Page 27

TWENTY-SIX

Gina hated having to leave Colson Ferguson in a cell, especially as he’d looked so shifty after she’d mentioned Keeley Moore, but they had so much to do and he was enforcing his right to silence. ‘Did you tell Orla, the FLO, what was said in Colson’s interview?’

Jacob pulled over outside the caretaker’s office. ‘Yes, Keeley Moore and her family have arrived at her husband’s parents’ house now and she is staying with them. I said we’d go and talk to Keeley later, like you suggested. If she finds anything out, she’ll let us know straight away.’

‘Great, when we’ve finished with the caretaker, we’ll head over. What’s the caretaker called again?’ Gina asked.

Jacob began searching on his phone. ‘Xavier Whitmore. From the statements we took, we know he’s a bit of a prankster, that’s why Keeley Moore thought the van pulling up with the stuffed legs sticking out of it was a joke, not a ploy to try and kidnap her.’ He turned the ignition off.

‘Who’s looking into Marie?’

‘O’Connor has organised to go with a PC to check out the houses opposite the Cleevesford Cleaver, to try to find out if Marie still lives there, or if anyone can remember her.’

‘Let’s hope they do.’ Gina felt her stomach churning a little. A second day had almost passed and they still had no idea who the girl in the photo was. ‘I hate to say this, but Keeley’s attempted kidnap makes me slightly relieved. If the girl in the photo is trapped somewhere, there is another person who will feed her and…’ She took a couple of breaths and closed her eyes for a moment as she tried to digest what she was thinking.

‘And what? I think you’re thinking what I’m thinking.’

She nodded. ‘Or she might be too much trouble and he might just kill her. If so, why did he try to take someone else? Is the girl already dead? Was he going to replace her? We have nothing here. I don’t know where we’re going with this one, and all I can think about is that girl.’

She thought of all the emails she’d received. Those were the types of men this girl was probably up against. She was nothing to them. She was something to own, control and keep for whatever sick games they had planned, looking at the state she was in in the photo.

Her mind wandered to Pete Bloxwich and she shivered. The last thing she needed was him coming back to the area and testing whether she’d out him or not, at the risk of being outed herself. That threat had kept them both out of trouble, but was he prepared to go down to take her with him?

She almost choked on the lump in her throat as she swallowed. Between Pete, possibly Stephen, and the hideous mystery emailers, her past was closing in on her faster than ever.

‘Don’t worry, guv. We’ll catch a break. Let’s just get on with the policing. We have Colson Ferguson in custody for now, and the press release has taken place. By this evening, the drawing of John Doe and a picture of the scarf will be out there.’

‘On the other hand, if it is Colson and the girl is still alive somewhere, she’s on her own. We can’t think for one minute that she doesn’t need us right now. You saw how bad she looked in those photos.’ Gina felt her hands tremble. ‘We need to let him out by morning and keep a tail on him.’

Jacob sighed. ‘We’ll check with the team later, see if they’ve found and taken his van in for a search. I hope they hurry. For her sake.’

The floppy-haired caretaker ran across the road in almost darkness, holding a huge bunch of keys. They stepped out of the car. ‘Mr Whitmore?’ Gina held her identification up. ‘We saw you earlier in the sports hall, following the incident. Can we go inside and speak?’

‘I told you all everything I knew: I was in bed at the time. One of the cleaners came over to tell me what happened and woke me up.’

‘I know, but we need to follow up on that. It’s just routine.’

He popped his key in the lock and turned it until it clicked. ‘Come in.’ He pushed the door open and a musty smell escaped.

Gina stepped in first and Xavier turned the main light on in the hall, then led them to the kitchen. The worktop was covered in laundry, pairs of his jeans twisted in a bundle and crumpled T-shirts. ‘Sorry about the mess, I wasn’t expecting visitors. Take a seat at the breakfast bar.’

Gina glanced at the small, round kitchen table that was topped with car magazines. Her gaze reached the patio doors and the small, slabbed garden covered in mulched up leaves.

‘What do you need from me?’

Jacob sat and took a notebook from his satchel. He nudged the houseplant out of the way and water sloshed over the top of the overwatered plant. He soaked up the spilled water with the sleeve of his jacket before placing the book on the surface.

Gina leaned against the breakfast bar, knowing that if she sat she might not want to get up. ‘Were you on your own this morning between five and six fifteen?’

‘I live here alone, and before you ask, I’m single, so I was on my own. I did unlock the school at five-twenty so the others could get in.’

‘Tell me about the pranks?’

‘Oh, come on.’ He frowned. ‘Some of us, the staff, I mean, do a few silly things to brighten up our days before the kids arrive.’

Xavier didn’t look much older than the kids at the school. She looked a bit closer at the crease in his forehead. Maybe he was in his late twenties?

‘I left a broomstick with a mask attached for Ally to find, and Ally put the skeleton from the science block in the cleaners’ cupboard, which scared Keeley once. We also squirted some red syrupy stuff, or something like that, in the showers and she’s scared of blood. It’s just fun. We all do it.’ He tucked his long hair behind his ears. ‘Okay, it was stupid and I know how it sounds, but I like one of the cleaners, Cara. I mean, I would like to ask her out. She’s a lot of fun and I guess we are a silly and bad influence on each other when it comes to the jokes. The job gets boring for them and the hours are a bit on the antisocial side. It brightens the day up a bit.’

Gina had read the statements and she knew that Keeley had been working with Cara at the time. ‘You said you didn’t have a car or vehicle in your statement, but you have a red Mini registered to you.’

Gina knew that a search came back confirming that he could drive, and they knew the blue Fiesta had been stolen. Maybe the white van had, too. She knew they had Colson Ferguson in custody and his van was going to be checked out, but they weren’t home and dry yet.

‘My Mini is in my parents’ garage. It needs a lot of work, but I don’t have the money to fix it yet. It’s old. I didn’t think about that when you asked me about vehicles because I don’t drive it at the moment.’ He wrote down a phone number and address. ‘Here’s their details, if you want to check.’ He passed the piece of paper to Gina.

Apart from the fact that he had no alibi, there was nothing else against him. Definitely not enough to bring him into the station. PCs had searched the area and they didn’t see a suspicious white van close to the caretaker’s house. She pulled out the artist drawing of John Doe and held it up. ‘Do you know this man?’

He stared at it for a few seconds. ‘Yes, I’ve seen him at the school.’

‘When?’ Gina stood up straight and Jacob stopped writing.

‘Before we broke up for the summer holidays in July. I can’t remember when, but I found him loitering by the PE block. He seemed odd and he was on his own. He looked really nervous when I stopped him, but he began to babble about how he had a daughter he’d been home-schooling and he asked about schools in the area. He seemed quite clueless.’

Gina thought back to the girl in the photo. At the time John Doe was playing chess at the Angel, he claimed to have a young daughter. Even if the girl was a toddler then, that would make her about twenty now. Far too old to be going to high school. The girl in the photo they had was definitely nowhere near twenty, but then again, if she was malnourished and being held against her will, she might not have developed like an average person. ‘What happened? Did he go into the school or speak to the head?’

Xavier shook his head. He unscrewed a bottle of water. He poured some into the sopping-wet plant before taking a sip. ‘He said he’d call the office or return with his daughter. I mentioned seeing him to one of the year heads later, but they said that no one had called so I guess he changed his mind. Things got busy, and I didn’t think much more about why he didn’t call.’

‘Did he say anything else about his daughter?’

‘He sounded like any proud father. Said how clever she was and how he’d come to his limits of what he could teach her at home. He had a photo of her in his wallet. She seemed like a little mouse, hunched over on a chair and looking through her long fringe. She had a birthmark on her cheek.’

‘A birthmark?’ Gina leaned forward, eager to hear more.

‘Yes, a large one. I can’t remember whether it was on the top of her left or right cheek, now. It was just unusual. That’s why I remember her.’ He paused. ‘Wait, he used her name.’

He closed his eyes and clicked his fingers a few times. ‘It’ll come to me in a minute.’ He clicked his fingers again. ‘Stupid brain. It’s on the tip of my tongue… That’s it, when I asked the year head if someone had enquired about a student, I said I’d met her father and he said his daughter’s name was Luna.’

Luna, the same name that Rona Sailsbury’s daughter, Molly, had mentioned.

‘Did he speak with an accent?’ She wondered if he was originally from Cleevesford or the local area.

‘He sounded like he was from around here. Maybe there was a hint of Brummie, but it was barely noticeable.’

‘Excuse me a moment.’ Gina stepped outside, leaving Jacob to carry on speaking to Xavier, while she called Wyre.

Wyre spoke immediately. ‘Great news, guv. We have Colson Ferguson’s van. It’s on its way to the compound now.’

‘That is good news. Jacob and I are at the caretaker’s house and I think we have the name of our missing girl. It’s the same name Molly Sailsbury gave us.’

‘Great, I’ll run it through mispers. What is it again?’

‘Can we double-check all missing persons details with the name Luna? We’re looking at ages thirteen to eighteen. I know we thought Luna was completely made up when we ran that catalogue photo, but she’s cropped up again.’ She thought about the age once more. ‘Actually, check up to the age of twenty-five. Something isn’t adding up here.’

‘I’ll call you back in five. I’m looking now.’

Gina couldn’t help but feel they were one step closer to finding the girl.

To finding Luna.