Free The Patient Killer (A DCI Morton Crime Novel Book 4) by Sean Campbell, Daniel Campbell

and opened a giant drawer filled with folders neatly arranged with colour-coded labels. Morton watched her rifle through.
    ‘They’re alphabetised!’ Ophelia cried impatiently.
    ‘Here we are. Ms Vanessa Gogg, Senior Lecturer. You ready, boss?’ Rafferty asked.
    Morton nodded, and Rafferty read out the number while Morton began dialling.
    It went straight through to voicemail. ‘You’ve reached Vanessa Gogg. I’m not here right now, but leave me a message and I’ll get right back to you. Beep!’
    As Morton was about to hang up, a message flashed up on his phone: Call waiting. He swiped to take Ayala’s call.
    ‘Ayala! Where the hell are you?’
    ‘Boss. You’re not going to like this.’

Chapter 14: The Phone
    T hursday April 9th 16:30
    Ayala tapped his foot impatiently. The Met’s technical guru, Zane, seemed to be taking almost as long to find a phone cable as it had taken for Ayala to race the phone over from Hatton Garden.
    ‘Chill, Ayala. I’ll be done in a moment,’ Zane said. He slouched in his chair as the unlocking program ran.
    Ayala stared at the blue progress wheel on screen, which whirred round and round mesmerizingly. ‘How long?’
    ‘A few minutes. You know that progress wheel is just for show, right? It’s not actually measuring how far along the program is.’ Zane switched windows and began to read through his email.
    ‘You mind not doing that? I think my murder victim might be a tad more important than your social life.’
    Ayala paced up and down. He had missed calls from Mayberry and Morton, but there was little point in returning them until he had something to show for his sudden disappearance.
    The screen pinged green, and Zane grinned triumphantly. ‘See? Told you it’d be done soon. What am I looking for?’
    ‘I need a home address for our victim.’
    ‘That should be easy enough,’ Zane said. ‘Let’s open up his contact list.’ He thumbed through the menus and scrolled down to the ‘H’ section of Niall Stapleton’s contact list. ‘Aha. Home. Now that we’ve got a landline, I can do a reverse look-up.’ He handed Ayala the phone and pulled his keyboard towards him.
    Ayala flicked through the phone until he found the victim’s most recent messages – and felt his jaw drop. ‘Uh-oh.’
    ‘What is it? Please tell me he’s been sexting with his missus. That shit is always hilarious.’ Zane leant forward eagerly.
    Ayala twisted the phone towards him and showed him what he’d found.
    ‘Holy shit. Is that–?’
    ‘Yep,’ Ayala said. ‘It is.’
    On the screen was a picture of Niall Stapleton’s girlfriend bound and gagged.
    With a gun to her head.
    ***
    ‘A yala, calm down and explain. Slowly,’ Morton repeated. ‘You’re breaking up. I thought you just said “bound and gagged”.’ He was standing outside Niall Stapleton’s house. Rafferty was still inside the neighbours’ home, talking to Ophelia.
    ‘I did. Hang on... can you hear me better now? I’m walking upstairs. That bloody basement is like a Faraday cage,’ Ayala said.
    ‘Yep. Loud and clear.’
    ‘We unlocked Niall Stapleton’s mobile. I was looking for his address when–’
    ‘Got it. Already been there. Rafferty called his gym for it an hour ago,’ Morton said. ‘Is that all you’ve done?’
    ‘The girlfriend–’
    ‘Vanessa Gogg,’ Morton supplied.
    ‘Right. She’s been kidnapped. Stapleton got a photo message early this morning. I’ve got forensics tracing the source late last night, but it’s bound to be a disposable mobile phone. She’s been kidnapped, and he was being blackmailed.’
    ‘Fuck,’ Morton said. He began to jog towards his Audi and unlocked it with a beep as he approached. ‘I haven’t seen a tiger kidnapping since the Troubles. What did they want him to do? I assume that’s why he was in Hatton Garden.’
    The line crackled. ‘Yes, they did. They sent him the photo, and then their demands. Hang on. I’ll forward the messages to