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Hush Little Baby - Jane Isaac


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Freeman passed him a knowing look. ‘We’ve only got one outstanding case listed in our area.’ He pointed at the bangle. ‘And this does give me cause for concern.’
He pulled out another photo. ‘We’ve enlarged the bangle to show the detail.’
Beth peered in closer at the tarnished silver, noting a tiny rabbit symbol on the edge.
‘You’re not suggesting it’s Alicia Owen?’ Nick said, incredulous.
Shocked faces looked back at the board. Three-month-old Alicia Owen disappeared from her pram outside a supermarket, fifteen years earlier. She was believed to have been abducted, although no ransom note was ever forthcoming, and she was never found. The story rocked the residents of Northamptonshire to the core and when the days after her disappearance stretched into weeks and months, panicky parents set up a ‘Keep our children safe’ poster campaign urging people to be extra vigilant around infants. Beth had only been sixteen at the time, but she still remembered the black and white photos of Alicia’s discarded pram plastered across the newspapers.
‘Without further tests on the body and the surrounding area, we can’t be sure of anything,’ Freeman said. ‘We’ve pulled the old case; Baby Alicia was wearing a silver christening bangle with similar markings when she was taken. She was kidnapped in August 2002, less than two miles from the location, and her parents lived nearby. But fifteen years is a long time, we can’t make any assumptions. I imagine there are plenty of these bracelets in circulation.’ The buzz of his mobile interrupted the conversation. He excused himself and moved away to take the call.
Beth’s gaze wandered to another board, standing on its own at the far end of the room; the remnants of an old investigation. Her eyes unwittingly met those of Dale Yates, the serial killer who’d systematically executed his victims in his twisted efforts to avenge the death of his late partner. The murderer who’d scrutinised the police case as it unfolded, led them on a cat and mouse chase; he’d placed photos of Beth on his murder wall and later broken into her home in an attempt to hamper the enquiry. Six weeks had passed since he’d escaped police custody. Six weeks in which he’d disappeared into thin air. A shiver rushed through her. Unsolved cases, with a murderer running free, were challenging enough, but a known serial killer who’d tortured his victims before he brutally killed them, still on the loose, filled her with disquiet. What made it worse was that every time she entered the conference room, she felt his eyes on her.
‘Right.’ Freeman cut the call and pocketed his phone. ‘That was the super. The officers guarding the building site where the child’s remains were found have requested additional assistance, there’s already a crowd of reporters gathering at the cordon.’
Nick rubbed his forehead. ‘They didn’t waste their time.’

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