it on while driving was not her idea of attending to the road, but if it was that or faffing around with it while Stavely attacked someone, she’d choose the slightly hairy driving any day.
Her phone rang while she had one arm in and one out. She glanced at the dash, expecting to see Sheens’s number, but instead saw the word “Damian.” There was no sinking feeling this time. She felt one hundred percent pissed off with him.
He’d already tried calling again by the time she had the stab vest pulled on and fastened. Checking that Stavely’s cab was still ahead, she picked up her phone one-handed, and swiped on the missed call from Damian so it brought up his contact details.
With only a slight surge of adrenaline she pressed the Block button.
* * *
—
JONAH’S ADRENALINE WAS running pretty high, too, as he tore out of the station in the Mondeo. He would not have chosen the newest member of the team to be in pursuit of an armed suspect, however smart and generally sensible she seemed to be. Knives were absolutely not good fun to deal with. There had been one member of his year of recruits killed three months into the job by one.
He doubted, given the levels of traffic at this time, that he and O’Malley would be able to catch up with Stavely and Hanson. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to try.
He’d switched on the blue lights and siren, and most of the cars ahead cleared well out of the way. But he still had to stop sharply at a pedestrian crossing for a middle-aged couple who had walked out without looking. He watched in disbelief as they continued to walk slowly across, despite all the noise.
“Do you ever hate people, Sergeant?” he asked O’Malley.
“Oh Jesus, yes. All the time,” the sergeant replied.
* * *
—
THE ROUTE WAS beginning to feel familiar to Hanson, but she couldn’t tell why. She guessed it must be on the way to one of the suspects’ houses, but she couldn’t be sure which after only one visit. She called through to Sheens to tell him roughly where they were, and then waited for him to call back.
It didn’t take him long.
“I’ve just had a call from the operator. The squad car’s on the flyover, and for now has its lights and siren on,” he said. Hanson felt a surge of relief. “They reckon they’ll be up with you in ten minutes, assuming they have to turn the lights off once they’re closer.”
Hanson’s relief wavered slightly. They could easily be at Stavely’s destination before then. They were well out of Southampton, off the dual carriageway and heading toward Lyndhurst.
She scrolled on her phone briefly, working out which suspects were where. He could be going to Jojo Magos’s house, the Jacksons’, or Brett Parker’s. There was a vague chance that he was going a long route toward Bishop’s Waltham and Daniel Benham’s house, in which case they might have long enough.
“If he’s going to Brett’s or Jojo’s, the squad car will be too late,” she said. “We’re only a few minutes away, I think? And the Jacksons’…probably still under ten minutes, if not by much.”
“If he stops before the squad car gets there, then block the taxi from leaving,” Sheens told her. “And then tell Stavely calmly that the squad car is two minutes behind you. Give us a heads-up, and they can turn the sirens back on.”
“Right,” Hanson said. “I’ll let you know.”
She hung up, and mentally began to prepare herself for a confrontation. She’d at least been on the periphery of incidents like this in the past. It was all about calm, and an impression of authority. She knew that.
And not getting close enough to get stabbed. That, too.
* * *
—
“DID YOUR PHONE records run up to today?” Jonah asked O’Malley as he pushed his way toward the flyover.
“Yesterday, I think,” O’Malley answered. “Why?”
“Once we’ve stopped Stavely doing whatever he’s doing, I want to know for certain who called Coralie during our interview, because I’m pretty damn sure it wasn’t her father.”
“It sounds like you know already,” O’Malley said with a sideways glance at him that Jonah caught.
“I have a pretty good idea,” Jonah said.
* * *
—
IT WAS BRETT Parker’s house. They were on the road that led past the end of his driveway, and there were no other vehicles in sight. Hanson had to drop back a little, and wondered what she would do about the