Read Online The Overlooker by Fay Sampson - Free Book Online

couldn’t go around with a threat like that hanging over me and not do anything about it.’
    â€˜Quite right, sir. Not everyone is as public spirited. Probably it’s nothing. Just some petty felon trying to sound big. But you did right to report it. I’ll put you through to Inspector Heap. If you wouldn’t mind taking a seat.’
    They were kept waiting long enough for some of Nick’s hard-won certainty to seep away. For a while this morning, he had wondered whether the whole thing had been too trivial to take to the police. Now he had other reasons for questioning whether he had really done the right thing. It was not just his own safety at stake.
    Was it possible that something worse was going on at Hugh Street than the illegal sweatshop they had imagined? He struggled to think what. His imagination showed him the closed face of Mr Harrison, barring to the door to the frantic woman.
    But it was the memory of the voice on his mobile that really chilled him. He took the phone out and glanced down at it. No calls, no messages, since then. He put it away again.
    At last the duty sergeant called to them. ‘Inspector Heap will see you now. Down that corridor. Second on the right.’
    Suzie rose to join him. Millie made a movement too, but Suzie put a hand on her shoulder, restraining her.
    â€˜Stay here, sweetie. Two’s enough.’
    Nick saw the rebellious jut of Millie’s lip. Too late he wondered again whether they should have taken her into their confidence about the menacing phone call. Still, he could imagine her explosive reaction if he told the inspector about it while she was present. It was better that she stayed where she was until they knew how seriously the police would take it.
    â€˜But I’m a witness too!’ she was protesting. ‘I was there when we met that woman with the little boy, wasn’t I? And when that man told her he didn’t know her and practically slammed the door in your face. How do you know I didn’t notice something you two didn’t?’
    â€˜If the inspector wants to talk to you as well, I’ll come and fetch you. Promise.’
    He could feel the indignation seething inside her. For a moment, he was afraid it would erupt into a violent scene of teenage tantrums there in the police station foyer. But she glared at both of them and flounced back into her seat.
    They made their way down the corridor the sergeant had indicated. A backward glance showed Nick only Millie’s hunched shoulders and short-cropped blonde hair.
    Detective Inspector Heap’s door was half open. Nick tapped on it.
    â€˜Come in.’ She was already rising from behind the desk.
    Mary Heap was a tall, angular woman. She wore a black skirt with a white blouse. Only the red scarf at her neck counteracted the initial impression that she was in police uniform. Her fair hair was drawn back into a chignon.
    â€˜Please. Sit down,’ she said when they had introduced themselves.
    She stared at them steadily across the desk. There was something chilling about the light blue eyes. Nick sensed no warm curiosity in her smile. A businesslike woman.
    â€˜Sergeant Manners tells me you had a strange encounter yesterday in the Canal Street area. Would you like to tell me about it?’
    Although it had been Nick who had reported it at the desk, the question seemed addressed to Suzie. Nick noticed the little start she gave. She, too, had assumed that he would take the lead.
    She told the detective inspector about their family history quest and their reasons for wanting to find if Hugh Street was still standing. About the unsettling meeting in Canal Street with the woman in the shalwar kameez, who was so visibly upset. How the woman had handed over the little boy and then disappeared down a side street. Finally, she told the detective inspector about the demolished area and then finding Hugh Street still standing but boarded-up, with just this one house