Page 121 of Final Betrayal

‘Because of the shadow on the CCTV footage?’

‘I doubt it was used as a means of escape, but it would be an ideal place to stash a murder weapon.’

Kirby piped up. ‘We need to get our hands on maps or drawings first. There’s probably a maze of tunnels down there. No point in any of us ending up lost.’

‘And none of you geniuses thought of getting one before we left the station?’ Lottie said.

They shook their heads.

‘I’m going down,’ she said. ‘Katie and Chloe might be in there.’

‘Boss,’ Kirby said. ‘Dowling has been down there since the incident, so there’s no way he could have taken your daughters.’

‘I don’t care. I need to see for myself. Hold that flashlight, Boyd, and when I’m safely down, follow me.’

Without waiting to hear any further argument, Lottie gripped the ends of the ladder, eased herself over the opening and carefully made her way downwards.

The dark was all-encompassing. The walls were close and the roof closer still. She hunched her back and felt around her with her hands. Damp and cold.

The light returned as Boyd’s feet thumped down beside her and slime splashed up over her boots and legs. She grabbed the torch and turned.

‘I really think we should get a map first,’ he protested.

‘Follow me or go back.’ Adrenalin fused her resolve. Could her girls be down here? Logic told her no, but all reason had deserted her. ‘I hope there’s fresh batteries in this fiddly yoke.’

‘Of course.’

She came across Dowling’s work jacket and hard hat.

‘Maybe you should put that on,’ Boyd said.

She kept walking. A junction in the tunnel stalled her progress. ‘Which way do you think we should go?’

‘I’d chance right.’

‘Let’s go this way and see where it leads us.’ She hoped she wouldn’t come across a rat, or she’d be jumping into Boyd’s arms, and she wasn’t in any humour for that.

There was less air now, and what little there was, was dank. She could feel it sticking to her as if it had a form of its own. She felt as if they’d been walking for ever, but she estimated it’d only been about five minutes, slowed by the low roof and narrow passage, when she stopped.

‘Wait,’ she said. She bit her bottom lip, the torch flickering up and down in her hand as she attempted to focus it on something that had caught the thin shaft of light. ‘Boyd, what’s that?’

She stepped into a curved cavern. The way ahead was blocked by a brick wall, though a hole seemed to have been bored in it. Bricks and cement lay in a pile. But that wasn’t what had caught her attention. Illogically, she thought she’d found either Chloe or Katie, and her heart seemed to suspend its motion before kicking off again, racing like a sprinter. Dropping to her knees, she felt Boyd’s breath on the back of her neck.

‘It’s a body,’ he said. ‘Here a while by the looks of it.’

‘Is it male or female?’ She stared at the skeletonised remains.

‘Remnants of a shirt and denim jeans. It could be either sex. I’d say the rats had a good feast on this one.’

‘Shut up, Boyd.’ She glanced around, moving the light up and down the walls and along the floor. ‘No footwear, and no bag or anything that could give us an identity.’

‘We’ll need to get SOCOs on site.’

‘Either this person was murdered or they were left down here to die. That wall looks more recent than the rest of the tunnel.’ She pointed to the brickwork with the gaping hole smashed through the middle. ‘But why? Who? Jesus, I don’t know what’s going on.’

‘We’d better make our way back and call it in.’

‘What was Dowling doing down here when the crane collapsed? And why was he alone?’

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