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Daniel lunges forward. Lucy drags him back. ‘That’syour justification? Because I don’tlisten? That’s your reason for selling me out?’
Nick’s face tightens. He turns and crosses the drive to the lane.
‘This is why you bought the scooter, isn’t it?’ Daniel shouts. ‘So we wouldn’t think too badly of you when we found out. You’re a joke, Nick. The way your mind works – it’s actually fucking sad.’
‘Hon?’ Noemie asks.
Lucy flinches, comes back to herself; no longer at Billie’s party but sitting on the sofa in front of four anxious faces.
Outside, another mortar round strikes the peninsula. It feels like the entire coast is under attack.
NINETEEN
1
Abraham Rose arrives back at the station just before 6 a.m. Over seventeen hours have now passed since Daniel Locke’s distress call. The operation resuming after sunrise is no longer a search and rescue. It’s a hunt for bodies.
His first conversation is with Mike Kowalski. ‘Where are we with Lucy Locke’s family liaison officer?’
‘Jesse Arnold’s going out to see her this morning. I know it’s shit, but that’s the reality.’
‘It’s not your fault. Still, we should have had someone with her last night. What’s the latest at the hospital?’
‘Locke is up and dressed. Drinking a cup of tea, last time I heard. Word is, they’re likely to release him later.’
‘I need to be there before that happens.’
‘We’re going to arrest him?’
‘I want to get him in an interview room and see what he has to say.’
‘You’re not the only one.’
‘You know what he said to me at the hospital? “Tell thatbitch she deserves every fucking thing she gets.” And when his wife turned up, he lost it completely.’
‘What’s your gut feel?’
‘There’s something going on between that couple. I just don’t know what.’
His night shift complete, Kowalski departs for his bed. At 7 a.m., Abraham summons his team. It’s a pitifully reduced crew. He assigns tasks: call logs from Daniel and Billie Locke’s phones; a check of every business in Skentel that might have CCTV; ANPR data for Daniel’s Volvo. He also wants officers visiting the twenty or so addresses along the coastal road between Skentel and Redlecker. Possible that someone might have seen something.
So far, none of the employees at Locke-Povey Marine have been interviewed. The dispatched patrol car was redirected to another incident and never made it back. No point getting angry about that – immediate threats to life take precedence. In the last twenty-four hours there’s been a deluge.
He has to find those kids. Because, without bodies, what has he got? Daniel Locke took his son out of school, that’s beyond dispute. CCTV proves he took Fin on the boat. Circumstantial evidence suggests Billie Locke joined them.
Enough for an arrest warrant, but a charge? Even if the bodies of Fin and Billie are recovered, proving that Daniel Locke caused their deathsintentionallywill be a huge challenge. Right now, all Abraham has is theLazy Susan’s smashed seacocks – the valves controlling seawater flow in and out of the boat.
At eight, he calls Patrick Beckett in the South West Criminal Finance team. Yesterday, he briefed Beckett to dig up everything he could find on Daniel Locke. Predictably, Beckett hasn’t had time to start.
At eight thirty, he liaises with the media office in Middlemoor. At nine, on the steps outside the station, he holds his first press conference. The suggestion of foul play has swollen the attendant press pack. Journalists hold out digital recorders. Abraham counts six different camera teams.
Despite the crisp morning, sweat is beading on his brow. He hopes no one sees what Dr Annapurna noticed yesterday: death, beginning to cast its shadow.As he speaks, he tries to ignore the purple coat in his peripheral vision. Instead, he concentrates on his message, on making sure that everyone watching understands the severity of what’s happened.
Yesterday lunchtime, Daniel Locke sailed out of Skentel with his seven-year-old son. It’s believed Locke’s eighteen-year-old stepdaughter went with them. A lifeboat crew recovered the empty boat. Daniel was winched from the sea five hours later. Fin and Billie are still missing. The search, suspended overnight, has resumed this morning.
He doesn’t mention theLazy Susan’s smashed seacocks but he does make it clear his officers are still piecing together what happened. He ends with a plea for relevant CCTV or dashcam footage.
‘Is this still a search-and-rescue operation?’ someone asks. ‘Do you hope to recover the children alive?’