Page 45 of Then She Vanished

TWENTY-EIGHT

Gina kept staring at her phone while Jacob drove them to Droitwich to speak to Keeley. Twenty minutes had passed and Wyre still hadn’t called back. Darkness had fallen and the only sound in the car was the swishing of the wipers. She answered her work phone as soon as it rang. ‘Wyre.’

‘Sorry, guv. There is no one at all called Luna who is registered as missing in the whole of the UK, and I still haven’t come across any misper with that very distinctive birthmark.’

She sighed. ‘Thanks for looking. Back to the drawing board with finding out more about the girl, then.’

Gina shivered as she thought about the man in the ski mask who had tried to kidnap Keeley.Why?

They needed to find Luna fast. John Doe was dead. Their attempted kidnapper was dangerous and violent. They had to find him before it was too late.

‘Can you update the system with the name? Our missing girl is Luna, or is known as Luna. I’ll get Jacob to message you his notes in a minute.’

Wyre paused for a moment as if in thought herself. ‘I’ll definitely bear that in mind. I’ll do a bit more searching on the name Luna.’

‘Oh, and Wyre?’

‘Yes?’

‘Any news on finding Marie?’

‘O’Connor has just come in with updates. He found out where she used to live, but she’s no longer there. The team has spoken to some of the neighbours and left notes for those who weren’t in. A couple of people remembered her and her family from back then, but no one knows where she moved to once her nan died.’

‘Thanks. Keep me updated. Oh, and can you send me all the misper files, too, when you get a moment?’

‘Will do.’

Gina ended the call.

Jacob turned into the road the satnav was leading them to. ‘This is it.’

He stopped outside the small chapel, surrounded by scaffolding and vans. Gina gazed alongside the house and all she could see were fields and trees in the darkness. A message popped up on her phone.

I’ve just arrived back at the station after the family asked me to leave. Thought I’d check in with you as I just heard you were on your way to speak to them.

Orla

‘Looks like they dismissed the FLO.’

As they stepped out, a security light dazzled her. After another step, two more security lights came on and a camera that had been attached to the gothic-looking frontage swivelled to face them. Gina pulled the huge bell rope and it made a deep ding-dong sound.

Morgan opened the door. ‘Come in,’ he said, standing to the side.

The double-height building was quite a spectacle, the space echoing the children screaming and running around upstairs. A spacious new kitchen stood at the far end, but they’d stepped into the lounge side where two plump couches had been positioned around an inglenook fireplace. The walls looked freshly plastered, but not painted.

‘Keeley is just getting the kids to sleep. As you can imagine, they think all this is an adventure.’ Loud giggles and footsteps came from above.

‘This is a beautiful property.’ Gina spoke louder, over the children.

‘It is. My parents are property developers.’ He continued. ‘Normally, they just fix a place up, but they love this one so much they’re staying here. They’re just getting the roof fixed, hence all the scaffolding. Such a big job. Take a seat by the fireplace. Can I get you both a drink? We’ve got some cappuccinos, hot chocolate or latte pods?’

‘A latte, please.’ Gina’s stomach rumbled. A milky drink might just stave off the hunger for a while. Jacob asked for the same.

As Mr Moore headed over to the kitchen and began making the drinks, Gina turned to Jacob and whispered, ‘There were three vans outside this property – one of them was white. I just can’t work out a motive, and white vansarecommon.’

Keeley entered from the back, walked over to her husband and said something that Gina couldn’t hear over the spluttering of the coffee machine. She grabbed two cups and brought the drinks over, placing them on the hunk of tree that was the coffee table.

‘Sorry about the chaos. We were just about to get the boys to bed which is proving to be impossible. Have you found him, the man who tried to kidnap me?’ She sat opposite Gina and Jacob, and her husband came to join them, passing his wife a glassof red wine and keeping one for himself. One of the children chuckled and ran up and down the stairs.

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