Blood Sport (13 page)

Forty
-One

“Thank you for meeting me.” Kat closed the door to the doctor’s office behind her. It seemed strange being back here. This is where it had all started what seemed like such a long time ago now.

“No problem.
You said it was about Daniel?” Sally led Kat into her consulting room and made herself comfortable behind her desk. “How’s he doing?”

“Well
, that’s what I wanted to talk to you about. He can’t seem to stop having nightmares and I was hoping you’d be able to give me something that would help him sleep. He really needs the rest. He’s nowhere near well yet.”

“Shouldn’t you be talking to his therapist about this? It’s more an issue of dealing with what’s causing the nightmares than trying to resolve the symptoms with drugs.”

“You’re probably right. I just thought I’d ask as he hasn’t got another appointment with her for a week.”

“Have
you tried talking through what’s causing the nightmares with him?”

Kat sighed
. “Yes, it’s usually the same thing. He dreams about this girl that was with him in that place, Jayne. They haven’t been able to find her body and he dreams about her being alone out there somewhere. It’s quite awful for him.”

“Yes
, I’m sure it must be. Well, as I said, it’s really a matter for his therapist so I’m afraid I really can’t help.” She stood up and came around the desk and opened the door. “I really must get going. It’s late already and I’ve got an early shift at the hospital tomorrow.”

Kat stood to leave
. “Okay. Thanks, Jayne.”

“No problem
,” she replied before immediately realizing her mistake. Her face quickly became hard. “Very clever, Kat.” She closed the door again.

Kat watched as she carefully walked back to her desk, sitting down once more. “It is you
, isn’t it?”

“You seem to have it all figured out
. Why don’t you tell me?”

“
Jayne Flint, daughter of Mark Flint. You’re the one who made the phone calls tipping him off, aren’t you?”

Jayne clapped
. “Well done, Kat. How did you figure it out?”

“She didn’t, I did.”

Kat watched Jayne’s eyes open wide as the door to the office swung open.

“
How?”

“I didn’t want to think it,” Finn answered
, “and I’m not sure what triggered the suspicion, but every time I asked you about your background you got very cagey.”

“What? That’s it? Just because a girl doesn’t tell you her life story doesn’t mean she’
s hiding anything, Finn.”

Finn nodded. “No, you’re right. But I asked you about whether you had any family here and it seemed to hit a nerve.” He shrugged. “Far
-fetched, I know, but I had to follow my hunch. So I reached out to the hospital who gave me your personnel file. That, in turn, led me to your medical school.”

Jayne had gone pale now as she listened to him. “They had no record of a Sally Crichton having ever attended there, but a Jayne
Flint did.”

Kat watched as Finn read her rights and handcuffed her before turning to look at her. “Thanks
, Kat. We needed to hear her admit it but if I’d have done it, any good defense attorney would have got it excluded at trial because of my relationship with her.”

Kat just nodded before turning to Jayne. “How could you do it? How could you help him get away with everything he did to those kids?”

“He’s my father. He raised me single-handedly. He sent me to the best boarding schools, paid my college tuition and for medical school. He’s the only family I’ve got and I owe him. What choice did I have?”

Kat felt sad as she watched Finn take her away. She could have stopped him, could have saved all those children
, but instead she chose to help him.

Forty-Three

Neither of them spoke as they sat on the deck. It was over at last. “You want another?” Finn asked raising his beer bottle

“No, I’m good
, thanks.” Kat smiled. She’d missed this.

“So how
’s Daniel doing?”

She beamed
; he was her favorite subject. “He’s doing great. The therapist is really happy with his progress. And, I’ve got an announcement to make.”

“Oh
, yeah? What’s that?”

“I’m going to adopt him, if they’ll let me.”

“Really? That’s fantastic news.” Finn seemed genuinely pleased. She’d been a bit worried about telling him, not knowing how he would take it seeing as she’d given up their son for adoption but his reaction told her she’d worried about nothing.

The chime of the doorbell interrupted them and Kat sipped happily at her beer while Finn went to answer it. He returned quickly with Callahan in tow.

“Beer?” Finn offered.

“Yes
, please.”

Finn disappeared into the kitchen
, returning with a bottle for Callahan and another one for himself.

“How did the raids go?” Kat knew they’d been due to take place earlier that day.

“Fantastic, exactly as planned. All of the clubs are now out of action and we’ve recovered hundreds of kids.”

“That’s great news. I’ll sleep better knowing those bastards have been put away
,” Kat said with feeling. “It’s strange, you know. Jayne was the same age as we are and I don’t remember her from high school.”

“I might be able to shed a bit of light on that.” Callahan
took a sip of his beer. “We couldn’t find any birth records for her so I told them to dig deeper.” He reached into his back pocket and took out two sheets of paper, one for each of them. “This is what they found.”

The sheets were copies of a missing person flyer from thirty years ago. On it was the picture of a young girl, no more than about eight years old. Her name was Rita. “From what we’ve learned
, it seems that Rita was a bit of a tomboy. Dressed like a boy, acted like a boy. She was cycling to a friend’s house and just vanished.”

Kat was confused. “Sorry, you’ve lost me.”

“It’s her isn’t it?” Finn spoke up and Callahan nodded.

“Yes
, it is. We think that she was taken because she looked so much like a boy. A mistake. We’re going to try and get confirmation from Flint if he’ll talk to us, but it looks like he decided to raise her as his own.”

The enormity of what he was saying hit home and Kat felt sick.
Despite what Jayne had done, she had ultimately been just another victim. “Has her family been told?”

“It’s in
process.” Callahan sighed. “That’s not a visit I would want to make.”

They all sat in silence for a minute
, taking it all in.

“I think I’ll have that beer after all.” Kat stood up and went inside to grab one.

Closing the fridge door, she jumped. “You scared me!”

Callahan stood there grinning at her. “Sorry, didn’t mean to make you jump!” he said
, not looking at all sorry. “I just wanted to ask, now that this is all over, if you’d like to have dinner with me sometime?”

Taken aback
, she wasn’t sure what to say. Things were on a better footing now with Finn but she didn’t think they were ever going to get back together. He’d given her no indication that that was something he was even considering. And here was a handsome, smart man asking her out. “Yes,” she said, making up her mind. “Yes, I’d like that very much.”

Neither of them noticed Finn by the door and he turned and went back outside before they did.

Forty-Four

Pick up, pick up!
He’d been trying Kat’s cell for the last ten minutes but it just rang before switching to voicemail.  Shivering, Jake wrapped his arms around his middle to try and warm himself up.
At least it’s not raining!

He’d walked miles before coming across this gas station with what was probably the only working payphone round these parts. Unfortunately
, it was out in the open so he ducked back into the trees that lined the rear of the property after trying her phone one more time. At least they provided some protection from the prying eyes of the nearby road. But he couldn’t stay here long, he had to keep moving.

He’d had no choice
; he wouldn’t have made it out alive if he’d stayed in that place any longer; they would have made sure of that. A tragic accident, or killed by another prisoner maybe, but somehow they would make sure he didn’t talk.

He would stay here for another half an hour and then he would have to move on. He’d considered calling Jamie when he couldn’t get hold of Kat but had quickly dismissed the idea. After everything he had put her through
, he wasn’t dragging her into this now. No, he needed to get hold of Kat. She was the only one who could help him now.

The End

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