Echoes of the Past

by Mailer, Deborah

  Matt stood back and watched as the girls rode out of the courtyard and on to the field beyond.

  *****

  At 6.30pm, Tom drove up to Ingaldean to pickup the girls. Two very excited fifteen-year-olds meet him in the drive. Matt stood back and smiled as the girls explained the great deal they had struck with Matt.

  “Rain will be stabled here with Uncle Matt’s horses, so all I have to do is come up and exercise her and muck out. And Gemma is going to help me with it.” Tom threw a chastising glance at Matt. He ushered the girls into the car and walked round to speak to his friend.

  “A horse? Really, Matt?”

  “She has always wanted one. Why not. She hasn’t had the easiest time the last few years.”

  “But a horse?”

  “Look, you didn’t want the responsibility of one, not when you were working. Not only are you going to be retired soon, but you still do not have to be concerned with it. The animal will be cared for here along with my own. That way Jess gets all the fun, and you don’t have any of the work.”

  “What will the stabling fees be?” he asked resigned to the situation.

  “My gift, my bill. And I will not hear anything else on the matter. Anyway, how are you doing with that Angela Harrison case?”

  Tom rubbed his hand over the back of his head. “I tell you, Matt, I think I may have opened a can of worms.”

  “What’s the problem?”

  “Uch, just the more I dig the more I seem to find. I don’t think that Angela Harrison is a one off disappearance.”

  “Do you want to grab a pint and talk about it?”

  “I can’t. Not until I speak with the DI anyway. Once he tells me it’s not a case, then I can talk about it.”

  “You know what I think. You are this close to your retirement. Put the files in a box and dump it at the station and leave it till some other poor sod stumbles on to it, and enjoy your retirement, enjoy your daughter.”

  Tom pulled the door of the Jeep open. “I wish it were as simple as that, mate, I wish it were.”

  Tom drove down the High Street and dropped Gemma off before driving back to Hill House with Jess.

  “Just you and I tonight, so do you want take out?” he asked Jess.

  “Aunt Lee left a lasagne in the fridge for us, Dad. She said you have to stop eating out or you’ll have another heart attack.”

  Tom smiled and drove home.

  When they arrived at Hill House, Tom turned on the lights and heating and Jess set the table for dinner.

  “I wish Olivia could see my horse, she would love her.” Jess could not contain her excitement. “You know, Dad, I think Olivia and Gemma would get along great together. I wish they could have met.”

  “That would have been nice, love,” Tom answered absently as he served the dinner.

  “Olivia and Mum used to get a long really well you know.”

  Tom put the tea towel over his shoulder and turned to Jess questioningly.

  “Are you all right, love? You barely talk about Olivia, yet, you must have mentioned her a half dozen times since we got home tonight.”

  Jess looked back at him. “I hadn’t realized, Dad, I just kept thinking about her today. I wanted to tell her about my horse that’s all.”

  “That’s ok, love. It’s good to think about her.”

  After dinner, he watched television with Jess until 10pm. Jess disappeared upstairs with Topaz and Tom went into the study. He had the box of files from Clair Wentworth to go through and the files from Sara’s box.

  He looked through Jenny Phillips diary. As Clair had said, most of it was a schedule of tutorials and weekend shifts with British rail. She had noted next to some of the tutorials, that the lecturer was boring or creepy, depending on who it was. But there at the bottom of a page dated before she disappeared was a shift time and a note to herself.

  London – Glasgow 3.15pm Glasgow-London 6.45am (Take change of clothes for interview.)

  Proof that she had indeed been looking at a job opportunity the day she disappeared. Tom looked through the papers Clair had put together. Some of the people she worked with had said she was hit on a lot by older and young men alike in the refreshment carriage, but no one could remember anyone in particular that seemed to give her any problems or that she spoke to regularly. Overall, there was no new information in the files that could convince anyone to reopen the case. Although it was not technically closed, there is no way any one would devote resources to it.

  Tom went back to Jill Patterson. There was something eating at him here. Eva Brook had been a patient of his wife, she was also Jill’s flat mate and the one who raised the alarm. He scribbled down her contact details. A text from Danny confirmed an appointment with the family of Chloe Davis, the most recent victim they had discovered. Tom e-mailed the DI to arrange an appointment on the same day. He set about organizing his files to allow himself to present an obvious time line and connect all the victims however tenuous the links may be.

  *****

  The following morning Lee arrived to take Jess to school. Tom was planning to go down to Glasgow and then on to Edinburgh to meet with the DI. He loaded his files into his Jeep and set off.

  Spring was definitely settling in. The sun was warmer and much brighter. A hundred different shades of green slid down the mountain sides, dense forest stretched out on either side as he travelled the familiar road to Glasgow.

  Chloe Davis lived in a small town outside Glasgow. The estate looked exclusive with only twenty or so large five-bedroom homes. Tom drove through the open gates onto the gravel drive. The house sat close the banks of the Clyde, offering uninterrupted views of the old Kilpatrick hills.

  The front door was opened by a woman who looked only to be in her mid-forties. She introduced herself as Catherine Davies. Chloe’s mother. The attractive well-dressed woman led him through to a library where a man in his fifties was waiting.

  “I’m Malcolm Davis, Chloe’s father.” The man extended his hand to Tom. “Is there a reason for reopening my daughter’s case?”

  “Chloe’s case has never been closed, Mr Davis. It is simply inactive until something new comes along.”

  “Is there something new?” The mans tone had a hint of desperation.

  “I will most likely retire soon, Mr Davies, your daughters case came to my attention while I was looking into another missing persons case, I’m here to see if there truly is a connection. I can’t make any promises, but if I do come up with anything new on her case, when I retire the information will be looked at by Strathclyde, it wont be simply forgotten.” Tom took out his note pad and pen. An air of resignation had come over the couple as though they felt this would be just another hopeless interview. “Firstly if I could have a little family background?”

  Before Tom could ask a specific question, Malcolm sighed. “I am a banker; my wife is a retired paediatrician. We only have one child. Chloe. She was at Glasgow University studying law. My wife was twenty when she had Chloe and we have been married for thirty years. Chloe was a delight, she had no enemies, and had many friends, and she was focused on her career, very ambitious young woman. We were very proud of her. Do you need anymore background, Detective?”

  Tom met the man’s steely glare, he could understand his anger and frustration. “Chloe worked at a bar in Glasgow, had she mentioned anyone who maybe made her uncomfortable or …”

  “No! There was no one upsetting her, all these questions were asked six years ago at the initial investigation.”

  “Malcolm, let the man do his job.” The initially quiet woman fired a look at Malcolm and he immediately regained his temper.

  “Sorry, dear, go on, Mr Hunter.”

  “Chloe left on the morning of August 16th. She was meeting friends.”

  “No, she had an interview.”

  Tom stopped writing and looked up. “What interview, that isn’t in the file.”

  “Well, we told police at the time. A man who occasionally came into the bar sh
e worked had offered her a position with his company. She was excited about it because he said he would work it around her university, book keeping I think it was. She would be able to work at home. The best thing about the job, was he said as a qualified lawyer he could most likely use her skills when she graduated.”

  “Where was the interview?”

  “I don’t know. They found her car parked in Glasgow. There was some CCTV of her heading toward the bar she worked in, but then, nothing.”

  “What do you think happened to her, Mrs Davis?”

  The woman was gently wringing her hands as she spoke. “The man who offered her the job interview never got in touch, even after she had been on the news. That tells me that he knows what happened to her. I think he took my daughter somewhere. I don’t believe there even was a job.” Tears welled in the woman’s eyes. “If we could just find someone who remembers the man she spoke to in the bar, maybe we would be able to find Chloe.”

  Malcolm reached his hand over and covered his wife’s. “She was supposed to meet him after her shift the night before, but she had plans with her boyfriend so it was arranged for the following morning.” This time Malcolm’s voice was softer.

  “No one has ever mentioned this man, or said they saw him speak with your daughter?”

  “No. She never even told us his name. She did say he travelled up and down to London. He parked his car in Glasgow and used the train. He would come in to the bar on his return from London.”

  Tom was scribbling everything down on his pad. “Did she know where he was from?”

  “She never said.”

  “Did she ever give any hints to his appearance or his age?”

  The couple looked at each other and shook their heads. “She only ever referred to him as a business man. You have to remember, Detective Hunter, he had only been in the bar a few times before, and it was nothing more than light conversation, I do not think she paid much attention to him until he offered her the job. He did that the day before she disappeared.”

  Feeling sure he had gotten all the information they had to offer him at this point Tom thanked them both for their time and stood to leave.

  Malcolm stood and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Detective Hunter, please bring our daughter home, one way or the other.”

  Tom could feel the man’s desperation, the pain was etched in deep lines over his face.

  “I will do my best, Mr Davies.”

  *****

  As Tom left the house in his rear view mirror, he felt deep sadness for the couple with everything yet nothing. He knew that man would give everything he had to have his daughter back. He remembered the smell of desperation that hung over the house when Olivia disappeared. No closure, no answers. Just questions. A wave of fatigue washed over him at the memory of that time. But he knew he had something now; his case was looking stronger and stronger for the DI. On their own, the cases did not have much to merit another look, but combined, they certainly raised a lot of questions.

  Tom drove through the streets of Edinburgh and turned into the police car park. He lifted the box files out of his car and walked back to his old place of work.

  Scott Kerr was an unusually tall man with a long face and grey hair. He was easily the width of Tom. He extended a large hand and offered Tom a seat in the small unimpressive office.

  “How you liking the sticks then, Tom?”

  “The easy life, Scott, you should try it.”

  “You should be sitting where I am, you’re wasted up there. Any way, what have you got?” he asked indicating the box files Tom had placed on the chair next to him.

  “I’ve got five missing women going back to 1968; I think they may be connected.”

  “1968, that’s forty-five years ago, Tom, isn’t that more for the cold case department?”

  “The latest one was 2007, no one has connected the five cases so hear me out, Scott.” Scott raised his hand to stop Tom and walked over to the office door.

  “Gail, do me a favour would you, get one of the PCs to go down to the canteen and grab a couple of sandwiches and a pot of coffee for us please.” He closed the door and walked back to the desk. “Looks like this could take a while.” He said gesturing to the pile of papers Tom was lifting from the box.

  Tom began to lay out his case. “In 1968 Susanna Wheeling. A twenty-two-year-old barmaid disappeared from Arrochar. She finished her shift at the local hotel and has never been seen since. She had been offered a job as a secretary from a man who frequented the bar. No one remembers him and the job offer was supposed to be a secret. Her abduction was clean and swift with no witnesses. At first, it was believed she had gone off for a weekend with a secret boyfriend, but after a while, the police began to suspect she had been abducted. Her case is open but inactive.

  In 1978, Angela Harrison from Coppersfield moved to Aberdeen to begin training to be a nurse. She disappeared on the Friday night and did not make her first class on the Monday morning. Her boyfriend was brought in but it led to nothing. Aberdeen police closed the case and said she had taken off after a fight with her boyfriend, they ignored the fact that her car was still on the campus.”

  “You are joking. You know what that was all about, clearing cases off the books. Go on.”

  “In 1979, twenty-three-year-old Jenny Phillips from London was working the refreshment carriage on the London – Glasgow train. She was supposed to sleep over in Glasgow and get the same train back the next morning. She never made it to her hotel. She was working part time and studying economics at night school. She had been offered a job by a passenger on the train the night she disappeared. Again, no one remembers him.

  In 1984, twenty-two-year-old Jill Patterson disappeared after a night out at the Lands End pub ...”

  “I remember that one; I wasn’t long on the force. There was never a trace of her, but her family were a bit suspect.”

  “Her case is still an open abduction. In 2007, twenty-four-year-old law student from Glasgow, Chloe Davis, went to see about a job interview that someone had made her in the bar she worked at weekends. She hasn’t been seen since.”

  A young officer knocked the door and came in with a try of coffee and sandwiches.

  “All I could get, sir, was ham and ...”

  “That’s fine, son, just put it there. Thank you,” said the DI indicating a space on the desk. Tom got up and served the light lunch while Scott looked through the files Tom had placed in chronological order in front of him.

  “To sum it up, all five disappeared in the first 3 weeks of August. They all look very similar, all the abductions were executed perfectly and not one witness at any of the scenes, and with the CCTV, we have today that is not easy. There has never been a single sighting of the girls since the day they disappeared, not one. They all worked part time in the service industry, with the exception of Angela Harrison. And three of them, that we know of, were all offered jobs within twenty-four-hours of their disappearance.”

  “Your gut tells you they all met the same man?”

  Tom nodded. The older man drew his bushy grey eyebrows down as he looked over the last file.

  “You do know, when I take this upstairs, you will loose the case. It will go to the cold case unit. And anyway, you’re supposed to be taking it easy up there, Tom. It wasn’t easy getting you that post you know.”

  “Could you give me the week, Scott?”

  The man blew out a loud breath and leaned back in his chair. “I have to attend a talk at Napier; it’s about policing the internet and cyber bullying. So that will be a couple of days for you. The longest I can hold back is Monday. After that I have to take it to the super, and you know he is going to hand it straight to the cold case unit.”

  Tom nodded. He knew Scott was doing him a big favour sitting on it until Monday.

  “You know that you are talking about a serial that has been at large for over forty years, Tom. One that no one even knew was around. We could be looking at another Tobin all over again. Thi
s isn’t something we can hold back on.”

  Tom knew he was right. But he also new that he did not want to give this case up. He had not told Scott that Jill Patterson’s flat mate was his wife’s patient. Nor had he mentioned the fact that the last copper was looking into it before he died and that he suspected the killer was in Coppersfield. All these things made it personal for Tom, that would most likely be the very reason they would want to take it from him.

  “You’ve put together a great case connecting five women who had never been connected before. But have you got anywhere on a suspect, maybe a fresh pair of eyes would help.”

  “Well, we know he has to be in his late 60s, he is or poses as a business man and he travels the London Glasgow train, he parks in Glasgow so he is this side of the border. He discreetly acquaints himself with them in the bar where they work, before using a job offer as a ruse to get them to meet him in private. He must not be intimidating and he blends in well. He also only seems to hunt in the first few weeks of August.”

  “That narrows it down to a few hundred thousand men, Tom. You’ve got squat on him.” Scott rubbed his hands over his face. “Ok. You have until Monday. After that, we have to hand it off. And to think I thought you were up there searching for missing dogs all this time.” Scott handed back the files. “We never had this discussion. Bring everything you have on Monday.”

  “Thanks, Scott.”

  Tom carried the files down to the car. His mind was working overtime. He had to get back and read the rest of Sara’s files, then arrange to talk to Eva Brook. He also considered paying an unannounced visit to Jim Watt, he was certainly the right age.

  *****

  Lee was in the kitchen preparing dinner when she heard Jess come through the front door after her day at the stables. It was around 6pm and it was starting to get dusky outside. Lately she had been feeling a sense of relief when Jess came home, a combination of knowing Jess was safe and knowing she was no longer home alone, something that hadn’t bothered her before.

  “How was the horse riding,” she asked.