The death of a teenage runaway, killed when she leaps from a motorway bridge into the speeding traffic below, leads Detective Constable Iona Khan into the most disturbing case of her new career. The dead girl’s identity remains a mystery – until the discovery of her details along with profiles of three other girls, all recently reported missing. A further, shocking, discovery causes the whole file to be handed over to Greater Manchester Police’s Counter Terrorism Unit.
Iona Khan – still struggling for acceptance in the male-dominated CTU – investigates, little realising that, because of her close resemblance to the girl who leapt from the bridge, she is now in the sights of a sinister figure. Someone whose reputation for ruthlessness has attracted notoriety, even among those who trade in the most depraved of human markets.
The idea for this novel came to me after I purchased a refurbished laptop from an online store. The machine came exactly as promised – complete with a travel case that had more pockets than Ray Mear’s survival trousers.
It was in one pocket – hidden inside the case – that I discovered a small notebook. It had obviously been missed by the people at the refurbishing company.
In the notebook were various things scrawled by whoever had previously owned the laptop. It was all very innocent but, being of a twisted mind, I thought: what if the notes weren’t harmless? What if they related to some kind of secretive, sinister activity? What sort of activity? Something dark? Sounds good. Something disturbing? Even better. I know! Something involving vulnerable girls being kidnapped and trafficked into a terrifying fate abroad.
Sighing at how my mind comes up with this stuff, I picked up my pen and began to write.