The Predator (27 page)

He shook his head with a rueful grin. He needed a holiday. No normal person would immediately jump to such evil conclusions. People went missing and turned up found with no ill effects all the time. It didn’t mean anything terrible had happened to them.

His phone buzzed again and he pulled it out of his pocket. “Munro.”

“Oh, um, Detective Munro. It’s Constable Kennedy. I-I just thought I should call you. I’m… We’re… That is, Federal Agent Nelson and I have been conducting surveillance at an address in Hornsby. James Gibbons.”

“Right. Is there a problem?”

“Yeah, well, we’ve been here a couple of hours and nothing, but just a minute ago, we saw him leave the building with a young girl. It looked like he was carrying her.”

Declan tensed. “Gibbons lives alone. Did you see her go into the apartment with him?”

“No. As I said, we’ve been here a couple of hours and had seen nothing. She must have been inside with him when we arrived.”

“Did you get a good look at her?”

“Kind of. She looked like she was asleep. In fact, we thought she might be sick.”

“How old do you think she was?”

“Hard to say. We’re parked across the road and we only saw her for an instant, but if I’d have to guess, I’d say about thirteen, fourteen maybe. She had a long blond ponytail and looked like she was wearing a sports skirt and singlet. You know, one of those pleated thingies?”

A buzzing sound in Declan’s ears drowned out the rest of what Constable Kennedy said. He frowned and tried to slow the frantic pace of his thoughts.

Brandon had just called him to say Cassie had been found. She’d sent Lily a message. She was at the mall, watching a movie. She couldn’t be the girl Kennedy had described.
Could she?

“Kennedy, have they started moving?”

“Yes, sir. They’re in the car now. A white Ford pickup. He’s driving. She’s in the passenger seat. They’ve just gone past us, heading south.”

“Stay with them. I’m not sure what’s going on, but something’s not right. I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.”

Declan ended the call, his heart pounding. A second later, he dialed his brother.

“Tom, is Cassie with you?”

“No, I’m at the mall. I’ve been up to the movie theaters, checked in all of the toilets, canvassed the food court. I can’t find her anywhere. I’ve sent her another bunch of text messages and called her phone. She’s not responding. I don’t understand it.”

Declan swallowed the dread in his throat. “Tom, I think it may have been a hoax. The message. I think someone’s playing with you.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Tom’s voice was full of impatience and laced heavily with fear.

“I don’t know anything for sure, but I think someone has Cassie. I think he used her phone to send the message to Lily to put you all off—to buy some time… Who knows? The thing is, I think I know where Cassie is.”

“You do? Where? For fuck’s sake, Declan, spit it out.”

Ignoring Tom’s outburst, Declan remained calm. “I have a couple of boys tailing someone who’s captured the attention of the Feds. We’ve had him under suspicion for other reasons. Suffice it to say, the last few months, we’ve had some weird incidences regarding young girls. We’ve been involved in a joint operation with the Feds to keep this guy under surveillance.” He paused and then decided Tom had a right to know. “Mate, we think he might be a pedophile.”

“Christ, you’re kidding me? You’re fucking kidding me?” Tom shouted, his voice on the verge of panic.

“We don’t know anything for sure, but the boys just called. Apparently, this germ has a teenage girl with him. We know he lives alone.” He paused and then said it. “She fits Cassie’s description.”

Tom bellowed with rage. “A fucking pedophile? She’s with a fucking
pedophile
? Oh, Christ, she’d better be okay. What am I going to tell Lily? Wait until I get my hands on him! He’d better not have touched her. I’m going to kill him!”

“Tom, I know how you feel, but we need to do this my way. We don’t know what’s going on. Going after him like a raging bull’s not going to help anyone. You need to let me do this. Where’s Brandon?”

“How the fuck do I know? I called him right after Lily rang me. As far as he knows, Cassie’s back safe and sound. He’s probably headed back to Bondi.”

“All right, Tom. Call Brandon. Get him to meet you at the mall. I need you to stay where you are. This germ has form. The other girls were both returned to the place where they went missing. Even though Cassie was probably taken from the netball courts, the message Lily received said she was at the mall.” He hesitated and then spoke again. “I think that’s where he’s taking her.”

Tom cursed again. Declan felt his brother’s anger and unspoken fear through the phone.

“Tom, I need you to calm down and listen to me. I’m going to hang up now and call the guys who are following this creep. See where they are. You need to call Brandon and find out where he is. I’ll call you back.”

Declan hung up and immediately dialed the number of his constable.

“Boss?”

“Are you still tailing him?”

“Yeah, we’re on the freeway, still heading south. Hang on, looks like he’s taking the exit to Manly.”

Declan tensed. “Stay with him and keep me posted.”

“Gotcha.”

* * *

The traffic lights turned red again and Brandon swore long and loudly, chafing at the delay. He’d barely moved twenty feet since the last time they’d changed. Tom would be going out of his mind.

He couldn’t believe what had happened. Tom had called him a few minutes ago and had filled him in. Listening, he’d shaken his head back and forth in disbelief while dread cemented in his gut.

He’d turned the Mustang around and had raced back toward Manly—until he’d hit the traffic gridlock in Mosman. Then he’d hardly moved.

His leg jiggled up and down with impatience. It seemed like the beautiful Saturday afternoon he’d admired from his balcony less than an hour ago had called loudly to each and every Sydneysider in town. Every single one of them seemed to be heading to Manly Beach. The traffic was almost at a standstill. He was just thankful he hadn’t been caught with the Spit Bridge open. That would have added another twenty minutes to the trip.

At last the lights changed to green and he floored the accelerator. Fear ate at the edges of his gut and he knew it was nothing compared to what his brother must be feeling.

He drummed his fingers on the soft leather of the steering wheel and tried to concentrate on a game plan. There was no point in calling for backup. Between the three of them and Declan’s men, they’d have enough to take the bastard down.

Calling in the cavalry might only scare Gibbons off. It was imperative the scumbag think he’d gotten away with it. If he panicked and took off without releasing her, they might never see Cassie again.

As much as he didn’t want to think about it, he knew better than most how horrific, unspeakable things happened to good people every day. He’d witnessed it on more occasions than he cared to remember.

Brandon pushed the grim thoughts aside. Dwelling on all the awful possibilities would help no one, least of all, Tom or Cassie. But it brought it home in one god-awful way how precarious life could be.

He thought of Alex and of Sam and of all the pain he’d experienced over the last four years. The pain of loss—the loss of his marriage, the loss of his wife, the loss of his best friend. It had been a grief so deep it had been like mourning a death.

He thought about how he’d feel if something happened to Alex. Or Sam. He shuddered. He couldn’t imagine being in Tom’s shoes. The fear, the anger, the absolute helplessness.

With a quick glance in his side mirror, he floored the Mustang again. The car surged forward and he whipped past three vehicles on the inside lane. The road signs that indicated the exit to Manly loomed up ahead of him.

He reached for the phone and dialed Declan’s number. He had to find out what was happening. His brother answered halfway through the first ring.

“Brandon.”

“Talk to me.”

“Kennedy just called. He’s with one of your guys and they’re tailing our man. They’ve just taken the exit to Manly. They’re about five minutes from the mall.”

“Who are we chasing? Do we have a name?”

Declan’s voice turned grimmer. “Yeah. He’s one of the guys you mentioned last week. We’ve been watching him and a couple of the others in relation to our own investigation. His name’s James Gibbons.”

“Christ, Gibbons. The one with no record.” Frustration surged through him and he thumped his fist on the steering wheel. “It’s always the way.”

“It’s no point thinking that way now, bro. We need to take this bastard down. Where are you?”

He glanced out the window. “About five or six minutes away from the mall, if the traffic doesn’t get any heavier.”

“Good. We should arrive about the same time.”

“Where’s Tom?”

“He’s still at the mall, waiting for an update. I’m thinking our man might do the drop-off near the eastern end of the complex. It’s not his closest entry point, but it’s mainly loading docks at that end. Much less traffic and fewer curious onlookers. I’ll call Tom and tell him to make his way down there and wait.”

“What’s our guy traveling in?”

“A white Ford F250. Licence plate AB ZT 177.” Declan paused. “I haven’t called for backup. I didn’t want to scare the bastard off by having too many police vehicles around. I hope I’ve made the right decision.”

“I agree, mate. It’s a tough call, but the last thing you want is for the perp to panic.”

“Yeah, let’s hope it works out and that between us we can keep Tom away from him.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Tom stared at the faces in the crowd of shoppers moving around him, their features blurring into a frenzy of color and movement and sound. He paced and stopped and paced again and tried to stem his rising panic. The smells from the food court, normally alluring, turned his stomach.

Music from invisible speakers, meant to be calming, reverberated inside his head, adding to the tumult of noise and confusion. He had to get outside. Cassie was outside. Declan had said she was.
Outside. Outside. Outside.

He shook his head, wishing he could end the noise. He couldn’t hear. He couldn’t hear Cassie. She needed him.
Cassie. His baby girl.

He barely managed to hear the sound of his phone over the cacophony surrounding him and snatched it out of his pocket.

Declan
. Relief surged through him.

“Dec, thank God. What the hell’s happening? Where is she? Where’s my daughter?” Finding an exit at last, he shouldered his way out of the shopping center.

“Tom, calm down. Please, mate. I need you to stay calm. Where are you?”

“Outside. I’m outside, like you told me.”

“Good. He’s heading toward the eastern entry. Brandon and I are not far away. The boys are still tailing him. They’re under strict instructions not to let him out of their sight.”

“Who else is covering us?”

“I’m trying to keep it low key. I don’t want him to panic and take off without releasing Cassie. Get over to the eastern end, down near the loading docks. We’ll meet you there.”

Tom shoved the phone back in his pocket. Adrenaline surged through him, helping to dilute the fear. He took off at a run.

* * *

Cassie stirred in the seat beside him. James glanced across at her. Relief flooded through him. He was beginning to think she wouldn’t wake in time. They were almost at the mall. He could hardly dump her while she was still unconscious. That was just asking for trouble.

No, his plan was simple, like it always was. He wouldn’t return her to the netball courts. The games were probably over and anyone still there would definitely notice them.

If she found herself at the mall, she might be confused about how she got there, but it wouldn’t be that out of the ordinary that it would cause any major anxiety. With a bit of luck, she wouldn’t have any memory of their time together and he could go back to his apartment and get on with editing her video.

The thought sent a surge of excitement through his body, centering in his groin. His hand drifted to his cock and he rubbed it through his jeans, relishing the thought of what was to come.

Cassie’s eyelids fluttered and then opened. She looked at him and blinked. “Uncle Jim?” She blinked again. “What…? What are you doing?”

James cursed under his breath. He’d forgotten to replace the beard before leaving the unit. He hadn’t even thought about it. Having kept her in his apartment longer than he’d planned, he’d been in a rush to leave. He hadn’t bargained on the fact that she’d recognize him. He should have anticipated such a complication, but the simple fact was, he hadn’t.

The first strains of panic infiltrated his gut. How was he going to explain to her why she was in his car? He hadn’t seen her for more than twelve months. It wasn’t like he could pretend her parents had asked him to collect her after the game.

Now he was going to have to change his plan. He couldn’t simply drop her off at the mall and go on his merry way like he had with all the others. She knew who he was. Who he
really
was.

He bit his lip and sifted through his increasingly frantic thoughts, trying to come up with a valid excuse.

“What are we doing? Where are we going? What…? What’s happening?” Cassie’s gaze darted frantically between him and the windscreen, confusion clouding the cobalt blue of her eyes.

“Where’s…David? You said… That is… I thought…”

A feeling of peace swept over him and he knew what he had to do. For the first time in his life, he’d tell the truth. He owed it to her. She was family, after all.

“Cassie, Cassie, Cassie,” he crooned. She looked so bewildered. Fear had crept into her face. It wouldn’t take her long to realize something was dreadfully wrong. It was such a shame she’d recognized him, but it was probably for the best.

“What are you doing, Uncle Jim? Why…? Why am I in your car? I thought you were…”

He smiled, feeling empowered as the moment came upon him. “I know what I told you, Cassie and I’m sorry. I really, truly am. But I couldn’t help it. I’d spent so long chatting to you, building your trust. I didn’t know it was you, that
you
were Lady G. You were just another beautiful, innocent girl hanging out in chat rooms. When I saw you at the netball courts, I recognized you, but I couldn’t help myself. I just had to have you.”