The junction of Summer Hill with Rheims Way was just beyond camera range. Ed and Nat were looking for vehicles seen driving in both directions, towards Summer Hill and, later, back towards town. There were none. Mike and Jenny had the easier task. Once they’d picked up the girls in the city centre, they could follow them from camera to camera. At the critical point Mike called Ed and Nat over to watch the screen.
‘We’ve got Tyler and Ashley walking up Rheims Way. Here they’re beside the recreational ground.’
Mike moved the tape on.
‘Now they’re approaching the roundabout with Knight Avenue and the London Road. Ashley would normally turn into Mill Lane to reach Prioress Road. However, she’s talking with Tyler, so she continues up the hill and they stop here.’
Mike froze the frame to show the two girls standing on the pavement between the road and two trees. The screen showed the time as 19.32. Mike moved the image slowly forwards. At 19.34 Ashley turned away to walk between the trees towards her home in Prioress Road while Tyler continued up Rheims Way towards Summer Hill. One minute later she disappeared from the frame at 19.35.
‘At that point she’s only five to ten metres from the Summer Hill turning,’ said Jenny. ‘The bastard must be waiting round the corner with his transport parked nearby.’
‘If he’d driven there from the Rough Common end,’ said Ed, ‘he couldn’t be certain what time Tyler would arrive. The longer he was parked the greater chance someone would see him. He’d need to watch the girls walking home.’ Ed looked at the others. ‘How did he do it?’
‘He’d have to be on foot in the town centre,’ said Jenny. ‘We know Tyler and Ashley went to the cinema but they didn’t usually do that on a Thursday evening. It was a one-off. They’d been let off school for the Olympic Torch Relay.’
‘This one was opportunistic,’ said Nat. ‘The interval between Lucy’s return and Tyler being snatched was short. He had less time to prepare. He must have parked unobtrusively near the centre, latched on to them when they left the cinema, raced back to his vehicle and overtook them on their way home.’
Ed turned to Mike. ‘Check to see if you can see any of our suspects near the cinema or following the girls.’
‘We thought of that,’ said Jenny. ‘Nothing.’
‘He’s too bright to be caught on camera,’ said Mike.
‘Okay, if he drove from the city centre, which route would he take to Summer Hill?’
‘Well … he could take St Dunstans Street and London Road or go via St Peter’s Place and Rheims Way.’
‘Which would you favour?’
‘The girls would take the second route – it’s shorter. In his shoes, I’d opt to take that route and overtake them on Rheims Way.’
‘Right, let’s watch the girls walking up Rheims Way and concentrate on the vehicles overtaking them. If only the cameras covered the entry to Summer Hill.’
‘Wouldn’t he slow a little as he passed the girls to check them out?’
Jenny looked at Nat in an odd way. Ed found it impossible not to comment.
‘Why? What’s to check out? Our man’s a meticulous planner. He’d never draw attention to himself by slowing down beside his prey.’
While Nat and Ed were talking, Mike had been looking increasingly thoughtful.
‘I agree, but he would slow down a bit further on. We can’t see vehicles turning into Summer Hill but any vehicle planning to make that turning would begin slowing down as it passed the trees where the girls stopped to say goodnight.’
They reran the tapes and logged 19 vehicles passing the girls on Rheims Way. Nat tracked each vehicle to the point where it disappeared. After rerunning the tape the team agreed that only three vehicles were slowing down as they passed the trees: the first was a saloon car, the second a van and the last to pass the girls was a minibus. Sure that it must be one of these three vehicles, they called in an IT expert from forensics who was able to produce readable prints of the registration numbers. The team traced ownership of the car to a resident of Upper Harbledown and the van to a builder in Rough Common. There was an exclamation of success when Nat, who was checking the minibus, said it belonged to the school.
‘If it’s the school’s minibus, Drakes-Moulton’s in the clear,’ said Mike. ‘It must be Grieves, Leaman or Podzansky.’
Nobody disagreed.
Ed breathed an inner sigh of relief. Barry Williams was also in the clear.
As usual, Nat wanted to act. ‘Shall we pick them up now?’
Ed preferred caution. It was her first case in Canterbury, the Super didn’t want feathers ruffled and she’d said point blank Ed was on trial.
‘They’re not going anywhere fast. We’ll wait until tomorrow morning for the DNA report and then pick up the one guy who did it rather than three guys on spec. I also want to look at the minibus in situ before letting forensics loose.’
‘At this point we usually have a sweepstake,’ said Mike looking brighter than he had for a long time. Ed could sense he’d been emboldened. His local knowledge had made significant contributions to the team’s analysis of the CCTV footage and his blunder with Rosie had receded.
‘But there are four of us and we’re down to three suspects,’ Jenny reminded them.
Mike wouldn’t be denied.
‘We’ve only just dropped Drakes-Moulton. Let’s resurrect him for the sake of the draw.’
‘Okay,’ said Ed, ‘we’ll have a sweepstake as long as the winner buys a round of celebratory drinks. A fiver a head and draw the names from this envelope.’
Ed drew Drakes-Moulton, smiled and refocused the meeting.
‘We’re all assuming that Tyler was abducted in the minibus, which points to someone at the school being the abductor, but where has he taken her? We’re going to have a late night checking all the CCTV for that evening, concentrating on the period from 19.35 onwards. We must pick up the school minibus elsewhere in the town going to or coming back from the hideout. Nat, phone through our takeaway orders. Tonight the pizzas are on me.’
As Nat scribbled down their orders, Mike asked Ed if he should pop out to see Rosie.
‘Not now, Mike. Rosie and Leaman can wait. I need your local knowledge when we’re working on the CCTV. If you can show us where he’s likely to have his hideout, we can prioritize the routes we check.’
‘The problem is there are woods all round the city. We’ll have to cover all the main exit routes.’
The first success came when Nat saw the minibus coming back towards the city centre on the Whitstable Road. He followed it to the Westgate Towers at 20.04 but then lost it in the back streets.
‘This is so soon after Tyler was taken,’ said Ed, ‘I doubt his hideout’s to the west or northwest.’
‘That still leaves a lot of routes out of the city,’ said Mike.
‘Nackington Road goes south to wooded countryside,’ said Jenny. ‘That’s where Teresa Mulholland was taken. Who’s got that tape?’
‘The Nackington Road camera was out for the time we want,’ said Mike. ‘And remember we’ve only got cameras on the main routes. He could get out via back streets and not be picked up.’
Mike seemed to be right. After a long stint of mind-numbing screen-watching there were no further sightings of the minibus. Ed sensed a growing feeling of frustration and disappointment.
‘Let’s call it a night. I want everyone in early tomorrow for the DNA report.’