STOLEN BAIRNS: Scottish Fiction

by Anne Bone

  He thought his best line of defence was to say that his daughter was lying. Whatever she said, she had been making it up. In fact, she was always telling lies, it was one of her traits. He claimed that she knew exactly what had happened to her children. She had agreed and he had gone along with it. The two police officers remained totally professional as they asked their questions, each admitting afterwards that they knew he was lying through his teeth.

  It was Doris who sang like a budgie. She seemed to wake up from her “not the full shilling” presentation and began to recall all sorts of useful information. She tried to ensure that it was her husband who was going to take all of the blame for everything.

  It was surprising what details Doris’s memory revealed. Yes, she recalled her husband telling her that he had found a nice couple who were going to adopt the bairns and that he was making all of the arrangements. She confirmed that Beth did not know about these arrangements. She recalled how Beth had been sent on a fool’s errand to Hillside Farm in order that Fred could get the children out of the house.

  When she was asked the question about why had she not prevented him from carrying out this plan, she adopted the "not the full shilling” pose again. She tried to infer that she was somehow in fear of Fred. The two police officers were not convinced of this. They still had, ringing in their ears, the memory of hearing the young girl talk about her childhood especially when they recalled how she had been abused as a child, and that this was the same woman sitting in front of them who was responsible for some serious physical child abuse.

  The officers kept coming back to the details of the children and whether she was aware of any money changing hands. ‘No,’ she told them, and if Fred had money he did not share any with her. On this point the officers did believe her.

  Doris became quite evasive when the interview switched to questions connected with Roger. She tried to convince them that she had no knowledge that he had been left in the house so that he could have sex with her underage daughter. She just thought that when her daughter became pregnant again that she had been a willing participant. Doris failed to recall that during this period she had been the focus of Fred’s anger for not ensuring that their daughter knew about birth control.

  The police officers were experienced enough to know that there was nothing that they could charge Doris with. Sadly, the previous assaults she made on her daughter were in the past, the physical evidence was healed and Beth had made it clear that her priorities were to find out what happened to her children, not raking up any complaints against her parents for deeds committed against her.

  Doris, however, had provided enough information to back up Beth’s story, which would allow them to pursue Fred. Des was also intending to make an official referral to the Social Work Department, for there still were two teenagers living in a household where the parents most certainly were willing to place their children at severe risk.

  What was seriously concerning the police officers most was the whereabouts of two small defenceless children.

  Chapter 20

  Beth’s moods fluctuated from being full of hope and then, as quickly, full of despair. The winter storms hit the east coast sending waves to batter the rocks along the coastline. She would spend time sitting in the front bedroom’s bay window watching the little black and white pilot boat attempting to guide the boats into the safety and out of the harbour. The small boat almost disappeared at times as it bobbed alongside the massive supply vessels that left the safe harbour to take supplies to the rigs and platforms in the North Sea.

  Molly and Marty tried to keep her spirits up; at least the police were looking for the children they told her. The children’s details had been circulated to all the police forces and social services departments in the United Kingdom, at last something was being done. Des and Jane kept in contact with her, feeding her the bits of information as they found them.

  There were some days when she felt her hopes soar. The police were receiving reports of sightings of the couple all over the country. It took time to respond to these reports and Des and Jane had to travel the length and breadth of the country, only to find that their enquiries proved unsuccessful.

  Des tried to share every piece of information with Beth and Marty, but as time went on he tended to sift the information realising that Beth was finding the lack of progress as frustrating as he was.

  A call, which came into the police office one Tuesday afternoon just a week before Christmas, changed this. The call was from a woman called Liz Morran who worked in the local Social Work office in the Scottish Borders. She had seen the flyer which had arrived in her office a few weeks before and wondered whether it had anything to do with a couple that were living in the rented cottage next to her own. She told Jane Lewis that at first she had not been concerned about the middle-aged couple with the two small children who moved into the cottage a couple of months ago. The names were different, they were called Hazel and Tom Brown and the children’s names were David and Julia, but the ages and descriptions were similar.

  They seemed very quiet and went about their daily business without bothering anyone. The children looked well cared for and she had tried to be neighbourly, and often would try to engage with them, although they never seemed to be interested in responding to this.

  She could not be sure when she started to wonder about the couple. There were a few little things. They seemed to be very anxious every time she spoke to the children, would try, it almost seemed, to avoid allowing any form of contact. They were incredibly over-protective of them, almost rushing them inside the house whenever she tried to speak to them.

  The couple did not seem to work and she just assumed that they must have been living on benefits. She had made some comment to the woman about how it must be difficult bringing up children on benefits, and the woman had instantly replied that they were not on benefit, but had their own private income. When the woman had said this she looked as though she could have dragged the words back into her mouth and she almost ran back inside the cottage.

  Liz described how she had become more and more interested in the couple and had made a comment to a friend of hers, who happened to be the local health visitor, that they were living next door to her. Her friend had been surprised as she had no knowledge that two small children were in her area, and had gone to visit them. She had phoned Liz after her visit to say that she was also rather concerned as when she had called at the cottage she was sure that the couple were in, she could hear the children talking. However, there was no answer and she had left her card asking them to call her. That was last Wednesday and as far as she knew they had not responded to the request.

  It was after this that Liz had recalled the flyer arriving in the duty office saying that two children were missing and thought that she should at least telephone the number on the flyer to let them know of her concerns.

  Des and Jane had been very interested in this information and decided that they would travel down south to investigate the following day. It might just be the lead they had been hoping for and Des had telephoned Beth to give her the news. It was just a week before Christmas and this could be the best Christmas present she could ever hope for if it proved successful.

  Beth had waited beside the phone all the following day, willing it to ring with the news she was praying for. Molly had wandered around the house, trying to look busy while also saying every prayer she could think of.

  When the call came in the early evening her hopes had been dashed again. Des told her that when they had arrived with two of their colleagues from the local police office, the cottage was empty; the occupants seemed to have left. They were now in the process of sifting through the contents of the cottage to see if they could find any clues about the identities of this couple.

  Des did not share with Beth that he and Jane were pretty convinced that indeed this was the couple that they had been searching for and the children were Beth’s. What they had found when they had arrived at th
e cottage was that it appeared the couple had left swiftly and without any planning.

  On checking with the landlord they had discovered he too was unaware that they had left the cottage, and certainly they had not given notice of their intention to do so. It was the way the cottage was left which gave them some indication that they had left in a hurry. The fridge still contained fresh food, there were small items of food in the kitchen cupboards and the bins had not been emptied.

  Liz Morran had been surprised when she had heard that her neighbours had suddenly left. When she had left for work that morning she had not noticed anything different. It had been terribly stormy the previous evening and that meant she would not have heard the car leaving if they had done so. She was able though to provide the police with a description of the couple and also of their car. Des informed Beth that they believed that they did have a lead.

  Liz Morran was able to provide the police with good descriptions of the couple as well as the make, model and registration number of their car. A request was put out to police forces throughout the country, and Des and Jane returned to Aberdeen to await news.

  Two days later Des answered the phone to one of his colleagues in the Carlisle area who informed him that they had located the car. His hopes were raised, only to be immediately destroyed when the officer reported that it had been traced in a local railway station car park. It appeared that it had been there for three days, given the dates of the parking tickets which had been left on the windscreen. It would appear that the couple had managed again to give them the slip. Whether they had in fact caught a train somewhere or whether this was another red herring a despondent Detective Sergeant was unsure.

  So far, the search at the abandoned cottage had not given any real help. The fingerprints, which were found, did not produce any help other than it seemed the couple were unknown to the police. Whether this was a good thing or not was not really of any help.

  Des was not looking forward to telling Beth and Marty that their enquiries had not produced anything of significance. Instead of telephoning, he decided that he owed it to the young woman to at least tell her face to face. Something he was not relishing just a few days before Christmas when she should be wrapping parcels for her children. Instead, the young woman would be left knowing that this was another Christmas when whoever had stolen her children was undertaking this joyous task.

  Chapter 21

  When Des arrived at Harbour View, Molly had a large pot of tea awaiting the young detective. She had also baked that morning and produced one of her special batches of pancakes, and even Des’s anxiety of breaking the news he had to impart did not deaden his appetite.

  Beth accepted the news he gave her with the quiet dignity that he had come to expect and respect. He was able to confirm that they were almost certain that indeed the children living with this couple were her children. The descriptions and ages given by Liz Morran fitted, and at least Des was able to describe to her that Stevie’s hair was a mop of black curls like his father, while Lucy’s was blonde and straight like her mother. The other piece of reassurance was that the children had appeared healthy and well. Just scraps of information, but Des felt that swell of anger as he thought of Fred Menzie, and that couple whoever they were, inflicting this dreadful pain on Beth.

  Beth was grateful to get some confirmation that her children were still alive. It reassured her immensely to hear that they were well and seemed to be being cared for. It sounded that, at the best, this couple, whoever they were, did not seem to be out to harm her children. To now have some information was a real sense of reassurance in itself. She supposed that one positive factor was that the police had almost found them, and if they had done it once then they could do it again. Des tried to explain the difficulties of getting the information out to the public and how easy it seemed to be that people could hide.

  After Des had left, Beth decided that she needed to go for a walk along the cliffs. Molly expressed her concerns as it was a windy day, ‘Now, Beth, you watch yourself when you’re walking along the cliffside. I worry about you, I’ll easy come with you,’ she offered.

  Beth realised that the older woman was concerned and wondered whether in fact she was thinking that she might do some harm to herself after hearing Des’s news. She fastened her parka zip and pulled her gloves on and, before opening the front door, she turned to face Molly. She reached out and hugged the woman to her, something that had been unthinkable a few weeks ago. ‘Don’t worry Molly, I promise I will be careful. I just need to go and get the cobwebs blown away. I just need to think a bit and walking allows me to do this. I won’t be long and when I come back I will help with the clootie dumpling, alright?’

  Molly breathed a sigh of relief and watched the small heavily-wrapped-up figure make her way along Greyhope Road towards Torry Battery. She walked sturdily battling against the wind which was preventing her from making progress. Molly returned to the kitchen to carry on with the food preparations she was making for Christmas. There was one guest who was going to join them this Christmas. This would be a surprise and a happy one she hoped for Beth, hopefully one that that would give her a bit of a boost.

  Beth sat on the hill, her back against a wall sheltering from the wind which flapped and screeched around her body. Torry Battery, an old fort, overlooked the harbour and the small village of Footdee, which sat on the other side of the harbour. The waves out to sea were high, their tips white and frothy. She watched as they battered the rocks and the long pier on the other side of the harbour, the sea spray soaking the concrete slabs and sending the smell of the sea through the air.

  Where were Stevie and Lucy just now she wondered? Could they see or smell the sea as she was doing? Did they remember her at all? She knew that it was unlikely that Lucy would, but maybe Stevie would remember something about her. This was the second Christmas when they would be given presents. She closed her eyes tightly and sent a plea that by next Christmas she would be the one buying and putting the presents in their stockings.

  She tried desperately to keep her thoughts positive. She realised from what Des had said that it was like looking for a needle in a haystack. A couple with two small children could just blend into any community and the police could not search everywhere. Suddenly, she had an idea. At this, she jumped up and with the wind at her back almost flew back down along the road towards Harbour View.

  She shouted for Molly as soon as she bounded through the front door, slamming it behind her and unzipping and removing her parka jacket as she made her way towards the kitchen.

  ‘I’ve had an idea,’ she announced breathlessly. Molly looked up at the excited girl from the kitchen table where she was mixing the ingredients of a clootie dumpling.

  ‘Whatever this idea is, my love, it’s brought the colour back to your cheeks.’ She dried her hands on the small towel and sat down to hear what this idea was.

  ‘Right,’ said Beth, ‘I was just thinking about what Des was saying about how easy it was for someone to hide and how difficult it was for the police to find them and all that. Well, Molly, I am absolutely fed up sitting here like a big useless blob waiting for the police to bring me bits of information. I should be doing something about finding my bairns myself.’ Her eyes and face were shining with excitement, ‘I am going to start a campaign to find my bairns. Oh, I’m not sure how I am going to do it, but I am.’

  Molly nodded, ‘And, why not lass?’ She was not sure how this slip of a girl, not even eighteen, was going to mount a campaign to find two missing children, when a whole police force did not seem to be able too, but good on her, at least it would keep the lassie going. ‘And lass, I will do anything I can do to help. Let’s wait until our Marty gets home and then we can start planning. In the meantime, grab that wooden spoon and do a bit of mixing for me, and don’t forget to have a wish as you’re doing it.’ It did not take a mystic to guess what the wish would be.

  Beth was watching for Marty out of the bedroom window. She saw the lights o
f his Mini car as it made its way along the road and as soon as she saw it she dashed down the stairs and out to the front door to open the garage doors to save him getting out.

  She laughed when she saw what was hanging out of the small back boot; in fact, it was more out than in and had been tied with a concoction of bits of string by the look of it. She almost jumped with glee. ‘Oh Marty, a Christmas tree!’

  He was surprised at the welcome he was being given. ‘Yes, it was a bit bigger than I thought, but I just managed to get it into the boot, although I think it dragged along the road a bit.’ She had already started to undo some of the bits of string in her eagerness to get the tree out and into the house.

  ‘Now just hang on a minute, and I’ll go and get a knife, Beth. For goodness sake, you’ll get your death from cold. Look at you, out here without a coat and it must be below freezing.’ He did look at her and noticed that something must have happened as the change in her was most definitely evident. It was her eyes, they were sparkling.

  After a great deal of pushing and shoving the tree was finally removed from its small prison of the Mini car boot and carried into the house. Molly joined in the fun and made a place for it in the bay window in the front sitting room, a room rarely used apart from for events such as now.