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‘Come on, come on,’ she growled at her phone, willing the elderly woman to answer.
What she wanted was for Eloise to answer the phone calmly and tell her that the call had disturbed her from a really good part in the book she was reading and that she was being ridiculous. But that didn’t happen and once again her phone went to voicemail.
‘Hang on, hang on,’ Kim said. ‘Head to Netherton. It’s Thursday afternoon. She goes to the hospice. She won’t be answering her phone.’
‘Got it,’ Bryant said.
Kim just prayed that being at the hospice had kept the woman out of reach and given her the breathing space she needed.
SEVENTY-FIVE
‘Jesus, Bryant, hurry up,’ Kim growled as he stopped at another crossing.
‘What exactly do you want me to do, run them over?’ he asked, nodding to a grateful parent accompanying three children over the zebra.
Catching school throw-out time made getting anywhere a nightmare. It was bad enough to be dealing with parents trying to shoehorn SUVs into tiny spaces as close to the premises as possible, but once you escaped the chaos of one school building, you were right into another.
‘Well, just do something,’ she growled.
He stayed silent. He knew full well how she got when they were in a hurry. Her brain always reverted to the worst-case scenario. She was already imagining Eloise being butchered and left dead in a pool of her own blood.
Bryant had no choice but to stop for a crossing. Ahead, the traffic was at a standstill.
She removed her seat belt.
‘Guv…’
‘Child lock, Bryant,’ she hissed.
‘Don’t be—’
‘I’ll be quicker. Catch me up.’
He shook his head as he hit the button. She jumped out of the car and threw the door shut. It was half a mile to the hospice, and the pavements were littered with parents and children, but the traffic was stationary. She stepped into the road and sprinted along the gap between the cars and the pavement.
One more set of lights and two crossings and she turned left into the car park of the hospice.
A nurse was just exiting the premises. Kim made to pass her but the woman blocked her path.
‘Excuse me, I need—’
‘I’m not moving,’ she said. ‘Until you tell me who you are.’
She nodded towards the call point, signalling that Kim wouldn’t get any further even if she wasn’t standing in the way.
Kim took a second to get her breath.
The nurse filled it. ‘I’m sorry but I don’t know you. I can’t just let you in.’
‘DI Stone,’ she said, reaching for her ID.
The woman took a good look and waited.
‘I’m not here for any of your patients or staff. I’m here to see Eloise.’
The nurse frowned.
‘She comes here to talk to—’
