She parked in the same spot as she had on the previous occasion. From there, she could see that Kenneth’s white van was still on the school grounds.
She waited, and wondered what she was doing here.
He’ll just go home, she thought. He’ll get in his van and I’ll follow him all the way to his crummy cottage, and that’ll be my evening wasted.
The mood she was in, she didn’t care. She would repeat this every night if that was what it took. At some point, he would do something incriminating – maybe even lead her to where he was keeping Heather and Rosie, dead or alive. She just had to stay on his back.
A girl came out through the school gates, clutching a stack of folders to her chest and staring at her phone. She walked away from Izzy, then halted in front of the school sign down by the main entrance, still studying her screen.
Kenneth appeared five minutes later. As before, he manoeuvred the van onto the road, padlocked the gates and began driving away. Izzy fired up her engine, put it into first gear.
The van had stopped again, just up the road.
Izzy craned her neck, but couldn’t quite make out what was happening. Had Kenneth forgotten something? Was he about to come back to the workshop? She turned off her music and opened the window, but by that time the van was driving away again.144
And that was when she realised that the girl was missing.
She had been standing there, right there by the sign, where the van had stopped, and now she was gone.
‘No, no, no …’ Izzy said. She started to pull out, but then a huge delivery lorry came round the bend behind her, preventing her from moving while it squeezed past, travelling at about five miles an hour, and all she could do was fall in behind it, trailing after it while she waited for an opportunity to overtake.
‘Come on, come on,’ she said.
The lorry’s brake lights came on, and Izzy put her foot down and sped past it, forcing an oncoming driver to perform an emergency stop that caused him to lurch forward in his seat. He leaned on his horn and yelled something as she drew level, but her attention was already on the road ahead – the road which no longer contained a white van.
‘Shit! Where did you go?’
She accelerated to the junction, then slammed on her brakes. She looked up and down the busier main road. Which way had he gone?
She chose the route that would take Kenneth back towards his house. That would be the most likely. Even if he wasn’t going all the way home, he would take the girl to somewhere that felt familiar to him.
She put her foot to the floor again and stirred the lever up through the gears. The little Fiat didn’t have many horses under the bonnet, but this wasn’t a fast road and she eventually managed to close the gap with the vehicle ahead. Three cars in front of that was a white van.
Has to be him, she thought. Has to be. But what if I lose him again? Maybe even permanently. A girl’s life is at stake here. And what if I don’t lose him? What if I manage to head him off and he gets violent? What then?145
She decided she needed help.
Taking one hand off the wheel, she dipped it into her bag on the passenger seat and found her phone. Eyes flicking between the view ahead and her phone, she managed to locate Josh Frendy’s mobile number in her contacts. She rang him and put it on loudspeaker.
‘Hello?’
‘Josh? Josh, it’s me. Izzy Lambert.’
‘Hi, Izzy. How are—?’
‘Listen, I don’t have time to talk. I’m following Kenneth Plumley. He’s got another girl.’
‘What? Izzy, what are you—?’
‘He’s abducted another girl. From the school. He’s got her in his van now.’
‘How do you know all this?’
‘I saw it with my own eyes. I’m serious, Josh. I’m following him, but I’m scared I’m going to lose him. I don’t know what to—’
‘All right, listen to me, Izzy. Stay calm. Where are you?’
‘I’m on Falmouth Road, heading east.’
‘Okay, good. You said you can see the van?’
‘Yes.’
‘Can you see its registration number?’
‘No, but I already know it.’ She recited it to him.
‘Great. Stay on the line, I’m sending help. Keep your distance and don’t do anything heroic, but if he changes direction, let me know. Okay?’
‘Okay. Yes. Please hurry.’
The phone went quiet, but she could see that the connection was still open. She drove for another couple of minutes, almost afraid to blink in case the van disappeared from view.
Approaching a roundabout, the van indicated a left turn. Izzy waited for it to complete the turn before she put on her own indicators.146
‘Josh, are you there?’
‘Yes, I’m here. Are you okay?’
‘I’m fine. The van has just gone left onto Warwick Road.’
‘Got it. We’re closing in, Izzy. Keep your distance from him.’
‘I will.’
She took the turn, and saw that there was now only one vehicle between her car and the van. A few hundred yards later, the van turned right but the car in front of Izzy continued straight on.
‘We’re turning right. I don’t know the road name. Gimme a sec …’
She slowed to catch sight of the street sign.
‘Utley Avenue. We’re on Utley Avenue.’
‘You’re doing great, Izzy. If he stops, just pull in and wait for us to get there.’
She didn’t answer, but kept her focus on the van’s tail lights. Its brake lights came on, and Izzy slowed her own car to maintain the distance.
‘I think he’s stopping! No, wait! He’s doing a left turn.’
She followed again, but this time couldn’t catch the road name.
‘I don’t know what this road is called. It’s about the third turn on the left from Utley Avenue. And—’
There was no sign of her quarry.
‘I can’t see him! I can’t see him!’
‘It’s okay, Izzy. Don’t panic. We’re almost there.’
She stopped at the cross junction, looked both ways. No sign of Plumley in either direction. On a whim, she went left, flooring the accelerator pedal again. This was a quiet residential area. Nobody around to ask about a van. She went right, then left, going back to her original route. Still no large white van. She decided she must have made the wrong choice, so she went back on herself and then the other way at the cross junction.
‘I can’t fucking find him!’ she screamed into the air.147
Ahead, the only vehicle lights she could see belonged to a dark Mini. She threw her car left and rocketed it towards the last house.
‘Herbert Street. I’m on Herbert Street. About to go left.’
She didn’t give way at the junction, but took a chance and hurtled around the corner at full pelt.
The headlights were blinding.
Izzy slammed on her brakes, spun her steering wheel to avoid a collision. Her car went into a tailspin, and even though she managed to dampen most of the car’s momentum, she still felt the crunch as its side struck the front of the oncoming van.
Kenneth Plumley’s van.
And then she was out of the car, diving round to the passenger door of the van and yanking it open, seeing that the seat was unoccupied and yelling at Kenneth, ‘Where is she? What have you done with her?’ She had no thought of her own safety now; the cautionary words of Josh had already been forgotten. Instead, she raced to the back of the van and unfastened the doors, saw that the rear was also empty. ‘Where is she?’
And then Kenneth was out of the van, coming towards her, and still she felt no fear. She closed the gap, got in his face, slapped her hands against his chest and shoved him, her own face contorted as she called him a perverted bastard and demanded to know what he’d done with the girls, what the fuck had he done?
And then the air was filled with wailing and pulsing blue light and voices, and hands grabbed her and dragged her away, even though she implored them to listen to her, to stop this man, to force the truth out of him and then lock the sick fuck away for the rest of his miserable life.