Snow Kills by Rc Bridgestock Read Free Book Online Page A

bit her lip in thought before turning to Kim and Matt.
    ‘I think it’s about time we got hold of the Search and Rescue team,’ she told them. ‘In the meantime, I want you to check with everyone you know, to see if they have heard from her, okay?’
    Kim nodded, glad at last that someone was taking her fears seriously, and that she had something to distract her over-active imagination.
    ‘I’ll contact you if I get any news and vice-versa, yes?’
    Kim nodded again as she wiped her eyes.
    PC May patted Kim’s hand comfortingly. ‘We’ll find her, I promise,’ she said.
     
     

 
Chapter 5
     
    Twenty four hours passed and there was still no news. Kim had been to the salon to see Marlene, and together she and Matt had rung all the telephone numbers in Kayleigh’s address book, but to no avail. A queasy feeling of dread engulfed Matt as he put down his phone on the kitchen table and his dark, deep set eyes met Kim’s. He rested his head on top of his folded arms, feeling dizzy and sick. Sweat poured from his brow and the gagging feeling in his throat was still there.
    Kim reached out and touched his arm. ‘What are we going to do?’ she said.
    He looked up and gave her the closest thing to a reassuring look he could muster. ‘Don’t worry, we’ll find her – like the police woman said.’
     
    As dawn broke, the search and rescue team started their planned search of the area where Kayleigh’s car had been found. The team leaders and their colleagues swept outwards from the vehicle, combing every inch of their predetermined patch. The news spread and civilians from far and wide offered their support.
    PC Jackie May understood that Kayleigh wasn’t the sort of person that would usually be classed as vulnerable, but there was nothing to suggest that she wanted to disappear either. If there had been an accident, where was her body? The officer was aware that thousands of people went missing every year and some were never found, but she didn’t want that to be the case with Kayleigh. She decided to seek the advice of Harrowfield’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID). She wondered what their views would be on the facts that she had so far and hoped that they could suggest what she should do next. She was out of her depth.
    To Jackie, the CID office had always been intimidating. To the young female, the male dominated arena was like walking into a public house, in the middle of town, at night and alone.
    She closed her eyes momentarily as she reached the heavy grey fire door, took a deep breath and raised her hand to knock, then decided otherwise. Taking hold of the door handle, she put her shoulders behind it and walked in. As a rookie, she remembered being shown round the police station and the police officers in plain clothes staring at her from behind their desks had made her feel uncomfortable.
     
    Jackie knew the head of the CID department, Detective Inspector Jack Dylan, by sight. He’d just got married to Jennifer Jones from the admin department and they had had a little girl called Maisy. Their affair had been the talk of the police station at the time – no one thought Dylan, the career detective and hostage negotiator, and Harrowfield’s perpetual bachelor, would ever succumb to the proverbial ball and chain. As if thinking about him conjured him up, she spotted Dylan standing at the end of the office, in his shirt sleeves, with his back to her studying a dry wipe board that was full of evidence and drawn links to photographs and minute sheets. Dylan was in his late thirties, she would have a guessed, thick set and around six foot tall. The sort of person you wouldn’t want to upset, she thought as he turned around at the sound of the door shutting and glanced at her before continuing with the job in hand. Jackie shivered, pulled herself up to her five foot four inch height and clutched the Misper report for Kayleigh Harwood tightly. Instead of scanning the room, she headed straight down