The Stolen Children

by Oliver Davies

  “Steph? How’re you doing?”

  Stephen was silent for a beat. “Oh man,” he said, “you’re in a bad mood.”

  I couldn’t help but chuckle, letting out a long breath. “You got that that fast?”

  “Yep,” he said. “You sound physically pained when you’re stressed. What’s going on?”

  I sighed. “Just bad news. What about you?”

  “It’s okay here, considering,” he said, and my shoulders relaxed slightly. “I’m still planning to be in tomorrow.”

  “Thank god,” I muttered. “I could do with a hand.”

  “Yeah?” Stephen sounded worried.

  “It’s alright,” I said. “Gaskell’s given me a team to help. There’s a lot on right now, that’s all.”

  “Got it. Well, you’ll get my sparkling company tomorrow to cheer you up.”

  “Looking forward to it,” I said, smiling slightly.

  We chatted a little more about his family and how they were doing before we ended the call. I was left feeling slightly better after talking to him. After fetching another coffee to fortify me, I headed back into the thick of things.

  It was close to five by the time we had a meeting to run through our most likely candidates, of which there were three.

  “Alright,” I said, clapping my hands at the front of the room. The gathered staff turned towards me. “Give me a summary of what we’ve got.”

  I stepped aside to let another DI stand up at the front, listening closely as she ran through the three missing kids that fit our criteria most closely and that we would focus our search on. I couldn’t help but worry that it would turn out that none of these kids was one relevant to our case. Then there was always the possibility that the transaction Keira had told me about wasn’t actually ransom money at all, but some other black market deal. If Keira had been able to track the source, she would have told me. We had to work with what we had, which is what I told myself as I worried about what we didn’t know.

  “For the sake of simplicity,” I said, when the DI was done, “which kid has the richest parents?”

  The DI pointed to the girl in the centre who was thirteen but looked younger.

  “And her parents have put money towards a search effort?” I asked absently as I looked at the photo.

  I was expecting a ‘yes’ so the DI response of, “Actually, no,” made me look over at her sharply.

  “No?”

  She shrugged. “It was the school that first reported her absent. The parents have cooperated, but they’ve not done a big push for a search. Usually, rich parents are so much pushier.”

  I frowned. “Strange,” I muttered. Except, it wouldn’t be strange if, in fact, the parents knew who had their daughter and that no search would help get her back.

  The DI had told us that the girl, whose name was Lydia Brown, had stopped coming to school two weeks ago, and that York police had already interviewed the family and teachers but came up with little to nothing.

  “Alright,” I decided, “we’re focusing on this girl, but we’ll look into the other two, as well, to cover all bases.” I glanced down at my watch and winced at the time. Gaskell might’ve approved me to have a team, but he wouldn’t be too pleased with us running up overtime when it wasn’t an emergency. “We’ll continue with this tomorrow, thanks for your work today.”

  Talk bubbled up as the officers split off and I sighed, rubbing my sore forehead. I was going to sleep like a log tonight, I thought, but only after I’ve run off all this antsy energy.

  Keira caught me as I was packing up and I startled to see her. “Hi.”

  “Hi,” she said. She cocked her head slightly and considered me. “Are you doing okay? You looked upset earlier.”

  I gave a short, humourless laugh. “Aye, I was upset. But it’s under control, and we’re making progress. You don’t need to worry about me.” I gave her a more genuine smile. “Thank you, though.”

  She seemed to relax slightly, and her smile was more flirtatious than before. “And last night was fun?” she said, in a tone that said she knew my answer.

  “Oh, I don’t know,” I teased, “it passed the time.” She hit me none too lightly in the arm, and I laughed. “Kidding, kidding.”

  “Okay,” she said, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear. “Well, let’s do it again sometime.” She smiled, turning and walking away before I could summon an answer.

  “Sounds good to me,” I murmured to myself, as I picked up my coat and headed down the stairs towards the changing rooms.

  Tonight, though, I had a long run to go on, followed by a date with my sofa and a glass of wine or two.

  After pulling on my running gear, I headed out into the cold and wet, the rain stinging my cheeks as the wind blew against me. On another day, the grim weather might’ve annoyed me, but today the challenge was perfect, and I put on an extra spurt of speed as I got closer to home.

  Some days, I wondered if I missed my last home, in the small town of Lockdale where everyone knew everyone, and there were enough hills that even though I’d lived there for years, I’d not managed to climb every one. Being there had been good, and challenging too, but I would’ve missed out on meeting Stephen and learning how to adapt to city policing if I’d not come here. I relished the opportunity to make a difference on a bigger scale, if I possibly could.

  So no, I decided, I didn’t regret moving here, even on hard days like today.

  Twelve

  Stephen turned up with a jar of posh, extra strong coffee the next morning, which I couldn’t get my hands on quickly enough.

  He laughed. “Steady on, tiger.” He had a box of doughnuts in the other hand, which he dumped in the break room, and the other officers fell on them like hungry piranhas.

  He finally handed over the coffee, and I grinned. “You’re officially my favourite partner.”

  “Bribery works with you, then, does it? Good to know,” he chuckled.

  “As if you couldn’t be bribed with…” I hesitated as I tried to think what Stephen would go crazy for. It came to me, and I snapped my fingers. “A trip to Betty’s!”

  He gaped at me with an expression of exaggerated shock. “You little sneak!”

  I grinned. “There, I knew it. Everyone loves Betty’s.”

  He huffed. “Fair, that’s fair. We should go there, when this case is sorted, and my girl’s better.”

  The mood sobered slightly, and we moved back to our desks, me with a divine smelling cup of coffee, and Stephen with his tea and a pink doughnut.

  “Fill me in on everything I missed, then,” Stephen said.

  I blew out a breath. “Where to start?” I muttered. I outlined my visits to Lawrence, what Keira had told me about Mrs Wooding’s bank account being used, and the transaction in the yacht shell company’s account that we suspected was ransom money.

  Stephen’s face was dead serious by the time I’d finished. “Another kid possibly taken,” he said quietly.

  I made a noise of agreement in my throat. “Aye. I feel like this company, or the gang behind them, has got to based around here.”

  Stephen raised his eyebrows, looking unsure. “Just because Lawrence’s abduction was from nearby?”

  I gave a one-shouldered shrug. “Yes. It’s hardly like we get a lot of kidnappings around here, Steph. But we’ve had two in this area within a month, that’s got to-”

  “If,” Stephen said pointedly, “the money in the more recent transaction was for a ransom.” When I gave him a frustrated look, he held up his hands, palms outwards. “Look, mate, I just want to make sure we’re running on evidence, here, okay?”

  I huffed a sigh, irritated because he was right. I had a gut feeling I was right, but gut feelings didn’t hold up in court. I gave a short, humourless laugh. “Alright, you make a fair point. I knew I kept you around for a reason.” I sent him a grin.

  He shoved me lightly. “Rubbish, I’m the one babysitting you, making sure you don’t go getting your head
bashed in again.”

  “That was one time!”

  “Twice, Mitchell. And both landed you in hospital, y’idiot.”

  I groaned. “No prospect of that while I’m stuck here. So let’s do something useful, instead, ‘kay?”

  “Yeah,” he said, with a faint, fond smile. “Where are we starting, boss?”

  “You wanted evidence, right? If I’m right and this gang is operating out of York, or Yorkshire, at least, they’ve got to have done it before.”

  Stephen gave a nod at that. “Most likely.”

  I clicked my fingers. “Right then. That’s what we’re looking for.”

  “Ransomed kids?”

  “Yep. Recent ones in the last year or so. Rich parents.”

  “Lawrence’s parents didn’t come to the police, did they?” Stephen pointed out. “So, say you’re right, these cases might not be on the record.”

  I winced. “True, but I reckon there must be some parents who did come to the police, either before or after they got their kid back. Probably wanted revenge, for threatening their child, and taking a big chunk of their fortune off them.”

  Stephen conceded that, and I set him to start doing that while I went back to the team that Gaskell had given me for the time being, to help track down this second kid.

  I’d set them up this morning to keep looking into the three candidates we’d decided were most promising, and to research their parents, and the details of the kids’ cases. They were all hard at work, and after I’d walked round to check if they needed me for anything, I returned to Stephen and started our search through the system for cases that matched our profile.

  We took a break late morning, and Stephen took a call from his wife about his daughter, who was still stable and coughing less. I made myself another mug of coffee from the expensive ground beans that Stephen had brought it and hummed in pleasure at the smell of it.

  “That good, huh?” Stephen said, looking amused as I breathed in coffee fumes.

  “Divine,” I agreed. I’d brought him over the last doughnut in a napkin and handed it over.

  “Thanks,” he said distractedly, focused back on his screen. I watched as he demolished the sweet treat in three bites and licked his fingers. “Hey, you’re not gonna believe this.”

  Still smiling slightly, I leaned forwards to see his screen. “What is it?”

  He turned his monitor towards me, and my eyes widened as I read over it, before I grimaced. “Typical,” I muttered. “That man’s going to hate me for treading on his toes again.”

  “It’s something, though.”

  “Yeah, it is,” I agreed. “Sedgwick, though, really?” I groaned. “Send that over to me, will you?”

  “Already on it.”

  Stephen had managed to dig up a case from the middle of last year, before the university murder-stalking case we’d had in the autumn. I hadn’t been here at Hewford yet, and Sedgwick had been the lead on the kidnapping case, involving a young schoolgirl of eight. The parents had paid the initial ransom, but after the kidnappers wanted more, they’d gone to the police. Sedgwick recovered the kid, and it’d been a huge success in that way, but the kidnappers had slipped through his hands and gotten off scot-free.

  Making a note of the date it had been reported to the police by the worried parents, I picked up my office phone and made a call up to the tech team.

  “Andrew speaking.”

  “Hi, it’s Mitchell,” I said, before hesitating. “Is Adams there?” I did want to hear Keira’s voice again, if I was honest, but it would also help the continuity of the case if I could deal with her, since she already knew what was going on.

  “Oh, yeah, I’ll put you through.”

  I thanked him, and a moment later, Keira came on the phone. “Mitchell?”

  “Hi,” I said warmly. “I have a quick query I was hoping you could help with.”

  “I most likely can,” she said, sounding amused.

  Heat rose in my cheeks. “Okay, so,” I said awkwardly, “we’re looking at a case from last June, and I’m wondering whether it’s related to ours.”

  “I see, and you’d like me to check the shell company’s account for corresponding ransom money?” she said, all business.

  I blinked. “Yeah, exactly, you’re a quick study.”

  “I try,” she said in a low voice that was very distracting. I could hear her typing on the other end of the phone, and her quiet, even breaths, and I waited to see if she’d come up with anything we could use, my heart in my throat.

  “I’m looking at it now,” she told me, “what’s the exact date? There are several transactions from last June.”

  “I haven’t got a precise date,” I said apologetically. I gave her the date it had been reported to the police. “So, it’ll be something before that,” I added.

  She hummed. “There’s a sizeable amount deposited four days before that.”

  “A similar amount to the Wooding’s?”

  “More,” she said, and gave me the amount which I wrote down.

  “Okay, thanks, that helps.”

  “Glad to be of service,” she said, her tone slightly teasing, before she hung up.

  I sighed, chewing my lip. This didn’t absolutely rule out or confirm that the cases were related.

  “No good?” Stephen asked.

  “I don’t know,” I admitted. “It was a higher amount, and it was four days before the parents told the police.”

  “Oh!” He perked up. “I was skimming over the interviews with the parents and look.” He pointed to his monitor, and I read it over his shoulder.

  My face split into a grin. The girl’s parents had said in the interview that they’d paid the money four days ago, and the amount they said exactly matched the bank record.

  “That’s it. Good! Good.” I slapped Stephen on the shoulder. “Good work, partner.”

  He was smiling too. “Progress, mate.” He checked his watch. “How about lunch as a reward, hm? I’m wasting away here.”

  I rolled my eyes at him. “Alright, you earned it.”

  “We earned it,” he corrected, grabbing his coat. “With a bit of help from your girlfriend.”

  I sent him a stern look, then, as we headed down the stairs. “She’s not my girlfriend.”

  He sighed. “You’ve got to settle down sometime.”

  I scowled. “Why have I? I like my life how it is.”

  “Okay, okay,” he said. “I didn’t mean to rag on you.”

  I sent him a sideways look, and he seemed sincere. “Not everyone wants two point five kids and a labrador, Steph,” I said, but I kept my voice even.

  “I know,” he sighed. “Long as you’re happy, then.”

  The tension between us stayed until after we’d bought our food, but quickly dissipated after that. I was just pleased to have him back in the office, and he never stayed moody for long.

  “Got to talk to Sedgwick now,” I said, mouth full of an egg and cress sandwich.

  “That’ll be the highlight of your day.”

  I stole one of Stephen’s crisps in retaliation for that little comment. “I haven’t actually seen him around much lately.”

  Stephen hummed. “Yeah, me either, actually. Maybe he’s on holiday?”

  “In May?” I was doubtful. “I’ll have to ask Gaskell where he is.”

  Stephen tilted his head. “Or I could do that,” he offered, before giving me a grin. “You’ve got your team to manage now.”

  “I sure do,” I said, ignoring his teasing as I scrunched up my rubbish. “You go talk to the boss man, then.”

  Once we’d finished our lunches, he headed off to see Gaskell, while I went to see the officers Gaskell had leant me. They’d made good progress, but had come up against something of a wall without any new intel.

  “This is good,” I said, as I flicked through the research report they’d produced. I looked up, finding them all watching me for new instructions, even as most of them were eating their lunch at t
he same time. “You’ve all got other cases to be getting on with, I’m sure?” I got several nods in return. “Alright then, you’re dismissed for the afternoon. This is a really good start. We’ll look at how we should go forwards tomorrow.”

  By the time I returned to my desk, Stephen was back at his desk, drinking a cup of tea. There was a fresh cup of coffee steaming on my desk, and I sighed.

  “Ta,” I said, taking a sip.

  Stephen looked at me expectantly. “Well, you going to ask me what the supe said?”

  I waved him off. “I was getting there. Go on, if you’re so keen.”

  “Sedgwick is out on holiday. Popped off to the Isle of Wight apparently. He’s not due back for a week yet.”

  I groaned, rubbing my hand over my face. “So we can’t talk to him about this case then, really.”

  “We could probably call-”

  “Not until we have to.” I had no desire to annoy Sedgwick even further. “His case records aren’t half bad, so we’ll stick to those for now.”

  “Aw,” Stephen sighed, “so it’s more research and reading, my favourite.”

  “Safest part of the job,” I reminded him, and got an eye roll in return.

  We’d only gotten a short way into Sedgwick’s reports when my phone rang, an unknown number flashing up on the screen.

  “DCI Mitchell speaking,” I said, stretching back in my chair to get the stiffness out of my back.

  “It’s Alicia Kelley,” the voice on the other end said, and I blinked.

  “Mrs Kelley,” I said, surprised. “How can I help?”

  “It might be best for you to come down, if it’s possible,” she said solemnly.

  “What’s happened?” I was worried now.

  Alicia sighed. “Lawrence is fine, but his mother visited while I wasn’t here.”

  I went still. “Okay,” I said slowly, “my partner, DI Huxley, and I will be right with you.”

  “Thank you,” she said, sounding tired, before she put down the phone. I frowned at it after the call ended, trying to make sense of it.

  Alicia ought to be pleased by the definite proof that her sister was alive, shouldn’t she? But she hadn’t seemed pleased at all, and I wondered what could have happened.