‘We don’t know that, Martha,’ Best replied gently. ‘They could simply be making you wait, getting back at you for making them wait for the full amount they wanted.’
‘Yes, that’s probably what they’re doing! They’ll ring soon, surely.’ Richard latched onto Best’s words, as if squeezing them for the tiniest drop of hope to present to his wife. He watched her turn, shaking her head as she silently went upstairs. There was nothing he, the police, nor Elaine could do; she was a grieving mother, convinced that her precious son was dead.
DI Radford arrived at the Stones’ house shortly after Martha had gone upstairs. He and DS Best had a brief whispered conversation in the hallway before Radford joined Richard and Elaine in the lounge.
‘You’re sure they were in the same vehicle?’ he asked Richard again.
‘Yes, the same white transit van. I didn’t get a good look at the number plate but I assume it was still covered.’ Richard really didn’t feel like answering the detective’s questions but he knew they must move quickly if they were to find Danny. ‘Do you think they’ve ... killed him?’ Richard could hardly form the words, they sounded so absolute, so final.
‘They’ve got no reason to do that. My guess would be that they’ll leave him somewhere and get themselves as far away as possible,’ Radford answered.
‘But why didn’t they ring me like they said?’
‘Men like that aren’t going to worry about keeping their word. They’ll possibly leave Danny where he can get help and as we don’t know where they’ve been keeping him, it could take a while to reach him. We’re searching all the CCTV cameras on that stretch of road, looking for the van, and when we find it hopefully we can follow its route to their destination.’
Richard excused himself and went upstairs for a shower and to put on some clean clothes; if they did locate Danny he wanted to be ready to go to him immediately. As he peeled off his clothes in the bathroom, he looked at the extent of his injuries. His ribs were bruised and the pain was a sure sign that at least one of them was broken. His abdomen was beginning to bruise too and felt very tender. Although the hot water felt good, his legs would hardly support him and he needed to get out of the shower and sit down.
Martha lay on their bed, her eyes open, staring at the ceiling. When Richard was dressed he moved to sit on the bed next to her and took her hand. There was no response and he could think of nothing to tell her that would ease the seemingly hopeless situation, so he simply held her hand in silence.
After ten minutes or so, Elaine knocked on their bedroom door and entered.
‘They’ve found the van, or at least they know which direction it took!’ She sounded hopeful and Richard stood to go downstairs. He looked at his wife; she didn’t seem to have heard her mother’s words and still lay silently, staring into space. Richard left her; if nothing came of this, false hope would only make her feel worse. He followed Elaine downstairs where DI Radford was on the telephone. DS Best explained what was happening.
‘We managed to pick up the van as it left the service station and it’s been tracked for about twelve miles, until it turned off the motorway onto a minor road. Obviously there are no cameras there but DI Radford is trying to get permission to mobilise a helicopter search of the area. The van’s plates were covered in mud so we can’t track ownership, but who else would be driving with covered plates?’ Best stopped speaking and they looked at Radford who was talking quite animatedly into his phone.
After the DI finished his call, the tension in the room was palpable. ‘We’re doing all that’s humanly possible, but a few prayers wouldn’t come amiss,’ Radford said eventually. ‘The helicopter will be mobilised immediately and we’ve got several cars going to the area where the van was last spotted. As soon as the helicopter locates the van there’ll be someone on the ground within minutes.’
‘What are the chances of them finding the right van?’ Elaine asked.
‘Well, they’re starting at the point the cameras lost track of them. The immediate area isn’t a heavily populated one, in fact there are only a few scattered farm houses and one or two villages in that vicinity. The helicopter, with its bird’s eye view, can cover a much greater area than the cars. I think the kidnappers will have parked up somewhere by now and somewhere not too far from where they left the motorway. If the van’s out in the open, they’ll find it.’
During the next hour the detective’s phone rang several times. The first call was to confirm that the helicopter had been mobilised and was within fifteen minutes of the point where the van left the road. When he imparted this news, Richard was visibly disappointed.
‘But they could be miles away by now.’
‘I shouldn’t think so. They must be hiding your son somewhere within a reasonable proximity to Bristol and they won’t want to risk too much driving on the open roads. Let’s just wait and see, shall we?’ Radford advised.
Richard nodded; he feared the worst, but hoped there was some truth in the detective’s reasoning. There was another call to confirm that the search of the area where the van had left the motorway had commenced. Much of the land was given over to farming but the majority was apparently woodland.
The next call appeared to be the breakthrough they’d all been hoping for. The helicopter had spotted a white van parked beside farm buildings in a rather isolated spot. Richard ran up to tell Martha while Radford kept his phone open for a real time commentary from the helicopter.
‘Don’t, Richard ... don’t give me false hope. Danny’s dead, I know it!’
Martha had clearly lost all hope. She did, however, agree to go back downstairs with Richard. Richard looked expectantly at DS Best for an update.
‘The helicopter’s guiding two of our cars in now. It’s less than a couple of miles from the main road and it seems likely that it is our crew.’
The Stones sat together on the sofa, Richard holding his wife’s hand. Elaine sat on the other side of her daughter; it was as if she was being propped up by them. The one-sided conversation which they could hear sounded promising. The cars had apparently reached the farm house where the van was parked and Radford was waiting for an interim report from the officers on the ground. It seemed like time was moving slowly, when in reality everything was unfolding very quickly.
DI Radford listened intently to what was happening, his expression mostly unreadable, when suddenly he closed his phone and sat down opposite Richard and Martha, his face grim.
‘I’m sorry to have to tell you this, but my officers have found the body of a young boy,’ Radford said.
Martha dropped her head into her lap and began to sob. Richard too had tears running down his face and Elaine looked pale and in shock.
‘There’s been no identification yet, so we don’t know that it’s Danny...’
‘Don’t be ridiculous — how many boys have gone missing in this area? Of course it’s Danny!’ Richard was furious with the detective for being so crass. Why would the man give them false hope when they had found their son’s body?
The minutes ticked by in silence, apart from the two women, weeping quietly. Best approached Richard and asked if he should call their GP for them, who could perhaps give Martha a sedative. Richard shrugged the suggestion off. What they really needed, and the only thing which would make them feel any better, was to find the men who had killed their boy and make them pay for their deed.
Chapter 29
Danny was startled by the sudden noise, but knew instinctively that it was a gun. For a moment he froze, looking back toward his friend, lying on the floor, not moving and with blood pouring from his chest. He could be dead, Danny thought, and the cold stark reality made him moan.
It should have been me! Lewis was trying to save me!
The thought hit him hard and hot tears streamed down his face. Things seemed to move in slow motion then and he watched helplessly as Sally, screaming, fell to her knees beside her son. Danny knew he must do something �
�� if he didn’t escape then Lewis would have been shot for nothing. He ran into the wood and clung to a large tree, hugging its trunk as if the very solidness of it could protect him.
He greedily gulped in the fresh, cold air while thoughts of his parents flashed through his mind. Danny wondered what had happened. Had his dad handed over the money? Danny realised that now Pete had killed Lewis, he would almost certainly want to kill him too, as he’d now witnessed so much more than a kidnapping. Danny desperately wanted to go back to Lewis, to see if he might still be alive and if he could help his mother to save him, but fear kept him frozen to that tree trunk.
Through the trees, Danny saw Pete drop the gun.
‘You bloody fool!’ Dave was shouting.
Pete turned sharply and slapped Dave across the face with the back of his hand.
‘Go and get the boy, now!’ Pete screamed, and Dave began to run towards the trees.
Danny began to run as fast as he could, on through the trees, hoping to find safety away from the house and his kidnappers. Branches caught in his hair and clothing, scratching his face, but he hardly noticed, his singular focus was on getting as far away from that farmhouse as he possibly could.
After several minutes, Danny needed to stop again to catch his breath. He leaned against a tree and gulped in some deep breaths, the cold air again filling his lungs, giving him the strength to continue. There was no discernible path now but he knew he needed to keep moving. For a moment he held his breath and listened for any kind of noise which would mean that Dave was getting closer.
Nothing. Only the birds singing their songs, oblivious to the horrors being played out in their wood. Danny looked all around, unsure of where he was. Lewis had said they might find another farm through the trees but so far there was no sign of any human life.
Danny switched to a jog, like they did in cross country runs at school, knowing that pacing himself would be the best way to reserve his stamina and eventually get out of the wood. He felt sure that if Dave caught up with him he would be able to hear the noise of the heavy man approaching. Perhaps he’d given up searching, but Danny didn’t think so, and set off again at a slower pace to conserve his energy.
The trees were growing thicker and the ground was wet and boggy from the torrential rain. Twice he slipped, falling to his knees in the wet undergrowth, but he got up and carried on, although he longed to sit down and rest. The wood seemed to go on forever and Danny began to wonder if he was going round in circles. Perhaps his judgement was impaired by the fear he felt, as well as the hunger and thirst which made him feel quite weak. Without a path to follow it was difficult to gauge how far he’d run, but hopefully it would make it more difficult for Dave to follow him too.
After another ten or fifteen minutes running, Danny felt it was safe to stop and rest. He sat down under a large chestnut tree, oblivious to the cold and the wet which began seeping through his clothes. As his breathing slowed, he listened for any noises which would tell him if his pursuer was nearby, but there was nothing other than the sounds of the birds and his own breath.
The wet earthy smell was almost a comfort after the days he’d spent inside and tiredness crept over Danny. He wished he could curl up and sleep but then another sound intruded into his thoughts — the distant sound of traffic. Could he be near a road? He stood up, turning towards the direction the sounds were coming from and began to walk towards the road.
Chapter 30
DI Radford and DS Best left the Stones’ home and were on their way to the scene, being constantly kept up to speed with any developments over the radio. They were told that a man and a woman had been arrested at the scene, and that the dead child was called Lewis and the woman at the farmhouse was his mother. Best hurriedly rang Suni to update her and the family that Danny might still be alive, but was still missing.
When they arrived at the scene, DI Radford wanted to speak to the man and woman who had been arrested. Firstly he got in the car with the man, who had given his name as Dave Fox.
‘My officer tells me that you said Danny ran off into the wood. This wouldn’t be a ploy to give your accomplice time to get away, would it?’ Radford stared directly into Dave’s eyes.
‘No, it’s true, honest! When Pete pointed the gun and it went off, we were all startled, then Lewis fell and the other boy, Danny, ran off, scared to death I dare say.’
‘And why should I believe you now? You’re a kidnapper and now an accomplice to murder.’ Radford kept up the steely stare.
‘I might have gone along with the kidnapping part, but I didn’t sign up to killing anyone! He’s a mad man, that Pete Turner, he’s the one who pulled the trigger and that’s when I decided it’d gone too far. Turner’s the one you want. I waited with Sal knowing you’d soon be all over the place, because I couldn’t leave her in the state she was in.’ Dave held the detective’s gaze and Radford decided that he was telling the truth. He got out from the car and told the PC to take the prisoner back to Bristol. As the car moved off, Radford rang the station to get the name Peter Turner put through the computer.
‘Let me know what you find out as soon as you have anything,’ he said and then he moved to the other car, the one with the woman inside. Sally didn’t seem to register his presence; she was still rocking backwards and forwards and digging her nails into her arms until they bled.
‘Sally, can you tell me what happened here?’ he asked.
‘He’s dead, my baby’s dead!’ They were the only words she could manage to speak. When it was clear that she could say nothing else which would help them, Radford gave up trying and gave the okay to take her back to Bristol too.
The farm house, barn and outbuildings had all been searched by the armed officers, who established that there was no one else on the premises. DS Best had gone into the woods to join in the search for Danny, so Radford began to familiarise himself with the farm, beginning outside, with the body of the boy.
Radford stood in silence, looking at the pale face and open, staring eyes. Yellow tape had already been wrapped around metal stakes in the muddy ground, to preserve the scene and avoid contamination of possible evidence. The tape fluttered in the wind like bright ribbons.
A car pulled up in front of the farmhouse and the coroner got out. He moved to the boot of his car and began suiting up, again to avoid contamination of the crime scene. Radford knew George Wilson and walked towards his car. The coroner shook his head.
‘A child’s always the worst, Don. Is it your kidnap victim?’ Wilson asked.
‘Apparently not. There’s no ID yet of course, but it looks like another boy who was in some way involved in the kidnapping, or maybe just got caught in the crossfire. We’re still looking for our child; he’s thought to have run off into the wood. I’ll leave you to get on with it.’ Radford walked towards the house.
The farm house was cold and damp, but surprisingly had electricity and water. Furnishings were sparse but a television was in the lounge and a microwave oven and kettle in the kitchen, which suggested recent occupancy. Upstairs the only bedroom with anything in it at all was the small room, with only a single grubby looking mattress, a couple of blankets and a stinking bucket in the corner. Bolts on the outside of the door confirmed to Radford that this was the room where Danny had been kept.
Wire grills were on the outside of every window and as the detective stood to look at the area from the upstairs window, he shuddered. Being kept in such circumstances would have been frightening for an adult, but how much more fearful would it have been for Danny?
Radford left the house as the police crime scene officers began to arrive and tape the building off. He moved on to the barn, where the first thing he noticed was that a tarpaulin had been thrown to one side. Perhaps it had covered another of the kidnappers’ vehicles, as the white van was still in the courtyard. He would soon find out from the man who’d stayed at the scene — he seemed to want to co-operate.
Clear tyre tracks l
ed out of the barn, imprinted in the mud, which would tell them something about the vehicle. Radford would mention it to the PCSO’s. There were also two full cans of petrol, making Radford wonder if the plan had been to torch the buildings when they left, to destroy any evidence of their activity. Could they have intended leaving Danny in the house as it burned? Perhaps not, if this was the same crew responsible for snatching the girl in DI Priestly’s case. But whatever their plan, things seemed to have gone awry and the kidnappers had parted company.
The DI stood pensively in the farmyard, looking towards the woods. As far as he was aware the trees covered several acres of land in which Danny could very easily get lost. If he heard the search party calling his name, would he think it was the kidnappers and hide?
The DI’s thoughts were interrupted by his phone. DS Simms was ringing from the station.
‘I’ve run that background check on Turner, sir. He has a history of petty crime as a teenager, shoplifting mainly. It seems he was in the care of Social Services and absconded a couple of times, then he graduated to joy-riding at seventeen, but we have nothing more after that. It looks like he either went straight, or has managed not to get caught since then.’
‘Sadly it seems to be the latter. Thanks for that, Julie.’
Radford rang DS Best next to see how things were going but there was no news, it was still too early. The woodland was dense and apart from a path leading into it, there were no obvious pathways which the boy might have followed.
Chapter 31
Danny lost count of how many times he slipped in the mud. The cold, wet earth seemed to seep through his clothing until he could barely feel his fingers and toes. He’d scratched his face on the branches and blood ran down his cheek into his mouth, tasting bitter and metallic. He had no idea of how long he’d been running either, driven on by fear for his life.
Snatched Page 14
