Read Souls At Zero (A Dark Psychological Thriller) for Free Online Page B

as to why her daughter was not with him, none of them good. "What is this, Harry?" Her voice cracked as she struggled to hold herself together. "You're scaring me here. Where's Kaitlin?"
    Harry took a deep breath as he kept his eyes on her. She could see the pain in his face, mixed with guilt and what she took to be shame. The last time she saw him look so twisted up inside was when he told her he was leaving her to go to Iraq. She couldn't even bring herself to breathe as she stood waiting. "I'm sorry, Gemma," he said, after an interminable wait. "Kaitlin…Kaitlin's been taken."
    "Taken?" She stared at him as she tried to fully understand what he was saying.
    "Kidnapped."
    "Kidnapped?" Her hand clamped over her mouth as her chest heaved, and she felt like she was going to be sick.
    Harry went to walk towards her and she stopped him. "No!" she shouted. "Tell me where Kaitlin is right now, or I swear…"
    "We we're in the cafe, on Botanic Avenue. I went upstairs to use the toilet. I came down, started eating my food along with Kaitlin. My coffee was drugged."
    "Drugged?"
    "I didn't know. Couldn't taste it. The next thing I knew…" He shook his head. "I was falling to the floor."
    "Who took Kaitlin, Harry? Who took her?" She could feel the rage boiling up inside her, cutting through her initial shock like a knife.
    "There was a man, sitting behind me near the door. I didn't think anything of it until—"
    "Until he drugged your coffee?" She ran at him then, battering on his chest with her fists, hating him so much it hurt, but not as much as she hated herself for allowing him back into her life again, into her little girl's life. "I fucking hate you!" she screamed. "Why didn't you stay away? Why did you have to come back?"
    He did nothing for a moment. Stood there and let her hit him. Maybe he thought he deserved it. Either way, he did nothing to stop her, even when she punched him in the face twice, splitting his lip and hurting her hand at the same time. Eventually, he grabbed her arms and firmly held her as she kept wailing, her chest heaving as she tried to breathe. "I'm going to get her back. I promise you that, Gemma, I'll get our little girl back."
    " My little girl! You've had her barely six months and you lost her!" She twisted out of his grip and stormed off into the living room and then through into the kitchen, a constant stream of tears running down her face. "I can't believe this is happening," she kept repeating to herself as she tried to get her head around the situation. She went to one of the cupboards and took out a bottle of vodka, pouring herself a large glass of it before downing the full drink in one. Then she poured herself another and stood leaning against the kitchen worktop, as much for support as anything else, because she really felt like she was going to faint. Then she noticed Harry standing in the doorway and her anger came back again.
    "You better tell me what the fuck is going on, Harry," she demanded. "Or I swear, I will stab you with one of those knives over there."
    "Whoever took Kaitlin is obviously trying to get at me," he said.
    "Well that much is fucking obvious. Why though? What have you done, Harry?"
    He held his hands out helplessly and shook his head. "That's the thing, Gemma. I haven't done anything. I can't think why anyone would want to do this."
    "There must be a reason and you had better fucking think of it. We need to let the police know."
    "They already know. They were at the cafe. Besides, I don't think the police will be much help."
    "What? Why not?"
    "What are they going to do, Gemma? They can't do anything until we know who's done this."
    This just gets worse.
    Again, she felt her anger rise, underpinned by a feeling of helplessness that made her want to throw her glass at the man she saw as being responsible for this terrible situation she now found herself in. This was something that only happened in movies and foreign countries, not here in Belfast, not to her little