Luke Delaney - The Toy Taker

‘Assuming they’re dead,’ Sally pointed out.

‘Again, if someone like McKenzie had taken them, then at the very least I believe the boy would have been killed by now. Otherwise, why take another child?’

‘Maybe he’s another Thomas Keller and wants a collection , only with this one it’s children, not women?’ Sally suggested.

‘No.’ Sean shook his head. ‘This is no Thomas Keller and it’s no Mark McKenzie. It’s something completely different. I believe the children are still alive. Both of them.’

‘Why?’ Donnelly demanded. ‘What makes you so sure? And if they’re alive, who took them and why?’

‘Who took them?’ Sean repeated the question. ‘I don’t know. But whoever it was has a link to both families. They must have. We find the link, we find the suspect. Why they took them — I don’t know yet. But it wasn’t to abuse them and it wasn’t to kill them.’

Sally and Donnelly looked blankly at each other until Sally spoke. ‘Then why? Why were they taken?’

‘I don’t know,’ Sean repeated, his neck and shoulders tense with irritation at the lack of ideas, ‘but just because he doesn’t appear to leave any forensic evidence behind, it doesn’t mean he has to be some career paedophile who’s evidentially aware.’

‘I don’t understand where you’re coming from,’ said Donnelly.

‘He doesn’t leave fingerprints because he wears gloves,’ Sean explained.

‘Agreed,’ Donnelly encouraged.

‘But maybe he just wears them to keep his hands warm — to keep his fingers nimble. It was freezing cold last night and the night George Bridgeman was taken.’

‘But once he’s inside, if he’s not thinking about avoiding leaving evidence then surely he’d make a mistake — maybe even take his gloves off?’ Donnelly suggested.

‘Not necessarily. He enters, skilfully, climbs the stairs to where he knows the child is, grabs and leaves. He doesn’t dwell in the house, doesn’t relish the time spent there — just in and out. He doesn’t waste time looking for trophies either. He’s not interested in any of the normal things we’d expect, all of which greatly reduces the opportunities for mistakes to be made.’

‘He doesn’t need trophies,’ Sally interrupted. ‘He has the children. They are the trophies.’

There was a moment of silence as Sean and Donnelly stared at her and considered the implications of what she’d suggested.

‘Just a theory,’ Sean backtracked. ‘Something we should consider — bear in mind.’

‘Then why these particular two children?’ Donnelly asked.

‘I don’t know,’ Sean told them, the frustration at not being able to see the road ahead, not being able to make the leaps he’d so often made in the past, weaving the strands of tangible evidence together with his own instinctive insights to bridge the gaps in, was beginning to wear him down. ‘I can’t think straight with all this shit going on around me.’ Again Sally and Donnelly glanced at each other. ‘Listen,’ Sean continued, rubbing his temples, ‘call an office meeting with whoever’s here and let’s get everybody looking for whatever it is that links these families.’

‘Right now?’ Donnelly asked.

‘Yes,’ Sean snapped back. ‘Right now.’

‘What about McKenzie?’ Sally asked. ‘He’s still in custody in Kentish Town.’

‘Hand him over to the local CID,’ Sean told her. ‘They can take over the investigation into the child porn we found on his laptop. They won’t like it, but they’ll do it anyway. Anything else?’ Donnelly and Sally shook their heads like scolded schoolchildren. ‘Good, then let’s get this meeting up and running.’

Sean watched as his two sergeants heaved themselves out of their chairs and made their way into the main office, Donnelly immediately shouting across the room, turning all heads whether they were on the phone, in conversation or otherwise. He waited until he felt the office was ready for him, pushed himself to his feet and joined his team next door, holding one arm aloft apologetically before speaking.

‘All right, everyone — any rumours you may or may not have heard about a second child going missing are unfortunately true.’ He waited for the slight murmur in the room to subside. ‘Let me save you the bother of asking a load of unnecessary questions: Yes, the abductions are connected. How do we know this: because of the method of entry and type of house, family and geographical areas, as well as age of the children, albeit they’re different sexes. So let’s not waste time wondering whether they are connected, just take it from me that they are.’ He noted the occasional shrugged shoulder and averting of eye contact. No detective liked being dictated to, no matter who by. ‘What we need to concentrate on is finding what links these two children, George Bridgeman and Bailey Fellowes. What links these two families?’

‘What about this McKenzie suspect you brought in?’ DC Jesson asked. ‘Sounds like a solid suspect.’

‘He’s no longer a viable suspect in this case,’ Sean told him. ‘No need to discuss him any more.’

‘What about the father of the boy?’ DC McGowan asked.

‘No longer as strong a suspect as he was. He is the biological father and his reaction to finding that out hasn’t been the reaction of a man who’s just discovered he’d murdered his own son. It just doesn’t feel right any more. We need to look for something else — some other link.’

‘Like what?’ Maggie asked.

‘Anything,’ Sean told her. ‘A nanny, an au pair, a teacher, an estate agent or removal man. We have names from the families, so let’s start checking them.’

‘What pre-school does Bailey go to?’ Maggie continued.

Sally flicked through her CID notebook, referring to notes she’d taken from DI Adams back at the house while Sean had been in Bailey’s bedroom. ‘Small Fry in Holly Lodge Gardens, which is apparently between Highgate and Hampstead.’

Maggie quickly checked her own notes and shook her head. ‘No luck,’ she told the room. ‘George Bridgeman went to Little Unicorns in Southwood Lane, Highgate.’

‘Just keep looking and checking,’ Sean told them. ‘There’s a link and we will find it, but we need to find it fast. These abductions are not random — they’re planned — meticulously planned. These children and these families have been chosen for a specific reason. We need to find out what that is. Within the next hour we should have all the names of the Fellowes’ nannies, au pairs, removal men, the lot. As soon as they’re in, we start cross-referencing to everything we have from the Bridgemans. This bastard’s made his first mistake — he’s taken another child and that means we can use cross-referencing to identify him, so let’s get on with it.’

His message delivered, Sean turned towards his office, pulling Donnelly with him.

‘Problem?’ Donnelly asked.

‘No,’ Sean answered, ‘but I need you to keep everyone at it while I’m not here, understand?’

‘Oh aye. Where you going, if you don’t mind me asking?’

‘To see a man about a dog,’ Sean told him, causing Donnelly’s eyebrows to arch with intrigue. ‘Look,’ Sean explained pulling his coat on and filling his pockets, ‘I just need some air and space to clear my head. Just watch the ship while I’m away.’ He headed into the main office and towards the exit as Donnelly mumbled under his breath.

‘Give her one for me, guv’nor. Give her one for me.’

Sean stood on the pavement outside an art deco building in Swiss Cottage, north-west London, close to the bizarrely styled nearby pub that lent its name to the entire area. Throngs of pedestrians marched past him as he searched through the dozens of name plates next to the building’s entrance for the one he needed, their footsteps drowned out by the incessant din of the traffic, exhaust fumes making the air acrid and difficult to breathe. He eventually spotted the one he was looking for, but found himself hesitating before pressing the intercom, a voice in his head telling him to run away — run far away and never come back. He breathed in deeply, coughing slightly on the exhaust fumes as he pushed the doubt away and rang the buzzer. After a few seconds he heard a voice he didn’t recognize.