by Mel Sherratt
Ashleigh: I’m fine.
Laura: Just fine?
Ashleigh: Yes, just fine.
A pause.
Laura: So what do you want to talk about?
Ashleigh: Have you ever wanted to kill yourself?
Laura: No. Do you feel like you want to do that?
Ashleigh: In the past yes. But I don’t want to now.
Laura: That’s good to hear.
Ashleigh: I want my mum to be proud of me.
Laura: That’s good.
Ashleigh: You remember I was thirteen when my mum died?
Laura: Yes, I remember.
Ashleigh: She died of cancer. My dad went to pieces. He lost his job through bad timekeeping.
Laura: That’s a shame.
Ashleigh: Is it?
Laura: What do you mean?
Ashleigh: It was his fault. He was drunk all the time. Once Mum died he began drinking even more. It was as if he was trying to blot out his pain. I tried that too. Not with alcohol though.
Laura: Oh?
Ashleigh: I like to take control in other ways.
The line was quiet.
Laura: How have you been at school?
Ashleigh: I haven’t been this week.
Laura: Why’s that?
Ashleigh: School is boring.
Laura: I suppose I thought the same when I was your age. But it really is worth sticking at it. You’ll be surprised how many people wish they had in their later years.
Ashleigh: All the girls want to talk about boys. All the boys want to talk about football. I can’t stand small talk, can you?
Laura: I suppose not. Don’t you have friends at school?
Ashleigh: No.
Laura: No one to talk to at all?
Ashleigh: No. They all hate me.
Laura: What makes you say that?
Ashleigh: I just know.
Silence.
Laura: So what do you like to do when you’re at home?
Ashleigh: I read. I like psychological thrillers.
Laura: Read any good ones lately?
Ashleigh: I’m reading Gone Girl at the moment.
Laura: Isn’t that a little old for you?
Ashleigh: Not really. Have you read it?
Laura: No, I don’t get much time for reading.
Ashleigh: It’s okay, a bit slow until the middle, but I’m told it gets better then. I’ll have to wait and see. I’ve read The Girl on the Train too. Have you read that?
Laura: No.
Ashleigh: I didn’t like that one because it reminded me too much of my dad.
Laura: Does he still drink a lot?
There was silence down the line.
Ashleigh: He drinks way too much.
Laura: Does he know it upsets you? Have you talked to him about it?
Ashleigh: You can’t talk to him. If he’s sober, he doesn’t think he’s in the wrong. If he’s drunk, he doesn’t think there’s anything wrong either.
Laura: Does he talk to you?
Ashleigh: No, he shouts all the time. Either that or he’s sleeping off a hangover.
Laura: What about when he goes to work?
Ashleigh: I told you. He lost his job a few months ago. We lost our house too.
Laura: So he’s in all the time?
Ashleigh: If he isn’t down the pub. He won’t be able to go there soon.
Laura: Why not?
Ashleigh: I’ve seen letters. Threatening to take the house from us. He’s in debt. I don’t want to move from this house as well. We live down by the park. It’s a shithole though.
Laura: I don’t need to know those details, Ashleigh.
Ashleigh: Sorry.
Another pause.
Laura: So you really have no one to talk to?
Ashleigh: No. Everyone hates me.
Laura: Of course they don’t.
Ashleigh: Children can be so cruel.
A pause.
Ashleigh: I had my phone stolen.
Laura: Oh no, have you managed to get it back?
Ashleigh: No. There were lots of photos of me on it.
Laura: It’s a shame when you lose them. Have you got them backed up anywhere?
Ashleigh: No, but everyone has seen them.
Laura: What do you mean?
Ashleigh: They were shared.
Laura: At school?
Ashleigh: Online. Facebook. Snapchat.
Laura: Were the photos special to you?
Ashleigh: You don’t understand. The photos were private. Of me. Naked.
Laura: That’s against the law, Ashleigh. Can you tell a teacher if you can’t talk to your dad?
Ashleigh: They were photos of me in my underwear. I wasn’t doing anything dirty. People said I looked like a skeleton, but I was so fat and disgusting.
Laura: That’s terrible, Ashleigh. Have you reported it to the police?
Ashleigh: What’s the point? It’s too late. Everyone knows how fat I am now. I’ve had to close my Facebook and Twitter accounts. But the photos are still out there. I had to get a new phone.
Laura: Ashleigh, don’t cry.
Silence.
Laura: Ashleigh, talk to your dad. Tell him what happened, and he could go to the school and sort it out.
Ashleigh: I can’t.
Silence.
Ashleigh: Even you don’t want to talk to me now.
Laura: Of course I do. I was just adjusting my headset. Ashleigh. . . Ashleigh?
Chapter Fifty-Three
Eden was in the kitchen when she heard a scream.
‘Laura?’ She took the stairs two at a time, only to see her sister standing in the bathroom doorway.
‘He has Jess,’ Laura cried. ‘This isn’t anything to do with the Barker family or the phones. He’s got my daughter.’
‘Who has?’
‘He – he—’
‘Who?’ Eden put a hand on each of Laura’s shoulders to stop her from pacing the room. ‘Tell me everything.’
‘His name is Jason Proctor.’ Laura began to shake. ‘His daughter used to be a regular caller to our helpline until about six months ago. I thought she had moved on – sometimes these kids do, find another friend or a boyfriend or confide in someone face to face and they don’t need us any longer.’
‘So she stopped ringing CrisisChat?’
‘He’s just told me that she killed herself. He says it was shortly after she was talking to me.’
‘What?’
‘He must think I had something to do with her death, that I could have done more to prevent it. Eden, I couldn’t. I couldn’t!’
Eden tried to get her head around what Laura was saying. ‘You mean he’s taken Jess as some kind of punishment?’
‘I don’t know what he’ll do to her! She’s just a child – my child.’
‘Is he thinking that she’s his daughter? What was her name?’
‘Ashleigh.’
‘Is he grieving for her and mixed up?’
‘I don’t know.’ Laura shook her head. ‘He sounded angry. He says he’s keeping Jess to teach me a lesson.’
‘What for?’ Eden frowned. ‘You did all you could to help Ashleigh.’
‘I think I did. He’s grieving for his daughter, and his wife died too. I’d have to check my notes, but if I remember right, Ashleigh said it was three years ago. I think she said she was thirteen.’
‘Did he ask for anything? Money? Did he say why he took her?’
‘No, he just said he had her and then mentioned Ashleigh.’
Eden reached for her radio. ‘I need to call this in.’
‘You can’t!’ Laura exclaimed. ‘He went mad because the police know. He could hurt Jess if you get any more involved.’
‘He could have hurt Jess already!’ Eden cursed as she saw her sister’s face crumble at her bluntness. ‘What did he say?’
‘He put the phone down after he told me who he was. He said it had nothing to do with money.’
‘Let me look
at it.’ Eden took it from her and dialled Jess’s number. They should be able to put a trace on it. She closed her eyes momentarily when it wouldn’t connect. ‘It’s been switched off.’
‘So what do we do now? We don’t know where she is. We don’t know anything about him. He might hurt her – he’s told me that. How do we get her back, Eden? What do we DO?’
Eden knew she was out of her depth right now. As well as alerting the control room to update everyone, she had to speak to Sean.
‘I need to call it in.’
‘You don’t understand. A man is holding Jess to punish me.’
‘Of course he isn’t trying to punish you. Sometimes people react when they’re angry.’
‘He told me he’d taken Jess because of Ashleigh. How can that not be punishment?’
‘Let’s try to think rationally.’
‘I can’t fucking think rationally!’ Laura screamed.
‘I need you to—’
‘If this was Casey you’d be doing more.’
Eden stared at her. Of course Laura was wrong, but she was only trying to ease the situation for her sister. Her reply was stern but firm.
‘Nothing puts fear into me more than when something like this happens,’ she replied. ‘So don’t play the “you wouldn’t understand” card with me. I have known Jess since she was a baby, and I want her home too. So let me, and my team, do our jobs.’
‘But—’
‘I need to know that I have your full cooperation. The whole focus of this investigation has changed.’ Eden stopped because she didn’t want to say the words. ‘We’re looking at a kidnap situation.’
‘Kidnap?’ Casey and Sarah said in unison. The girls stood in the bathroom doorway behind them. Several people stood at the bottom of the stairs, anxious looks on their faces.
‘Mum, what’s going on?’ said Sarah.
But Laura couldn’t speak for crying.
Eden’s bottom lip trembled as she got on the phone to Sean.
Chapter Fifty-Four
Jess watched as the man, whom she now knew to be named Jason, disconnected the call and switched off her phone.
He’d been talking to her mum! How could she be so close yet so far? Tears poured down her face and she groaned, pulling at the tape around her wrists and ankles. She had to get away from him. But how?
It was hopeless. She sobbed uncontrollably.
Seeing her distress, he came towards her. She turned her face from him, squeezing her eyes shut. But he stopped short in front of her.
‘Your mum, she works in a call centre for teenagers, right?’
Jess opened her eyes and nodded fervently.
‘Is she a good mum to you?’
She nodded again.
‘She wasn’t good to my Ashleigh. She let her down.’
Jess frowned. She didn’t know anyone named Ashleigh – was that the girl in the photographs?
‘Did she always listen to you?’ Jason asked.
Jess shook her head this time but regretted it the moment she had and tried to nod. Her mum didn’t listen to her at times because she gave her cause not to. Moaning and whining to get her own way. No wonder she never wanted to listen. But she couldn’t explain this with the tape covering her mouth.
‘Ashleigh was my only child,’ he went on, ‘and I have nothing now. Your mum needs to know how painful it is to be without her daughter.’
Jess’s eyes met his as she tried not to show the shiver that was running through her at his words. What did he mean by that? What the hell was he going to do with her?
‘So I’m going to teach her a lesson, show her what it is to lose control and not to be able to communicate with her child.’ Jason reached beneath a cushion on the settee and pulled out a knife with a five-inch blade.
Jess screamed behind the tape and thrashed about in the chair again.
‘This is plan B,’ he said, pushing it back to where it had been. ‘I don’t have a plan C.’
Jess knew it was imperative that she stayed calm, but she couldn’t help herself. Why would he have a knife if he wasn’t going to hurt her? She sobbed so hard that she couldn’t catch her breath. She began to cough, her eyes watering and her face going red.
He reached for the tape on her mouth and pulled it away. She gasped in pain.
‘Calm down,’ he said.
‘Please let me go,’ she said, her voice croaky. ‘I won’t say anything, I promise.’
He looked at her with such loathing that she wanted to retch. She held in more tears as she calmed down. A few minutes passed and she wondered if it was worth attempting a scream. But for some reason, she stayed quiet. Even when he placed a fresh strip of tape across her mouth.
Then he picked up the photo he’d been staring at and held it in front of her.
‘This was Ashleigh.’
Jess saw a girl, a teenager like herself. She had long dark hair, hollowed out cheekbones and a chin full of angry spots. Dark eyes were almost sunk into her skull. She didn’t look very happy, hardly a smile on her thin lips.
But Jess couldn’t look for very long without getting upset.
She knew who the girl in the photo was.
Chapter Fifty-Five
Eden stayed with Laura for an hour before returning to the station. Sean had set up a team brief for 6.30 p.m. before he went to do a press conference on camera.
Everyone working on the case was in the main conference room. There was chatter in the air until she walked in. A hush descended as people threw her half smiles and sympathetic looks. Then they all spoke at once. ‘We’ll get the bastard,’ said one colleague, Pete Davidson, whom she had known since she’d joined the force.
But her eyes fell on the image of Jess attached to the whiteboard on the far wall. It was the one that she had taken from Laura earlier. A head shot of a bright and bubbly smiling teenager in her school uniform.
Eden counted eleven people as she sat down at the table, concentrating on the wall ahead as she felt tears welling in her eyes. She couldn’t cry now, not in front of everyone. But then again, she was only human. Sean had been good to keep her on the case after she had seen footage of the man who had taken Jess. It had become personal now, and she had to be careful not to show too much emotion.
‘Just a recap for a couple of you who weren’t on shift yesterday,’ said Sean, standing up and pointing at the board. ‘Jess Mountford. Sixteen years old and Eden’s niece.’ He glanced at her quickly. ‘Last seen by her sister, Sarah, leaving the house at 6 p.m. last night. On her way to meet her boyfriend, Cayden Blackwell. He was beaten up and taken to A&E just before he was due to meet her. Three other girls were attacked, and we now have footage to show Jess being taken by a lone male in a white van. We think the man attacked Cayden and sent a text message to Jess to meet him at the back of Shop&Save supermarket. He also replied to a message from the boyfriend to say that Jess was heading up to A&E to see him, but we’ve checked on CCTV and she hasn’t been seen going into the main entrance.
‘There was mud obscuring the number plate on the van, which we’ve now had enhanced and been able to pick up. However the van belonged to Mrs Maria Candish, who lives over in Knutsford. She sold it on as scrap a few months ago, so we don’t know who owns it yet, but we’re still looking into it. Amy followed it on the CCTV for about half a mile until it went off screen.
‘At 4.35 p.m. today, a call came in from a Jason Proctor to say he has Jess. He rang her mum, Laura Mountford, and said that he had taken her. Can you enlighten us on that, Eden? That okay?’
Eden cleared her throat before speaking. ‘My sister seems to think he blames her for the death of his daughter, Ashleigh. Laura works at CrisisChat, a helpline for teenagers. Ashleigh had been ringing her a couple of times a week, talking about problems she was having after her mum died. She then took her own life in April last year.’
There was a collective hum around the room as everyone absorbed what she was saying.
‘We haven’t got any i
ntelligence on him yet,’ Amy enlightened them. ‘He’s not known on our system. Council tax and electoral roll records have been asked for, along with checking to see if he is in receipt of any benefits, which would give us an address.’
‘We need to locate him,’ said Sean, looking around the room. ‘As you know, I’ve set up a TV press conference this evening and we have the local press and social media channels involved. We’re checking everything we can to find him. House-to-house started this afternoon and the SWAPS have been out and about with the local community. Anything they have found out has been filtered through or actioned.’
‘What about the Barker brothers?’ someone asked.
Eden looked to see that it was a PC drafted in to help. She’d seen him around but couldn’t place him. He was young, mid-twenties, and keen and eager to impress whenever she saw him. He wanted in to CID, and she was sure he would get there soon.
‘They admitted to the attacks on the three girls but not to Jess and Cayden.’ Sean explained all he knew about the mobile phones.
‘Any known associates?’ asked another PC. Eden didn’t know him at all.
‘Not yet.’
‘We have caught up with their father, Frank Barker,’ said Jordan, sitting forward. ‘Uniform went to his house, but he wasn’t home. Further investigations revealed that he’s in Cyprus and won’t get back to the UK until late this evening, in time for the trial on Monday morning.’
Ruling out all the Barker family had taken a lot of time, but it had been necessary to get to the bottom of things. At least Eden could be thankful that Jess hadn’t been taken by someone further up the chain, way higher than Damien and Travis, in a mobile phone racket that they could now look into further.
‘The kids must be stealing the phones for some reason,’ added Jordan. ‘Someone will be making more than a few quid on each one. Or maybe they’re being used to smuggle something else inside their casing?’
‘Good point. Make a note to check that out,’ said Sean. Jordan nodded.
Eden closed her eyes momentarily as images of Proctor pushing Jess into the back of the van assaulted her: Jess waiting, the man approaching her the first time and leaving her, then coming back, her following him. She’d cringed when she’d seen him punch her in the face, gasped when he had dragged her to the van and shoved her inside. Felt her own fists clenching when she’d watched him hit her again before closing the door and driving off. She wondered how he had managed to coerce Jess into following him. Jess was street savvy. He must have been very clever.
