DS Jessica Daniel series: Think of the Children / Playing with Fire / Thicker Than Water – Books 4–6 (42 page)

Apart from Andrew wondering if the man at the back might have some sort of medical condition that made him laugh at incredibly unfunny situations, the final hour of the film passed without
incident. As soon as the credits began to scroll and the lights came up, Andrew heard shuffling at the back and turned to see a massively overweight man in a blue uniform bounding down the aisle
with a dustpan and brush. The middle-aged laughing man from the back was brushing a mass of uneaten popcorn from his jumper and trousers. In a snap judgement Andrew decided he probably worked in
insurance and had a wife and two kids. He didn’t know why those things seemed true – or why that might equate to the type of enjoyment he had apparently taken from a bad movie. Either
way, Andrew followed him out before stopping to one side and untying his laces.

As he crouched on the floor slowly retying them, Andrew watched Sienna and her friend walk past, both talking on their respective mobile phones. He waited until they had reached the corner that
led back to the foyer and then stood, walking briskly in the direction they had gone in. Sienna’s powder-blue tracksuit was hard to miss and her friend’s skirt was so short, the two of
them were attracting looks from both males and females as Andrew followed around thirty metres behind them. They walked through the heavy front doors, before stopping to talk to each other. Andrew
had little choice than to carry on past them but he took his phone out of his pocket and held it to his ear, speaking to a non-existent person as he passed.

As well as his interest and degree in criminology, Andrew felt it was his ability to blend into his surroundings that made him a good private investigator when he was doing something that
motivated him. He wasn’t bothered who the father of Sienna’s aborted child was – but he was engrossed enough in her father’s story to take the man’s money and trail
his daughter.

A handful of people passed Andrew as he leant against a thick brick pillar. He continued to talk into his phone, half-watching the two young women chat with each other. Eventually, Sienna spun
around and started walking along the pathway that ran around the giant car park. The complex comprised the cinema, a couple of restaurants, half-a-dozen large electrical outlets and a few fast-food
chains. In the far corner, Andrew could see a small blue hatchback racing along before handbrake-turning to the delight of the handful of young people standing around watching. Other than that, the
area was surprisingly quiet, with a smattering of vehicles manoeuvring around the car park and even fewer people meandering along the walkways.

Andrew pocketed his phone and walked towards his car, entering the driver’s side without taking his eyes from the two females who were now around a hundred metres away. From the direction
they were heading in, the pair seemed to be returning to the bus stop on the main road. He started the engine and began to crawl towards the exit when the women moved off the pathway and started
crossing the car park towards a burger place. Andrew eased his car forward, before edging into the separate parking area that served the restaurant. He watched Sienna and her friend enter the
restaurant, still chatting to each other, and then reversed his vehicle into a space that ensured he could see most of the inside of the building.

Sitting up straighter to get a better view, Andrew watched the women sit at a table without approaching the counter. The investigator was wondering what they might be up to when he heard a
screeching noise. He turned to see a small blue car racing into the car park, its wheels squealing from the harshness of the turn. For a moment, Andrew didn’t think it would stop before
cannoning into a bollard, but the vehicle skidded to a halt mere centimetres before colliding with it. All four doors opened in unison and Andrew could hear thumping music blaring before it stopped
abruptly. Three young men and a female stepped out of the car. Andrew could see they were all in their late teens or early twenties, the woman wearing a pink tracksuit very similar to
Sienna’s in style. One of the men pulled up his jeans so they were covering the lower third of his backside, allowing his white boxer shorts to hang over the top, as another focused on
straightening a baseball cap.

It was faced with groups like this that Andrew felt his age. Being in his mid-thirties he wasn’t that old but the types of young people he saw around were so alien to those of his own
youth that he couldn’t comprehend how much things had changed in what felt like a relatively short period of time.

The group of four slouched their way towards the restaurant, bumping through the door at the front, before Andrew watched Sienna and the other girl stand up. Sienna kissed the female on the
cheek and then hugged each of the three men individually. Andrew watched the final one squeeze her bottom, for which he received a playful slap.

Sitting up further, Andrew reached into the footwell of the seat behind and picked up his camera. He had never had much of an interest in photography but it was a necessary part of his job. As
such, and with money not being a big issue, he had bought the third most expensive one from the biggest camera shop in the Arndale Centre. He figured the one that cost the most was probably
overpriced, with the next one down inferior to the first. He guessed the third one would probably have most of the same functions as the first but likely be better than the second, albeit with a
lesser-known brand name. It wasn’t the most scientific of theories but, either way, he was happy with what he ended up with.

The six young people approached the serving counter and Andrew snapped multiple photographs as they turned with their food to walk back to the table. He focused especially on the males,
wondering if any of them – particularly the bottom-squeezer – was the person he was being paid to find. In the fifteen minutes it took them to finish eating, the sun had dipped towards
the tops of the trees on the far side of the car park.

One of the males whispered something in Sienna’s ear, making her laugh, while the third fed her chips as she sucked his fingers seductively just a few moments later. Andrew took photos of
it all, barely managing to capture everything before the light faded too much.

By the time he had finished, all three of the young men had enjoyed some sort of potentially erotic interaction with Sienna. Andrew wondered how Harley would take it if he could see the way his
daughter acted around the young men.

It had been hard to judge in the cinema when she was with only her friend but the investigator could see she exuded sexuality, despite her age. There was an absolute confidence about the way she
treated the males and, despite her unflattering attire, all three of them were clearly entranced by her at the expense of the other girls. Andrew didn’t need to see her around other men to
know she would have this effect on pretty much anyone, especially the young, inexperienced ones. He watched the way she smiled at them and the way she flicked her blonde hair to one side each time
she was halfway through a conversation. Everything about her movement appeared so natural and yet, at the same time, there was something that didn’t feel quite right.

Apart from the flirtatious hair flicks, Sienna touched her face a lot, almost as a way of self-reassurance. It was very subtle but Andrew also noticed that she barely ate anything. Aside from
the chips she had been fed, most of her food was played with and then discarded back into the brown paper bag it had come from, in such a way that you wouldn’t know she was doing it unless
you were watching her closely.

The six young people left the fast-food restaurant together, and Andrew watched a weary-looking cleaner shake his head at the mess left on their table. At first, he thought they were heading for
the car but the group continued past it, walking in the direction of the cinema. Unsure of the best way to follow them with the light fading quickly, Andrew started the ignition and drove on slowly
to the main part of the car park with his headlights switched off. He weaved in and out of the parked vehicles, keeping his revs low and watching the young adults skirt around the outside of the
area. Andrew pulled into a space and left the engine idling. He used the viewfinder of the camera to zoom in on the group and could see Sienna holding hands with one of the men. The light
wasn’t clear enough to be sure but Andrew thought it was the bottom-squeezer.

From where he was sitting, Andrew had a view of the entire complex. More people had appeared since he had left the cinema and couples were steadily streaming into nearby restaurants.

For a few moments Andrew lost sight of the six people as they disappeared behind a thick pillar that was similar to the one he had leant on outside the cinema. As two of the girls at the front
emerged on the other side, the investigator felt a moment of panic as Sienna didn’t appear. He shunted over to the passenger seat to see if he could get a better view but there was still no
sign of her. Andrew reached across and turned off the engine, stepping out of the car and walking in an arc across the car park in an effort to see her again.

Two of the other men were following the women closely but none of them were looking backwards. As he moved quickly, Andrew heard a car’s wheels squeal and then the sound of a horn. Bright
lights illuminated him in the rapidly increasing darkness as he realised he had walked straight across the road in front of a car. Before drawing any more attention to himself, Andrew stepped out
of the vehicle’s way and slid between two parked cars. From where he was, he should have been able to see fully behind the post but it was too dark. The other four people from the group were
now close to the front of the cinema, at least fifty metres away from where Sienna had dropped out of his view.

Andrew walked as quickly as he thought he could get away with without attracting further attention. He dashed between two more parked cars before reaching the walkway and striding past
Sienna’s friends in the opposite direction. At first he couldn’t work out where Sienna might have gone as there didn’t appear to be a gap between the buildings. As he neared the
corner, Andrew saw what had happened. One of the young men had Sienna pinned up against the wall. One of his hands was inside her tracksuit top and she had a hand hooked around the back of his neck
pulling him into her. For a moment, Andrew thought about taking a photograph but he realised there wasn’t enough light unless he used a flash. He took a few steps closer to establish the male
involved was the bottom-squeezer and then turned and walked back to his car, taking extra care not to stride in front of any other vehicles.

Back in the driver’s seat, Andrew picked up his camera and skimmed through the images he had taken, half-watching the pillar to make sure no one emerged from behind it. He eyed the
photographs of the male, wondering if he should take them to Harley. They offered no proof of who had got his daughter pregnant – but they showed that Sienna was in a relationship of sorts
with someone.

He was beginning to wonder how much longer the couple could get away with such a public display of affection when he saw Sienna emerge from one side of the post walking back towards the
fast-food restaurant. She was on her own, moving quickly and smoothing her top down. The man was walking in the opposite direction, towards where their friends had headed. Andrew’s fingers
hovered over the key in the ignition, unsure of where Sienna was going. She strode past her friend’s car in the direction of the bus stop but then cut diagonally across the car park towards a
large electrical store.

He took the keys out of the ignition and stepped quickly out of the car. Because of the speed and direction in which Sienna was moving, she had moved out of his line of vision. He jogged towards
where she had headed, looking from side to side to see where she could have gone. She had been out of his eyesight for less than thirty seconds and there wasn’t enough of a crowd for her to
have disappeared into. Andrew reached the front of the store, thinking her pale blue outfit was distinctive enough that he couldn’t miss her, even with the fading light.

With no obvious idea of where she could have gone, Andrew entered the store. Three washing machines were stacked in a pyramid directly in front of him and a female shop assistant with a smile
that may as well have been painted on lurched towards him asking if she could help. Andrew ignored her, striding past the tills before attempting to peer over the top of the display cases to see if
Sienna was anywhere obvious. He walked as quickly as he thought he could manage without drawing unwanted attention, bounding along the width of the store, checking the aisles for any sign of the
woman. After retracing his steps, it became clear she wasn’t in the shop.

Andrew exited and continued walking in a straight line off the pavement onto the car park. He stopped and turned, trying to see what he had missed. If Sienna hadn’t entered the store, he
couldn’t see where else she might have gone. Even if she had sprinted, she wouldn’t have reached another shop before he saw her and there was nowhere else for her to have gone unless
she had got into a car.

The area of the complex he was standing in was relatively empty, with fewer than two dozen parked cars. Andrew was confused, wondering if Sienna somehow knew he was watching her, when he noticed
a narrow gap between the store he had just exited and the one adjacent to it. Because of the angle he had approached the shop from, a pillar with the same brickwork as the store had obscured his
view.

Annoyed with himself for missing it, Andrew walked purposefully towards the alley, not knowing exactly what he was planning to do. He had no idea where it came out or, if Sienna had headed
through the gap between the buildings, how he could explain his appearance if she was waiting at the end.

Without a plan, Andrew broke into a run. The alley was only a metre wide with gravel underfoot. He crunched his way to the end, where it opened out into a concreted yard. Ahead, Andrew could see
tall metal gates where he guessed delivery lorries would enter. He squinted towards the corners of the yard, trying to look for any sign of Sienna but the light had faded to such a degree that he
could barely see the shape of anything except the gates. One spotlight hooked high on the store illuminated the middle part of the area – but there was nothing there, except an upturned
plastic crate.