Missing Believed Dead

by Chris Longmuir

  Her phone discussion with the procurator fiscal was brief. She reported the stage the investigation had reached, and what she planned to do. The PF agreed with her, and that was that. She had anticipated objections and arguments because they’d got off on the wrong foot, but they hadn’t arisen, so when she clicked the phone off it was with a sigh of relief.

  Megan and the search party had never been far from her thoughts since she’d left Sue in charge at the search site. It was time to check out what was happening.

  ‘It’s Kate,’ she said when Sue answered the phone. ‘What’s happening at your end?’

  She listened while Sue made her report, her initial feeling of elation at being told Megan had been found was quickly dampened when the child’s situation, perched on a ledge, half-way down the quarry face, was explained to her.

  ‘I’m coming back,’ she said. ‘I think I’ve done all I can here.’ She clicked off her phone.

  She stood considering for a moment, and then turned to Jenny who had been murmuring with Alison in the hall. ‘Jenny, I’m going back to the other scene,’ she said, ‘but there’s still work to be done here. I’m going to make you liaison officer with the family for the time being. That means you provide them with support, but it’s also important you are careful how you react with them and what you say to them. We don’t want them to think we believe in their innocence, because we don’t know at this stage that they are. Be supportive but be careful how you phrase your answers to their questions. Can I trust you to do that?’

  ‘Yes, ma’am.’

  ‘The first thing you need to do is find somewhere they can stay the night. Check out with them if they have any friends or relatives. Failing that, get onto the Housing Department’s Homeless Section, they might be able to place them in one of their Homeless Units on a temporary basis. And make sure they know we’ll want to speak to them again tomorrow.’

  ‘Yes, ma’am.’

  Kate grabbed her coat and rushed out of the house, hoping against hope the helicopter and mountain rescue team had arrived at the quarry.

  * * * *

  Tears trickled down Megan’s face, mixing with the rain. She was frightened and miserable. The ledge had only broken her fall because of the bush growing out from it, and the bush was slipping under her weight. If it gave way, she wasn’t sure she would be able to stay on the ledge because there would be nothing for her hands to hang on to. She’d already explored the rock face with her fingers, but it was smooth with no cracks anywhere. All she had to grasp were the branches of the bush.

  At first she hadn’t been sure what was worse, falling from the ledge or being chased by the men. But it had been a woman who shouted down to her, and she now knew the men looking for her were the police, not the nasty men she had envisaged.

  The woman had said help was on its way, but the bush didn’t feel secure, and she prayed they would hurry up.

  The bush moved again, and she squealed.

  Chapter Forty-Six

  Kate, clutching her coat, stumbled as she hurried out of the house. She thrust her free hand out in an attempt to grasp the door-frame, missed and found herself holding onto the police constable’s arm instead.

  ‘You all right, ma’am,’ he said.

  Hiding her embarrassment behind a smile, she said, ‘Thank you, I’m fine now,’ and hurried down the path.

  A vicious gust of wind caught her, blasting rain into her face, when she emerged onto the pavement, and she battled down the road to where she’d parked her car. She threw her coat onto the passenger seat, silently cursing herself for not pulling it on before she left the house. But it was too late now, and she was soaked.

  She drove fast, reaching Patricia Carnegie’s property earlier than she’d anticipated because there was less traffic on the road than there had been previously, and she realized with a start, it was almost midnight. Where had the hours gone?

  A helicopter passed overhead as she parked the car, splashing light on the ground, illuminating the trees. She said a prayer under her breath, hoping they would reach Megan before it was too late.

  ‘What’s happening?’ The woman who accosted her when she got out of the car looked like a witch with her red hair whipping in the wind. ‘Nobody’s telling me anything.’

  ‘Everything’s going to be all right, Mrs Fraser.’ Kate tried to sound soothing, which was difficult because she was every bit as anxious as May Fraser.

  ‘That’s all right for you to say, but it’s not your daughter out there.’

  ‘We’re all as concerned as you are to ensure your daughter’s safety.’

  ‘I want to see her.’

  ‘You must have patience and let the rescuers do their job.’

  ‘She’s dead, isn’t she?’ May’s voice reached screaming pitch. ‘And nobody’s telling me.’

  ‘That’s not the case,’ Kate said, while at the same time hoping the helicopter would be able to winch Megan out of the quarry without mishap.

  The helicopter was hovering now, and Kate guessed the rescue operation would have commenced. She wanted to be there to join them, but she couldn’t leave May Fraser while she was in such a distressed state.

  ‘What are they doing?’ May Fraser whispered.

  Kate debated with herself how much she should reveal to Megan’s mother, coming to the decision the woman needed to know and she had no right to keep the information from her.

  ‘The helicopter is there to winch Megan up from the place she’s fallen.’ Kate didn’t want to say quarry. ‘She’s perched on a ledge that’s difficult to reach, that’s why we need the helicopter. Once they’ve got her off the ledge, they’ll take her to hospital to be checked out.’

  ‘She’s not dead then, but she’s maybe hurt.’

  ‘Maybe.’ Kate put a hand on the woman’s shoulder.

  May Fraser shuddered. ‘I’ll want to go with her to the hospital, mind.’

  ‘I’ll make sure you’re taken there. Now, come on, let’s get you sitting in that police car again. It’s far too wet to be standing out here.’

  * * * *

  The light underneath the circling helicopter flashed down on them illuminating everything in its harsh beam. As it swung over the quarry, Sue saw the black water far below, rippling in the helicopter’s down-draft. The position of the child looked even more precarious than Sue had thought. The ledge was small, barely a protuberance on the quarry wall, and the only thing that seemed to be preventing Megan slipping off was a bush, growing from the side of the quarry.

  ‘Hang on, Megan,’ Sue shouted down. ‘We’re going to get you out of there.’

  A rope ladder dangled from the circling helicopter, but the wind, which had increased to gale force over the past hour, buffeted the helicopter, and the ladder swung wildly below it.

  ‘They’re never going to get her out that way,’ a voice muttered behind her.

  Sue shivered, because she knew they were right.

  A shape appeared on the ladder, but still it swung wildly, and the helicopter was forced to circle away before the man smashed into the quarry wall. The down-draft was fiercer now it was hovering above the group of searchers, and flying low enough for the man to jump to the ground.

  He strode over to the group. ‘We’re not going to be able to winch her out,’ he said, ‘the wind’s too strong.’

  ‘So what now?’ Sue shouted over the sound of the helicopter. ‘She’s not going to be able to hold on much longer.’

  ‘We’re going to have to scale down the quarry wall to get her. My mates are bringing down the equipment.’

  ‘Can you do that?’ The noise and the wind from the blades had increased and Sue had to shout even louder.

  He looked over the edge. ‘It’s an old sandstone quarry but it shouldn’t give us any problems. We’ll need somewhere to secure a rope though to haul her out, and this ground’s soggy.’

  ‘The trees are back there, will your rope be able to reach them?’

  ‘Sure, no problem
s.’

  By this time the helicopter was a few feet from the ground. It looked bigger now it was lower, a yellow monster with RAF Rescue written on the side. It hovered, the blades still beating furiously, gradually they reduced speed and the fierce wind they’d generated died down. Men loaded with equipment and coiled ropes jumped out.

  Sue hurried back to the quarry edge and shouted down to Megan. ‘Keep hanging on, Megan. We’re sending climbers down to hoist you out, it won’t be long now.’

  * * * *

  The down-draft from the helicopter blades whipped round Megan, first flattening her against the quarry wall, then threatening to tear her off it. The bush swayed in the wind and she felt it slipping under her weight. She tried hard not to move in case it gave way altogether, but this was increasingly difficult under the force of the wind.

  She had a horrible feeling she was never going to get out of here, and only the voice of the woman shouting down to her, gave her hope.

  She’d looked down when the helicopter flew overhead, even though the wind from it almost made her lose her grasp, and she could see the ladder was never going to work. It kept hitting the quarry wall. But what was worse, it lit up what was below her. It looked black and horrible, and she was sure it was water because of the ripples on the surface where the wind from the helicopter blades hit it. She knew in her heart she wouldn’t survive if the bush gave way.

  Her whole body was shivering with the cold and the wet, her hair was plastered to her head dripping huge drops of water down her neck, face and back. It was like being in a cold shower, but worse. Tears streamed down her cheeks, and she desperately wanted her mother. In her mind, she prayed to God, although she didn’t believe in him, and she promised to be good from now on. Never again would she defy her mother, nor would she think she knew better and adults were stupid.

  The helicopter flew away from the top of the quarry, and the wind stopped buffeting her. She was glad of that, although she didn’t want them to go away, because that meant they weren’t trying to reach her. She looked up, but all she could see was the wall of rock rising above her and the floodlight from the helicopter flickering at the top.

  A voice echoed down to her. ‘Keep hanging on, Megan. We’re sending climbers down to hoist you out, it won’t be long now.’

  The bush creaked, and shifted again.

  ‘Hurry up,’ she whispered.

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  As soon as the last man jumped from the helicopter it rose again and headed for the quarry, hovering above it so the searchlight illuminated everything.

  ‘You’ll need to clear this area,’ one of the rescuers said. ‘We’ll need room to work.’

  ‘I’ll see to it.’

  Sue turned to the nearest police officer. ‘Get several officers together and clear this area. Send the officers we don’t need back to the car park at the house to await further orders, and keep a core group here.’

  ‘Yes, ma’am.’ The officer started issuing orders to those nearest to him and gradually the searchers retreated to the wood.

  Meanwhile the team of mountain rescuers were attaching ropes to trees, bringing them back like the strands of a spider’s web to join up with a curious metal plate with multiple holes. Once these multiple ropes were secured to the joining plate, two thick ropes were attached to feed out the other side. They did this all over again so they now had two sets of rescue ropes.

  None of the men stopped working long enough to speak to Sue, and she stayed back, out of their way.

  ‘That’s it,’ the man in charge said, ‘we’re almost ready to go, but we’d better take a cradle down because we don’t know what kind of state she’ll be in.’

  Two of the men who had been busy strapping harnesses to their bodies, fastened the ropes to it with massive metal clips, before striding to the edge of the quarry. They lowered themselves over the edge and started the descent, the rope gradually playing out as they went.

  ‘We’re on our way down, Megan,’ one of them said, ‘it won’t be long now until we get you out, hang on tight.’

  * * * *

  The first officer to emerge from the wood was the police dog handler, but the flickering lights among the trees indicated others following him.

  May Fraser who had been on the point of stepping into the police car, turned to Kate. ‘They’re coming back, they must have got her.’

  Before Kate could stop her the woman ran across the car park to the officers coming out of the wood.

  ‘Have you got her? Where is she?’ May Fraser’s voice shrieked at one officer.

  Kate, who had been hurrying to catch up with the woman, could see the officer’s startled face.

  ‘It’s all right, Mrs Fraser. I’ll find out what’s happening,’ she said. ‘You go back to the car while I talk to the officers.’

  ‘I’m not going nowhere, until I see my Megan.’ The woman’s voice was obstinate.

  Kate turned to the officer. ‘What’s happening. As you can see, Megan’s mother is desperate for news.’

  ‘The rescue team are there, ma’am. We were sent back here to give them more room to work.’

  ‘I want to go to her,’ May Fraser said. ‘She’ll be scared, and kids need their mums when they’re scared.’

  ‘It’s better if we wait here.’ Kate put an arm round the woman’s shoulder. ‘You heard the officer. The rescue team needs room to work.’ Kate led her back to the car. ‘I’ll wait here with you, and I’ll see you’re the first to know any developments.’

  Kate would have preferred to go through the wood to the rescue site, but she daren’t leave Megan’s mother. She had no way of knowing what the woman would do if left to her own devices.

  * * * *

  The helicopter was back, its light shining into the depths of the quarry. Wind from the blades buffeted her and made the bush sway. Megan could no longer feel her hands or feet, and wasn’t sure how long she could remain clinging to the bush.

  A man’s voice shouted, ‘We’re on our way down, it won’t be long now until we get you out, hang on tight.’

  ‘Please hurry,’ she whispered through chattering teeth.

  She looked up and could see two shapes scaling down the wall of the cliff to her. One of them held something bulky, which clattered every now and again against the quarry wall.

  The bush slid further down the cliff face, and she closed her eyes, praying it would hold until the men reached her.

  ‘You OK, love?’

  The voice was next to her ear. She opened her eyes and found a man on either side of her.

  She nodded. The bush slipped further, but an arm circled her waist. ‘My name’s Joe, and we’re not going to let you fall, love.’

  She nodded again.

  ‘How are your feet and hands? Can you help us climb to the top?’

  ‘Can’t feel them,’ she whispered.

  ‘OK. I’ll tell you what we’re going to do. We’re going to get you into this cradle and winch you to the top, but you have to trust us, and don’t struggle.’

  ‘Yes,’ she whispered, anything was better than clinging onto this bush.

  The cradle, which looked like a hospital stretcher was positioned between the two men. They carefully lifted her away from the cliff face, laid her in it, and fastened straps round her, so she couldn’t move.

  ‘You OK?’ Joe said.

  She nodded.

  ‘When I give the signal they’ll start pulling you to the top. It’ll be bumpy but you’ll be safe. Try not to wriggle.’

  ‘OK,’ she said, her voice barely above a whisper.

  ‘You ready?’

  She nodded.

  ‘OK,’ he shouted up the cliff face, ‘pull her up.’

  Megan stifled the scream that bubbled up inside her. Joe had said the cradle was safe and she had to be brave. But each time the cradle banged against the quarry wall Megan imagined it tossing her out, into the depths below. She closed her eyes and prayed.

  * * * *


  The buzz of the helicopter reverberated through the wood, although Kate couldn’t see it. Then it appeared, rising in the air, shaking the trees. A whirlwind, whipping the leaves in its path, battered the officers standing in the car park as it passed overhead. Kate closed her eyes against the stinging bombardment of gravel.

  May Fraser leaned out of the police car and looked up. ‘Where’s the helicopter going? Does that mean my Megan’s OK?’

  ‘Stay here. I’ll check,’ Kate said.

  She strode to the edge of the wood, but there was nothing to be seen yet. Then she saw it, the flicker of a torch, followed by another and another. It wasn’t long before the searchers emerged from between the trees, most of them had a bedraggled appearance and seemed glad to have returned from their mission, although a few strode purposefully into the car parking area close to the house. Sue, deep in conversation with Inspector Mason, was one of them.

  ‘Well, did you find out what’s happening?’

  Kate hadn’t heard May Fraser come up behind her.

  ‘I thought I told you to stay in the car.’

  ‘If you think I’m going to bleeding well stay there, you’ve another think coming,’ May Fraser snapped. ‘It’s my Megan they’ve been looking for, and I want to know what’s happening.’

  The woman had a crazed look on her face, emphasized by her fiery hair whipping round her face and head in the wind. She looked like a medieval witch.

  ‘OK,’ Kate sighed. ‘We’ll check it out with my sergeant.’

  ‘Which one’s he?’

  ‘She’s the one who’s just come out of the wood.’

  ‘What you waiting for then?’

  Kate sighed and walked over to Sue and Inspector Mason. ‘Mrs Fraser’s anxious to find out what’s happened with Megan.’

  The inspector and Sue exchanged glances, obviously deciding who was going to speak. The inspector nodded his consent to Sue, saying, ‘I need to see to my officers, I’ll catch you in a minute.’

  Sue turned to face May Fraser. ‘Megan is all right. She’d fallen over the edge of a quarry but the mountain rescue team soon got her out, and they’ve taken her to Ninewells Hospital to be checked.’