by K Leitch
It was true, whilst a large section of the team had been out trying to track down Lola and Lewis Twee, valuables were still being snatched from unlocked cars as they waited at traffic lights, seemingly by the same group of boys riding bikes.
‘What sort of guy is this?’ Obie asked shaking his head as he looked through all the evidence so far. ‘Surely he’s not going to continue to steal and pass on stolen goods while his kids are missing, he must have got someone else to run it for him…I mean he seemed distraught when I visited the house a few days ago…’
Frank rolled his eyes. ‘Oh he’s a real charmer he is, I wouldn’t put anything passed him if he could make a quick buck from it…although having said that I have to admit that he did look pretty devastated, and even Janey was quiet for once.’ He paused thinking about this anomaly.
‘Well if he is still involved, Midge will pick him up sir.’ Mandy finished reporting to Obie, who had gathered the whole team together this morning in an attempt to pool their findings and allocate tasks.
‘Okay good Mandy, you seem to have got that covered,’ Obie said, he cleared his throat and added nervously, ‘Um…well done I knew you would rise to the challenge,’ he finished, his face bright red.
Mandy blushed and thanked him shyly, before scuttling back to her seat ignoring the astonished stares of her colleagues. DC Mandy Hopkins was not known for her shyness, quite the opposite in fact, DC Sam Trenter nudged her in the ribs as she sat down and waggled his eyebrows at her…she ignored him too.
‘Right,’ Obie continued, ‘we know from talking to Lola and Lewis’s friends that they were heading towards Preston Park after they left Josh Glump’s house, he walked with them as far as the row of shops on Riddlestone lane and then he went into the newsagents to buy cigarettes.’ Obie paused and turned to WPC Sheila White who was studiously taking notes at the back of the room, ‘Um… Constable White, could you get someone to go and have a word with the owner of the newsagents, see if he can remember Glump coming into his shop on the night in question and while you’re there you might also like to remind him that it is an offence to sell cigarettes to anyone under the age of eighteen…’
A snigger ran round the room and Sheila White smiled and nodded and made more notes in her book.
‘Another of the kids friends spotted them further on,’ Frank piped up, ‘on the other side of the park…’ he took out his notes and flipped through a few pages, ‘oh yes here it is, Tiffany Booth, she’s in the same class as the Twees at Riddlestone High Guv, she said that she saw Lewis at about 10pm walking towards Fernley Crescent.’
‘Lola wasn’t with him?’ Obie asked.
‘No, she said he was on his own, and he seemed to be carrying a large holdall type of bag…’
‘Could she describe the bag?’ Obie asked as he made notes on the white board next to the picture of Lewis Twee.
‘Yes, she says it was a black holdall with a white Adidas logo on the side, she said it seemed heavy, like he was struggling with it,’ Frank finished.
‘Did she speak to him, ask him where he was going maybe?’ Obie said.
Frank raised his eyebrows. ‘No…she said she doesn’t talk to Lewis he gives her the creeps, in any case she didn’t seem to think he’d seen her, said he seemed to be in a hurry.’
Obie wrote all this on the white board then stood back and faced the team again. ‘Okay…so why was he heading towards Fernley Crescent, what’s up there…do any of his friends live in that area?’
Sam shook his head, ‘Not as far as we know Guv, it’s a very quiet road made up primarily of bungalows and there’s a large residential home for the elderly at the end of the road…in fact I should imagine most of the residents are elderly.’
‘So nothing going on there that would have attracted the Twees,’ Obie said almost to himself, ‘any reported robberies in the area lately…maybe they were checking out the area…looking for any easy targets.’
Sheila White suddenly piped up again, ‘Um…actually there was something Sir,’ she said, flicking through her copious notes, ‘not a robbery but an elderly lady…um oh where is it, oh here it is...Flora Metcalf Sir, she came in a few times complaining that some kids were pestering her.’
‘Oh,’ said Obie with interest, turning from the board, ‘what did she mean by pestering?’
‘Well terrorising her actually, I mean they were being really cruel, had the old woman scared out of her wits they did. The first we became aware of it, was when she dialled 999 in the middle of the night a couple of months ago, reporting intruders inside her house. Terrified she was apparently, but when the constables arrived on the scene there was no one there and no obvious signs of a break-in…the back door was unlocked but Ms Metcalf said that she had probably forgotten to lock it. But since then she’s had some kids banging on her windows, shouting through her letter box, oh and the inevitable dogs shit pushed through as well. Carla…um I mean DI Right spoke to her one day and we kept an eye on her house for a few days but we didn’t see anything Sir, so we assumed it must have all stopped. She hasn’t been in again anyway so…’ she left the sentence hanging.
Obie seemed lost in thought for a couple of minutes, ‘And this was around the same time as the Twee children went missing?’ he asked eventually.
Sheila pulled a face. ‘Yeh, I suppose it would have been…a bit before maybe. It had been going on for a while according to Ms Metcalf.’
‘Okay…so let’s assume that Lola and Lewis are terrorising this old woman…um Ms Metcalf. That could have been where they were off to that night couldn’t it, carrying something heavy in a holdall.’
‘Well it would certainly be their style,’ Frank said caustically, ‘I would have said terrorising little old ladies was right up their street.’
Obie nodded and wrote Flora’s name on the white board, ‘Well I think we need to speak to Ms Metcalf don’t we? See if she can shed any light on the terrible twins’ whereabouts. Well done Sheila,’ he finished before turning once more to Frank. ‘Um…Frank I believe you had something else to discuss…’
Frank nodded and made his way to the front again, ‘Last night an elderly woman, Hilda Clegg was assaulted in her front garden. She was found early this morning by the postman who raised the alarm. She was in a very bad way, beaten up pretty badly by all accounts and then left all night lying unconscious on her front path, she was taken to Redbank General. She’s been receiving treatment so obviously she hasn’t been able to shed any light so far as to who it was that attacked her but I need someone to get over to the hospital and interview her as soon as she is fit enough. Maybe Mandy you could do that…’ Frank paused choosing his words carefully. ‘From what I can gather from the rather tight lipped nurse, I spoke to this morning, it sounds like our vigilante has struck again. Mrs Clegg had nasty welts on her legs and face consistent with being hit with a narrow cane. Unlike the attacks on the boys however she was also punched in the face and left for dead, there was no phone call to tell us where to find her, so the use of a cane might be coincidental. This was a vicious, calculated attack on a frail elderly lady, seemingly without any motivation. Mrs Clegg’s handbag was still with her, untouched, and her house wasn’t broken into, so robbery wasn’t the motive here…’
‘Had she been sexually assaulted do we know?’ Obie asked
Frank shook his head, ‘We don’t know for sure yet Guv, but it didn’t seem like a sexual assault… she was fully clothed when she was found…but as I said we don’t know for sure.’
Obie stood and took his place at the front again, ‘Okay…so Mandy can we leave that to you?’
‘Yes Sir,’ Mandy said, ‘I’ll get straight over there…um what about Midge though? He’s still staked out near the alleyway waiting for Twee to make his move.’
‘Oh I expect Sheila’s more than capable of waiting for Midge’s call aren’t you Sheila?’ Obie said with a casual nod in Sheila’s direction, ‘No, I think this must take precedence Mandy.’
Mandy nod
ded and began to gather her things together and the rest of the group took that as a sign that the meeting had ended and all started heading back to their desks.
Obie stopped them with a raised hand, ‘Thank you for your input everyone, we have got some tough challenges this week, so I need you all to keep your eyes and ears open. The smallest most insignificant thing might just be the key to help us find Lola and Lewis or stop this thug from attacking again, and let’s face it we need all the help we can get…so be alert,’ Obie paused smiling to himself, ‘Or as my old mum used to say, if you can’t be a lert at least don’t be a lemon,’ he finished chuckling to himself, completely oblivious to the bewildered and blank faces all around him.
‘If you can’t be a lert don’t be a lemon,’ Frank whispered scornfully to Mandy as he passed her on the stairs, ‘What a knob…I mean…what the fuck’s that all about?’
Mandy smiled, ‘Oh don’t be mean Frank, it’s obvious he’s a bit nervous and we can’t all have your gift of the gab can we. I think he’s sweet,’ she added as she headed off towards her office, Frank watched her go with a bewildered shake of the head.
Back in the now empty briefing room and oblivious to his colleague’s derision, Obie was still smiling, ‘Ah… that went well I think…not bad Obie, not bad at all,’ he said to himself.
CHAPTER 35
As quickly as she could, Lucy unloaded the car of shopping and children and got them into the house. It took another half hour of organising painting at the kitchen table and a nap for Katy before she had a moment to sit down and think properly through the disastrous events of the morning.
It had all started when she had decided to take a trip into Redbank town before picking Jukie up from school. Katy needed a new coat and also a plump little birdy (Berta) had told her that it would be Maggie’s birthday the following week so she had thought to kill two birds with one stone.
She’d found a pretty little coat for Katy very quickly in M&S, and was just going in search of a nice scarf which she’d thought might do for Maggie when she heard her name being called from the other side of the shop.
‘Lucinda… cooee Lucinda,’ she’d automatically turned and looked towards the voice, forgetting for a moment that hardly anyone in Surrey knew her, only to see one of her old friends from Devon. Worse still a member of the local golf club that Trevor had signed them both up to a couple of years earlier. Not that either of them had ever played golf but they had attended a few of the functions at the club house and Lucinda had become quite friendly with a few of the golfer’s wives. One such was Jennifer Booty, who was now waving madly at her from the lingerie department.
Lucinda desperately looked round for an escape but all too soon the woman was upon her. ‘Who would have thought it,’ Jennifer gasped coming to a halt in front of her, ‘What a small world, I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw you, how are you my lovely,’ she gathered Lucinda into a perfumed hug. ‘I haven’t seen you for ages…wow don’t you look good, I love the hair… that dark colour really suits you, and how on earth can this be little baby Katy?…Not such a baby anymore are you cutie pie?’ she said crouching down to get a better look at Katy.
Lucinda was shocked to the core, what were the chances…here in Redbank of all places and Jennifer Booty of all people, the worst gossip in the whole of Brixham. People called her “Megaphone” behind her back because if you told her anything you might as well have announced it to the whole county.
She became aware that Jennifer had stopped talking and was looking at her enquiringly. ‘Um…I’m sorry Jenny what did you say?’ she asked pulling herself together.
‘I asked what in the world are you doing here,’ Jenny said shaking her head at her, ‘are you okay Lucy, you look like you’ve seen a ghost,’ she added with a laugh.
Lucinda plastered a smile on her face. ‘Oh yes I’m fine… actually I’m just visiting some friends…’
‘Well what a coincidence, me too,’ Jenny interrupted, ‘where do they live…your friends?’
Lucinda had to think fast, ‘Oh miles away…we’ve just come into this town because um…Maggie, that’s my friend, she needed some things…you know food and stuff so we just stopped here on our way back to where they live.’ Oh God that sounded so lame even to her.
Jennifer didn’t seem to see anything wrong with her answer though, just nodded and said, ‘Well you can’t beat the food in Marks can you?’ She moved in closer to Lucinda as if not wanting to be overheard. ‘Strictly between you and me darling, and not a word to Roger (her long suffering husband) of course, we (er, that’s Christopher Truman AKA my boss) and I, we’ve just had a bit of a naughty weekend away in London.’ She giggled and carried on lowering her voice even more, ‘stayed at the Hempel darling, absolutely fabulous, I can heartily recommend it especially if you want a bit of privacy if you get my drift,’ she added with a suggestive waggle of her eyebrows. ‘Anyway we’re on our way back home, but Christopher desperately needed the loo and I fancied a walk about so we stopped off here before we get onto the dreaded M25…how crazy is that…that I should bump into someone that lives a few streets away from me, here of all places…’
‘I know…crazy,’ Lucinda murmured.
‘Wait till I tell Trev…he’ll laugh his head off,’ Jenny went on with a giggle.
‘Oh no… you mustn’t tell Trevor,’ Lucinda said urgently putting a hand on Jenny’s arm.
Jenny gave her a knowing look, ‘Oh I get it,’ she began.
Lucinda shook her head and thought quickly, ‘No nothing like that,’ she said with what she hoped was a calm smile. ‘It’s just that I don’t want him to know I’ve been here,’ she began racking her brains, trying to come up with a believable reason.
‘I thought that whole friend story was a bit flaky…you naughty girl, come on…what are you up to?’
‘Oh nothing terrible…no really,’ she said again fervently shaking her head, ‘I’m actually here trying to get a surprise for Trevor’s birthday…um a bike, a motorbike, Harley-Davidson…he’s been wanting one for years and I found just the right one online so I made up some story and came up here to get it for him…’ she finished looking hopefully at Jennifer, who thankfully seemed to have swallowed the story hook, line and sinker.
‘Oh how romantic,’ she said with starry eyes, ‘don’t worry then sweety he won’t hear about it from me I promise.’ She pretended to zip up her mouth. ‘There tight as a drum,’ she said before distractedly looking over Lucinda’s head and waving to a rather irritated looking, short, grey haired man who was trying to get her attention on the other side of the shop. She turned back to Lucinda, ‘Look darling I’d better run, Christopher is desperate to get back onto the motorway before the evening rush, lovely to bump into you sweety,’ she gave Lucinda a couple of hasty air kisses. ‘See you when you get back and when Trevor shows us his new Harley, I promise to look suitably shocked don’t worry…yes Chris I’m coming,’ she shouted impatiently to the harried looking man, before rolling her eyes at Lucinda and moving off to meet him.
Lucinda struggled to maintain her calm as she paid for her goods and made her way back to the car park. She picked up Juke from school in a daze and then drove home as fast as she could. This was a disaster of huge proportions. Jennifer may not tell Trevor about meeting her, but Lucinda was pretty certain she would be on the phone to her friends within the first hour of reaching home. There was no way she’d be able to keep this juicy bit of gossip to herself, and that meant that it wouldn’t be too long before Trevor found out where she was. It was all too much, Lucinda put her head in her hands and sobbed.
Which was how Dom found her a few minutes later when he arrived home from work a bit earlier than usual. Surprised by his sudden appearance Lucinda frantically tried to wipe her face on a tea towel, but she couldn’t disguise her puffy eyes and red nose and Dom immediately spotted that she had been crying.
‘Lucy? Are you okay?’ he asked putting down his briefcase and coming over to where she
was sitting, Lucinda tried to nod and reassure him but her face just crumpled again as he put his arm round her shoulders.
‘What’s up love?’ he said again concern written all over his face, ‘is it the children? Has something happened?’
Lucy shook her head, ‘No…nothing like that, the kids are fine. Jukie is playing on his PSP and Katy’s sleeping,’ she said getting up to grab a sheet of kitchen towel and blow her nose noisily. ‘It’s nothing…really, I was just having a moment…please don’t worry about it, I’m fine now see,’ she gave him a watery smile.
Dom looked at her for a moment before saying, ‘It’s not something I’ve done is it, because I know I can be a moody sod at times, but I don’t mean anything by it Lucy…’
Lucy held her hands up to stop him, ‘No of course not, don’t be so silly, you and Maggie couldn’t have been nicer. It’s nothing really, or at least, nothing for you to worry about. I do have something on my mind at the moment…but I promise you it’s nothing to do with you. I love being here, I can’t remember a time when I’ve ever been so happy actually,’ she said, her cheeks turning pink with emotion. She got up hastily and started collecting up plates and cups that had been left on the kitchen table from lunch, in a feeble attempt to cover her embarrassment.
Dom watched her flitting about the kitchen with a smile playing on his lips, he’d noticed her flushed cheeks and realised that she had probably given away more than she wanted to. It was something he’d noticed about her before, she kept her emotions hidden deeply inside her and only let you see what she felt comfortable with. Not that she was secretive or anything like that, far from it, she was quite happy to talk about her family and her hopes and dreams, but Dom had got the distinct feeling that there was much more going on inside Lucy’s head than she would show, and there was a part of her that no one would ever see.
