Jack Morgan 02 - Private London by James Patterson

tutor.’
    ‘And likewise Chloe Wilson’s?’
    ‘Yes. Both of them.’
    ‘Chloe Wilson is my god-daughter, Professor Weston.’
    ‘Oh …’
    She reacted, taking it in, and the hardness in her eyes softened to genuine concern. ‘How is she? Has she regained consciousness?’
    ‘She’s stable but still critical. They are keeping an eye on her round the clock.’
    ‘If there’s anything I can do …?’
    ‘That’s why we’re here, professor. Whoever did this isn’t going to get away with it. I can promise you that, and I can promise we will find Hannah and bring her home unharmed.’
    I don’t know why I said that last part. Or rather I did – I wanted to impress the woman, I guess.
    ‘Poor Hannah. I can’t bear to think what she is going through.’
    ‘She will be safe for the moment, professor. I know that much.’ I almost believed it myself.
    ‘Call me Annabelle, please.’
    I resisted the urge to say it was a pretty name. But it was. ‘They will be keeping her safe, Annabelle,’ I said instead. ‘She’s precious goods to them. Until we hear their demands I am pretty certain they won’t harm a hair on her head.’
    ‘There has been no contact with the family, then? No ransom demand?’
    I shook my head.
    I didn’t tell her the other possibility that Adrian Tuttle had raised in the morning’s briefing. That she had been taken for body parts and for all we knew was already dead.
    ‘I’m sure we’ll hear something soon,’ I said. ‘And the entire resources of Private worldwide are at my disposal to get her safely home.’
    ‘Shouldn’t the police be left to handle it?’
    ‘The police will be doing everything they can. But sometimes we can do more.’
    ‘How so?’
    ‘Each year in London alone there about one hundred and seventy homicides,’ I said. ‘That’s more than one every three days. And that’s just homicide. If you take into account every other crime, from theft and assault to rape, that occurs in this city, never mind the ongoing threat of terrorist attacks that have to be investigated – if you think about that, then you can see that we can bring to bear on this case something the Metropolitan Police could never hope to.’
    ‘Which is?’ the professor asked.
    ‘Absolute focus.’ I said
    And it was true.
    Professor Weston looked down at my business card for a moment and then nodded, lifted her head and looked me straight in the eye.
    ‘Just tell me what you need.’

Chapter 34
    SUZY CRADLED THE phone to her ear and typed on the computer keyboard in front of her.
    ‘Copy that, Dan,’ she said as the crest of Chancellors University appeared in the centre of the screen above the word SECURITY printed in block capitals.
    She clicked on the crest and the image fragmented into a thousand pixels floating off the screen, leaving a plain password box in its place.
    ‘Okay, I got it,’ she said. ‘I’ll get back to you.’ She clicked her phone shut as Lucy came in.
    ‘What have we got?’
    ‘Dan’s been to see Hannah and Chloe’s tutor. She’s the faculty liaison officer with security at the college.’
    ‘Which means?’
    ‘She has access to the security files online. Including CCTV footage.’
    Suzy quickly typed in the password. Flicking through several screens and pulling up a list of digitally stored data. She clicked against yesterday’s date and then against the cameras marked for the union bar and then the quad outside. She right-clicked and saved them as AVI files.
    She stood up and grinned. ‘Come on.’
    ‘Where to?’
    ‘You haven’t seen this yet. It’s fun.’
    Lucy followed her, puzzled, as she walked away from her desk and led her back to the conference room.
    Inside, Suzy opened the top drawer of a storage unit and took out two pairs of what appeared to be lightly tinted sunglasses. She threw Lucy a pair, slipped hers on and picked up the thin wandlike remote control that operated the television that dominated the far end of the room. She