"Ma'am, do you still want me to secure the bin store?" Rob stood in the car park of the nursing home as all the police cars arrived, filling the sky with blue lights.
"She told you to go home Detective." Ruth didn't look at him, just stared at the scrappy bit of paper in her hand.
"With all due respect, she's not my boss. You are. I can help."
"They've got my boys and we don't know where she's gone Rob. We're not going to be much help on this one."
"Can I see?" He held his hand out for the paper which she reluctantly passed him before walking over to the uniforms to give them their orders.
He read it slowly, three times.
Carla's alive
It's Ben
He has Jemal and Brian
Dog collar
Rob was confused and continued staring at the writing just the same as his boss had, as if the paper would magically produce more information.
"Excuse me." A uniformed police officer was asking him to move as she unrolled plastic tape around the car park.
"You don't need to cordon all this off, the crime scene is the bin store round there. Use this section to get everyone in and out. Who's here from CID?"
"No one yet sir. Busy night."
"Wonderful." He said sarcastically. He hated that Thea had gone off without him and left him here feeling useless and helpless. He walked over to Ruth, he needed orders, something to do to stop wondering if his best friend was dead already.
"Boss, I need your opinion on this." He handed her back the note.
"My opinion?"
"Yeah, what is this dog collar thing all about?"
"I have no idea Rob and unless you do, it's useless to us. There is nothing we can do but stay here and process this. Stay here and help or go home, make a decision." She didn't mean to be inpatient with him but she was in a state of panic. An anxiety over her missing grandson, the likes of which she'd never felt before. She felt just as useless as he did right now.
He walked off, got his notebook out of his car and was going to start getting first accounts from the nurse and Mateus when he figured he should ring his wife first.
"Thank god Rob, what the fuck is going on? You told me to lock all the doors and I've been hiding upstairs with Kate fucking petrified for the last hour!"
"I'm sorry babe. You gotta stay there though, don't move just stay in that room. You turn all the lights off?"
"Yes. Did they find her?"
"She's been taken. Thea got a phone call, she's gone to try and... I don't know. It's not looking good Abs."
"But your safe? Your safe right now?"
"Yes."
His wife could tell how pissed off he was about being safe and not being with his best friend, helping to do the job they were both trained to do.
"That's good. That's a good thing Rob. Thea's strong, she'd do anything for Carla."
"That's what I'm worried about. Anyway, it's going to be a late one, I don't know what time I'll be home."
"That's ok. You just text me if you hear anything, I don't care what time Rob. Just promise me you'll stay safe. I love you."
"I love you too." He went to put the phone down but suddenly changed his mind. "Oh wait, Abs, you ever heard Carla talk about a dog collar?"
"A dog collar? Which one?"
"Which one?"
"They had this thing a little while back, T bought Randy a collar but Carla said it was ugly or something so she got him a new one."
"He has two collars?"
"Yeah, the one Carla got he wears around the house and the other one is only for walks. Why is this important?"
He knew his best friend, if Carla preferred a dog collar, she'd give in without question so why stand firm about having two? One specifically for walks? It's a tracker. It's a fucking tracker!
"Your a genius Abi. I love you. I gotta go. RUTH!"
"Detective, I know this situation is very stressful and we don't know where Detective Masterson has gone but you need to calm down or I'm sending you home!"
"Ma'am, it's the dog collar. I know what it means. We have to go, we have to go now." He headed over to his car but she didn't follow him and shook her head.
"I'll drive, where are we going?"
"Thea's house. I have a theory."
Ruth got in the car and flicked her sirens on, she had reservations about leaving the other police officers without anyone in charge to organise but she believed Rob had a lead and they couldn't ignore it.
It was a short drive to Thea's house, Ruth didn't bother to park and abandoned her car in the road while Rob ran up to the front door and used his emergency key Thea had given him when Amy died.
Randy scampered to the front door, he was over excited but not aggressive.
"Hey dude, ok, ok. It's just me uncle Rob."
"What exactly are we looking for uncle Rob?"
"T's laptop ma'am. It's the dog collar."
"The dog is wearing a collar, how will that help?"
"According to my wife," he sat on the sofa and loaded up Thea's laptop. He just hoped she hadn't changed the password since their lockdown. "Randy has two collars, one specifically for walks."
"Ok? So Thea and Carla have a very spoiled dog."
"Yes Ma'am but I think the only reason our very suspicious colleague would insist on a separate collar for walks would be-"
"In case he got lost or stolen. Fuck! Do you think she has it?"
"I'm in and she has it Ma'am, she's fucking miles away but she has it!" He couldn't help but be proud of his friend in that moment. "Paper, I need to write this down and then we'll go."
"No Rob."
"What the fuck? Yes! Who fucking knows what she's walked into. They have your grandson!"
"We also can't run in there not knowing what's going on or how many people are there. I understand why she did it but if we go in there unprepared we could make it worse for all of them. Just take a breath. Detective Masterson is many things but she has not learned the art and benefits of a bit of patience. Get google maps up, find that location. I want to know what's surrounding it and get Jerry back on the phone. I want to know everything about that area, who lives there, who's patch it's on and how accessible it is."
"It's just a road. A back road by the looks of it and she's parked halfway down it. You don't think maybe... she could be dead?"
"It's possible Rob." She took her police issued radio out of her pocket. "This is DCI Ruth Welsby, 559132, I need a notice alert sent to the ARU asap, possible hostage situation, rendezvous Milton Road, cold approach. Multiple possibly armed targets down Royden Lane, vehicle blocking road requiring approach on foot."
"Copy that, DCI Welsby. Request sent, await confirmation."
"What do we do now?" Rob jumped off the sofa, he couldn't deny how excited he was but he always responded this way to danger and following leads. So did his friend, that's why they were born to do this job.
"We wait." She said calmly, looking around the living room at all the pictures on the mantlepiece and walls, it had changed since she'd last been here. It seemed more homely somehow since she'd swept it before their arrival back from the wedding. She'd only ever been here once before that to check on Thea around two weeks after Amy had died, the house was empty and echoey then. Now it had all these personal little touches from the couple and it felt like a home. She smiled remembering Thea tell her she wasn't the same person anymore, 'I have a family. Me, Thea Masterson, orphan and widow with a family'.
"Are you ok Ma'am?"
"Let the dog outside Rob." She nodded to Randy as he clawed at the back door of the kitchen.
He followed her orders as always but was surprised when she followed him into the kitchen. She could feel herself getting emotional which became worse when she saw her picture on their fridge. It wasn't just of her, it was a group photo from their new years gathering which had taken ages to set up with a timer and trying to keep Jemal still, but the result was an excellent picture of all of them. Nana, Brian, Chantelle, everyone sat around a large dining table full of food and half empty bottles. No one in the picture looks sad or worried, it was beautiful.
"Rob I need a drink. Where does she keep her booze?"
"Ma'am we're wor-" he saw the look on her face and stopped himself. His boss was like a robot, emotionless no matter what the situation but not today, today she seemed scared and fragile. "Whiskeys in that cupboard to the left and Carla keeps a bottle of vodka in the freezer."
"Do you want one?" She pulled the bottle out of the freezer and selected a shot glass.
"I'll have a shot of the whiskey." He figured it was ok. She was his boss so he was technically just following orders.
Ruth poured both the drinks with a shaking hand neither of them discussed.
"We shouldn't have let her go." He said plainly, slamming back the dark liquid in his glass.
"She had no other option. We had no option but to let her go or she'd have pulled her gun on us. You saw her, you know her better than anyone and she'd die for Carla. What would you have done?"
"The same but I'd have taken her with me! I wouldn't have gone on my own."
"If you had gone with her, I'd have never worked out this dog collar business."
"You would have eventually. At least she gave you the paper, she doesn't trust me enough. When things heat up or get dangerous she drops me, she'd rather do it on her own."
"That's not true. As I understand it your the first person she rang tonight. When shit really hit the fan Rob, she rang you."
"It's been different since she met Carla, she works alone and maybe she always has really."
"Since Carla or since Abi got pregnant?"
"Well, that's near on the same sorta time."
"So did you ever think that maybe it's got nothing to do with Carla or the job and more that you had a baby on the way? That she didn't grow up with her parents and wants you to be there for your daughter? Do everything she can so that Kate gets a Dad that stays out of danger and lives, unlike her own?"
"You think Thea's that deep?" He smiled, bending down to fuss the dog.
"I think she doesn't say a lot because she's thinking all the time. If she gets out of this alive it'll be down to her mind, not her physical ability or marksmanship."
"Control to 559132. This is a secure channel, over." The radio she left on the living room coffee table sprang to life. Rob and Ruth looked at each other before retrieving it from the lounge.
"559132, go ahead control." Her heart raced and she wished she'd had two shots, the first not being especially effective at settling her nerves.
"ARU confirmed. ARV deployed. ETA to agreed location 25 minutes. Be advised, bomb squad and ambulance deployed due to in area reports of gunfire & explosives."
"Copy that control." She put the radio back in her pocket. "Are you armed Rob?"
"I have my handgun Ma'am."
"Me too. Fancy seeing if the armed response unit has any spare tactical rifles we can play with?"
"Oh hell yes!"
X