Then He Was Gone

by Stephen Edger

  What troubled her more wasn’t that they couldn’t identify the figure; it was the fact that Noah had gone with him so willingly. They could be anywhere by now and the chances of finding Noah were shrinking by the second.

  They struggled to keep up with the pace Antoine was setting. The shop lights were a blur as he took them down the escalator, and practically sprinted from the final step. Julia was leaning on Becky more and more. As much as Becky wanted to support her friend, the additional weight was slowing their progress. Every passing second meant Noah was slipping further away.

  Antoine suddenly arched to his left, and unlocked a large metal door between a clothes shop and a jewellers. He beckoned them through the door, and then led them down a long corridor of breeze blocks. As this area was clearly off-limits to shoppers, no expense had been wasted on decoration. Halogen lights hanging from the ceiling, barely cleared Antoine’s head.

  ‘We are nearly there,’ he confirmed.

  Becky was panting. ‘Do you have children yourself?’

  He glanced at her, and slowed his speed a little. ‘I have a daughter.’

  ‘Has she ever wandered off like this?’

  His expression told her she hadn’t, even if he couldn’t find the words to say it. ‘It isn’t much further.’

  At the end of the corridor, they turned right, and almost immediately stopped by a door on the left.

  Antoine banged on the door. ‘They know we are coming. I will explain to them what we saw on the cameras and they will then search for him for you.’

  ‘You’re not staying?’ Even Becky was surprised by the desperation in her voice. ‘Please? Would you stay? It’s so good having someone who understands what we are saying. Please, Antoine?’

  He stared from Becky to Julia. How could he say no?

  The door opened and a man in a white short sleeved shirt and a navy blue tie stared at them. Antoine spoke to him in French, and the guard then stepped aside, and allowed the three of them to enter the room. Two walls, each the length of a bus, were covered in twenty inch screens. On the desks in front of the screens were control panels, similar to the one they’d seen used in the hypermarket’s security room. The panels were being operated by a dozen guards, six on each side, and all in white shirts with navy blue ties. The guard who’d opened the door, found three spare chairs, and pulled them over behind the guards at one of the panels.

  Antoine sat next to Becky. ‘There are more than three hundred cameras at different locations across the shopping centre, most of which are in shops. The hypermarché has its own security team, as thieves are more likely to steal from us. This team watches over the rest of the complex. The operator will locate the feeds for the cameras that look at the hypermarché, and we will go from there.’

  Becky hadn’t realised how dry her mouth was until that moment. She thought about asking for a drink of water, but they were already doing so much for them that it felt rude to mention it. She tried to ignore her thirst. Julia looked like a deer caught in a car’s headlights. She was snuggled up to Becky, staring with teary eyes at all the strange faces who were focusing on the mass of screens in front of them. Becky squeezed her closer. It was all she could do.

  The guard directly in front of them muttered something, which Antoine translated. ‘He’s ready.’

  Three of the screens were frozen, each showing the long entrance to the hypermarket from different angles. At least the cameras here were in colour, unlike the two-tone ones in the hypermarket.

  Becky shuddered uncontrollably as she spotted the figure in the baseball cap. None of the three cameras were close enough to pick out any distinguishing features. The images came to life and the man and the little boy with him proceeded along the same route that Antoine had just taken them. The figure walked past the escalator that Becky had used earlier to chase the woman in the yellow coat.

  The figure was moving faster than the shoppers around him, and they could now see that Noah was being pulled along. He wasn’t trying to get away, but he was struggling to keep up with his captor. As the figure reached the crossroads of the walkway, he turned to the left, and disappeared from view. The camera operator paused the screen and punched up two new images. The figure and Noah returned to the screen, before the image was restarted.

  Antoine leaned closer. ‘He is heading west. The centre’s largest car park is the west car park. It has two levels, and enough spaces for more than two thousand vehicles.’

  Becky tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear. ‘You think that’s where he’s going?’

  Antoine didn’t want to answer that question. Instead, he pointed back at the screen.

  The figure continued straight along the walkway, making no effort to blend in. He didn’t pause at any shop windows, or stray from his path. As he moved closer to the camera, his image grew bigger on the screen. They could now see he was wearing jeans, a faded khaki-coloured Superdry t-shirt, and a long dark coat. His head remained bent low, as if he was aware that they were watching him. The baseball cap was well-worn, but looked like any baseball cap you could pick up at a souvenir shop.

  The camera operator paused the screen and pressed a button, before leaving his station and disappearing to the far side of the room. He returned a moment later and handed a printed copy of the image to Antoine.

  Antoine showed it to Becky and Julia. ‘Do you recognise this person?’

  Becky studied the image. It could have been anyone. The figure wasn’t noticeably overweight, he wasn’t particularly tall or short. They couldn’t see his face, so he would be impossible to identify.

  Who was this person? Why had he snatched Noah and what did he plan to do with him?

  The camera operator restarted the recording, and they watched as the figure headed into a lift at the end of the corridor.

  Becky pointed at the screen. ‘Where does that lift go to? Can we see inside the lift?’

  Antoine translated and listened to the operator’s response. ‘The lift goes down to the lower level. Unfortunately, there are no cameras inside the lift. He will pull up the view from the lower level now.’

  With that, three new images appeared on screen. The figure was seen leaving the lift and heading out through the doors into the darkness of the car park. Before Becky could open her mouth the images on the screen were suddenly darker.

  ‘We are now looking at the car park,’ Antoine explained. ‘As I said, the west car park has two levels. This is the ground floor, which is why the image is much darker. It will be more difficult to follow him here. We will have to be patient. If we are lucky we should see if he has a vehicle.’

  Becky didn’t realise she had grabbed Antoine’s hand. ‘I can’t see him anymore. Where did he go?’

  ‘We will find him. Try not to worry.’

  Julia leapt to her feet, and pressed her finger against one of the screens. ‘There. That’s Noah’s rucksack. I’m sure of it.’

  The operator zoomed in on the small patch of blue on the screen.

  Becky joined Julia. ‘Is it possible to lighten the image, so we can see what’s around him?’

  Antoine translated and the operator increased the brightness of the frozen screen. The shadow of the figure in the baseball cap appeared next to the blue satchel.

  ‘He’s putting him in a van.’ Becky turned to Antoine. ‘Can he zoom in to see the registration number?’

  ‘Not now, but there is a camera at the exit barrier.’ Antoine instructed the operator. The car park’s exit appeared on one of the screens. ‘Now we just have to wait for the van to appear.’

  ‘Then what?’

  ‘Then, I will call the gendarmerie nationale.’

  The van appeared on the screen. The operator printed an image of the licence plate and passed it to Antoine.

  ‘Wait here. My brother is in the gendarmerie. I’ll call him and he will come quickly.’ Antoine disappeared out of the room, leaving Julia and Becky staring at the image of the van on the screen. Behind the windscreen
was the man who had taken Noah. Neither wanted to think about what he had planned next.

  SEVEN

  Becky continued to hug Julia as the security office became a hive of activity. Antoine’s brother, Agent Étienne Lemaire, had arrived with three other officers thirty minutes earlier, and they had been reviewing the security camera footage since. A taller man, with cropped grey hair had introduced himself as Louis Durand, the investigative judge who would oversee matters from now on. His English was heavily accented, but understandable. He’d told them to sit while his men gathered what they needed.

  It had all been a blur to Becky, and probably worse for Julia: watching the uniformed men talking quickly, and not comprehending a word of what they were saying.

  Becky understood that the French approach to policing was different to what they were used to in the UK. In France, there are three distinct branches of the police: the gendarmerie nationale in their blue uniforms handle serious crimes on a national scale. The police municipale are more localised and deal primarily with smaller-scale crimes. The final branch, the CRS, are called upon in riotous situations to restore law and order.

  Étienne was younger than Antoine by at least five years. He wore his blue uniform with great pride, but Becky was surprised at how formally the two brothers had greeted each another; settling for a handshake rather than a hug.

  She wanted to know why nobody was keeping them informed. Antoine had left the office when Étienne had arrived, and they hadn’t seen him since. She wished someone would fetch him so he could play the role of translator again.

  Durand turned to face them. ‘You have a photograph of the boy?’

  Becky reached into her handbag and handed over Julia’s phone. ‘This was taken earlier today.’

  He studied the screen. ‘And these are the clothes he was wearing when you saw him last?’

  ‘Yes, that’s right: a red t-shirt and cream-coloured shorts.’

  ‘Can I have a copy of this photograph?’ He didn’t wait for an answer, before handing the phone over to Agent Lemaire who plugged it into the laptop he was holding. A minute later the judge passed the phone back to Becky. ‘We are going to issue une Alerte-Enlèvement for the boy.’

  ‘I don’t understand. What is an Alerte…I didn’t hear what you said.’

  ‘Alerte-Enlèvement is an abduction alert for the child. It will get the details of the boy to the public as quickly as possible. His picture and description will appear on television and radio across France, as well as on Google, Facebook, and Twitter.’

  ‘What about the Eurotunnel? The station is so close. What if they’ve already boarded a train? Or there’s the ferry port. They could be anywhere by now.’

  ‘As soon as we were called, we alerted the port authorities, and the van has not attempted to leave Calais by train or boat. That is good news for you. If he attempts to cross, we will be alerted.’

  Antoine knocked on the door, before re-entering. He was carrying two small baguettes and two bottles of water. He passed them to Becky. ‘You need to keep up your strength, Please, eat and drink.’

  Julia hadn’t even noticed his return. Becky thanked him and put one of the baguettes on Julia’s lap, while opening the packet of the other.

  He was about to leave when Becky reached for his hand. ‘Would you mind staying? We have no idea what is going on, and they’re all too busy to explain.’

  He offered a sympathetic smile. ‘Of course I will stay.’

  Becky swallowed a mouthful of baguette. ‘Thank you. This man here, can you tell me who he is? He said he was a judge of some kind…’

  ‘Durand is the juge d’instruction…uh, he is an investigative judge, but not a judge like you are used to. In France, we have the Inquisitorial justice system, different to your Adversarial system. For us, it is the juge d’instruction who leads criminal investigations and decides if there is enough evidence to go to trial.’

  ‘Well, the judge, he said they are going to issue an alert of some kind?’

  ‘Ah bien! Alerte-Enlèvement is exactly what you want. It is a…what’s the expression…it’s an emergency communications system, which notifies all the emergency services to look for the boy. It sends text messages to local residents, puts messages on the roads; it is like a Wanted poster for the digital age.’

  ‘Does it work?’

  ‘Oui, bien sur. It has been used sixteen times since it launched eleven years ago and each time the child has been returned safely.’

  It was scant relief, but any hope was worth clinging to. ‘How long does it take to launch?’

  ‘Uh, I am not sure. Usually between one and two hours, the message will be on the radio and television. Whoever has taken the boy, he will not get far. The whole of France will be looking for them. Last year, a four year-old boy was snatched from his home in Brittany, and he was back home the same day.’

  Becky opened her bottle of water and took a sip. ‘I hope it works today.’

  ‘It has never failed.’

  Durand pulled up a chair and sat across from them. ‘The Alerte-Enlèvement has started, but now we need to focus on who you think took the boy.’

  Becky frowned. ‘I don’t understand. You saw the person on the camera.’

  ‘Oui, but we do not know who the man is.’

  ‘Well neither do we. It was impossible to see his face, but neither of us recognised him.’

  ‘I noticed that you are here in France alone. What I mean is, your boyfriends or husbands are not with you.’

  ‘What does that have to do with anything?’

  Durand frowned. ‘Often in situations like this one…it is common for a separated parent to try to snatch the child. Where is the boy’s father?’

  Julia sat forward. ‘His father died in Afghanistan last year. It wasn’t him.’

  ‘I am sorry for your loss.’ He didn’t look sorry.

  ‘His squadron was ambushed near the Helmand province,’ Julia continued.

  ‘What about a boyfriend? Is there another man in your son’s life?’

  She looked away. ‘Nobody. I’ve not dated anyone since…I loved my husband very much.’

  ‘We reviewed the video from the hypermarché. The man who took the boy arrived at Cité Europe an hour before the abduction. If you look at the screen here,’ Durand turned and pointed at the monitor behind him, ‘you will see that he was watching you while you ate lunch. Then, when you went into the clothes shop, he can be seen watching you from the shop window. Then, when you enter the hypermarché, he is seen entering moments later. We do not believe this abduction was…random. I believe whoever this man is, he targeted your son. Once he has the boy, he moves quickly to the car park and drives away.’

  Becky didn’t like the picture he was painting. ‘He targeted Noah? But why? I don’t understand. Who is he?’

  The judge sighed. ‘At no point does he look up. It is as if…as if he knows where the cameras are, and how to avoid us seeing his face. Either he had help, or…’ His words trailed off.

  Becky subconsciously squeezed Julia’s hand. ‘Or what?’

  ‘If you don’t recognise him as someone who might want to take the boy, then it is possible he is a professional.’

  ‘I don’t understand. A professional what?’

  ‘People trafficking is one of the largest cross-country crimes in Europe. I don’t wish to alarm you, but it is possible that whoever this man is, he plans to smuggle your son out of the country and sell him.’

  Julia squealed and buried her head in her hands.

  Becky tenderly rubbed her friend’s back. ‘But your alert thing will stop him getting the boy out of the country, right?’

  ‘That is correct. We know he did not go to the Eurotunnel, which means he is probably driving across the country. This figure is now the most wanted man in France. We will find him and his van soon. Have faith.’

  The judge excused himself and left the room. Becky passed Julia the second baguette and encouraged her to eat.r />
  Julia pushed the bread away. ‘I don’t want to eat. I just want my son back.’

  ‘We all do, Jules. Please, just try and eat something. There is nothing else we can do at the moment. You need to stay strong for Noah’

  ‘But what if…what if this alert doesn’t work? What if…what if I never see my little boy again? I can’t lose him too, Bex. I just can’t.’

  Becky didn’t know what she could say. Antoine and the judge were certain that the Alerte-Enlèvement would be enough to locate Noah, but what if this was the first time the system failed? What if the man had transferred Noah to a different vehicle and was already out of the country?

  EIGHT

  The offer of sweets had been enough to encourage Noah to come with him. It wasn’t until they’d reached the van that the boy had asked about his mother.

  He’d expected to see a string of armed agents blocking their exit. But the road had been clear, and they’d made it to the A16 autoroute.

  At Gravelines, he pulls into the church car park where the Mercedes is waiting.

  She exits the car, her long red hair falling across her face. She pushes it back and joins him at the back of the van.

  He eyes the syringe in her hand. ‘What’s that for?’

  ‘It’s a horse tranquiliser. It will knock him out for a few hours.’

  ‘You can’t inject a three year-old with something like that.’

  ‘He needs to be quiet while we cross the border. He’ll be fine.’

  He wants to argue, but there isn’t time. He opens the rear doors and calls the boy to him. He can’t watch as she sticks the needle in the boy’s arm.

  He carries Noah to the Mercedes, and waits for her to open the boot. Inside is a suitcase and a couple of anoraks. She pushes the case to the side, and lifts the carpet lining. She unlocks the hatch and lifts the lid. He carefully lowers the boy inside.

  NINE