The George Elms Trilogy Box Set

by Charlie Gallagher

  The man nodded. ‘Yeah. That day she was getting a later train. She had a few drinks after work. She wasn’t keen on going. She said that to me. She was sitting right where I am now. She said she wasn’t really bothered but she felt like she always said no. So she went.’

  ‘And did you speak to her during the night? On the phone, by text or any other way?’

  ‘No. I mean, I’m her dad, aren’t I? No twenty-year-old girl talks to her dad when she’s on a night out.’

  ‘They don’t, you’re right,’ George said. ‘Tell us about her friends. Does she have friends in the area that you know of?’

  ‘Yeah, she’s a popular kid, you know. Especially with the lads. It’s a bit of a running joke. I keep saying I need to get myself a shotgun. I was a twenty-year-old bloke once. I know why she’s popular.’

  ‘Was she out with her friends on the night she didn’t come home?’

  ‘Workmates. I don’t know them so well. She talks about them a bit, but first name stuff. There’s an Adam, a Matt, two Mels. That’s about right, isn’t it?’ He looked over at his wife.

  ‘Adam. He’s her boyfriend. Well, I think they’re seeing each other. I did tell one of the officers. I don’t know where he lives.’

  ‘She has a boyfriend?’ The man shook his head. ‘I guess good old dad will always be the last to know.’

  Emma rounded on Mrs Cox. ‘What do you know about the boyfriend?’

  ‘Adam. That’s about it. I get the impression they work together. I don’t know if they’re at the same place. She works in insurance. She never seems to be at the same place. She mixes with other companies a lot, I think. Her desk is in Ludlow.’

  ‘Do you know his surname? Or any nickname, or pet name? Anything that might help us work out who he is?’ George said.

  ‘You think this Adam could be involved?’ The dad spoke. He was back to raging up. His chest and arms tensed.

  ‘We need to speak to him. We don’t know anything, but we should assume he was out with her last night. Or at the very least in contact with her.’

  ‘I’ll find him for you. He might not be any good to you by the time I’ve finished with him!’

  ‘That isn’t very helpful at all. And so far you have helped. Let us do our job. It is far more likely that this lad can tell us something that leads to us finding your daughter than him being involved in his disappearance.’

  ‘Christ, Ken! Let them do their job. We don’t know what’s going on, do we?’

  ‘No! No we don’t and neither do these clowns!’ He threw his hands in the general direction of George and Emma, and stormed out of the room. George heard some banging noises in the kitchen then the sound of a back door slamming shut. George assumed that he had left the house. It was for the best.

  ‘He’ll be fine when he calms down,’ his wife said.

  ‘He’s angry. I would be too. Trust me, we have no issue with him acting out at all. He needs to vent that somewhere. I’m quite happy for it to be at me. I’m sorry, I didn’t get your name?’

  ‘Joanna. Joanna Cox. Ken is Annie’s dad.’

  ‘Okay thanks, Joanna. I’m sure we have contact details for you already, but do you mind if I take your number? Just in case I think of something that might help.’

  ‘Eh, no. Of course not.’

  ‘Here.’ George passed her his card and a pen. ‘Just scribble it on the back. Do you know if your daughter was on any social media at all?’

  ‘I think so, yeah. They are all on it, aren’t they? Kids these days?’

  ‘They do seem to be, yeah. Are you on any social media?’

  ‘No. I don’t know what I’m doing with it. I tried Facebook once but I couldn’t make head nor tail.’

  ‘Does she have a computer here or a tablet or anything?’

  ‘She has a laptop-tablet thing. It’s, like, an all-in-one. But she uses it for work. She has it with her. At least, she did have . . .’ Joanna was starting to break. She had done well so far. Better than George had expected. She was stronger than she presented.

  ‘Okay, no problem. We need to leave you alone, Mrs Cox. I know this is hard for you. One last thing . . . Did your daughter have any nicknames, any pet names that her mates would use? Or maybe even that you used?’

  ‘She . . . at school she was Annie, spelt A—N—I. It stood for something, I think. They were just girls being silly, you know. They were in a band, her and her mates. I gave all the details of her close friends to the other police officers. They’re a bit of a distance from here. We moved when she finished school. For Ken’s work.’

  ‘Understood. Thank you. That’s been very helpful.’

  George waited for the front door to shut and to be far enough away from the house before he spoke.

  ‘We need to find that boyfriend. I have an intel officer who is a bit of a bloodhound to say the least. I can give her a call?’

  ‘A bloodhound she might be, but she’s a two-hour car journey away, George.’

  ‘For the online stuff. Social media. It’s how you find kids these days, right? Or at least find out about their lives.’

  Emma shrugged. George was relieved she wasn’t putting up walls to him trying to help anymore. ‘Sure, it can’t hurt.’

  He was already dialling when he got to the end of the drive.

  ‘George. Let me guess? You need something.’ Emily Ryker sounded slightly amused.

  ‘It doesn’t count as help if it’s your job, Ryker.’

  ‘Oh! I’ll remember that next time you call off-duty!’

  ‘I literally cannot remember the last time I did that!’

  ‘You have a short memory, George. Short enough to forget last night, and the night before that. And the night before—’

  ‘Fine. You got me.’

  ‘How are you today anyway? You doing okay?’ Ryker loaded up the sarcasm. He ignored it.

  ‘Yeah. I’m getting stuck into finding this girl. You know how I like something to focus on. I need your help, though.’

  ‘Of course you do. I have a pen and paper. What do you need?’

  ‘Our missing girl — we’ve just found out she had a boyfriend. Her name is Annie Cox, she might use A.N.I.’ — he spelled the initials — ‘on her social media. His name is Adam something. I need his details. I don’t care how you get them.’

  ‘Okay. Where does she live, where did she go to school, where does she work and how old is she?’

  ‘Shit, Ryker. She’s twenty. We’re in Symonds Yat, near Wales. Does that help?’

  ‘Not a whole lot. Do they work together?’

  ‘They might.’

  ‘Well, thanks for the help!’

  ‘If it was easy, Ryker, I would have called up some Welsh biff to do the checks, wouldn’t I? Now come on, show us what you’ve got. I’ll send you the running log, you’ll get all of her address details, date of birth and anything else they’ve put on there. You’ve found people with less to go on.’

  ‘True. I’ll get straight on it.’

  ‘I knew you would.’ George ended the call. He was aware of Emma on his right shoulder.

  ‘Welsh biffs?’

  He could feel himself blushing. ‘I had to make her feel wanted.’

  George was relieved when Emma smiled. ‘You really like to push your luck, George, don’t you?’

  ‘You have to do what you can with luck. Lord knows we need it.’

  ‘What are your plans now?’

  George sighed. ‘I don’t know. I’m not a fan of waiting around but there’s not much more we can do. I spoke to John Whittaker a little while ago. If anyone knows who has this girl it’s Roberts, right?’

  ‘He’s a line of enquiry,’ Emma conceded.

  ‘Then we need to talk to him.’

  ‘If we did, you know he won’t tell us anything, right?’

  ‘I don’t know. I mean, yes, that was my first thought. We’re probably wasting our time. But we have to do it. We have to ask him the question. Like you said, it’s a relev
ant line of enquiry.’

  ‘Okay. And I assume that falls to you, seeing as you’re still the only police officer he’s actually spoken to.’

  George sighed. ‘It does.’

  ‘He’s going to enjoy that too. You turning up with your cap in hand, begging for information on a missing girl. That will be a huge thrill.’

  ‘The power thing? I know. I’m not sure how I’m going to play it yet. One thing I do know is that I can’t turn up with my cap in hand. Asking him to help is a waste of time. We can’t offer him a deal, he’s already got what he wants — he moves today. I’m going to need something else. Something that he can’t refuse.’

  ‘Any ideas?’

  ‘Not yet. Luckily it’s a long drive down there.’

  ‘Are you going now?’

  ‘No. I would but, like I say, he moves today. When I spoke to Whittaker earlier it didn’t look like it was going to be possible to get in front of him. I’ll stay up here tonight. Let’s see if we get anywhere with the boyfriend and then we’ll go from there. What else do we have going on? I assume CCTV reviews from the trains, etc.?’

  ‘That’s all in hand. Let’s get back to the nick. We can talk to the team doing the work and find out where we are.’

  ‘Sounds like a place to start.’

  ‘But, George, for now at least, let’s keep any Henry Roberts link to ourselves.’

  George watched Emma until she got into her own car. He pulled his phone back out of his pocket.

  ‘What now, George!’ This time Ryker didn’t sound so jovial.

  ‘Sorry, I couldn’t really speak earlier. I need to give you some car details too. A part reg. Can you do what you do with it?’

  ‘Part reg. You never come to me with a complete picture, do you? Everything’s always cracked, broken or incomplete with you.’

  ‘You’re the fixer, Ryker. Like I said, anyone can run a full registration number. It takes Emily Ryker to piece together part of one!’

  ‘What have you got?’

  ‘A white van. I can’t tell you much more than that as regards the description. It looked like it was transit sized, but I could only see a small section of the back. Just enough to see the last three letters — POJ. What are the chances?’

  ‘Chances of what? Getting you the vehicle? Depends on a lot of things going right, George. Where did you see it?’

  ‘On a CCTV camera in Symonds Yat. It was at the estate that belongs to Henry Roberts. It might just be our man.’

  ‘I’ll do what I can. Why couldn’t you speak earlier?’

  ‘Eh? Oh, Emma was right next to me.’

  ‘Emma Rowe, the SIO up there? You couldn’t speak in front of her? Surely she needs to know if you have a suspect vehicle?’

  ‘I don’t have a suspect vehicle. I have three letters and a visible white panel that is probably part of a van. I need you to get me more.’

  ‘Why are you holding back on them, George?’

  He took a second. He wasn’t sure, really. This was her investigation and she seemed very switched on. ‘I just want to be sure I have the whole registration. I want to know it’s a van for sure. I don’t want coppers out there in marked cars stopping all white vans, or media appeals around those three letters. Anything that could scare our man and make him change his vehicle or push him underground. Or, worse, force his hand. I have to believe that this girl is still alive, Ryker. From what I’ve seen she won’t be harmed until the environment is just so.’

  ‘And you don’t trust them to do that? You’re not the only one with a brain, you know. I know you think you are sometimes—’

  ‘They’re terrified, Ryker. I know what you’re thinking! I know in the past I’ve kept information out of a lack of trust. That isn’t it. This whole force, this whole community . . . they’re absolutely terrified. Fear makes people do strange things.’

  ‘Leave it with me. I’ll do what I can as quickly as I can. Sounds like they’re right to be scared up there, George.’

  ‘Oh they are, Ryker. They definitely are.’

  Chapter 21

  Once they got back to Hereford Police Station, George made for the uniform sergeant who was leading the missing person investigation. He was a cheery-looking man, both his beard and glasses were neat and thick.

  ‘We’re doing all we can to find her. Usually you get a lass of this age and they turn up looking a bit sheepish, you know. They stayed out one night too many with their boyfriend or girlfriends. I suppose you get to a point where it’s gone too far, where you don’t want to just pick up the phone and call your parents ’cause you know you’ll be in trouble!’

  George nodded, despite disagreeing with just about every word. ‘And have you got the CCTV from the train yet?’

  ‘Yes. The transport police are pretty good round here. We get a bit of bother on the trains. They’re pretty slick at getting the stuff downloaded. We normally deal with it, see. The other forces they make them deal with it but we’re so far out we tend to take it on. They really appreciate that.’

  ‘Has it been viewed?’

  ‘It has. We found our girl. The train CCTV is very good. We know that she got on. She nearly didn’t, mind! Nearly missed it. She got on the train and then she got off at her normal stop. She was alone the whole time. The footage is clear but she’s not directly in front of a camera unfortunately. She looks like she plays with her phone then falls asleep. There’s really nothing to report.’

  ‘She was on her own?’

  ‘Yeah, the whole time.’

  ‘Was there anyone near her?’

  ‘There were other people on the train. But they were spread out, as you would expect. She didn’t talk to anyone and no one talked to her. We’ve taken a few stills from it so you can see what she was wearing. We’ve got some of the other passengers too, but they’re not great. We spoke to her workmates and she was wearing the same thing when she left them.’

  ‘So she disappeared between getting off the train and getting home?’

  ‘She must have.’

  ‘That’s not a girl who’s stayed over at her boyfriend’s or her girlfriend’s for an extra night then, is it? That’s a girl who was on her way home.’

  The sergeant’s smile fell away a bit. ‘I never thought of it like that. I guess that’s why you’re the detective, right?’

  ‘Did you find the boyfriend yet? This Adam fella?’

  ‘Adam?’ The sergeant looked confused.

  ‘Yes. We spoke to the mother earlier tonight. She said she had told some other coppers about Adam. Annie is seeing someone called Adam apparently. No one seems to know a surname or any other details. Did anyone at work know anything about him?’

  ‘Oh. Well, no one’s told me about a boyfriend. There are a lot of officers involved, see. We’ve got all the waifs, strays and sick-notes out doing what they can. You know what it’s like! We’ve got no resources so we just put out who we can. It is all being collated. I’ll get it together and have a good look through, see what we’ve got.’

  ‘That sounds like a good idea. I’ll leave you to it.’

  ‘Cheerio!’

  George closed the door behind him and exhaled. He walked back to where Emma was in her office. She was hunched over her computer.

  ‘Your team should be leading this, Emma.’

  ‘What? Leading what?’

  ‘The missing person. I just spoke to the uniform skipper who’s currently running it. He seems like a lovely fella but he’s not the man to find her. Is he?’

  ‘Well I have a couple of DCs overseeing, George. To be honest we shouldn’t really have that much.’

  ‘What do you mean, you shouldn’t have that? This is a possible abduction, right? Down where I come from Major Crime would be—’

  ‘Then go back! Go back to where you came from, George. You’re only here on my goodwill! Because I could do with some help, but if you want to start dictating how this force should work like the one you’ve come from then your help isn’t ne
eded any more.’

  ‘Okay, okay. I’m sorry, you’re right. I’m sticking my nose in. Just explain to me why Major Crime are not leading with this so I can get back in my box.’

  ‘Because, George, no one is saying this is an abduction. On the surface this is just a girl, barely out of her teens, who has not made it home from a night out. We get them reported every day. I’ve got four other missing persons reports, two from foster care, one who didn’t make it back from a party and one who’s suspected of heading to London to meet an older boy. All of them are at risk. All of them need finding and you could say that they are all possible abductions. My team can’t lead the search for everyone. That is why it is a uniform function until we get some sort of confirmation of foul play.’

  ‘This is different, though. Surely you see that? Annie Cox isn’t missing from foster care. She isn’t sneaking off to see her boyfriend or to go to a party. She’s a young professional who we know was on a train on her own and who went missing somewhere between stepping onto that platform and her home address. She’s never been missing before and she is an exact match in description and MO to three other girls who were murd—’

  ‘Enough!’ Emma’s voice was almost a shriek. He himself had been getting louder. He came back a lot softer.

  ‘And a Brazen Bull is missing.’

  Emma stood up. She walked back to her thinking place. She didn’t face outside the window. She turned and stared at George. ‘That house has been targeted for damage and break-ins more times than I can remember. We’ve stopped responding to the calls there. The security guard has become a pain in the arse, calling us up every five minutes just because he doesn’t want to squeeze his fat arse out of that van of his. We both know how much a copper is worth, George. You’ve got some chancer who’s gone in there and taken one of the copper tanks. I reckon they’ll be back for the others too, now they know they’re in there. There isn’t a man, woman or child within twenty square miles or more, who doesn’t know that place is sitting empty. We’re putting two and two together without a shred of anything to prove it. I’ve entertained your abduction theory and I’ve even fuelled it a little — I should have kept the details to myself. But this is nothing more than a missing person investigation until someone can tell me different.’