Like This, for Ever

could have lifted them to the top floor via the chute. Once they were dead, the chute would have got them back down again.
    In the bike, she had the means of getting them around London; in the rubble chute, a way of getting them in and out of the house. The house gave the killer somewhere to work, but was too close to other people for him to risk keeping the boys alive for long. Was it enough? She looked at the phone. Still twenty minutes before Joesbury came looking for her. If she called him now, he’d tell her to wait for him. He’d alert Tulloch and the team, who would insist she wait outside. It was the only sensible thing to do. But how would she ever get Huck’s face out of her head, if she stood here doing nothing, while he …
    Lacey tucked the phone back in her pocket, returned to the conservatory and started to climb.
    The vertical ascent wasn’t difficult. Clambering across the arched roof, though, she had to avoid putting any weight on the glass. Her limbs were shaking by the time she reached the window, but one last effort and she was inside.
    Just in time to hear a low-pitched whimper.
    People around her were exhausted. Dana knew she had to send them home. She’d tried already and they’d ignored her. They were staying as long as she stayed, and she was staying until the end.
    Across the room, the phone started ringing. It was a measure of how tired everyone was that no one rushed to answer it. After a couple of seconds, Anderson got up and crossed the room.
    ‘OK, listen up, guys, this is important.’
    Heads lifted. Several people were blinking hard.
    ‘That was SOCOs down at the Creek,’ Anderson said. ‘They’ve found more blood on the houseboat. Tiny amounts. Someone’s done a pretty good job of cleaning up, but there’s no doubt. There are at least two distinct types, both definitely human. And before you ask, neither is Gilly Green’s.’
    ‘I’m not keeping up,’ said Mizon. ‘I thought we’d ruled out Stewart Roberts.’
    ‘We ruled him out,’ said Dana. ‘We didn’t rule out the boat.’
    Lacey made herself keep still, ignore the urge to run from room to room, shouting out Huck’s name. There were procedures to be followed, the first of which was to understand the size and nature of the building to be searched.
    The room she was standing in was large and high, with a carved ceiling-rose and picture rail. There was a cheap filing cabinet that no one had thought worth removing, a metal chair lying upturned on the linoleum floor and stacks of loose files to one side of the door. A door she had to open, slowly and silently.
    The door opened on to a landing above a wide, ornate staircase. On either side of where Lacey was standing, two further flights of stairs gave her a choice of passage up to the next floor. In thehallway below her was the wide front door and – she counted quickly – at least five more rooms.
    Oh, this wasn’t an empty house, somehow she just knew it. This house was alive and breathing, watching her. She could almost see the gentle, respiratory movement of the walls. The wind, which was somehow finding its way in from outside, ruffled loose papers, stirred old cobwebs, chased dried leaves across the floors. The woodwork shifted and tensed, bracing itself, waiting for her next move. Reluctant to leave the relative safety of the room she’d entered by, Lacey knew she was committed. Having entered the house, she had to complete the search.
    Police training told her to check and secure the ground floor first. Instinct screamed at her not to go down. Down meant no way out. Down was the equivalent of being trapped in a cellar.
    Besides, the chute had led from the top floor of the house. Logically, anything happening in this house would be happening above her. Which meant there was no point checking this floor either. She had to go up.
    Leaving the doorway to take to the stairs was like finding herself in the middle of a maze, in which danger could come from any direction. This was a huge house, with any number of rooms, corners and cupboards. Barney was small and agile. He could be anywhere. He could be watching her right now. If it came to it, could she fight an eleven-year-old boy? One who was desperate, and possibly armed?
    Before she was halfway up the stairs, Lacey had the overwhelming feeling that she’d taken the wrong flight. The urge to turn, head down and then back up the left-hand stairs was so strong it was all she could do to force herself