Stephen Leather - Nightshade

Nightingale ran his hand through his hair. ‘So he was targeting good-looking kids from single-parent families?’

Jenny nodded. ‘You can see where I’m heading with this, right?’

‘I’m not sure.’

‘Children from single-parent families are more likely to be abused. They’re more vulnerable.’

‘So you think that McBride had been abusing these kids and decided to kill them?’

‘I think that needs looking at, yes.’

‘His brother said he was great with kids.’

‘Yeah, well, just because he didn’t abuse his own nephews doesn’t mean he wasn’t a child molester.’

Nightingale sighed. ‘The brother isn’t going to be happy about this. We prove that his brother wasn’t a devil-worshipper by showing that he was a paedophile.’

‘He wants the truth,’ said Jenny.

‘I’m not sure that he does. He might think he does but how’s he going to react if we tell him that his brother was a paedophile?’ He sipped his coffee as he looked at the photographs on the whiteboard. Jenny was right. They were all good-looking kids. He stared at the photograph of Grace Campbell. Long, curly chestnut hair. A snub nose. Smiling for the camera. Was it possible that she had been abused? She looked happy, as if she hadn’t a care in the world. ‘We don’t know for sure that these children were abused,’ said Nightingale. ‘We’re going to have to be very careful here.’

‘What about the post-mortems?’ asked Jenny. ‘They were all sudden deaths, so by law there has to be a post mortem, right?’

Nightingale nodded. ‘That’s right.’

‘So talk to the coroner. If the kids were being abused, he’d know.’

‘It’ll mean going back to Berwick. I doubt he’s going to say anything over the phone.’

Jenny smiled brightly. ‘I’ll book you a ticket. And there’s something else you might want to do while you’re up there.’

‘I’m all ears.’

‘The lab still have the crucible and the knife. Why don’t I get them to check them for fingerprints and DNA?’

‘DNA’s expensive,’ said Nightingale. ‘Don’t forget that when the two grand has gone we’re not going to be getting to be getting any refreshers.’

‘Just fingerprints, then. We can compare them to McBride’s prints and we’ll know if he set up the altar or not.’

‘You think he’d go to the trouble of setting up a fake black magic altar?’

‘I don’t know. But if it wasn’t him, at least we’d have the prints of whoever did, and that might be a start.’

Nightingale nodded thoughtfully. She was right.

‘You touched them with your bare hands, right?’

‘I wasn’t thinking about prints, I was more concerned about the blood.’

‘Sure, but we’ll need your prints to rule you out. And while you’re up in Berwick you could get something with McBride’s prints. Something that only he could have touched.’

‘Two birds with one stone?’

‘Exactly.’

Sandra Harper held her husband’s hand and squeezed it. ‘I can’t believe it, I can’t believe we got her back.’

Will Harper looked over at their daughter, lying in the ICU bed connected to a machine that beeped softly, proof if they needed it that Bella was alive and well. The doctor looking after her, a bald Indian with a kindly face and an unpronounceable surname, had said Bella was in ICU purely as a precaution. Once the twenty-four-hour observation period was over she would be moved into a general ward, with every possibility of her going home before the end of the week. ‘If I get my hands on the bastard that …’ He gritted his teeth and left the sentence unfinished.

His wife squeezed his hand. ‘We got her back, Will. That’s all that matters. I don’t know what I would have done if …’ Tears pricked her eyes and she blinked them away.

‘I just want one minute alone with him in a room, that’s all,’ he said. ‘And that bitch with him. How can a woman help a man rape a child, Sandra? Can you answer me that?’

Sandra shook her head. ‘I don’t know.’

‘I hope they throw away the key,’ Will muttered. ‘And I hope while they’re in prison they get the shit kicked out of them. They hate nonces in prison.’

Bella opened her eyes and Sandra jumped. ‘She’s awake.’ She jumped up and hurried over to the bed. Bella smiled up at her. ‘Hi, Mummy.’

Tears ran down Sandra’s face. ‘Oh my God, my God, my God. Thank you.’

‘Where’s Daddy?’

‘I’m here, honey,’ said Will. He reached out and held her hand, careful not to disturb the drip.

‘You look tired,’ said Bella.

‘We haven’t been sleeping much,’ said Will. ‘We were worried about you.’

‘I’m okay, Daddy. I want to go home.’

‘Soon, honey. The doctors want to check you’re okay.’

Sandra smoothed her daughter’s forehead. She was cool to the touch, much cooler than usual. ‘How do you feel, Bella?’

‘I feel fine, Mummy. I don’t need to stay here.’

‘You’ll be home soon, honey. ‘

‘Tell the doctor I’m okay.’

‘We will, honey, as soon as he gets back.’

A male nurse popped his head around the door. ‘Everything okay?’ he asked.

‘She’s awake,’ said Will.

‘I’ll get the doctor,’ said the nurse, and he hurried off.

‘Can I have a drink of water, Daddy?’ asked Bella.

‘Of course you can.’

‘Or a Coke? Can I have a Coke?’

‘You can have whatever you want, honey,’ said Will.

‘There’s a machine in the corridor,’ said Sandra. She carried on smoothing Bella’s forehead as Will went off in search of her Coke.

‘I love you, Mummy,’ whispered Bella.

Sandra felt tears run down her face but she didn’t want to take her hand away from Bella’s forehead, so she didn’t wipe them away.

‘Don’t be sad, Mummy.’

‘I’m not sad, honey. I’m happy.’

‘Everything’s going to be all right.’

Sandra smiled down at her. ‘I know.’

‘I saw an angel, Mummy.’

‘When, darling?’

‘When I was with those people. The bad people that hurt me.’

‘You saw an angel?’

Bella nodded. ‘When I went to sleep in the bath. I went to sleep and then I woke up and I saw an angel.’

Sandra shook her head. ‘That wasn’t an angel, honey. That was a paramedic. He came with an ambulance. He brought you back to us.’

Bella smiled. ‘No, Mummy. It was a real angel. With wings and everything. He was nice to me and he said everything was going to be all right.’

‘Well, your angel was right, darling. Because now everything is all right.’

‘The angel said I didn’t have to go to Heaven.’

‘He said that?’

Bella nodded earnestly. ‘He said it wasn’t my time. But he said before I went back there were some people I had to see.’

‘Did he?’

‘Yes, Mummy. He took me to see Grandpa Arthur. And Auntie Eadie.’

Sandra frowned. ‘Who are they, honey?’

‘You don’t know? Grandpa Arthur is the father of Daddy’s father. And Auntie Eadie was your sister.’ Bella giggled. ‘Did you forget?’

‘I must have,’ said Sandra. She was genuinely confused at what her daughter was telling her, because while Sandra had three siblings, they were all boys. She didn’t have a sister called Eadie, dead or alive.

‘They talked to me and then they took me to see Jesus.’

‘Jesus?’

‘Yes, Mummy. I went to see Jesus with the angel and Grandpa Arthur and Auntie Eadie. I spent ages talking to him. He is such a kind man. Like Father Christmas, but his beard was brown.’

‘That’s nice, honey.’

‘Then Jesus said it was time to go back and the angel took me and I woke up and that’s when I saw the paramedic. I know the paramedic wasn’t the angel. The angel was Michael.’