Blood Tears (41 page)

“
It’s
just a phone, Officer,” said Merrick. “Ring the number in it,
girlie. There’s only one number.” He looked at me. “Don’t start
thinking you’ll be able to trace it.”

“
Let
me guess. It’s a prepaid cheapie.”

“
I
knew you weren’t just a pretty face. Unlike this girlie here. She’s
nothing but a pretty face and an average fuck.”

“
She’s a mother,” I reminded him coldly.

“
So
what? I had a mother once. Didn’t much care for her. She was quite
the cold, hard bitch. So save me your dewy-eyed views of
motherhood. I’m not moved.” He shook Annabel again. “Ring the
number then give the phone to the officer.”

With shaking fingers,
Annabel called up the one number contained in the phone’s contacts
section. I heard a voice answer and she held out the phone to me,
her hand trembling.

“
This
is Senior Constable Tess Fuller,” I said into the receiver,
wondering if it was a trick and making sure I kept up my vigilance
and cover of Merrick.

“
Where’s Merrick?” asked a suspicious voice.

“
He’s
here with me. Who are you?”

The voice laughed.
“That’s none of your business,
Senior Constable
.”

Merrick smiled. “That’s
just a good friend of mine. Let’s call him . . . Derek.”

“
Right. Merrick and Derek, the diabolical duo. Don’t tell me,
you also have a friend called Eric.”

“
I
might,” Merrick smiled. As a person under a police challenge, he
was enjoying himself far too much for my liking. “Ask Derek what
his instructions are.”

“
Merrick has told me to call you Derek,” I said into the
phone, getting rather tired of this run around. I should just shoot
him right now and be done with it.

“
Right.”

“
What
instructions did he leave you?”

“
If
Annabel didn’t cooperate, or if he was holed up by the cops, then
I’m to drop the brat out the window, preferably on to its
head.”

“
How
do I know you even have the baby?”

“
They
do,” Annabel said in a desperate voice. “Believe me, Officer Tess.
I had to leave her with them.”

“
Don’t believe me?” said ‘Derek’. “Listen to this.”

A horrible,
heart-wrenching wail sounded into the phone, and I wondered what he
was doing to her to make her cry like that.

“
Are
you hurting her?” I demanded, my fist clenching around the
phone.

“
I
dunno. Am I?” he replied in a smug voice that made me want to punch
him. The baby wailed again, more intensely.

“
Just
stop it. Leave her alone,” I said.

“
Tell
Derek he can hang up now,” Merrick ordered. “But he needs to
standby in case I need him to carry out my directions.” He prodded
Annabel. “Take the phone back off her, girlie.”

For some reason, I
believed that he’d carry out his threat to harm baby Jamie.

“
So,
Officer. Are you willing to be the one responsible for hurting this
girlie’s baby?”

“
Her
name’s Annabel,” I replied coldly. “And no matter what happens, it
won’t be me who’s held responsible. So why don’t you put the knife
down and step away from her? This isn’t going to end well for you.
You’re in enough trouble as it is. Don’t make it worse for
yourself.”

He laughed in my face.
“You should hear yourself sometime. You’re the very model of trite
cop speak, but you obviously learnt it well by rote.”

I felt like we were at
an impasse. I was seriously weighing up the pros and cons of just
shooting him now, before he had a chance to converse with his
accomplice again.

“
And
just in case you’re thinking that if you take me down now, the baby
will be safe, I feel I should let you know that I’ve told Derek
that if I don’t return home by tonight, then he’s to carry out my
instructions regardless. And don’t think that the girlie here will
be able to take you to my residence to rescue the brat because she
doesn’t know where it is. She’s always been blindfolded before we
get there.”

It was like he read my
mind.
Great, what a dilemma
, I thought. If I shot him or
managed to arrest him, the baby would die.

“
As I
said before, Officer, I think you’d have to agree that I’m holding
all the cards at the moment. So what you’re going to do is to put
your gun on the ground and put your hands on your head.” He
regarded me, his head on one side. “Three hostages are better than
two.”

“
Put
the knife down and step away from the girl.”

“
My
baby. Please don’t let him hurt my baby,” Annabel cried.

“
I’ll
say this one more time, Officer, before I become quite angry with
you. And just ask the girlie what I’m like when I’m angry. So put
your gun on the ground and put your hands on your head.”

“
She
won’t be doing that,” said the Sarge from the doorway.

Chapter
28

I didn’t turn around,
keeping my aim on Merrick, but relief flooded my entire body at the
sound of his voice. I didn’t need to see him to know that his gun
was also drawn.

“
Don’t come any closer,” Merrick warned, tightening his grip
around Annabel.

“
Put
the knife down now,” ordered the Sarge.

“
Go
ahead and shoot me,” Merrick said. “But then this girlie’s brat
will die.”

“
No,
please. Don’t let him hurt my baby.”

“
Sarge, I’m going to do what he says.”

“
Tessie, no.”

“
He
has Annabel’s baby hostage, and he has an accomplice who will kill
her if he doesn’t return to his house by tonight.”

“
Tessie, I said no.”

Disregarding him, I
lowered my Glock to the ground, and put my hands on my head.

“
Tess! What the fuck are you doing?” the Sarge said, and I
could hear the furious distress in his voice.

Merrick, still holding
Annabel, shuffled forward, crouching until he picked up my gun with
his free hand.

“
Excellent,” he smiled. “Thanks for the present.”

I could tell by his
handling of the gun that he was confident with using it, so I
resisted my urge to rush him. He shuffled over to me with Annabel
and then pushed her aside to wrap his arm around my neck, the gun
to my temple.

“
Annabel, get behind me,” ordered the Sarge in a stressed
voice.

“
Stay
where you are, girlie, or I’m going to shoot this officer.” Poor
Annabel stood motionless, indecision stamped across her face. “I’ll
shoot this officer
and
your brat will die. Do you want to be
the one responsible for two tragedies like that?”

Annabel moved back to
stand behind Merrick.

“
Not
behind me, beside me,” he demanded, and then smiled. “Not that I
don’t trust you or anything.”

Annabel moved beside
him.

“
Tess,” the Sarge implored, his gun still trained on Merrick.
I knew he was upset and angry that I’d capitulated.

“
Sarge,” I said, locking eyes with him.

I desperately needed
him to read my mind at that moment. I needed him to know that I
wanted
to be taken to Merrick’s dwelling, that I’d
capitulated willingly. I couldn’t see how we could otherwise rescue
baby Jamie and Annabel if we didn’t know where he was living and
Annabel couldn’t tell us. We didn’t even know if he was still in
Big Town or not. It would be like looking for a needle in a
haystack. I wasn’t confident that we’d find Jamie in time doing it
that way.

Having decided that, I
wasn’t sure what I’d do when I got to Merrick’s place, but felt
vaguely confident I’d think of something at the right time.

We exchanged a long
glance, and he gave me a barely perceptible curt nod that assured
me that even if he didn’t fully grasp my nebulous plan, then he
trusted me enough to let me go through with it.

“
Undo
her utility belt,” Merrick ordered Annabel, and the girl spent a
couple of minutes fumbling with it until she managed to unfasten
it. “Drop it on the ground.”

“
I’m
sorry,” Annabel whispered to me, removing my belt and placing it on
the ground.

I felt lighter and more
vulnerable without any weapons. It wasn’t a state that I was
comfortable with, or found myself in often.

“
Take
off your radio,” he ordered me, and I cursed, hoping that he’d
overlook that vital piece of communication. I took it off and
dropped it to the ground.

“
Take
her phone,” he instructed Annabel.

“
I
don’t have it with me,” I lied. “It’s back at the
station.”

“
A
likely story,” he said. “Pat her down.”

Annabel patted me down
and checked all my pockets, her hand closing over my phone. She
released it and removed her hand, not making any eye contact with
me.

“
She
doesn’t have one,” she said to him.

“
I
told you. It’s back at the station.”

“
Did
you check thoroughly?”

“
Yes,
Merrick. She doesn’t have one.”

“
Okay. We’re all moving towards the door now,” Merrick said,
and he and I did an awkward shuffle that way, Annabel next to
us.

The Sarge tracked us
with his gun.

“
You,” said Merrick, indicating the Sarge. “Get in front of
us.”

“
Not
happening,” he said.

Merrick laughed. “I’m
not going to shoot you, if that’s what you’re worried about. It may
come as rather a surprise to you, but I’m not a fan of violence. I
dislike blood and gore.”

“
Is
that why you’re getting Derek to do your dirty work for you?” I
asked.

He poked the gun into
my temple. “Don’t make me break my lifelong vow of avoiding
confrontations with the cops, because I can tell you that if it
comes down to you or me, you are definitely going to be the loser.”
He stared at the Sarge. “Move it. I haven’t got all day to hang
around here. And girlie, you get behind him.”

With a desperate glance
at me, the Sarge strode off into the bushes. We followed him in
formation until we reached the road again.

“
I’m
very tempted to take your police car,” he said. “But it’s too
obvious, so we’ll just have to settle for my little bomb.” We
crossed over the road to his car. “You,” and he poked me in the
temple again. “You can drive. Girlie, you sit in the front with
her. I’ll be in the back with the gun. No funny stuff, Officer. If
you veer off the road or crash or try on
anything
, I will
shoot the girlie. Understand?”

“
Yes,” I said curtly.

“
No
seatbelt for either of you,” he instructed, covering me with his
gun as I climbed into the driver’s seat.

He dropped the car keys
over the seat as he sat in the back. I heard the click of his
seatbelt, which put the kibosh on any plan I had to crash the car.
Annabel and I would surely be injured if I did, as the car was old
and without air bags.

“
Don’t try to follow us, Officer,” Merrick said to the Sarge.
“If I catch sight of you, I’ll shoot the girl. Do you
understand?”

“
Yes,” he said coldly. “But you must realise that every cop in
the district is already out looking for you and that will now be
stepped up exponentially. What are you planning on doing with
Senior Constable Fuller?”

Merrick laughed. “I
think an exchange between her and my property, which I understand
is currently being kept at the Wattling Bay police station, will
suit everyone, don’t you? I get what’s precious to me, and you get
what’s precious to you, and we all live happily ever after. Nobody
wants to see a female police officer injured, or even killed, in
the line of duty, do they? Not even me. So yes, I think that sounds
like a fair exchange. I’d be satisfied with that.”

“
What
if the Superintendent doesn’t agree to an exchange? What will
happen to her then?”

“
Not
sure yet. I might have to hurt her a little to make your
Superintendent come around to my point of view. Otherwise, she’s no
use to me. I’m not dragging her around with me everywhere. I’ll
probably tie her up and abandon her somewhere where I’m sure you’ll
find her . . . eventually. But why so pessimistic about the
outcome? I’m very positive that we can sort out this little
situation amicably.” He poked me in the back of the neck with my
gun. “Drive.”

I started the car and
eased back out on to the road. The last view I had of the Sarge in
the rear view mirror, he stood watching after us, a mix of
frustrated despair across his face.

Merrick spent the first
five minutes of the drive on his phone, clearly speaking to Derek,
assuring him that he was on his way home.

When he’d finished, I
said, “I’m going to discover where you live. You can’t blindfold me
and expect me to drive.”

He laughed. “It’s no
big matter to me, Officer. We’ll be moving on again as soon as my
property is returned. It’s getting a bit too hot for me around here
now anyway. We might go back to the city. Good pickings there. Or
we might go somewhere entirely different. Up north might be nice
now that summer is back.”