Read Online Hard Time by Maureen Carter - Free Book Online

dark side of the moon. What was it her dad used to say? Que
sera sera . What’ll pan out’ll pan out.
    She flung off the duvet, headed for the loo and a shower. Frankie was clearly on galley duties. Bacon odours and Bizet wafted up from below. Frankie was bellowing out a number from Carmen . Girl must be in a good mood.
    When Bev entered the kitchen ten minutes later, her friend whirled round, raven curls flying, mouth a perfect O. Bev frowned. “Wind changes, you could catch flies for a living,
mate.”
    Frankie Perlagio missed nothing. “Did we have a little company last night, my friend?”
    Trying to keep a straight face wasn’t going to happen. “This the Italian inquisition?”
    “Drawer there.” Frankie pointed. “Pass the thumbscrews.”
    Bev flapped a hand, took a seat at the table. Frankie tilted her head. “Are you going in today?”
    “Doh.” Flexi-hours Frankie didn’t know what full time meant. If she wasn’t giving her dad a hand in the family restaurant, she busked it as a session singer. A kind of
Katie-Melua-Nigella-Lawson hybrid. Her current incredulity wasn’t down to the fact it was a Saturday.
    “But you’re...” She pointed to Bev’s legs. “And you’re...” Wearing make-up.
    “Yeah, yeah.” So she hadn’t forgotten how to put on slap and a skirt. Bev’s main concern was the angle of the plates in her friend’s hands. “Shall we eat or
are you just gonna drop them?” For a half-Italian, Frankie cooked a mean full English. And she had the nous not to talk with her mouth full.
    Early brief. Highgate. Nineteen hours since Daniel Page was seen being led away from The Manor prep school by an unknown woman. Any of the thirty-plus officers present who
doubted what was at stake only had to look at the posters pinned on every wall in the kidnap room. Little people didn’t figure large in Bev’s life but she’d never seen a more
angelic-looking child. Only the halo was missing. Halo. Wings. Afterlife. That train of thought made her shudder.
    The guv gave her a glance but didn’t break verbal stride. There’d been nothing earth-shattering overnight, not even a minuscule flicker on the Richter scale. Hardly surprising, given
a news blackout was operating. How could the public call if it didn’t know about the kidnap? Cops depended to a large extent on witness information. The case wasn’t so much hamstrung as
straitjacketed.
    “On the plus side.” The guv was key-jangling, a sign he was keen to get on. “Obs are in place near the Page house. And comms are on the case.” Observation officers had
set up in a property over the road. And telecommunications officers were ready to monitor, record and trace every conversation. “Covert surveillance teams are cruising the immediate area plus
the key locations we’re aware of so far.” The school and the ad agency. “And Colin reckons he’s establishing pretty good rapport with the couple.” Colin Henfield,
family liaison, pivotal role in a kidnap. Pembers lobbed in a question about FLOs and the boy’s grandparents but Bev was distracted, another issue playing on her mind.
    Culpable or not, the Pages were crucial to the case. The fact she’d made herself persona non grata with the mother was giving Bev grief. On reflection, her behaviour hadn’t
just been insensitive; it was unprofessional. She was paid to help women like Jenny Page; they didn’t have to be best buddies. She waited for a lull, then lifted a hand. “Can I have
another shot at the Pages, guv?”
    “Revolver or Kalashnikov?” Powell muttered.
    Bev glared, then turned in mute appeal to the guv. Getting people to open up had always been one of her strengths. The guv knew that, probably why he gave it some thought. “No.”
    Shoulders slumped. “Aw, go on, guv.”
    “We need to keep the Pages sweet, sergeant.”
    “I can do sweet.” The smile was a kind of sickly-simper. It didn’t work. She sat up straight, cut the crap. “Seriously, sir, my