‘No she hasn’t,’ Linda snapped again. ‘She has no reason to go missing. Look,’ she ran her fingers through her hair, pulling at it hard. ‘She hasn’t run away. She isn’t with friends. She isn’t in the habit of just taking off without telling us. She’s nine years old for crying out loud. Some sick bastard has taken my daughter now will you do what you’re paid to do, and fucking find her,’ Linda screamed.
Craig grabbed his wife again and pulled her towards him. ‘I think she might need to have a lie down,’ he said.
Amanda opened the living room door, and everyone watched as Craig practically carried Linda out of the room. Even Riley had stopped fidgeting and was glaring at his mother.
‘Jodie, does your sister have a mobile phone?’ Sian asked.
‘No. She wants one, but Dad says she’s too young.’
‘Do you have a recent photo of Keeley we can use?’
‘There’s the school one above the fireplace, but it was taken earlier this year. She’s wearing her uniform in it.’
Sian went over to the mantelpiece and picked up the cheap silver frame. Keeley, wearing her blue cardigan and white polo shirt was beaming to the camera. Her wavy blonde hair was tied back in a neat ponytail. Her complexion was smooth and clear, her eyes a brilliant blue. Sian found herself smiling slightly as she gazed into the little girl’s eyes.
‘She wouldn’t run away,’ Jodie said. Her voice was broken as she tried to act the grown-up in the absence of her parents. ‘Things aren’t easy around here with Riley. We all muck in and help. She wouldn’t do anything to add more worry.’
Sian looked down at Riley then back at Jodie. She nodded. ‘I understand. We will find her, Jodie.’
The door opened and Craig sheepishly entered the living room. ‘I’m so sorry about that.’
‘There’s no need to apologise,’ Sian said. ‘This is an extraordinary situation you’re in. Now, I’m going to go back to the station, and we’ll formulate a plan to find Keeley. However, if she has been kidnapped, it’s just possible they may be watching the house. I’m going to have a Family Liaison Officer come out and spend the night here in case they make contact and to answer any questions you may have. I’m going to take this photo of Keeley,’ Sian said, showing the framed picture. ‘But I’ll make sure you get it back. Now, Craig, I need you to sign this giving your consent for us to contact your local GP, dentist and Keeley’s school. This is purely to help us gather as much information as we can to find Keeley. It also gives us consent to pass on information about Keeley to relevant media organisations should we need to put out a missing persons alert.’
She handed him the form and her pen. He scribbled where shown and handed it back.
‘You will find her, won’t you?’ He asked, his voice level.
‘We will absolutely do everything possible. I promise you,’ she said, looking directly into his eyes.
Sian nodded to Finn and they left the living room. It wasn’t until they were outside the house that they both visibly relaxed.
‘Oh my God,’ Finn said as they made their way to the car. ‘That poor family. Do you know what it reminded me of?’
‘I know what you’re going to say and I’d rather you didn’t,’ she said as she climbed in behind the wheel.
‘Do you think it’s possible it’s the same people?’ Finn asked, putting on his seatbelt.
Sian sat in silence and thought for a while. ‘Nobody knows what happened to Carl Meagan. We don’t know if he’s dead or alive. However, the kidnappers didn’t get their ransom money. From their point of view, it was a failed kidnapping.’
‘Maybe they’ve learned from their mistakes and are having another go.’
‘Shit. I need to talk to Matilda before this gets out.’
Chapter 3
Detective Chief Inspector Matilda Darke had sneaked out of the police station and driven home. She turned from the smooth tarmacked road and down the bone-shaking dirt track that led to the former farmhouse. Daniel Harbison’s dirty Ford van was already parked outside. She smiled as soon as she saw him and hoped she didn’t make a pillock of herself as she tried to park the Range Rover in such a tight space. This was her second four-wheel drive in less than a year and she still couldn’t get used to how much bigger it was than the Fiats she had previously driven.
‘You’re all done then?’ She asked as she climbed down from the car.
‘Yep. All done and dusted.’ He held out his hand with a bunch of shiny new keys in his palm.
Daniel Harbison was an old friend of her husband’s. They’d worked together as architects many times over the years, collaborating on projects and running ideas past each other. Following his death, Matilda had felt a change of house was needed in order to try to get on with picking up the pieces of her life. She’d fallen in love with the ramshackle farmhouse the second she stumbled upon it. It needed a great deal of work to make it habitable and Daniel was the first name that had come to mind.
Adjacent to the house was a building used as a double garage. Matilda was happy to leave it as it was. However, Daniel was itching to get his hands on it. The roof, although in urgent need of replacing, was structurally sound, and had enough space to turn it into a self-contained flat. Matilda was against the idea. The thought of having a tenant, especially one so close, was the antithesis of moving here in the first place. Daniel had told her, many times, that it would add thousands to the asking price, should she wish to sell in the future. She’d make a fortune. Eventually, she relented and gave him free reign to do whatever he wanted with it. His face had lit up like a five-year-old on Christmas morning. Now, after seven months, it was complete.
During his time at Matilda’s house, showing her plans, asking her to approve materials and costs, they had grown closer. They had been out to dinner on a few occasions and he’d spent the night once when his van wouldn’t start – in the spare room, of course. They’d shared a couple of kisses and although nothing had been said, there was an underlying agreement that things were moving, incredibly slowly, in the direction of them becoming a couple.
Matilda’s husband, James, had died from a brain tumour in 2015. He was the love of her life and she missed him every day. She had no intention of marrying again, and there wasn’t a single man on God’s earth who could come close to replacing him.
Daniel had been divorced for five years. His wife packed a bag and left one day without warning. He’d returned home from work to find a note on the kitchen table telling him she was incredibly unhappy, and she was leaving in order to find herself. He didn’t hear another word from her until nine months later when he received the divorce papers through the post. By that point, he was over her disappearance. He signed them without giving it another moment’s thought.
‘Would madam like to take a look around her charge?’
‘My charge?’ She smiled.
‘Surely you’re going to rent it out.’
‘I told you, I have no desire to be a landlady.’
‘You’ll change your mind once you’ve seen what I’ve done with it. It’ll be criminal to leave it empty.’ There was a twinkle in his eye.