Snatched From Home: What Would You Do To Save Your Children? (DI Harry Evans Book 1) Read Online Free Page A

fair. An old-school copper who would still dish out a clip round the ear where it was needed. A blind eye where appropriate. Yet when necessary he would bring down the full weight of the law. No career criminal in the county had escaped his attention.
    Yet all this was about to be taken away from him. Like Janet. Like his last chance of fatherhood.
    He had options of course. Local security firms were falling over each other to offer him consultancy roles. G4S had offered him a full-time position managing their Carlisle office, but like the police role he would be desk-bound.
    A high-street retailer wanted him to manage store security across their north of England shops. While it was the best offer he’d had, he was more familiar with catching murderers, rapists and drug dealers than shoplifters. It was a step down and he wasn’t ready to step down yet.
    A wet tongue slithered its way across his left hand, jolting himself out of his melancholy. Evans petted the aged Labrador who was never more than six feet away from him, whenever he was at home.
    ‘Good boy. Wanna walk?’
    Seeing the Labrador caper around on its three legs, Evans eased his slender frame from the wing back chair, wandered into the hall and shucked on his jacket to brave the chill evening one last time.
    ‘C’mon, Tripod, walkies.’

Chapter 6
     
    After her fruitless search, Samantha had cuddled into Kyle’s back and pulled the thin sheet over herself. Sleep hadn’t come easy to her as she fretted and worried about their fate.
    She was more worried about her brother than herself. He hated being away from home. He was uncomfortable visiting friends and he even got homesick when they went on holiday. If they had to stay in this room for any length of time, she knew he would suffer greatly. Without a window and with no watch between them, there was no way to measure time and when they awoke they had no idea whether it was early or late morning.
    ‘Can we have Coco Pops for breakfast?’
    Samantha smiled in spite of herself. Kyle was treating their imprisonment as a holiday. ‘We’ll have to wait and see what they bring us.’
    ‘Why don’t we bang on the door and shout to them? Tell them we’re hungry?’
    ‘I don’t know what time it is. It might be the middle of the night. I don’t think it will be a very good idea to make the men cross.’
    ‘But I’m hungry and I want to see Mummy.’
    Samantha faked a smile and admonished him with a wagging finger. ‘You’re always hungry. You eat more than I do.’
    A metallic clatter interrupted them and they shrank back, hugging each other tight. Samantha identified the sounds as bolts being drawn back and a key rotating the tumblers inside a lock.
    The bedroom door opened to reveal the man in the Elvis mask. He was holding a tray bearing a carton of orange juice, two plastic glasses and a pile of buttered toast.
    Making sure he kept himself between them and the door he set the tray on the floor and then faced them. ‘You are going to be here for a few days at most. If you’re good, then we won’t harm you. If you’re not good, then we will punish you. Do you understand?’
    Samantha nodded and held a crying Kyle closer to her body.
    ‘Come with me for a minute, lass.’
    When Samantha didn’t move, he crooked his finger at her. ‘You’re not exactly being good, are you? I’m not gonna hurt you. I’ve just got something you need to see.’
    ‘You make a start on the toast, Kyle. I’ll be back in a minute.’ Samantha tried to reassure her brother, but she was petrified of being raped by the masked man.
    Surely that was what he wanted her for. The one wearing the Blair mask was a definite perv. She’d felt his hands grabbing her backside and boobs when he led them from the van last night.
    ‘Don’t even think of trying to escape, ’cause we’ve still got the boy.’ Elvis locked the door and pocketed the key.
    This is it. They’re going to rape me now.
    Trudging down the stairs in