Luke Delaney - The Toy Taker

‘She’s white, mid-thirties, heavy to medium build, long brown hair. I’ve only got a passport photograph here — I can’t tell you much more.’ More muffled voices from the other end of his mobile.

‘No. Sorry. No one here knows her. But Mrs Fellowes says their au pair usually takes the kids to and from school, so it’s not unsurprising she doesn’t recall a teacher’s assistant.’

‘Is the au pair there?’ Sean asked.

‘No. At the park with the kids.’

‘Shit. All right, I’ll get back to you,’ Sean told him and hung up, turning to Donnelly. ‘Is Maggie back with the Bridgemans?’

‘Should be.’

He quickly found and called her number, which was answered almost immediately.

‘Guv’nor?’

‘You with the Bridgemans?’

‘Yes,’ Maggie answered. ‘I was just explaining to them what happens next.’

‘Never mind that,’ Sean interrupted, ‘ask them if they know a woman called Hannah Richmond. She used to work at Little Unicorns with George.’

‘Hold on,’ she told him as he endured more distant mumbles before Maggie spoke to him again. ‘They’re asking why you want to know.’

‘Tell them …’ Sean began, before realizing his voice was raised in frustration. ‘Just tell them,’ he repeated, more quietly, ‘that I’ll explain everything as soon as I can, but right now they need to answer the question.’

‘OK. Give me a second.’ Sean rubbed his forehead while he anxiously waited for Maggie to come back to him. ‘Yeah, they know her.’

‘Know her or remember her?’ Sean asked, momentarily confused.

‘They know her,’ Maggie confirmed.

‘She must have made quite an impression on them.’

‘Not really,’ Maggie explained. ‘She wasn’t just an assistant teacher at George’s nursery, they used her for private child-minding when they were between nannies — which is strictly against school rules, hence they were a little reluctant to tell us at first.’

‘Ask them what she was like.’

‘OK,’ Maggie answered with a resigned tone. ‘Give me a minute.’ He listened to more infuriating, unintelligible background chatter for what seemed like hours. ‘They say she was very nice, completely obsessed with the kids, didn’t appear to have a social or love life. I guess that’s what made her such a good child-minder: she was reliable — always available.’

‘Thanks, Maggie,’ he told her before hanging up, caressing the growing stubble on his chin between his index finger and thumb as he stared down at the small, lifeless photograph of Hannah Richmond, her eyes like the dolls’ eyes from Bailey’s bedroom — looking, but not seeing. His hand drifted from his face to the photograph, his finger circling Hannah Richmond’s plain face as he accidentally spoke out loud. ‘They’re beautiful, aren’t they — these children you’ve taken? Flames to the moth.’

‘Excuse me,’ Donnelly interrupted, stopping him before he could say any more.

‘What?’ Sean asked, looking up, unaware of what he’d said.

‘You said something.’

‘It was nothing — just thinking out loud. We need to take a close look at this woman. We need to totally change our suspect outlook — change their profile.’

‘You sure about this?’ Donnelly questioned. ‘Seems like hell of a risk. Wouldn’t we be safer checking out more local paedophiles or even looking at some further afield?’

‘No. This one has good local knowledge. These attacks aren’t random — they’re planned — planned meticulously. They even have knowledge of the inside of the houses: where the children sleep, the fact they’re not alarmed — everything they need to know, they know.’

‘But how could this … this Hannah Richmond know those things? There’s no evidence or suggestion she’s been in either home — in the Bridgemans’ old home, sure, but not their new one.’

‘But whoever’s taking the children for her could have been inside. Maybe the new man in her life was one of the removal men, the alarm fitter, anything. Where are those damn names, anyway?’

‘We’re working on it,’ Donnelly told him.

‘Then we need to work faster. There’ll be more connections here, I’m sure of it — more connections between the families and the houses. We need to find them before we have another missing child on our hands — or worse.’

‘Worse?’ Donnelly asked. ‘I thought you said she was taking them because she wanted to keep them — to love them?’

‘I did, but that doesn’t mean she’s not deranged. For all we know she could be schizophrenic and not taking her medication. Which means she’s dangerous, whether she knows it or not.’

‘I don’t know, boss.’ Donnelly shook his head. ‘I’m still not convinced this isn’t just some kiddie-fiddler nut-job. It could just blow up in our faces if we go down this route.’

‘It’s not a paedophile,’ Sean insisted. ‘I’m sure of it.’

‘Why?’ Donnelly asked. ‘Why so sure?’

‘Because of what McKenzie said: if they’d been taken by someone like him they’d already be dead by now and we would have at least one body.’

Donnelly’s shoulders slumped. ‘It’s unusual, I admit, but I still feel like we’re going out on a limb here, with this Hannah bird.’

‘It’s my call, so I’ll be the only one out on a limb.’

‘That’s not what I meant.’

‘I know,’ Sean told him.

‘Then what are we going to do?’

‘Get the surveillance team back up and running and put them on Hannah Richmond,’ he answered, already reaching for his desktop phone and punching in the extension number he knew off by heart. A few seconds later the other end was picked up.

‘Detective Superintendent Featherstone speaking.’

‘Boss, it’s Sean. I need a favour.’

‘I’m listening,’ he answered, his tone neutral.

‘I need the surveillance back.’

‘I thought this McKenzie bloke was done and dusted as a suspect.’

‘He is,’ Sean agreed. ‘I need them for someone else.’

‘A new suspect?’ Featherstone asked, interested now. ‘Care to share?’

‘I haven’t got time to go into it right now. Can you trust me?’

‘Sure,’ Featherstone replied after a pause.

‘Then I can have the surveillance?’

‘You can have the surveillance,’ Featherstone told him, ‘but not until the day after tomorrow. They’re all tied up on an Anti-Terrorist job until then. I’ll never be able to pull them away. Sorry.’

‘Don’t worry about it,’ Sean replied. ‘The day after tomorrow will be fine.’

‘You sure, given the nature of this case?’ Featherstone seemed slightly surprised at Sean’s calm reaction.

‘Day after tomorrow will be fine,’ Sean answered and quickly hung up.

‘You’ve got that look again,’ Donnelly told him. ‘Like you’re about to do something you shouldn’t.’

‘Surveillance can’t cover until the day after tomorrow.’

‘So I gathered.’

‘So we’ll cover it until then.’

‘You didn’t tell Featherstone that,’ Donnelly quizzed.

‘No,’ Sean replied. ‘There’s no way he’d let me pull most of the team away from other inquiries to cover a suspect like Richmond. He’d be too scared it was slowing down the investigation.’

‘And he might have a point.’

Sean ignored him. ‘Take five people and three cars. Have whoever you want, but get the surveillance up and running. Cover Richmond until two a.m., then I’ll take over with a relief team.’ He glanced at his watch and looked across the main office at the darkness beyond the windows. ‘It’s too late to pick her up leaving work, so cover her home — address is in the file, somewhere in Camden.’