Missing Believed Dead

by Chris Longmuir

  Emma turned on her brother. ‘You want Mum to have another breakdown?’ she demanded furiously. ‘You know what she was like the last time.’ She seemed to remember Bill was there, and added, ‘She’s never been the same since Jade disappeared but at least she’s stabilized now and this will set her off again.’

  It was obvious they were unaware their mother had phoned the department so all he said was, ‘I’m sorry if it will upset your mother but we do have to take another look at the circumstances around Jade’s disappearance. It could help because there have been others.’

  ‘D’you think we don’t know that? We read the newspapers, and it hasn’t helped Mum. It’s only stirred things up again.’

  ‘Maybe it might help her if she knows we’re reinvestigating Jade’s disappearance. At least she’ll know we haven’t given up on finding her.’

  ‘Emma’s right, what good is false hope going to do her? Jade’s not going to come back now.’ Ryan’s voice was flat and Bill thought he saw tears in the young man’s eyes before he turned away.

  Bill reckoned nothing could be gained by interviewing Ryan and Emma while they were in this state. ‘I’ll come back when your mother’s at home,’ he said, before turning to walk back to the car. The door slammed behind him.

  His mobile rang while he was inserting his car key into the door. Sliding into the driving seat he lifted the phone to his ear. ‘On my way,’ he said, put the car into gear and headed for the Overgate multi-storey car park.

  Chapter Eight

  After the door slammed shut, Emma and Ryan stood silent, deep in thought. Ryan was the first to speak.

  ‘D’you suppose after all this time she is still alive?’

  Emma desperately wanted Jade to be alive, to walk in the door as if nothing had happened, and for a moment she almost believed it was possible. In her heart she wanted it to be so, but her head told her otherwise.

  ‘Of course she’s not,’ she grated. ‘She would have come home long before now if she had been.’

  Ryan blinked hard and Emma thought she saw the glint of a tear.

  ‘Why d’you think the cops are interested in Jade after all this time?’ He turned his back on her and walked down the hall to the lounge.

  Emma followed him. ‘It’s not about Jade. It’s about all the other girls who have disappeared. They think if they reopen her case it will look good in the papers. It’ll look as if they’re doing something.’

  ‘I suppose.’ Ryan sounded doubtful. ‘It’ll upset Mum though.’

  Emma flopped into an armchair, leaned back and closed her eyes. She remembered only too well how Jade’s disappearance had affected her mother. Overnight she had changed from a confident career woman into a neurotic wreck with an obsession for cleanliness. Her father had been no use, he had lapsed into an alcoholic haze, while Ryan couldn’t stop crying long enough to offer any support. It had been down to Emma. She’d had to grow up fast, and at thirteen she had said goodbye to her childhood.

  ‘I have to go to the club with the mock-up for Tony’s website. I’ll see Mum there and let her know what’s happening.’

  ‘Yeah, you do that,’ Emma said.

  It was time Ryan started to pull his weight. She hoped he wouldn’t botch it and upset Mum even more.

  * * * *

  Diane lugged the vacuum cleaner up the stairs. The hose kept getting in the way of her feet, and her arms and shoulders ached. Stopping at the top she clutched her breast and waited for her breathing to become calmer, before pushing open the door into the night club. This was where many of Tony’s customers, mostly men, gathered to watch the pole dancers and strippers while they paid exorbitant prices for their drinks.

  The night club was fancier than the downstairs disco, with its plush red chairs, and glass topped tables edged with mahogany. A circular glass stage, with several silvery poles reaching to the ceiling, dominated the middle of the room, and she thought it must be here the dancers performed. However the carpet and chairs were grubby and the whole room had a tawdry look, which no doubt wouldn’t be noticed when the entertainment was at its height.

  Diane plugged the cleaner into a wall socket and lapsed into a semi-aware state, listening to the buzz of the motor as she pushed the machine over the red carpet, which in her opinion could have done with a deeper clean.

  Feeling less than satisfied with the job she’d done, she pulled back the red velvet curtain on the back wall. Marlene had left the door open for her and she passed through it, lugging the vacuum cleaner up another flight of stairs.

  Compared to the disco toilets, Tony’s en suite bathroom wasn’t difficult to clean, although the marble tops and gold fittings made her eyes widen.

  Likewise, the huge mahogany desk and the leather armchairs positioned in front of a large one-way glass wall, and the deep pile carpet, provided a feeling of luxury that was absent from the club area.

  ‘You’re not the usual cleaner.’

  Tony’s voice made Diane jump. ‘No, sir,’ she said, switching off the vacuum cleaner. ‘Bella’s off sick and Marlene asked me to clean up here.’ She pulled the electric plug out and started to reel in the cable. ‘I usually clean downstairs.’

  ‘Ah,’ he said, looking at her appraisingly.

  Heat suffused Diane’s body and she turned away to avoid the penetrating stare of his eyes. It had been a long time since a man had looked at her in that way and she found it embarrassing.

  ‘Don’t mind me,’ he said. ‘I won’t get in your way.’

  ‘It’s all right,’ she mumbled. ‘I’m finished here anyway. I only have the nightclub toilets to clean and then I’m done.’ She picked up the vacuum cleaner and left the office as fast as possible. Anything to get away from those eyes.

  Downstairs once more, she stashed the machine beside the others at the back of the small room at the end of the back lobby, which was known as the cleaners’ cupboard. Each cleaner had her own equipment as well as her own area of responsibility. Bella, when she was not off sick, cleaned the upstairs nightclub and Tony’s office; Diane cleaned the entrance hallway as well as the downstairs disco and bar, while wee Lizzie cleaned the lounge bar and the Members Only area in the small room behind it.

  ‘They watch porn movies in there,’ she had whispered to Diane one day, ‘but I’m not supposed to know.’

  At the time, Diane had shrugged. It made no difference to her what went on, but she had warned Emma to stay clear of that part of the club when her daughter had landed the temporary barmaid job.

  Grabbing a bucket she filled it with scalding water. The nightclub had a better class of customer so the upstairs toilets shouldn’t be as bad as the disco ones, but they would still need a good scrub.

  * * * *

  It was the good-looking blond one who admitted Ryan to the club. ‘Come to see the boss, have you?’

  Ryan looked up into the man’s face and nodded, not trusting himself to speak.

  ‘The name’s Phil,’ he said, holding out his hand.

  Ryan took it. The warmth sent a shiver down his spine.

  Phil smiled. ‘I expect we’ll be seeing a lot more of each other.’ He was still holding Ryan’s hand.

  A door opened and the moment was lost. Phil let go of his hand and said, ‘Follow me.’ He led the way up the corridor, hesitated a moment at the bottom of the stairs, and turned to look back at Ryan. ‘Come on, if you’re coming.’ There was a hint of suggestion in his voice.

  Heat spread from Ryan’s neck into his face and he tightened his grasp on the briefcase. The fingers of his other hand were tingling from the contact with Phil, and he wondered what was happening to him. After all, he was a normal guy, wasn’t he? He should not be having these feelings. Pulling himself together he strode towards Phil. ‘I was just checking I had everything,’ he mumbled.

  Phil laughed. ‘Sure,’ he said. The note of suggestion was still in his voice.

  Ryan’s knees suddenly felt weak but he followed Phil up the stairs to the nightclub.
They had just pushed through the door when he spotted his mother coming towards them.

  ‘Ryan?’ she said placing the bucket of water on the floor.

  ‘I’m seeing Tony about his website,’ Ryan explained. ‘I shouldn’t be long, wait for me and I’ll drive you home.’

  Diane nodded and picked up her bucket. ‘I’ll wait for you in the cleaners’ room off the back lobby.’

  Phil laid his hand on Ryan’s arm. ‘Are you coming, or what? Tony doesn’t like to be kept waiting,’ he said.

  Ryan nodded and followed him through the deserted night club which looked a lot different from the last time he had been in it. Then, the glitter-ball had spun shafts of light over the dancing girls below, writhing round the silver poles on the uplighted glass stage, and the men sitting at the tables, watching. He remembered his disgust when a man at a nearby table inserted a note into the g-string of the girl lap dancing in front of him and how the man’s finger lingered and caressed her skin. Rage had swamped him, catching him unawares, reflecting his hatred of men who took advantage of women.

  Phil pushed aside the red velvet curtain covering the wall and tapped a number into the keypad of the door behind it. Ryan followed him up the stairs and into the office.

  Tony moved away from the one-way mirrored wall which overlooked the club, strode to the door and grasped Ryan’s hand in a firm handshake. ‘You’ve got something for me?’ He seemed in a better mood than the last time Ryan had been here.

  ‘Yes,’ Ryan said. ‘I think you’ll like it this time.’

  ‘Let me see what you’ve got.’

  Ryan walked over to the desk, opened his briefcase and laid out sheets of paper. ‘These are mock-ups but the finished thing will have animations. You see the banner here? I thought we could have spotlights sweeping over the name of the club which will have a glitterball circling behind it and sending out facets of light.’ He paused to gauge the effect on Tony, before continuing. ‘A midnight blue background should set the lights off to perfection and I thought the name should be in gold lettering.’

  ‘That sounds good.’ Tony picked up one of the sheets of paper. ‘The photographs down the side, will they be animated as well?’

  ‘Yes.’ Ryan could hardly contain his excitement. ‘The photos of the club will be in a slide show that cycles through all the different areas of the club, and below that I’ll put a framed programme of events.’

  ‘I see.’

  ‘In the middle will be a list of facilities with icon logos that can be clicked on to give more details. And the left side will have all the links to the different pages of your site.’

  Tony tapped the page. ‘Remember what we discussed about having one of the dancers featured on the site?’

  ‘Once you approve the general layout I’ll come back with my video camera and get that done.’

  ‘Right, I’ll phone you as soon as I’ve set it up. We’ll use Angel. She’s my best dancer.’ Tony handed the sheet of paper back to Ryan. ‘See him out, Phil.’

  Ryan scooped up the other papers and snapped his briefcase shut. ‘Thank you, sir,’ he said, but Tony had turned away.

  * * * *

  Diane washed her bucket, tidied the cleaning stuff away, and waited for Ryan. But she couldn’t settle and, taking a polishing cloth, she started to wipe down the shelves.

  She had finished cleaning the shelves, mopped the floor and polished her bucket before she heard footsteps in the lobby. Opening the door, she peered out. ‘Ryan,’ she said as her son approached, ‘I’m in here.’

  Ryan hugged her. She relaxed, winding her arms round his wiry body. He had never been big and as a child had been bullied because he was smaller than the others, but that had never mattered to her. ‘Good things come in small parcels,’ she had always said.

  ‘Mum.’ His voice sounded anxious.

  ‘Yes?’

  ‘We had a visit from that policeman today. You know, the one who came when Jade disappeared.’

  Diane froze. Time stopped. She struggled to breathe. ‘They’ve found her! Thank God! I knew they would . . . ’

  ‘No Mum, they haven’t found her. But the cop said they’re looking into it again.’

  Diane’s heart missed a beat and she struggled to overcome her disappointment. ‘But don’t you see,’ she said, ‘that must mean they have new information and they’ll find her.’

  Ryan’s eyes were troubled.

  ‘They will find her. I know they’ll find her.’ Diane wrapped her arms more tightly round her son’s waist. ‘They will find her,’ she repeated.

  Chapter Nine

  Kate held her ID up to the constable, lifted the blue tape and ducked under it. Grasping her hands behind her back, she surveyed the top storey of the car park.

  The place was large, gloomy, and smelled of fumes. She could hear rustling noises and footsteps and even the sound of her own breathing. It was the kind of place where even the smallest sound would bounce off the bare walls. She looked up to the ceiling to check out the CCTV cameras, and made a mental note to acquire the tapes.

  Most of the cars were gone, although the ones nearest to the shadowy corner, where the dirty white van was parked, were still there. The van’s rear doors were open and a white-clad scene of the crime officer was busy working on them.

  Outside the tape, in the opposite corner, two boys were guarded by a WPC. One of them was crying.

  She hesitated before going any further and, turning back to the policeman, said, ‘What’s the story?’

  The constable pointed to the two boys. ‘Those two kids found the body, ma’am. They’d been going through the car park looking for unlocked cars and they opened the back doors of the van.’ The policeman grinned, although his eyes remained cold. ‘The brats got more than they bargained for though, and they were about to scarper. But they didn’t know they’d been spotted on CCTV and they ran right into me.’

  ‘I see. Who else is here?’

  ‘The SOCOs are here, ma’am, one of them is inside the van with the doc, and the other is dusting for fingerprints. They reckon there’s been too much coming and going in the car park to find any trace evidence outside the area where the van is parked, but they still wanted this level sealed off. Constables Hastie and Douglas are standing guard down below and Adams is over at the lift. It’s causing havoc with the folks who’ve parked here. Some of them are pretty annoyed. Then there’s myself and Constable Burns. She’s the one looking after the kids until someone from the Child and Family Support Unit turns up.’

  ‘And you are?’

  ‘PC Corbett, ma’am.’

  ‘Well, Corbett, I was expecting Detective Sergeant Murphy to join me. I don’t suppose he’s arrived yet?’

  ‘No, ma’am.’

  Kate compressed her lips and walked to the rear of the van where the SOCO was dabbing powder on the doors with a brush that reminded Kate of the one she used to apply make-up. He stopped and looked at her. Kate held up her ID and he nodded before turning back to the task in hand.

  ‘Any prints coming up?’

  ‘Lots,’ he said. ‘Whether they’ll be any use though is another matter.’

  A man reversed out of the van. Kate stepped back but was not quick enough and he stood on her toe.

  ‘Sorry,’ he said, ‘didn’t see you.’ He pushed back the hood on his white paper suit to reveal a bald coffee-coloured head.

  ‘I hope you were careful not to contaminate the crime scene when you were in there,’ the SOCO said without looking up.

  ‘Of course, I was careful,’ the man replied testily. ‘But it’s just as important to ensure the victim’s dead as it is to gather evidence.’

  The SOCO laughed. ‘I could have saved you the trouble and done your job for you, because I never saw anyone more dead than the guy in there.’

  Kate’s toe throbbed and her annoyance at being ignored showed in her sharp tone when she said, ‘Just when you’re finished.’

  The man glowered at the SOCO, and turn
ed to Kate. ‘I’m Doctor Malik, and you are?’

  ‘Detective Inspector Rawlings.’ Kate held her ID up. ‘What do you have for me?’

  He wrenched the front of the paper suit open and shrugged one arm out of it before he answered her. ‘Well he’s certainly dead, but we won’t know what he died of until after the autopsy. There’s a syringe stuck in his arm though, I suppose it could be an overdose.’

  ‘Accidental?’

  ‘I doubt it, considering he’s tied to the floor of the van. Oh, and something’s been pushed into his eyes. I doubt he would have done that himself.’

  ‘His eyes?’ She moved towards the open doors.

  The SOCO put a hand on her arm. ‘You’ll have to wait until the crime scene’s been processed.’

  Kate shook the hand off and turned back to the doctor. ‘What’s in his eyes?’

  ‘How do I know? I’m not doing the autopsy I’m only confirming death.’

  Kate clenched her hands so hard her fingernails dug into the palms. ‘What about time of death?’

  Malik laughed. ‘Impossible to say with any certainty, but the autopsy might be able to pin it down.’

  ‘Would you care to hazard a guess?’ The ice in her tone was wasted on him.

  ‘Not really.’ He turned his back on her and started to peel off the paper suit. ‘But I think you’re looking at days rather than hours.’

  * * * *

  Bill snorted with disgust. ‘For fuck’s sake. What am I supposed to do with the blasted car if you won’t let me drive up to the next level?’

  ‘Sorry, sir. I have my instructions.’

  Bill turned off the ignition. ‘Well, I’m leaving it right here and if it’s in the way that’s too bad.’

  He got out of the car, slammed the door, and strode up the ramp. His bad mood did not improve when he spotted the new DI talking to Doc Malik at the back of a van. He groaned inwardly. Why did it have to be her? Why couldn’t it have been Sue?

  ‘You’ve arrived,’ she said.