by Anne Bone
She was both pleased and disappointed by what Mrs Bellows had to say. Jason had brought the items down to her. Although there were apparently no official documents to show where the children were, there were some bits of paper which might be of some help. Mrs Burrows wanted to know when she and Marty would come and collect them or did they want her to post them.
Beth thanked the woman and said that if it was all right they would drive out the following day. These arrangements made, the call was disconnected. Beth did not know what to think. She had been harbouring a hope that Fred may have had some documentation of handing the children over to this couple, although she was not surprised that there did not seem to be any.
The following evening when they had returned from Hillside Farm Molly was relieved to see a smiling Beth enter the sitting room.
She was clutching the envelope to her chest and emptied the contents out onto the table to show Molly. The first item she handed over to the older woman was a photograph of a smiling curly-haired toddler, the image of his father. The photo taken on Stevie’s first birthday. Beth had felt her heart almost stop when she had taken this precious item into her hands at Hillside Farm.
Marty had had tears in his eyes at his first sight of his son, a son he had never seen and one who even he would never have any doubt as to who his father was. He had seen similar photographs of this child, ones taken of himself when he was the same age.
The other items which emerged from the envelope turned out to be more important than first thought. One was Beth’s birth certificate, and the second was a small piece of paper. It seemed to be some sort of receipt. It read
Received from Michael and Helen Walker
The sum of £3000
This is full payment for goods received and no
Further payments will be made
Signed F. Menzie June 1977
On the back of the receipt was scrawled in pencil
15 Gordon Ave
Huntly
‘Now then, what do you think this means?’ Molly asked.
‘Beth thinks this has something to do with the children, don’t you Beth?,Tell Aunty.’
‘There are two things. Firstly, if my father had suddenly got £3000 in his hands legitimately then we would have all heard about it and, secondly, the date, June 1977. It’s the same month the children were taken. It’s too much of a coincidence. Jason seems to remember that Dad suddenly got a sum of money, but was not doing his usual bragging about it. He upgraded the old van and there was a bit of a mystery as to where he had got the money. So it could be a clue.’ Beth’s eyes were bright.
‘First thing in the morning I am going to phone Mr Baird and see what he has to say, because if money did change hands for the kids then I am pretty sure that this must be illegal. In the meantime, as soon as I have spoken to Mr Baird, Beth and I are going to drive up to Huntly and see what we can find out. It can’t do any harm can it?’
Molly looked concerned. ‘Well, just you two be very careful,’ she told them in a serious and anxious voice.
That night was the first night since Beth had joined Marty in his bed that more than a cuddle took place. They were both too worried to go the whole way as Beth knew that her body would likely be too receptive and this was not the right time to make another baby. Although both felt that somehow today had been a breakthrough in many ways.
Chapter 19
They started the day off in high spirits. The first boost came when the postman delivered a brown envelope. It was addressed to Beth and when she opened it she found her eyes were staring at two copies of her children’s birth certificates. She sat down heavily on the chair in the sitting room just gazing at the documents. If Douglas Baird was right and at this moment she could not even contemplate the thought that he was… her children had not been adopted.
Marty did not quite know how to contain himself when he dialled the solicitor’s telephone number. He was put directly through to Douglas and explained to him what they had found out with Jason’s assistance. He also told the solicitor that the children’s birth certificates had arrived in the post this morning.
He listened while Douglas informed him that he had spoken to one of his police colleagues and, now it was confirmed that Beth was still the children’s legal parent, that she should visit the police to make a complaint, which they would be obliged to investigate. Douglas suggested that she go to the Police Headquarters in Queen Street.
After Marty had replaced the receiver, he went through to the sitting room to pass on the advice given by Douglas. Molly suggested that they abandon their plans to travel up to Huntly to check out the address which Jason had provided and go to the police instead. Neither Beth nor Marty were willing to do this. No. Beth was adamant that if her children were in Huntly then she wanted to go and find them. She would go to the police when she returned.
Marty agreed with her, ignoring Molly’s fears that they could end up on a fool’s errand and they should let the police check the address out. The young couple wrapped up warmly in the cold early winter’s frost and set off west to the town of Huntly to see what they could discover.
They had agreed on a plan when they arrived at the house. Marty would go and knock on the door with a story that he was looking for a friend called Simon. This would allow them just to see who answered the door and whether he could hear any children’s voices. Beth would watch and wait in the car.
They found Gordon Avenue and drove slowly along the street until they were outside number fifteen. It seemed as though number fifteen was a first floor flat. Marty left the car and went up the pathway where he pressed the doorbell. Beth watched from the car feeling her heart leap when the door was opened.
Marty was ready with his story, when he was faced with a young woman in her twenties. ‘Hi,’ he smiled. ‘Sorry to bother you, but I’m looking for a friend of mine, I thought he was living here.’
The girl smiled back at the rather handsome lad she found on her doorstep. ‘Sorry, but I don’t think you have the right address, I’ve only been here for a couple of months.’
Marty asked whether she had any idea of who the previous occupants had been.
Marty felt his hopes being dashed. ‘Sorry, no, I haven’t a clue.’ The young girl felt sorry for the lad; it was obvious he was disappointed. ‘Tell you what, try knocking at the bottom flat, the old lady has lived there for years and is a nosy old bag and, as I know she, does not miss a thing. I think that if your pal lived here… well, she would know.’
Marty thanked her and heeded her advice. He went immediately and knocked on the adjoining door. It was opened instantly suggesting that the occupant had been indeed listening to every word that had been taking place.
The elderly woman proved to be very helpful. ‘No, no one called Simon had lived at the address. Before that one moved in,’ she nodded her head towards the upstairs flat, her attitude confirming Marty’s suspicions that all did not bode well between the two neighbours. ‘There was a very nice woman called Susan, but she only stayed for about a year, more’s the pity, she was a very nice quiet tenant.’ She sniffed again, ‘Now, before her, there was bit of a fuss. The couple that lived there did a moonlight flit. Just upped and went overnight. I know the factor Mr Cameron was most put out, their lease wasn’t up for another three months and they left without any notice at all.’
‘Have you any idea what the names of this couple were?’
‘Let me think a minute, now, I think his name was Michael, I used to hear her shouting his name when he was fiddling about with his car. They kept themselves to themselves. Just used to nod and say the odd good morning, but never wanted to speak more. Very quiet though, strange that they just upped and went, I wondered whether it had anything to do with the bairns they looked after.’
Marty felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. ‘Oh, did they have bairns?’ He tried to keep his voice flat and uninterested.
‘Yes they did although it was a bit strange, a few d
ays before they left I saw them arrive with a couple of bairns; one was no more than a baby and the other a wee toddler. I was out in the garden if I remember rightly. Oh, what lovely wee ones, I had said to them.’
The woman said something like, yes, they are aren’t they, they have come to stay for a while, and that was that, I thought nothing more of it, and then a couple of days later they were gone. They must have gone about it really quietly in the middle of the night, because when I went to bed I heard them going about, and when I got up in the morning they were gone. Mr Cameron came knocking a week later asking if I had seen them. They had, he told me, posted the keys back to him.’
‘This Mr Cameron, do you have his address?’
‘Oh, you’ll find him down the High Street. He’s a solicitor, Cameron’s.’
Marty thanked the woman and returned to the car where he recounted the conversation he had had with her to Beth. ‘So it was them.’
‘Sounds like it, now I think we had better go back to Aberdeen and visit Queen Street, Beth, let them see what they can find out.’
The return journey back to Aberdeen was a much more sober affair than the one they had made earlier that morning. Beth found her previously buoyant mood diminishing as she wondered where the children were now. She had tried not to get her hopes up, although had not been able to avoid hoping that this journey would have led to her being reunited with her babies.
Marty drove straight to Police Headquarters and stood quietly beside Beth while she explained to the desk sergeant that she wanted to report that her children had been stolen. The older police officer did not show any outward alarm at hearing this statement, but told the young couple to take a seat while he arranged for someone to come and speak to them.
It seemed like it was ages before the door beside the reception area opened and a tall fresh-faced man in his thirties called her name. He invited them both to follow him through a narrow corridor into a small interview room. They sat beside each other while he sat opposite them. He introduced himself as Detective Sergeant Des Groves. The door opened to admit a small round woman who smiled and announced that she was Detective Constable Jane Lewis.
DS Groves asked a few questions and then invited Beth to tell them her story and why she thought her children had been stolen. Beth described the events, which led up to her children being taken and explained about her father’s part in these. Des Groves had a lovely reassuring way about him, telling her to take her time as she became more distressed in recounting the events. The tears, which she had believed had dried up, returned in abundance. She sobbed as she described every sordid detail of how she became pregnant with Lucy. She knew that she would have to tell them everything, no matter how unsavoury or how painful it was.
Marty held her hand tightly, squeezing it to reassure her that she was doing ok. DC Lewis clarified what she had been telling her. ‘If I an just confirm then, it was your father who introduced this Roger to you, and told you to do whatever he wanted or else Stevie would be taken away?’ Her question was answered by a nod. ‘And your mother, where was she when all this was going on?’ DC Lewis seemed to find the whole thing incredible, nevertheless he listened while Beth described how her mother had seemed to ignore everything that had happened.
The next question was, could she tell them about her relationship with her parents, what was it like? Beth told them how it was in a very flat voice, remembering how it was when she was little. She told them about the battering she received as a small child and how she would have to stay off school until the bruises disappeared. She told how her mother would spend all day sitting in the chair and how she had taken over the running of the house.
When she had finished telling her life story the two police officers looked a little shell-shocked. They were seasoned police officers, but hearing details of cruelty towards this pretty young girl left them feeling angry and sickened. Marty backed her story up with details of his contact with Fred Menzie, and how he had been threatened and duped into sending money every month.
The interview eventually ended with Des Groves informing Beth that he would begin to investigate her complaint. However, they would need to take a detailed formal statement from her and realised that not only they but also Beth were exhausted today. They would call and see her tomorrow at her home, and would need any photographs she had of the children. She told them she only had one photo of Stevie taken on his first birthday. They also asked for the birth certificates and the receipt of what appeared to constitute payment for her children.
Beth did feel absolutely washed out when she left the police station. She was, however, grateful that the police appeared to be treating her complaint as serious, and both police officers had been very nice. She recounted this to Molly when they arrived back at Harbour View. Molly was concerned when she saw the state of Beth and ushered her and Marty into the cosy living room while she raced around making a pot of tea muttering under her breath the words she would like to say to that Fred Menzie.
Meanwhile, back at Queen Street, the two detectives were discussing the story they had just heard with their superior officer, Inspector Coull. The older, more experienced officer listened and allowed Jane Lewis to vent her anger about how any parents could treat their daughter in such a way. While Des Groves voiced his concerns about where and who had these children now.
Inspector Coull agreed that, indeed, it sounded as though several offences appeared to have been committed during these events. He allocated the case to the two officers, suggesting that their first step in the investigation was to visit Cairn View and have a serious discussion with one Mr Fred Menzie. Their first checks had revealed that the said individual was known to the police for some petty offences, there was no doubt that his collar would need to be firmly tugged.
The police officers drew up a list of people they needed to speak to. On the list were the health visitor and GP who might be able to confirm some of the details given by Beth. They divided up the list and began by making telephone calls. Their discussion with the health visitor had been very revealing. She had, it seemed, not been convinced that Beth had given her children up for adoption as she had seemed devoted to them. No, she admitted, she had not been given a forwarding address for the children to allow her to pass on their records. She had become a little defensive then. She had tried, but Fred Menzie had always said he would get it and pop it into the surgery for her, and this just hadn’t happened.
Des telephoned the local Social Work offices to check whether they knew the family. The duty social worker told him they knew of them. The Menzie family was apparently rather infamous in the area, but they had never received a formal referral from anyone. She suggested that he spoke to the local police officer who she knew had knowledge of the family.
Indeed, the local police officer did have a load of information to share about the family. He was able to confirm much of Beth’s description of her father, a chancer. Always ducking and diving, and often causing a great deal of frustration for the police officer who tried on many occasions to catch him out. The older boy had left home and just as well, as he was heading in the same direction as his father. Yes, he was concerned about the youngest lad who was becoming known to him for his behaviour and was on the edge of being reported to the Children’s Panel for being outwith parental control.
Des was now convinced that they were dealing with a very dysfunctional family, and was looking forward to the challenge of interviewing the parents of that very pretty and distressed young girl.
Without further ado, the two detectives made the journey from Aberdeen to the small Donside village. Once they had successfully negotiated the uneven track that led down to Cairn View, they had found a rather dilapidated bunch of buildings, in the centre a scruffy looking cottage. Getting out of their car they walked towards the door which they supposed at one time may have been covered with paint. Des reached towards the door knocker and banged it twice, before the door was opened by a very scruffy looking man.
An obese smelly woman sat beside the roaring kitchen range, the heat from the fire increasing the smell of the bad body odour. This caused Jane Lewis to wrinkle her nose up and decided that when these two people sat in the back of the smart unmarked police car, they would need to keep the car windows open, even though it was extremely cold, because by not doing so they might just be overcome with the fumes.
Doris seemed to not be “the full shilling”, at least, that was the first impression they received, as they had to explain more than once why she needed to accompany the two police officers to the police station in Aberdeen. She had asked why she needed to accompany them as the bairns going had nothing to do with her.
Fred seemed to be cocky. Whether he thought they could not prove anything, his cockiness began to recede once he was facing the officers in the small interview room and they produced the small paper receipt from the Walkers. He was bemused. How on earth had they got their hands on that?