Chapter 59
Fifty-Nine
Gina
The whole cavalry had arrived now, including Wyre and Jacob.
Gina ran around the back knowing that police cars had started surrounding the area.
They now knew exactly who the perp was. His unit was right next to Ursula’s.
He’d been right there, under their noses.
His car had to be close by or could he be using another stolen vehicle?
‘Harry.’ She stepped onto the grass, trying to see through the dense woodland.
O’Connor was nowhere to be seen. She gasped as she spotted drag marks leading through the grass and the trees. ‘Harry.’ Again, no answer.
Three PCs and Jacob joined her and they all split up, running through the woodland, getting caught in hedges, struck by dangling branches.
Jacob called back. ‘They went this way.’ She ran across to him, jumping over the trunk of a fallen birch.
He flashed his torch at what looked like fresh blood on a branch.
‘Harry,’ she shouted as they kept going.
The radio in her stab vest crackled. ‘Guv… guv…’
She grabbed it. ‘Yes.’
‘The car has been caught on ANPR about a mile away. More officers have been despatched.’
‘What road?’
‘Brown Road, just past Porters Cross traffic lights.’
‘I know the one.’
‘Do you know where he could be heading because there aren’t any more ANPR cameras on that route, not until the carriageway?’
She carried on running after Jacob. They had to find O’Connor.
What if he’d taken O’Connor, too? ‘Harry!’ All she wanted was to find him, make sure he was safe then she wanted to give him hell about not listening to her.
‘I can’t think.’ Where… where? She kept asking herself that question.
Just one slip up had led them to the Ferndale shops and the killer’s identity but now, they were in the dark.
Jacob burst through the woodland onto the road. ‘We need an ambulance.’
‘Did you catch that?’
The officer on the other end of the radio answered. ‘Got it. Which road?’
‘Hartland Lane.’ She burst through the trees to find Jacob in the middle of the road stuffing his coat into O’Connor’s bleeding neck.
Gina felt her legs half buckle beneath her. ‘DC O’Connor is down. We need an ambulance. Stab wound to the neck.’ She ran over to them and felt for a pulse but she couldn’t feel one. ‘Harry!’
Jacob cleared his airways and started breathing for him. Gina fell to her knees and started chest compressions.
‘Don’t die on us. You can’t die.’ Tears began to fall down her cheeks as Jacob breathed for him again. She thought of Mrs O and how she had to tell her that he was hurt but okay. ‘Breathe, Harry.’
Blue lights came around the corner. Two paramedics jumped out and ran over, pushing them away.
‘Is he alive?’ Gina tried to burst back through but one of the paramedics dragged her out of the way and Jacob came to her side.
She placed a hand over her mouth. ‘He can’t die.’ She gasped for breath and ran towards the grass, hyperventilating. Jacob joined her.
All the hurt inside her turned into raging anger.
She was going to catch the killer and make him pay.
Think, think. There was only one place to try.
Why hadn’t she thought of it before? ‘What is the one place all three victims have in common?’ She grabbed Jacob and ran over to one of the police cars, telling the PC to leave.
The PC got out and as she buckled up, Jacob jumped into the passenger seat and buckled up.
‘We need to get to St Benedict’s now. Let the team know, let everyone know. ’
Edwin Hammond was going to wish he’d never been born when she got hold of him.