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

on the pavement, sending it flying along the pavement, spewing rubbish all over the place.
    The cars ahead pulled to the side as what to them must have looked like a maniac screeched along the pavement. An elderly lady on her walker ducked off the path and into someone’s front garden just in time as Morton continued to accelerate.
    At the next left, Morton turned sharply into Lasswade Road and zoomed down towards Barker Road.
    Ayala came running into view a few moments later.
    Morton pulled his car over next to him and rolled down the window.
    ‘No sign of him, boss. The cut-through comes out back there’ – Ayala jabbed a thumb over his shoulder back down Barker Road – ‘but there’s nowhere he could have gone on foot. There’s a cul-de-sac back down the road. Do you think he’s inside one of these houses?’
    Morton unlocked his car door and stepped out onto the pavement. Assuming he hadn’t passed the kidnappers while driving, and he was pretty sure that he hadn’t, Mayberry was either in one of the houses on the street or he’d gone farther along towards Vincent Road – and back towards the A320.
    ‘We split up.’ Morton leant into the car and picked up his radio. ‘Rafferty, we need as many ANPR-enabled squad cars in the area as you can muster. Concentrate on the area between Barker Road and the A320. Got it?’
    Rafferty’s voice came back over the radio. ‘On it.’
    Morton turned to Ayala. ‘You take the eastern half of the road between here and the alleyway. I’ll head west. Call if you find anything.’
    The western end of Barker Road was mostly semi-detached houses, each painted some shade of blue or green. Morton walked briskly towards the closest, which was painted turquoise.
    A woman opened the front door before he was halfway down the path.
    ‘Oi! Can’t you read? No solicitors. And at this time of the evening!’ She waved a hand at a sign by the door.
    Morton approached the door. ‘I’m with the Metropolitan Police, ma’am. Did you see a gentleman walking along here this evening? This is what he looks like.’
    Morton produced his mobile, opened up a picture of Mayberry from the police staff database, and showed the woman.
    ‘Shifty-looking fella, innee? Nope, not seen him. I heard tyres screeching loudly just a few minutes ago, though. Ruined my soaps, it did.’ The woman leant against the doorframe.
    ‘Where did you hear it?’
    She looked at him as if he were daft. ‘The road, love. Where else d’ya think I’d hear a car?’
    ‘No. Which direction?’
    ‘Oh. That way.’ She pointed towards Vincent Road, away from the cut-through. ‘Can’t have been far. It was bloody loud. That everything? I hear Corrie starting.’
    Sure enough, the familiar jingle of the nation’s favourite soap could be heard echoing from behind her, which meant it was now half past seven.
    ‘That’ll be all, thanks.’ Morton turned and headed off in the direction the woman had indicated. Thirty feet down the road, his stomach churned violently.
    There, on the road, were rubber marks. And next to them was a mobile phone, the screen smashed but still recognisable. The clone of Niall Stapleton’s phone.
    Mayberry was gone.

Chapter 20: The Search
    T hursday April 9th 19:30
    Barker Road quickly became a circus as residents shuffled out onto the pavement to take a look at the madmen banging on each door in turn.
    None of the locals admitted to seeing Mayberry’s abduction. According to them, Barker Road was a quiet residential street where nothing interesting ever happened – until now.
    As Morton walked away from another front door empty-handed, Ayala called him over to the car. The passenger-side door was open, and Ayala was riding shotgun with a laptop open in front of him and a long lead trailing from the side to connect up to the dashboard computer.
    ‘Boss, I think I’ve got something. The lady over there’ – Ayala pointed towards a house about fifty feet past the abduction point –