‘Thanks for your help. Could I leave my number with you?’ Maddie was already scrabbling for a piece of scrap paper in her bag. She pulled out a post-it pad and leant on the wall to write her number. ‘It’s just for when she comes back, if you could let me know.’
‘Can she not let you know herself? I don’t really like the idea of reporting on someone. Especially when, with all respect, I have no idea who you are.’
Maddie nodded. She plunged back into her bag for her warrant card. She and Rhiannon had talked before about neighbours and keeping their day job a secret from them. She didn’t want to be the one to break that, but this was an exception.
‘I’m Detective Sergeant Ives.’ She held out her card for the woman to see. ‘I’m not prying. I’m just worried about her.’
‘Is she in trouble with the police?’
‘Not at all. It’s a missing person investigation and we’re pretty sure it’s nothing. I think our Rhiannon has just gone out for the day and left her phone switched off, but I like to be sure. So if she comes back, could you either give me a call or maybe give Rhiannon a nudge to call me?’ She handed the piece of paper over. ‘I can give you a card if you like? They’re more professional.’ Maddie held one out. The woman beamed at it.
‘Detective Sergeant, eh? I always wanted to be a detective! I’m just not sure I’m the right sort.’
Maddie smirked. ‘Well, you do have to be comfortable getting your nose into other people’s business. It’s not for everyone. Do you mind if I take a contact number for you, too?’ Maddie took out her book and copied down the woman’s details. She put her number directly into her phone.
‘Thanks for your help.’
The woman waited at her door and Maddie stared at her to prompt her to close it. Once she did, Maddie dialled Rhiannon again. She was certain there would be no answer. Surely the missed calls and messages would have prompted a response by now, but she could feel herself starting to panic. She’d had a tense knot in her stomach from the moment she had walked away from the police station that morning and it was only getting tighter. Rhiannon’s recorded message clicked in. She was chirpy, her voice light and humoured. Maddie longed to hear it for real. She hesitated at the top of the stairs. She peered back over at Rhiannon’s front door. She couldn’t think where to go next, what to do. The only place there might be any answers was behind that front door. When someone was reported missing, the first thing you did was search their home address. Maddie knew she hadn’t called it in yet, so Rhiannon wasn’t officially missing, but there was no plausible explanation for her lack of contact.
She strode back towards Rhiannon’s door with purpose. She didn’t slow her momentum and brought her boot up to meet with the white wood. It flexed against the blow but remained sealed. She stepped back to launch herself forward again. The door flexed again, but this time there was a splintering sound that accompanied it. She was aware of the front door opening to her left, the same woman appeared. Maddie ignored the questions. The door took another two blows before it flung inwards and bounced off an interior wall. The sound echoed around the hall. Maddie stepped in. She was still aware of the woman’s voice, she turned to it and saw that she was on the threshold.
‘You need to stay out. This is a crime scene now.’ The woman’s eyes widened. She could barely contain her delight. She was actually rubbing her hands.
Maddie turned back to the room. The living room was neat. The kitchen was off to the left and open plan with the units running along the wall. She could see a plate stood up to drain next to the sink and a few items of cutlery too. Last night’s dinner. No sign of a breakfast bowl. No signs of any disturbance either. The bedroom was off to the right and she could see the open door from where she was standing. She walked to it. The bed was against the far wall, the curtains tugged open. Rhiannon had always boasted that the first thing she did when she woke in the morning was to pull open those curtains to the view. The bed was messy, the duvet pulled back from one corner and left folded like someone had got out in a hurry. A dressing gown was thrown onto the bed. It was lying beside a pair of neatly folded trousers and a white shirt, Rhiannon’s usual choice of work clothes. They were the only things not stowed away in the fitted wardrobes. Maddie moved to the en-suite bathroom. The shower unit was glass and enclosed, she tugged the door open to find it bone dry. Maddie knew that Rhiannon had gone out for their run. Now she also knew that she hadn’t made it back.
Maddie stumbled over her phone, nearly dropping it as she tugged it out of her trouser pocket. Her hand shook as she pressed to dial a number. She walked back out into the living room area. The phone picked up on the second ring.
‘Harry . . .’ She was breathy until she composed herself. ‘Harry, it’s Rhiannon. She’s missing. It’s not right. It’s not right at all.’
‘Where are you?’ The gruff reply was instant.
‘Stood in her flat. Sandgate.’
‘I’ll be right there.’
‘Your daughter . . .’ Maddie couldn’t manage any more. It was as if the panic that had been building slowly was now choking off her words.
‘She’s fine. It’s job done here. I’ll be with you in fifteen.’
Maddie ended the call. Her eyes fell to Rhiannon’s shoe rack, a hole where her designer running shoes would normally sit.
‘Where the hell did you go?’ Maddie breathed.
Chapter 22
Harry’s finger hovered over the button to make the call, but he pulled back quickly. He hadn’t been exactly sure where Rhiannon lived, but the sight of Maddie pacing down a short side road leading directly to the sea answered his question. She was hovering by the entrance door to a white building with a phone held to her ear. She looked up to the sound of his approaching car and seemed to end her call abruptly. She stood at his door as he opened it.
‘I’ve made some calls. I checked again with the FCR and the boss. She hasn’t called in. She’s gone, Harry. And not in her car — that’s still parked round the corner and it’s stone cold. I don’t think she ever came back from her run. I kicked in the door to her flat, her running shoes are gone, her clothes for work are laid out . . . That’s about all I know! Where do we start?’ Maddie was close to panic. Harry hadn’t seen her like this before.
‘Okay, start from the beginning and slower. What do we have?’
Maddie seemed to take a breath. ‘She didn’t turn up for work — that’s never happened. I tried calling and her phone just rang out, so I came out here. I spoke to a neighbour. She went out early, the right time to be meeting me. We went for a run. She was fine. We ran along the promenade until you called and I turned back. We would have been halfway then, so she would have had another five-k to do.’
‘Do you know her route?’
‘Yes. It’s the same one I do. Through the coastal park and up the zig-zag steps, then along the Leas and back down the hill.’
‘Did you see anyone else?’
‘Anyone else? This morning? No. No one. We need to walk that route; we should do that now.’ Maddie set off, Harry held his ground and called out after his colleague.
‘Is the flat secure?’
Maddie stopped. Her head was shaking fast. ‘I pulled the door back to. It will push open though. The lock popped, there’s a little damage but it pushes closed.’
‘We need to stay with it. Who else have you spoken to?’ Harry stepped back to take in his surroundings as he listened for the answer. The seafront consisted mainly of tall buildings that contained flats and maisonettes, all designed to take advantage of the sea view. He could see some of the High Street from where he stood. This was made up of tightly packed houses and then a row of shops with flats overhead.
‘What if she’s laid out somewhere? What if she had a turn on the run and she collapsed? We should walk it. I could run it even . . .’ She stopped. Harry had his hands out, she had paced back a little closer.
‘It’s a nice day,’ Harry said. ‘The promenade here is always busy
. If she was lying on a path she would have been found. When you spoke to the FCR, did you ask if there might be any linked calls from the area?’
‘Yes, I asked that. There’s only one call for the whole area and that’s an RTC on the way to Hythe.’
‘Okay, so we can be pretty sure she’s not there. But something relevant might be. Go back upstairs and stay with the flat. We’ll get a search team out. Is she reported as a misper?’
‘Yes. I spoke to the DCl. We shouldn’t be lacking resources.’
‘No. The whole world will want to turn out to this. You live here right?’
‘Just round the corner.’
‘What’s open at six a.m.?’
Maddie was shaking her head, it looked like an unconscious thing that she didn’t even realise she was doing. Her speech was fast and breathy. ‘Nothing. The coffee shop a bit further down the road sometimes sets up early. They open at seven. We go there, too. They’ll know her.’
‘Okay. Anywhere else?’
‘Not that I know of.’
Harry peered across the road. ‘Go back up to the flat and stand with it. I’ll free you up as soon as we get more officers here. I’ll start knocking doors in the meantime. The shops opposite seem a good place to start.’
‘Okay.’
‘You okay?’ Harry said.
‘No, not really, Harry. I don’t like this at all. This is nothing like her.’
‘I agree. We’ll get to the bottom of it. It’s a missing person search and she hasn’t been gone long. We’re good at these, Maddie. Remember that. We just need to go through what we do.’
‘Okay. Thanks, Harry.’
Harry watched her step back through the door. He hoped he had been effective at hiding his true concerns. His smartwatch said 11:00 hours. The optimum time to start a search that might lead to a successful conclusion was long gone. They were already chasing shadows. He took advantage of a lull in the traffic to cross the High Street, taking in his surroundings as he walked away from the sea. When he made the pavement on the other side he turned to see if he still had a view of the communal entrance to Rhiannon’s building. He did, but only just. Very few buildings would have a view of Rhiannon’s front door and it was highly unlikely that she had returned here anyway. But Harry was using the walk to clear his head more than anything. He needed to try and work out their next move and he needed to be away from Maddie’s panic to do that. No one had called in reporting finding Rhiannon on her run-route. That was good and bad. Good that she hadn’t been found lying injured or worse, bad because it meant that wherever Rhiannon was, Harry was now certain it was a long way from here.
Chapter 23
Harry’s pace was a fast walk. The path was flat and a light grey in colour that flared a bright white when the sun emerged. He reckoned they were halfway around the curve he had seen from their starting position. On their left were expensive-looking homes dug into the hills, on their right was the sea, but it was further away here. The pebbled beach was a long stretch that dipped away sharp enough to conceal the shoreline. Maddie was close behind; the first arriving patrol to arrive had been directed to relieve her at the flat. There were a lot more resources on their way but Harry wanted to walk the route as soon as possible. There was nothing of significance from the people living or working near to Rhiannon’s flat. He hadn’t expected anything. Now his attention was downward. It was a cursory search at best, too fast to be truly effective. He would get the search team to do it again, his check was for anything obvious; anything from a smattering of blood or a clump of hair to personal items dropped or torn off. But this was a good area. Harry was pretty sure that if anything obvious was on the path, they would have had a call about it. He had almost convinced himself that this search was entirely pointless.
‘We’re two miles in, Harry,’ Maddie said. ‘The path splits when you get into the wooded area. One way goes through the park, the other goes round the outside and carries on as the prom. We always run through the park. We stay on that path to the end, then the route doubles back to go up Remembrance Hill to the Leas and we then come back down some steps. We run this bit of the path twice.’
Harry was pulled from his darkening thoughts at just the right time. He needed something to focus on. ‘Remembrance Hill is quite a way from here. Can you get on the air? Any patrols arriving . . . have one start from that end and meet us in the middle. Another patrol can start on the Leas.’
‘No problem.’ Maddie immediately lifted her phone and her voice drifted over him as they came to where the cover of trees started and the paths split. He slowed to take it in. The path that pushed into the park was wider than it had looked from a distance. The edges had flat soil beds and a low wooden fence on both sides. The left side remained soil, but it rose quickly and was punctured by wild ferns, grasses, and mature tree trunks that got thicker as they moved up the slope. On the right, the trees were more juvenile, the grass longer and denser, and the ground looked to be covered by bits of chopped bark. Most of it was flat, almost pristine, but there was a patch that looked disturbed, where some errant bits of bark had been pushed out onto the path, like a foot had been dragged through it. A squirrel fidgeted at the base of a tree. It didn’t seem to take much notice of them and it didn’t seem to be disturbing the ground either.
Maddie had stopped, too. She was still talking on her phone. Harry lifted his head. The path curved left around the steep cliffs that seemed to protrude more and more into the park as they went. He took a few steps forward, looking left and right as he moved. He stopped ten metres in and turned to look back out over the path they had just walked. It was still a bright white and it curved away into the distance. If he took another few paces he would have been around the bend and the path would be hidden, as would anyone approaching. He looked over to where the ground sloped upwards to eventually meet steep cliffs a third of the way up. The ground here was scuffed, too, but it was more like a trail that moved up behind a boulder. He moved closer, careful to stay on the path. A footprint was clear. It was smudged, as if someone had pushed off from there rather than walked over it. He looked back at the path. From here the view was excellent and it would only get better if you could get elevated.
His eyes moved directly opposite to where the disturbed bark was lying on the path as if it had been kicked out. Beyond that, he could see spindly trees and a thick bush to their right. He moved across the path, his eyes fixed on the bits of bark, then he looked up to the trees. He stepped into the hedgerow. Now he was closer, he could see something: it looked like a brown stone stuck to the other side of the tree and at eye level. He moved closer. Just another step was enough to reveal more: it wasn’t a stone — it was a knife handle! He stepped around to see where the blade was stabbed firmly into the trunk. The knife flexed a little, Harry must have disturbed the trunk as he passed. He swore loudly.
‘You alright in there?’ Maddie called out. Harry could see her through the thin trees.
‘You gave your details, when you went to the café, right?’ Harry growled back.
‘My details?’
‘When you went out to meet the informant who called in from the phone box — the one who mentioned the boy’s dad — you gave out your card, right?’
‘Yes. To the waitress.’
‘And Rhiannon’s details?’
‘I wrote them on the back.’
‘I know you did.’
Harry heard the snapping of twigs and the sound of branches flexing against Maddie’s clothing as she pushed her way through to him.
‘What has that got to do with anything?’
Harry stepped back. He was still staring at the flexing knife. Maddie saw it too. She would have seen it pressed an inch into the slim trunk, hard enough to expose the green of the tree’s insides. She would have seen the point dissecting the name Maddie Ives on the front of one of her business cards and if she dipped her head slightly, she would be able to read her own handwriting on the back, where Rhiannon’s name
and contact number were scribbled. And under that where she had written pancakes and coffee in writing that was distinctively different.
‘What? H-how is this p-possible?’
‘What did you do? When he didn’t turn up? When you left the café? Were you careful like I told you to be?’
‘Careful?’
‘You took a cover car. They were behind you when you left. Did you get a gap — deviate at all to see if anyone followed? You know better than anyone what I mean.’ Harry did nothing to hide the anger in his voice. ‘I told you to be careful, to treat it like a hostile meeting. Did you do that?’
Maddie shook her head. ‘It was just a line of enquiry, a standard—’
‘Standard! It was an appointment where somebody else was directing your movements entirely. It can happen. But we take precautions because we don’t know what we’re walking into! You know better.’
‘I do . . . I didn’t . . .’
‘What did you do? When you left?’
‘We drove back to Canterbury. To the police station.’ Maddie’s voice was a monotone, her eyes down to the floor, her face a mask of shock.
‘Direct?’
‘I . . . yes. Direct.’
Harry shook his head and pushed his way back out onto the path. He pulled his phone roughly from his pocket. Maddie followed him out.
‘But . . . here? It makes no sense . . .’
‘Still?’ Harry spat. ‘This still doesn’t make any sense to you? I assume you didn’t take any notice of any cars that might have been following, or of anyone out of the ordinary?’
‘We were talking . . . about the case . . . with the boy . . .’
‘And when your shift ended what did you do then?’
‘What do you mean? I just went home.’
‘You drove directly home? Were you parked in the police station car park? Did you go from there?’
‘I was . . . I always do . . .’ Maddie was still breathy, her voice even weaker now, murmuring to herself. ‘But . . . how . . . I mean, what has this got to do with Rhiannon?’
HE WILL FIND YOU an absolutely gripping crime thriller with a massive twist Page 24