CHAPTER TWELVE

 

There was little more that they could do until Toni was able to talk, and as Gary had offered to stay with her at the hospital, Jon and Kate drove back to Saltfleet.

Kate said very little during the journey, although Jon knew that her mind would be working overtime. They had no choice but to take Toni’s anxiety for a girl called Emily seriously, even though the kid was still high as a kite.

‘Neither the parents or Gary Pritchard can place a youngster called Emily in Harlan Marsh, and Gary’s been working that patch long enough to know most of the little yobs and tearaways.’ Kate sounded tired. ‘Which makes this one bitch of a situation, and I’m not sure where the hell to start.’

Jon slowed down as they approached a roundabout. ‘All we can do is start running the usual checks, hoping that this mysterious girl is known to us in some way.’

Kate nodded. ‘My first job will be to wire Scotty up to his beloved computer and let him do his stuff.’

Jon pulled up in front of the station security gates and swiped his card through the machine. ‘Let’s hope we have more luck than Harlan Marsh, because if we hit a brick wall too, then I guess we’ll have to go back to there and take to the streets.’

‘And I get the feeling that’s exactly what we’ll be doing, but…’ Kate paused before getting out of the car. ‘I suppose there would be no use going to the place where Toni was dumped, and you trying to pick something up? Like with Shauna?’ she asked tentatively.

Jon shook his head. ‘I don’t think so, ma’am. It’s not as if it was the place where she was drugged and held, where she would have felt most threatened.’

‘And we haven’t the foggiest where that was.’ Kate slammed the car door, a little too hard. ‘Oh, sod it. We’d better get started on some basics checks.’

 

Scott came up with over twenty girls with the first name, Emily. The women, mostly teenagers, were either missing persons or petty criminals that had crept onto police files via a variety of misdemeanours. Sadly a barrage of phone calls to private homes, prisons and young offender’s institutions dismissed all but three names, and one of them had died of an over-dose and the other two were long-term mispers with no specific connection to the area.

Jon hung up the phone on his last call and pulled a face. He really didn’t fancy traipsing the streets of Harlan Marsh, but they needed more information, and that was most likely where they’d find it.

‘Sergeant, finish up there. We’re going back to the hospital.’ The boss was calling from her office door. ‘Gary Pritchard has just rung. Toni’s more or less ready to speak to us. I’ve told him to stay with her and not to let her talk to anyone else, not even her parents, until we get there.’

Jon quickly pulled on his jacket and felt around in his pocket for his car keys. If Toni remembered something specific about Emily it could save them a whole load of  shoe-leather.

They arrived at the hospital in seven minutes, and in another two, they were standing looking down at Toni Clarkson’s bruised and tear-stained face.

Gary said, ‘Toni, this is DCI Kate Reynard and her sergeant, Jon Summerhill. Like I said, they are here to help you.’ His voice held the warm tones of a favourite uncle. He’d clearly used the time before their arrival to make an attempt to win over the girl’s confidence.

Jon looked at her and saw a left-over touch of belligerence in the eyes.

He watched as Kate drew up a chair close to the bed and placed herself on the girl’s level, so as not to intimidate her. She then assured her that she was in no trouble, and all they wanted to do was find whoever had hurt her and punish them.

The belligerence in Toni’s eyes slowly disappeared, and only fear remained. ‘I don’t know anything,’ she whimpered.

‘Well, let’s start when you left your friends at the War Memorial, shall we?’ asked Kate softly.

Toni’s eyes darted around the room and Jon noticed her throat constrict several times, but she said nothing.

‘You told your friends that you were going somewhere where you’d be welcome.’

Toni drew in on herself, and even though the room was almost unbearable hot, she began to shiver.

‘Did you go to that place, Toni?’ Kate asked, obviously trying to keep her patience, but horribly aware that, if she did exist, as every second passed, things were looking blacker for Emily.

‘And were you welcome?’ added Jon softly. ‘Were you given alcohol?’

Toni gave a long, shaky sigh, and nodded miserably. ‘There’s always free booze, if you want it.’

‘And where is it?’

‘As if I’m going to tell you lot!’ A hint of the old Toni resurrected itself. ‘They’ll kill me if I grass them up, and anyway..,’ she mumbled cryptically, ‘It’s not that straight-forward.’ She wiped a tear from her cheek and winced as she touched the bruised bone. ‘But I’ll tell you this, there were people there that I’d never seen before.’ She drew the bedclothes up tighter to her and rocked backwards and forwards. ‘They said they were going on to another party.’

‘And you went with them?’ Kate looked directly at the girl.

She nodded again.

‘In a car?’

‘Yes.’

‘What kind? Was it a 4X4?’ Kate thought of the vehicle that had driven Shauna to her lonely death.

‘No, just an ordinary car.’

‘And were you alone?’

‘I thought some of the others were going, but when I got into the car, I was alone with one of the men.’

‘Its okay, Toni. You’re safe now.’ Kate placed a hand gently on her arm. ‘Do you know where you went? Did you recognise the place where the party was held?’

‘There was no party.’ Her voice was heavy, the intonation flat. ‘And I don’t know where I was taken. We drove for ages, way out onto the fen somewhere. The place stank of rotting cabbage. It made me want to throw up.’

‘Was it a farm?’ asked Jon. ‘Or some sort of farm building, maybe?’

The girl shook her head. ‘I dunno. I don’t think so.’ She turned and looked from one to the other. ‘It was old and really creepy.’ She frowned. ‘But I could hear music, so I wasn’t scared. We went down into a sort of cellar. It had oil lamps and candles and the seats were old boxes with blankets thrown over them. There were wine bottles everywhere. I thought it was pretty cool to start with…’

But not later, Jon thought angrily, seeing the welts on her face and watching as she clasped her midriff to protect her cracked ribs. He took a deep breath, then looked around uncomfortably. Something didn’t seem quite right. He was experiencing an odd underwater kind of feeling. His ears were popping and rushing head noises were making concentrating on the job in hand increasingly difficult.

He looked across at his boss but Kate had obviously noticed nothing, and from a distance he heard her saying, ‘And how many people were there with you, Toni?’

Jon frowned and tried to both understand what was happening and hear the girl’s answer. It wasn’t easy, but thankfully the strange noises were beginning to back off, but leaving something even more puzzling behind. Singing?

Toni was talking, and he needed to listen. He gritted his teeth and concentrated.

‘To start with, just me and the bloke who drove me there. He said we were early, and others would be along soon. He gave me a glass of red wine.’

‘And you drank it?’

‘Free wine?’ Toni rolled her eyes at Kate as if she’d just said something quite insane. ‘Uh, yeah.’

The noises in his head suddenly subsided and Jon was finally able to get back into the interview. ‘Can you describe the man, Toni?’ he asked.

‘Kind of old, bit like you, I guess. But he had a great hair cut, and trendy clothes.’

‘Tall? Short?’ He enquired, trying not to smile at the accusation of being old.

Toni looked at him. ‘Your height, but he had a hotter body. More muscles.’

Kate was stifling a grin. ‘What about his clothes?’

‘Faded jeans, boot-cut, really expensive. Blue T-shirt and trainers…’ Toni frowned, ‘and a grey zip-up jacket with a hood. Yeah, he was trendy for an old guy.’

Jon trod wearily. ‘Listen, Toni, would you recognise him again?’

She shrugged, then gasped as her broken rib stabbed at her. ‘Maybe. He was kind of ordinary looking. A bit shy, although he smiled a lot. Oh, and he smelt good,’ she added.

Jon threw a puzzled look in Kate’s direction. Whatever this man had done to her, Toni didn’t seem upset by talking about him. And he didn’t come over as some sinister psycho either. ‘Was he the one who hurt you?’

Toni shook her head. ‘Oh no, not him. When the others arrived, he left. I didn’t see him again.’

‘The others?’

Toni tensed, and swallowed hard. ‘I…,’ She paused, her young brow wrinkled in confusion. ‘Things got weird. I can’t remember anymore.’

Jon’s heart sank. The damned drug must have been in the wine. And now, just as they were getting to the crux of the matter, Toni was slipping off the radar.

‘Can you recall how many people were there?’

‘I don’t know. Not many.’

Kate was regarding at the girl thoughtfully, then she gave Jon a look that said they’d pussy-footed around for long enough. Her expression changed. ‘Toni, when you were brought in, you spoke about someone called Emily? Do you remember her? Was she there with you?’

A look of terror stamped itself on Toni’s face.

‘Toni, who is Emily, and exactly what happened to her?’

A gurgle escaped from the teenager’s throat, and then a loud, low moan, one that Jon sincerely hoped would not bring the medical staff running.

Kate leant closer to the bed. ‘Listen! She may be in grave danger, Toni. You have to tell us anything you can remember, please!’

Tears began to flood down over the livid bruises. ‘I told you, it all got weird. It’s like a bad dream with everything all jumbled up together.’ Toni sobbed. ‘Someone was singing, and then someone was shaking me and asking me stupid questions.’

‘What questions?’

‘Something like, when was I born?’

The age of consent? Jon gritted his teeth. The bastard was checking as to whether she was under age. ‘You mean the year you were born?’

‘No. The whole thing. The day, the month and the year.’ Toni took a tissue that Gary was holding out to her and she wiped her nose. ‘He did the same to Emily.’ The tears welled up again. ‘Then I found myself out in the fields! I was so scared. I felt sick, Emily had gone, and I was lost.’ She looked at them pathetically, no trace of the bombastic teen who had leapt from the window to run away. ‘I wanted my Dad and my Mum, and I wanted to go home.’

‘Who is Emily, Toni? You have to tell us.’ Kate’s concern for the second girl was coming through as anger, and Jon gave a sharp cough to try to alert her to the fact that she may just be about to blow it with Toni.

‘I think my patient has had enough for now, Chief Inspector?’ The young doctor was standing in the doorway but he was no longer smiling.

Kate nodded brusquely, patted Toni’s hand and smiled tightly at her, then they reluctantly left the room.

‘I’ll hang on here, ma’am.’ said Gary. ‘Until you can organise some uniforms to come and take over from me.’ He gave them a conspiratorial wink. ‘But there’s no rush, because I’ll do my best to get another word with her when she’s calmed down.’

 

Kate drove back to the station, allowing Jon to read through his notes. Two things bothered him. ‘What was all that about exactly when she was born? I mean, if they were checking her age with sex in mind, she’s sixteen, so…’ he shrugged. ‘So why ditch her and take the other lass?’

Kate shook her head. ‘Maybe they wanted underage girls, and Emily may be younger than Toni. Or perhaps Toni was hallucinating by that time? Then again, if someone was looking for a particular girl, then he’d need an exact birth date.’ She pulled a face. ‘But nothing really makes much sense, does it?’

‘And another thing, what the dickens did she mean by saying that the club she went to, “wasn’t that straight-forward”?’

‘Well, I think I can answer that.’ Kate muttered a curse then accelerated past a slow moving vehicle. ‘Harlan Marsh officers have been chasing a venue that constantly changes location.’

Jon sat and listened with growing distaste as Kate told him about the drinking club. When kids became victims, he could get very angry indeed. ‘Sounds like a pretty nasty set up, ma’am.’

‘It does. But because the venue moves about, nailing them has proved tricky.’ Kate raised an eyebrow. ‘Every time the law get close, it all moves off again.’

‘I see, so that’s what Toni meant. Maybe she’ll feel like telling us a bit more about it when she gets over this. She could be more inclined to talk when the gravity of what happened finally hits home. It might even be something of a turning point for her.’

‘Let’s hope so. I think it’s scared her senseless.’ She gave him an enquiring glance. ‘I suppose you didn’t manage to ‘pick up’ anything whilst we were in there with her?’

Jon closed his notebook. ‘Yes, but I don’t know what it was.’ He saw Kate’s fingers grip the wheel tighter.

‘And?’

‘How do I explain what I don’t understand myself?’

‘Well, was it a sighting? Or a message? or…’

Jon held up his hand, ‘Whoa!’ He smiled at her. ‘I think it was background noise. As soon as she mentioned the cellar there was a rush of odd noises, then finally I seemed to hear this.., this singing. Yeah, some kind of song, and it echoed. As if it were being sung in..,’ he paused, ‘somewhere like a cave. I didn’t recognise it, but it was vaguely familiar.’ He looked at her apologetically. ‘Sorry, but you are going to have to leave that one with me to fathom out.’

Kate shrugged. ‘Oh well, let’s hope Gary gets a lucky break with the kid. He’s a good bloke, isn’t he?’

Jon nodded. ‘He’s not that old, but he reminds me of the old-style proper coppers.’

‘Exactly.’ said Kate, ‘Give me that sort of approach any day over the lads who go in with one finger already on the CS gas canister. By the way..,’ she added, ‘...if you agree, I’m going to be asking the Super if we can have Gary temporarily transferred to our team. What do you think?’

He nodded. ‘Excellent idea, ma’am. His local knowledge could be invaluable.’

Jon knew why Kate had mentioned it to him. His approval was important to her. They’d moved heaven and earth in the past, not to have additional officers work with them. With all their secrets, the team was too close and too special to spoil, but there was something about PC Gary Pritchard, something they both instinctively trusted

It was dusk by the time that they got back to the incident room, but Scott and Rosie were still heads down at their computers.

Kate grinned at them. ‘Okay, you guys. Get home, get some rest, get back early.’

Rosie looked up. ‘I’m happy to give it another hour, Guv?’

Jon smiled at her. Why did that girl have to look like an eighteen year old school prefect when she was a grown woman and sharp as a butcher’s knife?

Kate shook her head. ‘Thanks, but no. You get away. Take the opportunity while you can.’

Rosie gathered up her coat and bag. ‘Okay. See you tomorrow.’ She glanced across to where Scott hunched over his keyboard. ‘Are you coming?’

Scott Verdun leaned back, stretched his arms above his head, and groaned. ‘I guess. This last search is going nowhere.’ He stood up, ‘Hang on for me Flower, and I’ll walk down to the cark park with you.’

Kate watched them go, then went off to see if Clive had left her any messages before he went home, and Jon was left to think over what had happened in the last few hours.

One thing was for sure, he was damned certain that Emily did exist.

He exhaled. Toni was safe, but Emily clearly wasn’t, and they needed to find her fast, before she became just another statistic.