Page 17 of Then She Vanished

O’Connor sat at the far end, typing away on a desktop computer. He paused as he brought the image of the girl in the wheelchair up on his screen.

As Gina inhaled, the sickly scent of salted caramel gateaux hit her nostrils, making her crave sugar. That’s when she saw the cake proudly displayed on the middle of the table, with only a small chunk missing. Jacob grabbed the knife and began to cut himself a large piece.

‘Mrs O accidentally mixed an order up. She was meant to bake this in two days for a party, so she said we could have it. I thought we could all do with the sugar to keep us going.’ O’Connor prodded a teaspoon into his slice and began eating.

Gina knew she had to give the cake a miss. She was trying to reduce her cholesterol, not send it through the roof. ‘Any updates from forensics?’

DC Wyre brushed her poker-straight black fringe behind her ears. ‘Nothing as yet. The body has left the scene and the car hasbeen taken to the secure compound. We should know more later. There are mountains of items taken from the car scene and the railway bridge. It’s all still in the process of being booked into evidence.’

‘Have the statements from everyone on Cawley’s Farm been uploaded onto the system?’

Wyre nodded. ‘Yes, there was nothing showing a connection to the family that own the farm.’

Trainee DC Kapoor hurried in with a tablet and took a seat at the back. DCI Briggs entered and headed straight to the front of the room before stopping at the board. Everyone hushed as he proceeded to speak. Gina saw how crooked his tie was and she wanted to reach over and straighten it. He smiled at her as if he sensed her thoughts.

‘Just to update you all, I’ve issued a press release relaying only basic information about the incident. I will be working with an artist overnight to try to come up with a sketch of John Doe that we can share tomorrow. We can’t exactly use the crime scene photos. I will also ask the artist to draw the girl, too. Again, the photos are too disturbing to show the public. Gina, how have the interviews gone today?’

She poured herself a glass of water from the jug on the table and stood next to him. Grabbing a pin, she pressed it into Hereford Lane on the map. She followed that with another pin on Cleevesford High Street bus stop. ‘Jacob and I have just been speaking to Molly Sailsbury, the daughter of the librarian, Rona. I’ve updated the system about Calvin Harris. Is everyone up to speed on that?’

Murmurs of ‘Yes’ filled the room.

‘Great. We know that John Doe was using Calvin Harris’s library card and was pretending that was his name to Molly. It appears Molly was groomed by John Doe – I’ll call him John Doe until we’ve formally identified him. She met up with him at thisbus stop in Cleevesford.’ She pointed to the pin she had pressed into the map. ‘He picked her up in a blue car and took her to the other pinned location, which is Hereford Lane, where she said that he assaulted her. She was scared and managed to escape from his car. From speaking with Molly, we know that John Doe plays chess. This links him to the real Calvin Harris as Calvin’s daughter said that he had a friend he played chess with. They met at the Angel Arms. Jacob and I are going to head over there next to see if any of the longstanding regulars remember him, or more importantly, can identify John Doe. Molly also mentioned horses near to where he lived so it’s possible we are looking at a rural location. Then again, he might have mentioned horses to draw poor Molly in but we need to look into it. Kapoor?’

‘Yes, guv?’ Kapoor looked up from her notepad. ‘I also checked on Cawley’s Farm and they don’t own any horses.’

‘Can you research local horse ownership? You could even check records with the local vets. Check riding schools, petting zoos and farms.’

Kapoor nodded.

‘Wyre, are you looking into missing persons?’

Wyre looked up. ‘Yes, and I haven’t found anyone matching the girl’s description so far, but I’ll keep looking.’

‘Great, thank you. I know you’ve already contacted the service provider regarding Molly’s phone, or should I say Rona’s as the contract is in her name. Can you stay on top of them? Keep chasing to see if they can get hold of Molly’s messages? Molly can’t remember when this incident occurred, but it was only last month so the service provider should still have them. If we can obtain the messages, they will give us exact dates and times.’

‘They’ve been cooperative so far, guv. I’m hoping they get back to us soon, but I wouldn’t hold out any hope for it being tonight.’

‘O’Connor, how are you getting on with the photo of our girl in the wheelchair?’

He placed his hands on the desk and pushed his chair away with his feet, rolling slightly. ‘Bad news.’

‘How?’

Briggs also leaned in to hear what O’Connor had to say.

‘It appears the photo of the girl in the wheelchair is a catalogue photo taken from a company selling mobility aids. She’s a model. I did an image search online.’

Gina sighed and placed both hands on the main table. ‘We knew she wasn’t the girl in the other photos; he was obviously using that to lure Molly in. What wedoknow is that there’s another girl out there, and I don’t know how long we have left to find her. We need something,anything. Don’t let me hold you all up any longer.’

She stepped out of the main room and began to take a few deep breaths. Her personal phone beeped again. She grabbed it out of her pocket and almost froze as she read the email.

It was an internet alert she’d subscribed to, set up on the name VenMan.

She clicked on the link, which took her to another forum. She went to click it, but it came up with a login.

Damn. She couldn’t access it, and there was no option to set an account up.

Her head went slightly woozy and she hurried further away from the commotion to steady herself against the wall by Briggs’s office where she read the only thing she could, the header.

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