Innocent Hostage Read Online Free

idea.”
    Baz’s voice boomed through the speakers. “At least that answers one question. Tania’s not there so that’s one less person to worry about on site.”
    Breck didn’t give a damn about Tania. Tania had always been able to take care of herself. And he was beginning to wonder if she hadn’t set this scene up.
    “What about the other two children?” Ingrid Rowland asked.
    Breck jolted. He’d forgotten Pixie and Bob, the other two kids in the Kerr family. Pixie was Marty’s daughter from a previous relationship, and Tania and Marty’s son Bob was barely eighteen months old. Breck knew very little about them, only what Kit had told him.
    “If Tania left, wouldn’t she take the kids with her?” Jack Tanner asked.
    “I’m not sure,” Breck said.
    “Oh, she’d take Pixie and Bob all right,” Ingrid Rowland said grimly. A trickle of sweat dribbled down the side of her face to disappear inside her collar.
    Breck sympathized. The back of his shirt was saturated with nervous sweat even though the aircon kept an even temperature inside the trailer van.
    “Marchant. He’s back again.” Tanner was gesticulating over Ingrid Rowland’s head.
    Breck spun around in his chair. On the screen he saw Marty with his cell phone to his ear. His voice rang through the speakers. “Put Marchant on. Must be frantic by now about his poofy little boy.”
    “He’s here,” Tanner replied. “Just a moment.” He flicked the hold button and handed the phone to Breck. “Find out what he really wants. Maybe it’s not about Tania at all. Maybe it’s something else. Usually I’d say we spin it out, but this has gone on too long.”
    Everyone inside the van looked at Kit, sitting beside Kerr. His head drooped in the spring sunlight, and the grimy hand plucking at grass-blades trembled.
    Breck flicked the switch. “I’m here, Kerr. What can I do for you?”
    “Get Tania on the phone.”
    “She’s not here. She’s never been here. If she’s disappeared, then it’s nothing to do with me.”
    “She’s with you all right. She said that even if you were a nosy, sanctimonious ponce, at least you earned good money. The bitch. Just because I lost my job. I know she ran to you.”
    “No, she didn’t because she knows damn well I’d never have her back at any price. Use your brains, Kerr,” Breck replied, deviating from Tanner’s set piece. “Since our divorce, the woman has played me for money to keep you lot in luxuries. There’s no way she’d get past my front door.”
    It was quiet while Kerr regrouped, then “Get me another beer,” they heard him say in an aside to Kit.
    “How many does that make?” Tanner asked the video technician.
    “Five. Starting to get to him.”
    “Yeah,” Tanner agreed.
    On the screen they watched Kit trot in through the open front door, heading for the kitchen at the back of the house.
    Baz’s disembodied voice spoke one word. “ Now .”
    Breck leapt to his feet. Inside the trailer, all eyes were glued on the screen. Everyone watched as three members of Unit Four fanned out and approached the house from the rear. Behind them, the remaining members crouched at the ready. Then in a rush, Baz raced forwards and pulled Kit to safety. The Unit melted away into the trees at the rear of the property. Marty Kerr neither saw nor heard any of it as he chugged down the last swallows of his beer.
    “Oh, God.” Breck thunked down on to a seat and closed his eyes. Relief thundered through his head. From a distance he heard Baz calling, “You there, Breck? Kit’s asking for you. Get over here.”
    Breck peered out the door of the trailer and saw Baz with Kit perched on his shoulders, standing beneath the spreading branches of the sycamore tree. As he stumbled outside, he could hear Jack Tanner talking to Marty Kerr. “Marty? We spoke before. This is Tanner here. We’ve got Kit so—”
    Breck didn’t hear the rest. He raced across a couple of lawns and hurtled over someone’s garden