Page 43 of Then She Vanished

‘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 aboutthe 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.

TWENTY-SEVEN

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