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parked there, by waste ground? You’d expect an ambulance to be at a close mouth, associate it with stretchers, people taken away from houses.
    As she drew closer to the vehicle, the driver’s door opened and a white-coated figure leaned out. Alison looked up, ready to smile, expecting to be helpful. The driver waved a piece of paper in her direction.
    ‘Excuse me.’ His voice halted Alison in her tracks. ‘Can you tell me where to find Jason’s Lane?’ Alison came right up to the door, her eyes on the paper. She’d never heard of it and was about to apologise when everything changed.
    The driver leapt suddenly from his perch. Right towards her. Alison stepped back quickly. There was a glimpse of a chain held taut in both fists. A thin face with staring eyes. Instinctively Alison brought her knee up swiftly just as his hands were raised towards her face. The white-coated body sagged with a deep cry.
    Now Alison was running,running as in the nightmares when you seem to be rooted to the spot pursued by a nameless terror and not gaining any ground. But the tenements were coming nearer. Her breath jerked out in sobs. Her chest was hurting.
    Closer. Closer.
    Don’t turn around. Keep going.
    The first doorway yawned near. Her whole frame was pounding with the effort of gaining this escape. Was he behind? Don’t look round.
    Alison stumbled against the door in the darkened hallway and pressed the bell.
    ‘Please. Please,’ she sobbed. When the door opened she staggered in. ‘Please. Police.’ The two words merged in a hysterical cry.
    Jess Taylor put out a hand to comfort this girl.
    ‘What’s happened?’
    Thoughts of rape flashed through her mind. You saw so much about it on the telly and in the newspapers.
    ‘What’s up, love?’ Mickey Taylor gently took Alison by the shoulder and propelled her into an armchair. ‘Make some tea,’ he whispered to his wife. Alison gulped. Her voice seemed to be constricted somewhere in her throat. The words came out jerkily.
    ‘The man. He … It’s him.’
    ‘Who, love?’ Mickey wondered if this girl was on drugs. She was almost incoherent.
    ‘The one from the park.’
    Mickey suddenly understood as Alison finally gave way to rasping sobs. He left her with a pat on the arm and went over to the window. A twitch of the curtain showed a bare street. No one there.
    ‘Please,’ Alisontried again. ‘Please phone the police. He’s down the road.’
    Instead of following her instructions, Mickey went out into the night and looked down the hill. A pale vehicle was turning in the road. Its brake lights flashed on for a moment then it slowly lumbered into the night. Mickey turned back to the house.
    ‘Was he in a van?’
    Alison nodded, her tear-stained face miserable. ‘It was an ambulance. I thought he wanted directions, then … then …’ Her words subsided in sobs.
    This was real, thought Mickey. A tremor of anger and fear shot through him. This was the horror which had been talked about by all the world and its wife these past few weeks. He reached for the telephone.

C HAPTER 6

    V alentine Carruthers wasmissing. Given the nature and habits of the average city derelict this was not really surprising. But for Chief Inspector Lorimer it was a confounded nuisance.
    ‘We’ve checked all the likely hostels and drop-in centres,’ he fumed, glaring at each of his officers as he paced up and down the incident room. ‘Each and every layer of cardboard city’s been turned over. And what? No trace of him!’
    Young DC Cameron opened his mouth to protest, but one look at Lorimer’s face quelled him. Lorimer could have guessed the lad’s thoughts easily enough. It was conceivable that being picked up by the police had given Carruthers a shake and that the old man had wandered off out of the city.
    ‘Right. His record shows convictions for indecent assaults on minors. South of the border.’ Lorimer stabbed the air with his finger as he added, ‘Served his last prison