Deadly Lies by Ann Girdharry (read me a book .TXT) 📕

walk due west on a footpath crossing the middle of the grassy basin. She was to start walking from the car park at two o’clock precisely.

‘Send Alice Glover out, Delaney,’ Grant ordered.

Alice was wearing dark trousers and a red jumper. The jumper was so she would be easy to spot in the landscape and it was bulky to hide her bulletproof vest.

She had tied her blonde hair into a ponytail and Grant couldn’t help thinking Alice was very brave, stepping out alone from the shelter of the cars, leaving the activity and the security and walking across the heather and the gorse into the open and the unknown. They would be far away from her.

In a black bag, she carried the money, and hidden inside was a transponder to track the bag’s location. The load was heavy and Grant could hear Delaney encouraging her to take it steady.

Grant could hear Alice’s quick breaths in his earpiece and soon she was a good distance from the cars. With the woman exposed like that anything could happen. To Grant’s right, a sniper and their spotter tracked Alice’s progress.

Like Grant, Diane trained binoculars onto the basin. McGowan was in full cycle gear and he waited astride his bike, listening to her commentary.

‘No movement from any side so far,’ Diane said. ‘Not even a rabbit.’

The only non-natural feature in the basin was an abandoned water trough. At one time it had been used for cattle farming and Billingham’s crew had checked it out and found a rusting metal trough with no potential for being a hazard and nor did it hide one. As Alice came alongside the trough, she paused and put down the bag. Her hand went inside her pocket.

There’s a message come through on her mobile phone, the technical team texted through to Grant. Sending a copy to you now.

The message read, ‘Put the money in the trough and climb to the top of the hill. Wait there.’

‘Shit,’ McGowan said. ‘What the hell is he playing at?’

‘Tell her to follow the instructions, Delaney,’ Grant said.

Billingham was standing beside Grant. ‘There’s nothing at the top except rolling countryside. Where are the children? And how does he expect to retrieve the cash and get away?’

Grant pursed his lips. ‘We’ve no option but to play along.’

Grant was liking this less and less. He watched as Alice hefted the bag into the trough then she turned and began the long climb to the top of the hill. It was a steep path, full of stones and dotted with chalk deposits. Right at the bottom, as Alice set off, she slipped and almost fell.

‘Where are my children?’ Alice asked Delaney. ‘He promised they’d be here.’

Grant was listening in. ‘She’s got to hold it together, Delaney. Keep the pep talk going.’

He heard Delaney’s calm voice reassuring Alice and encouraging her to put one foot in front of the other for the climb.

Grant turned to McGowan. ‘See if you can sneak around the other side of that damn hill and find out if anything is coming. This is getting hairy. Chief Inspector, what’s the access like from the other side? Can we move officers into position?’

‘It’s miles and miles of countryside. There’s one road coming in from the east. I can send a car the long way if I pull officers from one of the car parks but it’s half an hour’s drive to get around.’

Half a damn hour by road? Bloody hell. ‘Okay. Go ahead.’

It was painful watching Alice. She kept slipping and she clearly wasn’t a sportswoman. When she had climbed halfway up, Grant got a text message from Ruby.

Jack Glover just left the car park.

What do you mean? Grant messaged back.

He was in a patrol car, and one minute he was there and then I turned around and he was gone. I think he took his own car.

Shit. Jack was a wild card. The reason Grant had put him in a patrol car was because he didn’t trust him. Where the hell was the father going at such a critical time? Grant could not spare Delaney, and he, Diane and McGowan were too far away to help.

Take DI Hunter and go after him, Grant texted.

Several minutes later and Alice had reached the summit of the hill. There had been no reports from the roadblocks apart from ordinary people being turned away. Nothing had moved in the area. Where the hell was the call with the next step? When were they going to get the vital information on the children?

‘If she goes down the other side we’ll have no one in position to see her,’ Diane said. ‘Wait, she’s taking out her phone. It looks like she’s got another message.’

Seconds after, the techies forwarded Grant the text received by Alice.

If you want to see your children again walk down the hill until you’re halfway and then wait.

‘Stay in position, Delaney,’ Grant said. ‘Ask her to keep talking to you and tell you what’s happening and what she can see and hear. Tell her to not stop speaking.’

‘And then?’ Delaney asked.

‘Now is not the time to get the wobbles, DS Delaney. Do as I say! No one has yet come to pick up the money so stay focused on your task.’

Diane was gesticulating. ‘McGowan contacted me. He has sight of Alice. He’s on the other side of the hill.’

Grant thanked his lucky stars. ‘Tell him to stay out of view. Billingham, send around half your other bikers.’

The Chief Inspector seemed about to object but Grant cut him off.

‘Do it. He’s moving us around like damn pawns on a chessboard but it takes two to play a game and we’re not finished yet.’

DI Sarah Hunter did the driving. Ruby could see the firm set of the Detective Inspector’s jaw, her hair short and styled to suit her face, hazel eyes calm. The woman was unruffled and determined, and there was something solid about her which Ruby liked. A bit of a rebel underneath, Ruby thought.

‘What