NINE

THE DOOR LED TO A service corridor and at the far end, another door was just swinging closed. “This way,” Rex said, starting to run. I followed, willing my legs to work properly as they were still shaking. I’d no idea how he recovered so quickly. He got to the far door before me, running through it and up a flight of stairs. At the top I found him paused, listening hard. “This way,” he said, pushing open another door. On the far side, I felt a cool breeze and rounded the corner to a balcony.

Everything happened very quickly after that. Beth was on the balcony, swinging her leg onto the fire escape. Rex shouted, “Hold on.” She took one look at him before pulling a knife from behind her back, hurling it in our direction. Rex shoved me sideways and the knife thudded into the wall where my head had been a second earlier. Before I’d had chance to recover, he had sprinted forwards, giving Beth a shove.

“What are you doing?” I asked, thinking he’d pushed her off to her death. I heard a scream but the scream didn’t get any further away. I caught up with him, leaning over the balcony to see Beth dangling, one end of a pair of handcuffs attached to her wrist. The other end had been locked in place over the railing, leaving her swinging in the air, her scream finally dying away as I stared in bewilderment. “How did you do that?” I asked, looking at Rex.

“I can move fast if I need to,” he replied, holding out the key to the cuffs. “Now why’d you throw that knife, Beth?” he asked, leaning over to look at her.

“Fuck you,” she replied.

“No thanks. Now if you’re not going to be polite, I could just leave you there until your shoulder comes out of its socket. What do you reckon?”

“Pull me up,” she snarled. “It hurts!”

“Where’s Cassandra and Yvette?” I called down to her.

“No idea.”

“I could unlock this one,” Rex said, tapping the cuff that was attached to the railing. “You might break a few legs landing down there but you’ll probably live. What do you reckon?”

“No, don’t,” she said, panicking as he inserted the key into the lock. “Please.”

“Answer her question,” Rex snapped. “You’ve got five seconds. Five, four-”

“All right,” she cried. “Just let me up.”

“Tell us first.”

“They’re at the Livingstone Dock.”

“Where?”

“In a shipping container.”

“Are they dead?”

“No, they’re fine.”

“So why are they there?”

“A man bought them. They’re being shipped to him.”

“And you did the dirty work for him, I’m guessing? Right?”

She just glared up at us both.

“What’s his name?” Rex asked as I punched Gayle’s number into my phone.

“Alan De Grut.”

“When’s he collecting?”

“Some time tonight. I don’t know when.”

“I get it,” Rex said, turning to talk to me in a low voice. “She gets the girls, slips something in their drink maybe. Once they’re out, she gets them into the shipping container then all she has to do is pretend nothing’s happened.” He leaned back over the edge. “So why are you here?”

“He said to wait here until they were gone.”

“Why’d you try to escape?”

“I’ve seen her before. He warned me to stay away from her.”

“I can understand that. You’ve just met her and now you’re dangling off a balcony.”

“Which container?” I shouted as Gayle answered the phone.

“4211,” she shouted. “Now please let me up, you’re breaking my arm.”

“Hello?” Gayle said from the other end of the phone. “West? Is that you? What’s happening?”

“Get to Livingstone Dock, shipping container 4211. The girls are inside.”

“All three of them.”

“Not Beth. She’s here at the Connect Club. Send a car to pick her up.”

“On it. You all right?”

“I will be once you tell me they’re alive and well.”

He rang back ten minutes later. In that time, Beth continued to beg to be allowed up. “Not until we know they’re safe,” Rex kept saying, sounding like a broken record.

It was a very long ten minutes but finally the call came through. I answered at once, the sound of sirens growing louder in the distance. “West?” Gayle said. “They found them. Alive and well. Good work.”

I sighed with relief. “Let her up,” I said to Rex as I hung up the phone. “They found them.”

Rex reached over the side of the balcony, grabbing Beth’s flailing hand and yanking her up over the side. She collapsed onto the floor, crying as she rubbed her shoulder. “Undo these,” she said, rattling the cuffs.

“Not just yet,” Rex said, turning to face me. “They’re playing our tune. I better get going.”

“Going? Going where?”

“I’d just rather not be around if the police are involved. Here, take the key and watch her.”

He swung his leg onto the fire escape. “You’re going?” I asked. “Just like that?”

“My number’s in your phone,” he replied, reaching over and kissing me before darting down the steps, vanishing from sight.

“How the hell did you do that?” I asked, looking down at my phone. He didn’t answer. I looked at Beth and then out into the darkness as two uniforms appeared in the doorway behind me. “Good evening gentlemen,” I said, turning to face Beth again. “Beth Holmes, you’re under arrest on suspicion of kidnapping...”