PREPARED TO DIE: A gripping British detective crime thriller by Mark Yarwood

Author:Mark Yarwood [Yarwood, Mark]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Biscuit Books
Published: 2023-11-01T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 18

Moone mentally prepared himself as he reached the family room, where Mr and Mrs Todd were waiting for him, probably hoping that he had good news, that their daughter wasn’t one of their victims. He looked down at the photograph of the young woman looking at the camera, a drink in her hand, a female friend next to her, taken in some dark nightclub. She looked like their victims, had the right colour hair, right build, same age.

Then he thought about her name. Bobbi-Jane Todd, he’d been told their daughter was called. Daryl’s mysterious friend. It would all be a glimmer of hope for their daughter, but not for Moone.

The door opened and a redheaded woman poked her face out, looking around the corridor. She was mid-thirties, dressed in a trouser suit. DC Casey Yates, he presumed, the family liaison officer hurriedly assigned to the case.

‘DCI Moone?’ she asked, her eyes jumping to him as she stepped out and closed the door behind her.

He nodded. ‘Yes, that’s me. How are they?’

Yates looked towards the room. ‘As you’d expect. Shaken up. They’ve heard about the two dead girls, and their minds, well…’

Moone lifted the photograph. ‘I don’t think she’s one of the victims.’

‘No?’

‘No. We’ve got a guy called Daryl, a troubled young man, who said he met a girl called Bobbi-Jane a few nights ago.’

Yates took the photograph, examining it. ‘That’s good, then. For them.’

‘Yes, in a way. But our killer, he likes to tattoo his victims. That means, he takes them, keeps them alive, tattoos them, then…’

Yates nodded. ‘So, he could still have her.’

Moone nodded towards the door. ‘Let’s go and see what they say.’

Moone knocked then went in, his eyes jumping to the slender, tired-looking woman on the blue sofa, next to the thickset, balding man. They were sat close, but weren’t touching. Mrs Todd had tears in her eyes, a tissue balled in her hand.

‘I’m DCI Peter Moone,’ he said, sitting down on the sofa opposite them as Yates joined him. ‘Thank you for coming in.’

Moone put the photograph on the coffee table positioned between the sofas. ‘And thanks for this.’

The mum looked at the photo for a moment, then picked it up, and stared at it for a while before looking up at Moone with obvious questions in her eyes.

‘I’m pretty sure she’s not one of our victims,’ he said, and saw a physical change in them, their bodies loosening a little, the colour reappearing in their faces.

‘That’s great,’ the dad said, but the mum turned and stared at him, annoyance in her eyes.

‘She’s still missing, John!’ she hissed.

‘I know!’ The dad looked at Moone. ‘Are you looking for Bobbi?’

‘Yes, yes we are.’ Moone sat forward. ‘Thing is, we have a couple of witnesses that saw her on Milehouse Road a few nights ago. At least they met a young woman going by the name Bobbi-Jane…’

‘Milehouse Road?’ the mum said, looking at the photo. ‘Why would she be there?’

‘She was in a building there, a place set up for troubled young people.

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