Miss No One Mark Ayre (children's books read aloud TXT) 📖

"Let them be until the kidnappers get in touch again. Form a new plan from there."

Drinking more water, Abbie spent some time with this. More information should bring her closer to her goal, but it seemed the picture was getting more muddled with every new reveal. If a painting of the big picture was forming, it was more Picasso than Van Gogh.

Most of Abbie's issues had to do with what Ndidi supposedly advocated, but she let these lie again to cover some other points.

"Ndidi took this plan to Superintendant Norris," said Abbie. "But Kilman quashed it?"

Christine nodded. "Norris is a political creature who lacks a policing brain. He's also unconfident and has always relied heavily on the DCIs below him. That was Hammond and Kilman. Hammond's replacement is too new to exert any influence, so once Alan Hammond died, Kilman was pretty much defacto boss of the station when it came to difficult strategic decisions."

"So Norris called in Kilman after Ndidi suggested his plan?" asked Abbie.

"Yeah, and Kilman immediately rejected Ndidi's idea."

"What was Kilman's alternative?"

"He wanted to go in hard and arrest the heisters. They could then use deals, reduced sentencing, to encourage the crooks to reveal Isabella's location. From what I hear, Norris was uncomfortable but ready to sign off Kilman's plan."

"Until," said Abbie, "someone shot Kilman and left him for dead. Now he's out of the way, Ndid's plan will be put into place?"

"It sounds like Ndidi wasted no time," said Christine. "He returned to Norris and begged and the Superintendant to reconsider his decision. Norris folded. An hour ago, it was announced a battalion of officers are preparing as we speak. They reckon it's the shortest time frame this station has ever had to throw together an operation of this size and complexity."

"I bet," said Abbie. "And no one was remotely concerned that Kilman, the one person in the way of Ndidi's plan, was shot multiple times right after he rejected the idea?"

Christine shrugged. "Why would they be? Unrelated to the kidnapping and the casino, there's you, our known police attacker. Everyone knew Kilman was trying to convict you, and everyone knows he radioed to say he'd found you and was trying to arrest you and that you had a gun. All right before he was shot."

"Granted," said Abbie, "that is compelling. But it doesn't add up. I don't believe Orion will let Isabella live, no matter what happens. Still, Ndidi has to believe Orion will release Isabella if Ndidi ensures the heist is successful. It's his only hope. Yet, he seems to be working against that. Presumably, the police didn't know the heist was taking place until Ndidi told them."

"Yeah," said Christine, "that's right."

"So once he's revealed the heist is happening, rather than begging the police to stay away to save his daughter, he instead suggested they go to Lucky Draw in force. Yes, he's asking them to stay out the way, but there's a huge risk they'll be spotted, and then what? His daughter dies."

Brimming with frustration, Abbie rose from her chair. Her legs felt tense and taut. She knew if she didn't walk off some of her excess energy soon, she would go mad.

She turned to Ariana. "You have all the information. Care to cobble together a theory that makes sense? After all, you wanted to be my sidekick."

"I wanted to be the Holmes to your Watson," said Ana, "and as you'll remember, Holmes never did much theorising. He just documented what his mate got up to."

Christine looked confused. Abbie rolled her eyes.

"As was the case earlier," said Abbie, "Holmes is still the detective and Watson the sidekick. Stop getting them mixed up."

Ana raised her hands in surrender. "Sorry to disappoint."

"So you don't fancy having a guess?" Abbie asked. "No ideas racing around that lawyer brain of yours? In that case—"

"No, no, hang on," said Ana. "I'd like to give it a go."

Abbie nodded. Gestured for Ana to go right ahead. Christine twisted from her side of the sofa to face the lawyer.

Having the spotlight thrown on her prompted Ana to finish her wine. Christine sensed a chance for a refill and brought her drink to her lips to see off the second half of her own glass.

"That's enough for me," said Ana, placing the empty at her side.

There was the briefest moment—a pause, a beat—where Ana put down her glass then looked at the wall, clearing her throat. Abbie tried to look natural.

Maybe catching this, perhaps not, Christine seemed to get the hint. Rather than a gulp or more, she took only a sip of wine. Wiping her mouth, she placed the drink, with just under a half remaining, by her feet. After a moment to regain her composure, she looked at Ana, who still could not quite look back.

"Well," she said. "You have a theory or not?"

Ana bit her lip. Took a few more seconds to consider, then gave the slightest nod.

"Okay, how about this? Orion Becker arrives in town planning to steal from Lucky Draw. To do this, he bribes or threatens one or more casino employees to feed him insider information, poaches some cops in Lucky Draw's pocket, and starts searching for a higher rank detective, knowing, on the night, the cops could be a problem and wanting to mitigate any impact they might have on the job."

Ana stopped. Took a breath. She looked at her empty wine glass, and Abbie could tell she wanted another. Responsibility took over, and she pointed to Abbie's drink.

"Mind if I get myself a water? This theorising is hard work."

"I'll do it," said Abbie. "Keep going."

"Cool, right, so," Ana continued as Abbie rose. "Let's say Lucky Draw get wind of the heist. Worse than that, they realise some of their coppers have possibly switched sides. Maybe they even catch wind that Orion is trying to get hold of a more senior officer, so they determine to trump their enemy. They go after Hammond."

Abbie returned with the glass of water, handed it to Ana, and