Rebecca’s phone had been traced to a road in Ystrad, just a few streets away from the train station. It was a five-minute walk from the road her mother had dropped her off on. Wherever she had been going – or whoever she’d been meeting – it was obvious that she hadn’t wanted her mother to know about it. And why was that? Alex wondered. There were numerous possibilities.

Taking the iPad from the glove box of Alex’s Audi, Chloe googled the location and scanned its details.

‘They’re at the church,’ the voice on the radio told them.

A boy and girl matching Tyler and Keeley’s descriptions had been seen in a shop in the town just an hour earlier. It might have been a coincidence, but Alex wasn’t prepared to take a chance on it.

She glanced at the satnav. They were still ten minutes away, despite the speed she was driving. Chloe found the church on the iPad. ‘Derelict,’ she told Alex. ‘Set back from the road again, by the looks of it, just like the hospital.’

Everything had been planned. Keeley Coleman and Tyler Morris had spent a week executing crimes that must have been plotted well in advance: the wheres, the hows, the whos. Everything about them was premeditated. They had targeted the most vulnerable people they could find: people that society should have kept protected. The acts these children had committed reached levels of evil Alex had rarely been witness to in almost two decades of service with the police. It was hard to believe that any adult could be capable of such evil. For children, it was inconceivable.

‘Why are they doing this?’ Chloe asked.

Alex shook her head. ‘Keeley Coleman is obviously her father’s daughter.’ She fell silent for a moment, considering the brutalities this child was capable of. Monsters came in all shapes and forms, and age was no barrier to evil. Why hadn’t they seen it earlier? Alex cursed herself. The answer had been there in front of them, yet nobody had seen it. Perhaps no one had wanted to see it, not when the truth was so difficult to accept.

‘Blame the parents,’ Chloe said. ‘That’s what people say, isn’t it? If only it was that simple.’

‘Her father is a notorious thug,’ Alex said, thinking aloud. ‘Brother in prison for attempted murder. Perhaps in this case we can blame the family, in part at least. Both of them have had extensive media coverage over the years. Is this to do with fame?’

‘Christ,’ Chloe said. ‘What a way to make a name for yourself.’

‘Maybe she thought she would get away it. There’s a history of violence in the family. Perhaps she’s become a product of her childhood.’

Alex’s mobile started ringing, distracting her from her thoughts. She swiped the screen hurriedly. ‘Dan.’

‘They’ve just told me where she is, Alex. What the hell is she doing there? She told us she was going to a party.’

His voice was fraught, thick with worry for his daughter. Neither Alex nor Chloe had ever heard him like this, and doing so brought the case far too close to home. If Rebecca was with Keeley and Tyler, she was yet another innocent victim. When Alex had considered the previous day how many more lives their killer might claim, she could never in her most horrific imaginings have contemplated this scenario. She pushed her foot further to the accelerator. ‘Where are you, Dan?’

The line was bad, the conversation thwarted by poor signal at his end. He was in the car, she thought. He was heading to the church now.

‘I’m on my way there.’

‘Please, Dan, listen to me,’ she said, knowing her words would be ignored. ‘Do not go in there until we arrive, okay? Please.’

‘For fuck’s sake, what do you want me to do – sit outside and wait for everyone else to show up? She’s in fucking danger, Alex.’

Alex glanced at Chloe, a knowing look passing between them. Neither of them wanted him to get there before they did. If he barged in there without considering the consequences, he might unwittingly put Rebecca in further danger.

‘Dan, wait for backup. Please.’

They heard something neither woman had been witness to before. At the other end of the call, Dan had started to cry. ‘I swear to God, if they hurt her, I will kill the little bastards. I will rip their evil little heads off their fucking shoulders with my bare hands.’

Alex shot Chloe another glance as she drove through a set of red lights. The driver of a car coming from their left sounded his horn as he was forced to slam on his brakes. Dan’s emotions were exactly why he couldn’t arrive there before them. He could end up getting himself and Rebecca killed.

Still following the directions provided by the satnav, Alex could see their destination now just streets away. She hoped they wouldn’t be too late.