‘Oh, Jesus Christ,’ Annie said. ‘We’re nearly there, too. Where are the bloody uniforms?’
Moments before, they’d heard the unmistakeable sound of Sheena Pearson being apprehended. Sheena had made sufficient noise to give them no doubt about what was happening, and then the call had been cut. Annie didn’t know whether Sheena had ended the call herself in the hope of keeping the phone undetected, or whether her captors had discovered the device.
She called back to the dispatcher and told them what had happened. ‘I don’t know where your guys are,’ she said. ‘But I want this area sealed off. There aren’t that many roads around this stretch.’
Finally, she saw a pulse of blue lights across the open moorland. At least one car approaching from the opposite direction. Whether there’d be enough resource to do what she’d asked or whether they could get it organised to do it speedily enough, she doubted.
She turned right onto the road leading up to the stretch of moorland that Sheena had described. Her attention had been momentarily focused on spotting the turning, so the oncoming vehicle took her by surprise. It was a large van, travelling well in excess of the speed limit in the middle of the road.
For a moment she considered trying to block it, but, given the speed and size of the vehicle, she knew she and Zoe could easily be seriously injured or killed by the impact. As it was, the vehicle caught the front wing of her car, driving them almost off the road, before continuing onto the road behind them. Annie did a rapid U-turn, thankful that the car was still drivable, and set off in pursuit.
‘You think that’s them?’ Zoe said.
‘Must be, mustn’t it? Going at that speed. They were hoping to get off the scene before we arrived. Which suggests they’ve discovered that Sheena made a call.’
In just the few seconds it had taken them to turn the car round, Annie had lost sight of the vehicle. They were still surrounded by open moorland, but the unevenness of the landscape meant their view was limited. The satnav showed that there was a crossroads a half-mile or so ahead. At that point, she’d need some clue as to which road to take.
‘There.’ Zoe pointed off to their left. As the road had risen again, a set of retreating red rear lights had become visible across the moor. The left turn, then.
‘I just wish we had some inkling of where they might be heading,’ Annie said. Then she stopped, struck by a sudden thought. ‘Werneth Holdings. Their offices were somewhere round here, weren’t they?’
‘I can’t remember exactly. Hang on. Let me check.’ Zoe pulled out her phone and found the Companies House website. It took her a few seconds longer to search for the entry for Werneth Holdings. ‘Looks like the offices are based at that guy Robin Kennedy’s house. Kennedy Farm, would you believe?’ She reached forward and keyed the postcode into the satnav. ‘Yup. Just a few minutes away and in that direction. You think that’s where they could be heading?’
‘We’ve no other leads, have we?’
After the crossroads they lost sight of the rear lights once more as the road ahead dipped into a valley. Unless they had another sighting of the vehicle, they had no option but to trust Annie’s hunch.
‘If that’s where they’re going,’ Zoe said, ‘it’s about a half-mile ahead. Somewhere on the right.’
There was no further sighting of the fleeing vehicle. The satnav directions were only approximate, and Annie initially missed the turning to Kennedy Farm. Cursing, she spun the car around and headed back, finally spotting the sign. She turned in to the entrance, feeling a mounting sense of panic and despair. Even if Robin Kennedy was involved in all this, they had no strong reason to believe that Sheena was being brought here.
On the other hand, she thought, if whoever had taken Sheena had been aware that the police were closing in, they’d have wanted somewhere nearby to lie low rather than being stopped on the surrounding roads. It was a long shot, but it was possible.
The uneven driveway led uphill, and somewhere ahead she could see a cluster of lights. As they reached the summit, the house appeared in front of them.
Annie slowed the car and took a breath.
The van was parked in front of the house, its rear doors still open.
‘It’s too late,’ Kennedy said. ‘You saw the blue lights back on the moors. There were half a dozen or more cars. They’re closing in.’
He looked like a different person, Rowan thought. Older, hunched, no longer in control. He’d lost it. ‘They don’t know we’re here,’ she said. ‘They don’t know who we are. I checked it all out beforehand because I always do. There’s no CCTV between that stretch of moorland and here. They’ve got no way of identifying us or the cars. We’ve always made damn sure that none of the vehicles can be traced back to you.’
‘What about that car we passed?’
‘They won’t have had chance to get your number. They won’t have known which way we were heading.’
‘What about Nolan and Charlie? They’ll find the bodies.’
‘It won’t take them long, no. But neither had a record. I checked all his clothing and there was nothing to identify them. They had no close relatives or friends other than us. It’ll take them a while to work out who they are, if they ever do. But, then, so what? They’ve no reason to connect them to you.’ She wasn’t sure she even believed all of this herself but she could see that, without some kind of reassurance, Kennedy would just freeze.
‘We’ve still got to deal with Pearson.’
‘And with Bamford and Wardle. So we kill them. All three of them. It won’t be the elegant outcome you’d envisaged, but I can’t see an alternative.’
‘And what do we do with the bodies?’
It was like dealing with a toddler, she thought. One of those spoilt kids who just tries to gainsay every argument. She sighed. ‘We drop them in the septic tank,’ she said. ‘I’m told it’s good for the system. And if they’ve no reason to suspect your involvement, no one will have a good reason to go searching in there.’
‘You’re a cold bitch, aren’t you?’
‘Luckily for you. Right, let’s deal with this one first, shall we?’ She gestured to Sheena Pearson, who was hunched on the sofa at the far end of the room. Sheena had already made one attempt to pull away as they were leaving the car, but Rowan had simply struck her hard across the face. For the moment, Bamford and Wardle had been locked in one of the bedrooms. Rowan expected little immediate trouble from them. Bamford had recovered consciousness but was still groggy. Wardle just seemed scared out of his wits. There’d be time to deal with those two later.
By this point, she was almost inclined to screw Kennedy over and simply disappear, leaving him to sort out the mess. After all, it was largely his creation. But she knew that if she left these loose ends dangling, she would always be vulnerable. Better to deal with them, and think about the future afterwards.
‘We’ll do it in the barn at the back. That way we can hose everything down afterwards. We won’t be able to clean it perfectly, but that won’t matter as long as the police have no reason to come snooping round here. I sent Mo out there to prepare it.’
‘I don’t know if I can do this.’
She stared at him for a moment. ‘Christ, Robin, you’ve got some brass neck. We’re all involved and we’re all implicated, remember? I was even involved in the murder of my own fucking son. Not that the little bastard didn’t deserve it. But that’s how it works. Unless you just want me to leave you in the shit.’
He nodded. ‘Okay. It’s all just been a bit of a shock. I didn’t expect it to turn out like this.’
‘Really? You’re telling me your smartarse plan turned out not to be foolproof? You’re a piece of work, Robin. Come on. Let’s get this done.’
She walked across the room, pulled Sheena Pearson up from the sofa and dragged her forcibly over to the door. ‘Now, Robin, you lead the way and I’ll make sure Ms Pearson follows.’