Mark Pearson - Hard Evidence

'Don't move. You're going to bring the floor down.'

Delaney held out his hand in a reassuring gesture. 'Just stay calm.' He edged around the rotten section of the floor and reached out his arms. 'All I want is the girl. Just let me take her and everything is going to be all right.'

Downstairs, Bonner burst into the room and looked up at Delaney through the newly made gap in the floor.

'Guv?'

'It's okay, Eddie, stay there. We'll be right down.' He turned to Candy and smiled, forcing some reassurance into his expression. 'Pass her over, Candy.'

Candy shook her head, her eyes nervous, her breathing shallow. She clung on to Jenny, who whimpered a little as the floor creaked and sagged.

Delaney moved slowly forward. Candy backed further into the eaves, one hand clutching Jenny protectively to her, the other holding the knife out, her eyes glittering and skittish. 'Back off.'

But Delaney took another step forward. 'I can't do that, Candy. You know that.'

'I mean it.'

'And so do I. You how these things work.'

He moved forward again, and Candy held the knife, straight and unwavering.

Delaney paused for a moment, then calmly stepped forward and put his hand around the blade of the knife. Candy glared at him, rage coming off her like the shimmer of heat on a hot tarmac road. Her grip on the handle tightened and Delaney swallowed, his Adam's apple inches from the tip of the knife. Then, in a heartbeat, the fire died in her eyes, like the sudden cessation of a summer lightning storm, and, as tears formed, Delaney could see the young child Candy had once been, a lifetime of hurt away. She looked down at the floor and then back up at Delaney, letting her hand fall from knife so that he could take it from her.

'I only wanted to take care of her,' she said in a whisper.

Delaney fought to keep his voice level. 'I know.' He threw the knife across the loft and nodded to Candy. 'Just pass her to me.'

Candy wiped a dusty hand across her eyes and released her hold on the young girl who stood frozen to the spot. 'I love you, Jenny.'

Delaney held out his hand to the petrified girl, fighting to keep it still. 'Come on, Jenny. Take my hand.'

Jenny took a step forward, and the rotten plasterboard beneath her collapsed. She screamed as she was pitched towards the gaping hole in the floor, and Delaney, bracing himself against the eave rafters, swung out and caught her. She dangled for a moment or two, still screaming, as Delaney's forearm muscles strained, but he held her tight and swung her back up on to the safe section of the attic floor.

Eddie Bonner came up the steps into the attic and gathered the child safely into his arms.

'It's all right, Jenny. Nobody's going to hurt you now.'

'Take her downstairs, Eddie.'

Bonner led the terrified girl to the ladder as Delaney turned back to Candy, who was pressed into the eaves space, the rotten joist creaking beneath her feet.

Delaney, still braced against the rafter, held his hand out again. 'It's over, Candy. Take my hand.'

Candy looked at him for a moment and Delaney could see the defeat in her eyes, eyes that were far, far old beyond their years. Given what had happened to her in the past, he wasn't at all shocked to see the desolation in them. 'I'm not here to judge you, Candy.'

'You're a policeman, aren't you?'

Delaney gestured with his hand again. 'Not much of one.'

She stood up carefully and moved slowly around the gaping hole in the floor, then cried out suddenly as the footing gave way beneath her, tilting her forwards. She lurched desperately to clutch Delaney's outstretched hand and, gripping each other tightly, they edged step by step towards the ladder in the corner of the loft.

Delaney held the ladder steady as Candy climbed down. Sally Cartwright waited at the bottom, handcuffs dangling from her hands, a triumphant smile barely held back from her young lips.

Candy looked around, startled at the large number of police in the room. There was no sign of either Jenny or Bonner.

'Jenny!' She tried to push past Sally, but the DC held her arms and a uniformed officer blocked her way.

'You're going nowhere.' Sally's voice was heavy with disgust.

Delaney stepped down. 'Where's the girl?'

'Bonner's taken her down to her father.'

Candy struggled, furious. 'You've let him take her? For Christ's sake, what have you done?'

Delaney stepped in front of her. 'What are you talking about?'

'Why do you think I took her from him in the first place?'

'You can explain all that down at the station. Candy Morgan, I am arresting you-'

Candy screamed in his face. 'I took her away from him because she's not safe with him. He's ill! Don't you understand that? Don't you understand anything? He's going to hurt her.'

Delaney looked at the naked pain in her eyes and came to a decision. He nodded to Sally and Candy. 'Come on.'

He ran down the stairs, followed by the two women. Bonner was talking on his mobile phone.

'Where the hell is she, Eddie?'

Bonner held the phone away from his ear. 'Boss?'

'Where's Jenny?'

Bonner shrugged and looked around. 'She was with her father.'

'You said she was going to be safe!' Candy screamed at Delaney.

Delaney glared at Eddie. 'What the bloody hell were you thinking of?'

'He's her father, isn't he? What's the problem?'

But Delaney had pushed past him, and was running out the front door.

Outside in the empty street, Delaney could feel the heat bunching his shirt uncomfortably under his jacket. He ran the palm of his hand across his forehead, wiping the sweat away, and closed his eyes. He opened them again as Bonner came up to him. 'They've gone.' He sighed wearily and flicked a cigarette into his mouth.

'Sorry, boss.'

Sally Cartwright came out of the house, shutting her mobile. 'A squad car is on its way to Morgan's house.'

Delaney nodded bleakly. 'Time to break out the raincoats.'

Bonner squinted up at the clear sky. 'Guv?'

'This is going to turn into a real shit storm.'

Jenny Morgan sat in the back of her father's car, watching his face in the rear-view mirror. She had never seen him so angry. The vein on the side of his neck was throbbing like a purple worm, and sweat was pouring off his furrowed forehead, staining his shirt. He gripped the steering wheel hard in his massive fists as if he was going to wrench the whole column out. She wanted to know where he was taking her, but she didn't dare ask.

At White City police station, the temperature in interview room one was no less cool. Candy Morgan took the cup of coffee that Sally handed her and smiled nervously as Delaney sat opposite her. She took a sip of the coffee and sat back in the chair, wrapping her arms around herself. She was shivering as though she was cold, but Delaney knew it was just the by-product of adrenalin kicking in. That and her memories. 'How long had you been speaking with her on the internet?' he asked gently.

'About two months.'

'And how did that happen?'

Candy looked down at the table, tracing her finger in small circles on the smooth wood.

'I'd been getting therapy.'

'Go on.' Delaney's tone was far from sympathetic.

Candy looked up at him, challenging. 'I guess you know my history.'

'Some of it. What's written in your records.'

'So I had some issues.'

'Yeah, I'd say you had some issues.'

'And I was dealing with them.' She shrugged. 'Trying to deal with them.'

'What's this got to do with Jenny?'

'It made me remember my childhood, what happened to me. And it made me think of Jenny and what would happen to her, and I wanted to stop it.'

Sally leant forward. 'So how did you make contact with her on the internet?'