Cold Justice Read Free

stood and went to the window. The view of the Thames was lost in the downpour. She glanced down at the street below.
    She looked at the phone in her hand. He must have gone inside, she reassured herself. Samuel would be warm in the Observatory. Maybe Toby was right – she babied him too much. But, after all, there would never be a brother or sister for Samuel.
    Her eyes looked back down to the road below. A woman had stopped and was staring up at her – her face was partly covered with a black scarf. She had a hood pulled up over her head and was standing with her hands in the pockets of her long dark coat. She looked immovable against the gusts of wind. One of the plants on the balcony blew over and crashed against the windowpane and Lauren jumped. When she looked back the woman had gone.
    Lauren went back to her desk, but deep in her stomach she had the feeling of anxiousness, and it was growing. It was Samuel’s dinnertime now and after that she would run his bath. He’d have so many toys in there that there would be barely room for him. He’d play for ages filling up cups with water, making the waterwheels turn. Then she’d get him into his pyjamas, give him some warm milk and she’d read him stories and lie down beside him and drift off with him. That was her guilty pleasure, falling asleep next to him just for ten minutes or so, and then she’d creep out and Toby would have made her some dinner, poured her glass of wine and their adult time would begin.
    The phone rang.
    ‘Toby? Where are you? It’s a quarter past five.’
    ‘Sorry we’re late. I’m coming up the street right now. It’s been hell trying to get through the crowds. There’s something wrong with the buggy’s steering.’
    She laughed, relieved. ‘You’ll get used to it. I’ll meet you downstairs at the door.’
    ‘No need. I can manage.’
    ‘I want to.’
    Lauren came out of their flat and took the lift down to the foyer. She nodded hello to the security guard and saw Toby, using his weight to pull the pram inside backwards. He managed to pull it so easily, she thought. It was always a struggle for her.
    Lauren wanted to run over to Samuel. She wanted to take hold of him in her arms and kiss and cuddle him. She hated being apart from him but she knew she should be happy that Toby took him out on his own. She should be glad that he was showing an interest in his son at long last. She didn’t run, she walked across the foyer, past the pebbles and fountain and the reception desk. Toby was inside now. He turned the buggy forwards to push it towards her and he kept his eyes on hers. His shoulders were stiff. His gait awkward. She looked at his face and wanted to ask, ‘What’s the matter?’ Her eyes travelled down to his hands, down to the buggy and the loose strap on the seat. She felt her knees begin to give way. She felt her breath stop and her heart try to hammer blood round but it didn’t move. All time stopped. A heartbeat freeze-framed.
    ‘Where’s Samuel?’

Chapter 2
     
    Detective Inspector Dan Carter watched and waited for the group of officers to form a circle around him. It was seven thirty p.m. and the sky was black. The open doors of the police van offered a partial windbreak from the deep cold that skimmed icy breaths across the River Thames and gusted around the police officers searching the park. Carter was standing in the glare of the Maritime Museum at the base of Greenwich Park, waiting to address the newest search team. He looked across to where his partner, Detective Constable Ebony Willis, was standing, wearing her trademark black quilted jacket, but today she also had a black beanie hat pulled down over her ears. Her ponytail ballooned from beneath it, lifting in the gusts of wind and floating around her shoulders like a black shawl. She stood with a map in her hands. He knew she was working out the logistics of the search parties. He saw her taking in the layout of the park that rose above them in the