Swann retreated to his office, the door shutting behind him with a resounding click. Surrounded by the familiar scent of stale coffee and old editions ofBlackstone’smanuals, he sank into his chair. His desk phone flashed with messages, and his email notifications were now running into the hundreds. He had a million things to do, but yet again he was distracted by Elea as she finally returned. She walked with confidence, giving her new colleagues a nod of acknowledgement. Swann watched her intently, his fingers drumming against the smooth surface of his desk.
Chapter 10
Elea entered the SCT office, a smile tugging at her lips. She had done the serious crime team a favour, proving her worth less than twenty-four hours in. The old feeling was back, that delicious sense of exhilaration from a job well done. The Finnish author Maria Jotuni’s quote had always resonated with her: “A few moments of distress teach a person more wisdom than decades of stable circumstances.” Phil Hobbs now knew all about that.
It was still there, the faint flicker of hope that refused to dim, because surely finding Chelsea would lead her to Liisa. The image of her daughter was like a faded Polaroid in her mind. What did she look like now? She was out there, somewhere. She had to be. Otherwise what was the point in carrying on?
Now it was time for Elea to clear things with Swann. She wanted him to be as pleased as she was about the new lead. But Liisa was not his daughter. Swann had only been acquainted with the ghost of her presence and with the remains of her sodden school bag after it was found the morning after she went missing, in the snow. How could Elea expect him to feel the same? She envied his relationship with his children. She only hoped that now he had them, it would make him more understanding of her cause. But judging by the look on his face as she joined him, fatherhood was not having the desired effect.
“Where the hell have you been?” He rose abruptly from his chair.
Elea refused to be deterred. “When’s the last time you had your blood pressure checked? You’re looking a little red around the gills.”
“Elea...” Swann began. “What have you done?”
“I have intel on Chelsea Hobbs. Her mother’s in a refuge, all thanks to me, and her father—actually, stepfather,” Elea mumbled. “He madethatquite clear. He was helpful...in the end.” Another wry smile. She couldn’t help herself. She didn’t mention her chat with Gary Reynolds from The Birdcage. That was off the record, after all.
“Oh God,” Swann groaned. “What have you done? Is he still in one piece?”
Pieces, Elea almost corrected him. She could still hear the satisfying snap of his bones in the back of her mind. But Swann looked upset enough as it was. “Of course he’s all right.” She spoke with an off-kilter cheeriness. “He just needed a little gentle persuasion to see the error of his ways.”
Swann picked up his desk-phone receiver. “Gentle persuasion to you is a force-five hurricane to everyone else.”
“What are you doing?” Elea asked.
“What amIdoing?” Swann snorted. “I’m requesting a unit to do a welfare check on him.”
Elea tilted her head to one side. “Shouldn’t your priority be his wife? Because judging by her bruises,shehasn’t had any welfare checks in a while.”
“She wouldn’t give a statement. You know the drill. There’s nothing we can do if she won’t go to court.”
“You could’ve launched a victimless prosecution.”
“Don’t you think we tried?”
“Well,Itried harder.” Elea slipped the worn blue address book from her bag. “Put down the phone, so I can show you what I’ve got.”
Swann glowered in response.
“Sit,” Elea instructed, as she pulled over a swivel chair. She pushed the address book across the desk. “This will lead us to Chelsea. Phil was in over his head with his dealers around the time that she disappeared. I reckon that they agreed to wipe his debt if he forgot to pick her up from school. I haven’t bagged it up because I need to photocopy it first.”
“What has that cost me?” Swann eyed the battered notebook cautiously. “If you’ve put me in the shit, I need to know how deep.”
Elea shifted in her seat. There was no getting out of this. “Just a couple of broken fingers. It was self-defence.”
“And...” Swan stared, unblinking, as he waited for more.
Elea chuckled. “I might have threatened to shoot him in the balls.”
“Jesus!” Swann muttered. “We need to update this on the system.”
“Relax, it’s all under control.” She stared at the address book, willing Swann to pick it up. “If he wanted to make an official complaint, he would have done it by now.”
“And what if we get a result and this goes to court? It won’t stand up as evidence.”
But Elea had already thought of that. “His wife is giving a statement as we speak. It was self-defence, like I said. She gave me the address book—no duress. She’s behind us all the way. Look,” she tapped the cover. “We’ve got all these lovely names to chase up. Think of the intel. What if they didn’t only deal drugs? They might have trafficked people, too.”
“And what about the white feathers? Traffickers treat people as commodities. They’re hardly the sentimental type.”
