Page 12 of Stolen Ones

Once back in shot she stopped dead at the unlocked gate. She took a quick look outside the gate before sprinting back into the building.

Within a minute three women charged through the screen and headed out of the back gate.

‘Okay, switch to the gate camera,’ Kim instructed.

She had wanted to check the timeline as well as gauge the initial response from the staff members. At this stage it was impossible to rule out inside involvement, but as yet she’d seen nothing to suggest anything untoward.

Minutes – it was literally a couple of minutes that Grace Lennard had been outside alone.

Bryant set the footage of the fixed camera on the gate to when Newhouse had returned to give the all-clear. Every bit of footage would be examined forensically later, but right now they needed a timeline and a sequence of events.

‘Damn,’ Kim said. It was immediately clear from the placement of the camera they would not see anything on the other side of the gate.

The minutes ticked by until they saw Grace approach the gate and stand in the gateway. She appeared to be looking at something on the ground. She then raised her head. Just one second of hesitation before she stepped through the gate and out of shot.

No person was visible on the other side. And somehow the person knew it.

‘Jesus,’ Bryant sighed. They were both aware that they may have been looking at Grace’s last moments alive.

‘Come on,’ she said, pushing back her chair.

The action broke the cloud of impending despair that was trying to settle above them.

‘Go tell Ms Newhouse that we’re off to take a look outside,’ she said, heading towards the back of the building. She passed groups of kids and adults. There was no point questioning them at this stage. It was clear that Grace had been alone.

She stepped out of a long set of bifold doors into a space that was actually bigger than it appeared on the camera.

She instantly saw the blind spot where Grace had been working at a raised planter in the far-right corner.

She headed towards it and was viewing the abandoned mini garden tools when Bryant joined her.

‘A relative has just arrived to take Claire home. I assured her we’d speak to her soon.’

Kim nodded. A liaison officer would already have been appointed and would travel straight to Claire Lennard’s home.

‘Okay,’ Kim said, turning away from the planting area but staying where Grace had been working, guided by the placement of the mini tools.

‘Go to the other side of the gate,’ she instructed her colleague.

Bryant did so and pushed the gate so that it was open just a fraction like they’d seen on the video.

Kim looked down at the planter. Any movement outside of the gate would have caught Grace’s attention from the corner of her eye.

She stepped through the gate to where Bryant was already appraising the area.

It was an open space where a small fastener warehouse had once stood. It was accessible from the road, and there was no CCTV coverage that she could see.

‘He could have been parked right by the gate,’ Kim said. He would have had her away in seconds.

‘Shit, Bryant, where do we even—Hang on, what’s that?’ she asked as something on the ground sparkled at her in the sunlight.

They both leaned down to take a closer look.

‘It’s a silver chain. Must have come off Grace’s wrist in the struggle.’

She held out her hand palm up. Like a well-trained theatre nurse, Bryant placed a biro in her hand. She nudged the piece of jewellery so the whole thing was visible. The movement uncovered a solid silver heart. Engraved on the back were the initials ‘MJ’.

‘Aaaah, shit. It isn’t Grace’s bracelet,’ she said as Bryant produced an evidence bag from his pocket. ‘I think this is the bracelet that belonged to Melody Jones. It was the piece of evidence withheld from the public twenty-five years ago.’