Missing Believed Dead (9 page)

Chapter Fifteen

Emma woke to the noisy clanking of bottles and tins being thrown into the recycling lorry.

She lay for a few moments, luxuriating in the warmth of the bed, reluctant to face the day, but the light, filtering through the gap in the curtains, reminded her she should be up and about. So she pushed down the side of her pillow to enable her to see the clock on her bedside table.

‘Shit!’ She sprang out of bed. It was ten-past-nine, she’d slept in, and she would be late for her first lecture.

Her shower was quick and functional, no time to enjoy the hot water cascading over her body, she was late, late, late. The large white towel was rough against her skin, the softness long gone through too much laundering, but she wrapped it round her body and darted back to her bedroom. That was when it dawned on her the house was too quiet. That was what had been bothering her. That was the reason she had slept in.

It was then she realized she hadn’t heard the slam of the door as her mother went out to collect the green recycling box, and looking out the window she could see the box lying on its side on the pavement. She frowned, thinking it strange, because by now Diane would have been scrubbing the box ready for its next intake of bottles and tins. She would never leave it outside.

Thoughts of her lateness or the lecture she would miss, paled into insignificance, swamped by her worries. She pulled on yesterday’s clothes which were still draped over a chair – she didn’t have time to look for fresh ones – and hurried downstairs. The kitchen was empty, as were all the other rooms. Running back upstairs, she checked her mother’s room. It was empty.

Emma tried to suppress the churning in her stomach, the fluttering in her chest, and the choking sensation that restricted her breathing. But it was no use and she was panting for breath by the time she burst into Ryan’s bedroom.

Placing both hands on Ryan’s sleeping body she shook him until he reluctantly opened his eyes.

‘What’s up?’

He blinked and rubbed his eyes.

‘It’s Mum! She’s gone!’

‘Whoa, calm down.’

‘But it’s Mum.’ Emma wanted to scream at him but the words came out in a gasp.

‘What’s wrong with Mum?’ Ryan raised his head off the pillow.

‘She’s gone, she’s not here.’

‘What d’you mean – not here?’ Ryan mumbled, his eyes bleary from sleep.

‘She’s not in the house.’

Ryan sat up. ‘But she’s always in the house in the morning.’

‘That’s what I mean. She’s not here, and she’s been acting real strange lately. Something must be up.’

‘You don’t think she’s gone out searching for Jade like she used to do?’

‘That’s exactly what I’m afraid of.’ Emma groaned. ‘If she’s anything like she was when Jade disappeared, I don’t know what we’ll do.’

‘Maybe we should ask the doctor to get her into treatment again.’

‘No way will she agree to that. You know as well as I do how she feels about psychiatrists. The reason she agreed to treatment the last time was because she thought she’d lose us if she didn’t. But now we’re older that argument won’t cut any ice with her.’

‘What will we do then?’

Emma sank onto the edge of the bed.

‘I don’t know.’

Her shoulders slumped. This fixation, that Jade had returned, was consuming her mother, and Emma didn’t know how to help, because nothing she said or did ever made any difference to Diane.

* * * *

Bill sat in the car deep in thought after Diane left, and he didn’t like the way his thoughts were going.

She had refused to let him keep the card or the jade bead, but he knew without a doubt in his mind that Diane’s jade bead and the ones found pressed into the John Doe’s eyes, were a match. That meant either the person who sent Diane the card, or Diane herself, was involved in the murder.

The other option was that Diane was right, and Jade had returned, and if she had, was she responsible for the John Doe’s death?

Either way, Bill thought, the Carnegie family were mixed up in this.

Eventually Bill returned to the team room. DI Rawlings was in her office, giving Bill the chance to nobble Sue.

‘You’ve got to tell the DI,’ Sue said, after listening to Bill’s spiel.

Bill knew she was right and if it had been Andy there would have been no problem, but this new DI didn’t like him and seemed determined to undermine him at every opportunity.

He shrugged his shoulders. ‘I suppose you’re right, but d’you think she’ll listen?’

‘Why wouldn’t she?’

‘You’ve seen how she is anytime I’m near her. She seems to think I’m some kind of numpty.’

‘Well, you are, but that shouldn’t stop you reporting to her and the longer you put it off the bigger a numpty she’ll think you are.’

‘I suppose.’

‘Oh, for goodness sake, d’you want me to come and hold your hand?’

‘That won’t be necessary.’ Bill straightened his tie and braced himself.

The sooner he got it over with the better.

* * * *

The meeting with the detective left Diane with conflicting emotions. She was convinced he wanted to help her find Jade, but was not sure whether he believed Jade was alive. She had done her best to convince him and wasn’t sure what else she could do.

The answer was obvious, of course, she would look for Jade, find her, and prove to everyone Jade had come back. That was why she was now sitting on one of the leather couches on the upper floor of the Overgate Shopping Mall watching the crowds passing by. This had been one of Jade’s favourite places in the city centre. Sooner or later she would come here and when she did, Diane would be waiting.

‘Mum! Thank goodness I’ve found you.’

Diane didn’t want to look up and spoil the daydream at the point where Jade had come home and was reaching out her arms for a hug.

‘Mum!’

The voice was louder and she felt a hand on her arm. She stared up at the girl leaning over her.

‘Jade – you’ve come back. I knew you would.’ Diane reached out for her.

‘No, Mum, it’s Emma. We’ve been worried about you and we’ve been hunting everywhere.’

‘Oh.’ Diane couldn’t mask the disappointment in her voice, and she saw Emma wince.

‘Come on, Mum. Let’s go home.’

‘But Jade, if she comes and I’m not here . . . ’ Diane’s voice trailed off.

‘She’s not coming back. It’s time you faced up to it – there’s only you, me and Ryan now. We’re all the family that is left.’

Diane looked over the railing to the lower level of the mall, hoping Jade would miraculously appear, but all she saw was Ryan hurrying to the escalator, soon he would join them, and the family would be together. But she didn’t really believe that, because she felt deep down within herself Jade was alive and therefore the family would never be complete until she returned.

* * * *

Kate had her head down trying to make sense of the travel forms in front of her. She never liked authorizing things blind, and as she hadn’t been based in Dundee last month she had no way of knowing whether they were accurate. From what she could see the team had run up a lot of mileage, and she didn’t know if this was the norm.

A tap at the door interrupted her deliberations and she looked up to see Bill hesitating in the entry. She raised her eyebrows in an unspoken question.

‘Have you a moment, ma’am?’

She suppressed her initial feeling of irritation, he did look reasonably tidy, his shirt was clean and tucked in, his tie was straight, his suit jacket buttoned, and his hair had been smoothed back, although still a bit long for her taste. She supposed she’d better give him credit for making an effort.

‘What is it, Murphy?’

‘I’ve just interviewed Mrs Carnegie and I think there might be a connection with the murder investigation.’

He sounded awkward, as if he were searching for the right words, and Kate didn’t want to make it easy for him so she kept him standing.

‘In what way?’

Bill strode across the office and leaned his hands on her desk. ‘It’s little things, nothing I can put my finger on, but I think there’s definitely a connection.’

Kate had to lean back in her chair to look up at him. She should have asked him to sit down. But whatever he had to tell her was obviously more important to him than any psychological advantage his height gave him.

‘Take a seat,’ she said, more abruptly than she meant to, ‘and explain.’

‘It’s an old case.’

Bill hesitated, obviously expecting her to comment, but she wasn’t going to give him that pleasure.

‘It was a missing child case. Jade Carnegie, a thirteen year old girl left home one day five years ago and never returned. We did all the usual things but never found any trace of her.’

‘So, it’s been in limbo ever since. But what has this got to do with the current murder investigation?’

‘I’m coming to that. Mrs Carnegie recently phoned, convinced her daughter has come back, although no one has actually seen Jade. But here’s the interesting stuff! She got a birthday card, apparently from Jade, with a jade bead in the envelope.’

‘And the connection is?’

‘The bead Mrs Carnegie says she received from Jade, is identical to the beads found in our John Doe’s eyes.’

‘I see.’ Kate stared at the ceiling, thinking over what Bill had told her.

She leaned forward. ‘It’s circumstantial, even if they are identical, there could still be other beads the same floating around.’

‘I suppose it’s possible, but the carvings on these beads made them distinctive. And Mrs Carnegie said the beads were a present to Jade on her eleventh birthday.’

‘OK, get me the file and I’ll have a look at it. Then we need to see where we’ll take it.’

‘One thing,’ Bill said. ‘Mrs Carnegie is mentally vulnerable. I believe she had a breakdown after her daughter disappeared, and she doesn’t seem stable at the moment.’

‘Well, it seems to me your suspicions are based on gut feelings, but we can’t ignore it. However, we’d better tread carefully.’

‘What d’you want me to do?’

Kate thought hard. What did she want him to do? Making a sudden decision, she said, ‘Write it up for me, I’ll need a report and then we’ll look at reopening the case. If Mrs Carnegie’s daughter has returned we need to know about it, and if she hasn’t we also need to know. Either way we could get closure on it. We also need to know what involvement the family have, if any, with this current murder investigation, and if the connection to this case is proved that’ll be a bonus.’

Bill got up to leave the office.

‘Don’t forget the report,’ Kate said with a grim smile on her lips. ‘And that will be two you owe me now.’

Chapter Sixteen

‘We’ve come to take you home, Mum.’

Diane wasn’t ready to leave and she wished Emma hadn’t come. She loved her daughter, but sometimes it seemed as if Emma was the mother and she was the child. The love and concern Emma had for her was suffocating in its intensity.

‘But I don’t want to go home yet. I have to stay.’ Even as Diane said it she knew Emma wouldn’t pay any attention. The girl was too stubborn to take account of her desperate need to find Jade.

Emma looked up and beckoned to Ryan who was hurrying to join them. ‘Tell her she needs to come home with us, she won’t listen to me.’

Ryan sank down on the sofa beside Diane and gently prised her fingers away from her skirt. ‘You can’t sit here all day, Mum. You need to come home now.’

Diane’s eyes brimmed with tears. ‘You don’t understand – nobody understands – but I know Jade is here somewhere. I have to be here for her.’

‘Jade’s not coming back, and the sooner you accept it the better it will be.’ Ryan gripped her hand, and for a moment Diane felt sorry for him because she could see the misery on his face. He genuinely believed what he’d said but she couldn’t ignore it.

‘Better for who? Not for me.’

Emma put her arm round her mother’s shoulder. Diane did not resist but took no comfort from it.

‘You have to stop tormenting yourself.’ Emma’s voice was low and her arm tightened round Diane’s shoulders.

‘But I need to find her . . . ’

‘You know as well as I do she’s not coming back.’

‘That’s not true, she’s already come back.’

‘If she had, she would have come home.’

‘She sent a card.’

Emma was silent for a moment, then with a breaking voice, she said, ‘That wasn’t her.’

‘You don’t know that.’ Diane wrenched her hand out of Ryan’s grasp and tried to shake off Emma’s encircling arm. But her daughter increased the pressure and she was unable to break free.

‘And you don’t know she’s still alive.’ Anger flared in Emma’s eyes. ‘Don’t you see, if she was alive and had come back, she would never stay away from you.’ Emma’s fingers dug into Diane’s shoulder.

‘Maybe she has a reason.’

‘Well, if that’s the case you’ll have to wait until she’s ready.’

Diane sighed, the defiance subsided and her body slackened. She didn’t have the energy to fight Emma, particularly when Ryan backed her up.

‘But what if Jade comes and I’m not here,’ she muttered, before allowing them to lead her away.

* * * *

‘Well!’ Sue said when Bill emerged from Kate’s office. ‘What did the DI say?’

‘She thinks it’s worth following up.’ Bill sat in his chair and twirled it round to face Sue. ‘Problem is, she wants a report before she’ll consider reopening the Carnegie case.’

‘That was to be expected.’

‘I suppose, but I prefer to be doing things, not sitting banging a keyboard.’

‘How else is she, or anybody else for that matter, to know how a case is progressing if no one writes anything up? Then there’s the little matter of evidence, of course.’

‘OK, you’ve made your point.’ Bill twirled his chair to face the desk and pulled the keyboard towards him. ‘Oh, for the days when we had typists to do this for us,’ he muttered as his fingers went to work.

Fifteen minutes later he clicked the print command. ‘There,’ he said, ‘that’s it done.’

Sue looked up from the file she was studying. ‘Good. Now I can tell you, Blair has been giving you the evil eye for the last ten minutes.’

‘Oh, shit,’ Bill said. ‘I forgot I left him checking the CCTV footage.’ He stood up, collected the sheets of paper from the printer and strode across the room to Kate’s office. Kate looked up as he entered.

‘Report on the Carnegie interview,’ Bill said, placing it on her desk.

Without looking up, she said, ‘Oh, and Murphy . . . ’

‘Yes, ma’am?’

‘That will be one outstanding report now.’

‘Didn’t even say thanks,’ Bill muttered to Sue, before he crossed the room to where Blair was studying the images on a monitor.

‘Sorry,’ he said, ‘the big white chief wanted an urgent report. Found anything yet?’

‘I’ve been tracking the van . . . ’

‘What day are you working on?’

‘Saturday. I’ve followed it back from when the kids found it on Monday, but it’s just sitting there.’

Bill pulled a chair over so he could see the screen better.

‘Ah, there we go, movement.’

‘Naw, it’s only a guy collecting his car. That was it driving off before we got to this bit.’

Blair kept his finger on the fast button and scrolled backwards, stopping occasionally when he spotted signs of movement. Saturday afternoon passed, Saturday morning, Friday night, and the van still sat, immobile.

They were on Friday afternoon when Bill said, ‘Hang on a minute. Stop there. Someone’s on the down ramp. OK, start it again, but slower this time.’

Blair rolled the image back, tracking the figure walking backwards until it vanished behind the van.

‘D’you think it could be him?’

Bill shrugged. ‘Hard to tell, but if you roll the recording back to the time when the van arrives we could track it from there. This watching everything happening backwards is doing my head in.’

The image of the white van whizzed back in time until it was no longer there. Blair stopped the recording and started to play it forwards.

‘Here it comes, up the ramp.’ Bill watched as the van parked and a figure got out. ‘What’s he carrying?’

‘Looks like a book.’

They watched as he vanished into the elevator.

‘Fast forward until he returns.’

The recording sped up, with Blair stopping it each time someone returned to their car. But this time, as Bill watched the elevator doors slide open, he knew it was them.

He leaned forward. ‘There’s two of them.’

‘Is it the John Doe?’ Blair’s voice trembled with excitement.

‘Yes,’ Bill said, hitting the desk with his fist. ‘That’s him. He’s not steady on his feet, though. He looks drunk.’

‘Or drugged.’

‘Yeah. Can we get a look at the other one?’

Blair froze the screen, before moving the recording forward in increments. ‘Nope, no such luck, that hoodie’s masking his face. I think he knows where the cameras are. He’s not big though.’

‘D’you think it could be a woman?’

‘It’s possible. Or someone young.’

Bill lapsed into silence. He couldn’t give voice to the suspicions he had about Diane, but he couldn’t get her out of his mind either.

* * * *

Diane slumped into the back of the car. Emma sat beside her and put her arm round her shoulders. Diane knew her daughter meant well but took no comfort from the contact. Her thoughts were still with Jade. She was certain Jade was out there, lost and lonely, but she had failed to convince her other children and they thought she had lost her mind.

But she hadn’t lost her mind. It was real. It wasn’t a fantasy. Jade had come back and she would need her mother. In the meantime, Diane would have to go along with Emma and Ryan, because if she didn’t they would bring the psychiatrist back and she didn’t want that. She didn’t need someone trying to worm into her brain, or giving her those damned pills, the ones that made the world all fuzzy and blunted her emotions. If she wanted to cry and scream no one had the right to take that away from her.

At least she had the detective on her side. He would find Jade.