Bye Bye Baby by Fiona McIntosh Read Free Book Online

strictest confidence.’
    ‘Garv—’ Her husband held his hand up to quieten her as Sharpe accepted questions from the reporters. It took all of Clare’s composure not to yell at him.
    ‘Do we know what he looks like?’ a reporter asked.
    Sharpe shook his head. ‘No, we have no news of sightings as yet.’
    ‘What about a profile? Have you had one done for him yet?’ another asked.
    Sharpe’s expression did not change. ‘We’re working with only very limited information at this stage but we’ll be using every tool at our disposal. At this point, all we can say is that the killer is mobile and it’s highly unlikely that we are dealing with a mindless thug or opportunist.’
    ‘Has he left any clues? Any notes? Taken any trophies?’ a blonde reporter asked, no doubt hoping for ghoulish details.
    Sharpe cleared his throat. ‘There are no notes left behind, no trophies, as you put it, taken from either scene. But evidence at the two sites is being scrutinised by our team. Which brings me to Detective Chief Inspector Jack Hawksworth,’ he turned to gesture to a man standing just behind him, ‘who is heading up this major investigation at Scotland Yard.’
    ‘Garvan, the tea,’ Clare urged, annoyed by her husband’s intense interest in something he had mocked her about only moments earlier.

    ‘Just a minute,’ he said crossly, his gaze transfixed by the screen as the cameras zoomed in to focus on a tall, dark-haired man.
    As much to irritate Garvan as to win his attention, she said, ‘Well, that Jack Hawksworth can leave his slippers under my bed any time.’
    ‘Good-looking bastard, isn’t he?’ her husband growled, shocking her with his language. ‘And arrogant too, to be wearing that ridiculous candy-striped shirt.’
    Then he muttered under his breath, So you’re the one to look out for.

4
    It was the following day that Jack saw Sophie Fenton again. She was entering the lift as he was exiting it on the ground floor.
    ‘Whoops!’ he said, nearly walking straight into her chair.
    ‘In a hurry, Mr Hawksworth?’ she asked, her tone filled with good humour. ‘I thought you preferred the stairs.’
    ‘But you told me to use the lift! And call me Jack, please.’
    ‘I warned you I’d frustrate you within a very short time,’ she said, pointing to her chair.
    ‘Not at all. I’m glad to see you. I kept meaning to bring around a cup of sugar or something.’
    She grinned. ‘Flowers would be nicer,’ she said, wheeling herself into the lift as he held the door open.
    He nodded. ‘That can be arranged.’
    ‘I’m only joking. My offer for a coffee stands, though. Come and join me sometime.’ She shrugged as she spun the wheels to face him. ‘Come now, if you like.’

    Jack gave her a pained look. ‘At the risk of giving you a complex, I have to be somewhere and I’m running late.’
    ‘Another time then,’ Sophie said, reaching for the button. ‘But three strikes and you’re out, Jack.’
    ‘Next time you invite me, I promise we’ll have that cuppa.’
    ‘I’ll hold you to that promise,’ she said and he felt a surge of pleasure as her bright smile broke across her mouth. If the doors weren’t closing he might have done something ridiculously impulsive. Mercifully they groaned shut and, with a protesting squeak and rumble, the lift eased Sophie Fenton away from him.
    Later, at Wellington House, a short walk from the Yard, he was still thinking about Sophie. He pushed her out of his mind and regarded the people around him — the team he had assembled. Jack was confident that these were the men and women who would help him fulfil the Super’s plea.
    ‘Alright, everyone. We all know each other, I think?’ Heads nodded. ‘Good, because we need to move fast. Today’s meeting here at Welly House is for expediency, but rest assured we’ve been given our own operation rooms on the twelfth floor of the Tower Block. For any of you new to the warren that makes up New Scotland Yard,