arrived at the incident room she found Gurley leaning awkwardly over a low desk, deep in conversation with DS Tyson. They seemed to be getting along just fine without her. She felt as though she was on the outside, looking in. Gurley’s attitude toward her in the observation room made more sense now she’d discovered he was doing his best to have her removed from the investigation. He could cozy up to Tyson all he liked: she wasn’t about to let either of them shut her out.

As she approached the desk, Tyson acknowledged her with a nod, and although Gurley turned to face her, he didn’t say a word.

“Tell me about the sightings.” She addressed the detective sergeant, as if Gurley wasn’t there. If Gurley wanted to play games, she would too.

“We’ve had quite a few conflicting reports. If we took them all seriously we’d have to assume Kyle Foster had perfected the ability of being in two or three places at once. Some of them are from opposite ends of the country.”

“And the most promising one?”

“The owner of a convenience store. Said he served a young boy, just over four-foot tall, light brown hair, dressed in clothes that looked a bit too big for him. He was buying milk and Frosties and some paper dishes. The thing that got the shop owner really suspicious was the way the boy spoke. Bloke said he thought the kid had an American accent. Plus the fact he wanted to buy a disposable mobile phone.”

Ingrid raised her eyebrows. “It’s the first sighting we’ve had of Tommy in a long while. The boy’s still alive.” Thank God. “Where was this?”

“We’re in the middle of trying to trace the call. The caller rang off suddenly. Before he told us his location.”

“Do you know why?”

“No idea—I suppose it’s possible Foster turned up and threatened him.”

“How long ago did he call?”

“About fifteen minutes.”

“So you should have a location soon. And Foster has to be pretty close by.”

“The man who called in wasn’t using a landline. It’ll take us a bit longer to get the details of his mobile and address.”

“Anything else to report?” Ingrid glanced at Gurley, who continued to ignore her.

“We’re just waiting on this. Like I said, it’s the most promising sighting we’ve had in a while.”

It felt hot and airless in the incident room. Although the space was large, none of the windows was open. The hostility radiating from Gurley made the atmosphere downright oppressive. “Listen, I need a little air,” she said. “I’ll be out back. Can you come fetch me when you have news?”

Tyson looked at Gurley before answering. “Of course.”

When Ingrid stepped outside she took a deep breath. She wasn’t at all certain she could continue to work with Gurley if he carried on behaving the way he was. But she sure as hell wasn’t going to leave the investigation without a fight. As she paced up and down between the parked squad cars, her phone chirruped in her purse. She snatched it out and answered without looking at the screen. “You have a location?” She moved toward the rear entrance of the police station.

“Nope. They still haven’t found the guy.” It was Mike Stiller. “That’s not why I’m calling.”

“Sorry, Mike. I thought you were somebody else.”

“I figured that out already.”

“The killer is still on the loose?”

“Yes, but like I said, that’s not why I’m calling. They’ve recovered more bodies. A dozen remains so far. And counting.”

The breath caught in Ingrid’s throat. It was possible one of them could be Megan. “You have to try to get a match with Kathleen Avery’s DNA. You need to get a sample from her.”

“The local Feds did that already. Jeez, I was hassling so hard for it, they could hardly refuse.”

“It won’t be a 100% match—we don’t have a sample from Megan’s dad.” Ingrid remembered the lock of hair at the bottom of the sneaker box. “If it looks promising I can get you a better sample.”

“You can? How?”

“Don’t worry about that for now. Just look out for a Fed-Ex package from me.” A familiar shiver ran up her spine.

“You doing OK?”

“I’m fine. The job’s a little… challenging at the moment.”

“When