Page 91 of 36 Hours
The woman swatted away Kim’s efforts but took out her phone. ‘I will call her. She will answer me,’ she said confidently.
Kim seriously hoped so.
The woman frowned when there was no response, but Kim could hear the phone ringing somewhere inside the house.
‘Okay, Mrs Khan, could you please go back home, and we’ll come and speak to you shortly.’
The woman folded her arms and shook her head. ‘I stay right here until I know where my Nazzy is.’
Kim supposed she would feel exactly the same.
‘Come with me, Mrs Khan,’ one of the uniformed officers said, gently guiding her away from the front door. ‘Let the detectives do their work, and they’ll be along to speak to you in a minute.’
Satisfied the woman was out of earshot, Kim turned towards the open door.
The second officer stepped aside for Kim to enter, and as she did so, her heart immediately sank.
The living room bore the signs of a mammoth struggle. Cushions littered the floor, and furniture had been overturned. A vase of flowers had been smashed on the laminate flooring.
‘No other family?’ Kim called out to the administrator. She needed to know how many people she was looking for.
‘Divorced, no children,’ the woman called back before asking, ‘Is she in there?’
Kim offered no answer as Bryant headed up the stairs two at a time.
She searched the ground floor, finding no further signs of disturbance. She suspected Bryant would find the same upstairs.
‘Nothing up there, guv,’ he said when he came back down. ‘Except for her work clothes hanging up on the front of her wardrobe.’
‘Shit,’ Kim said, now able to picture the scene.
Whoever had her had taken her during the night. He’d got her to answer her door, and on seeing that it was someone she didn’t know, she had backed up into the living room where the struggle had ensued. And boy had she given him a fight. Even so, he had prevailed, and Nazeera had been abducted.
‘Shit,’ she said again, taking another look around the room.
And then she saw what she hadn’t noticed when she’d stepped in, her focus on the carnage.
To the left of the front door was a petty cash tin. The same kind of tin she’d been collecting since yesterday.
Inside was no Dictaphone, no video camera and no body parts. Instead there was just a white index card and a tiny red pin cushion shaped like a heart.
Bryant peered over her shoulder. ‘Knows exactly who she is and just what she’s scheduled to do.’
‘Next clue,’ she said, handing him the card.
‘“Very tall but almost little. Find my next by 12p.m. or…”’ he read out.
Kim handed Bryant the box and took out her phone. Woody wouldn’t be expecting to see her calling him voluntarily.
He answered immediately.
‘Stone, you’d better get yourself to my off?—’
‘He’s taken someone else, sir,’ she said, knowing the update would take priority over how much he wanted to kick her ass right now. Any bollockings could wait.
She could imagine him putting his rage to the back of his throat.
‘Who?’