by Lee Wood
The vehicle parks sideways with the passenger door very close to the front door entrance. For anyone watching this seems like a typical home delivery of groceries. Hopefully what they would fail to see is the additional bags of equipment and the two men who have been crouching down in the well of the passenger seats.
The driver unloads the groceries and drives away. He has six more deliveries to make before his shift ends and an exciting tale of helping the police to tell his family when he gets home. He can say he has done his bit. After all, every little helps!
As he drives to his next customer his two ‘passengers’ are inside the house unloading all their equipment after making sure the curtains have been closed and no shadows are visible outside from the lights inside the house.
They set up the recording and phone tracking devices, now all they can do is wait for the call from the kidnappers.
Sunset is at eight forty and under the guise of night two detectives and a police family liaison officer, all of them dressed in black, arrive via the back door. They have climbed over the wall at the end of the garden from a house in the next road that backs onto the Mitten residence.
They join the two members of the police technical crew already there to monitor phone calls.
According to the surveillance crew, they are pretty sure no-one is watching the house but it doesn’t mean someone has to physically be there. The kidnappers could have hidden cameras in a neighbour’s garden, in one of the trees or hedges that line the road or possibly hidden in a nearby vehicle.
After ensuring all the curtains are closed and no lights will give away the fact the household population has instantly more than tripled, the officers introduce themselves.
“Hello Mr and Mrs Mitten. I’m Detective Inspector Eden Gold and this is Detective Sergeant Tracy Archer. We also have Police Constable Rachel Nason who will be your liaison officer. She will be here to help you in any way she can. Let me start by once again assuring you we have a lot of expertise in these matters and we will do everything we can to ensure your daughters are returned to you safe and well. That’s our priority.”
“Thank you, detective. I’m Francis and this is my wife Diane. Of course we will do everything we can to co-operate. We just want them home.”
"I quite understand. First I have to ask. Can you think of anyone who might be behind this?"
"Certainly not. To start with we thought it was some kind of joke. But we are coming to terms with the fact this is real. Who would do such a thing? It must be someone who thinks we are richer than we actually are. I don't have access to a vast amount of ready cash. I could raise £70,000, a little more if I ask family members. I'm sure under the circumstances they will help, so I don't know, up to a quarter of a million. Do you think that will be enough?"
“Let’s wait and see what happens, Mr Mitten. So you are aware, we have a whole team of people who will be working round the clock back at the police station. They are covering everything in an effort to find out what has happened to your daughters. They will work right through the night. No stone will be left unturned.”
“Thank you, that’s very reassuring.”
“We will need somewhere to work from.”
“Of course. We have a table in the lounge, will that do?”
“Yes, that will be perfect, thank you.”
The two detectives are standing in the lounge.
“Tracy, it’s nearly nine o’clock, could you go up to the girls’ bedrooms with Mrs Mitten and see if she can spot anything out of the ordinary. Check for computers or tablets. Anything they might have kept hidden.”
Tracy walks through to the kitchen.
“Mrs Mitten. I wonder if we could go upstairs and…”
The phone rings.
Diane runs and picks up the handset as the voice recorder and tracing equipment spur into action.
“Hello.”
“Are you alone? No police?”
“Yes, we did as you asked,” she lies.
“What do you want? Where are our daughters? We’ll do anything. Please don’t hurt them.”
“Listen very carefully. Take heed of every word I’m about to say. Do you understand?”
“Yes, yes I do.”
“Good. We’re going to send one of your daughters back to you safe and sound.”
“Oh, thank you. Thank you. But… what about our other daughter?”
“Your other daughter will be sent back to you… in a coffin. All you have to do is decide which daughter you want back alive and which one you want delivered by the undertakers.”
“What? I don’t understand. What do you mean? We’ll pay. We’ll pay whatever you want. We’re not millionaires but we’ll find the money somehow. We just want our daughters back. Both of them… unharmed. Tell me how much you want.”
“You weren’t listening. What did I say? I said take heed of every word. We’ll send one back safe and the other in a coffin. You have forty-eight hours to decide which one comes back alive and which one doesn’t. Otherwise you’ll be getting two coffins instead of one.”
There is a thud as Diane faints.
Her husband Francis, who has been listening at her side, grabs the phone.
“Please, please don’t do this. Name your price. I’ll pay whatever you want. Just return our daughters back safe. Hello, hello, hello.”
The phone line is silent. And so is every single person in the room.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
By 10pm Daniel has been at work for two hours and completed the first batch of visits on his security round. At this point, he would normally park up somewhere for a fifteen-minute break but instead, he drives back and parks up the road from the old car workshop.
His idea is to attach a listening device to a window where the men are. It should be much easier at this time of night when it is dark. He’s taken wire cutters to make a small gap in the fence that runs along the side of the building. He climbs through the gap and creeps around the back.
The listening device has a suction pad and Daniel attaches it to the corner of one of the windows. They are covered in several layers of dirt so no-one will see it.
It is lucky he removed the listening device from the parents’ house about three months ago when the girls moved out to appear on the TV show.
He goes back to his van and drives round to the old phone exchange at the rear of the former car showroom and sets up the Camcorder he purchased online and links it to the motion detector that connects to his phone so that every time there is movement it will send an alert to his mobile.
Daniel has been watching the two men through his binoculars for the past forty-five minutes. They seem ready to settle down for the night. He hopes the girls are comfortable.
In the past, he has proven to be a reliable employee. He doesn’t think anyone will bother to check up on him. As long as he gets back on his nightly route by midnight no-one will know.
This gives him an hour to drive to Erica and Leona’s parents’ house to try and find out what is happening there.
All the time he’s driving over to their house, he’s trying to come up with a plan. To think what Ethan Hunt or James Bond would do.
From what he's seen so far this has all the hallmarks of a classic kidnapping, exactly like the ones he's seen on TV and in films.
The only difference is this is real life. He’s not a real spy. He doesn’t own a gun or know anyone who does. He has no secret friend who is a tech wizard with the skills to hack into the police computers. There is no-one to back him up. It is just Daniel on his own. So it will be even more impressive when he rescues the girls. He might even be awarded a medal.
Daniel drives to Barford and parks his van a few doors down from the Mitten home.
He walks to the house next door and climbs over the fence, creeps across the garden and up to the back of the Mitten house in the way he’s done many times before and across the garden and up to the back of the house to the lounge.
The curt
ains are drawn. There is a small gap. He peers through and sees Mr Mitten and several men and two ladies he doesn't recognise. He assumes these are the police although none are wearing a uniform.
It is exactly like he has seen a dozen times or more in films and on TV shows.
He feels his phone buzzing in his pocket. His boss is calling and he needs to answer it. Luckily he had the foresight to turn it to silent. He creeps back to the fence and crouches down behind a bush.
“Sorry, sir. You called. I was just in the toilet.”
“The alarm has gone off at Porters Removal Depot. Someone’s reported seeing people loitering around. Can you head over there.”
“On my way. I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
“Report what you find and let me know if you need back-up.”
“Yes, sir. I will.”
When Daniel arrives, it is obvious someone has tried to break down the back doors but hasn’t managed to get in.
He wasn’t due to patrol here for another thirty minutes. Now he will have to wait around for the owners or a worker, and the police if they ever decide to turn up, which normally they don’t.
The motion detector connected to the camera he set up to keep an eye on the old car workshop will tell him if anything happens there.
So far it had only been as he expected. The two men going to the fridge or moving round the factory. He dare not leave the Removal Depot until it is all sorted out and that could take all night.
Chapter Thirty
After Diane Mitten faints following the distressing phone call from the kidnappers, PC Rachel Nason makes the decision to call for medical attention.
Just in case the kidnappers are watching the house, rather than have a normal car turn up, she has arranged to get a doctor in a vehicle with the distinctive green and yellow squares and the word ‘Doctor’ on the side of the vehicle. This would hopefully convince anyone who may be watching the house this is a genuine doctor.
Once the doctor has attended to Mrs Mitten and she seems to have got over some of the initial shock, Eden asks Mr Mitten for permission to undertake a full search of upstairs and the twins’ bedrooms.
He doesn’t tell the distraught father that even if he refuses, they had the power to search them anyway. But it is always better to ask than demand. And Eden makes sure he chooses his words wisely. Upstairs and the twins’ bedrooms means they could check every room if it is later challenged.
Eden and Tracy walk into Erica’s room.
Eden starts by searching the bedside cabinet.
Tracy heads for the packed wardrobe.
"This girl must go out freezing unless she has another place to store her clothes. Not a single item for winter. All short tight dresses and skin-tight jeans."
She opens the chest of drawers.
“Skimpy underwear and some nice items of jewellery but that’s all.”
The detectives are looking for diaries, notepads, any form of correspondence or contact addresses, computers, mobile phones, anything that had been discarded in a bin or under the bed, evidence of substance abuse or dependence, and/or any reliance on medication and any samples of handwriting that might come in handy as the enquiry progresses and new things come to light.
If needed later, they would bring in fingerprint experts to find out who had been in the girls rooms and check for signs of sexual activity, although the bedding looked like it had been freshly laundered.
Thanks to the various acts such as human rights, police officers have to work with one hand tied behind their backs.
The paperwork for even searching the rooms is vast. Records must be made of the area searched and the level of intrusion; search techniques, any equipment used and the duration, and they will need to keep a record of any evidence found or taken away. They have to do everything to cover their backs.
“Have you seen the photos on their social media?” asked Eden. “They certainly know how to make the most of their figures.”
“Yes,” said Tracy, “they seem very keen of selfies. Mind you, if I was that age and looked as good as they do I wouldn’t object to showing off what I had. They like to enjoy themselves.”
Once they were satisfied there was nothing that would yield any clues as to the girls’ whereabouts, they moved to Leona’s room. It was pretty much the same. Revealing dresses and tops that would barely cover the ample busts they liked to show off in most of their photos.
Some of the photos showed them posing with girlfriends. But at this stage, Eden had made the decision not to contact any of them until they were certain the kidnappers were not people already known to the twins.
After all, he knew that in most cases the people behind these crimes were usually known to their victims. And if that was the case, it made the risk of them being murdered much higher as the girls could identify their captor.
Until they could eliminate someone from their enquiries, they would remain on the suspect list. The parents were unaware but even they were on the list.
With both parents’ downstairs, Eden and Tracy took the opportunity to check every upstairs room, even the parents’ en-suite bathroom and walk-in wardrobes.
Although extremely rare, it wasn’t unheard of for the parents to be involved in the abduction and murder of their children.
Eden doubted they were because of their genuine reactions and the fact they had hardly had time to do anything since the girls went missing.
Once they had returned downstairs and seen Mrs Mitten looking a little better after the doctor had given her a sedative, Eden asked Mr Mitten if they could check in the garage and outbuildings.
“When they told you they were watching the house, it might not mean they are actually here right now. I want to check nobody has been using your garage or outbuildings to spy on you or watching us from a hidden camera.”
Francis seemed to be satisfied with the explanation and gave his consent.
They searched the outbuildings but found nothing that looked or felt out of place. This seemed to be the home of a close family with little to hide. The detached house with its five bedrooms and lovely garden, the paved driveway and electric front gates showed the people who lived here were not short of money.
However, Eden was aware that most people in this position lived to their means, meaning that from the outside they looked like they were millionaires but the reality was they struggled with money like everyone else.
Sure, these people may have a high six-figure income but paying for things such as children at private schools, exotic holidays, two or three cars, even if on lease payments, and a huge mortgage, it means there isn’t much left at the end of each month.
They can be just like working-class people but a rung or two up the same ladder. However, the Mitten family were better off than most.
The business was well established and according to Francis Mitten, they owned the freehold and two of the other properties they had traded from in the past.
He said they didn’t have millions in the bank and Eden believed him but he was certain they could raise a few hundred thousand pounds. And that might well be the case, and soon.
There was always the possibility the kidnappers were bluffing and simply setting up the family so they would be relieved and gladly pay the huge ransom demand when the time came. But deep in Eden's mind, he had the thought this wasn’t the case. That the threat to kill one of the twins was real! That was something he really didn’t want to think about.
Chapter Thirty-One
The doctor who called to attend to Mrs Mitten left an hour ago. Before he went, he gave Diane two tablets to help calm her down and handed two more to Francis with instructions for his wife to take them later if she needed them.
For now, she seems relatively normal, given the circumstances.
The two detectives, Eden and Tracy are alone in the kitchen.
"We need to separate them and dig deeper. The kidnappers haven't asked for money. This sounds like some sort of revenge or grudge r
ather than a straightforward kidnapping. The way they were abducted from the airport, someone has put a lot of effort into this. It could be the threat is to scare them into paying a seven-figure ransom.
“The husband says he can only get £70,000 together but I think whoever is behind this if it turns out to be about money and not revenge, is going to be asking for a lot of money. It could be up to a million. Possibly even a million for each girl. Let’s hope he can raise a lot more money than he’s told us, otherwise, we could be looking at a worst-case scenario here.”
“I hope not,” Tracy said. “They seem like nice people. Not up their own arses like some of the ones we’ve dealt with.”
Eden nodded. "We need something to go on. If this is revenge, it must be someone close to them. We need the team to start concentrating on family, friends, and associates. It’s not perfect, given Mrs Mitten is on medication, but time is of the essence. We need to separate them. I’ll take the husband. You see if you can speak to the wife. When you talk to Mrs Mitten, we need to know if there are any secrets they’ve kept from us or if this is someone they have crossed and this is their way of getting even.”
“Okay, Eden. I’ll see what I can find out from her.”
Eden and Tracy walk through to the lounge.
Eden started first. “Mr Mitten. Is there somewhere you and I can have a chat?”
“Yes, we can go through to my office.”
Francis leads the detective to the other side of the house.
“Right, Mr Mitten.”
“As I said, please call me Francis.”
“Okay, Francis. I need you to be frank and honest with me. Is there anyone upset with you? Anyone who would be involved in this? A business deal that went wrong, or an ex-employee? I also need to ask you if you have been involved in an affair. Could this be a jealous partner or someone who feels betrayed? Or if you are part of any illegal activity, that could lead someone to come after you in this way? Don’t hold anything back. Remember, your daughters’ lives could depend on this.”