Free The Toy Taker by Luke Delaney

daily policework and to run an investigation. A loud double knock at his open door made him jump and look up as a smiling Featherstone entered without being asked and sat heavily in the one spare chair in the office. ‘How’s it going?’ he asked.
    ‘What?’ Sean replied. ‘The investigation or the move?’
    ‘The investigation,’ Featherstone clarified. ‘You found the missing kid yet?’
    ‘No,’ Sean told him.
    ‘Shame,’ Featherstone continued. ‘Would have made life a lot easier if you had.’
    ‘Why are you here, sir? You’re a long way from Shooters Hill.’
    ‘ACC wants an update,’ he admitted. ‘Wants to know how you’re getting on.’
    ‘We’ve only just started looking.’
    ‘I appreciate that, Sean, but you know what assistant commissioners can be like – updates, updates, updates.’
    ‘Then why didn’t he just come down here and ask me himself?’
    ‘Mr Addis likes a chain of command, when it suits him. A buffer-zone, if you know what I mean. It would appear I am that buffer-zone – so try not to drop me in it.’
    ‘I’ll do my best,’ Sean assured him without conviction just as Sally hurried from her office and into Sean’s, her body language making him sit bolt upright in anticipation. ‘What you got?’
    ‘Mark McKenzie,’ Sally began without ceremony, ‘male, IC1, twenty-three years old, last known address in Kentish Town where he’s also a fully paid-up member of their Sex Offenders Register. He has previous for residential burglary, some of which he committed at night while the occupants were inside sleeping. And if that wasn’t enough, he also has previous for sexual assault on minors.’
    Sean felt his heart rate suddenly increasing as a picture of McKenzie began to form in his mind – climbing the stairs to little George’s bedroom, moving silently past the room where his mother peacefully slept. ‘And …?’ he hurried Sally.
    ‘And,’ she continued, ‘he’s previously used lock-picking as a method of entry.’
    ‘Jesus,’ Sean said. ‘How far’s Kentish Town from Hampstead?’
    ‘Not my neck of the woods,’ Sally answered, ‘but I think it’s close.’
    ‘It is,’ Featherstone joined in. ‘No more than a couple of miles.’
    ‘Bloody hell,’ Sean said. ‘Does he come gift-wrapped as well?’
    ‘Think he’s your man?’ Featherstone asked.
    ‘He couldn’t fit the profile more if he tried,’ Sean answered.
    ‘
If
the boy has been taken,’ Sally warned them. ‘Taken by a stranger.’
    ‘You’re right,’ Sean admitted. ‘You’re right. We should keep an open mind, but he looks good – he looks really good. Has he been keeping his appointments to sign the Sex Offender Register?’
    ‘As far as I know,’ Sally answered.
    ‘That doesn’t mean he’s not your man,’ Featherstone cautioned.
    ‘No,’ Sean agreed, ‘it does not. No amount of reporting to police stations could stop him entering a house in the middle of the night.’
    ‘Then I can tell the Assistant Commissioner you’re close to getting your man?’
    Sean had seen Featherstone acting impulsively and impatiently before, but never to this degree. Clearly something or someone had given him an added sense of urgency. ‘I wouldn’t tell the Assistant Commissioner anything just yet,’ he warned Featherstone. ‘If he asks, just give him the generic bullshit and tell him we’re following a few lines of inquiry.’
    ‘But this McKenzie character looks good and Addis has been explicit about wanting a quick result. He doesn’t strike me as being a good man to fuck with.’
    ‘I’ll do the best I can, but you need to keep him at arm’s length – even if it’s just for a few days.’
    ‘A few days – I don’t know about that. Twenty-four hours maybe, but a few days—’
    ‘Fine,’ Sean told him. ‘I’ll take it, but I’ll need surveillance on McKenzie up and running within a couple of hours. I want to know where he’s going, what he’s doing, who’s he