by M A Comley
“How come?”
Kayli sighed. “Let’s see what the morning meeting churns out first, and then I’ll share with the team what my thinking is about this case and what we could be dealing with.”
“I think I can guess. A paedophile ring, right?”
“You’re smart. I’m extremely fortunate to have you on my team. That is indeed what I’m thinking. I fear this investigation is going to be one of the toughest we’ve ever had to handle, but in the end, once we’ve caught the person—or persons—involved, it will also prove to be our most satisfying. And mark my words, I’ll not rest easy until we arrest every fucker involved.”
“I came to the same conclusion, boss. There are just too many of these cases cropping up in the news these days; it was only a matter of time before one surfaced on our patch.”
“You’re spot on there. Let’s not be too hasty. We’ll see what Graeme has to tell us first about the research I gave him to deal with yesterday, and then go from there. Look, if during the investigation you need time out, please don’t hesitate to give me the nod or feel free to take me to one side, all right?”
“I promise. Thanks for being so understanding, boss. I’m sure I’ll be okay. A good cry usually puts things into perspective for me.”
“Maybe I should give that a try now and again.” Kayli laughed as they entered the station together. She could have cried last night when the love of her life walked out on her for hours, but she’d refused to do that. That wasn’t to say Mark’s actions hadn’t hurt her, but she hadn’t wanted him to come home and find her a snivelling wreck. She preferred to bury her feelings when something upset her. She saw it as keeping Mark on his toes when she hid her true feelings from him. If she’d learnt one thing from her mother over the years, that was to never lay all her cards on the table where men were concerned.
Thinking of Mark reminded her that she hadn’t covered the subject about him joining the force, so she decided to give him a call on the way up the stairs.
“Yep.”
She cringed, hearing his groggy voice. “Hi, love. Sorry, did I wake you?”
“No. I was just about to jump in the shower. What have you forgotten?”
She stopped walking and watched Donna enter the incident room. She leaned against the wall to continue her conversation. “I was thinking while you were out last night. Why don’t you apply for a job with the police? I could pick up an application form for you today, if you like.”
“What? Are you crazy? I’d kill half the offenders. I ain’t got the patience to deal with people like that. I’ll find something soon... I better, otherwise, you’re likely to dump me.”
“Thanks for having such a low opinion of me. Okay, it was worth a shot. Gotta fly now. See you later. Hope you have a productive day.”
“Job hunting, you mean? Yeah, I’ll be out there, pounding the streets,” he said, sounding peeved. “Don’t worry your pretty head about that.”
Kayli ended the call and sighed. Oh well, that’s the last I’m going to say on the subject. She pushed open the door to find the team looking in her direction. She frowned. “Something wrong?”
Donna held up a pile of messages. Kayli walked across the room and took them from her hand. Flicking through them, she could understand her team’s reaction. “Good to see the media coverage has sparked some interest, although I’m not liking where some of these messages have come from. Graeme, do you recognise any of these names?”
“Yes, boss.”
“Okay, I suggest we all grab a coffee and listen to what Graeme has to say first, then we’ll deal with the messages.”
Dave leapt out of his seat and headed towards the vending machine. Donna joined him while Kayli slipped into her office to see what paperwork awaited her. Thankfully, there wasn’t a lot. She wanted to press on with the case at full steam, without the hindrance of dealing with nonsensical triteness from head office.
When she returned to the outer office, Dave had handed out all the drinks and everyone had assembled in front of the whiteboard. Graeme was standing alongside it with his notes in his hand.
“Do you want me to fill in the board while you go through your research, Graeme?” Kayli suggested.
“That would be a great help, boss. Thanks.”
“Let me have a slurp of coffee first, then begin in your own time.” She gulped down a few mouthfuls of the hot, strong liquid and felt it slip past her throat.
“I’m ready when you are.”
She nodded. “Okay, everyone, Graeme has put a lot of hard work into this, so listen up, and as we have a lot to get through, please don’t interrupt. We’ll deal with any questions afterwards. Take it away, Graeme.”
He cleared his throat then studied his notes for a few seconds before he began. “Obviously, we have our first victim, Jamillia Watson. The Missing Persons Department issued us with the files of three other local kids who have been reported missing in the past few months. I spoke to a few of the detectives dealing with those investigations, and they all told me pretty much the same—that clues had dried up and they were left flummoxed. I asked the detectives involved why they hadn’t connected the cases, and they all said they had thought about it, but as all three disappeared under different circumstances, they felt it would be better to treat them as individual cases.”
Kayli chewed the inside of her mouth. “Not something I would have done myself, but I suppose we’re looking at it from another angle because we have a body.”
“I was thinking along those lines too, boss.”
“Carry on, Graeme. I’ll try to keep my mouth zipped from now on.” She shrugged and smiled.
“First up is Victoria Smalling, an eight-year-old white girl. She’s been missing the longest, nearly four months. She went to a swing park with her friends and went missing on her walk home. She’s also the furthest in our search area. Her parents live in Weston-Super-Mare. When I spoke to the detective dealing with the case, he said that the parents had pretty much given up any hope of seeing their child again.”
“That’s so sad, but understandable. I think I would always have hope as long as my child’s body hadn’t been recovered.”
“I agree, boss.”
Donna raised her hand to speak. “I remember seeing the name Smalling in the messages I handed you, boss.”
Kayli looked through the messages and set one aside. “You did indeed. Okay, I’ll ring the parents in a bit.”
Graeme nodded then continued, “Next up is Lucy Dolan, a seven-year-old white girl, talented ballet dancer at her local dance school. Disappeared on her way to the shops when she was running an errand for her mother in the Temple Meads area of the city. Busy area, not sure I’d let a daughter of that age out on her own. The dad is a taxi driver, and he’s had his colleagues out there searching for her but received negative results. She’s been gone six weeks now.”
Kayli jotted a reminder in her notebook to look up the dance school.
“The final girl is Sonia Fisher. White and eight-years-old. She disappeared four weeks ago from the primary school playground, during the day. Should never happen, in my book. Apparently, the parents have split up over the incident, each blaming the other, which is daft really, when it was out of their hands. The school is to blame. This might flag up something, boss. The primary school is a few streets away from the school Jamillia attended.”
Kayli finished writing down the information on the board and added Jamillia Watson’s name and the facts they knew about her disappearance. “So, what can we glean from this?” She circled the time each child had disappeared. “Apart from Victoria Smalling, all the other girls went missing a few weeks apart from each other. Why the gap between Victoria Smalling and the others?”
“Maybe there’s no connection to the other three,” Dave suggested.
“I’m thinking along the lines that perhaps the offenders abducted her first then panicked before they risked taking another child, and now that they’ve taken three more, they
’ve found it easy to abduct and are holding the kids somewhere.”
“Could be. You think they’ll strike again then?”
Kayli nodded. “Definitely, unless airing Jamillia’s death via the media has sent them into a frenzy. Only time will tell. I just hope they don’t panic, kill the kids and move on, or worse still, if they are holding all the kids somewhere together that they pack up and leave the kids to fend for themselves.” Kayli shuddered at the thought.
“There again, the media attention might make them more daring. They could attempt to abduct yet more children,” Graeme added.
“That’s always a possibility. You know how much some criminals enjoy giving us the runaround and poking fun at us.” She rubbed her cheek as she thought. “Another thing is puzzling me. Three of the children are white, and Jamillia was black. Is there any significance in that? Also, why is Jamillia’s body the only one to be recovered, and yet she was the last girl to disappear? If these abductions are all connected, something isn’t adding up. Going forward, I’m in two minds whether to treat the cases as linked. What do you guys think?”
Dave shrugged. “What harm can it do linking the cases? It’s better to do that from the outset, in my mind.”
Kayli nodded. “Donna? What do you think we should do?”
Donna tilted her head from side to side as she contemplated the question. “I think I have to agree, boss. Treat them as if they’re linked.”
“Graeme?”
He nodded. “I have to agree. What do we have to lose?”
“That’s agreed then. Right, I’ll go through the messages in my office and see which ones we should either ditch or chase up.”
“Thinking about it, boss, I seem to recall the mother of one of the other girls contacted us also,” Donna pointed out.
“I’ll set that one aside and contact the two sets of parents myself. For now, we need to do all we can with the Watson case. Donna, can you do a background check on Lorella and Kelvin Watson. Also, a Troy Watson, who is Kelvin’s brother, plus... hang on...” She flipped through her notebook, found the page she was looking for, and handed it to Donna. “These are the names of four male friends of Kelvin’s. Check them out too while you’re at it.”
“On it now, boss.”
“Dave, you can help me sift through these, and, Graeme, you said you hadn’t managed to contact all the detectives working the other cases as yet. Can you try and put that right this morning?”
“Will do, boss.”
Kayli picked up her cup of lukewarm coffee and the messages then walked through to her office. She set half the messages down on one side of the desk for Dave to sift through while she tackled the other half. She placed the messages from the Smallings and the Dolans on the priority pile. Ten minutes later, she and Dave had whittled the piles down to five messages of significance.
“What do you want to do next? I thought we were going out to the school first thing.”
Kayli nodded. “That’s still my intention. I think the parents will be anxiously waiting for my call, however. I’ll ring them first, and then we’ll go. How’s that?”
He rose from his chair. “Fine by me. Just give me a shout when you’re done.”
Kayli inhaled a large breath before she dialled the first number. The call was answered almost immediately. “Hello, is that Mrs. Smalling?”
“It is.”
“Hi, I’m returning your call from last night. I’m DI Kayli Bright.”
“Does this mean you’re taking over my daughter’s case? Someone needs to—we’ve been left in the dark for months now. That can’t be right, can it? Someone has my child, Inspector, and I really can’t stand being left in the dark anymore. I’ve had to deal with the longest four months of my life. If she’s dead, then I want to be able to grieve and move on. I’m sorry if that sounds harsh to you, but being in a state of limbo for as long as we have is putting a terrible strain on our health and our marriage.”
“I’m sorry for everything you’ve been through. My team and I are dealing with a murder enquiry, the one aired on TV last night. At this stage, I can understand how put out you must be with the officers dealing with your case, but there really isn’t any more I can tell you about Victoria’s disappearance. Please, will you give me a little time to discuss the case with the officer dealing with it? Then I’ll get back to you.”
“That seems to be the only thing you officers do well—’discuss the case’. But what we need is people out there searching for our little girl.”
Kayli could hear the woman’s voice faltering as the emotions welled up. “Please, you have my assurance that we’ll do all we can to find your daughter and to bring her home to you.”
“Words are cheap, Inspector. What we need is action. I know we’re just normal working-class people. Is it only the likes of that doctor couple—the McCanns, who are allowed to have the funds of the state flung at them to help find their daughter? Yes, I’m angry. Why should people have to listen to the media going on about one child in particular? That case has been given more air time than the election. Yet our daughter has only ever been mentioned once, and that was in the form of a small sentence aired on the local news, not even the national news. Doesn’t every mother deserve the right to be treated the same way?”
“I’m with you one hundred percent on that, Mandy. Is it all right if I call you Mandy?”
“Of course, it is. I’m glad someone appears to be taking our case seriously. My child went missing after spending time with her friends. I didn’t go out to dinner and leave her alone in an apartment, so why haven’t I been given the same rights as those two doctors? I’m sorry, but as you can see, I’m very angry about this. I’ve tried to get my voice heard, but their case always takes priority. It’s frustrating as hell to hear that over ten million pounds have been spent trying to find that one child, and to crown it all, the child didn’t even go missing in this country. What the fuck is that all about? Excuse my language.”
“Seriously, I totally agree with you, but I’ve only just learned about your case. Please bear with me for a few days, as I’m hoping the information we gather from the other cases we’re working on will, in turn, have a major impact on your case.”
“Let’s hope so. I’m begging you not to treat Victoria as just another statistic, Inspector. Our daughter means the absolute world to us. She’s our only child, and we’re desperate to have her back... if she’s still alive that is. We’ve all but given up hope of ever seeing her again. I apologise for tearing you off a strip. I understand it’s not your fault, but I’m at my wits’ end. Not knowing whether she’s dead or alive is destroying us, Inspector.”
“I know, and I promise to get back to you in the next day or two. Please understand that I have no intention of pushing your case aside.”
“I believe you. I don’t have any option not to believe you. Please bring Victoria back to me soon.” The woman’s bubbling anger finally subsided.
“My team and I will do our very best. I’ll be in touch soon.” Kayli reeled off her phone number to the woman then hung up. She inhaled and exhaled numerous times to calm her racing heart then dialled the Dolans’ number.
On the fourth ring, a weary-sounding female answered, “Hello?”
“Mrs. Dolan?”
“Yes, if this is some kind of survey, I’m not in the mood to deal with you today. Goodbye.”
“It’s not. Please don’t hang up, Katrina. I’m DI Kayli Bright from the Avon and Somerset Constabulary. I’m following up on your call to the station last night. Do you have time for a quick chat?”
“I have all the time in the world. I sit all day, just looking out my front window, waiting for my baby to come home. Where is she, Inspector?”
“My team have only just been made aware of your daughter’s disappearance. All I’m doing at this stage is touching base with you to assure you that we’re going to be working alongside the original officers on the case. We’re investigating a murder that we suspect is
linked to Lucy’s disappearance.”
“Murder? Does that mean you think she’s dead?”
“No, not at this time. The fact that your daughter and three other girls were abducted within a thirty-mile radius makes us think that the cases could be linked. We might be proved wrong about that further down the line, but it’s a risk we’re willing to take for now.”
“Thank God. The detective dealing with the case so far has been worse than useless. I’ve complained a number of times that he refuses to keep me informed, but my complaints have always fallen on deaf ears. I’m thankful that my daughter’s case will be looked at with fresh eyes.”
“I hope my team and I don’t let you down. All I ask is that you’ll be patient with us, if that’s okay? We’re hoping that the murder enquiry will lead us to the person or persons who abducted Lucy. I don’t suppose you’ve had any contact with anyone? Someone seeking a reward, perhaps?” Kayli kicked herself for not asking Mrs. Smalling the same question. However, Mrs. Smalling’s frustrations regarding a high-profile case that had never sat well with Kayli—or any of her colleagues, in fact—had steered that conversation off course.
“No, nothing. We would have re-mortgaged the house if the bastards had contacted us. I just want my daughter back. You can understand that, can’t you?”
“I can. Okay. At least we know money isn’t the motive here.”
“Does that matter?”
Kayli bit down on her lip, aware that her mouth had run away with her. She shouldn’t have said that. “It’s just one thing to cross off our list, that’s all. Okay, I’ll be in touch within a day or two. I’m going to give you my direct number. Do you have a pen and paper handy?”
“Yes, go ahead.”
Kayli gave the woman her phone number. “Ring me if you think of anything else that could help regarding Lucy.”
“I will. Please, don’t lie to me, Inspector. All we need is to be kept in the loop. We have that right, yes?”
“Of course, and I’ll do my very best to do that. Take care.” Kayli ended the call, feeling desperately sorry for the parents she’d spoken to.