The Stolen Child by Alex Coombs

Author:Alex Coombs [Coombs, Alex]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Boldwood Books

22

Hanlon turned her car into Whiteside’s road and immediately stamped on the brake. The street was like a disturbed anthill. She saw an ambulance, five police cars, two police vans and about twenty police in uniform milling frantically around outside Whiteside’s house. There was a loud roar and clatter as the police helicopter flew overhead. With a terrible, swift certainty, Hanlon knew immediately what had happened. This level of manpower on a Saturday afternoon had to be for a fellow officer.

She parked the car and walked up to the sergeant’s house, stony-faced. The engine of the ambulance started, its lights and siren came on and it pulled away. Behind it, she could see two officers sealing the entrance to the building with incident tape. She heard a senior officer that she didn’t know shouting, ‘Block off that road. Jesus Christ. Will you hurry up. And cordon off those pavements, will you.’ His voice was sharp with tension, his face thunderous, tense and angry.

‘Hurry up. I don’t want any traffic moving up or down this street.’

A uniformed officer blocked Hanlon on the pavement. ‘I’m sorry, madam.’ She opened her bag for her warrant card but a voice called, ‘Ma’am, ma’am.’ Hanlon looked past the PC and there was Childs. He was wearing a white disposable

boiler suit and overshoes on his bare feet. Hanlon thought, they must have removed and bagged his clothing. Childs’ forearms and wrists were rusty with dried blood and there were more streaks of blood on his face.

‘It’s Mark, ma’am. DS Whiteside. He’s been shot,’ said Childs. He stood there awkwardly on the pavement, a beseeching look on his face. He looked even younger than usual. The uniform was still standing between them. It’s as if Childs believes I can wave a wand and everything will be somehow all right again, thought Hanlon. Behind Childs was the usual activity of crime scenes, but carried out with far more grim urgency than normal. In the background she could see DCS Ludgate directing the action. Hanlon felt a surge of anger towards him. He must have been inside the house when she arrived. Of all the people that this investigation could have fallen to, he was the one that she’d least like to have in charge. It was almost an insult to Whiteside to have Ludgate here as the senior investigating officer.

‘How badly?’ Hanlon said. By that she really meant, was

he still alive?

Childs shrugged helplessly. ‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘He’d been hit in the head and the body. I know that.’

Oh God, thought Hanlon, a head shot. Childs had obviously done his best. The blood that soaked him was testimony to that. Behind Childs three SOCO officers had arrived and were busy suiting up. In a minute they’d be starting on the house and Whiteside’s flat. Now that the crime scene had been preserved, other officers were gathering at both ends of the now sealed-off road to search that perimeter. She could see Ludgate pointing at houses in the street and sending officers off for house-to-house enquiries.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.