The Patient Killer (A DCI Morton Crime Novel Book 4) by Sean Campbell, Daniel Campbell Page A

turned as directed and found himself creeping slowly uphill. The railway by which he’d arrived stretched out underneath Bell Bridge, and Mayberry wondered why he was walking such a circuitous route.
    Then the phone rang.
    He let it ring for a moment, fleetingly looking around for any sign of Morton or Ayala, and then placed the phone to his ear.
    ‘Take the pedestrian cut-through on the left a hundred feet ahead. Don’t hang up.’ It was a man’s voice, deep and without any hesitation. To Mayberry’s ear the accent could have been from virtually anywhere south of Milton Keynes. It was a bog standard Received Pronounced accent that gave little away.
    ‘O-OK,’ Mayberry stammered. For once his aphasia was helping. It made him sound like a nervous schmuck blackmailed into committing robbery rather than a confident undercover policeman.
    Still no sign of the others. Ayala had got the message, but had he gone on to Weybridge? And where was Morton?
    The only comfort was that they knew he had been on Bell Bridge Road from the last text message.
    The alleyway led Mayberry through to a residential area.
    ‘W-what now?’ he said.
    ‘Keep going. Walk on until you seen a house with a red door.’
    ‘R-red door. Got it.’ Mayberry walked along the road. It was a wide-set residential road with cars parked along the pavement. The houses were mostly semi-detached family affairs with the occasional low-rise block of flats.
    ‘I c-can’t see a h-house with a red d-door.’
    ‘Just keep walking.’
    Mayberry bowed his head against the wind and rain and carried on.
    When he was nearing the end of the road, he heard tyres screech behind him and a black van pulled up beside him. The side door slammed open and two men wearing balaclavas jumped out.
    Mayberry had just enough time to see a girl tied up and blindfolded inside the van, her mascara streaking down her cheeks underneath the blindfold, before a hood was thrown over his head. They spun him around, yanked his hands behind his back and tied them together with plastic cable ties before shoving him roughly into the back of the van.

Chapter 19: Blind
    T hursday April 9th 18:25
    Morton knew something was wrong the moment that Niall Stapleton’s phone rang.
    The kidnappers were being overly cautious. The route that Mayberry had been texted led around the station in a great loop, and then back towards the main roundabout.
    That was where they lost him. Somewhere along Bell Bridge Road, which was gridlocked with traffic, Mayberry had taken the phone call and disappeared.
    Rafferty and Ayala were waiting at the intersection of Bell Bridge and Pyrcroft, where they had parked outside an MOT centre with a clear view of the approach.
    Morton hit his radio. ‘Still no sign of him, Ayala?’
    ‘No, sir.’
    ‘I’m stuck in traffic. Have Rafferty stay in her car, and keep an eye out in case Mayberry surfaces. I need you to head this way on foot and look for anywhere that he might have disappeared.’
    ‘Got it, boss.’
    Morton revved his engine impatiently. He was almost halfway up the bridge, still idling behind a queue of traffic, when Ayala came into view. Morton saw him gesticulate wildly to the side, and then the radio crackled with Ayala’s voice once more.
    ‘There’s a cut-through here, boss. Mayberry must have turned off. I’m in pursuit.’
    The cars ahead of Morton lurched into motion, and he slammed the pedal down. The pavement widened as Morton came over the bridge, and he seized the opportunity to shift the left-hand side of the car onto the pavement and overtake the car in front of him. He spared a glance to the left, where Ayala had disappeared, and saw a residential road with nobody in sight. The car was never going to fit through the cut-through, so he’d have to loop around from the main road.
    Car horns blared as Morton sped around the corner, every bump in the uneven pavement reverberating through the car. He swung onto Pyrcroft Road and caught a wheelie bin