Page 61 of Then She Vanished

Gina ran around the back, closely followed by Jacob. The back door was closed and he was nowhere to be seen. Gina banged on the door and stepped back to check the upstairs windows. There was no sign of movement.

A breeze caught her hair and a loud slam startled her. His back gate was bouncing against the frame. PC Ahmed came to meet them around the back.

‘Shaf, I want you to call the incident room now. Tell them that Gary Pritchard used to play chess and he lied about being in last night – and tell them he’s missing. We have to try to find him. Do either of you know what is beyond this back gate?’

‘There’s a strip of grass and a few trees. There’s a road beyond that. It’s a single-track that leads to the industrial estate. I’ll make the call to the incident room,’ PC Ahmed replied.

‘As soon as you’ve made that call, come and find us or send another officer. We’ll be arresting him for obstructing a police officer. Chess is a link to Ruth’s disappearance and the attempted kidnap of Keeley Moore. Actually, we need to arrest him on suspicion of kidnapping Ruth. He had the opportunity; he was seen arguing with her and he’s completely lied to us. Would you arrange for a team to search the house? We can’t rule out Ruth being in there and there was blood at the scene where she went missing, she could need medical help. Call an ambulance, too.’ PC Ahmed nodded and hurried away.

Gina headed to the back of the garden, out the gate and onto the wide strip of overgrown grass and stingers. A woman was near the treeline with a dog. Gina hopped over the molehills with Jacob next to her and called out. ‘Police. We need to speak to you.’

The young woman furrowed her brows and pulled her dog towards where Gina and Jacob were. The Dalmatian began to whine as it tried to drag her closer to a hopping crow.

‘Have you seen a man back here in the past half an hour?’

‘I’ve only seen my neighbour Gary. That was about twenty minutes ago. We got woken up by all the commotion and the dog was going mad for a walk. I saw you at Ruth’s. Is she okay?’

‘Which way did he go?’

‘Over by the trees, just there.’ She pointed to the spindly trees and Gina saw the road through the huge gaps in them. ‘He normally says good morning if he sees me, but not today. He seemed in a hurry. He got into a van – I thought maybe someone had picked him up for work.’

‘Did you see who picked him up?’

‘No. I couldn’t see inside the van; I could just see it was white.’

‘Did you catch the make, model or registration?’

The woman shook her head.

‘Is there anything else you can tell us about the van?’

‘It was giving off a lot of smoke out of the back and…’ She wrinkled her freckled nose.

‘Is there something else?’ Gina hoped for any clue, anything at all.

‘Gary seemed to be looking back and forth, and he looked a bit nervous, like something was upsetting him. I did call after him to see if he was okay. He stumbled through the trees, completely ignoring me. It looked like he was in a big hurry.’

FORTY

RUTH

Ruth reached up in the darkness, her fingers feeling through her damp scalp, sticky and hot. She tried to call out, but her mouth was covered. Her heart began pounding and her breaths quickened. She’d never been in such a dark room in her life. Her house was in the country and she could see the stars normally, not like when you enter a town or city. She’d never seen a darkness so black, though. Maybe her eyes hadn’t adjusted to it. She widened them and blinked a few times, but still she couldn’t see even the tiniest fleck of light.

Bringing her hands to her mouth, she tried to pull the rag that was tied around her head, but it was too tight. She flinched as her fingers explored the egg-like lump on her skull. With shaking hands, she felt for a knot to untie and she soon found it. She pulled and prodded until her index finger found a loop.

After a little persistence, she managed to loosen the rag enough to bring the whole thing over her head. She spat the ball of material out and shouted, ‘Let me out.’

Not that pleading with her kidnapper would do any good.

She screamed out in rage, but her voice broke into silence as the hoarseness won. She needed water and she needed to clean her bloodied knee. Pain flashed through her head.

Where was she? She had to feel her way around. Maybe there was some water in the room.

She jiggled a little, her joints creaking on the softness underneath. She must have stiffened up while unconscious, but then again, after being grabbed and hit hard, she thought she’d died.

Reaching out, she couldn’t feel anything. She wondered if she’d be able to stand.

What if she was in a box? She began to hyperventilate. Or a coffin? Or a tiny hidden cupboard in a cellar that was hidden by shelves and a pretend wall?

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