Hidden ( CSI Reilly Steel #3) (19 page)

‘
Oh, you’re a love…’  She scowled back towards the living room, which was decidedly quieter now. ‘Little brats. I don’t know what to do with them sometimes.’

‘
Could you tell us what happened today with your daughter?’ Kennedy asked, getting straight to the point.

Tracy ignored him, addressing her reply to Chris.
‘You just can’t imagine that kind of thing happening in an area like this …’ She sniffed and shook her head sadly.

‘
We never like to think of these things happening in our own backyard,’ Chris sympathized. ‘Your daughter – what’s her name?’

‘
Jade. She’s twelve.’

‘
OK, so where was Jade when it happened?’

‘At the playground – she was home today with a little sniffle, didn’t seem right to send her to school I thought,’ she said, apparently missing the irony of letting the kid hang around in a playground instead. ‘Anyway, she says this man came up and started walking with her as she was coming home. I’m always warning them not to talk to strangers, but you know what it’s like, in one ear and out the other…’ She rolled her eyes.

Just then, t
he decibel level started to rise again from the living room. ‘Luke, don’t make me come in there again!’ Tracy roared. Chris winced and she turned back to him.  ‘Sorry, where was I?’

‘Jade was walking home from the playground…’

‘
Yeah, and this fella came up and started talking to her. She says he tried to get her to go in his van with him.’

‘
How did she get away?’

‘
Done what I told her,’ said Tracy proudly. ‘I said to her, any man ever tries to grab you, you kick and scream till he lets go. And that’s what she done.  Then of course she came running home here bawling, and told me what happened.’

‘
You've obviously taught her well,’ Kennedy said.

‘
Too right. You’ve got to teach them to be tough these days. No room for shrinking violets around here, and not many fellas you’d want to be grabbing you either,’ she added dourly.

‘
Where’s your daughter now, Mrs Carney?’

‘In the living room. And it’s Miss,’ she added with a smile and a pointed look towards Chris, who visibly gulped.

‘
Could we talk to her, please?’

‘
Jade,’ Tracy screeched.  ‘Jade! Come here for a minute!’

They heard footsteps approach, and saw a young girl walking slowly down the hall towards them.

‘Hurry it up, they haven’t got all day, you know.’

Jade came and stood before the detectives. This, thought Chris
, was a girl who was used to being in trouble. Her whole demeanor suggested that she was expecting to be told off.

Tracy busied herself making the tea.
‘Answer their questions, all right?’

Jade nodded, keeping her eyes fixed
on the floor.

‘Jade,’
Kennedy began, his tone kindly. ‘Your mum has told us a little bit about what happened earlier. We know you’ve already answered some questions but we have a couple more, OK?’

The girl
nodded as she wiped her runny nose on her sleeve.

‘You were at the playground, yes?  Was anyone else there with you?’

Jade nodded.

‘Can you tell me who?’

‘Britney
Burke, Ethan and Robert Halley, and Molly Cowen.’

‘
Do they all live locally?’

‘
Some of the local kids,’ said Tracy, setting Chris’s tea in front of him with a smile.

‘
Do you know where they live?’

‘Britney
and the Halley boys live on this street too,’ said Tracy. ‘Molly lives with her gran, just around the corner.’

Kennedy turned back to Jade. 
‘Jade, when you were at the playground, did you see the man there?’

The young girl nodded, and finally looked up.
‘I think I noticed him one time … kind of walking around in the field behind.’

‘
Did it seem like he was watching you?’

‘Don’t know.  But he was definitely there.’

‘
So when you left the playground,’ he continued, ‘where was he?’

She shrugged
.  ‘Not sure. He was just suddenly walking next to me near the car park.’

‘
What did he say?’

She shrugged again. ‘
Asked me about stuff I liked. Games and stuff.’

‘
Anything else?’

‘
And sweets,’ she added.  ‘He said he had some sweets in his van.’

‘
Not very original, is it?’ snorted Tracy. ‘That one was old when I was a kid.’

‘
It’s often the simple things that work,’ Chris said. He turned back to Jade.  ‘Do you remember anything at all about the man? What he looked like or anything about his van?’

She
looked thoughtful.  ‘He was kind of old.’

‘
Kind of old?’

‘Yeah, not like real old, but
you know, kind of old…’

‘
How old? Like me?’ Kennedy pointed to himself, ‘or him?’

‘
Definitely old like you and fat too,’ Jade replied and Chris tried to hide a smirk.

‘
And his van?’

She screwed up her eyes, trying to remember.
‘It was a dark color.’

God
, it was like pulling teeth, Chris thought. ‘When you say dark, do you mean black, brown, blue even?’

‘
Maybe dark blue … I think.’

‘
Anything else you remember about it?’

Jade thought
again. ‘When he opened the door  it was one of those sliding ones like the knackers have – there were no seats in the back.’

‘
Jade!’ her mother scolded. ‘I told you we don’t use that word. Those people are called travelers.’ She looked at Chris and rolled her eyes.

‘
That’s great, Jade. Your answers have been really helpful. Is there anything else you remember about the man or the van? What he wore, his hair color, what he smelled like, anything at all…’

‘His hair was kind of dark, but had those silvery bits at the side.’

‘
That’s good.’

‘
And he didn’t smell nice.’

‘
Did the smell remind you of anything?’

Jade shook her head.
‘Just not nice.’

Afterwards, Kennedy and Chris walked down the street from the Carney house. The field and the playground could be seen at the end of
the road. 

‘
What do you reckon?’ Kennedy asked.

Chris made a face. 
‘She’s not really a redhead, not like the others.’

‘
More like a strawberry blond,’ Kennedy agreed. ‘And not exactly pale either. But if he’s desperate …’

‘
It’s possible, I suppose. Still, she seems like a bit of a handful and much older than Sarah and the other girl when they were likely first abducted,’ Chris pointed out.

‘
I can’t imagine anyone trying to brainwash that one. She’d soon tell you to fuck off.’

He
chuckled. ‘I hear you. That’s the problem with interviewing kids though. They are such unreliable witnesses, and usually so desperate to please they’ll say anything just to be helpful.’

Kennedy gave a bitter laugh.
‘In my experience, that’s not so different from adults.’

They had reached the field. The playground was to their left – a set of swings, a merry-go-round, a small climbing frame and
a slide.  Two boys sat side by side on the swings, barely moving. They were both in their early teens, and both had a mop of dark hair.

‘
What did Jade call them again?’ Chris said. ‘Ethan and Robert Halley, wasn’t it?’

Kennedy
nodded.  ‘Two likely lads if ever I’ve seen them. We should have a little chat – I wouldn’t say the kids around these parts miss much.’

The boys looked up as the detectives walked in
to the playground. Kennedy was right – the boys had the wary look of a pair of foxes ghosting through a suburb late at night. There was little doubt in Chris’s mind that they would bolt at the first sign of a threat.

The
boys’ eyes never left the detectives as they walked over to them.

‘
Cops are you?’ said one of them.

Chris raised an eyebrow. 
‘What gave us away?’

‘
The smell,’ said the other under his breath and the first one grinned.

‘
What did you say?’ Kennedy said, stepping forward, a menacing look in his eyes.

The two boys looked at each other, taken by surprise.
‘Nothing, just messin’ is all,’ one of them replied. 

‘
Well cut the lip, quick as you like or you’ll both be marched home for your parents to sort you out.’

The two of them shrugged,
acting as though the prospect didn’t bother them.

‘
What’s in your hand?’ Chris indicated to the older one, who wore a Manchester United tracksuit top. He looked to have  his fist clenched around something.

‘S
moke,’ he replied, opening his hand to reveal the burning end of a cigarette.

‘
You’re too young to be smoking. Does your mammy know about it?’

The two of them grinned nonchalantly.
‘She doesn’t give a fuck what I do,’ the smoker replied with increasing bravado.

‘
Hey, watch your language and put that out, you little shit,’ Kennedy ordered.

The boy took one last drag from the cigarette then flicked it on to the grass.
Exhaling deeply,  he aggressively blew out the smoke.

‘
You’re pushing your luck, mate.  Quench that out and put it in the bin. This is a playground,’ Chris barked, losing patience with the two troublemakers. These kids had no regard for authority of any kind, and being disrespectful – especially to the cops – was a badge of honor these days.

‘Right, quit the messing, lads, do you know Jade Carney?’ Kennedy asked, trying to move things on.

‘
Yeah. What of it?’

‘
She was playing here earlier,’ he continued. ‘As she left a man tried to grab her and get her in his van.’

The boys were silent
. This was not what they had expected.

Chris pushed on.
‘Jade said the man was walking around the field earlier when she was playing here. Did you two notice anything?’

They shot each other a glance.

‘Could you describe the man?’ Chris continued, realising that they had seen something. Move right through the question of
if
they saw him, let them know that you already know they did.

‘
Bobby said he looked like a paedo …’

‘What made you think that?’ 

‘
He thinks
everybody
looks like a paedo, he’s worried they might fancy him or something,’ the older brother teased.

              ‘Could you describe him for me?’ Chris asked again, trying to focus them. ‘Then we might forget about the smoking, littering and vandalism down at the local school,’ he added, bluffing.

The two boys seem
ed to know they were on a hiding to nothing so they decided to play ball.

       
‘He was a nasty-looking shit – kind of greasy gray hair, wore one of them blue suits like a mechanic.’

‘
A boiler suit?  Like an all-in-one?’

The older one nodded. 
‘Yeah.  Bloke at the garage wears one like that.’

‘
Anything else?’

The other brother chipped in. 
‘He was watching.  You know, like when you’re trying to watch someone but look like you’re not?  That’s what he was doing.  Over there, by those bushes.’

Chris looked ove
r. There was a clump of bushes about twenty yards away from the playground. ‘That’s more like it.’

‘Whatever.
Can we go now?’

Chris and Kennedy
watched them as they slouched away, their jeans hanging almost off their backsides. Just as they reached the merry-go-round, the younger one turned back.  ‘He was smoking too, yer man I mean. I was dying for a fag, but he,’ he nodded towards his brother, ‘wouldn’t give me his last one.’ He chuckled. ‘I said we should go ask the guy for some but Ethan said he’d probably only want a blow job in exchange.’