'Have you got the address, we'll head over and meet you there.'
'No one turned up at the mill?' she asked.
'No, they bloody didn't,' Bannister snapped. 'The whole thing has been a waste of time, and now we have this!'
'The address is number two Blair Avenue, it's on the way to Standish,' Odette said.
Bannister was stabbing at the screen of his phone as Lasser turned away slightly. 'OK, Odette, we'll get over to you as soon as we can.'
'No problem.'
The phone beeped and died just as Bannister got through to Shaun Rourke.
'We need you over at Swan Meadow Mill ASAP, what's your ETA?' Bannister demanded.
Lasser heard the mumbled reply and the DCI grunted.
'Not good enough, get here in ten,' he snapped before ending the call.
Seconds later they were heading towards the steps that led down to the lower floor.
'What about Black?' Lasser asked.
'If he's still in the bushes, he can stay there until Shaun and Sally arrive,' Bannister replied as they hurried down the steps.
'That's two girls taken from the same school, both had a link to Scott Clark,' Lasser said as they reached the lower floor and headed straight for the exit.
'Well, that's one link we can be certain of,' Bannister replied as they strode free of the building and into the driving rain. 'Black where are you!' he bellowed as they strode across the courtyard.
One clump of bushes parted, and Black emerged looking like a drowned rat, his clothing sodden, he had two stray leaves plastered to his wet head, his face blanched with hatred.
'Right, we have somewhere we need to be, Rourke and Wright are on their way over here to keep an eye on the place, you wait until they arrive and then you can get yourself home,' Bannister said as they came to a stop three feet away from Black.
'So, all of this was a waste of time?' Black asked, his face hinting at disgust.
'Nothing is ever a waste of time when you're trying to catch a killer,' Lasser replied.
Black didn't look convinced as he swiped the rain from his mug. 'Will Rourke and Wright be told to hide in the bushes when they get here or do they get to sit in their car all night on the off-chance that someone might turn up?'
Lasser took a step forward, and Black shuffled backwards aware of the fury in Lasser's dark gaze.
'No one forced you to stay in the bushes, you had the option to wait in the mill, you decided to take on the job out here, but I bet when you are adding to your list of complaints, you'll say we forced you to hide in the bushes while we stayed snug and warm with a roof over our heads laughing about you getting wet.'
'I just tell the truth, I…'
'Lasser, forget him, we have more important things to do than waste our breath on PC Black,' Bannister interrupted in a voice full of fury.
With a final icy stare at Black, Lasser turned and they strode away into the rain, Black watching them with spite-filled eyes as they vanished from sight.
73
Clara tensed as she heard the key in the lock, then the door swung open and the wind and rain blew into the concrete space, her eyes widening in astonishment as the man entered the room with the girl flung over his shoulder.
She tried to sit up, but her limbs had gone numb and she could feel nothing as he approached, hoisting the girl from his shoulder, he let her fall to the mattress with a thump.
Clara glanced to her right, and behind the tape she squealed as she recognised Morgan Pence, then the man grabbed her and hauled her off the mattress before throwing her over his shoulder. Suddenly any thought of what Morgan was doing here was swept from her mind as the man strode to the open door and out into the darkness, pausing only to slam the door and lock it, then he set off walking over the wet grass that grew alongside the house. Seconds later, he thrust her from his shoulder, and she landed in the back of the van, the impact making her scream, though the sound remained trapped in her throat as she heard the side door slide closed with a clunk.
The seconds ticked by as the fear threatened to swamp her again, then she heard the engine rumble to life and the van started to move. Clara Bell knew that she was on her way to her death and the only hope she had now was the flicker of determination that rose inside.
Screwing her eyes closed, she tried to nurture the small flame, desperately shielding it against the terror that threatened to extinguish the hope as the van increased in speed and she started to sway from side to side.
'Get ready,' the voice inside whispered.
Clara did her best.
74
Odette sat facing Hannah Pence across the kitchen table as the paramedic stood by her side checking the head wound.
Spenner hovered by the kitchen door, his face sombre.
'I don't think you will need stitches, Mrs Pence, but we still need to get you to the hospital for a…'
'I'm going nowhere not until I get my daughter back,' Hannah forced the words out through the pain, and Odette saw the flash of desperation in her eyes.
The paramedic looked perturbed for a moment and then he stepped back. 'I understand, but if you get any headaches or…'
'Please just leave,' she begged in a voice packed with tension.
The paramedic did as she asked, glancing at Odette and giving a slight shrug as he left the room.
Silence stretched out, and when Hannah said nothing, Odette eased forward slightly.
'Can you tell me exactly what happened?' she asked.
Hannah started to talk, the words tripping over one another as she explained about arriving home from the hospital.
'Morgan was in the car, she was ringing her friend, I let myself into the house and someone hit me from behind, I passed out and that's all I can remember, when I came round Morgan had vanished and I was tied and gagged on the hall floor.'
'It was your daughter's friend who raised the alarm?'
Hannah nodded before wiping the tears from her eyes. 'If Elle hadn't come then I would still have been there gagged and tied, thankfully her mother hadn't left, she was parked at the front of the house and came straight away.'
'Did they come through the front door?' Odette asked as she saw blue light spiralling out into the night through the kitchen window.
'No, it was closed, but the policeman said whoever attacked me broke in through a window in the dining room, they forced the lock and must have been waiting for me, but you have to get my daughter back, you have to help me please,' Hannah pleaded as her hands came together as if in prayer.
Before Odette could answer, she heard the front door open and footsteps in the hallway, seconds later, Bannister stood in the doorway with Lasser at his back, Spenner giving them both the nod, they both looked tired and drawn.
'Hannah, this is my boss, DCI Bannister, and Sergeant Lasser,' Odette explained.
Hannah looked at them as they entered the room, her hands still pulling and tugging at one another in distress.
Half a minute later Odette had filled them in on the details, Bannister had sat by her side as Lasser remained over by the door, his eyes taking in the room and the mother of the missing Morgan Pence, Spenner by his side, hands locked behind his back.
Shifting slightly in the seat, Bannister placed his hands flat on the tabletop as he looked at Hannah.
'Listen to me, Mrs Pence, we are going to do everything possible to get your daughter back, some of the questions I'll be asking might appear trivial but, believe me, they will help us form an image of what has happened here,' Bannister said.
'I just need my Morgan back, her father's in hospital, she loves him so much, you have to find her, you have to save her,' Hannah urged as more tears spilled onto her ashen cheeks.
Bannister nodded in understanding, his face full of empathy. 'Someone broke into the house and waited to ambush you, is that right?'
For a moment, she looked confused by the word ''ambush'' and then she nodded again. 'That's right.'
'And you never saw the
person responsible?'
'I saw no one,' she paused and sighed heavily, 'but I do know when he took Morgan, he used my car to take her away.'
'Your car is missing?' Lasser asked.
Hannah glanced across the room at him, he was a big, hard-looking man, his eyes appeared almost black, Hannah shivered slightly as she cleared her throat. 'That's right. Elle's mother told me it had gone.'
'Do you have a vehicle registration, make and model?' he asked.
By the time she had given him the information, Lasser had his phone out and was tapping at the screen, his voice low as he spoke to whoever was on the other end of the phone.
'Morgan went to the same school as Clara Bell, is that correct?' Bannister asked.
At the mention of Clara, Hannah's eyes sprang wide, the horror smeared across her face. 'My God, you think that the same man has taken my daughter, don't you?'
'Please, Mrs Pence, just answer the question.'
'Yes, yes, they went to the same school.'
'And they both knew Scott Clark?'
Hannah nodded as more tears sparkled in her eyes, the skin beneath puffy and red. 'I didn't know anything about the boy until two days ago. My husband had collapsed, he was rushed to hospital and while we were there two officers came to see Morgan, that's the first I knew about Scott Clark being Morgan's boyfriend.'
'Did you know that your daughter had intended going to the party with Scott?' Bannister asked.
Hannah took a shuddering breath, her fingers entwined. 'I never knew about it until Morgan told me a couple of days ago, he had wanted her to go, she said she would but had changed her mind because she stayed here and never made any effort to go out that night.'
'If she had asked to go to the party what would you have said?'
She looked up again at Lasser as he slipped the phone into his pocket, his eyes once more fixed on her.
'I talked about this with my daughter, she had made a mistake by not telling us about Scott and, if I'm being honest, it came as a shock, especially after what happened to her father, but as responsible parents we would have wanted to know about the party and more importantly about the boy.'
'And she couldn't think of an excuse to leave the house, that's why she didn't go to the party?'
Hannah sighed at Lasser's words.
Odette glanced over her shoulder but Lasser simply stood there impassive, over time she had seen him like this a lot, cutting to the chase in what could be construed as a heartless manner, yet she knew that he cared about getting Morgan Pence back with her family, all that mattered was trying to make that happen.
'Like I said, we've talked about it, she loved the idea of having a boyfriend, it made her feel more mature, but we've all done that, I told her she had done nothing wrong.'
'Had Morgan mentioned anyone that made you feel wary?' Bannister suddenly asked.
Hannah thought for a moment, the fear and pain still raging through her mind, then her shoulders sagged slightly. 'The truth is for the past couple of years Morgan has been like most teenagers, she put up this kind of frosty barrier, you would ask her a question and she would give you the briefest of answers.'
'Believe me I know what you mean,' Bannister replied with an understanding half-smile.
'But her results at school were always great, she never missed a day, and her homework was always done on time, this thing with Scott Clark was just Morgan wanting to keep something to herself.'
'Do you know if she saw him out of school hours?' Lasser asked.
Hannah shook her head. 'She rarely went out at night, especially with the weather being so bad, in the summer months she would go out but that was always with Elle, they'd go to the park to meet other friends now and again, but normally they went to the cinema or just for a walk, she was never late home and if we needed her she would always answer her phone.'
Lasser nodded as he slipped his hands into his pockets. 'So, apart from the stroppy behaviour, she never gave you cause for concern?'
For a moment, Bannister closed his eyes at Lasser's question, his teeth coming together, the anger simmering.
'That's right,' Hannah replied.
Bannister opened his eyes, surprised that she hadn't spat out a reply.
Hannah sniffed back the tears. 'I know it sounds crass, but I swear to you, she doesn't have a bad bone in her body, she's liked at school, and her and Elle are inseparable,' she paused for a moment, 'at least they were, but Morgan admitted that for the last three months she had pretty much ignored Elle at school.'
'Because she was with Scott?' Odette enquired.
'That's right, and she was ashamed for the way she behaved.'
'She told you that?'
Hannah looked at Odette as she wiped the tears from her cheeks with the sleeve of her shirt, the residue from the tape had left a thin oblong line around her lips. 'She did, we stopped in the car on the way back from the hospital, she was upset about her father, not knowing if he was going to be all right, but also about Elle, she thought she no longer deserved her as a friend, I told her that Elle understood and would forgive her.'
Lasser took two steps into the room, Hannah looked up at him, he had seemed imposing at the far side of the room but now he stood three feet away she could sense the power of the man, yet for the first time she saw a softness in his dark eyes.
'How is your husband?' he suddenly asked.
For a few seconds, she was taken aback by the question, and then her hands fell into her lap. 'They think it could be a tumour of some kind, they're going to operate in the morning, but they can't say how he will be after the operation or even if he'll survive.'
The room fell silent for a few seconds as they absorbed the news, Hannah Pence's husband was seriously ill, which would have been bad enough, but now her daughter had been snatched and her world was falling apart a chunk at a time.
'Please, I have no idea why my Morgan was taken, she has no enemies, and I need her, her father needs her,' at last she broke down, her eyes screwed closed, the tears squeezing free.
Bannister held the sigh in check as he wondered what they were going to do to get the girl back.
Outside, the rain intensified, hitting the window with a clatter, the wind tore around the house in a banshee wail adding to the feeling of hopelessness that suddenly seemed to fill the air.
75
Despite the coldness in the back of the van, Clara could feel the sweat of fear coating her body, and yet, as she turned her hands, she felt a flash of hope when she felt the tape start to slip slightly.
The pain in her wrists made her whimper, and yet she continued to rotate her hands against one another, every few seconds she would try and pull her hands apart, and slowly she felt the tape stretch.
For a few moments, she was almost swamped by the thought that she could separate her hands, then she stopped and took the air in through her nostrils willing herself to calm down. Her body went limp as the van drove around what she assumed was a right-hand bend in the road.
Then she started to turn her wrists again, slow and steady, the sweat helping to lubricate her hands, then she once again eased her hands apart, and she felt the tape slip down another half an inch, this time she could do nothing about the excitement that reared in her mind, suddenly all reason fled and she pulled and tugged, unaware that the sweat was mixed with her blood, specks of red dripping to the metal floor.
Then the wheels started to rumble, she paused as she realised that the vehicle had left the road and was now moving over uneven ground, then the van started to lurch and dip and yet still she continued to rotate her hands, doing it automatically, aware that time was running out. When the van came to a stop, she whimpered behind the tape, her hands pulling and tugging frantically, then she heard the thump of the van door closing and suddenly the voice inside her head hissed.
'Stop. Wait.'
Clara obeyed instantly, then the side door slid open and the man loomed in and grabbed her, dragging her from the van. She could fe
el the wind chilling the sweat on her face, her hair being tossed as he hoisted her over his shoulder, closing the van door before turning and striding off into the darkness.
Seconds later, the sound of the wind changed to a strange whooshing noise, she managed to lift her head and realised she was in a long brick tunnel, she could hear the water dripping from above, the temperature dropping, making her shiver.
Her muscles throbbed, and she struggled to breathe as her body bounced on the man's shoulder, yet despite the terror, despite the pain, she started to move her hands again, fully aware that if she did nothing then her life would soon come to an end. Seconds later the wind and rain were back, and she knew that they had left the tunnel, yet that was the furthest thing from her mind as she felt the tape slip down. She was seconds away from freeing her hands, yet the voice suddenly told her to wait, and it took all her willpower to obey the demand.
'Stay calm, breathe.'
Her body went limp, the wind and rain lashed at her, then the man slipped slightly, and she knew that they had left the path and were now walking across grassland, she could even hear the man's heavy breathing as his booted feet sunk in the soft ground.
Her hearing seemed to grow more acute, she could hear the rain falling from the trees above them, the sound of rushing water reached her, the ground started to slope downwards and twice she felt the man jerk upright, fighting for balance.
The sound of the river rushing by grew in intensity, and she felt the fear try to take control again, but she wouldn't allow it, concentrating instead on the voice, gradually she started to move her hands again, the muscles in her shoulders throbbing in protest. Seconds later, she heard the sound of the man's booted feet crossing the wooden bridge before reaching the other side, and then they were climbing again, the ground growing ever steeper, the man's breathing becoming ragged and laboured.
She could hear the squelch of his boots, sinking into the mud.
Third Eye - DS Lasser Series 25 (2021) Page 24