He paused for a reply. Maddie knew a loaded question when she heard one. She took a second to compose herself. A career in policing had taught her one thing for sure: pick your battles. This was not one she could win.
‘Not at all. This sounds like it’s very relevant. It’s just a shame that all of these things have come at once. I didn’t realise everything else was quite so covered off. What time do we need to leave?’ The question was directed towards Janet but the chief inspector answered it for her.
‘Well, there you are. Seems we are able to cover all bases just as well as your big city force. Who knew, eh? You’ll need to leave straight away to be sure to get there on time.’
Maddie resisted telling him just what she thought of his ability to organise anything. ‘I’ll just get my things together.’
* * *
Maddie disguised a sigh as the tall, metal gates of Homewood School yawned open and sucked in their car from the residential streets surrounding the site. Janet was driving, and so far she hadn’t done very well. She showed no signs of improving either and didn’t seem to slow for the unnecessarily intrusive speed bumps as they moved into the school grounds before abandoning the car at a skewed angle across a clearly marked disabled space.
‘Won’t we get in trouble for parking here?’ Maddie said.
‘Nah. I park here all the time. They know me here.’
Janet walked quickly towards the door marked Reception. The car made a clunking sound as she locked it.
In the reception area, Janet spoke to someone behind the desk. They were chatting about one or the other’s holiday. Maddie was handed a sticky label announcing her as a visitor. She stuck it to her chest.
‘Usual room?’ Janet said. The building looked relatively new to Maddie. It was a bland series of squared edges and long, plain corridors with box-shaped rooms coming off at regular intervals. All the doors leading into the rooms were identical and with just a slip of card labelling each one. They stopped at a door with the label Room 1.9. Janet led the way in and the door fell closed behind them. It was too small to be a classroom. It was square-shaped, of course, but with soft chairs laid out for four people to sit on. They all faced one another. There were leaflets in a Perspex holder on the wall, each of them seemed to refer to wellbeing of some sort, connected with student counselling or support groups. This must be the room for talking about thoughts and feelings. Maddie’s least favourite thing.
‘So, you’re not really into all this?’ Janet said.
Maddie lifted her eyes and they carried her surprise. For a split second she considered that her colleague might be reading her thoughts. ‘All this?’
‘You know . . . working the schools an’ that. Stopping the little shits going missing again. The boss said that it wasn’t really your bag.’
Maddie realised why Janet had barely spoken to her the whole way and perhaps why her driving style could be described as ‘angry.’
‘He said that? That’s a shame, really. I don’t want to get off on the wrong foot, Janet. I know this is your job, too. I don’t want you to think I’m not into it — of course I am. I came three hundred miles to do this job!’
‘Not by choice though, right? And I heard you back in the office. There’s more important stuff going on that you would rather be doing.’
Maddie licked her lips, considering her reply. ‘I’m worried about one of my missing girls. I think she might be in danger. Our lad here today . . . he’s not in any danger — not right now. I get that we need to stop him disappearing — he’s vulnerable when he’s off the radar — but right now I think I could be better used looking for that girl.’
‘There are plenty of people out looking for her.’
‘There are,’ Maddie conceded. She didn’t want to. She wanted to scream back that she had already been patronised once by the chief inspector and it wasn’t open season for anyone else who wanted to have a go. She almost surprised herself. Restraint seemed to be a new quality she had been saving just for Lennockshire. She continued, doing her best to remain diplomatic: ‘And right now we’re the only ones here, so this is the most important thing I’ve got going on. I’ve read up on the case and I’m ready to do what I can to make sure that David doesn’t go missing again and put himself in harm’s way. I’m in!’ Maddie tried a chuckle to see if she could soften Janet’s harsh exterior.
‘It’s Dan,’ Janet said. Her exterior remained very much intact.
The door pushed open. A young lad bundled in. He had a satchel over both shoulders and, despite the warm weather, he also wore a zipped top that was done right up under his chin. He sat down in one of the seats and slumped so far back he was almost facing the ceiling. His top rode up over his chin and, combined with his brown fringe that was long and swept across his brow, his face was almost completely covered. He had let the door close on a middle-aged woman who came in after him. She looked flustered. She had a hardback A4 book under her right arm, more paperwork in her left hand and a mug of tea that she was struggling to keep from spilling. Her cheeks were red and as she moved to take one of the seats she let out an exasperated sigh. She sat down and fanned herself with the paperwork.
‘Sorry,’ she said, ‘did you want a drink?’
Janet declined for them both. Dan looked out from under his fringe. He looked at every part of Maddie except her eyes.
‘Dan, how are you?’ Janet said.
‘I’m alright. Bit bored. Dunno why I’m here — this is my break time.’
‘You do know why you’re here, Dan,’ the middle-aged woman cut in, looking even more flustered.
‘Some shit about where I’ve been? I’ve already done that.’
‘And you didn’t tell me anything.’
‘I don’t have to tell you where I’ve been or where I’m going. I’m fifteen. I’m not a kid anymore.’
‘Actually, Dan, in the eyes of the law that’s exactly what you are,’ Janet said.
‘I don’t give a shit about the law. I go where I want, when I want. My mum knows I weren’t at school. I told her and she don’t give a shit. I don’t get why you do.’
‘Did you tell her where you went? Or who with?’
‘No. It’s got nothing to do with her either.’
Janet looked over at Maddie. ‘Dan, this is Detective Sergeant Ives. She needs to speak to you about going missing, about what it means to the police — resources wise. You need to sit and listen, okay?’
Dan’s eyes flicked to Maddie very briefly. Then he pushed his legs out, his head lolled further back into the seat and his eyes lifted to the ceiling. He expelled a huge sigh, clearly for Maddie’s benefit. She looked over at Janet. This wasn’t exactly her definition of observing.
‘Yeah, well, Dan . . .’ Maddie cleared her throat. ‘What you have to understand is that when you go missing we have a duty to try and find you. No matter how much of an adult or how streetwise you think you are. There are people out there that may be looking to cause you harm and we have the job of preventing that from happening. Does that make sense?’
Dan stayed looking at the ceiling. He gave no hint that he had even heard a single word she’d said.
‘It ties up a lot of people . . .’ she continued. ‘Police officers, PCSOs, teachers and anyone else that we might use to try and find you. People that could be better used elsewhere, looking for people who are seriously at risk, or that might be looking to cause other people harm. Do you understand?’
‘I never asked for nothing. I just wanna be left alone. The next time I’m missing, yeah, just type this into your little system or whatever . . . leave him alone ’cause he’s fine and he don’t want to be found. You get that?’
‘Can’t do that, Dan.’
Dan sat up suddenly. He leaned forward and his eyes panned over Maddie again from the feet up. He lingered on her chest. ‘Unless you wanna come find me . . . you’re alright, you.’
Maddie sniffed. She could feel her anger rising. ‘You might be alright now, Dan
. You might have been fine every time you’ve been missing so far. But one day you might not be. You’re more at risk than you realise because, despite the fact that you probably only weigh eight stone when you’re piss-wet through, you carry yourself like you’re someone. But you’re not, Dan. You’re a nobody loser, and if some bloke was to scoop you up in his car and drive you somewhere where he can be alone with you for his own entertainment you wouldn’t be missed for days. Not by anyone. I saw a kid in my last force after that had happened to him. When we found his body we could only identify him using his dental records and his arsehole was stretched so far open it was presumed to be the cause of death. So don’t give me the Billy-big-bollocks routine and expect me to accept that you’re ’ard enough to look after yourself. You’re fuck-all Dan. You’re someone’s plaything if they want you to be, so you need to get smarter, unless you want your arsehole to be your cause of death?’
Dan sat back and squirmed. Then he swept his fringe out of his eyes and looked first to the middle-aged woman next to him, then to Janet before sinking back into the seat.
‘You can’t say things like that to me! I wanna speak to your boss!’
‘Sit up straight when you talk to me, Dan. I’m not your teacher, your poor mother or one of your little mates. I’m a police officer. You ever speak to me like you just did again and I will drag you into the cells myself and rather than speaking to my boss you can speak to a custody sergeant. I’ll think of something good enough to make sure you stay there for the full twenty-four hours. Now, the next time you go missing, I want you to think about me. I want you to remember that I don’t give a shit if you’re safe or not. But this is my job and I take my job very seriously, so I will be looking for you. And if it’s me that finds you, you might just wish it was the bloke in his car. Any questions?’
Dan was holding eye contact with Maddie now, and he looked a lot less sure of himself. ‘No. I got no questions.’
‘I must have made myself clear then. Do you have a phone?’
‘Yeah.’
‘I’ll take the number. You can make sure you take mine too and I want you to put it in your phone. Then, if you’re reported missing again I’ll call you and I’ll know you’ll see my name flash up on your screen. If you answer me, I’ll know I can stop looking. If you don’t, you will piss me off, Dan. You don’t want to piss me off, do you?’
Dan huffed loudly. ‘Nah, I don’t mean to . . .’ He sat up straighter, his head hung a little. He had his phone in his hand. He held it out for Maddie. The woman next to him was flushing a far deeper shade of red. She spoke next. Her voice took a second to get going, like her throat had tightened up.
‘R-right th-then, Dan . . . if you’re done with us then you should get to your next class. We’ll catch up later, okay?’
‘Yeah.’
Dan got to his feet and took his phone back. He gave Maddie one last look and then he was gone.
‘Well!’ The flustered woman clapped her hands together. She looked at Maddie and she seemed to be struggling to find something to say. ‘That was certainly a different approach. I guess it might be the way to get through to him. We will have to see.’
‘What would you normally do? Kids like that aren’t going to listen to people telling them how many resources are being wasted looking for him. He doesn’t care about the police and he certainly doesn’t care about upsetting any of us. The only angle left is to tell him that he will get himself in trouble if he does it again.’
‘Well, you certainly got that message across. Thanks for your time coming in today. Janet here knows the way out.’ She scooped up her paperwork and her mug and left just as clumsily as she had entered. Maddie waited for the door to fall back shut.
‘Did I upset her?’ Maddie noticed that Janet was grinning for the first time.
‘I think you did!’
‘Oh, well . . .’
‘I always thought she was too soft. They walk all over her here.’
‘Who is she anyway? She never did introduce herself.’
‘Sharon Hanson. She’s the safeguarding lead here. It’s her job to look after the welfare of all the kids. I don’t envy her really, I wouldn’t fancy that job.’
‘I don’t think I’d be much cop at it.’
‘I think you’d be great!’ Janet was still smiling. She seemed to have perked up quite a bit. ‘Come on, let’s get out of here. Maybe we can get a coffee on the way back in, seeing as how we’re going to be working together a bit in the future. We’ve got a similar visit tomorrow for a start.’
‘I thought we were going to talk to the school about how to prevent missing persons in the future or something like that?’
‘We were. We usually have a chat after and bat around a few ideas for stopping the pupil going again, but Sharon obviously felt like you covered that in the meeting.’
‘Oh. I really did upset her!’
‘She’ll be fine. Especially if your little chat has the desired effect on our mate in the future.’
‘He’ll go missing again,’ Maddie said. ‘Kids like that tend to do whatever they want.’
‘I think you’re right . . . he will go missing. But he’ll definitely answer your call when he does!’
Chapter 29
Maddie tried Harry’s number on the way back and got no answer. When Janet dropped her back at the station, she made for his desk rather than her own. Almost a whole day had passed and she wanted to see if he had any updates on her missing girl and also on his hit and run. She felt invested in both, even if the DCI wasn’t letting her play much of a part in either. Harry wasn’t there. She could see a couple of DCs and she walked over to the closest.
‘Hey, I was looking for the inspector. Any idea where he might be?’
‘He just went out. I think he’s going to be a while.’
‘Ah, okay. I don’t suppose you’re working the Lorraine Humphries missing person investigation, are you? I’m DS Ives, I’m the new, erm . . . misper liaison and I was just wondering if anything had happened around her case.’
‘No, most of the team are tucked up on that though. I haven’t heard any major updates. The team’s numbers are all up on the board there if you want to call any of them.’
Maddie turned to where he was pointing. There was a whiteboard with handwritten names, phone numbers and shift patterns. ‘No, it’s okay. I’m sure Harry will keep me up to date with anything relevant.’ She didn’t really believe that. She would give him a call later.
When she made it back to her own desk, Julian Lowe was hanging out of his office talking to a DC. He finished the conversation hurriedly when he saw her.
‘Ah, Maddie! How did it go? Come in.’ He moved out of view. By the time Maddie got into his office he was already sitting down. He gestured for her to do the same. He leant back in his chair and steepled his fingers.
‘It went fine. The lad was there. He’s a bit of a shit, if you’ll forgive the expression, and I’m not convinced he won’t cause me an issue again, but I think we made some headway with him.’
‘And an impression, I’m told.’
Maddie took a moment to process what he had said. ‘You’re told?’
‘Yes. I know the Principal at that school. An old friend. I wanted to make sure you were getting on okay.’
‘I see. A good impression, I hope?’
‘The woman who deals with safeguarding there wasn’t sure. I think they are of the same opinion as you . . . he will cause trouble again, he is likely to go missing again and there’s nothing anyone can realistically do to stop that. She did pass on that your methods are quite different to what she is used to. She didn’t elaborate.’
‘Oh, really? We just had a conversation. The usual stuff. I explained the time and effort that we had to put into finding him when he is reported missing and asked him not to do it again. I assumed that was standard.’
‘Yes, that is. I’m surprised then that they suggested your methods were a little different. I spoke to
Janet too. In contrast she was singing your praises. She thinks you might have a bit of a knack when it comes to speaking to our young people. Let’s hope that’s the case. Maybe you’re a natural in this role, Maddie.’
‘Maybe.’ Maddie was aware that the DCI was inspecting her closely.
‘But you still think you could be better utilised elsewhere?’
‘Those are not my decisions. What I think doesn’t really matter, sir.’
‘That’s not true. I like to think I run things with an open-door policy. I will speak with Inspector Blaker and see where he is with the missing person investigation. If he could still use you then I will see if I can give you some time next week—’
‘Next week? With respect, that might already be too late, sir.’ She had been doing so well; she’d been calm up to now.
Lowe sighed. ‘It might. But as we discussed earlier, there is a whole team of detectives working through the tasks that have been identified in the search for Lorraine Humphries. Putting more people in among that investigation could have a negative effect if anything. Someone such as yourself, brand new to the area, with techniques born of a city police force might find yourself to be more of a . . . hindrance, for want of a better word. And I know you have another school meeting tomorrow and there will be more multi-agency work next week for you to get your teeth into. If you wish for an attachment to Major Crime then maybe we can look at that as part of your development. But these things do not happen immediately, DS Ives. There are plenty of other sergeants out there who have requested the very same thing. I have to be fair. Do you understand?’
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