by Joy Ellis
Toni’s eyes darted around the room. She swallowed several times, but said nothing.
‘You told your friends you were going somewhere where you’d be welcome.’
Toni drew in on herself, and despite the almost unbearable heat of the room, she began to shiver.
‘Did you go to that place, Toni?’ Jackman asked.
Marie knew that if she did exist, with every second things were looking blacker for Emily. ‘And were you welcome?’ she added softly. ‘Were you given alcohol?’
Toni gave a long, shaky sigh and nodded miserably. ‘There’s always free booze if you want it.’
‘And where is the place?’
‘As if I’m going to tell you lot!’ Her defiance returned. ‘They’ll kill me if I grass them up, and anyway . . . It’s not that straightforward.’ She wiped a tear from her cheek and winced as she touched the bruised bone.
‘But I’ll tell you this, there were people there that I’d never seen before.’ She drew the bedclothes tighter to her and rocked backwards and forward. ‘They said they were going on to another party.’
‘And you went with them?’ Jackman looked at the girl.
She nodded again.
‘In a car?’
‘Yes.’
‘What kind? Was it a 4x4?’ Jackman asked.
‘No, just an ordinary car.’
‘Were you alone?’
‘I thought some of the others were going, but when I got into the car, it was just me with one of the men.’
‘It’s okay, Toni. You’re safe now.’ Jackman’s voice was gentle. ‘We won’t let anything else happen to you. But do you know where you went? Did you recognise the place where the party was held?’
‘There was no party.’ Her voice was heavy, flat. ‘And I don’t know where I was taken. We drove for ages, way out onto the fen somewhere. The place stank of rotting cabbage. It made me want to throw up.’
‘Was it a farm?’ asked Marie. ‘Or some sort of farm building, maybe?’
The girl shook her head. ‘I dunno. I don’t think so. It was old and really creepy.’ She frowned. ‘But I could hear music, so I wasn’t scared. We went down into a sort of cellar. It had oil lamps and candles and the seats were old boxes with blankets thrown over them. There were wine bottles everywhere. I thought it was pretty cool to start with . . .’
But not later, Marie thought angrily, seeing the welts on her face and watching as she clasped her midriff to protect her cracked ribs.
‘How many people were there with you, Toni?’ Jackman asked.
‘To start with, just me and the bloke who drove me there. He said we were early, and the others would be along soon. He gave me a glass of red wine.’
‘And you drank it?’
‘Free wine?’ Toni rolled her eyes at Jackman as if he’d just said something quite insane. ‘Uh, yeah.’
‘Can you describe the man, Toni?’
‘Kind of old, bit like you I guess. But he had a great haircut, and trendy clothes.’
‘Tall? Short?’ Jackman was smiling slightly at being described as old.
Toni looked at him. ‘Your height, but he had a hotter body. More muscles.’
Marie was trying hard not to grin. ‘What about his clothes?’
‘Faded jeans, but expensive. Blue T-shirt and trainers, and a grey zip-up jacket with a hood. Yeah, he was trendy for an old guy.’
‘Listen, Toni,’ Jackman said. ‘Would you recognise him again?’
She shrugged, then gasped and put a hand to her broken rib. ‘Maybe. He was kind of ordinary looking, and a bit shy, although he smiled a lot. Oh, and he smelled good,’ she added.
Jackman threw a puzzled look in Marie’s direction. Whatever this man had done to her, thought Marie, talking about him didn’t seem to upset Toni. And he didn’t come over as some sinister psycho either.
‘Was he the one who hurt you?’
Toni shook her head. ‘Oh no, not him. When the others arrived, he left. I didn’t see him again.’
‘The others?’
Toni tensed, and swallowed hard. ‘I . . .’ She paused, her young brow wrinkled in confusion. ‘Things got weird. I can’t remember any more.’
Marie’s heart sank. The damned drug must have been in the wine. Just as they were getting to the crux of the matter, Toni was slipping off the radar.
‘Can you recall how many people were there?’
‘I don’t know. Not many.’
Jackman was regarding the girl thoughtfully. Then he gave Marie a look that said they’d pussy-footed around for long enough. His expression changed. ‘Toni, when you were brought in you spoke about someone called Emily. Do you remember her? Was she there with you?’
A look of terror stamped itself on Toni’s face.
‘Toni, who is Emily, and exactly what happened to her?’
A gurgle escaped from the teenager’s throat, and then a loud, low moan. Marie hoped it wouldn’t bring the medical staff running.
Jackman leant closer to the bed. ‘Listen, Toni! She may be in grave danger. You have to tell us anything you can remember. Please!’
Tears began to flood down over the livid bruises. ‘I told you, it all got weird. It’s like a bad dream. Everything’s all jumbled up together.’ Toni sobbed. ‘Someone was singing, and then someone was shaking me and asking me stupid questions.’
‘What questions?’
‘Like when was I born.’
The age of consent. Marie gritted her teeth. The bastard was checking whether she was underage. ‘You mean the year you were born?’
‘No. The whole thing. The day, the month and the year.’ Wordlessly, Gary held out a tissue to her and Toni took it and wiped her nose. ‘He did the same to Emily.’ The tears welled up again.
‘Then I was out in the fields! I was so scared. I felt sick. Emily had gone, and I was lost. I wanted my mum and dad. I wanted to go home.’
‘Who is Emily, Toni? You have to tell us.’ Jackman was almost shouting. Marie gave a sharp cough that meant, “Don’t blow it now.”
‘I think my patient has had enough for now, Inspector.’ The young doctor was standing in the doorway and he was no longer smiling.
Jackman nodded brusquely, smiled tightly at Toni, and they reluctantly left the room.
‘I’ll hang on here, sir,’ said Gary, ‘until you can organise some uniforms to come and take over from me.’ He gave them a conspiratorial wink. ‘But there’s no rush. I’ll do my best to get another word with her when she’s calmed down.’
Jackman drove back to the station, giving Marie time to read through her notes. Two things bothered her. ‘What was all that about exactly when she was born? I mean, if they were checking her age with sex in mind, she’s sixteen, so . . .’ she shrugged. ‘So why ditch her and take the other lass?’
Jackman shook his head. ‘Maybe they wanted underage girls, and Emily may be younger than Toni. Or perhaps Toni was hallucinating by that time? Then again, if someone was looking for a particular girl, then he’d need an exact birth date.’ He pulled a face. ‘Nothing really makes much sense, does it?’
‘And another thing, what the hell did she mean by saying that the club she went to “wasn’t that straightforward?”’
‘Well, I think I can answer that.’ Jackman muttered a curse and accelerated past a slow-moving vehicle. ‘The Harlan Marsh officers have been chasing a venue that constantly changes location.’
Marie sat and listened with growing distaste as Jackman told her about the drinking club. ‘Sounds like a pretty nasty set-up, sir.’
‘It does. And because the venue moves about, it has been difficult to nail them. Every time they get close, it moves off again.’
‘I see, so that’s what Toni meant. Maybe she’ll feel like telling us a bit more when the seriousness of what happened finally hits home. It might even be something of a turning point for her.’
Jackman raised an eyebrow. ‘Let’s hope so. I think it’s scared her senseless.’
‘Oh well, let’s hope Gary gets a lucky break with the kid. He’s a good man, isn’t he?’
Jackman nodded. ‘He’s not that old, but he reminds me of the old-style proper coppers.’
‘Exactly,’ said Marie. ‘Give me that any day rather than the lads who go in with one finger on the CS gas canister.’
‘And that leads me neatly to another point, Marie. If you agree, I’m going to be asking the super if we can have Gary temporarily transferred to our team. What do you think?’
Marie nodded. ‘Excellent idea, sir. His local knowledge could help.’
‘Good, then let’s get back and I’ll get that sorted.’
It was dusk by the time they got back to the incident room, but Max, Charlie and Rosie were still heads down at their computers.
Jackman grinned at them. ‘Okay, you guys. Get home, get some rest, then get back early tomorrow.’
Rosie looked up. ‘I’m happy to give it another hour, sir.’
Marie smiled at her. How come a mature woman, sharp as a butcher’s knife, managed to look like an eighteen-year-old school prefect?
Jackman shook his head. ‘Thanks, but no. You get away. Take the opportunity to rest while you can.’
Rosie gathered up her coat and bag. ‘Okay. See you tomorrow.’ She glanced across to Max, hunched over his keyboard. ‘Are you coming?’
Max leaned back, stretched his arms above his head, and groaned. ‘I guess. This search is going nowhere anyway.’ He stood up. ‘Hang on for me, flower, and I’ll walk down to the car park with you.’
Jackman watched them go, then went off to see if the office manager had left him any messages before he too went home. Marie was left to think over what had happened in the last few hours.
She was certain of one thing at least. There was an Emily.
But where was she?
* * *
Jackman was just hanging up the phone when Marie walked into his office. ‘That was Gary. Toni has calmed down considerably, and when her parents went for a coffee they had “a bit of a natter,” as he put it.’
Marie smiled, glad that they’d chanced upon PC Pritchard. ‘And?’
‘First, she confirmed that Shauna Kelly was at one of the parties. They weren’t friends but Toni knew her by sight. And Emily does exist. They’d never met before that night, and because of the drink and the drugs, her description of the girl was vague. Long, dark hair and beautiful eyes was the best Toni could come up with. Apparently the man who was molesting them got very excited when Emily told him her date of birth, and soon after that she was dragged away. Then Toni only has vague memories of being manhandled into a car and dumped miles from anywhere.’
‘Well, at least we know we’re not chasing shadows.’
‘That we do. The uniforms are there with Toni now. Gary’s going to hitch a lift back to Harlan Marsh with a mate of his who is a porter in A&E. He said he’ll stay with Toni until his friend’s shift finishes.’ Jackman leaned back in his chair and Marie saw how weariness had darkened his eyes.
‘The main thing is that now we know Emily is real. And it looks like she’s been abducted.’
A shiver rippled across Marie’s shoulder blades. When you’d seen what supposedly civilised people were capable of, it was almost impossible to stop your imagination settling on the very worst scenarios.
Jackman abruptly stood up. ‘I know it goes against the grain to walk out when there is a girl missing, but we have uniform both on the streets and checking out any “old and creepy” properties, as Toni put it. Let’s go get some rest.’
Marie nodded. He was right. It went against the grain, but they were going to need to keep their wits about them, and you couldn’t do that on no sleep.
* * *
Asher Leyton pushed back his office chair and stretched. He had intended to work on for another hour or two, but he was having trouble concentrating. He kept seeing the face of that kid on Brewer Street. She was dead, and it was bothering him deeply.
He picked up his Parker Duo fold pen from the polished desk, tucked it into his jacket pocket and stood up. He should go home. It would be nice to surprise Lynda. Maybe he’d take her to supper at Lorenzo’s. She’d like that. She liked the finer things in life. And he knew that was why she had got engaged to him, and why she had agreed to live with him before they were married.
When he was with Lynda he was the perfect gentleman. He acted honourably, and with old-world decorum. Just what she expected and wanted.
Asher closed his eyes and groaned. It was killing him. He had needs, and right now they were threatening to overpower him. He adored Lynda, worshipped her. He wanted her. But he knew that the only way he could keep her was to respect her puritanical, Victorian-era wishes, no matter how painful they were to him. She might appear to be a chic, modern young woman, but her deeply religious parents had instilled in her an inflexible, old-fashioned morality.
With another, deeper groan, he drew his wallet from his desk drawer and checked its contents. Plenty for what he needed. With a satisfied little grunt, he pushed the wallet into his pocket and made for the door.
He’d take Lynda to supper, buy her champagne and escort her home, just like the perfect gentleman. But before he even laid eyes on her flawless porcelain skin and shimmering soft hair, he would have to keep another very different appointment.
CHAPTER NINE
Before they left the station to visit Toni’s ex, Ethan Barley, Jackman and Marie took some time to make a list of derelict or abandoned places for uniform to check out for them.
‘There’s the old pumping station at Quintin Eaudyke, and what about that big old place on the Roman Bank?’ Jackman stared at the growing list.
‘Windrush? The old sanatorium?’ Marie grinned. ‘I know that old dump quite well. I spent a week there when I was a probationer. The owners rented it out to us for a training course, search and rescue and fire safety stuff. It had been an army billet in the Second World War, and then it was a TB sanatorium. Really creepy, but interesting. The course was dead boring so I spent quite a bit of time tracing its chequered history.’
‘Sounds like you could have done guided tours in the summer months.’
‘Probably should have.’ Marie looked at the clock. ‘Time to go. We have a vicar and his offspring to meet.’
* * *
The name Fendyke Vicarage conjured up an image of chocolate box prettiness. In fact, it was a 1940s four-bedroom house, built in the grounds of the church to accommodate the vicar and his family. Its successive occupants had made no effort to make it more homely. And if the house was unexpected, then the vicar himself was even more of a surprise.
The man that answered the door was around six foot tall, and as broad as he was high. His full beard conjured up salty seadog rather than vicar. Jackman wondered about his sermons.
‘Come in, come in.’ He stood back and they squeezed in between his bulk and the doorframe.
He led the way down a long hallway and into a large, airy lounge. Busy floral-patterned curtains did battle with a colourful carpet.
On a modern leather sofa, which looked incongruous amid the flower prints, lounged a black Labrador, a white cat and a spotty youth.
All three looked up as they entered. Jackman had difficulty deciding whose expression was the most disdainful.
‘Nicholas, call your brother down, please.’ The vicar turned to the detectives. ‘I thought I’d better have both my sons available for you to talk to.’ He raised a bushy eyebrow. ‘Whatever the reason for your visit, it’s bound to concern at least one or possibly both of them.’
The teenager slouched off, and shouted ‘Ethan!’ from the bottom of the stairs.
Jackman smiled at the vicar. ‘They aren’t in trouble, sir. We just need some help with our enquiries regarding a missing teenager.’
Reverend Barley indicated two armchairs, and heaved the reluctant dog from the couch. As he lowered himself down, the sofa springs gave out a squeal of protest.<
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‘Ah, this is Ethan, my eldest boy, and Nicholas, the baby of the family.’
The ‘baby’ flopped back down at the far end of the couch and glowered at them from beneath a lank fringe.
Ethan dutifully stuck out a hand, then dragged a giant leather beanbag towards the fireplace and casually draped himself over it. He was thin and narrow-faced, with dark hair. He wore black-rimmed designer glasses and jeans slung so low that they appeared to be defying gravity.
Marie gave them an abridged version of Toni’s ordeal, and asked if either of them knew a girl called Shauna Kelly, or a girl called Emily with long, dark hair.
Jackman watched them keenly. Nicholas’s face remained blank, but at the mention of Toni’s name, Ethan took in a sharp breath.
‘Is Toni going to be okay?’ asked the boy.
‘We hope so. She was very lucky to have escaped with only relatively minor injuries,’ said Jackman.
The vicar spoke in a low growl. ‘Best day’s work you ever did, boy, breaking up with that girl. She’s trouble. I always said so, didn’t I?’
‘It’s hardly her fault if some bastard spiked her drink.’
‘Language, Ethan!’
‘Do you have a better word for someone who does that kind of thing?’
Jackman couldn’t think of any, but decided not to join in the family argument.
‘And Shauna, or Emily?’ asked Marie.
‘Nah,’ mumbled the younger boy.
They looked at Ethan.
‘Not Shauna, but a week or so ago a student friend of mine tried chatting up a girl called Emily in a pub in Harlan Marsh.’ He shrugged. ‘Might not be the same Emily of course.’
‘Do you know what she looked like?’
Ethan shook his head. ‘I never saw her, but my friend said she was a stunner. He was gutted when she told him to get lost.’
Marie took down the boy’s name and number.
‘We’ll see if he recalls anything that might help us. Now, can you tell me if you’ve ever heard about an illegal, underage drinking club? One that regularly changes its venue?’
The vicar leaned forward. ‘Whoa there! My lads wouldn’t go near that sort of place.’