Monday 29 October, 8 a.m.
Leek Police Station
After yesterday’s lunch and the unhelpful take on the case, from Eloise in particular, Joanna was only too aware of the lack of progress in finding Zachary Foster. So she regarded the officers attending the morning briefing and tried to find something to spur them on.
She had a quick word with Mike, sharing with him the direction of her curiosity.
‘Go for it, Jo,’ he said. ‘It’s not as if you’ve got any other leads for them to follow. At least this sounds feasible. Not some geriatric magicking himself through locked doors and disappearing.’
So, speaking to the room of watchful faces, she confided in them.
‘I have two possible leads,’ she said. ‘Amelia Boden, one of the health-care assistants, thought she might have heard whispering in the night.’
PC Gilbert Young looked up. ‘Any idea of time?’
‘Unfortunately she couldn’t pin it down.’ She hesitated. ‘Amelia Boden incorporated it into a dream. Possibly the time was as early as midnight but it could have been as late as two or three a.m.’
She had their rapt attention. ‘But if Mr Foster left Ryland’s before Susie Trent went outside for her cigarette at around two a.m., it would fit in with both nurses’ claims – Sister Joan Arkwright’s insistence that she did lock and bolt the door and Susie Trent’s disclosure that when she left by the day-room door it was already unlocked and unbolted.’
The room was very quiet now as each officer tried to make sense of the version DI Piercy was giving them.
Joanna drew in a deep breath. ‘There is another point that has puzzled us in this case. How did a frail old man with limited mobility manage to travel so far from the residential home where he’d lived happily for a year and a half that we have not been able to find him?’
She waited before speaking. ‘The night sister, Joan Arkwright, thought she might have heard a car. Again, she couldn’t be certain, neither could she give us any idea of time. But it would explain the anomaly in this case, i.e. that we have been unable to find Mr Foster in spite of his limited mobility and confused mental state.’
She noted a few were nodding their agreement.
‘So …’ She scanned the officers. ‘We now have two lines of enquiry, but neither is definite. We don’t have times and we certainly have absolutely no idea of why he went. But the fact remains that we haven’t found Mr Foster yet.’ She turned back to the board, met the rheumy old eyes and made a silent apology to the elderly gent. Then she turned back into the room. ‘Come on, guys,’ she said, ‘let’s find out what’s happened to this old chap. He must be confused and frightened. That is if he’s still alive. If he is, let’s bring him home.’
At the back of the room, Korpanski was doing a silent clap. He grinned at her and did a thumbs-up. As she reached him, he said, ‘Well done, Jo.’
But her response was muted. ‘We still haven’t found him, Mike. And you must see as well as I do that neither of these statements is exactly proof of anything.’
‘It’s the best we can do, Jo. You can’t do more.’
And she had to be content with that.