The Dead Ground Read Online Free Page A

harm Alek, but the danger with a newborn is that the abductor can’t feed it, or look after it properly. There may not be much time.’
    He rounded a sharp corner to the nurses’ station. ‘We need the CCTV. We can’t hold people here indefinitely. Unless it shows something, we’ll have to let everyone go.’
    ‘We’ll interview the staff?’
    ‘If Corry lets us.’ He turned to her suddenly and the force of his grey eyes hit her like a punch. Paula skidded to a halt, boots slipping on the polished hospital floor.
    ‘What?’
    ‘You should go home.’
    ‘Why?’ She bristled.
    ‘Because you threw up on my shoes earlier.’
    ‘Oh.’
    ‘You’re as white as a ghost, Paula. There’s nothing you can do here.’
    ‘But—’ She looked back to the room where the couple sat, stunned by the loss of what was so recently acquired.
    ‘We’ll do everything we can, I promise. Why don’t you make a start on an offender profile? Corry’s going to want one asap.’
    ‘OK.’ She stopped suddenly. If she was white as a ghost, there was one coming right towards her. A ghost that refused to stay laid.
    Guy followed her gaze and gave a grunt of indignation. ‘For God’s sake, I told everyone not a word to the media.’
    ‘He always knows,’ said Paula wearily. ‘I don’t know how. He sniffs it out like a dog.’
    Aidan was several yards down the cordoned-off corridor, which was crowded with police and patients. He was talking animatedly to the officers at the barrier, and hadn’t seen her yet. She knew right then she couldn’t face him, not with Guy there too, both of them and the secret ticking away inside her like a bomb. She looked at Guy helplessly. ‘Can I get out of here? I can’t—’
    He seemed to understand. ‘There’s some stairs round the corner. Show your ID card and say I sent you. I’ll handle O’Hara. He has no right to be here.’ He hesitated. ‘Listen, when you feel better, Paula, I think we should talk. About – everything. About what happened with us last month.’
    She froze for a second. He couldn’t know, could he? No, she hadn’t told anyone and the only person who’d guessed was in London. She forced a smile. ‘Sure. Soon.’
    Paula ducked around the corner, just in time to see Aidan O’Hara, editor of the local paper and also her ex-boyfriend, stride up to Guy waving his press card. He’d shaved since she saw him last, a month before, bleeding on a stretcher, shot through the arm by a desperate man. Halloween night, the air full of smoke and danger, and Paula and Aidan almost getting themselves killed trying to find out what had happened to a local girl pulled dead from the canal.
    He looked different now. He looked sober, healthy, full of energy. Her hands crept over her stomach. Damn you, Aidan O’Hara. Damn and blast you to hell. Then she turned and almost ran before he saw her.

Chapter Two
    Paula took the stairs at a gallop all the way down to the ground floor, which was also swarming with officers, everywhere people asking questions about what had happened and when they could leave. Flashing her police ID, she pushed through the springy doors to A & E. There was only one person she could think of who’d help her now.
    She was no longer sure how to think of Dr Saoirse McLoughlin. Best friend once, yes, for the whole of primary and secondary school. But then Paula had turned eighteen and left Ballyterrin, determined never to go back. It would take a while for Saoirse to forgive those years of absence, but they were at least back in a sort of strained contact.
    Paula spied her friend coming out of a cubicle, drawing back the blue plastic curtains. She saw Paula through the crowd and came towards Reception, hands in the pocket of her white lab coat. Its sleeves were turned up to leave free Saoirse’s small hands.
    ‘I’m taking a break, Ricky,’ Saoirse told the young man behind the counter, whose nose ring was glinting under the strip lighting.
    ‘Any word of when