Deception (32 page)

Steven tried telling himself that there was no point in driving so fast. It wasn’t going to make any difference whether he took two hours or three to get to Glenvane. Everything that could be done was already being done but something inside him wanted to be at the spot where Jenny was last seen and wanted him to get there as quickly as possible. He needed to feel near her. Apart from that, driving fast demanded intense concentration and helped him stop lingering on the nightmare thoughts that insisted on speculating over what might have happened to Jenny.

Some still got through however. ‘Your kid didn’t wander off on her own, Dunbar . . . she wouldn’t do that, she’s much too sensible . . . she was taken . . . she was taken by some weirdo who’d been hiding in the bushes watching the kids play, waiting his chance . . . some nutcase who likes pretty little girls under five years old . . . and you know what that means don’t you? Not many come back from that scenario, do they? In a few days time they’ll find her broken little body lying in some ditch about twenty miles from where she was lifted. The guy who finds her will say he thought it was a doll lying there; they always do . . . What else do you expect? That she’ll come home licking an ice cream cone and apologising for having got lost in the park? Get real, man! Face facts!’

Steven suddenly realised he wasn’t going to get past the Volvo he was overtaking before an oncoming lorry reached them. He rammed on the brakes and swerved in behind the Volvo just in the nick of time. He caught a glimpse of the red-faced lorry driver mouthing obscenities at him as he passed, horn blaring out Dopplered disapproval. The Volvo driver slowly shook his head as if pitying the shortcomings of his fellow man as Steven pulled out again and roared past, this time muttering, ‘Smug bastard.’

Steven took his foot off the accelerator and let the car decelerate into the village of Glenvane on the overrun. He pulled up outside the house and sat for a moment or two in silence, hands resting on the wheel, head resting on his chest, just letting the silence embrace him and calm his nerves. The metallic contraction noises coming from the cooling engine seemed soothing. After a couple of minutes he felt ready.

Sue came out to meet him as he walked up the path. She flung her arms round him and said, ‘My God, you must have flown down.’

‘
What’s happening?’ he asked.

‘
No news yet. The menfolk are all out searching and the police are treating it as a major incident. They’ve set up headquarters in the village to co-ordinate the search.’

Steven winced inwardly at the term, ‘major incident’. It was a phrase he associated with murder investigations. ‘Christ, Sue!’ he exclaimed. ‘I don’t know what to say. I’ve never felt so helpless in my life.’

‘
I know,’ said Sue, hugging him again. ‘I feel the same.’

‘
Are your kids here?’

‘
They’re upstairs.’

‘
Can I see them?’

Sue looked doubtful. ‘Are you sure that’s a good idea? They’ve already been questioned by us and then by the police. They’re pretty upset. I think the simple truth is that they just don’t know anything more than they’ve said. Jenny went into the bushes to get the ball and that was the last they saw of her.’

‘
I’ll be gentle,’ Steven assured her. ‘I’d just like to talk with them for a few minutes. There just might be something they’ll remember.’

Sue agreed reluctantly and led the way upstairs. She opened the door at the head of the stairs and said softly, ‘Uncle Steven is here.’

Steven went into the room and made a heroic attempt at a smile as he saw the two of them, sitting on the floor among their toys. ‘Hi kids,’ he said gently as he squatted down beside them. ‘What are you up to?’

‘
Has Jenny come back yet?’ asked Robin.

‘
Not yet. We have to find her. I know other people have been asking you all sorts of questions but I’d like it if we could talk about what happened at the park this morning. All right?’

Robin nodded and his younger sister looked up at him with an uncertain half grin, as if unsure what her response should be.

‘
You were playing with a ball?’

‘
It went in the bushes. I didn’t mean it to. I kicked it and it just did and Jenny went to get it and she didn’t come back.’

‘
Who else was in the park at the time, Robin?’

Robin shrugged and looked doubtful.

‘
Anyone?’

Another shrug and a half negative response.

‘
You don’t remember?’

‘
Big boys.’

‘
Big boys were in the park? Where in the park, Robin? What were they doing?’

‘
On the other side, playing cricket.’

‘
All the big boys were playing cricket at the other side of the park, well away from where you were playing?’

Robin gave a slow, deliberate nod.

‘
None of them came near you and the girls?’

A shake of the head.

‘
You’re sure? Both of you?’

‘
Sure,’ said Robin. His sister nodded.

‘
Good, you’re being a big help. How about adults? Were there any grown-ups in the park?’

‘
Maybe one . . . or two.’

‘
Doggies,’ added Robin’s sister.

‘
They had dogs with them?’

‘
Trixie and . . . Leroy,’ said Robin.

Steven took the fact that the children knew the dogs’ names as an indication that the adults with them were locals. After a bit more questioning Steven accepted that the people in the park comprised some older boys playing cricket and two adults from the village out walking their dogs. No one had approached the children.

‘
How about cars? Were there any cars near you while you were playing with the ball?’ he asked.

Robin looked down at the floor and said, ‘Mummy said not to play near the road.’

‘
Of course not,’ said Steven, but he noticed Robin’s sister giving him a sideways glance. Sue noticed it too. ‘There’s something you’re not telling us, isn’t there?’ she said.

Robin looked daggers at his sister and she in turn looked unsure.

‘
Come on now, out with it. No one is going to get into trouble if you just tell us the truth. Mary, what happened?’

‘
Mary looked at Robin and mumbled, ‘Robin hit the car.’

Sue turned to Robin who was still hanging his head and looking down at the floor. ‘You hit a car with the ball, Robin? What car? Tell me about it.’

‘
A blue one,’ mumbled Robin.

‘
You were playing near the road, you kicked the ball and it hit a blue car, is that right?’

Robin nodded silently.

‘
What happened exactly? Did the ball bounce out into the road? Was the car moving at the time?’

‘
No,’ said Robin eyes wide with horror at the thought.

‘
So the blue car was stationary at the time? At the side of the road by the park?’

Another nod.

‘
Did the owner see you hit the ball off his car?’

Another nod.

‘
How?’ asked Steven, knowing the importance of this particular nod.

‘
He was in the car,’ said Robin.

Steven exchanged glances with Sue and swallowed hard before continuing. ‘Let’s just see if I’ve got this right, Robin,’ he said. ‘A man was sitting there in a blue car and you kicked the ball against it?’

Robin nodded.

‘
Did the man give you a row?’

A shake of the head.

‘
Did he say anything to you at all?’

Another shake of the head.

‘
You kicked the ball against his car and he didn’t do or say anything at all?’ said Steven, introducing a note of disbelief into his voice to prompt Robin into saying more.

‘
He was reading the paper.’

‘
And he didn’t even stop reading the paper when you hit the ball against his car?’

‘
No, he started,’ said Robin.

Steven felt an icicle run up his spine. ‘He
started
reading the paper when you hit his car?’

Robin nodded.

Sue didn’t see the significance of what Robin had said. She looked to Steven for an explanation. ‘He didn’t want the children to see his face,’ said Steven flatly. He was hiding behind the paper.’

Sue put her hands to her face, her eyes wide with horror behind her open fingers. The children sensed that something was very wrong and became very uncertain. Steven tried to recover the situation. He managed to force a smile hoping to reassure Robin and Mary then he asked, ‘I don’t suppose you know what kind of a car this blue one was, do you Robin?’

‘
One like Daddy’s.’

‘
A Range Rover?’ said Sue.

Robin nodded.

‘
Bingo,’ whispered Steven. ‘Now Robin, I want you to think very carefully. Later, when you and Mary went to the bushes to see where Jenny had got to, you found the ball but you didn’t find Jenny. When you came out of the bushes . . . can you remember if the blue car was still there?’

Robin shook his head.

‘
You don’t know or it wasn’t there?’

‘
Not there,’ said Robin.

‘
I’m off to find the officer leading the search,’ said Steven. ‘Robin, you and your sister have been a big help. Have a think about the blue car and if there’s anything else you can remember, tell Mummy.’

Steven left the car and ran down into the village on foot where he found the mobile incident room, parked outside the village hall. He brushed past the constable outside and found the officer in charge. He and two other officers were poring over a map of the district. ‘I’m Jenny Dunbar’s father.’

‘
I think it might be best if . . .’

Steven showed his ID and said, ‘I’m in the business. I’ve just been talking to the other two kids. Jenny was taken by a man driving a blue Range Rover. Blue isn’t as popular as green. Get on to all the Rover dealers in the district and get a list of the owners of blue Range Rovers. There can’t be that many. Get your patrol cars to stop any blue Range Rover they come across and search them thoroughly.’

‘
We don’t know for sure that the vehicle was purchased in the district,’ said one of the other officers.

Steven was about to bite his head off when the senior officer intervened and said, ‘See to it, Sergeant.’ He introduced himself as Detective Chief Inspector Grant. He and Steven shook hands and Grant sympathised. He asked about the source of the Range Rover information and Steven told him. Grant gave a nod of resignation. ‘Well done for getting it out of them.’

Steven came round to the other side of the table and looked at the map. It was marked out in search sectors. ‘Anything?’ he asked.

‘
Not a thing,’ replied Grant.

‘
Will you keep on with the search?’

Grant nodded. ‘I’ll keep you informed of anything that happens. Right now, you’re making my men nervous.’

Steven took the hint and left the incident room. He walked through the village to the park and stood there as despair welled up inside him, looking out over the green, empty sward. Some bastard was driving around in a Range Rover with Jenny in it . . . or maybe he wasn’t . . . maybe he had finished with her . . . maybe . . . . He let out a cry of anguish and smashed his fist into a tree trunk. The pain in his knuckles was so much sweeter than the one inside his head.

Darkness fell and the search by men of the village and police officers on foot was called off, to be resumed again at first light. Their search of gardens, outbuildings and undergrowth in the immediate vicinity had yielded nothing but Steven did not see this as bad news. If they couldn’t come up with a live little girl, he didn’t want them coming up with bits of clothing or a shoe. He supposed that the blue Range Rover’s entrance into the reckoning was making the local search redundant, but he appreciated that Grant would feel obliged to pursue it. It wasn’t absolutely certain that the Range Rover had been used in Jenny’s abduction; it just seemed bloody likely.

Steven could not sit in the house with Sue and her husband for any length of time. They were the nicest people in the world and they cared about Jenny as much as he did but he found the silence oppressive and the strained attempts at optimism even worse. He needed to be outside, moving around, because motion made him feel like he was doing something useful even though he knew that he wasn’t. There was however, little comfort to be gained from the silhouettes around him as he tramped the verges of the roads around the village. It seemed that the whole world had changed. It had become an evil, threatening place. Every tree was a centurion of the night. Every copse hid a dark secret.

At times Steven felt tears of frustration well up in his eyes. He was a doctor, trained to save lives in the most demanding of situations: he was a soldier, capable of taking on the best the opposition had to offer and winning, but here he was, absolutely useless when it came to helping his own daughter when she needed him most.

It started to rain but Steven hardly noticed. When he finally did and pulled up his collar he saw it as being welcome. Every physical discomfort the elements had to throw at him was welcome right now. Any distraction from the sheer hell going on in his head was more than welcome. He heard a car coming up behind him and stepped further across the grass verge as the road was very narrow at this point. Unfortunately there was a narrow drainage ditch where he put his foot down and he went sprawling, face first, into the wet long grass, scratching his cheek on the hawthorn hedge as he went down. He lay there as the car swept past, its driver unaware of his presence, its headlights lighting up the hedgerows ahead and briefly restoring colour to the night. The road was black but everything else was green save for the little red object that caught his eye before darkness returned.