Robbie tossed and turned. He had mixed feelings about the day to come, most of them negative. He knew they were dealing with someone in the grip of insanity, and that he had a twelve-year-old in tow. The possible consequences were almost too grim to contemplate. He got up and went to the kitchen. It felt empty and cold without Ella. Too late to phone her now. He sat on a stool at the breakfast counter and put his head in his hands. Why, oh why had he let her go? He stood up, padded back to the bedroom and picked up his phone. So what if it was after midnight? There would never be a right time to tell her how he felt, so why not now? He found her number and listened to her phone ring.

* * *

Charlie Button slept soundly, thanks to a hefty shot of his father’s Rémy Martin. Before sleep overtook him, he shivered with excitement. Tomorrow would be a bloody good day. Like the Mounties, they’d get their man.

* * *

Further away, in less comfortable surroundings, a man and a boy lay in sleeping bags on two camp beds placed side by side. While the boy slept, the man lay awake listening to the water lapping and the boy’s regular breathing, and was at peace. He stared into the darkness, holding the moment as long as he could, because it would soon be over.

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

It was still dark when Marie rode into the police station. It was difficult to recall a time when she had felt more alive. This was an important day, a crucial one for Davy Frances. But in the chill morning air of the open stretch of Fen road, uppermost in her mind was not the coming rescue operation but the image of Ralph eating toast at her kitchen table. It looked so right.

As she slowed, closer to the station, she set that image aside, and by the time she walked into the silent office, she was one hundred per cent focused on Jordan Spiller.

Jackman strode in just moments later. He too had a determined look on his face, his expression free of the previous weeks’ anxiety about Laura.

‘He’ll remember. He has to,’ he said. She smiled. He’d spoken without preamble but she understood. The same thought had been on her mind too.

‘He will,’ she said. ‘If he loved his father, then it would have been a special time, one he wouldn’t forget.’

‘I just hope that this foster father has as strong a rapport with the lad as his grandfather believes.’ Jackman went into his office and checked his computer for reports of any incidents that had occurred overnight. ‘Thankfully, nothing of any concern to us.’

Marie smiled at him. ‘Then it’s time your sergeant brought you a coffee before we start biting our nails.’