Bring Them Home (Detective Karen Hart Book 1)

by D. S. Butler

  Mary was entitled to privacy, but her turning up at Karen’s door last night had changed things. Christine deserved to know the score, just in case Mary’s good-for-nothing partner showed his face.

  Christine smiled sadly. ‘I know you want to fix her, but sometimes things can’t be fixed. Sometimes all you can do is listen.’

  The dark Lincolnshire roads were almost empty so the journey up to Nettleham was swift. When Karen was halfway there, the caffeine kicked in and she managed to stop yawning.

  It was just before six when she walked into the open office area. Detectives from the night shift looked up from their desks, nodded and muttered good morning. There was no sign of Rick or Sophie yet but she knew they’d be in shortly.

  The light was on in DI Morgan’s office and Karen walked over and rapped on the door. When she heard his voice, she pushed it open and walked inside.

  ‘Morning. I hope you had a better night’s sleep than I did,’ she said.

  DI Morgan stifled a yawn. ‘I doubt it,’ he said. ‘The briefing won’t be until nine.’

  ‘Were there any developments overnight?’ Karen asked.

  ‘Numerous phone calls from the public and comments on social media. There was a potential sighting in Cherry Willingham which is being checked out, but I don’t think it’s going to lead us anywhere. An old lady reported children hanging around in her back garden last night in Heighington, but it turned out to be two teenage boys, who’d decided her shed was the perfect place to experiment with a bit of wacky baccy.’

  Karen rolled her eyes. ‘Great.’

  ‘Unfortunately, this is what happens when we make an appeal, but we have to hope some of the information we get is worthwhile.’

  ‘I wish there was a way we could sort the wheat from the chaff and make this a bit easier.’

  ‘So do I.’

  ‘I’m going to get myself a coffee from the vending machine,’ Karen said. ‘The way I’m feeling, I need to keep my caffeine levels topped up. Can I get you anything?’

  DI Morgan pulled a face and gestured to the half-empty cup on his desk. ‘Thanks, but I don’t think I can stomach more just yet. Surely we can get some better-quality coffee in.’

  ‘We used to have a proper machine in the mess room but it broke,’ Karen said. ‘I’ll make a start on sorting through the leads.’

  ‘Great. Last night, I was thinking things over and couldn’t get my mind off how oddly Matthew Saunders behaved when we questioned him. We should speak to him again,’ DI Morgan said. ‘This time on his own. There’s something about that man that makes me think he’s hiding something.’

  ‘I’ve got the same feeling about my visit to Nick Gibson,’ she said. ‘It’s hard to judge if he had anything to do with his niece’s disappearance, but he was a bit touchy.’

  DI Morgan considered this for a moment before saying, ‘Okay, we shouldn’t rule him out just yet. Let’s keep an eye on him.’

  Karen agreed. It was too early to count anyone out, especially someone so close to one of the children.

  ‘We’ll need someone to speak to the girls’ friends and the other children in the class,’ DI Morgan said. ‘There are twenty-five in Sian and Emily’s class. Most of them were spoken to briefly yesterday, but we need to keep digging. They might have seen something or one of the girls might have mentioned something that could be relevant.’

  ‘That’s going to take a while.’

  DI Morgan nodded. ‘It will. But the school’s opening today, and I spoke to Jackie Lyons. She’s happy for some officers to come in and talk to one child at a time. The complication, of course, is that they need a guardian with them. At half seven, we should start ringing the parents to get their permission. If they’re amenable, we can have a teacher present during the interview, or if they want, the parents can come to the school and attend the interview. It’s possible some will refuse, but most people should want to cooperate and help as best they can.’

  Karen hoped he was right. ‘Okay, lots to do. I’ll see you at the briefing.’

  Karen left DI Morgan’s office and walked through the general office space towards the vending machines in the corridor. She selected number twenty-three, white coffee with no sugar, and waited as the machine gurgled into life.

  As Karen was waiting, she heard a chirpy voice behind her. ‘Morning, Sarge.’

  She turned around to see a tired-looking Rick grinning at her.

  ‘Morning,’ she said, reaching down to take the coffee out of the dispenser. ‘Want one?’ she asked, lifting it up.

  Rick grimaced. ‘No, thanks. I had some at home. Any news?’

  They walked together back to the main office area, and Karen filled him in on the plans for the day.

  ‘I’ve never been very good with kids,’ Rick said, wrinkling his nose as he shrugged off his coat and flung it over the back of his chair. ‘Are we going to go over the questions beforehand?’

  Karen nodded. ‘Yes, we’ll do it after the briefing.’ She blew over the top of her coffee before taking a sip.

  ‘It was a cold one last night,’ Rick said. ‘It’s horrible to think of those girls out there.’

  Karen nodded. ‘Well, we’ve got lots of leads to work on today. A whole heap of sightings have been reported. Bob McKenzie’s coordinating the lines of enquiry. So you can get a bunch of paperwork from him and rule them out one by one. You should get through quite a few before the briefing.’

  ‘Righto,’ Rick said cheerfully, turning away and walking off to find Bob.

  Sophie came in fifteen minutes later, and Karen gave her an update. She was pleased to see Sophie was a little more eager than Rick to take part in the questioning of the children from Moore Lane School.

  Just before eight o’clock, the duty sergeant rushed into the office area. His cheeks were red, and he seemed out of breath.

  ‘I’ve been trying to get through to DI Morgan,’ he said, looking at Karen.

  Karen turned, looked over her shoulder and saw the boss was on the phone in his office. ‘If it’s an urgent call you can redirect it to my line.’

  ‘It’s not a call. I’ve got a woman downstairs. She’s a teacher at Washingborough Primary School.’

  Washingborough was a village less than a mile away from Heighington. Karen waited for him to continue.

  ‘She wants to talk to somebody about the missing girls. It turns out she thinks she saw a man hanging around her school yesterday, about lunchtime.’

  Karen raised her eyebrows and stood up. ‘And she’s still downstairs now?’

  ‘I showed her into interview room two. I thought you’d want to speak to her. You or DI Morgan.’

  ‘I do. Thanks very much.’

  Karen issued a few instructions to Rick and then scribbled a note for DI Morgan before walking into his office and sliding the note on to his desk.

  He picked up the piece of paper and scanned it. It appeared to be an important phone call because he nodded and gestured for her to continue without him.

  She grabbed her phone from her desk along with a notepad and pen and strode out of the office, along the corridor and then down the stairs to meet the teacher.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Karen opened the door to the interview room and found a nervous-looking woman sitting at the table. She had frizzy light brown hair, the type of curls that were impossible to tame.

  She looked up at Karen as she entered the room.

  ‘I understand you’re a teacher at Washingborough Primary,’ Karen said, offering her hand. ‘I’m Detective Sergeant Karen Hart.’

  The woman reached over the table to shake Karen’s hand. ‘You’re working on the case of the missing girls from Heighington?’

  Karen nodded and slid into a seat. ‘That’s right. What’s your full name?’

  ‘Tessa Grimes. I wasn’t sure whether to get in touch. I didn’t hear about what happened yesterday until early this morning when I checked Facebook, then I saw the email from our head teacher.’ Tessa
ran a hand through her unruly hair. ‘The thing is, you always have to be on your guard these days, and it might be of no importance but I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t tell you about it.’

  ‘Of course,’ Karen said, nodding encouragingly. ‘You were right to come to the station. What exactly did you see?’

  ‘Well, I didn’t see much at all. I was on playground duty and one of the children came up and said that another pupil was at the front of the school, talking to a man. By the time I got there, he’d spotted me and started walking across the street. I don’t think it was anything sinister but you do worry these days.’

  ‘Which pupil was he talking to?’

  ‘A year five pupil called Rachel Macintosh. I talked to her afterwards, of course. She didn’t seem distressed at all and said the man was just after the time.’

  ‘Why was Rachel at the front of the school?’

  ‘Well, I’m not sure if you’re familiar with Washingborough Primary, but there’s a playground, and a bit of grass that leads down to the front. The children often play there. There are railings and gates, so the children can’t get out. I don’t think Rachel was ever in any danger. I spoke to our head teacher about the incident, and we were going to send a letter out to the parents today. So that everyone’s on their guard. It can’t hurt to be too careful.’

  ‘I agree. Could you tell me what this man looked like?’

  Tessa pulled a face. ‘To be honest, I didn’t get a very good look at him. I can’t give you a good description. A couple of things that did stand out were his bright red hair and that he was very tall.’

  Karen felt her pulse rate spike. ‘Red hair?’

  Tessa nodded. ‘Yes, a vivid red. Very noticeable.’

  ‘Could you estimate how old he was?’

  ‘Let me see. I’d say he was probably mid-thirties, maybe a bit older.’

  Karen leaned forward eagerly. ‘This is really helpful. Thank you. Now, do you think Rachel and her parents would be happy with us talking to her this morning? Just to see if she can describe him or if he said anything else to her?’

  ‘I’m sure they’d be more than willing to help. Everybody’s probably heard about the poor missing girls by now. If it helps them get them home safely, I’m sure they’d be pleased to help.’ Tessa put her palms flat on the table and studied the back of her hands. ‘You just don’t think this sort of thing could happen in our neck of the woods.’

  ‘It is very rare,’ Karen said. ‘But it’s good that you’re alert. It’s probably a good idea to stop the children playing near the gates.’

  ‘You’re right. I can’t bear to think of one of our children being taken.’

  Karen asked Tessa a few more questions, making careful notes. ‘What time did this happen?’

  ‘It was about twelve forty-five yesterday. The children were in the playground for their lunch break.’

  Karen noted down the time. Had the same man who talked to Rachel then gone on to snatch Emily and Sian a few hours later? Or had they snuck away from school early and come across this red-headed predator?

  Karen wrapped things up with Tessa Grimes and thanked her for her time. Tessa had given her the mobile number for Sarah Macintosh, Rachel Macintosh’s mother.

  Karen could barely wait to get out of the interview room and back to the office to inform DI Morgan of what she had uncovered. This could be the best lead they’d had so far.

  Back in the shared office area, Karen grinned at Rick and walked up to his desk.

  ‘You’re looking pleased with yourself, Sarge,’ Rick said. ‘I take it that teacher had something useful to tell us.’

  ‘She did indeed, Rick. She told me there was a man spotted at the gates of Washingborough Primary School yesterday lunchtime. That was just a few hours before Emily and Sian went missing.’

  Rick nodded eagerly. ‘Did you get a description?’

  ‘The teacher didn’t get a good look at him, but one thing she did say is that he had red hair.’

  Rick let out a slow whistle. ‘You’re thinking of the Palmers again, aren’t you?’

  Karen shrugged. ‘I’m not jumping to any conclusions. But Jasper Palmer does have bright red hair.’

  Rick nodded slowly and widened his eyes. ‘What did DI Morgan say?’

  ‘I haven’t spoken to him yet,’ Karen said. ‘I’ve got a job for you first. Are you familiar with Washingborough?’

  Rick shook his head. ‘I think I’ve passed through once or twice. But I don’t know it well.’

  ‘Well, the school is opposite the Co-op and thanks to a ram raid on the cashpoint last year, they’ve upgraded their CCTV system.’

  A broad grin spread across Rick’s face. ‘So you’re thinking we might have CCTV footage covering the school gates.’

  ‘Exactly. With any luck, we’ll be able to tell if it was Jasper Palmer. So I want you to get hold of the CCTV and go through the footage.’

  Rick reached for his phone. ‘Not a problem. I’ll get straight on it.’

  Karen gave him a thumbs-up and headed to DI Morgan’s office to fill him in.

  ‘Rick’s looking into the CCTV footage now,’ she told him. ‘I’ll ask Sophie if she’ll give him a hand. I’m planning to go and talk to Sarah Macintosh and her little girl Rachel. She was the one who got the best look at him, so she might be able to give us a better description of the red-headed man. At the very least, we should be able to find out what he said to her, and that could reveal whether there’s a link between the man talking to Rachel at the school gates and Emily and Sian disappearing a couple of hours later.’

  DI Morgan nodded and threw his pen down on the desk. ‘Excellent. This could be the breakthrough we need. If he was disturbed and wasn’t able to abduct Rachel perhaps he went on to Heighington and Emily and Sian weren’t quite so fortunate.’

  ‘Do we have enough manpower to assign the interviews of the Heighington primary pupils to other officers?’ Karen asked, remembering their original plan for the morning.

  ‘Yes, it shouldn’t be a problem.’

  ‘I’ll speak to the school now, then give Sarah Macintosh a call. After that, with your permission, sir, I’d like to put some pressure on Jasper Palmer.’

  DI Morgan hesitated and then shook his head. He leaned back in his chair. ‘I think it might be a bit soon. We should wait until the CCTV images come through. We can plan a strategy after that.’

  Karen wanted to argue. She wanted to explain that when dealing with people like Nigel and Jasper Palmer you needed to turn up the heat, but she knew that wasn’t the way DI Morgan operated. He liked logical, sensible procedural work based on evidence not gut feelings.

  Karen managed to swallow her protests and nodded. ‘Okay. That makes sense. I’ll arrange to talk to the little girl and her mother and then we’ll see what we get from the CCTV.’

  ‘I think that’s the best course of action,’ DI Morgan said, and when Karen was almost at the door, he looked up and said, ‘Good work, DS Hart.’

  Karen smiled over her shoulder and then disappeared out into the office area to call Sarah Macintosh.

  Karen drummed her fingers impatiently against her desk as she waited for Rachel Macintosh’s mother to answer her mobile. After the first call rang out, Karen punched in the number again, and this time the phone was picked up on the third ring.

  ‘Hello?’ a female voice answered, sounding somewhat harassed.

  ‘Hello, is that Mrs Macintosh?’

  ‘It is, but if you’re selling something, I’m not interested. I’m trying to get my daughter ready for school.’

  ‘I’m not selling anything. My name is Detective Sergeant Karen Hart, and I’m calling from Nettleham Police Headquarters.’

  Karen’s words were met with a stunned silence on the other end of the phone, so she continued. ‘I apologise for calling you so early, but I hoped to have a word with you and your daughter Rachel this morning.’

  ‘Rachel? Whatever for?’

  ‘Yes
terday, when Rachel was at school, a man approached the school gates and spoke to your daughter. I believe Tessa Grimes, one of the teachers, told you what happened.’

  ‘Yes, but it was nothing serious. Rachel said the man just asked what the time was. I mean, it did sound a bit odd, but do you really think she needs to talk to the police about it? I’ve given her the talk again about stranger danger and warned her not to talk to anyone hanging around outside the school.’

  ‘I’m not sure if you’re aware of the two little girls who went missing from their school in Heighington yesterday afternoon?’

  Karen heard the woman’s sharp intake of breath. ‘No! I hadn’t heard. God, how awful. Do you think it was the man Rachel was . . .?’

  ‘We don’t know. It’s possible that it was a completely innocent encounter, but considering what happened just a few miles away a couple of hours later, we’d like to speak to Rachel. Of course, we’d like you to be present, and we’re not going to do or say anything to upset Rachel.’

  ‘Absolutely. I understand. When do you want to talk to Rachel?’

  ‘As soon as possible. I wanted to ask where you think Rachel would be more comfortable. I could come to your house, or I could talk to her at school.’

  There was silence as Sarah Macintosh thought for a moment and then she said, ‘I think it might be better at school. If that’s okay with you?’

  ‘No problem. I could be at the school in about half an hour.’

  ‘Okay.’

  ‘Great, I’ll see you soon. Thank you for your help.’

  Karen hung up and called Tessa Grimes on her mobile.

  ‘Hello?’ The sound of traffic made her voice sound distant.

  ‘Hi, Tessa, it’s DS Hart.’

  ‘Did I forget something?’

  ‘No, I’m sorry to bother you again so soon. Were you driving?’

  ‘Yes, but I’ve pulled into a lay-by. What is it?’

  ‘I’ve just spoken to Rachel’s mother, and she believes that Rachel would feel more comfortable talking to me at the school. I hoped we could meet her there in thirty minutes.’