Bad Things Happen: when a child goes missing

by K Leitch

  Carla sighed heavily, and made her way along the corridor to the interview rooms. The front of the police station was the original building that had been on the green in Kenly for about 100 years. It still had the stone floors and walls that were generic of public buildings of that time. But it had been extended to the back not long ago, and Carla’s office was in the more modern part of the building. The interview rooms, however, were as they ever were, dark and uncomfortable, bearing the scars of the many dubious inhabitants that had been questioned in them. And, apart from the modern equipment that they all now had, to allow for recording interviews etc., exactly the same as they had been for the last 100 years. So it was a sign of Sheila’s extreme irritation that Ms Flyn and Ms Flyn had been left to cool their heels in one of these rooms. Carla breezed in. ‘Good morning ladies, I’m Detective Inspector Right, I believe you asked to speak to me?’

  The two elderly ladies, who looked for all the world like a couple of characters out of an old Ealing comedy, were sitting bolt upright on the hard chairs. Both had a muddy terrier at their feet and both looked extremely angry.

  ‘About time too,’ said one of the women. ‘Phyllis and I have been made to wait here without even the offer of a cup of tea for nearly seventeen minutes. It’s shameful, and the way that young woman on the reception desk spoke to me …well let me just say that I will be writing to her superiors. As for the state…’

  Carla interrupted what was obviously going to be a long catalogue of grievances. ‘Let me just stop you there…um Ms Flyn is it? I am sure you must be aware that a young boy has gone missing and we are stretched to our limits trying to find him. So can you just tell me what it is that you so desperately wanted to tell me? I really haven’t got time to waste, so please…’

  Gladys Flyn looked as if she had plenty more to say; but the young detective was looking at her in such a no nonsense way, that she decided to leave that for another day.

  ‘It’s about those gypsies; you know the ones that have just moved onto our common without a care about anybody else.’

  Carla’s heart sank, and so it begins, she thought. ‘We are quite aware of the gypsy camp Ms Flyn. And I can assure you that it will be dealt with in due course. But unless you have something to tell me about our missing little boy I’m afraid I can’t help you…sorry that you have wasted your time but…’

  ‘Oh but it is about the missing child, that’s why we’re here,’ she interrupted eagerly. ‘Phyllis and I were out with the dogs on the common this morning, when we happened to come across the campsite. Well we were quite curious weren’t we Phyllis?’ Her sister nodded when required to. ‘So we went over just to ask how long they were intending to stay, nice and politely, like I said we were curious. When this man…ooh really rough he was with absolutely no manners. He said…well I won’t actually tell you what he said but it was shocking. Poor Phyllis nearly fainted didn’t you Phyllis?’ Another nod. ‘And I was just telling him how insulted I was when this other chap came over bringing a mangy looking dog with him…trying to scare us…’

  ‘I’m sorry Ms Flyn,’ interrupted Carla again, ‘but what has any of this to do with my missing boy?’

  ‘I’m just coming to that,’ she said glaring at Carla. ‘This other chap came over and tried to calm down the first man…well he told him off actually and was really quite civil. But I still told him I was going to report him and we started to walk away. Well Oliver, Phyllis’s Border terrier, started getting friendly with one of the camp dogs, so she stayed behind for a couple of minutes trying to get him away. And she said she distinctly heard the nice man say to the other one, that he’d seen something running through the wood last night. Nearly hit it with his car…that was it wasn’t it dear?’

  Carla turned to Phyllis, ‘Can you remember exactly what you heard Ms Flyn?’

  Phyllis looked nervously at her sister who gave her an encouraging nod. ‘Go ahead dear tell D.I Right what you heard.’

  Phyllis cleared her throat. ‘He said something like, “nearly came a cropper” or was it totalled, yes that was it he said he’d “nearly totalled his Land Rover” because something had run out in front of him. He said he thought it might have been a young girl, and he was asking the other man, the horrible one, if he’d seen it too.’

  ‘And had he… the other man…seen it I mean?’ asked Carla.

  ‘Oh no he said he thought the other man had imagined it. Seemed quite amused actually, you know in a nasty mocking way. Said how it was funny that big strong Duncan had been scared by shadows. Anyway the other man… um Duncan, he saw me watching then and so I dragged Ollie away. I didn’t hear any more,’ she looked up at Carla, ‘I hope that might be helpful to you dear.’

  ‘Oh well everything is helpful at this stage Ms Flyn; thank you for bringing this to my attention.’ She rose and ushered the two ladies and their dogs out, Gladys Flyn turned to her as they were about to leave.

  ‘You don’t think we could be in any danger do you reporting what we heard? Those gypsies, well you hear such awful stories don’t you? If they find out who snitched on them they might come after us.’

  Carla had to stop herself from laughing; she could see that the two ladies were seriously worried.

  ‘Please don’t worry; we would never reveal the source of our information. And anyway all you’ve told me is that one of them might have seen something he thought might be a girl, walking in the woods…it’s hardly incriminating is it? Thank you ladies once again,’ and with that Carla made her escape.

  In contrast to downstairs, the upper floor of the building seemed almost empty. Carla headed for her office. Everyone was out, either helping with the searches or going door to door. Detective constable Mandy Hopkins was in her usual place in front of a computer screen, trawling through the many CCTV camera images that they had of the areas in and around Kenley village that could be pertinent to the search. The Marshall house was situated quite close to a community centre that had been hosting a birthday party on the night in question so there were a great many people wandering around in that area until quite late at night, but so far nobody looked out of place or suspicious.

  ‘Mandy, did you manage to get me some info on the parents?’ asked Carla as she came up behind her and squinted at the screen.

  ‘Yes, nothing weird so far, he’s the son of Bernard Marshall, of Marshall and Watts the accountancy firm based in Redbank. Worth a bundle, they own that big glass fronted office block on the round-about just as you’re driving into town, you know the one?’ Carla nodded, ‘And what about Susan who are her parents do we know?’

  ‘Yes, just a mum; dad cleared off when she was small. Mum’s French but lives over here now because of illness, she’s recovering from bowel cancer so she needed to be near family…um Fiona Pulle’ pronounced pully. Gordon Marshall is, according to everyone that we asked, a descent chap, bit pompous, but works hard and is a real family man. Adores his kids; apparently they had trouble getting pregnant had the kids quite late, so this must be like…so awful I can’t imagine. Susan Marshall isn’t quite so universally liked; but of course no one will say why at this time. But it seems that she can be a bit up her own arse, if you’ll pardon the expression ma’m, bit of a snob in other words.’

  ‘Is she disliked enough for someone to do this to get back at her do you think?’ said Carla.

  ‘Bit extreme, I would have thought wouldn’t you? I mean key her car or slash her tyres; but kidnap her child, I can’t see it Ma’am.’

  ‘No me neither Mandy. Are Frank or Midge around?’ Mandy shook her head, ‘No they’re all out with the search Ma’am, there’s only me and Tessa here and she’s gone down to the front desk to give Sheila a hand on the switchboard.’

  ‘Ok, well I’m just off to the gypsy camp following up on a lead I got just now. If Ted needs me can you let him know, and I’m on my mobile anyway. After that I need to go to the hospital for about an hour, and then I’ll join him at the search.’

  ‘Right you ar
e Ma’am, I’ll let him know. Oh and can you give my love to Maggie when you see her, tell her we’re all thinking of her.’ Most of the village had heard about Jed’s accident by now; and Maggie was a well loved member of the community.

  ‘Will do,’ said Carla as she rushed off back down the stairs again. Luckily she had left her car in the station car park today, so she wouldn’t have to walk all the way up to the common. She was still feeling the after effects of her over indulgence the other night, and not at all in the mood for an uphill walk.

  The piece of muddy ground that doubled as a car park for the common, was particularly dirty this evening after a day of persistent drizzly rain. Carla stepped out of her car and straight into a deep puddle that filled her shoes with water.

  ‘Shit! I knew I should have stopped to pick up my wellies,’ she muttered, whilst emptying her shoe of water before squeezing it back over her soggy sock. Ted had said that the camp was on the lower meadow. Kenley Common was made up of the beautiful Glory Woods, which almost completely surrounded three large meadows that sloped downwards towards Kenley itself. The lower meadow was the furthest away and it took Carla a good twenty minutes of squelching along the muddy track before she had her first glimpse of the gypsy camp. A few caravans, she counted five, and of course the obligatory 4x4’s were parked on a flattish piece of land not far from the trees. It all looked quiet and, apart from a couple of dogs roaming around, deserted.

  But as she got closer a rather rough looking man, wearing a bright yellow raincoat that looked like it belonged on a fishing boat, came out of one of the vans and walked towards her. ‘Oh well here’s the welcoming committee,’ she thought as she stepped towards him with a smile on her face.

  ‘Evening,’ she said holding up her badge. ‘I’m Detective Inspector Right, I wondered if I might have a word with whoever is in charge here.’

  The man looked at her silently for a couple of seconds and then turned and went back into his van.

  Carla sighed and walked further into the camp; one of the dogs came towards her, growling quietly, Carla stood her ground, she was just about to go and knock on one of the van doors when the silent man came out of his van again this time followed by another man, just as scruffy, in a well worn duffle coat, sporting a flat cap and smiling wolfishly at Carla.

  ‘I wondered how long it would be before we had a visit from the local constabulary,’ he said showing a toothless mouth. ‘But we are honoured to have a Detective coming to visit us; usually we just get the local plod. I’ll save you the bother of telling me we’re trespassing officer; and I’ll tell you that we are not moving until you get a notice of eviction from the courts. No point in lots of argybargy that’s the bottom line…ok?’ he finished triumphantly.

  ‘Actually that’s not the reason I’m here,’ said Carla. ‘As you may or may not know a young boy was abducted from his home last night and…’

  The man turned on her angrily pointing his finger in her face.

  ‘Now don’t you be trying to pin that on us. Flaming ‘ell it’s always the bloody same wherever we go. A car goes missing; oh must be the pikeys, broken windows got to be the gypos. And now a missing boy and ‘ere you are, well you can just…’ Carla held up a hand.

  ‘Hang on, if you would just listen for one minute; I’m not here to accuse anyone of anything. But an elderly woman who spoke to one of you earlier today, overheard a man talking about seeing someone in the woods late last night…was that you?’

  ‘Oh that old trout, I bet she couldn’t wait to come and tell you what a load of scumbags we were. No it weren’t me that thought ‘e saw something, it were Duncan. But it were all in ‘is ‘ead, there weren’t nuffing otherwise I would ‘ave seen it too wouldn’t I? I’ll fetch him for you.’

  He walked off towards the van parked in the far corner and banged on the door. ‘Duncan someone ‘ere for you.’ Carla heard a sort of deep growly noise from inside the van. ‘It’s the police mate some woman needs to speak to you.’

  After a couple of moments the door opened and a giant of a man stepped out. At least 6’5 with a wide chest and huge arms, and with his dark straggly hair and a full beard, he reminded Carla of Hagrid from the Harry Potter books that she had been reading the children at bedtime. He turned his gaze on Carla and she was struck by how bright his eyes were, beautiful in fact if you could call a man’s eyes beautiful, he walked over to her and held out a huge hand.

  ‘Duncan McKinny, can I help you?’ Carla gave him her hand to shake, ‘Terry say’s you need to speak to me?’

  ‘Well actually Mr McKinny…’

  ‘Duncan please.’

  ‘Well actually Duncan I was just following up on some information that I received this afternoon. You were overheard telling your friend about having seen someone or something in the woods last night? I wondered if you could tell me about it.’

  ‘Oh right yes well I’m not sure what it was I saw…I was really tired and it could have easily been a trick of the light or a deer….’

  Carla sighed, another wild goose chase. ‘Well if you could just humour me, and tell me in your own words the events of last night. Firstly what time would you say it was, and roughly where were you?’

  Duncan began to look shifty; and Carla realised that he was worried that he might get someone into trouble for breaking down the barriers so that the caravans could get through to the common.

  ‘Look Duncan I’m not interested in anything to do with the camp,’ she reassured him, ‘I am only interested in anything that could help us find this little boy…so if you can just try and remember?’

  ‘Well it must have been about 1.45am I was trying to find where Terry had made a gap for the vans. But it was foggy and I had been on the road all day…anyway suddenly from nowhere this…thing appeared on the path in front of me. I don’t know but my first thought was that it was a young woman. I pulled over sharply to avoid it, bashed my front bumper if you must know and by then it…whatever it was, had disappeared.’

  ‘And whereabouts was this?’ Carla was furiously writing down everything Duncan was telling her.

  ‘Just beyond those trees,’ he pointed in the direction that Carla had just walked from, that led to the village.

  ‘Duncan try and think, do you remember anything else about her…was she carrying anything for instance, what type of clothing was she wearing or did you see her face?’

  Duncan sat quietly trying to picture the scene again in his mind; Carla kept quiet and let him think.

  Something suddenly seemed to occur to him and he looked up at Carla triumphantly.

  ‘No she was wearing a hood; but I did see a pair of eyes, very frightened eyes, I had thought they were hers, but now I do remember they couldn’t have been hers. She had a dark hood that covered her face; she must have had someone in her arms, because it or he looked straight at me just before they disappeared into the trees.

  CHAPTER 14

  She stood and waited outside the door; she hated that she had to keep him locked up, but it wouldn’t be for long…and she would make it up to him when they got home.

  There had been noises coming from his room all day today. Banging, scraping at the doors and windows and of course the inevitable crying and calling for his mum, but now it was quiet. And it had been for a while. Mary was toying with the idea of going in there to check on him. Just the thought of any harm coming to him sent a shiver of fear through her. She had prepared the room well, making sure that there was nothing with which he could hurt himself. But now she wasn’t so sure…should she go in?

  No, she thought, she must stick to the plan. She only had to keep him in there for a few days before help would come and take them far away from here, back home so that they could be a family again…what was that? She listened hard, she had heard a faint cry but…her shoulders relaxed, he was just dreaming. She could hear him breathing on the other side of the door…he was right there…her angel. She put her hand on the door as if trying to pass her love and comfor
t through the old splintered wood. Soon my angel…we’ll be together soon.

  CHAPTER 15 - 2007

  She looked up at his worried face and tried to hide her irritation.

  ‘I promise you that is what he said, if we have the money it could be as soon as three months or so, oh can you imagine it! How pleased your parents are going to be, this will be the making of us I know it will.’

  ‘Yes but can you trust this man?’ he asked nervously. ‘I mean they’re not known for their honesty are they, and where is he getting it from? It’s not like he can just pick one up from a supermarket is it? I’m not sure, I don’t think you’ve thought this through.’

  Her temper flared immediately and she had to struggle with herself to rein it in. She wouldn’t normally bother, but she needed him on side if her plan was going to work.

  ‘Oh for god’s sake what is wrong with you; who cares where they get it from, it will be ours. And no one will ever know any different as long as you keep your big mouth shut.’ She took another deep breath… ‘I will have to disappear for a while, I will think of a good reason, don’t worry. Oh please don’t spoil this for me squidgy bear, I will be ever so grateful for a long, long time…and you know how you like it when I’m grateful don’t you?’ She ran her fingers up his legs until she found his already hardened penis. She looked up from where she had been kneeling, he had his head thrown back in anticipation. She pulled down his zip and pushed her hands inside his underpants. Taking him into her mouth she let her mind wander…it would be worth it, all of this, just as long as she could persuade him to play his part. She heard him gasping and taking the lords name in vain as he climaxed into her month …she was confident she could.

  CHAPTER 16 - TRACY

  Tracy lifted her head from the toilet and wiped her mouth. She had tried to be quiet but her bathroom was downstairs off the hall and Simon was just a few yards away in the living room watching Emmerdale. There was only so much you could do to keep the noise down when retching! She brushed her teeth and rinsed her mouth out with cold water. This morning sickness palaver was beginning to take its toll. For one thing it wasn’t just in the mornings that she had her head down a toilet; it could happen at any time during the day. Also she’d gone off tea and eggs in a big way, just the thought of them could send her rushing up to the toilet. And Simon was definitely beginning to suspect that something was up. He had asked her three times last night if she was ok…it was no good she was going to have to tell him soon, she couldn’t put up with all this sneaking about for much longer.