Chapter 21
Elea sat in the unmarked police car, Swann’s words still ringing in her ears. “No contact today, only light surveillance. Tomorrow make a softly-softly approach.”
There was no “softly-softly” in Elea’s eyes.
When it came to criminals like Sienna and Ant Thompson, you went in hard or not at all.
This evening it was not at all. It had taken two hours to get the necessary permission to sit outside the Thompsons’ address.
To sit. Not to listen or take photos. Just to sit on her backside from the vantage point of a car that smelled like a pizza delivery van.
This wasn’t surveillance, in Elea’s eyes.
At the very least they should be camped out in an upstairs room of a nearby building with wide-lens cameras and officers ready to move at each end of the street.
Actually, no, that should have happened after Phil Hobbs handed over his stepdaughter on a plate.
Swann had mapped out his reasoning. Sienna and Ant Thompson would be a lot more cautious once they knew the police had eyes on them. But although the couple’s car was on the drive, Elea had yet to catch sight of them. She tutted in disgust. This was the pits.
“You all right?” Mitch’s eyes creased in amusement from beneath his baseball cap.
“This is a total waste of time. We should go in there and—”
“And nothing,” Mitch interrupted. “Unless you want me to get the sack?”
“I’m only saying . . .” Elea stared across at the window of the two-bedroom mid-terraced house. “We’ve been sitting here for hours. What’s the likelihood of something happening tonight, given how long ago Hobbs spoke to them?”
“All the same, we stay put. Due diligence.”
Elea rolled her eyes. Silence fell as the temperature in the car dropped.
She willed Ant and Sienna to come out. What did she expect to occur?
For Chelsea Hobbs to make an appearance, ready to tell all?
Such things happened only in the many fantasies she’d created in her mind.
She had dealt with enough crimes over the years to know the lie of the land.
Perps weren’t clever or calculating. They were of low intelligence and short-sighted.
It always came down to the same things: money, sex, drugs, stupidity.
But sometimes, just sometimes, Elea met her match.
A thought rose in her mind, pushing all others aside.
Half an hour, that’s all she required. There was no need for violence.
She simply needed to talk to them before they called it a night.
“Why don’t you go home?” She threw Mitch her most persuasive smile. “It doesn’t take two of us to sit here.”
“And leave you to go full Bruce Willis? I don’t think so.”
Elea’s smile faded. “Who?”
“Bruce Willis,” Mitch stared at her, mystified. “Die Hard? The greatest movie ever made?”
“Never heard of him,” Elea lied. She wasn’t in the mood for banter when she was so close to discovering the truth.
Mitch snorted. “As if!” An empty beer can rattled down the road, which was littered with parked cars on either side. They had been lucky to find a space.
Elea groaned as an upstairs bedroom light came on. They weren’t seriously going to bed. At this hour? It was only 8 p.m.
“There she is.” Mitch straightened in his seat as he watched Sienna close the curtains. Elea could just about make out that she was clutching a book in one hand.
“And there she goes,” Elea grumbled. “Off to bed early, to dream about kidnapping more little kiddies.” She turned to Mitch in earnest. “Let me go. I’ll get the truth out of them, like I did with—”
“Not on your nelly.” He grabbed her arm as her other hand crept to the door handle.
“You’re not authorised. You were lucky with Hobbs because his missus backed you up, but she won’t.
” He pointed to the upstairs window. The main light flickered off and a softer light bloomed, most likely a bedside lamp.
“She may be small, but she’s got serious form, and if it all kicks off, it’ll be you who gets arrested, not them.
” He paused, studying Elea’s face. “I know it’s frustrating, but procedure is there to protect us. We’ll speak to them tomorrow, yeah?”
“Seriously?” Elea spoke sharply. “I didn’t win this job in a raffle, you know.” Her voice lowered to a mumble. “Condescending little prick.”
The blue flashing light of a television screen flickered through the downstairs window of the Thompson abode.
“Sorry. You’re right.” Mitch shifted in his seat. “I’m actually . . . a little in awe of you. I’ve just got this promotion, and I don’t want to lose my job.” He stared out at the streets that had not been kind to him once. “I don’t know what I’d do without it. I’m not much good at anything else.”
“I wouldn’t say that,” Elea stated reluctantly, lightening the mood. “But all right. If I must wait, then so be it.”
She stared at the house, imagining Ant settling down before his Xbox or PlayStation for the night.
Her gaze lingered over their surroundings, but there were no clues to be had.
The couple’s black refuse bin sat on the kerb, waiting to be emptied by the council in the morning.
The compact front garden was paved over, with a red-brick wall and metal gate protecting their privacy.
The car on their drive was nothing flashy.
They seemed like any other couple on any other street.
But Ant and Sienna had history. Apart from the numerous drug-dealing offences, they had both served time in prison for grievous bodily harm.
Then there was the string of suspended sentences, which were becoming more commonplace now that the prisons were full.
The team had worked hard, uncovering a solid link between the Thompsons and Phil Hobbs.
It wasn’t simply the address book tying them together.
Mitch had tapped into his street informant, who claimed that Phil wasn’t merely acquainted with the couple; he was deep in debt with them.
Word on the street was that the Thompsons had their hands in something darker. Human trafficking.
Elea blinked as droplets of rain splashed their car windscreen, quickly obscuring her view.
Mitch cast his eyes beyond the streetlights at the dark clouds blotting the moon, their bellies full of rain.
That would put an end to their surveillance.
It wasn’t as if he could start the car to activate the wipers; that would only draw attention to them.
There was no point sitting here freezing.
She would speak to them tomorrow—all above board.
“Looks like it’s down for the night. Let’s go.” Mitch didn’t wait for a response as he started the car engine and slowly pulled away from the kerb.
Elea’s phone beeped with a text. It was another offer from Alice. Maybe it was time for this war to end.