“Again?” said Reg Syms, peering up at Sarah through the barred window of the ticket office. “You want to look at the whole lot, all over, again?”
“If you don’t mind, Mr Syms,” said Sarah. “We’d really appreciate it.”
She saw him lean forward and peer down the platform — perhaps hoping that a crowd would miraculously appear and save him from the fate of letting Jack and Sarah back in the ticket office — his sacred domain.
But the platform was empty. Sarah knew the next train wasn’t due for another hour.
Behind Reg, Sarah saw Tim Waite. The volunteer gave her a smile and a discreet little wave.
“It’s quite urgent,” said Sarah, as Reg sat back in his seat staring blankly at her again.
“Very urgent,” said Jack, joining her at the window.
Reg Syms pursed his lips. Then he carefully stacked the little pile of cardboard tickets, placed them in a tin, locked it, and looked up at them both for a few seconds.
“All right then,” he said. “But this is really irregular. Most irregular.”
He got up and went over to the office door and unlocked it.
Sarah looked up at Jack and winked.
“Come on,” she said, and led the way into the office.
*
Jack shifted his weight on the tiny wooden chair and peered at the CCTV screen over Sarah’s shoulder.
Reg had gone off to the little café to have lunch, leaving Tim in charge of the office.
And Tim couldn’t have been more helpful — sorting the various DVDs of camera coverage from both Cheltenham and Cherringham Junction, setting up the machine, even bringing them both a cup of tea.
Now it was all down to Sarah — and her theory. Which she hadn’t revealed yet.
Jack liked that she had a theory, and he was itching to hear it.
“Okay. We’ve been through these,” she said, sliding a DVD into the player. “But we didn’t know what we were looking for.”
“And we do now?” said Jack.
“Maybe,” said Sarah. “Right then — oh — here we are. Racecourse, main platform, camera two, fifteen minutes before Bernard’s train arrives. Double speed. Okay. Now … recognise anyone, Jack?”
Jack watched the screen carefully. The platform was almost empty. Two volunteers. An elderly couple sitting on a bench. Then — a family group arriving. Adults, children, buggies.
“Hey, that’s the vicar and his wife if I’m not mistaken. And the others …?”
“Right. The vicar’s brother, sister-in-law, three children — I recognise them from a lunch party my mother threw last Christmas. Also … his aunt and uncle, apparently. I called him yesterday just to check.”
“That’s the group you mentioned, Tim, hmm?” said Jack, looking over her shoulder at the volunteer.
Jack saw him nod.
“Now, okay — let’s fast forward. Another old gentleman on the platform. Nobody else. And — hold on — here comes the train.”
Jack saw the train pull into the station and come to a halt in a cloud of smoke and steam.
For a few seconds, the view of the platform was obscured.
“Now — watch carefully,” she said, pointing at the vicar’s group as they began to board the train. “And count the adults …”
Jack concentrated on the group — and immediately saw what Sarah intended him to see.
“Hang on. There’s an extra adult!”
“Exactly,” said Sarah. She paused the image and Jack leaned forward.
“A woman,” he said. “Right in the group.”
“Blends in well, doesn’t she?” said Sarah, smiling.
“How about that.”
“The vicar said she was very friendly and talkative. Helped lift the kids up onto the train. From her accent — Italian, he reckoned …”
“Wait — Signora Grisoni?”
“Just what I thought,” said Sarah.
She moved the image forward, frame by frame. Jack saw the woman clearly: about five-five, dark hair, dark blue overcoat, carrying two plastic shopping bags.
“Note the bags,” said Sarah.
“Noted.”
He watched as Sarah leaned forward, ejected the DVD and inserted another.
“Now — let’s move forward half an hour to Cherringham Junction.”
Jack saw the new view — the very platform they were now on — and the same train pulling in. Again — clouds of smoke and steam billowing. Sarah pointed at the train on the screen:
“There’s the first-class compartment where we think Bernard was sitting. And there on the platform, our friend Theo waiting to pick him up. Now, I’m just going to slow things down again — see the doors beginning to open?”
Jack watched carefully. One by one passengers were getting off the crowded train, joining the jostling crowd on the platform.
“All right. Look for our mystery woman in the blue coat,” said Sarah, flicking the view between different cameras on the platform …
“There she is!” said Jack, standing up from his chair and pressing his finger to the screen. “The car next to first class.”
He watched as she stepped down from the train and looked both ways — up and down the platform.
“No bags,” he said. “She left them on the train?”
“I don’t think so, Jack,” said Sarah. “Let’s keep watching.”
Jack waited for the woman to move away — but instead, she climbed back up one step and reached into the train.
“Wait — what’s she doing?” he said. Then he saw another figure appear at the carriage door — a woman, in a headscarf and woollen coat.
“Ah — helping someone down onto the platform.”
He watched as the woman in blue took the arm of the other, seemingly more feeble, woman — and the two of them walked away down the platform.
The image of the two women somehow familiar to Jack, but he couldn’t quite figure out why.
“Back to normal speed now,” said Sarah. “Keep your eyes on the two women — and tell me what you see, Jack?”
Jack glanced at Sarah — she was smiling at him. Waiting.
“Look at the hips. Look at the way they move …”
“Dammit,” he said, sitting back down. Then a laugh: “That’s not two women.”
“No, it isn’t,” said Sarah. “It’s a woman and, no doubt about it, a man dressed as a woman.”
“Bernard Mandeville …” said Jack. “She got him to switch clothes in the tunnel.”
“Yup. When the lights went out. Must have had the skirt and coat in those bags,” said Sarah. “Then threw Bernard’s clothes out of the compartment window while in the tunnel, and put the bags in her handbag.”
“Damn clever,” said Jack. “But if it’s some kind of kidnapping … maybe she drugged him too? Keep him quiet? Make him compliant? So, where they hell are they going now? They must have a vehicle …”
“Tim — you got the footage from car park camera?” said Sarah.
“Right here!” said Tim.
Jack looked up at the volunteer. He was already waiting — DVD in hand. They waited while the DVD loaded. Then Sarah flicked through the menu, brought up the camera and the time — and the screen filled with four views of the car park.
“Bingo. There they are!” said Jack, pointing to one of the segments.
He could see the Grisoni woman — if it was her — holding tight to Bernard, clearly not letting him slip away.
“I don’t see a weapon,” he said. “Guessing, maybe … she’s threatened him, told him not to move, say anything. Otherwise—”
“Into the car park,” said Sarah quickly, switching cameras.
Jack watched this very odd kidnapping underway.
Amazing they hadn’t noticed it when they viewed the CCTV the first time. But just like all the people on the platform that day — all they’d seen was two innocent female friends walking arm-in-arm. Not a female kidnapper and a male victim.
“And there’s the car,” said Sarah.
Jack watched as a small red car edged forward from its bay. Grisoni opened a back door, eased Bernard in — no struggle there. Shut the door, then ran around the other side and climbed in too.
“If we’re lucky,” said Sarah, “we’ll get the plate.”
Jack saw the car move across the car park, picking up speed. As it passed by the camera, Jack caught a glimpse of the driver.
And recognised the car.
“Um — we don’t need a plate,” he said.
“What do you mean?”
“I know that car. And the driver.”
He stood up and reached for his coat.
“None other than the Mandevilles’ maid … Mary Seddon.”
“You’re kidding me …?”
“Nope. I think you just uncovered our kidnappers, Sarah,” he said, putting on his coat. “And I know just where to find them.”
“Where?” said Sarah, getting up as well.
“Barton,” he said, heading to the door, Sarah right behind him. “Remember? The Seddons have a house there. I don’t know the exact address — but I have no doubt you’ll find that out on the way.”