by Wonny Lea
He shuffled in his seat and Dan raised his head from the sink and rubbed his face and head with a bright yellow towel.
Dan didn’t know what he was going to do but was beginning to realise that time was on his side. Because of the very nature of their original plan neither he nor Susan had told anyone where they were going. Susan’s sister wouldn’t be worried if she didn’t see Susan for weeks and there was no one else who was in the remotest bit interested in her welfare.
He would have to get rid of Susan’s body but that wouldn’t be too difficult as the disused building site would give him plenty of possibilities for burying it, and it might be years before it would be discovered.
No, it wasn’t Susan that was his biggest problem, it was Jason, and Dan tried to focus his mind on the possibility of continuing with the original game plan regarding the ransom for Jason. In many respects it was more important than ever for him to get his hands on the money as he was now definitely going to have to disappear permanently.
He knew that tomorrow morning Tina would be receiving a letter setting out in no uncertain terms exactly what she had to do in order to get her son back. The letter had been computer-generated and handled with gloves to eliminate the possible pick up of fingerprints and Dan had driven to Swansea to post it, so avoiding a Cardiff postmark. The plan had been to give Tina time tomorrow to get a million pounds from the bank. Susan had seemed to think Tina could easily do that because after all it was her money and they couldn’t refuse to give it to her.
Dan had expressed reservations about any bank having that sort of money readily available and that was why they had decided to give her a full day.
The letter would tell her that any contact with the police would blow her chances of ever seeing Jason alive and tell her where to leave the money that would ensure his safe release. All of that was already in place and Dan now had to consider if not having Susan around would make any difference
Her only role was to have been to look after Jason when Dan went to pick up the money and of course she would have had a major role in spending it. Dan reckoned he could do without her input and would have to ensure Jason was locked in the caravan when he went to the agreed pick-up point. That would be no problem but there was now a very big issue with Jason and Dan had to come to terms with the fact that it would no longer be possible, even on receipt of the million, to let Tina know the whereabouts of her son. Jason had seen Dan strangle Susan and would be persuaded to tell the psychologists who would undoubtedly be called in to counsel him following his ordeal.
There was always going to be an issue regarding the fact that Jason would be able to identify at least one of his kidnappers, but by eight o’clock Friday Dan would have picked up the ransom money and he and Susan would be on the way to Heathrow airport. That was the original plan and they were going to wait until just before boarding the plane before Dan made the call to Tina telling her where she could find her son.
No one would know where he was at the time of the call and he would use one of the pre-paid phones he had picked up to make the call. Susan had said that would prevent the police tracing the whereabouts of the phone and as Dan knew absolutely nothing about cell-phone technology he had assumed she was right.
They knew that when Jason was found he would tell his mother that it was Megan’s granddad who had taken him from St Fagans, but by then they would be halfway to Mexico. Dan had even considered the possibility that when he made that phone call to Tina he could persuade her to get the police to forget about the kidnapping. After all, he was the boy’s father and was only catching up on the rights to know his son that she had denied him for the past seven years.
But now Jason would have another story to tell his rescuers and whereas he might have got away with kidnapping his own son, murder was a different ball game.
Jason was the only person who knew about Susan and how she had died and this meant that the phone call to Tina telling her where she could find her son alive and well was no longer an option.
Chapter Five
What dad?
Martin introduced himself to Tina and was updated on the details of Jason’s disappearance and the subsequent searches that had been made. It certainly seemed as if a great deal of effort had already gone into finding the boy and the DCI suggested that only he and DC Cook-Watts needed to speak to Tina, and that everyone else could continue looking for Jason.
Pam Woodland was reluctant to leave, as she was enjoying being at the centre of all this excitement, but Martin assured her that DC Cook-Watts would take over her role and support Tina whilst he was questioning her.
In her usual down-to-earth way Helen had already persuaded Tina to sit at one of the tables and had coaxed her into drinking a cup of coffee.
From the moment Martin had heard about Tina and Jason’s background he had contemplated the possibility of kidnapping. Now that he had more details about the timescale since the boy was last seen and the intensity of the search he was convinced that he was dealing with a carefully crafted plan to relieve the boy’s mother of some of her money in exchange for her child’s return.
He remembered some of the workshops he had attended over the years when approaches to different categories of crime had been explored and best-practice protocols developed. The one thing that kept coming to the forefront of his memory was the issue of time.
The words of one of the workshop facilitators crossed his mind. ‘Yes, there is a need for sensitivity, but better a crying mother than a dead child. Make the parents think thoughts they can’t bear to think and do that at the very start of the investigation. There’s no point in holding back difficult questions that could give vital clues about the reasons behind the kidnapping and the possible identity of the kidnapper.’
It had been easy to nod in agreement in a warm and comfortable seminar room and without the grief that Martin was now witnessing on the face staring down into an empty coffee cup.
He pulled up a chair and faced Tina directly. ‘It’s been well over an hour now since Jason went missing and hopefully he will soon be found. But he is unlikely to have been hiding all this time – do you agree?’
‘Yes,’ mumbled Tina. ‘I gave up thinking he was playing hide and seek after about ten minutes. He’d already said he was hungry and I think he’s either had an accident or someone’s taken him.’
She was more composed than Martin had expected and he felt able to pursue the possibilities she had suggested.
‘I think we can rule out an accident given the very short timescale between you noticing his disappearance and a search getting underway. He couldn’t have gone far in that time and as I understand it every nook and cranny has been explored.’
‘It’s my job to get Jason back to you and with that in mind we need to explore the possibility that he has been abducted for some reason.’
Tina looked as if she was going to collapse and Helen held her hands tightly.
‘You mean some pervert has got my little boy. Please God, not that. My Jase’s still a baby … he’s still my baby.’
Tears streamed down her face and Martin jumped in quickly to prevent her thinking any further along the lines of her little boy being the victim of a sex offender.
‘I don’t think that is what has happened,’ he said loudly and clearly. ‘I don’t think Jason has been taken by anyone who wants to do him any harm. I really believe that at this time your son is alive and well but I do believe he has been kidnapped and that very soon the kidnapper will make contact with you and be asking for money.’
Tina stared at Martin with a look of utter confusion but the tears had stopped and she was clearly trying hard to focus on what was being said, so Martin continued. ‘I have been told that you won a considerable amount of money on the National Lottery but no one seems to know exactly how much.’
‘It was eleven and a half million pounds and it was on the Euromillions,’ said Tina. ‘I shared a pot of £46m with three other people. To be perfectly honest a
win of a few hundred thousand would have been better for me. I’m sure there are lots of people who would know how to make good use of millions of pounds but I’m not one of them. I bought the house with the pool that you can see Jason standing next to, and gave money to some of the people who asked for it and a lot of good that did me. They just wanted more and with some of the people I thought were my friends things got very nasty.
‘Jason is the most important thing in my life – nothing else matters and if it takes all the money I have to get him back then whoever has taken Jason can have it.
‘Just find my boy, Inspector, if you don’t find him I’ll die.’
It was difficult for Martin to hear what Tina was saying as every word was accompanied by sobs and she suddenly got up and headed for the door.
‘Give her five minutes,’ suggested Helen. ‘She smokes like a chimney and at the moment nicotine will be her version of a comfort blanket.’
Martin nodded and indicated that Helen should follow Tina and try to get her talking.
‘I don’t want to appear callous but time could be critical and if we can get some names from her we could start checking them out. My initial feeling is that the person we are looking for is known to her and to Jason.’
Martin rubbed the sides of his face and went on to explain his thinking. ‘From what we have been told no one witnessed a struggle of any sort and I doubt the boy would have willingly gone off with a total stranger.’
Helen latched on to Martin’s sense of urgency and after just a few minutes she had persuaded Tina to return and Martin questioned her about her family and friends.
‘Tell me about Jason’s father,’ he began. ‘Are you together and what part does he play in Jason’s life?’
‘No and none,’ answered Tina bluntly. ‘Jason has never met his father, in fact I’m the only person who knows who he is and that’s the way it is going to stay. I doubt Jason’s father even knows of his son’s existence so you can cross him off your list of suspects.’
Martin decided to let that go for the moment but knew it was something he would be coming back to if other lines of enquiry didn’t produce results.
‘What about your own family? I want you to think about your parents, grandparents, brothers or sisters, aunts or uncles, cousins, or anyone who knows about your circumstances and may want to cash in. Have you fallen out with any of them since you won the money? Is there anyone in particular who has a grudge against you and would know that the best way of hurting you would be through your son?’
There were no longer any signs of tears and Tina had suddenly become focused on the task in hand. Martin could almost see the cogs in her brain whirling as she mentally trawled through her family and friends.
‘My mother died years ago but she did have a sister and when I was a child Auntie Betty was around quite a lot. She wasn’t like my mother, she was much more in control of herself and she and my father were like daggers drawn. When my mother died she came to see me a few times but each time she argued with my father and then she stopped coming.
‘I doubt she even knows I have a son or about my lottery win. She used to live in Bridgend but that was years ago and for all I know she could be dead. There was no one else on my mother’s side that I can remember. Auntie Betty didn’t have any children and I don’t think she was even married – I certainly can’t remember any uncle.’
Helen was making a few notes and asked Tina for her aunt’s surname and for an address in Bridgend.
‘She was just Auntie Betty to me but if she wasn’t married her surname would have been Goldsmith. It’s one of the few things I remember about my mother, she always said that she’d never been any ordinary old Smith, she’d been a Goldsmith. It was one of her little jokes that my father hated.’
Martin was a bit worried that Tina would get upset again as she recalled memories of her mother but over the past ten minutes Tina had transformed from a frightened quivering wreck to a woman on a mission to find her son. A tigress and her cub sprung to Martin’s mind and he didn’t fancy the chances of anyone who got between Tina and her determination to find Jason.
‘I couldn’t give you an address for Betty but I did go to her house once with my mother and I remember that it only took us a few minutes to walk there from the bus station.’
‘You mentioned your father,’ said Martin. ‘Do you and Jason see much of him?’
Tina scowled. ‘If my father had had his way Jason would never have been born. I was six months pregnant before I even told him about it but even then he wanted me to have an abortion. I was his beer ticket. I worked around the clock and paid all the bills and put money in his pocket so that he could meet his mates for a pint most nights and unlimited pints on a Saturday.’
She suddenly stopped talking and it would have served Martin well if he had been able to read her mind, as it went back to one particular Saturday night when she had lost her virginity and gained a son.
‘My father is still around, Chief Inspector, at least I think he is.’ she told Martin. ‘I moved out after we fought over my refusal to get rid of my baby and I haven’t seen him from that day to this. I can give you his address if he still lives in the same place but if you are looking for someone who Jason knows then I can assure you he wouldn’t know his grandfather from Adam.
‘I was amazed when my father didn’t turn up like a bad penny when I came into money but much as I have no love or respect for him I can’t see him kidnapping his grandson, he simply wouldn’t have the balls. It’s possible that one of his mates would be up for it, but I haven’t seen him for about eight years so I don’t know what company he’s keeping.
‘There is a couple who I used to be friendly with and who kicked off when I refused to give them money for some pretty dodgy business plans. I’m not the brightest, Inspector, but even I know that buying an ice-cream van doesn’t require an investment of two hundred thousand. I would probably have given them that amount of money to settle their debts if they had come clean and said that they wanted to do that but I don’t like being taken for an idiot.’
Martin’s opinion of Tina was changing as she spoke. When they had first been introduced Martin had seen a woman distraught over the disappearance of her son and he had felt very sorry for her, but he certainly hadn’t credited her with a heap of intelligence. He was now seeing a woman who was showing amazing spirit and he was impressed by the logic of her thinking especially under the circumstances.
‘Just give DC Cook-Watts any names and contact numbers and we will check them out if only to eliminate them from our enquiries,’ said Martin.
‘What happens now?’ asked Tina with a voice that had started to shake and was showing signs that a new wave of worry was hovering and waiting to take over her mind and body.
Before Martin had a chance to answer he was interrupted by Matt. As soon as he entered the room Matt realised that the three people there would be expecting feedback from the site of Jason’s disappearance and he quickly brought them up to date, but wished his news could be different.
‘Sorry, but there is nothing I have to tell you other than that our SOC officers are combing the area for any clues to Jason’s disappearance.’
Realising that Tina and Matt hadn’t yet met, Martin made the required introductions and asked him to tell them exactly what had been happening. ‘We have managed to identify the people from Holly Road School who were coming from the park and walking in the direction of the pigsty at the time when Jason would have been sitting on the grass verge.
‘I have spoken to most of them but there are still one or two people who are apparently somewhere in the grounds looking for Jason that I haven’t been able to interview yet. Not one of them saw Jason when they got to the pigsty and all of them are certain that Jason hadn’t passed them whilst they were walking towards it. The women especially were adamant that if they had seen Jason walking past without his mother they would have stopped him.’
‘It would appear that a numbe
r of people were walking in the opposite direction, that is to say going back towards the museum, but that’s all I have been able to establish. No one is able to say if the people they passed were men or women, short or tall, black or white, families or just lone figures. The children proved to have been marginally more observant than the adults as they recalled a boy with a toffee apple and a girl who was whizzing along on roller blades but none of them had seen Jason either on his own or with anyone else.
‘These people were all on the scene within minutes of Jason having been left there and I’m struggling to make any sense of it.’ Matt looked towards Tina. ‘There are only two ways Jason would have chosen to go unless he decided to get over a fence or a hedge and head for the fields.’
‘He wouldn’t have done that,’ responded Tina. ‘There are animals in those fields and although Jason likes to watch them from the path he would be terrified to go anywhere near them, especially on his own.’
‘That’s what I thought,’ said Matt. ‘At the risk of sounding ridiculous, are you sure that Jason didn’t sneak past when you were waiting for him to catch up with you? I don’t have any kids of my own but I spend a lot of time with a dozen nieces and I know how artful they can be and they often seem to pop up from nowhere when you think they’re somewhere else.’
Matt’s suggestion generated a wry, watery smile from Tina.
‘That’s not such a ridiculous suggestion,’ she replied. ‘I’ve thought about it myself but it didn’t happen. I walked on for no more than a minute but I do take quite large strides and initially I had hurried off to make a point with Jason. Then I leant against a stone wall and lit a cigarette and there was only that path in front of me. Jason would have had to walk over my feet to pass me but he didn’t and neither did anyone else. No one came past at that time – no one at all.’