Page 117 of The Echo Man (Major Crimes)

She feels something hit her head, and her legs give way. Her body drops to the hard concrete.

Everything goes black.

CHAPTER

72

“WHAT DO YOU mean you’ve lost her? How have you lost her?”

Cara is aware she’s shouting at the DC at her side, but she can’t help it.

“I … We don’t know. We last saw her on the pay phone down the south corridor. But then … She was just gone.”

Cara bellows another profanity, then screams down her radio to anyone who’s listening. The calls come back the same. The suspect has disappeared.

Cara’s running now, heading toward main reception. She pushes the queue out of the way and shows her warrant card to the man behind the desk.

“Where’s your CCTV?” she shouts. “Your security office?”

He points to a small door on the right-hand side, and Cara races toward it, opening it and addressing the guy behind the row of monitors.

“South corridor,” she says to him, and he scrolls through the tape. But he’s slow, painfully slow, and Cara twitches, impatient.

“There! There!” Cara points at the screen, and they follow the figure of Jess as she runs out of the hospital. The security guard switches cameras, but they’ve lost her again.

“Where the hell is she going?” Cara mutters. “Taxi rank. Look for the taxi rank,” she says, and sure enough, they spot Jess come into view, on the edge of the screen. She’s fidgeting from foot to foot, staring at the empty space where the cars should be. She turns, talking to someone out of shot.

“Can you see who that is?” she asks, but the guard shakes his head.

“No cameras on that side, I’m afraid.”

Jess speaks to the person again, but then Cara sees her fall. Now only her feet are in shot and Cara watches as they’re dragged away.

“Shit! Shit! Suspect has been attacked,” she shouts down her radio. “Repeat. Suspect is down.”

She looks at the security guard. He’s scrolling through other screens, but they can’t see anything. She’s vanished.

Cara can’t believe this is happening. Jessica Ambrose has gone.

* * *

Next to her, Cara can hear the DC putting calls out to Control. She phones Shenton.

“Look for CCTV—anything,” she says. “We need to find her.”

Cara knows this is no coincidence. The Echo Man has got her.

Dazed, she starts walking away, up the stairs, following her sudden urge to be with someone she loves, with her family. The uniform standing guard nods to her as she comes closer, and she pushes the door open.

Griffin looks up when he sees her. He doesn’t look like her brother, dressed in the emasculating hospital gown, surrounded by tubes and equipment, his face gray, without the omnipresent cigarette in his hand. He smiles at first, then frowns with concern when he sees the look on her face.

“What’s happened?” he says, sitting up.

“It’s Jess.” Cara can barely bring herself to say it. “We followed her here. But she’s gone.”

“He’s taken her,” Griffin says.

“I’m so sorry.”

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