Impression (DI Gardener 4)

“Why haven’t we found any evidence that links Rydell with Baines or the chemist?”

“Maybe we simply haven’t come across it yet. Let’s be honest, a lot’s happened in four days. Had we been going two weeks, it might have been a different story.”

Gardener’s phone rang. He answered, found himself talking to the desk sergeant.

“Sir, we’ve had another ping on the ANPR system.”

“Where?”

“Leeds Road, going towards Shipley.”

“It’s definitely Rydell?”

“One hundred percent.”

He cut the connection and told Reilly.

“So it must be him. He’s been here, finished these two off, and now he’s going somewhere else.”

“But why these two?” asked Gardener. “I can’t imagine either of them were a threat to him.”

The blaring sirens announced the arrival of the ambulance, which pulled up at one side of the shop. A squad car with four officers met them at the other.

Gardener went outside and addressed the medics. He asked his officers to wait whilst they removed the two victims. Time was obviously critical to saving their lives.

He thought about the ping on the ANPR. How could they have been so wrong? What vital evidence linking Rydell to Baines had they missed?

Maybe he could have saved two lives if he’d paid more attention.

“Colin, when you’ve finished here, can you organize these officers to do a search and a house-to-house?”

Sharp nodded.

“If Rydell has been here, where is he heading now?” he asked Reilly.

“That depends on what he has in store for the girl. It can’t be the Municipal Buildings, he’s going in the wrong direction.”

“Unless he has her stored somewhere else.”

He turned to Reilly. “What was Colin on about in the car? He said Rydell had a younger sister that had disappeared without trace.”

“Why do I get the feeling that Gareth Summerby fits into this mess somewhere? What if Rydell recently found out what had happened to his sister, Summerby’s involved, and that’s set him off on a trail of justice?”

It hit Gardener like a sledgehammer.

“Bingo. There are two missing girls but one is a cold case. You reckoned there was something in his past that he was hiding. Samantha Rydell’s disappearance must be connected to Gareth Summerby. Rydell’s somehow found out and played him at his own game.”

“An eye for an eye?” said Reilly. “Like the good book claims?”

“Get in the car.”

Chapter Sixty

“In nature there are neither rewards nor punishments – there are consequences.” Robert Greene Ingersoll, Lectures and Essays.

Reilly drove the pool car slowly down Main Street.