Chapter 82
Eighty-Two
‘Jeez, Penn, what the hell is happening?’ Stacey asked, tapping her fingers on the desk.
She’d just sent a text message to Aunt Janine to see if she’d heard anything. She hadn’t. Their last contact with the boss had been when they entered the services in Abington.
‘Maybe they’ve just gone on to the next.’
‘The boss has been letting us know,’ Stacey said. They’d been able to track every movement from her calls and text messages, but she knew better than to call back at a time like this.
‘I just wanna know that Ava is—’ She stopped speaking as her phone rang. ‘Hello, DC Wood,’ she said, not recognising the number.
No voice came from the other end.
‘Hello,’ Stacey said again.
No one spoke, but she could tell it wasn’t a dead line. She readied herself to hurl all kinds of abuse to the caller. Now was not the damn time to be trying to sell her life insurance.
‘Hello,’ she said again, an edge to her voice. She was about to hang up when she heard a car in the distance, followed by a sob. Her stomach lurched as she heard the smallest of whispers. ‘Is that you, Ava?’ she hissed as her heart jumped into her mouth.
Another whisper.
‘Shout up, sweetie, I can’t hear you.’
‘Bins.’
‘What bins? Where are you, sweetheart?’
‘Behind the bins. Daddy’s dead.’
Oh Jesus, what the hell was going on? The kid had obviously managed to get away.
‘Which bins, Ava? What can you see?’ Stacey cried urgently as Penn picked up his phone to relay any information they could get.
‘He’s coming, please, help me… no… get off me… leave me alone… no!’
Stacey’s blood ran cold as Ava screamed.
‘Ava, stay with me, talk to me,’ Stacey cried.
She stopped speaking as she heard the phone fall to the ground. Ava was shouting and screaming in the distance.
‘Penn, for God’s sake, get the boss.’