‘Yes, Mrs Barratt bulk buys them as we don’t always get them returned.’
‘It doesn’t look much for this weather. It’s cool outside.’
‘Jessica had a coat but her mum - the woman - just covered her with it. She said she didn’t want to wake the baby.’
‘She took her in the car seat?’
‘Yes, most of them do,’ Samantha said. ‘We don’t have many babies whose parents live close enough to walk. They bring them in the seat in the morning and it stays here with them.’
‘What colour was the seat?’
‘It was dark blue, with a sort of tartan pattern. Her mum - the woman - said that it was heavy and that she’d got to walk a long way.’
‘Do you think she would have parked round the corner, in the cul-de-sac, like we have?’ Mariner thought hopefully of the CCTV.
‘Either that, or she might have left her car up in the hospital car park,’ Samantha said. ‘They’re not really meant to, but some parents do that if there’s no space here.’
So they’d need to get hold of any CCTV footage on the hospital site, as well as anything in the local streets. ‘Anything else?’
‘She said thanks for looking after Jessica so well,’ said Leanne. ‘It was a bit over the top really. She seemed sort of relieved. I thought maybe it was the first time she’d left her with anyone.’
‘Is it the case with all the crèche children that the staff might not have met the parents?’ Mariner asked Samantha.
‘Not all of them. Christie would know parents who leave their children for more than one day, and some parents come in later when all the girls are here.’
‘So if this woman had approached a different child, Ellie for example, you would have known that it wasn’t her child?’
‘No, we don’t know her parents either.’
But at the time the woman had come into the room Jessica was the only available baby, so there was no way of telling then whether this was a random snatch or if Jessica had been targeted.
‘Thanks, Leanne, you’ve been a great help,’ Mariner lied. He motioned Tony Knox to one side of the room.
‘I’ll have a quick word with Miss O’Brien then I need to know what progress Charlie Glover is making with the rest of the staff,’ he told Knox. ‘Find out from him if anyone else encountered this woman entering or leaving the nursery at around two thirty. Let’s hope to God that they did and we can get a half-decent description, otherwise we’re fucked. What we’ve got so far is less than useless. We can’t hit the streets until we’ve got it sharpened up or we’ll be bringing in just about every woman in south Birmingham. Let the team covering the CCTV footage know that, at the moment, we’re looking for any woman in the area carrying a baby in a car seat around two thirty this afternoon, probably, though not necessarily, walking up to the hospital site, maybe behaving strangely.’
Out in the hall it was chaos. PC Mann was trying to take details from the remaining parents, but had a backlog and a queue had formed around which the unoccupied children were running and squealing.
‘Leopold do stop!’ shrieked one of the mothers in desperation. She wore a hospital name badge so presumably was on her way home from work.
‘Please tell me that isn’t really that child’s name,’ Mariner murmured to Samantha just behind him.
‘You’d be amazed,’ she replied.
Leaving the mayhem temporarily behind him, Mariner climbed the stairs to the first floor and found his way to the staff room. Pushing open the door, Emma O’Brien’s eyes were on him immediately, filled with a desperation Mariner had seen etched on many faces over the years, and which today he could do little to alleviate. He wanted to reassure her with what they knew, but in this case it wasn’t much. Someone had made her a drink and she was clutching the mug like a prop, but it remained full almost to the brim, an oily skin forming on the surface.
Mariner sat down on one of the low seats facing her. ‘What we know is that at around half past two this afternoon a woman came into the nursery and took Jessica as if she was her child.’
Emma O’Brien let out an involuntary moan.
‘It may not sound like it, but it’s good news,’ Mariner said, quickly. ‘Because once we’ve firmed up the description we will know, to an extent, who we’re dealing with. We also have at least one witness who may be able to recognise her.’ He wouldn’t tell her yet that what they had so far was practically worthless, or that without some clue about motive they were peeing into the wind. ‘The woman also cared enough about Jessica to ask about when she’d been fed and changed, so is concerned about her wellbeing. What I want to do next is release information to the press so that we can enlist the help of the public,’ he went on, gently. ‘Do you have a recent photograph of Jessica?’
Like any proud, new parent Emma O’Brien carried several in her bag. Her hands shook and her eyes dripped as she fumbled for them. Mariner isolated the one that presented the clearest shot of Jessica, blond and blue eyed, went back out into the corridor and gave it to Knox.
‘She’s a little cracker, isn’t she?’ said Knox, taking the snapshot from him. She was a beautiful child. Even Mariner had noticed that. Had it been what had attracted the woman to her?
‘Stupid question I know, but do you think there’s any way this can have been a simple mistake?’ Mariner said.
But Knox shook his head, echoing Leanne’s words. ‘Any mother knows her child from day one.’
Mariner sighed. ‘Okay. Fax it through to the OCU along with the description of the woman and get it released to the press along with the time and location. We particularly want to hear from anyone on or around the hospital site around two thirty this afternoon, especially anyone who may have been driving past here at that time, including bus drivers. It’s a busy road and we’re hours too late, but you never know. We need to know if anyone else saw this woman entering or leaving the nursery. I want a couple of officers to stop any vehicles leaving the hospital site and uniform can start a house to house along this street and in the immediate area. There’s building work going on at the hospital, too. Make sure somebody talks to the workmen. They’re the sort of people who might just have noticed this woman.’
‘What about a press conference?’
‘We haven’t got enough for that yet. But call the press office and have them on standby, with a view to getting something out for the late evening news. We’ll set up an incident room at Granville Lane. There’s nothing big enough here.’ Mariner glanced at his watch. ‘The gaffer should be out of her meeting at Lloyd House by now, too. See if you can raise her.’ And ruin whatever plans she might have had for the weekend, too.
‘She’ll be thrilled,’ said Knox, though they’d no way of knowing what DCI Sharp’s reaction might be. So far they knew the career history; a top level Hendon graduate who worked her way rapidly through the ranks and covered ground too. She’d had four years in Manchester, five in West Mercia, seven with the Met. She knew both city and rural forces. But her personal life was a closed book. Mariner had a vague impression of someone at home, but that was it. It was something they’d never talked about. Suddenly Mariner remembered his own weekend commitment. He’d meant to call Anna back, but hadn’t got round to it. ‘Shit! I need to let Anna know what’s going on too. I’m meant to be on annual leave from tonight. When I spoke to her an hour ago I pretty much told her I was on my way.’
‘You should phone her, boss.’
‘I can’t get into that now.’
It was left for Knox to say: ‘You want me to call her?’
‘It’ll be simpler coming from someone else.’ It was pragmatic, Mariner told himself. The word had a better ring to it than ‘cowardice’. ‘Tell her I’ll call her as soon as I can.’
‘Sure.’
Knox stepped outside to make the call.
‘Where the hell—?’ Anna launched in.
‘It’s me,’ Knox brought her up short. ‘I’m sorry, Anna. Something’s come up that the boss h
as had to deal with, something urgent.’
‘Like what?’ Her voice was shot through with suspicion.
It was the last thing she’d want to hear. ‘It’s a missing baby,’ he said. ‘If you switch on the news in a bit, you’ll see.’
‘How long will he be?’
‘I don’t know. As long as it takes.’
‘I’ll get the bags out of the car again then.’
‘Yes.’
‘What about next week?’
‘I really don’t know, love. I’m sorry.’
‘Yeah, you and me both.’
Ending the call, Knox made a mental note to never do the boss’s dirty work again.
Mariner had returned to Emma O’Brien. ‘Have you been able to let your husband know?’ he asked.
‘My partner,’ she corrected him again. It seemed to be a sensitive issue. ‘He’s on his way here.’
‘From?’
‘Cambridge. It’s where we live and Peter works.’
‘You’re a long way from home,’ Mariner observed.
‘I was guest speaker at a conference today at the hospital. I’m something of a specialist in my field.’
‘What field is that?’
‘Sorry? Oh, sleep disorders,’ she said, absently. ‘I was honouring an arrangement I made last year to do a guest lecture on the course here. Jess was a bit of a surprise, when she came along. I’ve given up my job but I didn’t feel that I could let down the hospital.’ She gave an apologetic smile. ‘The money was good, too.’
‘So you drove over here this morning?’
‘No, we came over last night and stayed with friends in Knowle. A hotel would have been an unnecessary expense.’
‘And today was the first time you’ve been to the nursery?’
‘No, there was a meeting of all the speakers about a month ago. I came to have a look round and met Mrs Barratt. Originally I was going to ask my parents to look after Jess, but it would have meant an extra journey over to Suffolk and back, and the hospital sent information about the crèche service, offered free. It seemed much more convenient.’ A sob escaped. ‘Oh God. It’s the first time I’ve ever left her with anyone except Peter or my mother. Why did I ever think—?’ Her composure crumbled and Mariner allowed her a few seconds to regroup. Millie passed a fresh box of tissues.
‘So you dropped Jessica off at what time this morning?’ Mariner asked when she seemed calmer.
‘About twenty past eight. The lecture wasn’t until ten, but our friends had suggested I come in early to beat the traffic. It gave me plenty of time to do last minute preparation, too.’
‘And you handed Jessica over to Mrs Barratt.’
‘That’s right.’ She frowned. ‘Where is Mrs Barratt? I haven’t seen her this afternoon.’
‘We’re trying to locate her,’ Mariner said. ‘And you didn’t notice anything unusual, anyone hanging about, watching or following you?’
‘No, though I wasn’t looking, why would I?’
‘Is there any chance that someone else could have collected Jessica, one of your friends perhaps?’
‘No. No one else knew exactly where the nursery was. And why would they do that without speaking to me first?’
‘We just have to cover anything,’ Mariner explained. ‘One of the things I need to ask you to do is come up with a list of all the people who knew, or might have known, you were coming here today, including the friends you stayed with last night.’
She looked alarmed. ‘Are you suggesting this could be someone we know? That’s ludicrous.’
There was a knock on the door. It was Tony Knox. ‘Can I have a word, boss?’
‘I know, it’s unlikely,’ Mariner said to Emma O’Brien, getting to his feet. ‘But we have to explore all the options. Would you excuse me? If anything develops I’ll keep you informed.’
‘Thank you.’
‘I think we’ve got a decent description,’ said Tony Knox, outside on the landing. ‘Charlie Glover’s found a girl who saw this woman when she came in.’
‘Thank Christ for that.’
Charlie Glover had found interviewing the staff a frustrating and tedious business. ‘The most any of them can remember is buzzing from the rooms to let several people in during the afternoon, but none of them can remember specific times or what was said,’ he grumbled as they descended the stairs. ‘Until I got to Christie.’
‘The girl who went from the crèche to the room upstairs,’ said Knox.
Glover took them down the landing to what was normally some kind of storage space, which he’d had cleared enough to accommodate a couple of chairs and conduct his makeshift interviews. ‘This is Christie. She met a woman in the hallway at about the right time.’ Glover looked at the girl. ‘Tell Inspector Mariner what you told me.’
The centre of attention, Christie’s colour rose as she spoke, but not enough to hide the dark red shadow, like a birthmark, that ran down the side of her face partially concealed by makeup. ‘I was up in pre-school but had popped down to the office for some craft paper,’ she said. ‘I was on my way back up the stairs when the woman was buzzed in.’
‘Do you know who let her in?’
‘No. It must have been one of the upstairs rooms. She was sort of hovering in the hallway and looked a bit uncertain of herself and I didn’t recognise her, so I asked if I could help. She said she’d come for her baby, then she asked if Mrs Barratt was here, but I said no, I didn’t think so. I asked her if everything was all right and she sort of hesitated, so I asked if her baby was in the crèche, because those are the mummies who never remember where to go, and she said yes, so I reminded her where it was, and she went along there.’
‘Were those the exact words; I’ve come for my baby?’
‘Yes, I’m sure. I didn’t quite catch it at first. She had an accent.’
‘What kind of accent?’
‘From up north, like Deirdre.’
‘Deirdre?’
‘Off Coronation Street.’ She was distraught. ‘I thought I was helping.’
‘Of course you did. You had no way of knowing what was happening.’
‘But now I think about it, she seemed sort of anxious and a bit out of breath. I thought maybe she was in a hurry because she’d left her car on the double yellows outside. People do that all the time.’
‘Okay, so you rationalised her behaviour. There’s nothing wrong with that. She must have known Mrs Barratt,’ Mariner said. ‘She asked for her by name.’
‘Except that Mrs Barratt’s picture is on the notice board in the hall, right where she was standing,’ Christie reminded him. ‘She’d have seen it.’ What a contrast, Mariner thought. If Christie had been in the room when Jessica was taken, it might never have happened.
‘Perhaps she was just checking that there was no manager on the premises,’ offered Glover.
‘And you got a good look at the woman?’ Mariner said.
‘Yes.’
Thank God for that. ‘Okay, off you go.’ He held his breath.
‘She was white, about the same height as me - sort of average - and slim with a good figure.’
It was a promising start. ‘What about her hair?’ Mariner asked.
‘It was tied back, and it was brown I think, quite a nice reddish brown colour.’
Charlie Glover was checking his notebook for consistency with what she’d already told him.
‘And how old would you say she was?’
Christie grimaced. ‘I’m not very good on ages.’
‘Was she your age, younger, older?’
‘Older than me, sort of middle aged I suppose. I don’t think she was wearing any makeup and sometimes that makes people look younger, doesn’t it?’
‘Okay. This is fantastic, Christie.’ Mariner could barely contain his relief. ‘Do you remember what she was wearing?’
‘Trousers, I think.’
‘Trousers or jeans?’
‘No definitely dark trousers and a nice top and jacket
. She was quite smart, as if she’d been to work, like in an office or something.’
‘What colour was the top?’
‘I couldn’t see much of it.’ She wrinkled her nose. ‘But it was, like a cream colour with some kind of pattern on, embroidery or sequins. It looked expensive, like cashmere or something. I remember thinking I quite liked it. And she had some kind of jewellery.’ Her hand went up to her throat. ‘She had a gold chain or something round her neck.’
‘And the jacket?’
‘It was dark, navy or black.’
‘Anything else, shoes, a bag?’
‘I don’t think I looked at her shoes. She was holding something in her hand, could have been car keys I suppose.’ She stopped to think for a moment. ‘That’s all I can remember, there’s nothing else.’
‘That’s a great description, Christie, well done. We’ll need to get you to the police station to help us put together a computer image of this woman.’
‘Take Christie to Granville Lane to meet with the efit team,’ he said to Knox who was hovering behind them. ‘The quicker we have an accurate image of this woman the better.’
‘Tony.’ As Knox was leaving Mariner called him back. ‘You spoke to Anna? How did she take it?’
‘She was okay about it,’ said Knox. ‘Calm as you like.’
But Mariner didn’t like the sound of that. He knew what she was thinking: I hope this isn’t going to happen when ...
She’d been so excited when she found out that she rang him at work, unable to contain herself. ‘You know all that crap they used to give us in sex education lessons about how babies are made?’
‘Yes.’
‘Turns out they were right. I’m pregnant.’ He’d never known her so happy. It happened so much sooner than either of them had imagined it would. Her euphoria lasted a month to the day, until that morning when he’d awoken in the early hours to find the duvet turned back from ominous stains and Anna perched on the side of the bath sobbing uncontrollably.
Blood Money Page 5
