The Hunted Child

by G R Jordan

  Two hours later, Kirsten was sitting in the harbour office talking to the sergeant, wondering what had gone wrong.

  ‘And you checked every vehicle?’

  ‘Yes,’ said the sergeant. ‘Opened the boot of them all.’

  ‘What about the commercial vehicles?’ asked Kirsten.

  ‘Yes, we checked them. All still had their tags on.’

  ‘I’m sorry?’ queried Kirsten.

  ‘The tags. When they close up a vehicle for transport, they put a tag on it. We checked it, we checked the paperwork, the same tag was on.’

  ‘So, you didn’t open and check inside?’

  ‘No,’ said the sergeant. ‘We didn’t need to. The tag read correctly.’

  ‘But you can change paperwork and you can change the tag,’ said Kirsten. ‘I need a manifest of all the commercial vehicles that were on board.’

  The sergeant nodded, got to his feet, and left the room. Kirsten could feel the sting from the punches that had connected with their head. She was battered and bruised but it was nothing to force her to stop working. It was nothing worse than a good pounding she would take in the MMA ring. But there was something else hurting her. How on earth had they not checked the commercial vehicles? She pounded a fist into the desk. ‘Damn it,’ she said. ‘Damn it, damn it, damn it.’ Now she’d have a whole island to search.

  Chapter 8

  Kirsten sat in the Balti House looking out towards the ferry terminal in Stornoway, dejected, but knowing she needed to eat. The missing kidnappers had disappeared in the back of a lorry which was later found with its rear door open and cargo still inside. The police on Lewis were shorthanded for a manhunt of this size, and they also didn’t know where to look. The men could have gone anywhere in Lewis, especially if they had taken refuge with another party.

  Kirsten spooned the large tomato that was sitting on her plate at the heart of her bhuna dish and chewed it several times while she pondered the next move. The police had been alerted and had asked for all their officers to put a watch out, but how daft would these people be? The other issue was they clearly were not there to kill the girl but rather to present her to the highest bidder.

  The Tavares brothers were not killers, but they were certainly crooks and when Kirsten had spoken to Anna Hunt, her boss had not been in the most optimistic mood. The islands were small compared to the mainland but there were so many areas without houses, without anyone nearby. You could hide quite easily. There was also the possibility of being on a boat and because of that, Kirsten had tipped off the coastguard asking if they saw any unusual vessels anchored near the islands but again, that was a shot in the dark. For now, the girl had vanished along with the brothers and the two women, and possibly the next move would need to come from intelligence.

  Kirsten spooned the last piece of curry into her mouth, swallowed it, and waved her hand at the man behind the counter. He came over, presented a bill that Kirsten paid straight away before leaving a small tip and making her way to the harbour to look out into the evening.

  Sometimes in this job you had to stop. She had been on the run for so long tailing the Tavares brothers and before that, racing to find the girl before she disappeared. But without anywhere to go, without anywhere specific to look, Kirsten could just drive around this island for hours on end getting none the wiser. She would need something else before she would begin that fast-paced charge again.

  She felt the vibration in her pocket and pulled out her mobile phone, putting it to her ear as she leaned against the metal rails at the edge of the harbour. The ferry was arriving again, slightly late due to the escapades that had happened earlier that day. The police had closed off part of the ferry while it travelled its repetitive course. The forensic team had checked around the men’s toilets where Kirsten felt she had fought for her life, and had also managed to take off the camper van the Tavares brothers had come over in, but there was little to show for their efforts. The girl had been with them but little else was discovered. The trouble was everyone knew who had taken her; they just didn’t know where they were going.

  ‘It’s Kirsten.’

  ‘Anna. We’ve been listening to a bit of chatter and we reckon the Tavares brothers have a place near Callanish. Do you know it?’

  Kirsten knew it well. She had worked here, and the Callanish Stones were one of the major tourist attractions on the island. There was a mysterious stone circle that no one was quite sure of its purpose, but it attracted visitors to the hill it was on for many years now. However, around Callanish, there were a large number of crofts and open land and if the brothers were hiding out around there, it was still a large area to cover.

  ‘I am quite familiar with it,’ said Kirsten, ‘but is there any more detail? That’s quite a large place. There is a number of outbuildings, ruins, caravans, things like that and the shore area is a myriad of lochs and rocks.’

  ‘I narrowed it down from the island to one part of it. You’re asking a lot, Kirsten, if you want an address.’

  ‘Where did the tip come from?’

  ‘We intercepted a call made to Kyle Collins from one of his men. It appears they’re getting set up for a meet. The Tavares brothers wouldn’t give their exact address, but they said they were in the Callanish area in Lewis so we’re expecting Collins’s men to make a move over there very soon. I alerted the police. They said they would keep a watch on the ferry but who knows if they’ll come in from that route. The airport’s alerted as well but they may use people we don’t know. I don’t think it will happen that quickly, but you’ll need to be in the area just in case.’

  ‘That’s understood,’ said Kirsten. ‘I’m just going to watch the ferry dock and see if I can get eyes on anyone I know and then I’ll make my way over. We got any more resources here to throw at this?’

  ‘I’d rather use them in other ways,’ said Anna. ‘We got the police looking out and I’ve had a recent report that two men and a young girl were seen taking a bus over to Callanish so everything’s pointing that way.’

  ‘Anything more?’

  ‘No. They got off the bus,’ said Anna. ‘That was it. The driver went on, didn’t see what happened afterwards. The police have canvased part of the area but there’s no houses where they were. They could have disappeared off themselves, they could have grabbed another car, any number of things, but it looks like Callanish is going to be the area for the meet. We’ve still got the phone line tapped so if any more communications come through, I’ll tell you, but I don’t think it’s likely the Tavares brothers will be as sloppy as to just keep phoning the one number. They’ll probably feed the information in via different routes. Collins is a smart lad as well so no one will know everything except him.’

  ‘All understood,’ said Kirsten. ‘I’ll check the ferry and then I’m off to Callanish.’ As she closed the phone call, she grunted because it would mean a stop at the supermarket as well. There weren’t that many shops on the west side of the island and most of them wouldn’t be open towards the later hours of the night, so it would be better for her to stock up in case she didn’t get back across to Stornoway for a day or two.

  Kirsten spent the next hour watching the passengers come off the ferry and gazing at the cars as they exited out into Stornoway. She had a number of photofits of Collins’s people on her phone but like Anna said, it was unlikely he was going to use any of the known ones. He probably paid for someone to come in from the point of view that if anything went wrong, he could deny all knowledge of working with them. He couldn’t be seen killing someone. Certainly not again. He needed to keep everything as clean as possible in case it all went to court.

  After a shopping trip, Kirsten made the trip over to Callanish, taking the road heading south initially before taking a right at Cameron Terrace. The road from there to Callanish went across moorland, which was long and sweeping, rising and falling, but with barely a tree in sight. There was the occasional clump of wood, clearly planted in an attempt to bring trees back
to an island that once had been abundant with them, but a long time ago, the island had been cleared. To see a tree was certainly not a curiosity but was definitely rarer than on the mainland.

  The night was overcast, but fortunately, there was no rain falling. As Kirsten arrived at Callanish, she initially took the car right to the visitor centre at the Callanish Stones. It seemed a strange place to meet, but as she made her way up to the monument, she realised the advantage of it.

  The stones were at the top of a hill, with the visitor centre down below them. While you were amongst the circular collection, you could look out to the loch nearby, down to the road that Kirsten had come in on, and also off to the side where there were a few scattered houses. If the kidnappers didn’t like what they saw arriving, they could always move away, rearrange the meet.

  Kirsten stood leaning against one of the stones, pondering how she would do this. After surveying the land, she made her way back to the car and decided rather than sit and wait at the meeting point, which she didn’t know was going to be in operation that night, she might do better to make her way around the ruins of the local area, see if anyone was hiding out in them. It was a shot in the dark, but it kept her busy rather than simply sitting in a car.

  Working her way out from the Stones, Kirsten stopped her car and made her way out to one ruin after another. There was an old boat shed with a boat sitting inside, but no one had been there for years. The next one she went to was previously a blackhouse of some sort, buried into the ground, but there was no one there. Ruin after ruin was uninhabited. Then she came across one where a collection of sheep were inside. She made herself scarce before the light bleating brought out the farmer.

  It was then she got down to a small ruin by the lochside. She noticed that some of the ground was trampled and there was a small path leading out to it. Slowly, she made her way in, from a different angle. In the dark, it was hard to see. Kirsten found herself hitting the occasional stone with her foot, and she bit her tongue not to swear out loud at the throbbing it had caused. The wind had picked up, and it whistled through the stone building in front of her, which only reached up to her own head. The roof was covered in grass but had probably been a thatch in its day, or covered in mud of some sort.

  As she reached the corner, she realised it was an open door. The thought of shelter must have been quite hard if the wind was coming from the wrong direction. She drew her gun and slowly cocked her head around the corner, peering into the darkness. Her eyes were well-adjusted, but she could see no shadows. Flicking on the pen torch that she held in her other hand, there was no one inside, but in the corner, she saw a pair of rucksacks.

  Carefully, Kirsten made her way over and began to unzip the rucksacks, finding food inside and a very small camping stove. She could smell the remnants of some sort of cooking, possibly beans. Then her torch caught the sight of a pan in the far corner. The red residue of the beans was still inside. Kirsten realised that things must be moving sooner rather than later, for the beans had not been cleaned out. Searching the rest of the rucksacks, she found mainly food. She discovered a small pail and some toilet roll. Otherwise, there was nothing of note. Certainly, there was nothing to indicate who owned any of these items.

  Maybe they could trace it back to a supermarket. These days, there were cameras everywhere. If you could collect the food items, you might be able to get a time which these items were bought. It was a long shot, and Kirsten was not for sitting and categorizing the items. No, not when people were on the move. Slowly, she made her way back out of the room, retracing her steps to the car, where she sat inside and pondered her next move. Certainly, there was a likelihood the kidnappers had been here, but she doubted they were coming back. The items would have been hidden there, so they must be on the move.

  The big question was, did they have a car, because if they did, the meet could be anywhere. If they were on foot, then the Callanish Stones was a possibility. It was less than an hour, but again, that was an hour of normal walking. How cooperative would the girl be? Would they have to carry her over their backs? If so, they’d be along roads, and passing people who would see them. Surely, they’d have a car with them.

  Kirsten decided to make a move back to the main road that swept in through Callanish and park up just off it. Rather than sitting in her vehicle, she climbed out and took up a position in the grass, hidden from view by the dark night and her black clothing. As she felt the rain begin to fall, she realised she could be in for a very uneventful and wet evening. She pulled her arms around her because she’d had to jump on board the ferry without her own baggage and had only managed to secure some items quickly in Stornoway from the Fisherman’s Cooperative in the town. She was glad that one of these items had been a large waterproof jacket. As she sat with it wrapped around her, she felt the vibration of the phone in her pocket again.

  ‘Kirsten.’

  ‘It sounds like things have gone wrong in this side.’

  ‘How do you mean have gone wrong?’

  ‘The father has gone missing from the house, the brother too.’

  ‘What happened to Sam? I thought she was looking after them.’

  ‘She was doing. Father and son said they were going for a sleep. Everyone was down below, but she said they were a clever pair, knocked the alarms off and disappeared out. The mother kept going back and forward to the room, telling Sam she was checking up to make sure her boy was sleeping okay. The pair of them were gone the whole time.’

  ‘Could they be here?’ asked Kirsten.

  ‘I checked the ferries, and you were there too, so we doubt they came off there. So, I checked flights. They may have arrived at Stornoway on the late evening plane. I’m not sure what’s going on, Kirsten, but you’ve got to consider these two are rogue now. They may be contacting Collins after them speaking before. They could do anything. They must be terrified.’

  ‘Understood,’ said Kirsten. ‘I think it’s happening tonight. I found where I believe that the Tavares brothers were staying. It’s an old ruin, and they’ve left it. If they’re in a car, they could be meeting anywhere. I’m stuck on the roadside in Callanish, hoping I’ll pick something out. If I get anything, Anna, I’ll be straight on to you, but I think we’re clutching at straws at the moment. Did Sam question the mother? Did Marion know anything?’ asked Kirsten

  ‘These two are quite cute,’ said Anna. ‘The mother knew nothing. They wouldn’t say anything, but I reckon they could be off for a meet. Whether or not they even had that information at that point, I don’t know, because there were no phone calls going out. I reckon they escaped then probably tried to make contact. I don’t need to tell you, Kirsten, you need to get on top of this. If those guys turn up, they could end up dead as well.’

  ‘It’s all understood, but I’m out in the dark here, Anna. You get that, don’t you?’

  ‘Well, find a better light then. It’s what we pay you for.’

  Chapter 9

  The rain was steadily heavy, and Kirsten could feel the chill about to come into her bones. She wanted to shift position, but at the moment, she was incognito in the grass. A number of cars had come past in the hours during which she had waited. All had continued into the Callanish village, and she saw them stopping at houses with lights already on, so decided not to pay them any further attention. As the hour got towards two in the morning, the traffic had ceased. It was only the occasional police car going past giving her evening any highlights.

  Kirsten had learned the subtle art of being a sentry. The old routine when you were given a watching duty, but through the middle of the night, you would let your body start to drift off but keep the senses alert. As soon as anything happened, the eyes flew open. The ears were the key of it, hearing things, picking up the sounds before alerting the eyes to be on the lookout. She heard the car coming long before it reached her.

  The car headlights were bright. Kirsten watched the black tarmac suddenly light up with the rain gleaming as it fell in front
of the headlight. The car was slowing as it came to the turn-off for the Callanish Stones and Kirsten primed herself. It was difficult with such a bright light to see inside the car. She looked away from the beam trying to maintain that night vision that comes when the sun descends and all the lights have been switched off. Her eyes had adjusted over the time she’d been there, but she didn’t want them to revert simply because of a car beam.

  She could see two figures inside the car, a map being held up. Then the car made its way down towards the Callanish Stones visitor centre. Kirsten got into her own car and kept her headlights switched off. She minimised the internal lights as much as she could and drove at a distance behind the car, stopping well short of the visitor centre, keen not to alert them as they pulled into the car park. Kirsten jumped out of her car and made her way along the roadside. The rain was now falling down hard.

  As she got to the visitor centre car park, she could see two men getting out but it was hard to make the figures out through the rain. They made their way up towards the visitor’s centre as she reached the car park. She saw them then take the path up towards the Callanish Stones.

  Kirsten skirted the hillside, keeping low in the grass, and climbed up from the far side. As she approached the hilltop, she realised how dark the night was, for the figures that she saw amongst the stones were mere shadows. She crawled closer through the grass keeping herself on the slope just off the stone circle.

  ‘That’s far enough,’ a sharp voice said. ‘You can stay there. The other buyers are on the far side.’

  Buyer? thought Kirsten. Is this going to be an auction?

  ‘I need to see her. I need to see my daughter.’

  ‘She’s here but first we need to know there’s no guns.’ Kirsten watched a man step forward. He frisked the party on her left-hand side. He then made his way over to the father who had spoken, rubbing his hands down the side of the man as well.