Detectives Merry & Neal Books 1-3

by JANICE FROST

  “I know. Like I said, something’s not right. We’ve no other details but I’m guessing David Pine thought he knew where to find Shaun.”

  “At Gabriel North’s house?”

  “That would be my guess. But why dash off there instead of involving the police?”

  Ava shook her head. “You’re right. Something’s wrong there.” She thought for a moment. “Remember when we paid Tess Woodson and her aunt a call and how we both got the impression Tess had been in touch with Gabe, even though she claimed she hadn’t?” Neal nodded. “You don’t think that Tess and Gabe kidnapped Shaun because they believe the Pines know more about Stephanie’s disappearance than they’re letting on? They could have engineered the kidnapping to force their hand, make them admit what they know. Tess and her aunt were very bitter when we wouldn’t promise to reopen Stephanie’s case. What if they — or Gabe North — kidnapped Shaun to focus police attention on Stephanie’s disappearance? Remember what I said about Tess or Gabe North luring Ewan to Stromford? Doesn’t seem all that fanciful now, do you think? Tess is desperate for closure.” She looked at Neal.

  He nodded, his eyes fixed on the light spilling from the headlights onto the dark road ahead.

  When they reached the house, David Pine’s Land Rover was parked in the drive. They parked beside it and walked briskly to the front door.

  The Pines’ house was a hive of activity. Forensics were already searching the property. Equipment to monitor calls to the house was being set up. By the end of the day, police officers would have conducted a house-to-house search of the village and all the other properties in the area, including farm buildings and lock-ups. In this case the press would be welcome, because the publicity could speed up the process of gathering information.

  At the centre of it all, Rhona Pine sat, ashen-faced on the sofa in the sitting room, clutching a toy rabbit. Laura Cameron was sitting beside her, looking strained. Ava was startled to see Gabe North there too. Only David Pine was missing.

  Neal spoke to Rhona in his soft Scots accent. “Mrs Pine, I realise this is distressing for you. I’m a father myself and I’d be distraught if my son were missing. However, it is vitally important that you give us as much information as you can, so we can get your child back safely. I’d like to begin by asking why you delayed contacting the police when you discovered Shaun was missing.”

  Rhona held the rabbit, stroking its long, fluffy ears. “We thought he’d taken Shaun.” She nodded towards Gabe North, who was shaking his head. “So David and Laura went to his house.”

  “I take it Shaun wasn’t there?”

  “Of course he wasn’t.” Gabe said.

  “Why would you think Mr North had anything to do with Shaun’s abduction?”

  Rhona stared down at the rabbit in her lap. “I . . . that is . . . we . . .” She gave a sob.

  Suddenly David Pine was in the room, and crossing to his wife’s side. He placed a hand on her shoulder. Ava had the impression that he was warning rather than consoling her.

  David Pine answered for his wife. “It was my fault, Inspector. I persuaded Rhona not to call the police because I was convinced that Gabe North had taken our son.” He looked at Laura. “Laura had already admitted that North was here earlier in the evening while we were out. When my wife and I came home we could see that Laura had been drinking. She’d fallen asleep. Someone could have walked off with all our children and she wouldn’t have known.”

  “That’s not fair,” said Laura.

  “Are you seeing Mr North?” Ava asked.

  “No . . . at least, not like that. I . . . we’ve met a couple of times since I got here.”

  “May I ask why?” Ava was aware of a tightening of the atmosphere. It was as though everyone in the room was afraid and suspicious of everyone else. David took a step towards Gabe, who stood up, adopting a defensive pose. Ava and Neal looked at each other.

  “Why don’t you ask him?” Gabe muttered. “Ask him what he knows about Stephanie Woodson’s disappearance.”

  “How many times do I have to say it? Ewan Cameron had nothing to do with your girlfriend’s disappearance. He didn’t even know her, for pity’s sake. None of us did.” David was almost shouting.

  “Yes he did,” Laura said quietly. She turned to Ava and Neal. “They all knew Steph Woodson. Rhona told me Ewan was besotted with her. I found countless drawings of her in his studio and he shredded them before he left for Stromford. Gabe and I found some more in a suitcase in the loft here while Rhona and David were out last night. That’s why Gabe was here. To help me search.”

  “Thank you,” said Gabe.

  David turned to Ava and Neal. “And I’ve already told you that North will say anything to try and implicate Rhona, me and Ewan in Stephanie Woodson’s death.”

  “Steph disappeared. No one can say for sure that she’s dead,” Gabe said.

  Neal cleared his throat. “Enough! In case you have all forgotten, we have a missing child and you lot bickering is wasting time.”

  “It’s all connected,” Gabe North insisted, “I know it is. I think Tess might have taken Shaun.”

  “Tess Woodson? Stephanie’s daughter?”

  “Yes. Tess approached me when she heard about Ewan Cameron’s death. She asked if I would help her find out about Ewan’s involvement in her mother’s disappearance.”

  In a flat voice, Laura added, “Gabe’s right. Shaun’s kidnap is all tangled up with what happened in the past. You need to get to the bottom of it, officers.” With an apologetic glance at Gabe, she told them what he had said earlier about Tess’s threat to kidnap Shaun.

  Neal had taken his mobile out. He gave PJ a stream of terse instructions, finishing with, “Get over to Eloise Woodson’s house immediately. Take a couple of uniforms with you and conduct a thorough search of the property. Use extreme caution. It’s unlikely that Tess and Shaun are there, but we do not want that baby coming to any harm.”

  Rhona began to sob.

  Ava wondered if Tess was getting her revenge. Her aunt had assured them that Stephanie had loved Tess and that she would never have abandoned her, yet she had left her daughter in the care of someone — Gabe — who was practically a stranger. What had Reg Saunders said? That Tess would be better off ‘without a mother like her.’ Was that why his inquiry had been so slapdash? Who else might have thought the same way? An image flashed through Ava’s mind of Eloise and Tess on the sofa.

  “Sir?” she said to Neal, “A word?”

  They withdrew into the hall and Ava told Neal what she had been thinking.

  “Eloise Woodson? You think she was involved in Steph’s disappearance? And Shaun’s abduction?”

  “It’s a possibility. She’s clearly devoted to Tess. Maybe she thought the same way as Saunders — that Tess was better off without her mother.”

  “Maybe,” said Neal. “Call PJ and ask her to be cautious with the aunt.”

  “Is my brother dead?” Ava looked up to see the Pines’ elder daughter sitting halfway up the stairs, her arms wrapped around her knees and her cheeks wet with tears. Neal and Ava exchanged a look. Had the child been listening?

  “Oh no,” Ava said. “We’re going to find Shaun and bring him safely home to you all. Don’t worry.”

  Rowan burst into tears. “It’s all my fault!”

  Ava went and sat beside her. “How could it possibly be your fault, sweetie?”

  Rowan lifted big, sorrowful eyes. “I promised. I promised Zak I wouldn’t tell. I promised on Shaun’s life and now he’s gone missing.”

  Ava frowned. She looked down at Neal. “So you were out late on the night Mr Cameron died. Is that right, Rowan?” she asked.

  Rowan sniffed. “Yes, Zak and me. We were looking for the ghost at the old abbey.”

  “Tell us what you saw, Rowan. Tell us everything you saw that night.”

  * * *

  PJ was beginning to appreciate how frustrating a murder investigation could be. One step forward, two steps back. Ava
had warned her, but she had not expected to be looking so much into the past. She didn’t dare suggest to Ava that maybe Reg Saunders was right when he declared that there was no point in pursuing a link between Stephanie Woodson’s disappearance and Ewan Cameron’s murder. Sometimes a coincidence was simply that.

  She had striven to unearth some details about Stephanie, who seemed to have led a pretty low-key life in Stromford ten years ago, judging by the number of people who claimed not to remember her. The ones who did had little information to impart. One of Tess’s old teachers recalled that Stephanie had seemed to be a good enough mother. She’d always picked her child up from school on time and attended parents’ evenings and sports days. Tess had seemed happy, certainly not neglected or mistreated.

  It seemed that Stephanie was a young woman who looked after her child, kept herself to herself and had few or no friends. She had rented a two-bedroomed flat in a converted house in a cheap part of town and her landlady mostly remembered her because she had often been behind with the rent. PJ had shown Ewan Cameron’s photo to everyone she spoke with, but no one could recall seeing the two of them together. How had they even met? She was a single parent and had worked part-time in a café in the centre of town — it had closed down years ago and was now a Costa. Ava had said Stephanie might have done some nude modelling at the art college, but again no one seemed to remember her.

  PJ sighed. She drove to the address DI Neal had given her. Two uniformed officers were going to meet her at the property. She parked her car in the street and walked up to the front door, feeling slightly self-conscious about her uniformed bodyguards. A slender, fair-haired woman opened the door. She seemed surprised to see them.

  “Eloise Woodson?” PJ asked. The woman’s hand went to her throat.

  “Oh God! Has something happened to Tess?”

  “No. At least not that I’m aware of,” PJ stammered. This was her first solo interview as a detective and she felt she wasn’t making much of an impression on her colleagues.

  “Well, what then?” Eloise asked, still looking worried.

  How was she supposed to answer this? PJ wondered. We think your niece might have kidnapped a baby and that you might be a murderer. She explained as best she could, still standing on the doorstep. She was conscious that the uniformed officers might be attracting attention. As if reading her mind, Eloise invited them in. Her hand trembled as she pointed to the living room.

  “We’d like to search the house, please, Ms Woodson, if you don’t mind.” PJ tried to remember her assertiveness training.

  “Be my guest. The whole idea’s laughable anyway.” But Eloise wasn’t laughing.

  “Is your niece at home, Ms Woodson?”

  “No. She’s on a sleepover with a friend.”

  “Ah,” said PJ. “Do you mind if I start in Tess’s room? My colleagues will look in the rest.”

  Eloise led them upstairs. Tess’s room was a typical teenage girl’s, except for one thing. On the wall above her desk was a huge corkboard that resembled a police incident board. It was covered in photographs of her mother, of Ewan and Laura Cameron, Rhona and David Pine, along with other people she didn’t recognise. To PJ’s surprise, there were even pictures of Jim Neal and Ava Merry taken from a distance. The board was dotted with post-it notes and connecting red arrows and a couple of old newspaper clippings with reports of Stephanie Woodson’s disappearance.

  PJ stared at it.

  “You can’t blame Tess for wanting to know what happened to her mother. This past year it’s been practically all she’s thought about.” Eloise gave a small laugh. “Believe me, I’ve tried as hard as I can to discourage her.”

  “She’s certainly been busy,” PJ remarked. “Is this your niece’s laptop?” She lifted the lid of a pink Apple Mac. The screensaver was a picture of a smiling mother and daughter — Stephanie and Tess.

  “May I?” PJ asked. Eloise shrugged. PJ scrolled through some of Tess’s emails, aware that what she was doing was probably not legal without a warrant. Conscious of Eloise looking over her shoulder, she clicked open a file entitled, ‘Stephanie,’ and scrolled through it until she came to a document labelled, ‘Shaun Cameron.’

  PJ turned to Eloise and said, “I don’t think your niece is on a sleepover at all, do you, Ms Woodson?”

  The sound of laughter came from the bedroom next to Tess’s. PJ went to investigate.

  “What’s the joke, lads?” The young officers looked embarrassed. One of them pointed to a number of framed photographs arranged on top of a large chest of drawers. PJ leaned in closer to take a look. She easily recognised the man standing with his arm around Eloise Woodson’s slender waist, although he was thinner and less hirsute. She looked across at Eloise who was standing in the doorway and asked, “How well do you know the man in this picture, Ms Woodson?”

  Chapter 18

  After calling Olivia Darby, Ava drove round to their house. As she parked her car, she glimpsed Zak looking out from an upstairs window.

  Olivia was standing at the door, looking edgy. “I’m so shocked about little Shaun. What’s going on, Sergeant? And what does it have to do with Zak?”

  “Please can you call Zak down, Mrs Darby? I’d like to ask him some questions.”

  “Is Zak in trouble?”

  “I don’t think so. Rowan Pine has just confirmed that she and Zak were out on the night of Ewan Cameron’s murder. They saw a man dragging a body towards the woods at Stainholme Abbey. He might be our killer.”

  Olivia called up the stairs to her son. He came down slowly, and Olivia placed a hand on his shoulder. “Right, young man. You told the sergeant here that you and Rowan Pine weren’t out in the middle of the night when that poor man was murdered. She knows you were lying, so you’d better make sure you tell the truth this time. Do you understand?”

  Zak nodded. He looked at Ava, his eyes wide and fearful.

  “Hello, Zak,” Ava said. “Rowan told me you both ran away after seeing the man dragging the body from the car. Then you had an asthma attack and had to hide in the woods. Is that right, Zak?” A nod. “Did the man see you? Did he speak to you?”

  Zak looked at his mother.

  “The truth, Zak.” Olivia put her arm around her son.

  “No one’s going to hurt your mother, son.” Ava said, gently. “Just tell us what happened.”

  Between gulps and sobs the story came out. “We were watching for the ghost — the White Monk. Then we heard a car. Then we saw a man get out and pull something out of the boot. He started dragging it towards the woods, then Belle barked and he started running towards us. I couldn’t breathe so I hid in some bushes and Rowan ran on with Belle. Then the man stopped chasing them. He was going back to the body but then he saw my inhaler and he picked it up and started looking around. He looked right over to where I was hiding but he didn’t see me.” Zak was beginning to wheeze and Olivia told him to take some deep breaths.

  Forcing herself to stay calm, Ava spoke gently. “Did you recognise the man, Zak?” The boy looked at his mother, who gave him an encouraging smile.

  “I . . . I . . . think it was Mr Gallagher.”

  Olivia gasped.

  “Are you sure, Zak? Did you get a good look at his face?” Ava said.

  “Nnn . . . not really. It was really dark, but he was really big, just like Mr Gallagher.”

  Ava and Olivia exchanged looks. Ava continued. “Uh huh. So, to be clear, you didn’t actually see his face. He was a big guy so you thought of Bran.”

  Zak looked downcast. “I guess so. He came round the next day and said something about not wanting any harm to come to my mum, and I thought he must have seen me in the woods after all and was giving me a warning.”

  Ava nodded, thinking that maybe Zak had seen too many creepy movies.

  “Why didn’t you just tell me, Zak?” Olivia asked.

  Ava answered for him. “You were worried for your mum, weren’t you? You were worried someone might hurt her if you told anyo
ne.”

  Olivia began to sob. She hugged her son. “Oh, Zak . . .”

  “We don’t have any proof it was Mr Gallagher you saw in the woods that night, Zak.” Ava said. Then, seeing how dejected the boy looked, she added, “No one can blame you for looking out for your mum. And you’ve done the right thing in telling us now.” She gave Zak a smile.

  “I just can’t believe this is happening,” Olivia said. She hugged her son closer. “What if something bad had happened to you that night?”

  “I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you both to keep another secret and not discuss any of this with anyone for the time being,” Ava said.

  Mother and son walked her to her car. “Poor Rhona,” Olivia commented, as Ava pulled her seat belt around her. “I hope you find that baby soon, Sergeant Merry.”

  Let’s hope so. Ava thought grimly as she drove away. She pulled over, intending to call Neal, but just as she reached for her mobile, her radio crackled. It was Hammond Bell asking for her location.

  * * *

  Neal held the phone away from his ear as an enthusiastic, over-loud PJ explained what she had discovered.

  “Thanks, Constable. Good work,” he said. What she told him seemed to confirm that Stephanie Woodson’s disappearance, Ewan Cameron’s murder and Shaun Pine’s kidnapping were all linked, though Neal was still unsure how. David Pine came into the hallway and looked surprised to see Neal standing there alone. “Sergeant Merry is following up a lead,” Neal said without thinking.

  “Is it to do with Shaun’s kidnapping?” David asked.

  “Er . . . I can’t really say.”

  “Well, what’s happening? Do you think this Tess Woodson took him? What are you doing to find her?”

  “We’re doing everything we can, Mr Pine. The best thing you can do is stay calm and look after your wife and your other children,” Neal answered.

  David glared at him and returned to the lounge, banging the door behind him.

  Neal stood, rubbing his chin. He spoke to one of the forensics team and learned that they had found nothing so far. A team of dog handlers was on its way with sniffer dogs, and an army of volunteers and police officers would be mobilised to carry out a search of the surrounding countryside. Was it possible that Laura Cameron was involved in Shaun’s disappearance? Had she suspected the Pines of killing her husband and sought revenge?