Tasha tilted her head, placing a hand on Yvonne's arm, her voice soft. "What did you want to tell me? It seemed important."
"Well, I-"
Dewi shouted to her. "Ma'am?"
"Oh, for crying out loud," Yvonne muttered under her breath, gritting her teeth in frustration. "I'm sorry, Tasha. It is important. I will speak to you later, in person, and not on the phone. Maybe we can get tea somewhere? The Bank Tearooms, perhaps?"
"Sure." Tasha nodded, her face muscles tense. She took a moment to step back and allow the DI past. "Let's do that."
"What is it Dewi? You sound out of breath."
"I am, ma'am. Eva Wilde's father has informed us that Eva is missing. He is downstairs completing a missing person's report as she hasn't seen her since the night before last."
"What? She’s been missing over twenty-four hours? Why are we only finding out now?"
Dewi shrugged. "Mr Wilde said he only found out this morning."
"Who told him?"
"Ed."
"Come on." Yvonne headed for the stairs, knocking over a chair in the process. "Let's get down there. I want to speak to him before he leaves."
Dewi replaced the fallen chair and followed her down.
"Mr Wilde?"
"Yes. Tom Wilde." The gentleman with cropped grey hair turned to greet her, his face creased, eyes dark.
"I'm sorry to hear that Eva is missing." Yvonne pursed her lips. "When did you last see her?"
Tom Wilde rubbed the back of his head. "Well, it would have been about four days ago. She came for supper with myself and her mum and we chatted for about an hour."
"How was she, when you spoke with her?"
"Fine. She was the same as usual." He paused, his eyes glazed. "I mean, she was moaning about things that were happening in the community, but only the usual stuff. We were used to her caring so much about things. I suspect she will turn up today or tomorrow, but... but with what's been happening-"
"You mean the murders?"
"Right." His eyes widened. "I don't want to take chances."
"How did you find out that your daughter was missing, Tom?"
"Ed Lawton said she had been with them the night before last, at the poultry pens, back of Ryde Hall Farm."
"What were they doing there?" The DI's eyes narrowed.
"Well, according to Ed, Eva was intent on setting the young pheasants free. Said they were so distressed, Tunicliffe had fitted them with face masks to stop them pecking each other to death. Ms Wilde witnessed several females with missing back feathers. Ed and Matt were to create a diversion while she cut the metal fencing with wire cutters."
"Okay, Tom, thank you. Finish filing the details and I will speak to Ed and find out what he knows about that night." She turned to her DS. "Dewi? Can you take Callum or Dai and get over to Ryde Hall? Get a backup unit to go with you and get the DCI's permission to have an armed response vehicle on standby. As soon as I have spoken with Ed Lawton, I will join you, okay?"
"Will do. Are you going to speak to Ed on your own?"
"I'll take Tasha."
"Right-oh. I'll see you when you join us."
Eva estimated that it had been over twenty-four hours since she last ate. She was cold, hungry and tired, but sleep, when she snatched some, was fitful, sporadic and spawned from exhaustion more than restfulness. Hog-tied and blindfolded, every part of her hurt. Even shifting position brought little relief.
Having not seen the person who abducted her, she still did not know his identity, only that his hands were rough as he threw her from the vehicle. She was in a building somewhere. She passed out during the journey and had no way to measure time. Daylight filtered through the blindfold as he ejected her from the truck.
A door creaked open, and footsteps followed behind her. Rough hands removed the gag from her mouth and a sandwich was placed in its stead. A knee, pressed on her uppermost elbow, preventing her from turning towards her abductor. Hungry, she took a bite out of the sandwich.
"Hello?" she said, after eating several mouthfuls and drinking a few gulps from a water bottle held to her face. "Who are you? Why are you doing this? Can I go, now? I'm sorry about the pheasants. Hello?"
He replaced the gag, the footsteps receding until the door closed after him.
"Wait, I need the toilet." The words were a muffled nonsense, and he had left, anyway. Hot tears raced down her cheeks.
28
Something shady
Trevor Tindall parked the pickup next to the sheds before jumping down to get his lunch box. As he crossed the yard, he saw Emmanuel Tunicliffe coming out of the end barn and locking it with a padlock. Having walked a couple of steps, Tunicliffe returned to give the padlock a further tug.
"All right, sir?" The gamekeeper called, his eyes narrowing.
Tunicliffe appeared not to hear him.
"I thought I'd have my lunch, now," Tindall continued, eyeing the locked doors.
Tunicliffe finally registered Tindall's presence. "Trevor. Where did you come from?" His gaze flicked around, taking in the pickup and Tindall's muddy boots.
"I've been out checking on the sheep. A motorist popped by the cottage to let me know several of the lambs had escaped and gotten onto the road, sir. Found them all and put them back and I've made a temporary repair on the fencing. I must get a more permanent repair sorted, after I've eaten, or they'll get through again."
"More vandalism." Tunicliffe frowned. "Check on the pheasants, when you've finished, will you? There's damage to that fencing, too. Damned protestors again, no doubt."
Tindall nodded. "I'll get on to it, sir."
With that, Tunicliffe left. Heading for the main house, Tindall presumed.
Yvonne put her foot down, only just staying the right side of the speed limit. It was times like this, she wished she had easy access to a marked vehicle.
She sensed the tension in Tasha and, although questions hung over them like a pall, she lacked the time to address them now. Eva Wilde was missing. That had to take priority.
"God, I hope he doesn't have her. For all we know, he may have crucified her already." Yvonne paused at the traffic lights, cursing under her breath and tapping the steering wheel with her thumbs.
"How far are we from her boyfriend's place?" Tasha asked, without turning round.
"About ten minutes. He's expecting us, so we should be able to speak with him as soon as we arrive. With any luck, he'll take us to her last known whereabouts.
"Didn't you say she was last seen heading for the poultry pens at Ryde Hall?"
"I did, but she may not have made it that far. If Ed shows us where she was in the wood when they split up, SOCO can trace her from there."
"Is there any chance she went into hiding?" Tasha pointed to the lights which had changed.
Yvonne put her foot down again. "Unlikely. I mean, who would she be hiding from?"
Tasha pursed her lips. "You're right, it doesn't look good."
Ed came running to meet them as they parked the car next to his cabin.
"Any sign?" Yvonne asked as she got out.
"No, nothing." He ran a hand through unkempt hair.
"Ed, why didn't you report her missing straight away? And why didn't Matt say something? We spoke to him yesterday. He didn't say a word."
He hung his head.
"You're playing with fire, considering what's been happening to members of your community. Why keep something this important from us?"
"We didn’t report it straight away, because we were breaking the law. Pheasant shooting should be as illegal as fox hunting. Not that the law takes the fox hunting ban as seriously as it should, but our intention was to release pheasants which were the property of Ryde Hall. We could all face prosecution for that. Besides, we hoped that Eva had given up and gone home."
Yvonne shook her head. “It's been two days, Ed. Her family reported it to us after you reported it to them. There are questions you need to answer, but for now we'd like you to take us to the la
st place you saw Eva. We have teams headed to Ryde Hall as we speak. They'll be checking the outbuildings and talking to Emmanuel Tunicliffe, but I'd like to get an idea of where she was, in case she never made it that far.”
"Fair enough." Ed nodded. "If you drive, I'll take you to where we were before we split up."
On the way to Ryde, Yvonne continued to question Ed. "Why did you split up? Why did you and Matt separate from Eva?"
Ed sighed. "I didn't want us to split up. I felt it needed all three of us to liberate the pheasants. But Eva said that if Matt and I created a diversion, far enough away from the poultry, it would buy her time to get the pheasants out. The staff have shotguns at that place and CCTV monitoring the yard. She didn't think we could free the birds any other way. To be honest, I thought the whole mission was risky, and I wasn't sure how many pheasants we would save. But Eva couldn't bear the thought of them being in those cages and wearing those masks to stop them pecking each other to death out of stress. You know, the females can't get away from the mating males. And even after they survive all that, they sell them on to other estates for the shooting season. Eva wanted to be the difference."
Yvonne pressed her lips together, able to identify with Eva's sentiments, but unable to comment on them.
Matt gave them directions, until they reached the roadway at the edge of the wood. Yvonne parked the car, and they continued on foot, climbing over the stile and into the adjacent field.
"This way." Matt pointed.
"Wait, Matt." Yvonne placed a hand on his arm. "Don't tread the same path you did that night. Take us around it. We want to avoid interfering with any traces of Eva. Show us where she was and I'll get forensics out here."
"You see that tree?" He pointed to a large oak at the edge of the wood. "That's where we split up. She followed the track through those trees, to the back of the Ryde outbuildings. We saw her start on that pathway and we carried on around."
Yvonne nodded and took out her mobile. Relieved that she had two bars worth of signal, she phoned Dewi.
29
Corruption
The following day, the team gathered for the morning briefing, with Eva still missing. SOCO found several prints that could have been from her trainers. If they belonged to Eva, it suggested she had spent some time in hiding. SOCO were still working the ground, and the team waited on tenterhooks for further news. In the meantime, Dewi had dug up some dirt on Futurecon, Bannerman Holdings and a corrupt council official and was about to fill the team in.
"What you got, Dewi?" Yvonne called, trying to get above the muffled voices in the room.
Her DS cleared his throat and scribbled on the whiteboard. "I don't know if this is related to the murders, but Jake Bannerman of Bannerman Holdings and Serena Wells of Futurecon had a public row just over three months ago. It made all the local news channels and several national newspapers. Both companies attempted to buy officials on the local council to get land rights and planning permissions. The council struck a councillor off and he's facing prosecution for taking monies from both parties. Bannerman and Wells each believed they would be favourite to have the land near Llanidloes and rowed about it in front of protestors. Neither admitted at the time that they had paid a councillor to influence the board."
"Wow." Yvonne scratched her head. "Somehow, it doesn't surprise me that Bannerman tried underhand tactics, but Serena Wells? I'm a little surprised at her. Do we have the name of the councillor they bribed?"
Dewi nodded. "That's a matter of public record, ma'am. His name is Evan Jones, and they suspended him pending trial. It's certain, however, that his council career is over."
"I see." Yvonne pursed her lips. "How does this relate to our case? And will it help us find Eva Wilde?"
"Apparently, it was environmental protestors who found out about the shady dealing. They suspected councillor Jones of wheeler-dealing and had a friend of theirs hack the councillor's emails."
"Wow, a motive for revenge, right there. Do you think councillor Jones is involved in the deaths?"
Dewi shook his head. "Unlikely. Or, if he is, he got someone else to do it. He was in custody when Krysta was murdered, facing further, unrelated charges of corruption."
"Wow. Good work, Dewi."
"Thanks, ma'am."
Tasha joined them for the briefing. The DCI, having agreed in principle to her consultancy, had had it signed off by the superintendent.
Yvonne was so happy about this, she had to fight the urge to smile, on and off, all morning, believing her team would assume she had lost the plot and was not taking the case seriously. This could not have been further from the truth.
As she made a cuppa, the intrusive smile returned.
"What's with the big grin?" Tasha was at her shoulder. "Are you okay?"
"Tasha." A flush moved up the DI's face. "No. I'm not okay. Listen, whilst you're here, I am sorry about tea yesterday," she said, referring to their missed meeting at the tearooms.
"Hey, it's no biggie. The case must take priority, I know that.”
Yvonne nodded. "Do you want a coffee?"
"That would be great, thanks. So, why are you not okay? Surely, it's not about our missed date?"
Yvonne shook her head. "When I get a chance, I will talk to you. I can't here."
"You're being enormously cryptic, Yvonne. It's not like you." Tasha laughed and shrugged her shoulders. "Whatever. How's your suspect list coming on? Any favourites?"
"Yes. Two in particular, Tunicliffe and Bannerman" She filled the psychologist in on why they topped the list.
"Can you bring them in for formal questioning? I could take a look at them.”
Yvonne shook her head. "Not yet. We need evidence. I also need to speak to Evan Jones."
"The councillor?"
"Ex-councillor, yes. I feel like we've got all the pieces of a complex jigsaw and we're not placing them in quite the right place. Eva is still missing. We need a breakthrough, and we need it, now. As soon as Dewi is ready, we'll go see Evan Jones and Serena Wells, again."
30
Isolation
As Eva impacted ground, pain rippled through her like an electric shock.
Her captor didn't speak, but she heard him grunting and felt the wind in her face. She knew she was somewhere in the open, but only the faintest hint of light got through the blindfold. Under her, the earth had the barest stubble of grass, like she was on a moor where the sheep had grazed the land to within an inch of its vegetative life.
Her abductor was cutting the rope, painfully twisting her wrists in the process. As the knife chafed the threads, she readied herself to fight.
She needn't have bothered. As her hands fell loose, he struck her to the side of the head. It gave her tinnitus and took the fight right out of her. There was no resistance as he wrapped her arms around the tree, palms outward, and drove a square-headed nail through them and into the trunk.
The young woman screamed in agony, like she would never stop screaming, though the gag in her mouth prevented it from reaching the full blood-curdling level such pain deserved. Tears streamed down her face as she begged him to stop.
"Please, please, you don't have to do this."
The muffled plea made no difference to the man's actions. He continued tying a rope around her upper arms to prevent her from tearing her hands free.
As he stretched out her tied legs in front of her, she shook with a violence only a body in severe distress can do, wetting herself in the process. He tied her thighs together so that there would be no movement of her legs. Then he left her alone, the warm wind clawing at her body like a barbed whip. The noise from his vehicle faded to nothing.
31
Tightrope
Ed came into the station to enquire about Eva.
Yvonne took him into an interview room.
"Well? Have you heard anything?" His voice had a strangled quality, as though he wanted to cry and was holding back. His forehead shone in the light from the overhead lamp.
> "No. Not yet, Ed. I'm sorry."
"What are you doing to find her?"
"We've got teams scouring the wood where she was last seen, and volunteers from the public out looking in other places of interest. We're doing our best."
He grunted, running his hands through his hair.
"In the meantime," Yvonne continued, "tell me about the email hack you guys carried out on Councillor Evan Jones."
Ed flicked his eyes up to hers. "You think it has something to do with her disappearance? Is it connected?" There was a desperation in the wide-eyed look he gave her.
"Honestly? I don't know, Ed. But I would like to know everything you know and which you have not, so far, been telling me. We can't help you if you won't help us."
"Well, yeah, we hacked the councillor’s emails. We felt it was the only way that we could show everyone what the hell was going on. We knew there was some sort of dodgy dealing going on, but had no way to prove it. So, we planned and carried out the hack."
"Who was the hacker, Ed?"
"Eva."
"What?"
"Eva." He repeated.
"Eva Wilde?"
A frown furrowed Ed's face. "What's the matter? You think she wouldn't be capable? She is a skilled programmer. She built our website. We're not the mud-eating, tree-dwelling, technology-hating creatures you think we are." Ed spat the words.
"I didn't think that, not for one minute." Yvonne only just kept on a level, herself. "I just wasn't expecting you to tell me it was Eva. That's all. It's not that I wouldn't think her capable."
"But you expected it to be a guy, didn't you? You of all people. A female DI."
She had to admit that he was right. She had thought the hacker would be a male and now felt ashamed of that fact. "You're right. I was expecting you to give me a man's name, and that was anachronistic of me. I'm sorry." She meant it. "Who knew that Eva was your hacker?"
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