Page 80 of 36 Hours

She just hoped that one of them spotted something soon.

It was as they rounded the bend, Kim saw something in the distance. A speck, maybe three quarters of a mile away.

The officers on the other side of the tracks saw it too.

They all started running at the same time.

As she ran, Kim didn’t take her eyes from the speck that was growing in size with every step she took.

What had looked like a bag of rubbish was taking on more form.

Two thousand feet.

It was a person.

Eighteen hundred feet.

It was a man.

Fifteen hundred feet.

It was Hiccup.

Her breath was rasping in her chest. She had left Bryant and the other officers in her wake, but she wasn’t slowing for anyone.

One thousand feet.

Hiccup was moving.

At seven hundred feet, she heard the unmistakeable sound of a train thundering towards them.

A split second later, the train came into view.

She started waving her hands in the air, knowing it was fruitless.

The sound of the brakes being applied filled the air. She knew it took around forty-five seconds to stop the train, but she continued running anyway.

She was three hundred feet away when what was left of Hiccup was splattered across the track.

SIXTY-THREE

6.15A.M.

‘Fuck this,’ Frost said, packing up her things.

‘You can’t go,’ Stacey protested.

‘You’re gonna have to lock me in a cell to stop me.’

Stacey briefly wondered if the boss would view that as a viable option. Although she probably wasn’t all that fussed about Frost after seeing Hiccup dismembered by a speeding train.

An ashen Penn was currently on the phone trying to establish how the hell Hiccup had been killed by a train that wasn’t supposed to be running.

‘But you’re the contact,’ Stacey said.

‘He hasn’t messaged me in hours. I was just the tool to get to you. He knows who’s running the investigation.’

‘But the articles. You’ve already missed the six o’clock one, and you know he wants regular updates.’