Fifty-Four
‘I wouldn’t worry. She’s probably just nodded out somewhere.
’ Alex stepped from the kitchen, drifted past the sofa where Miller was sitting, then turned and leaned back against the wall near the front door.
‘I know she said she was going to a meeting last night, but I’m betting she went to score afterwards. ’
‘Yeah, I know.’ Miller stared at his phone. ‘I didn’t think she’d pick up, but I thought she’d get back to me once she’d heard the message I left. I’m sure she’d love to look after Cheshire’s dog.’
‘That’s a priority, is it?’
‘Well, I did promise him I’d try and get it sorted.’
‘That’s sweet of you,’ Alex said.
‘Don’t sound so surprised.’
‘I’m only surprised because I presumed you’d have more important things to do. To get ready for, anyway. Drugs to collect, hostages to rescue, that kind of carry-on.’
‘Not really,’ Miller said. ‘Kidnap Unit’s taking charge of all the prep.’
‘Chopra marking his territory, is he?’
‘Yeah, but I’m not bothered. Loads of tedious tech stuff that’s way over my head anyway. I’ve basically been at a loose end the last couple of hours.’
Miller was glad of the chance to relax, even just a little; to stand back and take a breath. It meant he could go home and grab some food. That he could try and talk to Finn about Ruby, even if he hadn’t yet managed to do so.
He would not be needed at the Cutler house for another hour.
As with most kidnap operations, Chopra and his team wanted their actions to be as (seemingly) low-key as possible.
There would be no visible display of officers in large numbers anywhere near the Cutler house, no sealing off neighbouring streets, and no blues-and-twos.
Miller would be making his own way there just before eight o’clock, with Cheshire delivered shortly afterwards in an unmarked car, by which time the van containing the drugs would have been fully kitted out by the Kidnap Unit’s comms team.
It was no more than a -forty-minute drive to Grizedale Reservoir, so barring disasters Miller and Cheshire would have plenty of time to reach the spot Battersby had instructed them to head for by the allotted deadline.
Where they would be told to go from there was anybody’s guess.
‘He’ll lead you a bit of a dance, I reckon,’ Alex said. ‘Battersby.’
‘Fine by me,’ Miller said. ‘As long as it’s not a chuffing foxtrot.’
‘Why do you hate the foxtrot so much? I could never work it out.’
‘Because it’s … boring.’
Alex grinned. ‘And because it’s difficult.’
‘Fine. It’s difficult and boring—’ Miller started slightly when his phone rang. He grabbed at it, hoping to see Finn’s name on the screen, but instead it was one he was decidedly less happy to see. ‘Mary …’
‘Declan. I was just calling to make sure that you’d be joining us tonight.’
‘Oh, God … I’d meant to call.’ He had meant to, but had completely forgotten. To be fair, he did think he had a reasonable excuse, both for forgetting to call and for the fact that he would not be giving Mary the answer she wanted.
‘Obviously I’m very much looking to seeing how your quickstep’s come on, but more to the point, Alan now appears to have gone walkabout, so we’re rather counting on you to tickle the ivories tonight.’
‘I’m sorry, but I won’t be tickling anything tonight.’
‘Oh, dear.’
‘There’s a big op on.’
‘Ooh, that’s exciting. Hang on, I’ll put you on speakerphone so Howard can hear—’
‘Sorry, Mary, I really don’t have time.’
‘Oh—’
‘I’ll tell you all the story in the pub. Next week, maybe.’
He would tell some version of the story anyway, with all the names changed, as usual, and only if it was one that ended happily. He would not be telling them a story where a young kidnap victim ended up dead.
‘That’s not going to happen,’ Alex said, when Miller had ended the call.
‘Let’s hope not.’
‘I know it isn’t, because I know you, and I know you won’t let it.’ She walked across to him and laid a hand on his arm. ‘However much of a dance this bloke leads you, foxtrot or no bloody foxtrot.’
Miller looked at his watch. ‘I feel like I should get going. I’ll be half an hour early, but I’m starting to get a bit twitchy.’ He picked up his jacket and crash helmet and opened the front door.
Alex said, ‘I know you’ll nail it, my love.’
Moments after Miller had closed the front door behind him, a text arrived and once again he was disappointed to see that it was not from Finn. His disappointment was replaced by something rather harder to identify when he saw that it was a message from Priya Acharya.
drink?
He had not spoken to her for a while, so could only assume that something work-related had cropped up out of the blue. An addendum to an old PM report maybe, or an interesting new test result. It couldn’t possibly be anything more than that, could it?
He turned round to look back at the house, where Alex was.
Where some of her still was, at least.
What would she think?
On the subject of what certain interested parties would think, Miller was as excited as Tony Clough in a pie shop at the prospect of telling Sara Xiu about Acharya’s text.
Casually reminding her of the verdict she’d delivered when Miller had -innocently raised the possibility that Priya Acharya might -actually like him: Highly unlikely.
He would very much enjoy that, whether he acted on the invitation or not.
Of course, it would almost certainly be not.
He was about to put his phone away when he decided to try one last time to get hold of Finn.
He dialled her number as he walked across to where the moped was parked, then turned when he heard a phone ringing out on the other side of the lean-to.
He stepped round it and saw Finn sitting on the ground with her head in her hands.
‘Hey, Finn …’
She could not stop sobbing long enough to answer, so Miller just crouched down and held her. She pressed her face against his hi-vis jacket until, when she was finally able to speak, she looked up at him and said, ‘I need help.’
Miller lifted her to her feet and led her into the house.