Chapter 59
FIFTY-NINE
The gust caught a tree’s branches and they kept hitting the side of the building. Led by the battering ram, PC Ahmed burst through first. Gina and Jacob followed. Blue lights shining across the car park lit the entrance up. A pair of night-vision goggles lay on the floor against the wall.
‘Simeon Yates, it’s the police.’ Gina ran through the reception area, then through another door into the main room.
The light was already on. She saw a pool of blood around the crowbar sticking out of Simeon’s eye.
Stagnant water had sloshed over the top of the tank.
‘We need a paramedic.’ She kneeled on the floor and checked Simeon’s pulse.
‘He’s dead.’ She looked up and gestured to Jacob.
‘The tank.’
He climbed up the ladder and recoiled. Gina watched as he reached in. ‘Two women, one alive and one dead. Her finger moved. It’s Justine Crawford.’
Wyre burst in.
Jacob pulled Justine up and let out a roar as he yanked her body towards the lid of the tank.
‘It looks like most of the liquid is on the floor. She barely seems conscious but I felt a pulse.’ He managed to manoeuvre her over his shoulder before climbing down and letting Wyre help him. ‘Lindy’s in the tank. She’s dead.’
Gina pulled the strips of slime away from Justine’s neck and face as they lay her on the ground. ‘Her airways are clear.’ Gina was sure Justine just tried to murmur something. ‘Justine, where’s Danny?’
‘Danny,’ she muttered as she let out a snore.
Wyre got down on the floor and shifted her into the recovery position.
‘It looks like she’s been drugged.’
‘There are sleeping tablets on the racking over here,’ O’Connor said.
Gina heard the sound of trickling water under all the commotion. It was coming from the door behind them. She stood and ran to it. It was locked. ‘Shaf, you need to get this door open now.’
She stepped aside. After three crashes with the battering ram, the heavy door burst open. Gina ran to the tank and grabbed Danny by the shoulders, lifting his head out of the water. Jacob assisted and they lay him on the concrete floor. Gina stood aside as a paramedic nudged past.
Gina and Jacob left the paramedics to do their jobs.
She placed a hand on her chest, over her banging heart while watching as the paramedics tried to revive him.
She glanced at Justine, knowing she was going to have to break the news to her about her son’s death and a lump formed in her throat.
No one wants to tell someone that their child had died.
Justine hadn’t asked for any of this but then he coughed up a load of water.