Free Blood Money by Chris Collett

the hall. She’s given us an excellent description and says the woman was definitely edgy. The woman also checked whether Mrs Barratt was here.’
    ‘So she knew Mrs Barratt’s name?’
    Mariner allowed his eyes to drift up to the wall behind where they were standing. ‘Not necessarily. It’s on the board outside as well as up there. When Christie explained that she wasn’t, the woman told her she had come for her baby, so Christie showed her through to the crèche. She reasonably assumed that the uncertainty was because the woman was unfamiliar with the nursery.’
    ‘So how does this crèche work?’
    Mariner briefly outlined what he knew.
    ‘I’ve never come across that kind of set-up before,’ said Sharp. ‘But I suppose being so close to the hospital it makes sense.’
    ‘It’s the woman’s behaviour inside the room that starts to get interesting,’ Mariner said. ‘And I think might demonstrate a level of understanding about how the crèche works. If this had been just a chancer walking in off the street you would expect her to wait until the children were left unattended, and snatch one without being seen. But this woman went into the room when there was a member of staff present and just took the child right in front of her eyes. That was a huge risk, and depended on the girl working in the room not knowing what the mother of the child looked like. Had she been caught the woman would have no doubt claimed confusion, that she was in the wrong room or something, but everything played her way. She wasn’t afraid of being seen. Unless it was a professional disguise, she seems to have made no efforts to hide her appearance.’
    ‘That’s remarkable in itself, but all of this so far points to it being more than simply an opportunistic enterprise.’
    ‘Exactly,’ said Mariner. ‘This woman was a gambler. She must have known that there would be security procedures operating in the nursery, and that she could potentially have been challenged at any time. I don’t think this is your average baby snatch.’
    ‘The woman was on her own?’
    ‘She came into the nursery alone, but until we know what happened once she was outside again we’ve no way of knowing if she was working solo. There may have been an accomplice waiting in a vehicle to take them away. Leanne, the girl she met in the crèche itself, had an impression that she’d had to park some distance away, so she must have had transport.’
    ‘Buses pass right by the front door.’
    ‘But the timing would have had to be right. Once outside with the baby she wouldn’t have wanted to hang about, would she? As it was, no one realised Jessica was missing until her real mum came to collect her at four o’clock, but Mrs Barratt could have come back at any time and realised that something was wrong.’
    ‘It’s still a possibility.’
    Mariner nodded agreement. ‘We’ve got someone talking to the drivers working the route this afternoon.’
    ‘Do you think it’s any coincidence that we’re very close to the maternity hospital?’
    It had crossed Mariner’s mind. ‘In the past when babies have been snatched it’s generally been from maternity wards. But security has tightened considerably in the last few years, particularly after Naomi Carr was taken from Good Hope hospital. All newborns are tagged.’
    ‘Well it’s something we should consider. Someone should follow up with the hospital to check on any woman who’s recently lost a baby and who might need to counter that loss. It’s an unusual way of doing it, but if she could-n’t get hold of a newborn, maybe Jessica was the next best thing.’
    ‘There’s also a fertility clinic up at the hospital, so we could be looking at a woman who’s unable to conceive.’ Mariner explained about the marketing for the crèche. ‘It’ll be interesting to see exactly where the flyers are pinned up. They might have given someone the initial idea. I’ll find out if there have been any general