Harvest

by Steve Merrifield

  Rachel realised that all he had to do to draw strength to believe, was to ask himself how a seven-year-old-girl, his daughter, could vanish with no trace and no leads from a locked ninth-floor flat.

  Chapter Seven

  Craig stepped out of the lift on the twelfth floor and headed for Kelly’s flat. Kelly had been reluctant to share any information on the Chambers’ case with him, but he reasoned that giving her a heads up on the Chambers calling on a medium might serve to gain her trust and favour. If it was suspected that Emily was dead, it certainly hadn’t been leaked to the press. Kelly might even think Craig could have a lead that hadn’t been released, and that would provide him with leverage to bargain for a little more information from Kelly. ‘It’s not what you know, it’s what others think you know,’ that’s what Vicki said. He would have to become a little more like Vicki if he wanted to get stories; hard, unrelenting, able to read between the lines and put words into mouths that don’t or won’t speak when you want them to; although he doubted whether he could be that person and wasn’t sure if he wanted to be. After helping the older woman get past Harry and in to the building, and continuing his good deed by keeping her company until Claire Chambers had arrived, he felt mean running straight to Kelly to use her presence as a bargaining chip, but it could be his way in to a story.

  Craig reached for the knocker at the same time the door opened and Kelly rushed out. His hand landed on her chest with a soft pat. They both stared at it. Craig retracted it, but not as quickly as he would have liked.

  “Sorry, I meant to get your…” He decided not to finish his sentence and added another flustered apology, frowning at himself and the embarrassment of the situation, wanting the world to instantly snuff him out of existence.

  “You scared the life out of me.” She said, politely ignoring his discomfort.

  Craig stepped away to let her out of her flat and he eyed her up and down discretely. She was stiffly uniformed with her hair drawn back into a tight bun, her small glasses hiding her eyes; this was the Kelly he was used to seeing.

  “I can’t stop too long; have to start my shift…” She closed her door behind her and stood before him expectantly.

  “Sorry, it’s just that – well, I was downstairs earlier checking my mail and it would appear that the Chambers have a guest.”

  Kelly motioned for him to continue their conversation while she walked. “They aren’t under arrest, Mr Digby.” She clipped on her weighty utility belt as she walked.

  “Craig,” he interrupted, smiling disarmingly, trying to get onto a more personal level; formality felt uncomfortable and he wanted her onside.

  “They can have as many people as they like to come and visit them. I don’t know what you have heard but they aren’t prime suspects.”

  Of course they were. “Who are?” Craig challenged firmly and saw her instant frustration with him.

  “Where are you going with this? You didn’t come all the way up here to tell me they had visitors, surely?” Kelly opened the lift and they both stepped in.

  “I spoke to the woman.” He related what had happened in the lobby, and Harry’s strange comment about her ‘type’ not being welcome, the woman had assumed he knew her from ‘the hall’, Craig had taken that as meaning she worked at town hall but she had corrected him. “She’s from a local spiritualist hall. It seems she’s a medium.” Kelly’s attention was full on him. “I thought that might get your attention. Thought I should tell you because I didn’t know how vulnerable they could be at this time.”

  Kelly glanced away thoughtfully as the lift doors rattled shut. She hadn’t selected the floor she wanted and for a moment they stood in the blanching strip lighting of the lift, going nowhere. “Strange…”

  Strange? Strange had been Harry not wanting the woman to come in, then the door itself had fritzed, although when the woman had gone up in the lift with Claire another resident used the door without any problems. He didn’t mention this – it was bad enough being seen as a mercenary journalist circling around a story without being a kook as well.

  “Thanks for letting me know about this. I could stop by, see how they are doing,” Kelly conceded, pressing the button for the ninth floor and the lift car rumbled downwards towards the Chambers’ level. “Not sure how I am going to approach them though.”

  “So you got anything for me in return then?” Craig beamed.

  Kelly shot him a look of disappointment. “I should have known you didn’t have their vulnerability in mind. You’re all the same, you people.” She stepped to the doors as the lift slowed down, distancing herself from him.

  Craig deflated as her spike of anger and disappointment lanced him. He tried to cover the wound by rationalising that negative reactions came with being a journalist, but the wound ached all the more as he was defending himself against the very criticism he often levelled at Vicki. He cared about what people thought of him and he didn’t want to be hard, tactless and relentless as so many people saw journalists. “I’m sorry, it’s just I need a story – I’m looking for my first story. I kind of hoped…”

  Kelly stepped out of the lift and her frame stiffened and filled out her uniform. Especially where his hand had been. “This isn’t a trade-off. It might mean the start of your career, but who do you think would be under suspicion if I gave you insider info? That wouldn’t do my career much good.” Craig looked to his shoes in a display of boyish guilt, and her indignation softened. “Besides, you probably know just as much as me.”

  Craig jumped out in front of her with a renewed enthusiasm, but she didn’t stop walking, forcing him to hop and dance back from her determined step as he tried another approach. “Hey, I’m sorry. Perhaps there’s another answer to this: We could work together.” The suggestion received a flash furrow of her brow, joined with an “as if” cock of her head. He wasn’t perturbed. “It’s not as one-sided as it sounds! After all, I did just bring you some information. Hear me out. We are both going to be following leads – granted we have different motives, but beyond our jobs we both have personal motivations; we want to know what’s happening on our doorstep. So – we could do it together.”

  “I won’t be investigating leads – I’m not a detective.”

  “I know that – but the chances are that just by living here on top of this you could pick up a lead, and you wouldn’t let that go, would you?”

  “You’re suggesting a partnership of information?”

  “Quid pro quo – just like Hannibal Lecter and Clarice Starling.”

  “I’m not sure I like the analogy…”

  “Yeah, okay,” he conceded. “You could be Scully, me Mulder, or… You Buffy, me Angel…”

  Kelly laughed at his comparison and he was pleased he had humoured her. “More like Abbott and Costello…”

  “Clouseau and Kato?” Craig stopped in his tracks beside the door to the Chambers’ flat. “Come on; what do you say?” he goaded.

  “I can’t take you around with me on police business.”

  “I know that, but we can help each other out. Come on!”

  “We can trade information, but only at my discretion.” Kelly continued in response to the grin that curled his lips tightly: “And if you risk my record at work I will be serving you up with a nice warm Chianti.”

  Kelly took her hat off out of respect as Brian appeared at the door. She saw the breathless dance of fear in his eyes, his uncertainty at her presence. Wondering if this visit would change his world; either with news of his daughter or that he and his wife were under arrest. Plenty of her colleagues suspected the parents. Until the girl turned up or a body was found there was little to go on other than what had been presented, and given time and consideration of the fact that there was no evidence of forced entry, and any intruder would have been in full view of the parents in the lounge, the parents’ grief and fear for their missing daughter would not distract from them being suspected. The Chambers were fortunate that Albert Taylor the undertaker had gone mis
sing just before Emily, as it stopped the case pointing solely at the Chambers.

  After brief friendly greetings Brian lingered, visibly agitated around an expectant pause.

  “I’m sorry to call on you like this, especially as I haven’t come with any news Brian. I actually came to check on you. See if you and Claire were alright…” Kelly checked Craig was still by her side at the door. “To be honest, Mr Digby here was worried for you,” she explained, placing the onus firmly on him. He had after all, been the one to talk her into this. He had such a happy face she imagined it was hard to say no to him when the pay-off was the wide curled smile and the sparkling excitement in his eyes. Although she felt a stab of guilt knowing she wouldn’t follow through on her part if this proved to be a lead on the case.

  Brian frowned, obviously puzzled as to where this was leading and looked guiltily over his shoulder to a woman in the lounge.

  Craig was quick to jump in. “It’s nothing sinister, Mr Chambers. I just spoke to the person you invited up and I wasn’t sure if she was genuine or not. I was concerned.”

  Brian stood aside and Kelly led Craig through while Brian closed the door behind them. “I’ve been calling on you since all this happened,” she said, “so I hope you don’t mind the intrusion. It’s not being nosy – I just wanted to make sure you are okay.” Kelly saw Claire and Rachel rise into full view in the lounge, drawn from conversation by their intrusion. Their expectant eyes were upon Kelly and the ground shifted beneath her with the weakness of her excuse. She shouldn’t have come. It was outside her role. Why had she allowed herself to be talked into this?

  Brian’s mouth twitched towards explaining but was interrupted by the doorknocker rattling again; he leaned past them and answered it in a fluster.

  All eyes turned to the door and there was silence.

  Amy stood in the doorway in her school uniform, looking diminutive, and scared by all those standing before her. She retreated but the legs of the woman that accompanied her blocked her exit so she pulled her friend close to her for protection. Kelly recognised the woman and the boy as residents but didn’t know their name. She had seen them at the Chambers’ place before.

  Claire left Rachel’s side and pushed through Craig and Kelly to get to Amy. She crouched before her, brushed a stray swathe of hazelnut hair from her face and kissed her forehead. She looked up into the woman’s face and thanked her for looking after Amy, she called her Jenny and the boy was Jason. She reassured both Amy and Jenny that things were okay and that she would call her later. Brian shepherded a questioning Amy to her room.

  As Amy disappeared from view, the atmosphere of the room changed abruptly as if a great build-up of pressure had been released, and their bodies could relax and acclimatize in her absence. Amy was the embodiment of Brian and Claire’s loss.

  Claire appeared momentarily torn between her daughter and their visitors. “I’m sorry,” she said, “I just want to see if Amy is okay. Strangers tend to make her uncomfortable at the moment.”

  With that, Claire abandoned Kelly and Craig in the hallway with the woman they had been suspicious of. Kelly sought distraction through looking around the room, anywhere but in Rachel’s vicinity, while Craig hugged himself and rocked back and forth on his heels. After some time she flashed a pained smile at Rachel, who returned the gesture but without the discomfort.

  “I hope you know I don’t mean the Chamber’s any harm,” Rachel hushed across the room.

  Kelly’s suspicion of Rachel was suddenly uncomfortable, now she was face to face with her it felt accusatory. She left Craig’s side and walked over to Rachel in the lounge. “I’m sorry,” she whispered before lying, “it’s just a formality.”

  Rachel’s grey diamond eyes studied her. “It’s not formality; you’re here because you were concerned for the Chambers.”

  “Is that why you’re here?” Kelly deflected with a carefully loaded challenge.

  If Rachel felt challenged she didn’t express it within the gentle smile and quick answer. “I do care, yes. But it was Claire that contacted me.”

  Craig moved stiffly to Kelly’s side and leaned over her shoulder, as if he was hiding behind her. “I’m sorry, Rachel. I hope you aren’t taking offence.” His eyes flicking between Rachel and the floor like a guilty kid. It struck Kelly as quite sweet.

  Rachel’s waved his apology away and her smile didn’t falter. “No. Don’t worry yourself.”

  Kelly chastised herself for intruding on the Chambers; it was none of her concern. However, the Chambers calling Rachel signified a possibility Kelly hadn’t thought they would be considering, urging her on to suspicions of the parents she had been actively trying not to contemplate. Perhaps the Chambers had given up hope? They were entitled to approach anyone they wanted to for comfort. Personally she didn’t believe in spirits – even God. If there was any truth in nonsense like the paranormal then there would be more evidence and less scepticism. She was more concerned this medium might be some crank trying to get in on the press attention or get money by playing on the family’s hopes. What if the parents already knew Emily was dead because they had played a part in her death? She shrugged the thoughts away.

  “I don’t want to pry, Rachel, but does this mean they have given up hope?”

  Rachel appeared caught and unsure how to answer. “I think we all need help to get through things like this. When you don’t have the answers you look to others to help fill in the blanks.”

  Despite Kelly’s lack of faith in Rachel’s talents she strangely yearned to ask if Emily was dead, but knew that any answer would leave her dissatisfied. Kelly would only accept tangible evidence; it was her training. Procedure. She had had seventeen weeks of procedure in her training at Hendon. She needed more than probabilities and hunches, she had those already and they were buried in the back of her mind, although they refused to decay into a lessening presence. Maybe it was the sentimental optimist within her, but she couldn’t come to a conclusion that meant snuffing out a life without concrete evidence to support it, even though the cold fact was that Emily had now been missing for three weeks. Although Rachel seemed nice enough, there was something about clairvoyance and spiritualism that she disliked; someone offering you a fabric of lies that you desperately want to believe because the truth is more painful. She thought of Ian telling her that he loved her. What fantasy had she weaved for the Chambers? “Have you? Filled in the blanks, I mean?”

  “Whatever answer I give you, you wouldn’t believe me, would you?”

  “I might,” Craig jumped in.

  Kelly held back a knowing smirk at Craig’s attempts to get an angle on a story. An aspect of her was envious that he could get away with following any line of thought. He could present a story or idea and let the public come to their own conclusions, whereas the police had to justify the plot with the intricacies of its causality fully explored and explained.

  “I don’t think any good can come from an answer either way when it comes to Emily. As I explained to the Chambers, the blanks are not going to be filled by me. Which, I’m afraid, gives little comfort to them.”

  The three stopped their discussion dead as Claire and Brian returned from Amy’s room. Brian smiled uneasily at Kelly and hugged himself. She became sensitive to the awkwardness of her presence as her purpose for being there weakened the longer they stayed. Kelly nudged Craig, wanting him to be aware of her intention of retreat as she addressed the others. “Well, again, I hope I haven’t disturbed you all. I was just looking out for your well-being and hope you see it that way.”

  Claire smiled at her appreciatively. “It’s nice to know we have people looking out for us in this block. It can be easy to forget.”

  “If you’re going I don’t suppose you would show me out?” Rachel looked back to the Chambers. “I think I’ve done all I can for now. Have a think about it and if you feel you want to go ahead we can get that equipment sorted.” Rachel closed in on Claire, seeming to decide against a hug and simply pla
ced her hand on her shoulder. Kelly listened as Rachel thanked the Chambers for inviting her into their home, and specifically thanked Claire for trusting her with her story. She gave Claire the number of a Priest who would bless their home, the idea of another person using the Chambers torment and need for hope riled Kelly until Rachel also passed Claire the number of a counsellor. That was what the Chambers needed, real help to get past the ambiguity of their daughters disappearance, something to help them live with the uncertainty of Emily’s fate, not the mystification of faith with it’s’ own ambiguities. She liked the way that Rachel gave them the choice of which avenue to pursue.

  Outside the flat Kelly felt a sense of relief wash through her, and saw the same refreshment at being free of the smothering grief and desperation in Craig, and more surprising to her she also saw it in Rachel.

  “I hope you didn’t mind me having you as an escort, Claire and Brian had such expectations of me I was grateful for an opportunity to make my departure.”Kelly accepted her sincerity and relaxed her judgement. “It is hard, isn’t it? I hate being in there. It feels so intrusive.”

  “I could see how torn Claire was between us and wanting to be with Amy. They must be terrified of leaving her.”

  Kelly thought Rachel’s comment was odd. Surely the Chambers would not fear their second daughter going missing? It was highly unlikely that her abductor would return to the original crime scene and victims now that everyone’s awareness and vigilance was so heightened. “Really?”

  Rachel balked at her questioning and Kelly conceded to how fearful for Amy the Chambers would be. “Yes, of course.” Yet Kelly shook off the lingering idea that Rachel knew more than she was saying and quickly introduced herself to Rachel within their new situation. “I didn’t really start out on the right footing with you back there…”

  Rachel accepted Kelly’s hand and shook it. The three headed down the hall and rode the lift together.

  “What was that you said back there about equipment?” Craig fired directly.