Bad Things Happen: when a child goes missing

by K Leitch

  ‘Whaszup,’ he said angrily, ‘fucking woke me up with all your fucking banging, thought the fucking van was on fire.’

  ‘Yeh sorry mate I’m just trying to find Terry,’ said Duncan trying not to breath in the strong alcohol fumes coming from Gabe’s mouth.

  ‘Well ‘e ain’t fucking ‘ere is ‘e; went off earlier, just after you went off with that policewoman. Said something about needing to find someone… I don’t know what the fuck ‘e was going on about. We was meant to be going rabbiting tonight…but ‘e took the fucking gun didn’t ‘e so I decided to ‘ave a little drink instead.’ He held up a half empty whiskey bottle for Duncan to see.

  ‘Ok sorry mate; I’ll catch him later, can you tell him I’m looking for him if you see him first?’

  ‘Yeh, whatever,’ said Gabe and retreated back inside the caravan.

  Duncan walked across to the other side of the camp and popped his head round the door of the caravan belonging to his grandparents. Poppy had said that she would cook them a meal and settle them for the night. Which was incredibly kind of her; she had her own enormous family to see to. But that was the gypsy way; they looked out for each other. Which was why he had to find Terry, and soon! He toyed with the idea of going into the woods to look for him but decided against it. Terry would have to come home at some point. And he was buggered if he was going to traipse around a dark wood at this time of night. Besides whatever Poppy had cooked for his grandparents smelt wonderful and he hadn’t eaten for hours!

  CHAPTER 24 - CARLA

  Carla opened her eyes with difficulty; she had come to bed so late last night. They had made real progress; and Mr McKinny had been really helpful. So helpful in fact that they had been able to take a couple of good images with them to the Crime Watch program last night. They’d even managed to get hold of the same black hooded top with distinctive yellow drawstring to show the viewers. Carla was really hopeful that they would be able to jog someone’s memory. And along with the heart wrenching appeal made by the Marshalls it had been a good productive night. Of course they still had no idea where Owen was being held. And as there had been no ransom demands made, they had no idea why he had been taken. But it felt like they were making progress, slowly but surely.

  Carla slid out of the warm bed carefully; trying not to wake James who had been snoring gently beside her and made her way down to the kitchen. It was still early and she wanted to make the most of her time at home by getting her family breakfast, and taking her kids to school for once.

  She started clearing up from the night before, loading up the dishwasher and clearing the debris from the kitchen table. When she felt two warm arms surround her from behind, she snuggled back into James’s embrace as he started feathering kisses down the side of her neck.

  ‘Mmmm are you trying to get me back into bed you sex crazed beast you?’ she asked as she turned round to kiss him properly.

  ‘Actually there was no towel in the bathroom, and I was just trying to wipe my excess toothpaste off on your neck, but now that you mention it….’

  Carla giggled and fooled around with him for a bit longer until it was clear that they were both getting a bit too excited.

  ‘Oh darling believe me I am sooo sorry,’ said James reluctantly pulling himself away, but I’ve got to be in Essex by ten this morning and I haven’t even looked at my notes for the meeting yet. Anyway you don’t deserve any loving, what time did you crawl into bed last night?’

  Carla put some bread in the toaster and some packs of cereal on the table.

  ‘God knows, we all watched Crime Watch in the briefing room, did you see it? The Chief was amazing I thought, and poor Susan and Gordon just broke my heart. Then we went through all that we’d gathered yesterday and waited for a while for the phone to start ringing…which it did, but nothing of any use yet. And then I came home, must have been about half one I suppose. Which was why I thought I would spend this time with my family, eat breakfast with you all and take the kids to school.’

  ‘Well that’s a lovely idea babe, but I’m going to have to just have a slice of toast at my computer I’m afraid. I’ve got to get these notes typed up before I leave…so it’ll just be you and the kids,’ and with that he pinched the toast that Carla had just buttered and legged it upstairs to his little office.

  ‘Oh well, c’est la vie,’ thought Carla as she put more toast on and then went upstairs to wake the kids.

  A couple of hours later, just as she was leaving the school gates Carla’s mobile rang. It was Ted.

  ‘Sorry Carla, I know you were going to take a couple of hours this morning, but we’ve just had a call in, someone’s found a body in the woods.’

  For a second Carla’s heart stopped beating. ‘Oh no Ted, don’t tell me it’s Owen.’

  ‘No no, at least it doesn’t sound like it. Sounds like it’s a man’s body, not been there that long either seems like.’

  ‘Ok I’ll come now; whereabouts in the woods is it?’

  Carla made her way up to the common again, parking in the same place as the day before and walking along the same path. It was a glorious spring morning this time though, and despite her grim mission Carla couldn’t help noticing the newly flowering bluebells on the woodland floor and the pussy willows on the trees. She made a mental note to try and get James and the kids out for a walk up here in the near future. One day when they were all at home at the same time of course.

  The path took her straight to the gypsy camp again. It seemed like the body had been found by one of the gypsies not far from here, and sure enough, she soon spotted Ted and WPC Laura Finch talking to one of the women who seemed to be in great distress. It seemed like the whole of the camp’s inhabitants were all crowding round where the woman was sitting. Carla had a job pushing her way through, but finally Ted spotted her and pulled her over to one side.

  ‘The body’s not far from here Ma’am; seems like he’s one of them.’ He consulted his notes. ‘Er…Terry Dobson, that’s his mum over there, she lives in that large caravan with a few more of her kids. But the deceased lived in that blue van, shared it with a man called Gabe Finny.’ At Carla’s raised eyebrows he shook his head. ‘No nothing funny apparently they were just mates.’

  ‘Who found the body?’ she asked as she watched the gypsies surrounding the distraught Poppy Dobson. They were all as one in their grief; and it was as if they had become a single entity. The camp was turning in on itself to lick its wounds.

  ‘That would be Finny,’ Ted answered, ‘seems like he was worried because Mr Dobson hadn’t come back last night. Went out looking for him and came across his body. He’s gone back inside and locked his door, very upset he is. Duncan…um Mr McKinny is trying to get him to come out to talk to us as we speak.’

  Carla looked over to where Ted was looking, and sure enough there was Duncan McKinny talking quietly through the door of the van.

  ‘Well let’s leave him to it and go and look at this body shall we Ted?’ said Carla, Ted led the way out of the camp site.

  ‘I presume you’ve called the coroner’s office?’ she asked not really needing the answer. Ted would have done that first thing.

  ‘Yes, she’s on her way, but I suppose she’ll take her own sweet time about it,’ he growled back at her. Carla suppressed a smile; Ted wasn’t a big fan of the new coroner. A charming middle aged lady called Dorothy Smiles. Who was perfectly named, as she always greeted you with a smile, even in the grimmest of circumstances. Carla couldn’t see why Ted had a problem with her, she was a sweetheart.

  Ted walked on ahead and soon enough Carla could see the blue and white police tape cordoning off the area around the body. Detective Constables Frank Hill and Sam Trenter were also there, they came over when they spotted her.

  ‘What have we got Frank?’ Carla asked as she ducked under the police tape.

  ‘A white male, believed to be one Terry Dobson; gunshot wound to the head Ma’am, shotgun by the looks of things close range too, made a right mess o
f his face. I’m guessing he’s been dead about eight hours.’

  Carla walked round the body; she recognised Dobson, despite half his face being missing, as the man she had met at the camp site the first time she had been here. There were a couple of dead squirrels on the ground near the body.

  ‘Have we got the murder weapon?’ she asked no one in particular, it was Sam that answered.

  ‘No Ma’am, it wasn’t at the scene, but it seems like it could have been Dobson’s own shotgun. Apparently he took it with him when he went out last night. His mate thought he was going to do a bit of hunting for rabbits, squirrel that sort of thing. Also a couple of the gypsies said they heard a couple of shots and just assumed that was what he was doing.’

  ‘Ok well that’s got to be our best guess at the murder weapon, so top priority then, let’s find that gun…’ she looked up as she heard the coroner and her team arriving. Dorothy raised her hand in greeting.

  ‘Good morning all, what a glorious morning, how are you Carla? Ted? Right what have you got for me this morning…hmm nasty well at least he won’t have known much about it.’ She looked around the body for a few minutes … ‘Well first impressions I’d say death caused by massive trauma to the head. He’s been dead for eight hours or there abouts…um looks like a shotgun and at pretty close range too.’

  Carla tried not to smile when she noticed Frank celebrating his correct guess at the cause and time of death by giving Sam a high five. There was a very non-politically correct office competition that she was trying to ignore, and it seemed like Frank had just taken top spot. Once all the photos had been taken, and Dorothy had finished her examination of the body in situ, she began organising having it taken back to the mortuary so that she could do the post-mortem.

  ‘I’ll let you have my report as soon as I’m done Carla,’ she said. ‘Hey Ted have you done something different with your hair. You are looking good today, or maybe it’s a new jacket…is that it Ted, new jacket?’

  Ted just growled something under his breath and walked away. Dorothy smiled and winked at Carla and then made her cheerful way over to where the mortuary assistants were preparing to place the body in the back of a black ambulance.

  Carla kept her amusement to herself while she followed a muttering and irritated Ted as he marched back to the camp site. She thought she caught the words ‘flippant hussy’ and ‘totally inappropriate behaviour’ coming from him. But as he obviously wasn’t talking to her, she kept quiet.

  First she needed to speak with Poppy Dobson who was still sitting outside her van being comforted by an elderly woman. Carla went over and introduced herself; she asked about Terry and whether she had seen him the previous night.

  She shook her head tearfully, wiping her nose again with a completely soggy hanky. Carla fished inside her pocket and gave her a clean one. She nodded her thanks and said, ‘I saw ‘im at lunchtime, but he was in a right funny mood, somefing was troubling him. Not that ‘e would tell me about it…never told me nuffing ‘e didn’t…but I think it ‘ad to do with that girl. I thought that was all over an done wiv, when she run off like, but I saw ‘im wiv ‘er last week. ‘E denied it, said I was imagining things but I know what I seen…I knew she was trouble, always wheedling round him like…trying to get ‘im to leave the camp…’

  Carla tried to cut her off gently, ‘So you didn’t see him after that? He didn’t tell you where he was going?’

  ‘No I just fought e‘d gone rabbiting, cus’ I seen ‘im walk off wiv ‘is shotgun and the dog…’as anyone found the dog yet, she’s a springer spaniel, ‘attie ‘er name is…’e loved that dog….I ‘eard some shots a bit later…I just thought ‘e was ‘unting. I neva fought….’

  Mrs Dobson broke down again and was pulled into the arms of the tiny elderly lady that had been sitting next to her; she looked at Carla with tearful eyes.

  ‘Poppy was here with me an’ Joe last night. Taking care of us she was, while my grandson Duncan was at the station helping your lot. We didn’t see Terry; but I know Duncan spoke with Gabe because he told us he had, and that he needed to speak to Terry about something too. So maybe he might be more useful to speak to rather than this poor woman at the moment.’

  For all her diminutive size, Martha McKinny could be quite fierce in her own way. And the look she gave Carla clearly said: stop asking your questions can’t you see this woman is in bits. So Carla decided she would leave the two women to it. She went over to where Duncan McKinny was still talking through a closed door to Gabe Finny.

  ‘Gabe we are going to have to talk about this some time, I know you’re gutted mate but the police just need to find out who did this. Come on mate, help me out here.’

  There was still no reply from within the caravan and Duncan turned away defeated for the moment. He spotted Carla standing behind him and gave her a weak smile.

  ‘He’s devastated,’ he jerked his head in the direction of Gabe’s van. ‘They’ve been mates since children. Gabe’s parents were killed and Poppy and her husband took him in, treated him like their own, as if they didn’t have enough on their plate already. And well, Terry and Gabe became inseparable, Gabe really hero worshiped Terry followed him around like a little puppy…so you can see why he has taken this so hard.’ Carla nodded sympathetically.

  ‘I know this must be hard for him Mr McKinny, but I will have to speak to him soon just to establish his whereabouts last night. Perhaps you might be able to help me first?’ Duncan nodded and they moved away from the caravan a bit.

  ‘Well actually I was going to come over and speak to you anyway,’ he began. ‘There was a man here last night, shifty type, looking for Mary. She was a girl that used to look after my grandparents, you know, cook for them; help them dress that sort of thing. He said he was her brother but there was something about him, anyway I didn’t believe him. I told him she wasn’t here anymore. But then I told him he should speak to Terry, because they were a sort of item when Mary was here before. But by that time Terry had already gone off to do whatever it was that he was doing, and so after grumbling a bit, he left. I didn’t think much of it before, but now with…you know Terry being killed and all…it started bothering me.’

  ‘What made you think he was lying? He could have been exactly who he said he was,’ Carla asked.

  ‘I’m not sure, he just seemed shifty…on edge you know? He seemed to be full of pent-up anger…oh I don’t know, he just put me on edge. He was Irish though like Mary so…’

  ‘When did this Mary leave the camp? Was it after you came here to Kenley?’

  ‘God no, she just up and left without a word about eighteen months ago; left me in the lurch actually, that’s why I had to join the camp. Someone had to look after Martha and Joe, my grandparents, they are getting on a bit now you see and both suffer from severe arthritis so they find it hard by themselves.’

  ‘Did she give anyone a reason as to why she left? You said she was close to Mr Dobson, didn’t she give him any explanations?’ interrupted Carla.

  ‘Not that I know of; I just got a call from Terry telling me that she’d done a runner and that my grandparents needed me. I mean Poppy, bless her heart, tries her best, but she has so much on her plate I couldn’t leave it just to her could I? So I’m afraid I don’t know for sure why she left, but it could have been because I hadn’t paid her for a couple of weeks…I kinda forgot I’m afraid.’

  ‘Could it be Mary that Terry were meeting here last night? His mother seems to think she saw them together a couple of days ago.’

  ‘What here? She saw them together here in Kenley?’ At Carla’s nod, he thought for a moment and then said, ‘Well that might explain a couple of things, like for instance why Terry was so insistent that we come here when we were kicked off the last site. I had found us a perfectly good piece of land, even got the owner’s permission to set up camp, in exchange for some work. But Terry was adamant that we move all the way up here, said he’d found the perfect place…what a conniving bastard, all
the time it was so he could start up with that little tart again.’ He seemed to suddenly remember that Terry was actually dead now and stopped talking, but Carla could see that he was really angry so she tried to get him back on track again.

  ‘Your Grandma said that you were looking for Terry last night Duncan, why was that?’

  Duncan looked distinctly shifty and for a moment Carla didn’t think he was going to answer, but then he said.

  ‘Well apart from needing to warn him about that bloke who was asking after Mary…actually I was worried; I needed to clear something up with him, because no matter how angry I am he was still a good friend, one I’ve known all my life. And I couldn’t quite believe he would get himself mixed up in something like this, I’m still not sure why he would actually. And also I couldn’t just say something to your lot without being sure…but actually if Mary was here then unfortunately this is all beginning to make sense.’

  ‘What is Duncan? You’ve lost me, what couldn’t you say to us lot?’ Carla was beginning to get impatient.

  ‘It was the shoes; you know the ones we saw on the camera from the cash machine on the high street, the man’s shoes. I think they were Terry’s, actually I know they were his. I gave them to him when I first moved back; I had a whole load of designer gear that I didn’t need any more. He took a shine to that particular pair of trainers, and there are not many people with feet big enough to wear my shoes, but Terry had huge feet, so I said he could have them. I don’t think he’s taken them off since…and if he was the man in the film then the girl must be…’

  ‘Mary,’ said Carla triumphantly. She turned and started walking quickly back over to where Ted was still questioning a couple of Poppy’s sons. Duncan followed her and she spoke to him over her shoulder. ‘Right Duncan we’ve got no time to lose, I’m going to need you to give me a description of this girl and tell me a bit about her. You say she worked for your grandparents, do you think they might have a photograph or anything that might help us…what do you think? Could the girl you saw on the screen be Mary?’