The Missing Hours (4 page)

I breathe, allow my heartbeat to settle.

Move into the gloom.

The smell that I first thought was death is simply oil. It hangs here, stale, musty. The shape that I thought was a body is just some drop cloths, flecked with blue, hanging from a shelving unit.

Nothing to see here.

I feel the bonnet of the car. Cold. Look inside. A coffee cup has been abandoned on the centre console, a pair of sunglasses on the passenger seat. In the back, a booster seat and a child’s seat. No Selena Cole.

Thank God.

And yet … she is not here, and her car is. Where did she go? How did she get there?

There are answers somewhere. People do not simply vanish.

I look around the gloom, waiting, as if it will change, as if the answers will spring out at me from the balsa-wood shelves, the box of tools that sits open. But all that happens is that the cold garage gets colder still, and a shiver runs through me.

I slip under the garage door, ducking my head. Where is she? Her babies are waiting for her.

The road is quiet still, little traffic passing. The world seems empty after the sound of the rain. Waiting. Then I hear the scream of a car engine, see a Mini Cooper swing around the bend and come to a sudden halt outside the Coles’ house. The driver flings the door open, long copper plait swinging violently. She sees me, stops.

‘You’re the detective?’

I cross the drive, meeting her at the small metal gate. Smell cigarette smoke carried on the wind that whips at her skirt, the navy fabric snapping against her thick wool tights. ‘DC Leah Mackay. You are?’

‘Orla. Orla Britten.’ Her accent is pure north, her voice loud, jarring to me after the quiet. ‘Selena, she’s my sister-in-law. Did you find her?’

I shake my head. ‘Not yet.’

She stares at me, and then says, ‘Is she dead?’

The word catches me, the hard accent making it harder still. I feel my guard climbing.

‘Why? Why would you think she was dead?’

She looks from me to the still open garage, to the house, and back. Sighs heavily. ‘I’m sorry.’ This comes out quieter, her head dipping down until it almost touches her chest. ‘It’s … it’s been so hard lately, there’s been so much. So when we got the call …’

‘We?’

‘Me and my husband. Seth. Only it wasn’t we. He’s on his way back from New York. Was working there. It was me. I was on my own.’ She has drifted off, seems to have lost the thread of the thought.

‘You were saying?’

She shifts, giving herself a visible shake. ‘It’s been a bad year. Or two years. My brother, Ed … he died. And it just … we don’t seem to have been able to pick ourselves up from that. You know?’

I cross slowly to a bench that sits beneath a stunted wooden overhang, press my hand flat against it. Dry enough. I glance at the woman, pat the bench beside me. ‘You want to sit?’

She looks at me for a long moment, then moves closer, carefully tucks her skirt underneath her. There’s a hole in her tights, small and round, just above the knee. She plucks at it with her fingernail, worrying at the loose wool thread.

‘I’m so sorry for your loss,’ I offer. ‘Your brother, I mean.’

‘It … it was a shock.’

‘I’m sure.’ I study an apple tree that stands in the corner of the front garden, its trunk scarred with age. Think how nice it would be to have an apple tree like that.

‘What do you do, Orla?’ I ask.

‘I’m the financial director for the Cole Group.’

‘Selena’s company?’

Her gaze flicks upwards and there is something there, words that sit right on her lips, but then she looks down again and they vanish. ‘Yes. Hers and my brother’s.’

‘So,’ I say. ‘What exactly is it you guys do?’

‘We’re a kidnap and ransom consultancy practice. It’s only small, just Selena and Ed initially, but they gradually expanded, took more people on.’

‘Kidnap and ransom?’

‘Kidnap for ransom is big business in some parts of the world,’ Orla says, voice distant. ‘Most of the companies who operate there – say Mali, Nigeria, places like that – take out an insurance policy on their workers that covers them against kidnapping. The Cole Group trains companies on the best ways to protect themselves, helps them establish crisis management plans. But if things do go wrong and someone is kidnapped, we are dispatched to handle the situation. Selena’s a psychologist, a doctor. With that and Ed’s military background … it’s a good company. We have a good reputation.’

‘So …’ I say. ‘You negotiate with the kidnappers?’

Orla shrugs. ‘Sometimes. Depends on where in the world we are.’

‘And Selena runs the company?’

‘Selena used to run it. But after Ed …’ She glances at me. ‘Things are different now. Selena’s taken a back seat. My husband Seth and I, we run things day to day.’

I nod, let the silence sit for a little while. ‘Orla, is it possible that your sister-in-law has simply left? Walked out?’

She looks at me, a flash of anger distorting her features. ‘No. She would never do that. Never. She would never leave those girls.’

A gust of wind blows through the apple tree, its near to bare branches dancing. ‘I need to ask you something else. Why was your first thought that Selena was dead?’

Orla purses her lips, like they are holding a cigarette, and I can see her fingers dancing, pulling at the hole in her tights. ‘She’s … like I said, it’s been hard. For all of us. I’ve been helping out as much as I can, with Selena, the girls. But there’s only so much you can do.’ The hole is bigger now, the size of a fifty-pence piece. ‘I’ve tried to get her to talk to me. She’s private. Always has been. But I can tell sometimes that she’s been crying, even though she’d never say. She’d rather die.’ She catches herself, the word ending abruptly, and looks at me. ‘I didn’t mean it like that.’

‘Is she suicidal?’ I ask, my voice soft.

Orla shakes her head slowly. ‘I don’t know. I hope not.’

Case No. 8

Victim: William, Oscar and Genevieve Arthurs

Location: Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Company: Global Comm Tech

21 April 2005

Initial event

Lisbeth and Stephen Arthurs returned to their villa in Dubai Silicon Oasis at approximately 11.15 p.m. on the night of Thursday 21 April. Dr Stephen Arthurs is a UK national and senior manager for Global Comm Tech who has headed up their Dubai office for the past two years. Mrs Lisbeth Arthurs, also a UK national, works for Emirates Travel, a tour company operating throughout Dubai.

Upon returning home, Mrs Arthurs went to look in on their children, William, aged nine, Oscar, aged seven, and Genevieve, aged four. She discovered that all three of the children’s bedrooms were empty. Further investigation established that the family’s nanny, Nada Al Marri, had also disappeared.

Mr Arthurs immediately notified the local authorities of the disappearances. He then contacted a colleague at Global Comm Tech, who subsequently placed a call to GCT’s insurance provider, Everguard. The Cole Group was notified by Everguard shortly after.

Response

The response team in this case was made up of myself (Ed Cole), Selena Cole and Orla Cole. This was Orla Cole’s first case for the Cole Group. The team arrived in Dubai within eighteen hours of the disappearance and immediately attended the Arthurs’ home. Local authorities were already in attendance and had, shortly before our arrival, received initial contact from the kidnappers, demanding that a ransom of $1.6 million be paid for the return of the four hostages.

Immediate priority was establishing the circumstances of the kidnapping. CCTV footage was unavailable; it appeared that the monitors had been turned off at source. Discussions with Mr Arthurs established that the family had received a number of threats over the previous six months and had attempted to make security provisions to protect themselves. Those provisions had failed.

Questions were raised over the fourth hostage – the nanny, Nada Al Marri – in terms of whether she should in fact be considered a hostage or whether she was complicit in the kidnapping. The Arthurs family remained staunch in their support of Ms Al Marri, who had been with them for four years and who had a wide range of excellent references. Local authorities investigations into her background suggested no evidence of criminal wrongdoing and no ties with criminal gangs. She was thus officially designated the fourth hostage.

Both Mr and Mrs Arthurs were understandably deeply distressed, and Selena Cole became their primary point of contact, thereby allowing her to provide support and information to the family. We made strenuous efforts to encourage local authorities to begin a negotiation process in order to ensure the safety of the children. Both myself and Selena Cole were clear in our opinion that a negotiated settlement was by far the most realistic option and the one most likely to ensure the safe return of the hostages.

However, we met with a significant degree of resistance on this point and were informed in no uncertain terms that paying the hostage-takers would not be permitted in this case.

At this point, Lisbeth Arthurs suffered a total collapse and was rushed to hospital.

It is fair to say that there was a high level of tension, as both Global Comm Tech and the Arthurs strongly advocated the payment of a ransom. The local authorities, however, with little regard for the concerns of the parents, began planning a tactical assault.

Following on from this, Orla Cole felt unable to continue with the case and returned to our accommodation.

I pressed local authorities to at the very least demand proof of life so that we could establish the well-being of the children. At this point, all three children were placed on the phone to their father, who was able to positively identify them. All three children showed signs of extreme emotional distress. We were, however, unable to obtain proof of life for Ms Al Marri. This raised many questions, primarily whether she had in fact been killed early in the kidnapping. The Arthurs family were clear on the level of affection felt by the nanny for the children, and were of the opinion that she would have put herself in harm’s way in order to protect them.

The proof-of-life call had enabled us to establish that the children were being held in the same location as their kidnappers, and following investigations by the local authorities, a likely safe house was identified a little over twenty-four hours later. A trace on a subsequent call, purportedly to negotiate a ransom, confirmed the investigators’ suspicions and an immediate tactical assault was called for.

I remained with Mr Arthurs while the raid was under way, whilst Selena Cole stayed with Mrs Arthurs.

What follows is a report received by local authorities.

A tactical entry was made into the safe house in which the hostages were believed to be held at 3.15 a.m., Sunday 24 April. Initial surveillance had indicated the presence of two male hostage-takers in the premises. Both of these were shot and killed upon entry. The tactical team progressed through the house and eventually located the hostages in a bedroom at the rear of the house, where they were being guarded by a third hostage-taker. This hostage-taker was also shot and killed. One of the hostages received a gunshot wound to the upper thigh. The other hostages were deemed to be in good physical health.

Note

William Arthurs was shot in the course of the tactical rescue whilst trying to shield his younger siblings from danger. The wound he received was life-threatening. He was immediately transported to hospital, and after some hours in surgery, doctors were able to save both his life and his leg. It has, however, been indicated by medical staff that he is highly likely to walk with a limp and to have some considerable pain for the rest of his life. Following three weeks in the hospital, he was eventually reunited with his parents and younger siblings, both of whom survived their ordeal without any sign of physical harm.

It wasn’t until some hours following the tactical entry that a full and complete understanding of events was conveyed to both the Cole Group and the Arthurs family. The third hostage-taker shot in the assault was Ms Nada Al Marri. She was found in the bedroom with the children. Whilst reports from the scene are unclear, there has been suggestion that she was armed. Later conversation with the Arthurs children, however, indicates that she was in fact trying to protect them, and that she placed herself between them and the gunfire.

Further investigation revealed that one of the male kidnappers was in fact Ms Al Marri’s cousin. Eyewitness reports indicate that Ms Al Marri was seen sitting in the passenger seat of the kidnap vehicle, thus suggesting that she had some role to play in the unfolding events. However, the children remain staunch in their defence of their former nanny. Their account is that she attempted to protect them throughout.

Whilst officially it has been recorded that Nada Al Marri died a criminal and a hostage-taker, it seems likely that the truth will never really be known.

The family as a whole has been deeply traumatised by their experiences. Following on from these events, the Arthurs returned home to the UK and are currently receiving counselling from Selena Cole in order to help them recover from the severe trauma they have suffered.