Читать книгу In Safe Hands - J. P. Carter - Страница 8

They got to Peabody Street just minutes after the armed response team. Two squad cars had also just arrived and were being used to cordon off the road at both ends.

A uniformed officer waved them down and gestured for Walker to park against the kerb behind one of the ARVs.

Anna climbed out and flashed her warrant card, then hurried over to where the armed officers had gathered on the pavement in front of the nursery school. It was sandwiched between a three-storey block of flats and a church community centre. The small, red-brick building was set back behind a five-foot-high wall, and the front door stood half open. There were two cars parked on the forecourt, but no sign of life.

The armed officers – members of Scotland Yard’s specialist firearms command – were waiting behind the wall for the signal to go in. All six were kitted out in black helmets, visors and Kevlar body armour. They carried assault rifles and Glock 17 pistols.

Anna approached the team leader and was pleased to discover that they knew each other. Jason Fuller was a tall, middle-aged guy with craggy features and a strong jawline. Their paths had crossed more than a few times over the years.

‘I heard you were on your way,’ he said. ‘And I’m guessing you know about as much as I do.’

Anna nodded. ‘Four female staff members locked in a storeroom by three men who turned up armed with guns. It happened about forty minutes ago. And there were nine children here at the time who were apparently put into another room.’

‘And we don’t know if the perps are still inside or if we’re dealing with a hostage situation.’

‘That about sums it up,’ Anna said. ‘But we can’t afford to hang around waiting for something to happen. We have to go in.’

‘I agree, but not before we’re ready. There are no sounds coming from inside, and so far we haven’t spotted movement at any of the windows. I’ve got my men checking the rear of the building and I want to see if we’ll get a response through a megaphone appeal first.’

Anna knew that he was right to be cautious. If the three men were still inside then God only knew how they were going to react when they stormed the building. The counter-terrorism unit were also on standby, though the very thought of this being a terrorist attack caused the blood to stiffen in Anna’s veins. Behind her, a police radio crackled and she heard a disembodied voice informing everyone that the women were still locked in the storeroom.

Walker was standing right behind her with several uniforms. She saw that two more squad cars and an ambulance had turned up. Neighbours had also started to gather beyond the cordons.

The scene was bathed in bright August sunshine and the temperature was rising. Anna’s blouse was already sticking to her back beneath her jacket.

She’d been a copper for seventeen years and had never experienced a situation quite like this before, where nine infants were thought to be involved and at risk. Nine toddlers, presumed to be between the ages of three and five; completely helpless and vulnerable. Were they still in the building, locked up in a different room from that in which the staff were being held captive? And, if so, had they been harmed in any way? Or were they about to be?

Anna swallowed hard as an icy dread formed in her throat. There were too many unanswered questions at this stage. Too much they didn’t know. It might have appeared to the onlookers that they had the situation under control but that was far from the truth.

‘There’s more info on the woman who’s been beaten up,’ Walker said, as he stepped up beside her while holding his phone against his ear. ‘Her name’s Tasha Norris and one of the gunman smashed her over the head with the butt of his pistol. She’s unconscious and in a bad way apparently.’

All the more reason to go in, Anna thought. She turned back to Fuller and saw that he’d been handed a megaphone.

‘I just heard from our guys around the back,’ he told her. ‘The garden’s empty but the rear door is wide open. Nobody is visible, though.’

He raised the megaphone to his mouth and faced the nursery. As he spoke through it, his voice drowned out all other sound.

‘This building is surrounded by armed police,’ he said. ‘I urge everyone inside to drop your weapons and leave through the front door with your arms in the air, otherwise we will be forced to enter the building.’

There was no response, and the silence that followed screamed in Anna’s ears.

‘We have no choice now but to go in,’ she said after about twenty seconds.

That was Fuller’s cue to mobilise his team. He waved his hand and gave instructions through his headset microphone.

His officers responded by rushing through the open gate and across the forecourt. Anna watched from beyond the wall. As always, she was impressed by their slick professionalism and the fact that they were prepared to put their own lives on the line. The raw tension in the air was palpable and Anna found herself holding her breath as she waited for something to happen.

Thankfully the team encountered no resistance as they approached the building. They paused only briefly before stepping through the open door. The absence of gunfire prompted Anna to follow them, and Walker and several uniforms were close behind.

She heard shouting from inside as she got close to the entrance and assumed it was Fuller’s men announcing their presence.

She stayed outside until the all-clear was given after less than a minute. Her internal dialogue was on prayer mode as she stepped inside: Please, God, let the children be unharmed …

Passing through the doorway, she noticed the security camera above it and the password-protected panel on the wall. She logged the information in her brain to consider later when it came to determining how the men had got into the building.

A short corridor led to a door giving access to a large, brightly coloured playroom. It was crammed with toys, miniature vehicles, a playhouse and several tables cluttered with crayons, drawing paper and books.

But Anna’s attention was seized by loud cries coming from one of the four other rooms that led off the playroom.

‘It must be the storeroom,’ Fuller said, pointing to the closed door. ‘We can’t find the key so we’re gonna have to break it open.’

One of his men was telling those inside to calm down and step away from the door. The same officer then used his boot to kick at it three times before it gave way.

There was a light on inside the storeroom and it revealed a sight that made every muscle in Anna’s body go stiff.

A woman was lying on the floor with the back of her head resting in a small pool of her own blood. Two other women were kneeling beside her and a third was standing over them with a mobile phone in her hand.

‘Tasha needs to get to a hospital,’ one of them cried out. ‘We can’t wake her up.’

The distraught women all appeared to be in their twenties or early thirties and were casually dressed in matching blue T-shirts and jeans. Their eyes were cloudy with fear and their faces awash with tears.

‘Stay calm and step out,’ Anna said, keeping her voice low so as not to inflame an already stressful situation. ‘We’ll call the paramedics.’

The women quickly exited the room, and Anna half expected them to break down in floods of tears. But instead all three dashed across the playroom to one of the other doors that had a sign on it which read: Quiet Room.

The first to reach it peered inside and then let out an anguished cry that sent a bolt of ice down Anna’s spine.

‘Oh my God,’ the woman screamed. ‘They’re gone.’

Anna stepped forward and looked into the room, which contained a sofa, a few chairs and a low table.

One of the other women turned to the nearest uniformed officer and said, ‘Have you searched the rest of the building? Are the children here?’

The officer shook his head. ‘I’m afraid not.’

The woman’s hand flew to her mouth. ‘Those men must have taken them,’ she said, her voice cracking with emotion. ‘They’ve been abducted.’

Anna closed her eyes, steadied her breathing. That word: abducted. As always, it stirred up painful memories and caused an ache to swell in her chest. She shook her head, swallowed hard, and realised that this case was going to be an emotional rollercoaster.