Souls At Zero (A Dark Psychological Thriller) by Neal Martin Read Free Book Online Page A

something."
    "I'm going with you."
    "No. It's best you stay here and deal with the police when they come."
    She shook her head. "And what am I supposed to tell them?"
    "The truth. That you don't know anything."
    "Fuck this," she said. "I can't do this. I feel like I'm losing my mind here…" She grabbed her head with both hands and squeezed tight, like it would help somehow. It didn't.
    "As soon as I hear anything, I'll call you," he said. He stood looking at her for another moment, like he wanted to say something to make her feel better, but they both knew there was nothing he could say that would make the situation any better, so he turned and left without saying another word.
    When he was gone, Gemma lay down on the cold tiles of the kitchen floor and sobbed at the possibility of never seeing her daughter again.
    Or worse, that her daughter might end up dead.
     

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER SEVEN
     
     
    Edger left his ex-wife's house feeling worse than when he went in. As expected, the news of Kaitlin's abduction had all but crushed Gemma. He knew how strong she could be however, and he was counting on that strength to get her through this nightmare situation. His own guilt was crushing him just as much. When he was speaking to Gemma, he deliberately left out the fact that he had felt like he was under surveillance for the last couple of weeks, maybe even longer than that. In any case, it had only been the last two weeks that he had gotten any sense that someone was watching him from afar. Not all the time, but enough of the time to raise his hackles. Of course, he couldn't have been sure, which is why he didn't do much about it. A few times he had taken counter measures while driving, even going as far as doing a bug sweep of his apartment, but he found nothing. Whoever was following him, they were good, because he never caught sight of them once. Apart from last night, when he had noticed the glowing ember of a cigarette across from the river at his apartment. But that could have been anybody. How was he to know his daughter was about to be abducted? Regardless, the guilt was eating him up. All of his training and experience, he should have known. He should marked the guy sitting behind him in the cafe. But again, it was just a guy, a guy that gave no indication he was about to steal Edger's daughter away.
    As he drove towards the office in Donegal Square, Edger thought about the man in the cafe. Who the hell was he? And what did he have against Edger? The guy had a baseball cap on, and never once looked up at Edger in the cafe, so Edger didn't even get a proper description of the guy. Nothing about him rang any bells. Maybe the cops would get something from surveillance cameras in the cafe, if indeed the cafe had any. Edger didn't recall ever seeing any inside the place. He knew there was cameras on some of the other businesses on the street, so maybe they would have caught something. If not the guy's face, then a car number plate. Every instinct Edger had though told him that the kidnapper was a professional. The whole thing was too well planned for an amateur. Drugging Edger's coffee like that, sitting right behind him as he waited on the drug to do its work, then abducting Kaitlin in broad daylight on a busy street. That took balls, and nerves of steel. Only someone experienced could have pulled that off without fucking it up. But again, who?
    Edger phoned Rankin before he arrived at the office in Donegal Square, glad when Rankin picked up the office phone. "John, it's me," Edger said, trying to squint away the headache that still thudded at his head. A leftover effect from whatever drug was in his coffee. "I've got a situation here. I need your help."
    "Of course, Harry," Rankin said immediately. "What is it?"
    Even though he had no doubt Rankin would help him, Edger was still relieved to hear him say that he would. "It's Kaitlin, John." He paused, hardly able to say the next