The Hunted Child Read online

The terse voice was Anna Hunt, Kirsten’s boss in the service that she worked for. It had been a few months since she’d finished her training and joined Anna Hunt’s team, a group that investigated the crimes that were beyond what the police had scope to handle, those which required a more direct method of operation. Often, they would work in the dark, taking out threats that if handled in the normal way, would never be neutralised in time before significant events occurred. It hadn’t been long since Kirsten had foiled an attempt on the First Minister’s life, thus raising the profile of not only herself, but of Anna Hunt, who somehow managed to take credit for having her operative in the right place despite having sent numerous people to three incorrect locations.

  ‘On my way,’ said Kirsten, closing the call and placing the phone back on the sideboard beside her. Kirsten looked over at the photograph on the wall which showed her and her brother some three years before. The man was now in a home for those with severe dementia, and no longer knew his sister. Kirsten still visited him when able, a side of her life that just seemed to linger.

  Kirsten’s hair was a mess, but she wrapped it up as best she could in a ponytail behind her, and slid on her black jeans, black t-shirt, and leather jacket. Once her boots were on, she picked up her keys and made her way to her car before driving a short distance into the centre of Inverness and to a rather old house on a back street where the streetlights didn’t all work for most of the year.

  During the day, the downstairs had an office front that was used as cover for the service base. With it being night-time, Kirsten let herself in with a key, aware that many cameras were watching her entrance. Making her way to the rear of the ground floor, she took the stairs up to the highest floor before knocking on the door and opening to enter her own office. She was surprised to see her boss sitting casually swinging around in Kirsten’s chair, but with a look of agitation on her face.

  ‘Good, you’re in,’ said Anna Hunt, and stood up, looking immaculate as ever. There was a black jacket over the top of a crisp white blouse and a skirt that barely passed her knees, but which was not tight, meaning the woman could run in it if necessary. Anna tended to stay out of the action these days, but Kirsten was trained to notice the little things. The fact that she was wearing an outfit that you could break into a run in, meant that Anna was not simply someone who hung about the office making decisions.

  In Kirsten’s time with the service, that was all Kirsten had seen Anna do, but other people had spoken of her as being a heck of an operative back in the day. She was certainly efficient but Kirsten’s level of trust in the woman was certainly not complete. The thing about this role was that it was one thing to trust people to do their job, another thing to trust them with your own life. They taught you that when you started out by taking you aside and saying to you, ‘You are there to look after you. The service is there to use you.’ In a place where you were taught to distrust the actions and motives of everyone you investigated, that mistrust seemed to linger around all your colleagues.

  ‘Come with me; Justin’s in the other room,’ said Anna. ‘I think he’s beginning to find things.’

  Kirsten followed, unaware of what Anna was even talking about. As she entered the small room across the landing, she saw Justin Chivers, the unit’s resident computer expert. Kirsten entered the room and she saw the man’s eyes first flick over Anna Hunt, and then onto herself. He was lecherous and leery, but he was an incredibly good operative. Kirsten reckoned that’s why Anna let most of his looks go unchallenged.

  He never made comments to Anna, but Kirsten was the brunt of the odd inappropriate gesture. He hadn’t laid a finger on her yet. Kirsten knew that would be the turning point because she’d take that finger and bend it back until it snapped. Until then, she wasn’t a hundred percent sure quite how to deal with him. He’d always been helpful with regards to the work, and at the moment, she needed to build up trust in someone, even if he did seem to be giving her trust because of how she looked.

  ‘Kyle Collins,’ said Anna Hunt, ‘Know him?’

  ‘Of course,’ said Kirsten. ‘One of the major drug operatives within the town. Rarely seen though.’

  ‘Indeed,’ said Anna Hunt, ‘very rarely seen. We haven’t been able to find Kyle for a long time, but he’s on the move now.’

  ‘Really?’ Kirsten replied in surprise. ‘I thought people like him never came out.’

  ‘He’s dropped the clanger this time. Rumour is he was teaching someone a lesson and had to teach it to him fast. Jonathan Kerr, someone who’s been associated with Mr. Collins for quite a while, and a user, was found dead in an alleyway this evening.’

  ‘In an alleyway? The carnival was going on. The whole celebration thing.’

  ‘Indeed. Rumour has it Johnny Kerr was taken out by Mr. Collins. Shot dead by him.’

  ‘Any witnesses?’

  ‘One, or at least one rumoured to be. Everything’s quite sketchy. The police have been involved looking for a missing girl going by the name of Innocence Waters, twelve-year-old, black hair. Justin here will furnish you with a photograph. Police have been out at the family home. Unfortunately, the son has also gone missing. He’s twenty-one and an adult, and probably just out looking for his sister. As you can imagine, it’s a bit of a mess. Trouble is with Mr. Collins involved, the chief inspector contacted the unit, and he wants us to take care of this.

  ‘The rumour is the child saw Kyle Collins execute Johnny Kerr. If that’s the case, she needs to be taken into protective custody. Word on the street is there’s a criminal manhunt out for her and time’s ticking. If it’s true that she saw him execute someone, that’s Kyle Collins into jail and not getting out for the rest of his life. The man’s sixty, probably ready for his retirement. If the police nail him on this, he’s gone forever.’

  ‘Any idea where she went?’ asked Kirsten.

  ‘It seems she’s bright. She disappeared down an alley, and then out into the carnival. There was certainly a lot of commotion. Some of Collins’s men trying to get across the bridge over the River Ness, the footbridge. The carnival was passing by that way.’

  ‘Smart kid,’ said Kirsten. ‘I read that the procession itself was going to be over a mile long. What height is she?’

  ‘She’s barely five feet,’ said Justin Chivers.

  ‘She stays in the middle of that,’ said Kirsten, ‘they’re really going to struggle to see her. She can disappear away at any time, but it’s where she goes next. Any idea what she was wearing?’

  ‘Inverness Caledonian Thistle football top, black jeans, no jacket.’

  ‘Not got a lot then to change into,’ said Kirsten, ‘so that will make it interesting. Anything on the internet, Justin?’

  ‘I’m scanning her Facebook page. She’s got Instagram. She’s got the lot,’ said Justin, ‘but she’s been quiet. It appears our girl really isn’t stupid.’

  ‘What sort of a person is she?’

  ‘As far as I know,’ said Anna, ‘she’s up at the top of the class, possibly quite determined.’

  ‘Any chance she’s going to rendezvous back to the house?’

  ‘Her father told her that if she got lost, she was to meet in front of the supermarket down by the train station. The police have had people around there all night—nothing.’

  ‘What time did this all kick off at?’ asked Kirsten.

  ‘Eight o’clock, half eight at night. We weren’t involved until midnight. I didn’t want to wake you until I got my own brief and realised what was happening. I need you to go and find that girl, bring her in. She’s hot property, Kirsten. If he gets his hands on her, she’s dead. Collins won’t take the risk; he’ll just kill her. For the police and everybody that’s fighting against the scum like this, this girl’s the ideal witness. She’ll put him away.’

  ‘What about the family?’

  ‘They’re under police protection, but they may be worth a look at,’ said Anna. ‘See if they know any of the haunts where she’s likely to go.’
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  ‘Did she have any money on her?’ asked Kirsten.

  ‘She has a wallet, and she has an account. She took out £40 that night,’ said Anna, ‘but the card hasn’t been used since.’

  ‘What’s the likelihood of Collins tracking that if she did use it?’

  ‘Not great,’ said Anna, ‘but it depends. If he’s got somebody inside, then he’d have a chance right away. She hasn’t used it anyway.’

  ‘What time’s it now? Half-past three. If she’s still out in the street, she could be wandering anywhere. Okay, I’ll go and see the family. I’ll just have a word with Justin here before I go.’

  ‘I’ll be down at the police station,’ said Anna; ‘need to have a chat about what’s going on. I have a few other leads being pushed. To be honest, she’s a twelve-year-old kid. I doubt she’s going to contact too many people. If she does, Justin will be on top of it.’

  ‘Don’t worry. We’re on it,’ said Kirsten, but inside, she wasn’t so hopeful. Looking for the twelve-year-old kid could be like a needle in a haystack. Where would she go? Would she run to friends or was she too clever for that? Would she take herself off into the hills or would she go back to the family? How much did she see? Rumour was only that—rumour. Would they find her and then realise that actually she hadn’t seen anything? Anna was right. Kyle Collins would not take that chance. If he found her, the girl was dead.

  Kirsten could feel the adrenaline rising through her, which was good because at half-past three in the morning, she was anything but bouncing. She poured herself a coffee, said farewell to Anna who was making her way down the stairs, and returned to the small office where Justin Chivers sat behind this computer.

  ‘I pulled up a chair for you, right beside me,’ said Justin. As Kirsten sat down, she clocked his glance at her.

  ‘Eyes on screen. We’ve got work to do. If the last place they saw her was in the crowd just after the bridge, let’s assume she’s on foot and not grabbed any public transport. Assume she does four miles an hour. What’s our radius for her?’

  ‘You’re probably looking about twenty-five miles, something like that. Although she would stick out on the roads. I think she’s closer in than that.’

  ‘A lot depends on the intelligence of the girl,’ said Kirsten, ‘I’ll need to go and see her family. In the meantime, we also need to check what the police have been doing, contact taxi firms, any other modes of transport we can think of. Need you to get onto that, Justin. Also, scan through all her accounts. Don’t be afraid to go back into brothers, sisters, cousins. See if we can’t find some place she could go and hide, especially if the brother’s out on the loose; there’s always the chance that he’s picked her up. Do we know if he had a car?’

  ‘Unknown,’ says Justin. ‘Nobody’s told me, but then again, that not uncommon, is it?’

  Kirsten ignored the comment, but it was true that at times Justin was not told a lot of things. As Anna Hunt once pointed out, that was due to the fact that Justin could talk. If you wanted something kept secret, he was not the man for it to be given to. Any good-looking woman would soon extract the information from him. A serious flaw, which Anna said she was going to have to work on.

  ‘In that case, as I don’t have many leads, I think I shall go and see the family. We need to start hunting possible locations. If Anna’s down with the police, we should get some sightings, but it’s all looking a bit like a needle in a haystack.’

  As Kirsten got up from her chair, Justin glanced up and watched her walking towards the door of the room. Kirsten spun back around, ‘Eyes on computer, you. You know why Anna doesn’t trust you, don’t you?’

  ‘Why?’ asked Justin.

  ‘Because of those eyes of yours. She thinks any sweet-talking woman could come in here and take that information off you.’

  ‘You certainly could,’ said Justin, and Kirsten shook her head.

  ‘You know that’s your problem, don’t you? You don’t know where to be doing that stuff. This is not a place for it. People need to trust you in this building.’ Kirsten saw the man’s crestfallen expression. She thought for a moment about giving him some sort of consolation, but instead, she pointed at his computer screen. ‘That’s your job, get back onto it. Don’t mope. I’ll hear from you presently.’ Kirsten spun around and made her way down the stairs and out into the Inverness night.

  Chapter 3

  Kirsten arrived at a modest house on a new estate on the edge of Inverness. She noted a number of police cars around and also a new BMW in the drive. A smaller Fiat was positioned beside the larger car, and she believed the family to be reasonably affluent. The house was one of those new ones, smart looking from the front, but when they said to you there were four bedrooms inside, you weren’t quite sure how they all would fit in. Outside the house was a neat lawn with a number of potted plants located around the door.

  Kirsten strode down the drive and pulled out her identification to the police officer standing at the front door. He nodded, advised that PC Linsey was inside with the family, and then turned back to his duty of watching the street.

  The inside of the house was everything Kirsten didn’t have as a child. Her mom had carried the family after the rapid disappearance of her father, and with the issues her brother had, the house never looked pristine. Rather, it was one hastily tidied up mess after another. But for all that, Kirsten had felt loved, and now, as she looked around the hallway at the many photographs of the family, she could feel the pain of a child being missing.

  After knocking on the living room door, Kirsten stepped inside, introduced herself, and asked for PC Linsey. A middle-aged, brown-haired woman stood up, dressed in her uniform, and followed Kirsten into the hallway.

  ‘How are they doing?’ asked Kirsten. The woman’s face dropped.

  ‘How do you think they’re doing? The mother is panicking like anything. I’ve just called the doctor because, frankly, she needs something to calm her down. The father’s up to high dough, and the son’s run off to try and find Innocence.’

  ‘And they’ve no idea where he’s gone? Have they tried his mobile phone?’

  ‘They have, and we have, and here it is for you, but he’s not answering.’

  ‘Any idea where he went?’ asked Kirsten.

  ‘The assumption is he’d be going back into Inverness. If he’s gone anywhere special, nobody’s saying. Nobody knows, to be blunt. It’s just been a mess here. Tears, panicked thoughts, all sorts of things like that. Trying to get them to think straight, think logically is difficult.’

  ‘Is the girl’s room upstairs?’

  ‘Yes. I haven’t found anything in it, but you’re welcome to search,’ said PC Linsey.

  ‘Okay. I will do,’ said Kirsten. ‘Who have we got inside?’

  ‘George is the father, and then there’s Marion Waters. The son is Ollie. There’s another son who’s younger, I would say he’s nine, called Gavin, and then there’s Amy, who’s just five.’

  ‘It’s a heck of a spread, isn’t it?’ said Kirsten.

  ‘That’s because Ollie and Innocence aren’t theirs, or at least not George’s. They married quite late. After Ollie and Innocence were born to her first husband, the man passed on and apparently George and Marion found each other, and Ollie and Innocence came along for the ride. There’s nothing in the family history to show that there were any problems at home, so it looks like Ollie’s just gone out on a bender to find her.’

  ‘And we need to find him,’ said Kirsten, ‘because that’s dangerous. If Kyle Collins’s men get a hold of him, who knows what they’ll do to him to try and find out where Innocence went.’

  ‘Agreed, and I think DI Cairns would back you on that one.’

  ‘Where is the DI at the moment?’ asked Kirsten.

  ‘He’s just popped out.’

  ‘Great,’ said Kirsten. ‘Why are they in the front room?’

  ‘Because that’s the living room,’ said PC Linsey. ‘Somewhere comfortable. It’s what th
ey’re used to. Trying not to take them too far out of their norm.’

  ‘It’s not out of the realms of possibility that Collins would come here or try and affect them in some way. The front room’s very exposed to the front street.’

  ‘I’m not sure the DI would agree with you, but he’ll be back soon.’

  ‘Okay,’ said Kirsten. ‘I’m not one to step on everybody’s toes. Just a bit of advice. I’ll head upstairs.’

  Kirsten made her way up a brown-carpeted stairway to find a first floor that had three bedrooms. She entered a room with a large double bed and an en suite at the far end and realised it was the parents’ bedroom. After a quick look around, she could not find anything untoward. She then popped herself into what appeared to be a boy’s bedroom. Two beds, one smart and clean, and the other quite messed up with a lot of toys around it, clearly where the boys slept despite the age difference.

  The last room she went into had soft toys in one corner, but also boy band pictures over the walls. Kirsten picked up a journal, which she scanned through, but which didn’t say much except that Innocence Waters didn’t really think much of the boys in her year. There were a number of photographs around the room of different places, but Kirsten couldn’t recognise where any of them were. Regardless, she started taking photographs, as these pictures were all around the headboard of Innocence Waters. Satisfied there wasn’t anything more to glean, Kirsten made her way downstairs and again knocked the living room door before entering. Once again, she introduced herself and a man stepped forward, looking decidedly wary.

  ‘George Waters, Innocence’s father.’ He said it with a hesitation and Kirsten saw the woman in the room look over.

  ‘You are her father. You’ve always been a father to her since we got together.’ There were tears streaming down the woman’s face and Kirsten identified her as Marion, the mother of the family.

  ‘It’s okay,’ said Kirsten. ‘I get who everyone is. I’m really just here to ask a few questions. Kindly take a seat, George and Marion, over here. We’ll keep away from the younger children.’ Kirsten guided the couple to a sofa in the far corner of the room, where they sat down, but she saw George having difficulty looking at Marion. Instead, he gazed out of their front window. There was a pair of curtains that draped in from either side, but otherwise, the window was wide open to the street. Kirsten was nervous about this, but there was a police presence outside which hopefully should deter anyone from coming up to the window. A real thought was that something might happen to the family, bringing Innocence out of hiding and heading back to the house, and that way Collins could pick her up.