Hidden ( CSI Reilly Steel #3) (34 page)

When she had seen his face, even without the wild beard he’d sported in the only photo they had of him, she knew.

Reilly started the engine and raced back towards the main road. As she drove she tried first Chris’s then Kennedy’s phone … Damn, no reception.

As she re-entered the village she spotted Chris standing outside the local newsagent talking to a man.

Blowing the horn twice to get his attention she waved him to the car in a manner that let him see she was flustered.

‘
What’s up?’

‘
It’s McAllister.  We’ve got him.’

Chapter 33

‘I’d like to introduce you all to Steve Jacobs.’

Having quickly returned to base after learning about McAllister’s whereabouts, the team wasted no time in planning their next strategy.
A local unit had been installed to keep watch on the area and O’Brien was about to advise them of the next steps.

Now, the inspector
entered the room and nodded towards the man behind him.

He
was around six foot three, well built, with a strong jawline, and blond hair just starting to recede. He looked a bit like a middle-aged surfer, Reilly thought.

‘Jacobs, meet Detectives Kennedy, Delaney, and our GFU head, Reilly Steel.’

Nodding as they exchanged greetings
, Jacobs gave each a bonecrunching handshake. He paused as he held Reilly’s hand, his challenging blue eyes resting on hers.

‘Mr Jacobs is a hostage negotiator,’ O’Brien told them. ‘I thought it was best to bring in an expert this time.’

He ushered them around the meeting table.

Jacobs sat next to Reilly, and stretched his long legs out in front of him, looking at the mass of maps and documents gathered on the table.

‘
I’m aware that you’ve handled this very sensitively at all times so far,’ he began, ‘and I don’t want to tread on any toes. But if the situation is as the inspector describes it, then maybe I can help.’

Reilly could tell that Jacobs had immediately put Chris’s back up. He was used to being the alpha male around here, the tall, attractive, masculine one. Chris looked at O’Brien. ‘With all due respect, sir, I’m not sure why this is necessary. Kennedy and I have extensive hostage negotiation training.’ 

‘Perhaps
, but Mr Jacobs has a doctorate in psychology,’ O’Brien replied, ‘and comes with the highest recommendation of the Chief Inspector of the UK Met.’

Jacobs sat forward. ‘
Detective Delaney, wasn’t it?’

Chris turned quickly towards
him. ‘Yes.’

‘
As I said, I don’t want to tread on any toes – I think the chief just wants to make absolutely sure that everything runs smoothly this time. I’m here to support you guys.’

‘I think it’s a sensible move,’ Reilly put in. ‘At this point all that matters is the safety of those kids.’

Jacobs turned his surfer’s smile on Reilly
. ‘Graciously put, Miss Steel.  I’m here purely to help the team achieve the best resolution possible.’

Kennedy
seemed to be watching all of this with wry amusement. ‘So if we’re finished getting to know one another,’ he said impatiently, ‘time is running out and we need to move quickly. Is Mr Jacobs going to head up the operation in Avoca, or what?’

‘
Please, call me Steve,’ Jacobs said smoothly.

‘Mr
Jacobs will be responsible for negotiating with McAllister for his surrender and for the safe release of his captives,’ O’Brien said. ‘You will support and assist him in any way you can. Given that there’s little time to waste, I’d suggest the four of you immediately agree a path forwards.’  He looked at all of them, his gaze resting on Chris the longest. ‘Any questions?’

There was silence.

‘
Good.’

‘
Steve,’ Reilly began, ‘we appreciate you stepping in to help us, you've obviously read the file so you have some background – I thought it would be best if Chris brought you up to speed on where we are at this point.’

Chris looked surprised and Reilly knew s
he’d spiked his guns by forcing him to engage with ‘Steve’.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Jacobs
gave her a subtle nod of approval.

Chris tapped the end of a pencil on the
table. ‘We already know McAllister is intelligent, a meticulous planner as he demonstrated at the lake house. But in my opinion, this time will be different.  Now he’s angry, he wasn’t expecting to be cornered again so quickly after executing his escape plan.’

Jacobs
nodded. ‘What’s your take on where we stand now?’ he asked, and Reilly liked the way he was so easily, almost offhandedly, making sure that the detectives didn’t feel like outsiders in their own back yard. Clearly he was used to this.

‘
He’s holed up in there now,’ Kennedy continued. ‘He has the advantage of an elevated position, and can see everything coming up that drive. We could send in the heavies again, but with three, maybe four children at risk, and the mood he’s in, plus the fact he seems to have nowhere to run …it could get nasty.’

‘
You mentioned his mood; do you think he’ll be too hostile to talk to us?’

‘For a guy who is so paranoid about the dangers of the outside world,’ Reilly put in, ‘we’ve so far been living up to the reputation of these so-called “demons” that he seems to fear. I think his mood will be predominately hostile, yes.’

‘
So we need to build some trust, but in order to do that, we need to open some line of communication first,’ said Jacobs.

‘He’ll be a tough nut to crack,’ Reilly said, recounting the conversation she’d inadvertently had with McAllister earlier. ‘The whole nature of what he has done is built on paranoia, mistrust of the outside world. It’s hard to know what he actually believes, though he seemed almost normal when I spoke to him.’

‘
You think the charades are for their benefit to protect the illusion?’

‘
According the profile, he may have a natural affinity towards women.’

‘His wife was killed in a car crash,’ said Jacobs.

‘
That may well be crucial, the trigger for the creation of this elaborate fantasy, but I’m not sure if this alone would make him withdraw from the world. I wonder if he’s got a deeper rooted reason for shunning modern society.’

‘
I think it’s simply his way of keeping dangerous influences away from the children,’ Chris said.

‘
So that means no TV, no radio, no computers, nothing that would let them have any contact with the outside world,’ said Jacobs.

Reilly nodded. 
‘There was nothing like that at the lake house – the only modern thing I’ve seen is the CCTV system he had to monitor the fence line and the gates, and that was locked in his study – away from little eyes.’

‘
But he’s plucking those kids from the real world, so they know those things exist,’ reasoned Jacobs. He thought for a moment, then turned to Chris. ‘What else can you tell me about the boy, Conn?’

‘
Apart from the fact that he would go back there in a heartbeat?’

‘
Yeah, that’s interesting, isn’t it?’ The negotiator eased back in his chair.

‘The way he spoke… if you didn’t know otherwise you would think that in Tir Na Nog he had a happy, loving family,’ Chris said.

‘So McAllister’s
created what the boy wants, a surrogate family.’ Jacobs gazed at the ceiling absentmindedly. ‘He plays upon the power of a child’s imagination. Kids grow up in a world that’s half reality, half fantasy. Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy.  For them they are as real as Mum and Dad, aunts and uncles … What McAllister has done is taken that natural affinity of children – their inclination to believe in magical, fantastical places – and turned that to his advantage. He has created a mythical world, and the kids have bought into it.’

‘
Our profiler is in agreement,’ Reilly said. ‘He used the analogy of the Catholic Church and how it exerts control by fear of mortal sin and damnation.’

‘Look
, all this is very well but how does it help us to get him to come out?’ Kennedy asked impatiently.

‘
That’s the question, isn’t it, what does McAllister believe? When he lies in bed at night, is he David McAllister, child kidnapper?  Or is he Setanta, spiritual guide of Tír na nÓg?’

Reilly raised an eyebrow
. ‘You make it sound almost charming.’

Jacobs
leaned forward, his face full of fire. ‘It is, Reilly, it is, at least to McAllister and those kids.  In his mind he has created something wonderful, something precious. We have to figure out how to get him to give that up.’

‘
We could play on that fantasy,’ Chris suggested.

‘
The Celtic mythology?’

‘
Yes, the Children of Lir is a complicated story, full of jealousy and double crossing, but I think the crucial part is whether McAllister chooses to believe this is the end of one of those periods, or the absolute end. In the story, when the kids were finally released from the curse, they withered and died.’

‘
Well, we need to coax him along to believe that this is not the end, and certainly not the place the children should spend the next period of their lives,’ Jacobs said. ‘Something about the effects of keeping the children there, that they have to leave eventually, and what happens to them then. We know that the boy Conn was rebellious or too difficult to control as he got older like all maturing males – why else would he cast him out?  And we can only assume that the other two—’

‘Sarah
and possibly Jennifer, we haven’t been able to confirm her identity yet.’

‘Right. W
e have to consider that they too were rebellious, that they had a hankering for greener pastures. Why else leave?’

‘Sarah
was pregnant of course,’ Reilly reminded him.

He nodded. 
‘Guess it was first hormones, and then maternal protection that kicked in there.’

Kennedy stood up
, eager to get going. ‘So how are we going to play this?’

Jacobs
looked around the room at each one of them. ‘Look, you all know what I do. I try and talk people out when they’re dug in like fleas on a hound.  I’m not always successful, but most of the time I can get people to walk out without bloodshed.’  He paused. ‘But one of the reasons I am successful is that I use whatever help I can get – and unless any of you have any thoughts to the contrary, I think the biggest asset we have right now is Reilly.’ He turned to face her. ‘You’re the only one who’s actually been up close and personal with this guy.’

She frowned. ‘I’m not sure what you mean …’

‘I wouldn’t be fooled by that spiel in Avoca earlier.You recognized McAllister, but he may have known exactly who you were too, possibly saw you in the CCTV cameras at the gates last time.’

She closed her eyes, cursing herself for how stupid she’d been in not considering the possibility that McAllister had made her.

‘So chances are, he knows we’re coming and he’ll be ready. However,’ Jacobs continued, ‘the fact that he conversed with Reilly and didn’t attempt to harm her is a good thing. From what I’ve read about him from the files and the profile, he seems reasonably well disposed towards females.’

‘So what’s the plan then, Jacobs
?’ Chris asked.

‘I
’ll want Reilly on hand to start with. You’re the only one he has spoken with, maybe you can introduce me and see where we go from there.’

‘How do you think it will play out?’

He
grimaced. ‘I hope to be able to speak with McAllister myself to get some kind of real feel for the situation,’ he said, ‘but I have little doubt that we’ll have to tread softly with this one. Get him spooked, show any force, and we’ll lose him again.  We already know he has issues with reality. Who knows what he’s liable to do?’

Chapter 3
4

Back in Avoca, a command post had been set up amongst the trees near the perimeter of the outbuildings, but well out of the visibility of the occupants. 

On the journey back to the village,
Jacobs riding up front alongside Kennedy, Reilly could feel the tension radiating off Chris, which she wasn’t entirely sure was justified.  They needed an expert this time, especially when things had gone so easily out of control before despite their own team’s best efforts.

The quiet country lane had been transformed by the time they got back. 
Unfortunately, it wasn’t just the presence of emergency services vehicles; once again, the press had got wind of the story. 

Since the initial
lurid headlines about the Angel had appeared, the media had resorted to speculating wildly due to the lack of further detail, or any more bodies. A story was only news when something was actually happening – but now the reporters had the taste of fresh blood, and were circling like a pack of hungry hyenas.