When Kate got to the incident room, her office was empty. Harry said he’d last seen Hank sulking in the men’s locker room. Kate burst through the door, grabbed his upper arm and hauled him out, ignoring the stares of male colleagues in various stages of undress. His face lit up when he heard that he’d been given the green light to return to work. ‘Stone stepped up for you, Hank. Anyone else might have dragged their feet.’ Kate slid her hand in her pocket, withdrawing the buff envelope. ‘He asked me to give you this.’
Hank’s hand closed around hers and gave it a squeeze. He didn’t speak, though he never took his eyes off her. He didn’t need to look inside to know that it was his warrant card. Feeling it through the paper, he almost choked up.
Kate said, ‘Fizz on me later, given that we’re spending the night together—’
‘Sometimes your timing is totally rubbish.’ He explained: ‘Probationer. Your six. Heard every word.’ Playing to their audience, he raised his voice slightly. ‘Kate, of course I want to see you, but there are only so many nights I can leave the wife without her getting suspicious. Oi!’ He caught the arm of the young copper as he walked by. ‘Were you just earwigging a private conversation?’
He almost stood to attention. ‘No, Sarge.’
‘For your sake, I hope not. Go on, get out of here.’
‘I missed you,’ Kate said to Hank, pulling a ringing mobile from her pocket: unrecognised number. Curious, she took the call. ‘Hello?’
‘Detective Chief Inspector Kate Daniels?’
‘Depends who I’m speaking to . . .’ Kate covered the speaker, addressing Hank: ‘Go and share your news. I’ll catch up with you.’
‘My name is Alex Hope. Someone left a message to call you.’
‘Thanks for getting back to me. Can you hold for a second? I’m in a public area and I’d like to take this in my office.’ Kate followed Hank along the corridor, getting there in double-quick time. She sat down at her desk. Time to lob a grenade into the conversation. ‘Ms Hope, just so you know, I’m a murder detective in Northumbria force and this call is now being recorded.’
There was a long pause before Hope answered. ‘How did you find me?’
‘Hannah sent me a clue. You know which Hannah I’m on about, right? Her father told me that he’d engaged your services to find her, something you were unable to do because she’d been careful to cover her tracks.’ Hank’s voice was in Kate’s head. ‘Isn’t it more a case of you laying a false trail so that she could avoid detection, even by her frantic family?’
There was a beat of time when neither woman spoke.
‘Yes,’ Hope said. ‘But I assure you there’s a valid reason.’
‘I doubt that.’
‘Hannah and I were friends, Detective Chief Inspector. Whatever you think you know, I can assure you, you know nothing. We conspired to keep Peter and Marianne in the dark for their own safety and hers.’
Already, Kate liked this straight-talking woman. ‘Don’t you people have a code of conduct?’
‘Sorry? I don’t understand.’
‘I think you do. Swift was paying you, wasn’t he?’
‘I didn’t take a bean from him. I told him that, unlike corporate work, I operated on a No win, No fee basis for missing persons. It wasn’t strictly true, but he didn’t know that. Ask him if you don’t believe me.’
‘I will. For now, Aaron is my priority—’
‘I don’t know where he is,’ Hope interrupted. ‘By the time I found her – it took some doing, believe me – the kid was a day pupil at a prep school where he’d board as soon as he was of age. Hannah couldn’t wait to get him to a place of safety, though I gather she had plans to switch schools without telling his father in order to protect the boy. She’d have moved heaven and earth for Aaron.’
‘Did she tell you which school?’
‘No. It was a question of need to know, she said. She wasn’t taking any chances, even with me.’
‘Shit.’
‘I’m sorry, I appreciate that’s a bitter blow.’ Hope was silent for a moment. ‘I’m sure you have many questions. I’m happy to help, but I think it’s best if I do that in person. As it happens, I’m in Edinburgh. I have nothing on tomorrow. I’ll jump on a train and come to you. Let you know when I land.’
The line went dead.
Kate sat back, relieved to have caught a lucky break. Greenwich was a long way from her Northumbria base. She was in no condition to make the trip and didn’t want to entrust the Alex Hope interview to someone else, even Thakur.