Spider's Web Read Online Free PDF Page A

spread her arms as if to say, What have I done wrong? Jim pointed to her camera. ‘Hand it over.’
    ‘Why should I?’ she responded. ‘This is public property.’
    Jim thumbed over his shoulder. ‘Yes, but that isn’t. And I’ve warned you before about what would happen if I caught you taking photos here.’
    The woman still hesitated to hand over her camera.
    ‘Do you really want to do this the hard way, Anna?’ Jim’s voice was authoritative, but there was an underlying tenderness in it.
    Reluctantly, Anna gave her camera to him. ‘You’ll get it back once the appropriate photos have been deleted,’ he assured her.
    ‘I’ll delete them for you right now.’
    ‘Sorry, but I have to make certain that deleted means gone for good.’
    Anna glanced past Jim at the Mercedes, behind which Villiers was still squatting. ‘He must really be someone important. Especially if he can afford a scumbag like Burnham.’
    ‘Go home. You’re wasting your time here.’
    ‘I disagree.’ An edge of frustration sharpened Anna’s voice. ‘I don’t understand why you refuse to see the connection between your case and my sister’s abduction.’
    ‘I don’t refuse to see it. I don’t see it because right now it doesn’t exist.’
    Anna began counting off points on her fingers. ‘Freddie Harding was abducting young girls in the early nineties. He used to drive a white van. Manchester United football shirts and match-day programmes were found at his house.’
    ‘Harding wasn’t opportunistically snatching kids off the street. He was taking prostitutes who he knew wouldn’t be easily missed. Granted, he drove a white van at the time of his 2005 arrest. But no such vehicle was registered to him in 1993. As for him being a Man U supporter, well, there are about half a billion of them out there. And anyway, you don’t know for certain that Jessica’s abductors were Man U supporters.’
    ‘What about the red devil keyring? And why else would they have been driving around so close to Bramall Lane that afternoon? Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t it an accepted fact that in most abductions the perpetrator had a legitimate reason for being at the scene of the crime? They might work or live nearby. Or they might have been involved in a social activity, such as attending a sporting event.’
    ‘You know you’re not wrong. As I’m sure you also know that the majority of abductions are crimes of opportunity. And as I said, Harding wasn’t an opportunist.’
    ‘What about the girl he raped on Pitsmoor Road in 2005?’
    ‘Ellen Peterson was the exception.’
    ‘How do you know there weren’t other exceptions?’
    ‘I don’t,’ conceded Jim. ‘What I do know is that Harding has a thing for prostitutes who remind him of his mother. And your sister doesn’t fall into that category.’
    ‘But she was the type Edward Forester would’ve gone for.’
    ‘What’s taking so long, Chief Inspector?’ called Miles Burnham. ‘Can you please hurry up and get rid of that bloody woman?’
    Jim ignored the solicitor. Every opportunity to inconvenience Villiers was an opportunity not to be missed. ‘OK, look, let’s assume for a moment that you’re right. The man you saw grab Jessica was neither Harding nor Forester. Which means a third man was working with them. And that’s where the theory starts to fall apart. We’ve found no evidence to suggest an unidentified third man ever visited Forester’s bunker. Nor have we found a DNA match for your sister from the recovered remains of the victims.’ Recovered remains – the words seemed to echo in Jim’s head with added sardonic bitterness. What a fucking joke. Apart from two semi-gelatinous bodies in barrels, the only remains they’d recovered were from a jar containing thirty-eight torn and shrivelled nipples – one for each of the half-brothers’ dead victims, plus Melissa Doyle, the only girl known to have escaped the bunker.
    ‘Maybe Freddie Harding had an