Page 25 of Then She Vanished

‘Thank you. Can you check to see how organising the door to doors is going? I’ve only ever really come in through the front entrance of this school, so driving around the back is new to me. I noticed a row of large houses on the road to the right when you leave the gate. Their gardens back onto the school field. We need to see if any of them saw or heard anything.’

‘I’ll check on that.’

She saw Bernard leave the office and walk towards the hall with a box of samples. ‘I’ll just go and speak to Bernard. Let meknow if any of the officers on foot find anything.’ She hurried over to the crime scene manager.

‘DI Harte.’

‘Bernard. Anything you can tell me?’

He shook his head. ‘Nothing yet. I have to get all the samples to the lab. The rest of the team have just arrived. They’re going to start checking the area where the van stopped and where the perpetrator chased the victim.’

‘Great, I won’t stop you as I know you’ll have a lot of work to do. Are the paramedics still with the victim?’

He nodded. ‘They’re just finishing up.’

A man ran through the door. ‘Where’s my wife?Keeley?!’ he yelled. Jacob followed him in and pulled him to one side.

The paramedics left the office and a dark-haired woman with cuts to her face came out of the room. ‘Morgan!’

The man left Jacob and ran over and flung his arms around her. ‘I had to come. Don’t worry about the kids. Norma next door is looking after them.’

‘I’m okay.’

He pulled away from his wife. ‘You are not okay. Some crazy just tried to kidnap you. That is not okay.’

Gina watched as Keeley’s husband wiped the tears off her cut face. She knew she had to interrupt. ‘I’m DI Harte. Would you mind if we talked in the office, Mrs Moore? Mr Moore, can you just wait out here? Have a coffee with the others while we talk.’

‘Of course. Just call me if you need me, Keeley. I’m not going anywhere.’

‘I know this is hard and you’d probably prefer to be with your family after what you’ve been through, but I’d like you to tell me everything while it’s still fresh in your mind,’ Gina said. Jacob pressed his lips together in a sympathetic smile.

‘I don’t know about fresh. It all happened so fast.’ She took in a sharp breath. ‘I’ve never been so scared in my life.’ Keeleyrubbed her glassy eyes as Gina led her back towards the PE teacher’s office where they all took a seat.

Gina pushed the netball match forms into a neat pile so that Jacob could use the desk to make notes. Her foot connected with a pair of muddy football boots under the table as she pulled her chair in.

Keeley zipped the hoodie up over the Cleevesford High School T-shirt. ‘It was horrible. Nothing like this has ever happened to me. I just never saw it coming, and…’ She began to tear up.

Gina spotted a box of tissues and passed them over the table. Keeley took one and wiped her eyes. ‘I know having to think about it all again is hard, but it would really help us if you can tell us, in your own words, what happened.’

After sniffing, Keeley nodded. ‘I walk the same route every day, Monday to Friday, to start work at six. Nothing about my journey felt odd or different, but when I arrived at the back gate, I saw the white van parked on the road outside. No wait, it pulled up as I was approaching. I kept thinking, there wouldn’t be any deliveries this early.’

‘Do you know the make of the van?’

She shook her head. ‘It was large and had a sliding side panel. That’s all I know. I didn’t really take any notice of the registration number. I was still tired.’

‘What happened next?’

Keeley began playing with the zip as she scrunched her brows. ‘I looked through the driver’s window as I passed, but there was no one there, which was strange as they’d just pulled up. I thought, maybe they shimmied across to the passenger side and left out of that door. I wasn’t listening for an opening door, so that’s what must have happened. Then, I heard a voice crying out in pain from the other side. I’m not sure if I heard the side door being slid open then.’ She paused.

‘And then what did you do?’

‘I remember freezing. Despite having children, and with all the scrapes they get into, I have a phobia of blood and injuries, like broken bones.’ She scrunched her nose up slightly. ‘In my mind, I thought maybe the man had hurt himself and I imagined a scene of carnage. All I wanted to do was run away. Then I think he said something else. I don’t even remember whether it was a pained murmur or a cry for help, so I knew I had to help him. When I walked around the van…’ She bit her bottom lip for a second.

‘What did you see?’

‘Legs hanging out of the side; legs in jeans. When I reached them, I saw that they weren’t real, just stuffed clothes. It was confusing, but not alarming. I was expecting to see a horrible injury or something, so I relaxed and called out for Xavier, the caretaker.’

‘Why did you call out for him?’ Gina thought that seemed like an odd thing to do.

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