by Sally Rigby
‘Oh, no. I just wondered, that’s all.’
She didn’t want to drop herself in it.
‘Do you mind if I take a picture of this with my phone? To show my friend. She’d love to see all of them together.’
‘Of course not.’ She pulled out her phone and took a photo. ‘Actually, why don’t you take the photo with you, I’m sure my mum wouldn’t mind,’ he suggested.
‘Thank you. That’s very kind. And thank you for all your help. Please send your mum all my best. I hope she makes a full recovery. It was good of you to take the time to talk to me.’
‘This isn’t a police matter, then? Mum mentioned that you were in the police.’
‘No, it’s something I’m doing for a friend. I did explain everything to your mum when I spoke to her. Do you mind if I keep in touch to see how she’s doing?’
‘Not at all.’ He gave her his number, which she keyed into her phone.
‘Thanks. I’ll see myself out.’
Chapter 14
The pub Birdie had chosen for them to meet was fairly busy, full of locals. It was a typical country pub with low beams, wooden furniture, and an open fireplace. As he glanced up, he saw her walk in. Only twenty minutes late. Not bad.
She stopped at the bar, ordered a drink and came over, holding it in one hand and the menus in another.
‘Sorry,’ she said, dropping down on the chair opposite him.
‘You don’t need to apologise every time you’re late to meet me. I always expect it. Don’t worry.’
‘I bet you always arrive on time, though. Just in case. No need to answer, I can tell by your face.’
‘One of us has to be punctual.’
‘You’re so funny.’
‘And yet you still continue rolling your eyes. Surely I warrant a different expression every now and again?’
‘That depends.’
‘On what?’
‘You, of course.’
He reached for his glass and took a large swallow. Sparring with Birdie was most enjoyable.
‘How was the training course?’
‘Interesting. It was about crime scene management and forensic awareness. Obviously, it didn’t go into a huge amount of detail, but there’s a course at the uni which I’m thinking of taking part-time. Unless I go for one on cybercrime. I can’t decide which one as they’re equally fascinating.’
‘Why not do both?’
‘I don’t have that much free time, what with cricket and working with you.’
‘I didn’t mean concurrently. Do one this year, and another one next year.’
‘Maybe. I’ll see how everything else I’m involved in goes.’
‘How did the visit to Leicester go yesterday?’ He was surprised she hadn’t told him already.
‘Not as I imagined, but it was good. Sort of.’ An unreadable expression crossed her face. He couldn’t tell whether it went well or not.
‘Would you like to talk about it?’
‘Sure. I went there as planned but the woman I’d arranged to see, Marie Davis, had a stroke last Friday so she wasn’t able to speak to me because she was still in hospital.’
‘Goodness, that’s dreadful. How did you find this out?’
‘Lucky for me, her son, Craig, happened to be there collecting some of her belongings when I arrived. If he hadn’t been, I’d be back to square one with no further leads. He was kind enough to ask me into the house and we had a chat about their old neighbours. He didn’t remember much, but at least he knew them.’
‘Did he ask why you were interested in them?’
‘Yes, and I told him it was for a friend. He accepted that. It helped that his mum had told him I was a police officer.’
‘Did you tell him it was a police investigation?’ His jaw tightened. That could get Birdie in a lot of trouble if it was reported to her superiors.
‘What do you take me for? I didn’t say that to him. I’m not stupid. Anyway he had more important things on his mind to worry about, like what was going to happen to his mum once she was discharged from hospital. It’s going to be a problem for the whole family.’
‘Yes, those things can be a worry. What did he tell you?’
She filled him in with everything she’d now learnt.
‘He gave me a photo of my mum to keep.’
‘Do you have it with you?’
‘Yes, I also copied it to my mobile.’ She pulled out her phone and slid it over to him. ‘She’s the blonde girl with long hair, on the far right.’
He stared at the screen. ‘Who’s the boy standing next to her?’
‘He thought maybe her boyfriend, but he couldn’t remember his name or anything about him. Are you thinking the same as me?’
‘Which is?’ he asked, wanting to check before saying anything.
‘Hello. The red hair. The same as mine. And it’s curly.’ She grabbed hold of her ponytail and waved it in front of her face. ‘Do you think he’s my dad?’
‘It’s possible. If one parent has red hair and the other doesn’t, there’s about a fifty per cent chance their child will be red-haired.’ He didn’t like to add that the boy’s eyes and face were the same shape as Birdie’s, too, because she’d never shown any interest in finding out about him and it would only complicate matters for her.
‘That’s what I thought. Definitely possible. But I don’t know his name, and possibly the only person to tell me is Marie and I can’t speak to her until she’s better. That’s if she does recover enough to speak to me. If I could trace him, he might be able to tell me more about Kim.’
‘I didn’t realise you were interested in him.’
‘I’ve been focused on finding my mother, but I’m not dismissing learning about my father. It does feel like I’ve come to a dead end though.’
‘How can you say that? You now have a photograph of your mother and you know the approximate date she left the country. That information is going to be very useful.’
‘Yes, but Canada? How the hell will I find her there?’
‘You could try tracking down someone from her school who might be able to tell you more about her and the boyfriend. Knowing his name would be extremely helpful.’
She sighed, picked up her drink and took a sip. ‘You’re right. That’s what I’ll do. But not yet. I’ll wait until after we’ve finished with Lacey’s case. Tell me about your interview with Stephen Shaw.’
‘He was a pleasant enough chap, and concerned with Lacey’s well-being, but I didn’t get any more out of him than what we already knew. He visits her on a regular basis and said that social services are happy with how she’s progressing, and your aunt’s input into her care and development. Legally, he wouldn’t be allowed to tell me anything else, but it was good to ascertain his overall view of Lacey’s situation.’
‘What we need to do now is speak to people who were around when Lacey was found. Even though it’s over a year later, we might learn something that isn’t in the police files. Often people remember things after the fact. Although anything important, they should have contacted the police about it.’
‘Maybe. Maybe not. Sometimes people add in new information without even realising when they’re talking about a situation at a later date.’ That had happened to him on a number of occasions in the past.
‘True. And there may well be some witnesses who didn’t come forward at the time, if they didn’t want others to know they’d been in the vicinity. But we won’t be able to reach any of them unless we have a press conference or put out a media alert. Which we can’t, as the case isn’t official.’
‘We’ve got the name of the person who found Lacey so we’ll contact her first. Also, we should visit the shops and cafes in the area to see if they remember anything more than when they were spoken to initially.’
‘Okay. That sounds like a plan. I’m off on Wednesday, so why don’t we spend that time visiting places?’
‘Wednesday’s good for me, too. We’ll see if June Charles, th
e woman who found Lacey, is available. I’ll call her now, and then we can make our arrangements for the other visits around the time she can see us.’ He picked up his phone from the table.
‘I don’t have her number with me, do you? No you don’t, because you remember it. I keep forgetting about your crazy SHAM thing.’
‘It’s HSAM,’ he said, as he keyed in the number.
‘Well, you know what I mean.’
‘Mrs Charles,’ he said when his call was answered.
‘Yes?’
‘This is Sebastian Clifford. We’re reinvestigating the case involving the little girl you found abandoned in Market Harborough a year ago. May I come along with a colleague of mine to go over it again with you? We have additional information which we’d like to check, if you don’t mind.’
‘Not at all. I’d been wondering recently how the little girl was. I’d be happy to help.’
‘Are you available on Wednesday morning around ten?’
‘Sorry, I work mornings, but I can do the afternoon at two. I collect my granddaughter from school at three, so will need to leave by a quarter to. Will that give you enough time?’
‘Yes, that would be perfect. Thank you, we appreciate your cooperation.’
‘Do you know where I live?’
‘We have your address on file, unless you’ve moved since the incident?’
‘I’m still here. I probably will be until they put me six feet under.’ She laughed. ‘I’ll see you, then.’
He ended the call. ‘She can’t do the morning but will be available in the afternoon at two. Let’s go into town on Wednesday morning and visit the shops and cafes that have a view of where Lacey was found, and later we’ll interview Mrs Charles. Before then, I’d like to look at the CCTV footage from around the time Lacey was abandoned. We haven’t checked that yet.’
‘A copy should be in the digital file. I’ll download it so we can watch first thing Wednesday morning before we leave. Shall I come out to you at eight-thirty, and we can check the footage and then go into town?’ Birdie suggested.
‘Yes, that works. Now, let’s order something to eat.’
Chapter 15
‘You’re not going to believe this. The computers were down most of yesterday so I couldn’t download the CCTV footage,’ Birdie said as she followed Seb into the house on Wednesday morning. She shivered. It was as cold in the house as it was outside. According to the weather forecast it was going to be a warm day. It certainly wasn’t yet.
‘That’s a shame,’ Seb said, as he led her through to the kitchen, where he got two mugs from the dresser and filled them with coffee from the machine. He poured milk into hers and handed it over.
‘I even went in early first thing this morning, but Sarge was hanging around and wouldn’t leave me alone. I pretended I’d gone in to collect something as it was my day off. Honestly, what is it with that man always being there at the wrong time? Let’s hope he doesn’t suspect what I’m doing about Lacey, or he’ll go off on one big time. I’m going to pop back in later and download it then.’
‘Won’t he still be around? You’ve always told me he’s always at the station and that you wouldn’t be surprised if he lives there.’
‘Not this afternoon because he was moaning about having to go to the dentist. Luckily, one of his teeth has fallen out. Well, I don’t mean it’s lucky because it can’t be nice for him. But that’s the trouble when you get old, you start losing your teeth. My dad’s the same. The other day, all he did was bite into a piece of toast and one of his teeth cracked and fell out. He almost swallowed it.’
‘The joys of getting old. No comment from you necessary, thank you.’
‘I don’t know what you mean,’ she said, smirking.
‘Yes, you do. Let’s not worry about the CCTV footage. We have other things to occupy us until we do have it.’
‘What’s the plan, now? Have you had breakfast?’
‘Of course.’
‘In that case, let’s go to the place where Lacey was found, on one of the seats in front of the Old Grammar School.’
‘I know it well. It’s near the street where I was attacked.’
She was still haunted by thoughts of when Seb got beaten up really badly with a baseball bat while they were investigating Donald Witherspoon’s death. He was lucky not to have been killed. A smaller man might not have survived such a beating.
‘Don’t remind me. I can still, so clearly, see your face after the attack. Have you completely recovered?’
She’d forgotten to ask him up until now. And she called herself a friend.
‘My ribs still hurt occasionally, but they can take a long time to recover after being broken. Other than that, all my bruises have gone.’
‘And your face is back to its former glory.’
‘Meaning?’
Did he really not know how attractive he was?
‘You know what I mean. Anyway, back to Lacey. After we’ve seen where she was left we’ll visit the shops and cafes. We have copies of their statements, but it’s still good to go over them again.’
‘Providing the staff haven’t changed, which they might have as it’s a year later. Although their contact details should be on file.’ Seb said.
‘We can follow up with anyone who isn’t still there. We’ll take both cars so it saves me from having to come back here. I can go straight to work after and download the footage. I’ll meet you at the grammar school.’
She followed him down the track and back through the village. After that she couldn’t keep up with him as her Mini was no match for his BMW. She didn’t want to push her car as it was already living on borrowed time. She’d love a new one, but as all her money went into her house deposit fund, she had to make do with what she’d got. It was a little temperamental, but she’d got it sussed.
Once she arrived in town, she parked in Roman Way and headed to the Old Grammar School. Seb still wasn’t there, so she walked around the outside of the building and then under it. The peculiar looking building had always fascinated Birdie. It had been built on stilts, so that local farmers’ wives could use the covered area for their weekly butter market instead of having to move it away from the high street. She scanned the area from all angles and as she arrived back at the front, she could see him marching up High Street towards her.
‘You got here before me. Where’s your car?’ Seb said.
‘Roman Way, over there,’ she said, pointing down the street.
‘I’m in Symington.’
‘That’s a bit of a walk. Still, the exercise will do you good.’
‘It didn’t take long. Show me exactly where Lacey was found.’
She led him over to the bench facing the road. It was slightly in front of the building. ‘We don’t know if she was walked to the bench or whether she was sent to it by someone in the shadows who watched until she sat down. No one saw anything, and the cameras didn’t pick it up either.’
‘Lacey could have come from behind the building and walked underneath until she reached the bench. That way she wouldn’t have been seen until she got there,’ Seb said.
‘Maybe whoever she was with told her exactly where to go so that they wouldn’t be spotted dropping her off.’
Birdie sat on the bench, to get the same view that Lacey would have when she was there, and Seb sat beside her.
‘It would be someone who knew the area, if that was the case,’ he said.
‘Knew it, or had spent time checking it out. But I agree with you, it would most likely be someone familiar with the town. It’s not like people pass through the centre on their way to other locations. You have to detour off the main road to get here.’
‘Okay, so we now suspect that whoever left Lacey knew exactly the best place to drop her off where they wouldn’t be caught on camera and, de facto, had knowledge of the surroundings. If the child was seated where we are now. Who can see her?’
‘People in the Olive Tree Café over there have a perf
ect view.’ Birdie pointed across the road.
‘There’s also the newsagent, and the shop next to it, Crystal Haven. I can’t work out what they sell.’ His brow furrowed.
‘The name should give it away. They do crystals, incense and oils, and tarot cards. I often go in there. But let’s go to the Olive Tree first as they have the best view.’
‘Okay.’
They headed over to the café, and the smell of baking hit her immediately as she pushed open the door. They headed up to the counter and stood behind the person being served. Soon it was their turn.
‘I’m hoping you might be able to help us. Do you remember the case a year ago when the little girl was found by the Old Grammar School?’ Birdie asked the woman behind the counter.
The assistant shook her head. ‘I don’t know, sorry. I only moved to town six months ago.’
‘Is there anyone else who might?’
‘The manager has been here for years. I’ll get her.’
They left the queue and stood a little to the side. After a few minutes a woman came over to them. She was wearing the same maroon coloured uniform as the rest of the staff.
‘Hello, I’m Tina Webb, the manager.’
‘We’re looking again at the case of the little girl who was found on the other side of the street last year. Were you working that day?’ Birdie asked.
‘Are you from the police?’
‘I am a police officer, but this is a private investigation,’ Birdie said.
‘I see. Yes, I was working that day. The police came in and spoke to me, but I didn’t actually see anything. It all happened during a very busy time and it wasn’t until two police cars turned up and parked opposite that I paid any attention.’
‘Did you notice anything strange on that day, or days either side?’ Seb asked.
‘Not that I remember. How is the little girl? I followed the case on the news, but after a while nothing was reported. Did you find out who left her?’
‘She’s doing very well, but we still don’t know how she came to be there. We’ll leave you to it, as I can see you’re busy. Thanks for your help.’ Birdie said.