The Hiding Place

by Helen Phifer

  Ben dragged the hatch across, satisfied that the girl wasn’t in this house. He wasn’t as satisfied with Vince though. ‘Where have you been?’

  ‘Co-op.’

  ‘What for?’

  ‘Milk and some bloody cat food. That greedy bastard cat never stops eating.’ As if on cue there was a loud miaow from downstairs.

  ‘Look, you’ve done enough damage for today, get out and leave me alone. She won’t go back to sleep now and will spend the next couple of hours asking me the same questions over and over again. If you think you’re shit hot at interrogating, you haven’t witnessed my mother in action. She’d put you to shame any day. And who is going to sort my door out? Have you seen the state of it? I spent three quid in the shop and now it’s going to cost a fortune to get a new door.’

  Ben shrugged. ‘Sorry, but we had no choice.’

  He walked down the stairs and out of the front door. Morgan and the officers followed, leaving Vincent and his mother to face each other.

  Nineteen

  Vincent’s car was a clapped-out Ford Fiesta that had seen much better days. Morgan took the torch from the officer and shone it around the outside of the bright orange rust bucket. She tried the door handle. It was locked. Shining the light through the windows she heard Vince’s voice.

  ‘What the hell are you doing now? Don’t you think you’ve caused enough trouble for one night?’

  She shrugged. ‘Needs must, Vince, where are the keys?’

  He growled at her. She caught the end of it, something about shoving the keys where the sun doesn’t shine. She knew they were giving him a hard time, but they needed to find Macy before anything bad happened to her – so it was tough luck. She looked at the officer standing next to her.

  ‘Please go and get his keys whilst I arrange for recovery.’

  ‘He’s not going to like that.’

  ‘Not my problem, I’m afraid, the welfare of a child takes precedent over what Vincent likes and dislikes. If we have to inconvenience him then so be it.’

  Morgan couldn’t decide if she thought Vincent was involved or not. He fit some of the criteria but not all of them. Between him and Brett though, they couldn’t risk anything. Ben had gone to Macy’s home address to speak to her mum. The officer came back and passed the keys to Morgan, who was in the process of photographing the exterior of the car.

  ‘What are you doing?’

  ‘Once I’m satisfied that Macy isn’t bundled up in the boot or the back seat of the car, I’m going to request recovery to come and seize the car for a full forensic lift.’

  She pressed the button on the key and there was a loud click as the door locks popped up. Morgan pulled the back door with one gloved hand and shone the torch inside. She sighed to see it was empty, well apart from the empty cola bottles and crisp packets. She checked the front of the car then the boot, which had an assortment of carrier bags stuffed into a cardboard box and nothing else. Shining the light around, she could see no evidence that a ten-year-old girl had been stuffed inside it. Then she slammed it shut so hard the officer peering over her shoulder jumped.

  ‘Sorry.’

  ‘Bloody hell, no kid then?’

  Morgan shook her head. ‘I still want it taken away and a forensic examination carried out.’

  ‘Why? I mean there’s no evidence inside to suggest it needs it.’

  She glared at him. ‘Sorry, I didn’t catch your name earlier?’

  ‘Oh, it’s Ashley, my mates call me Ash though.’

  ‘I can’t afford to let him take the car to get valeted once we leave. I’d rather get it taken to the garage whilst we consider our options.’

  He nodded. ‘Good idea.’

  ‘I think so, thanks.’

  She realised that he had no idea how much he’d annoyed her and bit her tongue to stop herself from saying anything too harsh. He was new, and she wasn’t that long in the job herself. They weren’t that dissimilar, apart from the fact that she’d been well and truly thrown in over her head and had to learn to swim for herself. She was sick with grief over Charlie and now Macy. She wanted her to be safe more than she’d ever wanted anything. She phoned Ben, who agreed with her about seizing Vince’s car. After requesting the garage to come and take it away, she passed the keys to Ashley.

  ‘Here, I want you to wait for recovery to get here. Tell them it’s a full forensic lift.’

  ‘I will. Where are you going?’

  He looked pretty annoyed that he’d just been tasked to wait an hour for the tow truck, which made her feel slightly better.

  ‘To speak to Macy’s mum. Don’t let Vince anywhere near this. If he tries to get his grubby hands on it then arrest him.’

  He nodded, and she headed in the direction of Bay Fell Grove, wondering if Brett could have had anything to do with either of these missing girls.

  It was like déjà vu as she turned the corner: the tiny street was ablaze with police van headlights and there were officers and PCSOs everywhere. Morgan couldn’t stop her stomach from churning – this was so wrong. What was wrong with the world? Who would want to take children away from their mothers? She prayed that Macy had got distracted walking the dog; hopefully, she had gone off with one of her school friends and didn’t realise what time it was. That was a more plausible reason for a missing kid than the possibility that there was some real-life boogey man out there who was stealing children away from their parents. She looked down at her watch, it was almost ten. Surely she’d be home soon. It was clear which house was Macy’s: it was lit up like a beacon, the warm glow from the windows filling the small, untidy front garden. This house wasn’t so dissimilar to Charlie’s house.

  She walked through the open gate and knocked softly on the open front door before going inside. A panic-stricken woman was pacing up and down the living room. She paused to look at Morgan.

  ‘Have you found her?’

  ‘Not yet.’

  ‘Where the hell is she? She knows she isn’t allowed to go out when it’s dark.’

  Morgan glanced at Ben, waiting for him to introduce her, but he was too busy looking around. He seemed distracted, which wasn’t like him, and she wondered if it was because he’d picked her up from Fin’s. She held out her hand.

  ‘I’m Detective Constable Morgan Brookes.’

  The woman didn’t take it. She looked at her then carried on pacing up and down, pausing to get a cigarette packet from the sideboard drawer.

  ‘Carol, I’m Macy’s mum.’

  ‘Is Macy’s dad around?’

  She let out a high-pitched, bitter cackle and lit her cigarette with a trembling hand, then she took a deep drag, closing her eyes. When she turned to Morgan they were still closed.

  ‘I keep thinking if I close my eyes this might all go away, but it won’t. You’re still in my house and I still don’t know where my daughter is.’

  Morgan’s heart felt heavy. ‘I’m sorry, I can’t even begin to imagine how you feel.’

  ‘Do you have kids?’

  She shook her head, that question again.

  ‘Then no, you can’t. Macy’s dad isn’t around. To be honest, he never was even before I got pregnant. He’s a long-distance lorry driver from Glasgow.’

  ‘Is there any chance he could have picked her up, taken her with him?’

  ‘God, none whatsoever. He hasn’t been here since we moved in 2016, and I don’t think he even knows where we live. I never told him.’

  ‘But we can’t rule that out. We’ll need his contact details so we can get in touch. Can you get them, please?’

  ‘I don’t know where he lives. He has another family in Glasgow that he does live with – a wife and three sons. We were his dirty little secret. I don’t think he would bother his arse to come here and take his daughter away, when he made it quite clear he wanted nothing to do with either of us after she was born.’

  Ben was finally paying attention. ‘All the same, we need his name and last address that you have for him. We c
an ask Police Scotland to go and visit him, to make sure he hasn’t been and taken Macy.’

  ‘I can give you his last address, but he hasn’t got her. Where’s that kid Charlie that went missing? She only lives around the corner. Some fucking weirdo is out there taking kids, and you want to fanny around contacting Macy’s dad who hasn’t even sent her a birthday card since the day she was born.’

  ‘I’m sorry, Carol, it’s what we have to do. We have to rule out every possibility.’ Morgan could feel the heat from Carol’s eyes as she glared at her. ‘Do you have a friend we can contact to come and sit with you, or a family member?’

  ‘No, I don’t. I go to work at the bingo, then I come home. It’s just Macy and me, it always has been. I’m not a drunk like that Charlie’s mum, and I don’t let her play outside with no warm coat on. I do my best for her. I have to work or we wouldn’t get any money. I wasn’t supposed to be working tonight, but someone was off and I said I’d do the overtime; it’s coming up to Christmas – do you know how expensive it is? I love Macy more than anything but Christ she thinks money grows on trees; she has no idea how much everything costs. Like that bloody dog; she begged and begged for a dog but it’s just an extra mouth to feed.’

  Morgan asked, ‘Do you know Charlie’s dad, Brett?’

  Carol shrugged. ‘Yes, well more than I know her mum. Why?’

  ‘How do you know him? Have you seen him around lately or spoken to him? Would Macy know who he was?’

  ‘Christ, no she wouldn’t have a clue. I know Brett more than Mandy though.’

  ‘How?’

  ‘We went out with each other for a couple of months back when we were at school, but he dumped me for Mandy. I met Macy’s dad on the rebound. I was sixteen, had a drunken one-night stand and ended up pregnant to an older married man who lived a million miles away and couldn’t care less. Anything else you need to know?’

  Morgan glanced at Ben, this put Brett into a whole new light. He knew Carol, so he probably did know who her kid was.

  Two uniformed officers knocked at the door. ‘Boss, we’ve searched the area. The dog handler is on his way but he’s coming from Carlisle. No one has seen her. Everyone said the same thing: it’s dark, they shut the curtains and have the television on so have no idea what’s going on outside.’

  Ben nodded. ‘CCTV?’

  ‘PCSOs are on with that.’

  Morgan turned to Carol. ‘Why would Macy go out when she isn’t supposed to? Does she normally walk the dog so late?’

  ‘She might have found some money in a coat pocket and gone to the corner shop. We have no biscuits or chocolate in and she has a right sweet tooth. That’s the only time she ever does what she shouldn’t, either that or the bloody dog was whining to go out.’

  Morgan looked at the sandy-coloured dog, cowering in the corner, and wished it could talk. But at least there was another potential lead here. She knew where the shop was, and she knew it had CCTV; she’d gone to a shoplifting there when doing her training.

  ‘I’ll go speak to them,’ she told Ben and left, needing to get out of the smoke-filled house.

  She walked back towards the street where both Charlie and Vince lived. Ashley was still waiting for a recovery truck to come seize Vince’s car. She paused. Which way did you go, Macy? What’s the quickest way to get to the shop? There was an alley a bit further down from Vince’s house; it wasn’t lit up but Morgan headed towards it. What if she was in there, maybe she’d fallen over and hurt herself. This thought spurred her on and she began to run towards the darkened cut through. She reached the entrance. ‘Macy, Macy are you here?’ Silence greeted her and she felt deflated. She walked through the alley barely able to see where she was going. Turning on the torch on her phone to illuminate the dog crap and rubbish, within a minute she was out onto the brightly lit main road, where the shop was a little further down. The shop was busy, but there were two women working and she went to the front of the counter and showed her badge.

  ‘Do you know a little girl called Macy? Has she been in tonight?’

  The blonde-haired woman passed the change over to the customer she was serving and turned to Morgan.

  ‘Yes, she was in about an hour ago. She bought a bar of chocolate, then left.’

  Morgan felt a spark of hope. ‘Did anyone follow her? Did you see where she went when she left?’

  ‘Is she okay? She’s a lovely little girl.’

  ‘I’m afraid she’s missing.’

  Both women gasped. ‘Oh God, no.’

  ‘What chocolate did she buy?’

  ‘Galaxy, it’s on offer for a quid.’

  ‘Thank you, I’m going to need the CCTV footage from before she entered until after she left, please, so I know where she went.’

  ‘She went back to the cutting but I didn’t see anyone following her. I was going to shout after her to go the long way around, but then I got a customer and figured she wouldn’t hear me shouting anyway. Bloody hell, I wish I had now, poor kid. Is there anything we can do? Should we help to look for her?’

  Morgan shook her head. ‘No, we have a team of officers out looking and a dog handler is on the way.’

  Karen looked at her. ‘I feel sick. I wish there was something I could do.’

  ‘Do you know her mum?’

  ‘Sort of, she comes in here and is always friendly.’

  ‘Maybe you could check in on her at some point. Do you know where they live?’

  She nodded. ‘My brother lives a few doors down from them. I can’t believe this.’

  Morgan left them to it and raced back towards the cutting. She needed to see if it led onto any back gardens or if there were any garages or buildings that faced it. Turning the torch back on her phone, she slowly retraced her steps from minutes ago, shining her torch all over the floor. She was almost at the end of the alley when she spied a bar of Galaxy lying discarded in the weeds which were growing along the fencing. She stopped and stared at it. A shudder ran the full length of her spine. Christ, this was terrible. The poor kid had almost made it to the end of the dark alleyway and onto the brightly lit street. Afraid to trample the scene or contaminate it, she rang Ben.

  ‘Where did you run off to?’

  ‘Macy was at the corner shop. I think I found where she was taken from. I need patrols to the alleyway which runs from Cloisters through to Friars Lane.’

  ‘How do you know this?’

  ‘She bought a bar of chocolate at the shop with a pound coin. The shop assistant saw Macy enter the cutting, and I’ve just retraced my steps and found a bar of chocolate that’s been dropped in the weeds. It’s not soggy so it hasn’t been here long. We need CSI here now, Ben. She’s only been gone an hour or just over.’

  ‘Excellent work, Morgan. Wait there. I’ll get someone.’

  Morgan heard footsteps behind her. She turned and held out her hands.

  ‘Sorry, you can’t come this way. I’m going to need you to go back the other way.’

  ‘What? Says who?’

  ‘Police, that’s who.’

  ‘Hurry, Ben, get me some patrols now.’

  She hung up, hoping that she wasn’t going to have to fight every person who wanted to take the short cut. She wasn’t dressed like a copper; it was far easier to order people around when you were wearing a uniform. The man tutted but turned and began walking back in the direction he’d come, and she sighed.

  When the alleyway was sealed off with police tape at both ends, and also the street directly in front of the entrance and exits, Morgan walked back to where Ben was now standing having a discussion with the dog handler, who had finally arrived. This whole thing was a logistical nightmare: because it was a missing child, officers had trampled all over the streets in the surrounding area looking for her. Which didn’t give great hope for the dog picking anything up, but it was worth a try. Morgan stifled a yawn; she was tired and cold. She wanted Macy home, Charlie to be alive and a hot shower with a large glass of vodka to soak away the pain
and help her sleep. Ben waved her over, and she walked towards them.

  ‘We’re going back to the station; I want to bring in Brett and Vincent for questioning. PolSA is taking over here. He’s just assembling a search team.’

  Morgan nodded. She was glad to be getting out of the cold; the temperature had dropped and she could barely feel the tips of her fingers they were so numb. As for her feet, she wanted to pull the boots off, along with her socks, and stick them on the first radiator she found, to bring them back to life. She followed Ben to his car. ‘Who’s with Macy’s mum?’

  ‘Family liaison officer turned up ten minutes ago.’

  ‘I bet they’ve never been so busy. It’s shit.’

  He nodded. ‘Yep.’

  They got into his car and drove back to the station in silence. Morgan was ticking off a checklist of everything that she needed to do to find Macy – they had to find her because the alternative was unthinkable.

  Twenty

  Morgan walked out of the station and blinked – it was morning, and she hadn’t even realised. They hadn’t been able to bring Brett in, as they still couldn’t find him, but they did have Vincent in the cells, and he was proclaiming his innocence to everyone, loudly. His solicitor would have him out of there in the next couple of hours because they had nothing concrete to tie him to both girls, despite him being their best lead. Her head was a mess. Morgan was used to insomnia but she had begun slurring her words an hour ago, and Ben had insisted she go home, saying he would be doing the same for a couple of hours, so they were ready to be at the post-mortem in Lancaster for ten. Knowing she was no good to anyone when her head was so messed up, she had listened to him for once and said goodbye.

  ‘Morgan.’

  She looked to see who was shouting and saw Fin waiting by his car. He waved at her and she wondered what he was doing here. She looked around; there were no other journalists here – he was the only one. Crossing towards him she found herself slightly irritated that he was here, outside her place of work waiting for her.