‘I’ve just seen Sian’s car pull up in the car park.’
‘Right. We’ll need to get the briefing started. I’ll be right out. Scott, keep an eye on social media. Anything that sounds a bit dodgy, let me know.’
‘Will do.’
Christian stepped out of his office as Matilda and Sian entered the HMET suite.
‘How did it go?’ He asked.
Matilda rolled her eyes. ‘Don’t ask. Listen, is the ACC here yet? Her car isn’t in the car park.’
‘Oh. I’m not sure.’
Sian had made two strong coffees and handed one to her boss. It was greatly needed, and Matilda inhaled the caffeine before taking a sip. She could feel herself relaxing immediately.
She looked up at the whiteboard on the wall behind her. Keeley’s school photo was already at the top, smiling at the whole room.
‘Ok then, let’s begin …’
DS Aaron Connolly’s mobile rang. He pulled it out of his pocket, looked at the screen and silenced it. He mouthed ‘sorry’ to Matilda.
She continued. ‘We have a missing child to find. Keeley Armitage is nine years old. She lives in Acorn Drive, Stannington with her family. Parents are Craig and Linda and she has an older sister, Jodie, who is fourteen and younger brother Riley who is four. Keeley looks more or less as she does in the photo on the board. She’s four feet tall with shoulder-length curly blonde hair which she wears tied back in a ponytail. She is slim, has blue eyes and a fresh complexion and wears size two and a half shoe. When she went missing, she was wearing her school uniform, as seen in the photo, and a yellow lightweight coat and carrying a pink backpack with characters from the film Frozen on it.’
Scott was stood by the board adding the details as Matilda spoke.
‘The last person to see Keeley was her sister who told her to wait for her outside the Co-op on Oldfield Drive while she went inside to do some shopping.’
DC Rory Fleming, with a mouth full of Snickers, raised his hand and waved it about to get Matilda’s attention. He quickly chewed and swallowed. ‘Sorry, I missed breakfast. I’ve got the CCTV footage from the Co-op,’ DC Rory Fleming said. ‘Do you want to watch it now?’
‘No. Shall we wait until Keeley’s been found?’ Scott said. A ripple of laughter ran around the room.
Matilda pulled down a white projecting screen while Scott turned off the lights. Rory hammered away at his laptop and the image from the Co-op’s CCTV camera above the entrance appeared.
The picture was of high quality and showed shoppers entering and leaving the store. At 15:39, Jodie and Keeley walked towards the automatic doors. Keeley was licking an ice cream. Jodie knelt down, held her by the shoulders and said something to her before going into the store. A few minutes later, Keeley had finished her ice cream and walked off, disappearing out of shot.
‘Play it again,’ Matilda instructed.
The officers watched the footage for a second time in silence. When finished, Scott turned the lights back on.
‘It’s like she had no intention of waiting for her sister,’ Sian said.
‘That’s what I thought,’ Rory said.
‘Is she heading in the direction of home?’ Matilda asked.
‘She is.’
‘But she didn’t make it.’
‘No.’
‘Are there any other CCTV cameras on the route she should have taken?’
‘I’m afraid not.’
‘I didn’t think so. So, is this all we’ve got of her?’
‘Yes.’
‘Rory, take this to the tech department. See if they can zoom in on the people, clean it up and get some decent images. We can see most of the kids are wearing school uniform. If we can show this to the teachers, they may be able to identify the kids and we can ask them what they saw.’
‘Will do. Can I finish off my breakfast now?’
‘You may.’
Rory nodded then bit off another chunk of chocolate.
‘One more thing Rory.’
He almost choked which made the room roar with laughter. Even Matilda smiled.
Aaron’s phone rang again. ‘Sorry. I’ll turn it off.’
‘Someone’s popular,’ Sian said with a hint of a smile.
‘Scott, what did you manage to dig up on the family?’ Matilda asked.
‘There is a lot about the family online, especially the father, Craig Armitage.’ He went over to his laptop and projected images onto the screen showing various newspaper articles. ‘Craig does a great deal of charity work. He runs marathons, half-marathons, bike rides, abseils buildings, anything to help raise money for charity.’
‘Which charity?’
‘Well, at first it was to buy the specialist equipment they needed at home for Riley. They’ve had the doors widened downstairs to accommodate Riley’s wheelchair. The garage has been turned into a bedroom and en suite wet room for him, the garden has had to be adapted, and various other pieces of equipment he needs. None of it is cheap.’
‘Do we know what happened to Riley?’ Sian asked.
‘Yes. He developed epilepsy not long after he was born, and the seizures grew in strength. When he was one, he had one during the night while everyone was sleeping. He banged his head on the side of his cot, knocking him unconscious. His brain was starved of oxygen for too long for the damage to be repaired.’
‘The poor boy,’ DC Ranjeet Deshwal, who had recently become a father for the first time, said, putting his head down.
‘How did the family react to all this?’
‘According to the article I read, Craig talked about his wife and daughters rallying round and helping out. They come across as a close-knit family, but he’s going to say all that for a newspaper article, isn’t he?’
‘True. We need to chat to the neighbours, close friends and family; find out as much as we can about them,’ Matilda said.
‘I expect Linda feels guilty,’ Sian said.
‘How do you mean?’ Scott asked.
‘Well, when you’ve got young children, especially when they’re babies, you want to protect them, look after them. They’re vulnerable and rely on you,’ she said from experience as the mother of four children. ‘When they’re ill, especially with the condition Riley has, you’re even more protective. On the night his injury occurred, she’ll have been asleep and will have berated herself more than once for indulging in sleep while her child had stopped breathing. It’s natural.’
‘But it wasn’t her fault.’
‘That doesn’t stop her feeling guilty. You ask any parent of a child who injures themselves.’
‘So, how is Linda going to be feeling now?’ Scott asked. ‘Will she blame herself for allowing Keeley to be kidnapped?’
‘Judging by the state she was in yesterday and this morning, yes,’ Sian said. ‘She’s tried to protect all her kids, but most of her effort goes on Riley so she relies on Jodie to pick up the slack. Keeley’s gone missing, so Linda will be hating herself more.’
Matilda gazed out of the window overlooking the car park. She saw the dirty Land Rover belonging to ACC Masterson arrive. Matilda watched through the slats of the vertical blinds. The diminutive Valerie jumped down from the driver’s seat, slammed the door behind her and walked, lazily, towards the building. There used to be a bounce to her step. She was the assistant chief constable of South Yorkshire Police, a role she coveted. Now, everything had changed. Matilda recognised that look, that strolling gait.