SNATCHED BAIRN: Scottish Fiction

by Anne Bone

  Jenni walked to the hallway and took the receiver, settling herself down on the stool by the phone before she spoke tentatively into the mouthpiece. ‘Marcus where are you?’

  Marcus had had to wait until the coast was clear in the hotel before he could make the call; now he had finally managed it, he heard the shattered voice of his lovely Jenni.

  ‘I am still in Malaga my love. Tell me, what on earth has happened.’

  ‘Oh my God Marcus, she just didn’t come home from school and she hasn’t been seen since. They’ve searched everywhere and can’t find her. Marcus she’s just disappeared,’ with that she started to cry and broke down completely so that all Marcus could hear was deep wrenching sobs.

  ‘Oh my darling girl, I am so sorry. Listen I will be home the day after tomorrow and will come and see you.’ This didn’t have the effect he was hoping for as her sobbing continued. He felt helpless and couldn’t ask the question he wanted to, that of, what had she told the police about them, and who else had she told.

  After she had hung up she didn’t return to the sitting room but retired to her bedroom to lie down on her bed. She buried her head in her pillow and continued to sob. She needed Marcus, she needed him here now, yet even with their child being missing, he still was not rushing to her side. The day after tomorrow he had said, well there you are then she thought; she would have to wait. She should be well practiced in waiting; she had hardly done anything else for the past ten years.

  She heard the door open and felt rather than saw her mum enter the room. Christine sat down on the side of the bed and took the young woman into her arms, just as she had done twenty eight years ago when she had first held her daughter in her arms.

  ‘So is he coming home?’ she asked.

  Jenni voice was muffled as she answered, ‘he’ll be home on Friday, He has only just heard.’

  ‘Oh right, I don’t suppose it’s easy to get a flight back from Spain any quicker.’ While she said the words, her thoughts were such that she was pretty sure that if he wanted to get back quicker he could. She bit back these thoughts as they were not needed to said, not at this precise moment. She would, at some point, when she got the chance to express them to Mr Marcus Davidson, who in her view was continuing to take advantage of her daughter, just as he had always done. She was also pretty sure her daughter would be having similar thoughts.

  Jenni pulled away from her mum, grabbed a tissue and blew her nose. Wiping her tears from her face, she looked at her mum. ‘I know Mum, please don’t say anything, if it’s any consolation I had hoped he would just come and be here too, but he hasn’t and he won’t.’

  As the two women sat in silence for a moment, pondering on how this conversation would end, they heard the doorbell go. Both waited and listened while Diane answered the door. They heard voices, one they didn’t recognise, the other they recognised as Jane Lewis’s. Jenni immediately jumped off the bed and ran to the sitting room. If Jane Lewis was here then there maybe would be some news.

  She entered the sitting room looking directly at Jane for some confirmation that there was indeed some news, but Jane just realising what her visit would mean, shook her head. ‘Sorry Jenni, we don’t have any news for you. We are still searching and making enquiries and the search has been widened. All the Scottish police forces are searching now, making enquiries, you know, checking all known areas.’ She tried to sound reassuring but it was becoming more difficult as the time went on.

  Jenni nodded, feeling her energy drain away again. She sat on the armchair, and then noticed that there was another young woman in the room.

  ‘Jenni, I would like to introduce you to Beth Paton. Beth is the founder of the Stolen Children Trust, and she more than anyone else can understand what it is you are going through.’

  The young woman moved over towards Jenni, and knelt down in front of her. ‘Hi Jenni, look, Jane has told me about what’s happened. So I am here to do whatever I can to help you.’

  Jenni looked hard at the young woman, whose violet eyes shone from her face. ‘Can you find her then, as that is the only thing that’s going to help me?’ She couldn’t help the bitterness that had crept into her voice. She was convinced that no one on this planet could possibly understand what she was going through.

  ‘Jenni, the police are searching for her, they really are.’ Beth tried to maintain eye contact. ‘I do understand what you’re going through as I had both my children missing, but thank God they were found, although it took some time. So, I just want you to know that however long it takes I will be there to support you.’

  Jenni nodded, and listened as Beth went on to tell her she could appreciate that nothing she said would make any real difference apart from being able to say that they had found Mary. She had then assured her that whenever she wanted to speak about anything at all, she would be there to listen.

  While Christine made yet another fresh pot of tea, helped by Diane, Jane went on to explain to Jenni how Beth’s children had been taken from her, and she had believed they had been adopted. It was only sometime later that she found out they hadn’t been, and then the search had begun. Eventually, they had found them and it was during this time that Beth had established the Stolen Children Trust to support parents like her who were in a similar situation.

  Jenni started to speak then, she told Beth how she felt like the world had turned upside down on Monday and relayed how she felt completely numb, ‘It’s just as though I am standing on the side of a stage and watching a scene that I’m in, yet, I’m not there… if that doesn’t sound completely mad.’

  Beth shook her head, ‘No Jenni, it doesn’t sound mad to me, its sounds like you are in deep shock and nothing seems real. I can remember that feeling, just like I thought I was going off my head, which I probably was. Just you let yourself feel whatever you feel, as I said, I am going to give you my number and you must phone me day or night whenever you feel like it.’ She looked at the woman for confirmation that she had heard and understood, knowing full well that when you are in shock you don’t always hear what is said.

  Jenni nodded. She did hear and was grateful that at least there was one person who had some inkling as to what she might be feeling. ‘Thank you, Beth.’

  ‘And,’ continued Beth, ‘if it’s alright, I will phone you every day to see how you are.’

  ‘That would be fine, thanks, but I just hope that there won’t be many days and they will find Mary soon.’ She looked at Jane again, ‘Please, please just find her, please,’ she pleaded.

  I still don’t understand why me mam has left me. It seems ages since I last saw her, I just wish she was here to give me a cuddle. I seem to be sleeping a lot, I am not sure what time it is, but when I wake up I lie in the bed and think about me mam. I cry a lot. He gives me a mug of hot chocolate, I tell him I don’t really like it, it tastes a bit funny, not like the hot chocolate that me mam makes, but he tells me not to be fussy and it’s probably the different type of milk. He watches me drink it, making sure I drink every last bit. I get really sleepy after I drink it, and fall into a sleep. When I do wake up, I sometimes need a pee and I try and wait until he comes and opens the room up and takes me to the bathroom. There is a sort of potty toilet in the corner of this room, but I don’t like to use it. I wonder why I have to stay in the room all of the time, maybe he thinks I’ve done something bad and I have to be punished. It feels like it’s a sort of prison, but then it doesn’t have any bars and I think all prisons have bars, so it can’t be a prison. I wish I had a window to look outside and see where I am, but there isn’t a window in this room, just four walls and a small door.

  I have some books, they are on a little shelf on the other side of the room, and he says I can read them whenever I want, but so far I am just too tired to get out of bed and go and get one. I just lie and think about my own room, and Rosie my dolly and Teddy. I wish they were here. I could cuddle them and play with Rosie. Why am I here?

  Chapter 9

  Police Hea
dquarters – Thursday 13th September

  DI Dave Rogers took a deep breath in, in an attempt to control his temper. ‘What the fuck do you mean, there was a call yesterday about a sighting of a man with a young girl?’ his voice rose as he came to the end of his question. ‘Tell me, Constable Sim, what planet were you on yesterday?’

  Jane Lewis had just entered the incident room, at the tail end of the question. She immediately moved to stand beside Dave; she could almost see the steam coming out of his ears. ‘What’s happened?’ she asked.

  Dave turned to her, thinking there could have been a better time for her to come into the room, perhaps when he had had more time to digest what he had just heard, and had time to filter the information before he had to report this fuck up to his boss. He turned to the young police constable, ‘I think you had better tell the Chief Inspector what you have just told me, don’t you? Go ahead then, in your own time, after all it seems that you are working on a different time frame and planet to everyone else.’

  The young constable stuttered and began his account, his face the colour of beetroot, and turned to address the Chief Inspector. ‘Sorry, Mam, but the call didn’t give a lot of details, and the person who phoned it in was phoning from a call box in Stirling. I did speak to the desk sergeant at Stirling, and passed on the information. They said they would follow it up and come back to me. I thought that would be what we would normally do.’

  Jane heard Dave’s intake of breath. She, however, managed to temper her own anger and spoke in a calm manner, maintaining her professionalism as was expected of someone of rank. ‘What time did this call come in?’

  ‘16.20, Mam, it was from a male person, who informed me that he had seen a man getting off a train in Stirling with a small girl on Wednesday morning. He had apparently been thinking about it all day, and then he saw a picture of wee Mary and thinks there might have been a similarity.’ He finished his account shuffling his feet, evidently embarrassed and ashamed that he had fouled up. He just hoped that this didn’t mean that he had compromised the whole enquiry.

  Dave couldn’t help himself and intervened regardless that his boss was standing beside him. ‘Did you not understand the briefing yesterday morning, Sim?’ he stared at the young man, his tone inviting a response.

  ‘Yes, Sir, but I thought protocol was that all calls were documented and any sightings outside of the area would be referred to the local division. Sir, I’m sorry but I did think that I was following protocol.’

  Jane answered before Dave had a chance to chew the young man’s head off any further; she too was frustrated but didn’t wish to show this to a young officer. ‘It’s like this, Constable Sim, this is a very different investigation from any we have been involved in before. Until this point we have had no sightings, and you can imagine that this is very unusual. Therefore, any new leads or information must be fed to the SIO immediately. However, at least you did refer on to Central. Have they come back to you, Dave?’

  ‘No, Boss, I am just going to call them now, and we will send a couple of the team down to interview the witness if necessary,’ he turned again, ‘I take it that you did get the witnesses details?’

  The embarrassed young man nodded, and knew not only was he feeling the wrath of the DI but would be soon have his ears blasted off by his sergeant.

  ‘Can you come into my office once you have made the call, Dave? We need to speak.’ Jane requested, before she ran her eyes around the rest of the room, needing reassurance that every officer had heard the reminder that this was a case where the slightest piece of information needed to be passed on to Dave.

  Jane hadn’t slept much the previous night again, giving up about three in the morning to get up and spend the rest of the night on the sofa as she didn’t want to disturb Sean. He already was feeling irritated that she had hardly been home since Monday. He just didn’t get it, and she wasn’t in the mood to explain yet again that this was what happened when there was a major incident on the go. As she had lain on the sofa, she had found her mind wandering back to the nights before she was married. It had been easier just to focus on the job and even if she was having a problem sleeping she would have just wandered about her flat disturbing no one. Now it was different, Sean expected her to be home at a reasonable time, and more concerning, as she was finding out, he also expected her to be focused on him.

  Jane had not expected to get married, at thirty-nine, she had been totally focused on her career. This was Sean’s second marriage; he had been in Aberdeen for about two years before she met him, an engineer who originated from London, who held a fairly senior position in an oil company. Sean was used to being the boss and when they met via some mutual friends just over eighteen months ago, they had clicked. She was impressed by him and a big part of the attraction was that he wasn’t a bobby. She found it refreshing to get away from the job, and Sean provided this opportunity.

  He was an attractive forty-five year old, who really enjoyed some of the best things in life. When they travelled they did so first class, and she had loved the way he took care of her. It was nice to feel that someone actually would look after her. While she had had a couple of fairly serious relationships before, it always seemed as though she had to be the driving force and make all the decisions. With Sean it was different, she was happy with him making the decisions. When she had got her promotion just nine months ago, he had proposed and they had got married without any fuss. The wedding was just a quiet ceremony at the local registry office with a few friends and then a lovely honeymoon in Greece. It had only been recently that they had had any real disagreements. These were when he had made arrangements to do something without consulting her, and when she had told him she couldn’t make them due to her work, this led to a row.

  One of the issues that hadn’t been considered as an issue before was that of her job. She took it incredibly seriously, having never believed that when she started her career that she would end up in her current position. She was one of the few female officers to have reached the elevated rank and knew that she had to hold her own with her male colleagues. She was a good cop, she knew that, and she worked bloody hard to get where she was, and one thing she was sure of, she wasn’t going to let Sean sour it for her.

  She loved Sean, of course she loved him, she mustn’t let this get out of proportion, but if she was honest she was finding his expectations of her wearing. She reached over and poured a cup of strong black coffee and was annoyed at herself for letting her mind wander. She returned to the paperwork in front of her going over all the details of Mary’s disappearance again, and hoping that at last they had a lead, even if it was in Stirling.

  Dave Rogers drummed his fingers on the desk, trying to hold his frustration in place. He waited for the Central Police duty inspector to come on the phone. ‘Hi! Is that DI Rogers?’ came the voice from the other end, the west of Scotland accent obviously evident.

  ‘Yes, that’s right, am I speaking to Inspector Cameron?’ Dave asked.

  ‘Aye, that’s so. We got the information from your PC last evening and immediately acted on it. It would appear that the witness, a one Kenneth Dobson, is a reliable witness. He gave us a good description of the man and child, and we are following these enquiries up. It would seem that they were seen embarking from the Aberdeen train; and made their way out of the station towards the city centre. Mr Dobson is returning today to the police station to have a look at photos of some of our local celebrities.’

  ‘Have you many sex offenders on your books then?’ enquired Dave, who guessed that local celebrities was a term the inspector was using to describe the group of cons who brought out the worst in most cops.

  ‘Probably about the same as any other city, but we will go through the process. There are a couple we know about who are out and about; we are going to pay them a visit just to be on the safe side. We’ll let you know if we come up with anything.’

  ‘I’m thinking of sending a couple of our guys down to assist,’ he told
him, ‘it’s the first lead we have had since Monday and to say we are getting a bit anxious would be putting it mildly.’

  ‘Let’s just see what Mr Dobson comes up with today and we will do all we can to assist. If we get any leads we’ll be in contact immediately. We are all thinking about you up there. Thank goodness I have never had to deal with a missing child, but it’s all of our worst nightmares.’

  Dave hung up. Stretching, he returned to the incident room and stood watching. The team’s faces were grim, and tired. He watched as the phone rang and it was answered immediately by constable Sim, who was being very careful in ensuring all the information was fed into the system. So far the calls that they had received had been followed up, but nothing of note had led anywhere. Several visits had been made to local known offenders who were considered to have an interest in children. They had cooperated and allowed their houses to be searched and absolutely no evidence of anything had been found.

  Where was she? If she was with this man in Stirling, why hadn’t anyone reported seeing them, especially since they had been on the train from Aberdeen, but then they really could have got on anywhere between Aberdeen and Stirling. This was turning into a search for a needle in a haystack.

  Chapter 10

  Friday 14th September

  Jenni had decided that until Mary came back she would sleep in her daughter’s bed. Sleep was just a word and only a word, as the action of actually sleeping was not what had taken place since Monday. The only time she had slept was when the GP had given her a heavy sedative, and that had knocked her unconscious, so as far as sleep was concerned that did not count. Doctor Jamieson had been good to her, he had visited every day and had offered her further tranquilisers, but she had refused. He had advised that it would take the edge of her anxiety. She knew that it would maybe dull it a bit, but she didn’t want to take the edge off it. She wanted to remain vigilant and be ready for Mary when she came home. What good would she be if she was out of it when her daughter needed her!