by D. S. Butler
‘We’re here to see your son, Mr Palmer,’ Rick said.
Rick looked more comfortable now he was inside. DI Morgan thought it was quite a cheery kitchen, although it wasn’t exactly modern. There was a large Aga in one corner, and the work surfaces were all scrubbed pine. A large butler’s sink sat under the window. There was certainly nothing sinister about the inside of the farmhouse.
The old man nodded. ‘What are you standing there for, girl? Call your brother.’
Cathy scurried off out of the kitchen and into the hallway. They heard her footsteps as she climbed the stairs.
‘You’ve heard about the young girls going missing?’ Rick Cooper asked as he walked around the farmhouse kitchen, looking up at the shimmering copper pots.
‘Would you stop pacing around. You’re making me feel giddy,’ Nigel Palmer snapped.
Rick did as he was asked and came to a stop opposite the old man, close to the fire. ‘Any idea where they could be?’
‘I don’t know why you’re asking me. What would I know about it?’
‘Maybe you heard something?’ Rick suggested.
‘Like what? I’m stuck in this chair all day, every day. And believe it or not, I don’t have people beating my door down, eager to listen to my sparkling conversation.’
‘You do surprise me,’ DI Morgan said drily, earning him a glare from the old man.
‘You lot are all the same. I had that woman police officer here earlier. Asking questions, making snide suggestions. I’ve had enough. It’s harassment. That’s what it is.’
DI Morgan and Rick turned when they heard heavy footsteps on the stairs. A moment later, Jasper Palmer walked into the kitchen.
He was an imposing presence. Very tall, very thin, with a classically handsome face, short, fiery red hair and bright blue eyes.
His mouth curled up at one corner with a smirk. ‘I see my dad has been keeping you entertained.’
‘That’s enough of your cheek, Jasper,’ the old man said and then coughed. ‘Tell them what they want to know so they can get out of my house.’
Jasper smiled and shrugged. ‘As hospitable as ever, Dad.’ He held out his hand and gestured to the table. ‘Want to sit down?’
DI Morgan thanked him, and he and Rick sat on one side of the table, with Jasper on the other. There was no sign of Cathy. She hadn’t returned after calling for her brother.
‘Where exactly did you find the glove, Mr Palmer?’ DI Morgan asked.
‘In the far field. Not far from Station Road. I told Inspector Bertram this already.’ Jasper fixed him with a bored look.
Inspector Bertram was leading the search and had already filled them in. But when he was questioning someone like Jasper Palmer, DI Morgan liked to ask the same questions in a slightly different way and see if the answers were consistent. It was easy to be consistent when telling the truth. When people lied, their story often changed.
DI Morgan leaned forward, elbows on the table. ‘Were you searching alone?’
Jasper smothered a yawn. ‘Sorry, late night last night and I had to be up early this morning cutting back the hedges.’
‘Early!’ Nigel Palmer’s voice came from behind them. ‘You call seven a.m. early? In my day, I was up working those fields by five every morning come rain or shine.’
Jasper rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to DI Morgan. ‘But no, to answer your question, I wasn’t alone. I had three men with me. We heard about the little girls going missing, and when Cathy told me you thought they might have walked across our land, we decided to go and check all the fields and outbuildings, just to make sure they weren’t hurt or stuck somewhere.’
‘Could you give us the names of the men who were searching with you, please, Mr Palmer?’ Rick asked, holding his notepad and pencil in front of him. It was all for show as they already had the names.
Jasper narrowed his eyes and paused for effect. He enjoyed the attention. ‘Tony Briggs, Brian Patterson and Lionel Mallard.’ The names rolled off his tongue innocently enough, and DI Morgan assumed he was telling the truth.
‘You haven’t seen anyone hanging around the village recently?’
‘Hanging around?’ Jasper responded.
‘Yes, anyone who looked out of place or seemed suspicious.’
‘I don’t go into the village much,’ Jasper said. ‘I visit the pub most nights for an hour or two, and then I come straight home.’
He rested his chin on his hand and smirked. His bright blue eyes sparkled as though the questions amused him. He was playing a part rather than answering the questions earnestly. There was nothing wrong with his responses. He was saying all the right things under the circumstances, but DI Morgan couldn’t shake the feeling that Jasper was taunting them.
‘You won’t have any objections, of course, if we continue to search that area.’ As if on cue, they heard the whirring blades of a low-flying helicopter.
Jasper shrugged. ‘We’ve got nothing to hide. If the girls are on our land, then of course we want you to find them. Isn’t that right, Dad?’ Jasper jerked his chin in the direction of his father, who merely grunted in reply.
After they’d asked Jasper a few more questions and endured a few extra mean-spirited comments from Nigel Palmer, DI Morgan and Rick left the farmhouse.
‘What did you make of them, boss?’ Rick asked as they trudged towards the car.
DI Morgan turned and looked over his shoulder at the farmhouse. He thought he caught a movement in the upstairs window, but as he stood there staring up, the windows were dark and empty. Perhaps it had been Cathy Palmer passing by, watching them as they left. The thought made DI Morgan shiver. It was unlike him to be so fanciful.
‘I knew it,’ Rick said with a broad grin. ‘This place creeps you out as well.’
‘It doesn’t creep me out, Rick, as you so eloquently put it.’ He didn’t add that it wasn’t the place that creeped him out but rather the people that were in it.
CHAPTER TWELVE
While DI Morgan and Rick were talking to the Palmers at the farmhouse, Sophie and Karen had arrived at Nick Gibson’s flat.
He lived above the hairdresser’s in Heighington. It was a tiny one-bedroom place, and as soon as he let them in the door, Karen guessed he lived alone.
It wasn’t just that the place was messy, with used cups and plates left out on the coffee table in the living room – his niece was missing, and household chores were probably low on his list of priorities – but that it was kitted out as a bachelor pad. Despite the limited space, a large bar complete with optics and a variety of spirits had been set up in front of the window, a jukebox with flashing lights and an old-fashioned arcade machine jammed in beside it. A massive widescreen TV with a satellite box beneath it took centre stage, an old, black leather recliner in the middle of the room facing the screen. The other two chairs were hardback pine and looked as though they were once part of a set. They didn’t look comfortable. Despite the bar and jukebox, it wasn’t a room that welcomed visitors, and Karen suspected Nick Gibson spent a lot of time alone.
‘Can I get you tea or coffee?’ Nick asked.
Sophie had called into the station for a quick background check on the drive over. They knew already that Nick Gibson was thirty-two and worked at the potato factory in Branston. He looked older, mainly due to his receding hairline and the fact that his forehead was creased in a frown.
‘No, thank you,’ Karen said. ‘We’re fine. We just popped by to ask you a couple of questions if that’s okay?’
Nick nodded. ‘About Sian, you mean? I just came in to get warm. I’ve been out searching. We’re doing it in shifts,’ he said.
‘Yes, about Sian.’ Karen studied him carefully.
Nick perched on the arm of his recliner and gestured for Sophie and Karen to sit on the hardback chairs. They did so.
‘When did you hear the girls were missing?’ Sophie asked, surprising Karen by starting off the questions.
She sat back, deciding t
o give Sophie a chance to lead, although prepared to change the direction of the questioning if needed.
‘Soon after they’d noticed the girls were gone from school. My brother called me on his way back from work. He knew it was going to take him a while to get back and he wanted me to make sure Leanne was all right. I can’t believe it. You don’t expect something like this to happen in a place like Heighington.’
‘No,’ Sophie said. ‘Are you close to Sian?’
He shrugged. ‘She’s my niece. I see her quite regularly. I go around to Thomas and Leanne’s for a Sunday roast now and again. She’s a good kid.’ He broke off and then ran a shaky hand through his thin hair.
‘Leanne told us you looked after Sian about a month ago,’ Sophie said.
Karen winced. It wasn’t the most tactful approach. She’d gone in for the kill a little early.
‘Yes,’ Nick said slowly, blinking a couple of times. ‘What’s that got to do with anything?’
‘Apparently Sian was quite upset when her parents got home?’
Nick stared at Sophie. ‘I don’t like where this is going. What the hell are you suggesting?’ He growled the words through gritted teeth.
‘We’re not suggesting anything, Mr Gibson,’ Karen said, attempting to rescue the situation. ‘We’re trying to get a picture of Sian’s life by talking to the people who are close to her. We’re following up on anything that’s upset or concerned her recently. Perhaps she confided in you about something?’
Nick’s clouded expression cleared. ‘Oh, I see. I thought you meant she was . . . you know, upset because I’d done something to her.’ He pulled a face as though disgusted at the thought. ‘Yes, she was quite annoyed with me, but she’d been naughty. I let her stay up and watch television, and then she promised me she’d clean her teeth and go to bed as soon as the programme had finished. Then when I went up to check on her and read a bedtime story, I found she was looking at the iPad under the covers. I told her off. There’s nothing wrong with that.’
‘Of course not,’ Karen said. ‘There wasn’t anything else bothering her?’
Nick shook his head.
‘Do you remember what she was looking at on the iPad when you took it away from her?’ Karen asked.
Nick frowned, and his face paled. ‘Do you think it’s someone online?’
‘We don’t know at this stage. We’re looking at every angle.’
Nick tilted his head up and looked at the ceiling. He pursed his lips together and then shook his head in frustration. ‘I’m sorry. I can’t remember. I don’t think I even looked at it. I just took it away and turned it off.’
‘You didn’t see her looking at Facebook or Snapchat?’
‘No, sorry.’
Karen had managed to put Nick at ease. He was answering more confidently now and she had to admit she believed he was responding truthfully, although she did wonder why his initial reaction had been so defensive.
‘Thank you for your time, Mr Gibson. We’ll be in touch.’
By the time the detectives arrived back at Nettleham HQ and exchanged information, it was getting late.
Sitting in DI Morgan’s office, Karen looked at her watch and bit down on her lower lip. ‘Do you still want to go and talk to Matthew Saunders tonight?’
‘Yes,’ DI Morgan said, reaching for the phone on his desk. ‘I’ll call ahead and tell him to expect us. I’m keen to find out why Leanne Gibson reacted so strangely to him at the school when, from what Jackie Lyons said, they were usually friendly.’
Karen stood up, preparing to go and grab her coat and bag. ‘I agree. We should talk to him as soon as possible. I don’t think we’ll get a straight answer from Leanne.’
Before they headed out, DI Morgan asked Sophie to look into Nick Gibson’s background. If there was any dirt to be found, he wanted her to find it. He’d asked Rick to speak to the search team coordinator and provide an update to the family liaison officers for both the Deans and Gibsons, to bring them up to speed.
As yet, the search had yielded nothing more promising than Sian’s glove, and now that it was dark, hopes were fading. But while there was still a chance the girls could be out there, hurt or injured, they weren’t ready to call off the search.
DI Morgan drove back to Heighington, following Karen’s directions to the Saunders’s house.
‘His wife, Doctor Saunders, works at the Heighington surgery,’ Karen said. ‘She’s my GP actually, a nice lady.’
The Saunders lived in a large, detached stone house directly on the main road through Heighington, with no driveway or front garden. Three storeys high with large sash windows, it had been constructed in a time before cars existed, but the lack of a driveway and front garden didn’t take away from its splendour.
‘You can park around the back, I think,’ Karen said, pointing to a side road.
DI Morgan pulled into Butts Lane and, after letting Karen out, he parked as close as he could to the imposing stone wall running along the lane.
He got out of the car and they looked up at the impressive house.
‘That’s what a GP’s salary gets you these days,’ Karen said. ‘I should have studied medicine.’
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
The door was opened by Doctor Saunders, a petite woman with dark hair and warm brown eyes.
‘Hi, Karen, come in,’ she said.
Karen walked up the steps and through the front door, introducing DI Morgan as she did so.
‘Matthew’s in the living room if you’d like to go through,’ Doctor Saunders said and shut the door behind them.
As Karen walked along the hallway, she glanced up at the stairs. There, peeking out through the banisters, was Danny. Karen smiled.
‘Go back to bed!’ Doctor Saunders said. ‘It’s way past your bedtime, Danny. I’ll be up in a minute.’
The little boy sighed and turned away, sloping off to his bedroom as the adults went into the living room.
Matthew was sitting on the sofa. His hands were linked, and he was leaning over, resting his forearm on his knees, staring at the ground.
When they entered the room, he looked up. ‘Hello. I didn’t expect to see you again so soon. Is there any news on Sian and Emily?’
‘Sit down, please. Can I get anyone a drink?’ Doctor Saunders asked.
Both Karen and DI Morgan refused the offer. As they settled into cream armchairs on either side of the sofa, Doctor Saunders went to sit down beside her husband.
‘There have been a few developments, but unfortunately we haven’t found the girls yet,’ Karen explained. ‘We do have a couple more follow-up questions to ask you.’
‘So you don’t need to talk to Danny again?’ Doctor Saunders asked.
‘Not at the moment.’
‘Good.’ Doctor Saunders gave a sigh of relief. ‘I think he’s taken it quite hard. It’s such a difficult concept to process at that age. He’s feeling guilty that he didn’t stop them or at least try to stop them.’
‘There’s nothing Danny could have done,’ DI Morgan said.
‘I know that. But convincing Danny is another matter. Our little boy is definitely a worrier. Isn’t he, Matthew?’
Matthew licked his lips and nodded obediently. He seemed jumpy. Very nervous, in fact. When she’d spoken to him earlier, Karen had put this down to the fact he was suffering from the stress of the situation. His son had been the last person to see the two girls before they disappeared. Now Matthew Saunders had had some time to calm down, but he still seemed to be on edge.
‘You can ask us whatever you want,’ Doctor Saunders said. ‘Anything, if it helps get those two little girls back. I can’t imagine what their parents are going through right now.’
‘Both Emily and Sian’s parents are very distressed. I wondered if you could tell us how well you know them?’ Karen asked.
Doctor Saunders’s eyes widened, and she shook her head. ‘Well, I barely know them. I saw them at the summer fête, but I think that was the last time. I’m
the named GP for both Sian and Emily, but I haven’t seen either of them recently.’
Karen focused on Matthew Saunders. ‘Have you had many dealings with Sian or Emily’s parents, Mr Saunders?’
The colour heightened in Matthew Saunders’s cheeks. ‘No, not really. I mean, obviously I pick Danny up from school, so I see them most days. That is, I see Leanne. Emily’s mother used to let her walk home. To be honest, everyone at the school gates thought it was a bit off. I wish I’d said something now.’
‘How well do you know Leanne Gibson?’
Matthew Saunders licked his lips again and shot a quick glance at his wife. ‘We chat when we’re at the school gates at the same time. Just small talk, you know.’
Karen gave a little cough and said, ‘Doctor Saunders, would it be okay if I changed my mind and took you up on the offer of a cup of tea?’
The woman smiled. ‘Call me Tanya. And of course. Can I get anyone else anything?’
DI Morgan shook his head. Matthew Saunders didn’t answer.
‘I’ll give you a hand,’ Karen said and followed the doctor out of the living room along the hallway and into the kitchen.
Karen had the distinct impression there was something Matthew Saunders wasn’t telling them. Maybe he would open up if his wife wasn’t sitting right next to him.
As Tanya filled the kettle, Karen asked, ‘Cups?’
Tanya nodded to the cupboard above the fruit bowl. Karen grabbed two mugs and set them down on the counter beside the tea caddy.
‘It’s terrifying, isn’t it? I don’t know how you do it. It breaks my heart when I see kids ill or hurt in the surgery. That’s nothing compared to what could have happened to those poor girls,’ Tanya said as she tucked her dark hair behind her ears.
‘We’re hoping for the best obviously, but the longer the girls are missing . . .’ Karen shrugged.
Tanya closed her eyes briefly and sighed. ‘The poor little things. I tell you, my stomach has been in knots all night just thinking about the possibility Danny could have . . .’