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Back Scared to Live Save as PDF
Chapters (44)
  1. Dedication
  2. Chapter One
  3. Chapter Two
  4. Chapter Three
  5. Chapter Four
  6. Chapter Five
  7. Chapter Six
  8. Chapter Seven
  9. Chapter Eight
  10. Chapter Nine
  11. Chapter Ten
  12. Chapter Eleven
  13. Chapter Twelve
  14. Chapter Thirteen
  15. Chapter Fourteen
  16. Chapter Fifteen
  17. Chapter Sixteen
  18. Chapter Seventeen
  19. Chapter Eighteen
  20. Chapter Nineteen
  21. Chapter Twenty
  22. Chapter Twenty-One
  23. Chapter Twenty-Two
  24. Chapter Twenty-Three
  25. Chapter Twenty-Four
  26. Chapter Twenty-Five
  27. Chapter Twenty-Six
  28. Chapter Twenty-Seven
  29. Chapter Twenty-Eight
  30. Chapter Twenty-Nine
  31. Chapter Thirty
  32. Chapter Thirty-One
  33. Chapter Thirty-Two
  34. Chapter Thirty-Three
  35. Chapter Thirty-Four
  36. Chapter Thirty-Five
  37. Chapter Thirty-Six
  38. Chapter Thirty-Seven
  39. Chapter Thirty-Eight
  40. Chapter Thirty-Nine
  41. Chapter Forty
  42. About the Author
  43. Also by Stephen Booth
  44. About the Publisher

‘We’ve checked the incident logs, and nothing is missing locally. But South Yorkshire have a hit. On Saturday evening, a black Shogun was stolen from the car park of the Church of Free Worship in Totley. That’s on the outskirts of Sheffield.’

‘Even better.’

‘Wait, there’s more. Traffic already have a report of a Shogun abandoned under a disused railway bridge near Wirksworth. Burnt out, of course. And it’s been there since Monday at least.’

‘Our suspects made a switch, then.’

‘It looks like it, sir.’

‘What’s happened to the Shogun?’

‘It’s still there at the moment. DC Cooper’s on his way to take a look.’

Kessen was looking a bit happier. ‘I don’t suppose we have any idea what kind of vehicle they might have transferred to?’

‘No. But we haven’t even started making enquiries in that area yet. We’ll give the car the works in situ, then fetch it in for the vehicle examiners.’

‘Good work, Paul. But make sure any more stolen vehicles that are found get the once-over before they’re returned to their owners. They could have made a second switch at some point. Let’s pass that request to South Yorkshire, too. Chances are they doubled back towards Sheffield from Wirksworth. These weren’t our local joy riders.’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘Not that we’ll get anything useful, even if we find another vehicle. We’re looking at a professional job.’

‘You know, if they’re professionals, we won’t get DNA profiles from any of these scenes. Pros make sure they keep up to date. Even joy riders don’t go out at night until they’ve watched CSI.’

‘We might get lucky.’

Hitchens shrugged. They all knew that the risk of leaving DNA was becoming familiar to career criminals. With the national database throwing up a thousand matches a week, how could it be otherwise?

‘So much for the famous village surveillance experts,’ said Fry. ‘They spotted Darren Turnbull’s Astra twice, but they never saw the Shogun.’

Hitchens looked at her. ‘What have you done with Sergeant Kotsev, by the way?’

‘I’ve given him to Ben Cooper to look after for a while.’

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Georgi Kotsev didn’t seem at all disturbed to have left civilization behind. He waited patiently for Cooper to re-fold the map, gazing around the landscape as if he expected a few peasants to appear and direct them to the right place.

‘We’re nearly there,’ said Cooper.

‘Dobre. OK.’