Page 45 of Be My Traitor

“Milly, you have to tell me what this is about, otherwise I’ve got no choice I’ve got to tell the police.”

“I’m with Amber right now.”

I could have collapsed with shock. “What do you mean, you’re with Amber?”

“Look, get rid of the police. Tell them Amber’s been found and it was all a misunderstanding. Tell them you forgot you’d sent your driver to collect her. I don’t care. But if you don’t get hereby yourselfwithin the next twenty minutes, she’s going to hurt Amber.”

“She? Who’s going to hurt her.”

“I don’t know who she is,” Milly wailed. “But she’s standing right in front of me with Amber and she’s going to hurt our little girl if you don’t stop wasting time and get over here.”

I let out a frustrated sigh, running a hand through my hair. “The Dauphin Trading Estate you say?”

“Yes. The last warehouse on the right. Hurry – she said you had twenty minutes, but with all the talking we’ve been doing, she might not wait that long.”

“I’ll be right over,” I promised, as I hung up the phone.

What the hell was I going to tell the police? They were about to go on a full-blown manhunt for Amber.

There was no other way. I was going to have to pull rank and use my name to try and talk my way out of here.

I left the toilet and almost walked straight into a police officer.

“Mr Donatello,” he said. “Would you come with me? We’ve got a few questions for you.”

“Detective. Just the man I wanted to see.” I plastered a fake smile across my face. “It would appear there’s been a mix up. Amber is perfectly safe and well. She’s with her mother. Apparently, she didn’t realise that Amber was coming back on the bus and went to the aquarium to get her. I’m so sorry for the inconvenience.”

“Is that right?” The officer raised an eyebrow. “If that is the case, then we’ll need to talk to Ms Knight to confirm. I’m sure you can appreciate that in a high-profile case like this, we can’t just let things slide.”

I pulled myself up to my full height and channelled my inner Penelope Donatello. “AndI’msure thatyoucan appreciate that as a Donatello, I am completely within my rights to expect you to take my word for it. If I tell you that Amber is safe, Amber is safe, and given that her mother is Milly Knight, I’m sure the Knights would take exception to your implications that I’m telling you anything other than the truth. Pull your head in, call off the search and tell everyone it’s been a misunderstanding. Otherwise, I’ll be having words with your superior. I’m sure you’ll love being busted down to traffic police.”

“You can’t speak to me like that,” the officer blustered.

“Fine. If you won’t sort this out, you leave me no choice.”

I walked into the main room where the police were still questioning staff and parents. I clapped my hands. “Can I have everyone’s attention please?” One of the benefits of being head was that I knew how to make people stop and take notice and the room immediately fell quiet, ready to hear the most difficult speech I was ever going to make.

“I must offer my most sincere apologies to everyone, but Amber is not missing.” Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Kym gasp and practically collapse and I felt awful knowing how guilty she was feeling for losing Amber. “She is with her mother and is perfectly safe. I’m afraid I can’t go into details right now, but I am very sorry for any stress this has caused you all. I’m going to give all nursery staff the day off tomorrow so they can recover from their ordeal and will be available all day to answer any questions any of you may have, including the police. Now, I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to leave. Something has come up which demands my urgent attention.”

The moment I finished speaking, uproar broke out. People crowded round me, wanting to know what the hell was going on – and I didn’t blame them. I was wondering exactly the same thing, but Milly had made it perfectly clear that I couldn’t tell anyone what she’d told me and I trusted her to know what she was talking about.

“I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to insist you let me go. As I said, I’ll answer your questions tomorrow. Feel free to email me or call my secretary to set up an appointment.”

I pushed my way through the crowd and went out to my car. I fired up the engine and floored the gas, screeching out of the car park. Milly had told me I had twenty minutes to get to the industrial estate, but as I drove away, I could see in my rear-view mirror that the police were hot on my heels. I had to lose them. I didn’t want to think of what might happen if I rocked on up to the warehouse with a police escort.

Gritting my teeth, I yanked the steering wheel to the left and took a sudden turn. Luckily, I knew the streets around the Academy like the back of my hand and I knew exactly where I was going to lose the cops.

I hit the button to make a hands-free call to my driver. “Theo. Bring the Suzuki to the underground carpark off Maine Street. Be there in five.” I hung up before he could answer. He’d be there. All I had to do was keep ahead of the police for long enough to meet him.

And that was going to be tricky. The cop driving the car behind me knew what he was doing and he was determined not to let me get away. I couldn’t blame him. I knew full well that I was behaving suspiciously. Any police officer worth their salt would know that there was something strange going on and wasn’t going to take my story at face value. Amber was a prime target for kidnapping given who her parents were. If I was the investigating officer, I’d assume my strange behaviour was an attempt to cover something up and want to know where I had to get to in such a hurry. I couldn’t blame them for doing their job – but it was potentially putting my daughter’s life at risk and I couldn’t allow that.

I did another sharp turn, doing my best to shake my tail, but the police driver was determined. I just had to hope that my plan would work. If not, Amber was potentially in serious danger.

The car park loomed ahead and I did my best to fake overshooting the entrance before turning off. For once, luck was on my side and the police driver fell for my ruse, forcing him to waste precious time as, tyres screeching, I raced down to the basement level of the car park where Theo was waiting for me with my Suzuki bike.

I pulled up next to him. “Quick!” I barked. “Get behind the wheel. I need you to take the police on a wild goose chase to the west side of town. Get them as far away from the Navarre district as possible.”

“Got it.”

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