Chapter 57
Fifty-Seven
Gina
O’Connor pulled up behind the one police car that had beaten them to the scene.
Gina unclipped her seat belt, ready to meet the backup officers at the scene.
They’d gathered on the road outside the flats Gina and O’Connor had chased Abel behind, which were set far enough away from the Ferndale shops.
Chez Ursula’s was in darkness. The pizza shop had long closed but one man came out from the block of flats, the same man who had insisted on entering their scene when they’d been chasing Abel around the back.
She got out of the car, stab vest on, and pointed to his door.
‘I need you to go inside now.’ He folded his arms and stared.
‘Now,’ she said, her voice sending him stepping back towards the main door.
She didn’t have time to argue with members of the public who decided to come out at this ungodly hour and put themselves in danger.
The two officers stepped out of the police car. She heard one of their radios crackle. Further backup was at least several minutes away. They slowly walked towards the row of shops. Maybe they’d hear what was going on behind the shop door, behind the boarded-up unit.
Gina led the others, beckoning them to follow her but stayed silent on approach. There were three people in imminent danger and a perp who was willing to stab them to death. No one was to try to tackle him alone.
‘I’m going round the back, guv,’ O’Connor said.
‘No, I need you to wait here for backup.’ She held her hand up to gesture for him to come back with one ear pressed to the door but it was too late, O’Connor had his back turned to them.
She tried to loud whisper to get him to come back but it was too late, he’d already turned the corner and the other two PCs hadn’t noticed.
She was about to send one of them to follow him as the taller of the two stood poised with the battering ram.
‘Is that smoke?’ asked the PC who was ready to take the door out.
She frowned and looked up as the other PC shone a pencil torch above the door. Coils of smoke drifted upwards, releasing an acrid stench. On pressing her ear to the metal, she was sure she heard whimpering. ‘They’re in there. We need to get this door down, now.’
The other PC held the battering ram firm and began to pound the door.
‘We need all units here, now. Tell them to hurry.’
The officer with the torch called it in on his radio in the hope that they’d come quicker. ‘Fire… Ferndale shops… hostage situation… urgent…’
The battering ram slammed into the boarded-up door, once, twice, three times but it wouldn’t budge.
The PC stood back, took a deep breath and roared as he slammed into it again.
There was a crack. Gina shoulder barged into it with him until it flew off its hinges and landed on the stone floor.
Smoke billowed through the gaps in the door to the back room.
There was no barbershop behind those boards, no new window was waiting to be fitted.
Their perp had been right under their noses, in the middle of the scene all the time, and he’d been invisible.
Three football scarves, all for different teams, had been hung up on the coat hooks.
She stepped over the piles of computer equipment and sidestepped the bin full of fast-food wrappers.
A dog lead lay on the floor next to an empty water bowl.
As the PC with the battering ram sent a second door to a back room flying open, Gina saw Brian and a girl who she assumed was his sister, Tabitha, but there was no sign of Claudia, the real target. She knew they were looking for a woman in her late twenties and the girl was in her teens.
The siblings lay sidewards in sitting positions, chained to two chairs as flames crackled up the bottom of the chair leg that Tabitha was chained to.
The stench of petrol and burning wood filled the air.
Gina swallowed, almost tasting it now. ‘We need to get this fire out.’ She reached over and wrenched the ball gag from Brian’s mouth.
‘He poured it in my lap. Don’t let the fire reach my lap.’
‘O’Connor.’ She glanced around but he was still not there. She pictured him giving chase, alone. The shorter PC hurried to the sink in a side room and filled a bowl up. He came in and threw it over the chair leg, extinguishing the fire.
‘Where’s Claudia?’ Gina stared at the scared kids as the two PCs helped them up and started looking for a key to the padlock.
The girl burst into tears as soon as Gina removed her gag. ‘He took her, out the back door. He said it’s all her fault. He’s going to kill her.’