The copper put a hand on my arm, shaking his head.
Right.
Don’t threaten my daughter’s kidnapper.
“I couldn’t give a shit. Put the money over or you won’t see her again. That’s a promise.” She hung up.
A buzzing filled my brain and I think I might have started trashing Regan’s office if my phone hadn’t vibrated again with a text. It was the account details.
“Do you have your stepmother’s address? We’ll send a unit now.”
I shook my head, my mind racing. “No. She’s not from here. I-I have no idea where she might be hiding.” But I knew how to find her. It just wasn’t legal. “Excuse me. I need to call my girlfriend and tell her what’s happening.”
The copper opened his mouth to speak, but I was already hurrying out of the office and past the frightened staff. I couldn’t look at them. I knew it wasn’t their fault, but I was furious with the world and everyone in it right now.
As soon as I was alone outside, I called Lore and told her to trace Jay’s location from the call. It would mean hacking telecommunications, which was why I hadn’t shared my idea with the police. And then I called Eilidh.
She picked up on the first ring. I knew Regan was calling her to inform her of Millie’s kidnapping so I just launched in without preamble.
“It’s my mum’s wife,” I announced in frantic outrage. “Eilidh, Mum’s wife has Millie. Jay. She called. She wants money in exchange for giving Millie back.”
“Has she lost her fucking mind?” Eilidh screeched and there was a sick part of me that took satisfaction in her wrath. I needed her to feel this as deeply as I was and it was a strange comfort that she did. “How does she think she’s actually going to get away with this?”
“I don’t think she’s thinking!” I yelled back but not at Eilidh. “I have Lore tracing the call to find out where the fuck she is.”
“She can’t be familiar with the area,” Eilidh replied.
“I don’t know. Maybe she was with my mother when she visited all those months ago. I don’t know.”
Eilidh was quiet for a few seconds and then, “Do you mean when your mother came to ask you about the cottage?”
“Aye.”
“Fyfe, is the cottage empty?”
“Aye, it’s not rented out again until Monday.”
I heard the squeal of tires in the background. “I’m on my way there.”
A different kind of fear scored through me. “You think she’s at the cottage?”
“If your mother showed her the house, she might very well be. It’s worth checking out.”
“Let me talk to the police. Send them in.” If Jay could kidnap a baby, who knew what else she was capable of. Buried in theback of my mind was the knowledge that this woman lost her daughter a few weeks ago. That she was likely suffering some kind of emotional breakdown. “Don’t you dare approach that house.”
“I’ll be safe.”
“Eilidh!”
“It’s Millie, Fyfe. I’ll let you know what I find.”
“Eilidh—” She hung up on me.
Abject terror clashed with my fury and I just stopped myself from smashing my phone off the wall. “FUCK!”
Forty-Three
EILIDH
